Well, this Sunday we're back in 1 Peter and starting 1 Peter 3 and I will read verses 1-7. 1 Peter 3 verses 1-7. Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they without a word may be won by the conduct of their wives when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. Do not let your adornment be merely outward, arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel. Rather, let it be the hidden person of the heart with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord. whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror. Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife as the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered. 1 Peter 3, verses one through seven. In previous parts of this letter, Peter told God's people that they should submit themselves to civil government and that servants should submit to their masters. And here, Peter tells wives, and he uses the word likewise, to submit to their husbands. Now, the ungodly, do not mind the command to submit to civil government, especially if that government is an ungodly government. But the commands of servants to submit to masters, which we talked about a couple of weeks ago, and wives to submit to husbands are typically hated by an ungodly world. And sometimes that hatred comes even among Christians where they don't want to submit to husbands or to anyone. And Romans 8, 7 says, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be. Romans 8 verse 7. And so when you see the rebellion against the word of God and the teachings of God and the laws of God in the world, you should understand that this is part of that carnal mind, part of that Fleshly ungodly mind and that's the way the world works and we shouldn't we shouldn't join with them in this We should be against them in this and so here my point number one is Wives are here called to their God-given submissive role. It says 1 Peter 3 verses one and two, wives likewise be submissive to your own husbands that even if some do not obey the word, they without a word may be won by the conduct of their wives when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. Some things that we should notice about this, one, wives are called to be submissive to their own husbands. This does not say that women are to be submissive to all men. Well, it does not say even that women are to be submissive to pastors or elders or the civil government, even though like men, they are to be submissive to those things, but not in any special way. Their special submission is to their own husbands. And This is the important part. Husbands have jurisdiction more than pastors, more than father-in-laws, more than other family members. And I say this because I had this experience once. There was a man in the church, my previous church in Maine, that came to me and he said, his name is Frank, His son's name was Frank Jr., but Frank Jr. was Bud. And he says, Bud is not obeying the scripture. He's not making his wife submit to me, submit to God in the area of changing diapers. Frank never changed a diaper in his whole life. And Bud was changing diapers for his wife, Beth, and Frank was going crazy because Bud was changing diapers. He thought that his wife, Bud's wife, was not submissive. Well, Bev is not called in scripture to submit to Frank. senior, she was called in scripture to submit to Frank Jr. And Frank Jr. was not changing diapers. And when Frank heard that I also changed diapers, he had no more use for me. Wives are to submit to their own husbands, not to everybody in the church, not even to pastors, other than as everybody else is to submit to pastors. Here they are called to be submissive even though to ungodly, unrighteous men. And this does not mean wives cannot refuse to, I mean that wives cannot refuse sin. If an ungodly man as a husband was telling his wife, you need to go act as a prostitute, she could refuse to do things like that. But she is to obey him in things that she can obey him, even if he is ungodly. And some of you, Now, if you remember Michael Alexandrov, who was in our church, one night on a Wednesday night, he told a story, and he probably took an hour to do this or longer, but of a man and wife that he knew from his own church in Ukraine. And this man was a drunkard. He was not a godly man at all. He was totally ungodly. And his wife was a godly Christian. And one night, his, this husband came home like three in the morning with a bunch of his friends and woke up the wife and wanted him or her to serve them all a meal. And she graciously served all these men a meal because she was going to be submissive to her husband and This group made fun of her. They did all kinds of nasty things to her, but she kept being a sweet, submissive wife. The next day, she's nursing him with his hangover, and he has a little more of his senses, and he finally asks her, why are you so good to me when I am so cruel to you? And she says to him, the reason I'm good to you is because I love you. And I know that this life is your only enjoyment that you'll ever have. If you keep acting like you do, you will be in hell for eternity. And I want you to have a little bit of good time here. And the man was immediately saved and became a very loving and godly Christian. Now, these things don't always happen, but women are called to be submissive to their husbands, even ungodly ones, because as it says in this verse, it says that even if some do not obey, they without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives. And wives are called here to a ministry, especially a ministry in the home, which starts with their husbands. Now, modern feminism has fought fiercely against God's design and rule. to where they have abandoned all God-given or all God-designed roles. You know, nowadays they don't even believe we're created by God, or we're not even male and female, and so they're confused about whether a woman is a woman or not, and whether children can be animals. And it's just a really crazy thing. And this is because they don't believe that God designs us, that he has a particular role for us. But if you believe God has a role for each person, then you read the word and you find out what that role is. This is what God calls people to. And this is what we see here. Well, secondly, wives and women in general are called to inward beauty. Here, verse three, it says, do not let your adornment be merely outward, the arranging of hair, wearing gold or putting on fine apparel. Rather, let it be the hidden person of the heart with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. Now the Greek word here, translated adornment, is the word cosmos. which is the word throughout scripture, is usually translated word. I mean, world. The world is the cosmos, and cosmos, it's the very same word that is used in 1 John 2, when John is saying, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. So it's very interesting where it says, You'll let your adornment, your cosmos, be... be the way it is. Well, I believe the idea of this is that the world is also an ordered place. Now, sinful world is ordered by Satan. He's ruling it. And a woman is to rule her own personal world, order it in a certain way. And that's what it's saying. A woman is to order herself Not by merely caring for outward appearance. This is not necessarily saying that a woman can't care about her outward appearance. Some people take it that way and there are women who never wear makeup and never comb their hair because they believe this is against that. I don't think that's what this is saying. What it is saying is that the first concern should be the inward beauty of the heart. It's saying that adornment, that ordering, is more important than outward adoring. adorning or ordering. And the same applies to men. We are also to order our inward world. It's more important to us to clean our insides, our hearts than our outwards. When Jesus himself speaks against the Pharisees in Matthew 23, he tells one of their problems that outwardly they were beautiful, But inward they were full of dead man's bones. They were like whitewashed sepulchres. And a sepulchre, meaning a gravestone, can look very, very beautiful. But inside, full of dead man's bones. And we all can look outwardly beautiful. And many of us, usually at church, we're at our best, but Our best also, or even more important, is to be beautiful inwardly because the Lord, as he says to Samuel, does not look on the outward appearance. The Lord looks on the heart. And so that's a concern, not just for the women, but for the men. Number three, wives or women are called to follow in the footsteps of women like Sarah. He says, for in this manner in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror. Now, Sarah was a remarkable woman. She had both inward and outward beauty. If you go back through Genesis, it seemed like every man in the world was attracted to Sarah. Even in her 90s, people men wanted to be with her and wanted to marry her. And a huge part of this, according to Peter, was her submission to her husband, her calling him Lord, not just calling him Lord, but truly having a heart to be this kind of person and be this gentle, quiet spirit, inner beauty person. And I believe part of her outward beauty was her inward beauty. We've seen this with people in our own church. I think back of Renthea Jackson, who when she was older, even when she's sick in the hospital, she has a smile, she has a way about her that was beautiful, way beyond outward beauty because of inward beauty. And I'm not just singling her out. Many of you women are like that. And that's a beautiful, wonderful thing. In our modern feminist influenced society, though this kind of submission seems hard. And in my previous church, I remember leading a Bible study and we were going through Ephesians and we got to Ephesians 5.22, which says something similar here to what Peter is saying. Paul says, wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as to the Lord. And I remember just reading that verse before we actually discussed it at all. And I was reading the passage, not just that verse, but as I was reading, before I finished reading, one of the women, A person who I thought of as a very godly woman immediately said before I finished reading, I'm not submitting to my husband. And it just was a certain tone, a certain rebellion, which I think is against scripture. It's against God's design for us. And it's a poor thing. I think part of Peter's, Not afraid of any terror means that they're not afraid to obey their husband and God. They are not afraid of being hurt by this. Because remember, he says they should not only submit to godly husbands who are doing everything right, but even to ungodly. And that would imply a certain amount of trust in God, a certain amount of not fearing, oh, if I submit to this wicked man, he's gonna destroy me. He cannot because God is protecting you when you do what God says, and that's what this means, not to be fearful with any terror. Here, point number four, Husbands also have their own God-given responsibilities to their wives. This is not all about women, even though it seems to be mostly about women. Here it says, husbands likewise dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel and being heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers may not be hindered. 1 Peter 3, verse 7. Well, the first thing that it says here in the instructions to the husbands is dwell with them. And what does dwell with them? Well, it means live with them, be in the same house with them. And this may seem like, a gimme. You know, don't all husbands live with their wives? But today, and I didn't really know this until this week, today there's something called L-A-T, which means, okay, living apart together. And now there's a certain number of men and women all over the country who have decided that even though they're married, they will have separate houses. Some have houses, one house right next to the other. Some have houses, one in California, one in New York. And this they decided would be the best arrangement for their marriage because they figure if they're together, They really can't live in the same house. So they have to be apart. This is not what scripture says. It says, dwell with them. That means you work through your difficulties. You do this in this way. And men are to dwell with their wives, just as a wife has to dwell with her husband, so the husband has to dwell with his wife. Men are called to give honor to their wives. It says in this verse, giving honor to the wife as the weaker vessel. Well, what does this mean or what does this include? Well, first, men are not to use brute force against their wives. There's many passages in scripture that talk about training of children in the way that they should go, and the rod is not to be spared in regard to children, but I don't remember any verses that ever say, and I know back in the 1950s, husbands would spank their wives, but there's nothing like that in scripture. The wife should be a mature person, doesn't need to be spanked. And a husband is nowhere called to force their wife into submission. If a wife submits to her husband, it's always, you know, Paul addresses the wife. Peter addresses the wife. Wives are to submit to their husband. Paul never says, husbands, be sure you force your wives into submission. Peter never says, husbands, force your wives into submission. Note, wives are called, as I said, to submit to husbands. Husbands are not told to force their wives into submission. This is part of giving that honor. This honor here is the same word honor that we were to give to the civil government. Meaning there's some honor given to the wife as an important, beautiful person. These verses teach that wives are equal. in regard to Christ, in regarding to salvation. That's why it says being heirs together of the grace of life, meaning there's not, here's a superior person and here's an inferior person. That's not what it's saying. The roles were put there because somebody needs to lead in case there's a situation where there's a disagreement And that was the husband's role, but the husband is not like some superior creature to the wife. The husband's role, according to Peter, as I said before, comparable to what Paul commanded, husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her. And so this honor, And this treatment of the wife means that a husband is to honor her wife and love her wife. How? To what degree? Well, as Christ loved the church. How did Christ love the church? He loved the church enough to die for the church. And husbands are called here to love their wives to the point that they are willing to die for them. And so in this sense, you could say the husband is serving the wife. Even though he is the leader, he is called to be self-sacrificial. He's called to give himself for her. As wives are accountable to their husbands, husbands are accountable to God. for how they treat their wives. If they fail in their relationship to their wives, these verses says that their prayers may be hindered. And so here we see a wife submitting to her husband is only half what is called for. Here, the man is also accountable to God for how he treats his wife. And if he does not treat her rightly, then his prayers are hindered. Now, point number five, why and how this God-given design for marriage and family is fiercely fought against? Well, one, God's existence and design are challenged. In Genesis 1, 26 through 28, it says, then God said, let us make man in our own image. According to our likeness, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. And here's the important part, male and female, he created them. Then God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over every living thing that moves on the earth. Now, if God does not exist, then none of these commandments matter. We're not created in his image. We are not created male and female if God does not exist. We're not given dominion over the animals. And if you noticed, those people who don't believe in God, who think that we just popped into existence, there's no purpose for our creation. According to these people, there's no such thing as male and female. And we are seeing that more and more where they can't even tell what a woman is anymore. and they're starting to have teaching children in schools that they can be furries, meaning they can choose an animal as their identity. This is because they're rebelling against this scripture. the fact that God has created us, that God has a purpose for our lives, that he has a design for how even male and female, how husbands and wives relate to each other. If you believe in God, if you believe in God of the Bible, you have to believe that God created us male and female, and that he made a man different than a woman, and that he did that on purpose for a reason. Part of this passage says, be fruitful and multiply. And you'll have people that are very, very much against that, that whole idea of being fruitful and multiplying. In fact, if we abandon God and his rules, we end up worshiping earth and the creatures rather than the creator, and we become our own makers. You know, these people typically, They don't believe in God and any design in human beings. And so they believe they can design their own worlds. And that's why some say, oh, you can be a furry. You can decide you can be an animal. The little boys and girls in schools can be kitty cats or giraffes or whatever they choose. But that's not what scripture is saying. In Romans 1, verses 18 through 32, and I'm gonna read the whole passage, because it's powerful and it speaks to today. It says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them For God has shown it to them, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were they thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, and that's what they do, they think they're the wisest in the world, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the image made like corrupt old man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever, amen. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use for that which is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of the error which was due. And this is one of the important verses, verse 28. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind. And I think that's what's happened in our culture. We have not wanted to retain God in our knowledge. We say theology isn't science. We shouldn't teach it in school. And we need to avoid it as part of our government. And as we've moved away from theology, as we've said, we don't really need the knowledge of God, we've gone further and further into this debased mind. And here the debased mind is described, it says, being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, They are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, who knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. If you read through those yourself, maybe you want to read through them again when you get home or something. Romans 1, 18 through 32, and you look at what's going on in the world and what has happened in our country as far as our culture, as far as things going on, as where we've sunk to, you'll see that it's all true. It all fits. And one of the ways that we battle that is by obeying the scripture, wives submitting to husbands, husbands cherishing and honoring their wives, and basically not just these things, but following the scripture in general, taking it as God's word and as something we need in our lives. Well, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your goodness to us. We thank you for your love and your kindness. We thank you for your word and the instruction it gives us. It tells us how to live. It tells us what we were created to be. And Father, help us to embrace that rather than to fight against it. The whole world fights against these things, and yet we are called to be your people, and you are our God, and help us to live as if that is the case. And Father, we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.