Yeah.
Good evening.
Good to see everybody out.
will hopefully have power throughout the services.
If not, carry on.
Good to see everybody this evening.
Glad y'all haven't blown away.
We are in First Peter chapter three.
First Peter chapter 3.
We're gonna pick up about verse four, but let's begin with the word of prayer.
Gracious Father in heaven, we come before you grateful for the day that you've blessed us with and the opportunities you've granted to us.
We're grateful for your...
love and care and concern that you show to us and especially for your willingness to send your son to die on the cross for our sins.
We know that we sin, we know that we fall short of your glory, we know that without the blood of your son we would be unable to ever recover from that sin.
And yet, we know that through His blood and through His sacrifice we stand forgiven, not just forgiven but just
and sanctified and holy in your sight.
And we're eternally grateful for your plan and your manifold wisdom that brought forth the church and the opportunity that we have this evening to come together to study your word,
to encourage one another.
We pray that you will be with this congregation, pray that it will continue to flourish.
We pray that you be with the work throughout the world and pray that missionaries and teachers and preachers will continue to spread
the gospel daily and the Christians will work in one accord to strive to reach the lost.
All this we pray and ask in Jesus' name, amen.
In 1 Peter chapter 3
Peter is talking about submission.
And he is dealing with the need, the role, the responsibility of wives to submit to their husbands.
Thought I was hearing myself twice.
As Peter goes through this, does he indicate that it's only wives who have a role of submission in all of humanity?
No.
Who else has he already discussed needing to be submissive back in chapter 2?
All of us, submissive to God and to governments.
There's another group there in chapter two.
All right, so servants being submissive to their masters.
Okay, and not just to the gentle ones, not just to the easy to get along with ones, but even to the harsh ones, okay?
As we already discussed in 1 Peter chapter three, as he addresses wives, he's addressing them in view specifically of wives who...
should respect their husbands, should be submissive to their husbands, but then with a special attention to wives whose husbands are not what?
Christians, okay?
He's recognizing that they live in a very different scenario than the Christian wives who have Christian husbands.
Absolutely.
So as he's writing to a Jewish audience, he would be writing to Jewish Christian women whose husbands were still following the old law, who were still living under the old law,
and who would generally, as Jews at that day and time in the first century, would have considered their wives following after Christianity a violation of the law.
considering they can as a result of fact they considered that a sect that was leaving Moses and leaving the law so as he Speaks as he writes to these women he says in verse 3
do not let your adornment be merely outward
arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel.
As he addresses these women, he addresses very much the same kind of mentality and the same kind of actions that Paul addresses over in 1 Timothy chapter 2.
When he addresses women and he talks about their adornment on the outside not being to draw attention to themselves,
but rather that their adornment of their inside should be what draws attention to themselves.
And Peter's going to make the same point.
Rather, he says, 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.
He's going to draw some examples from the Old Testament history, but what he's doing here is he's talking to Jewish Christian women saying, follow the pattern of Old Testament
Hebrew women
be submissive to your husband and submissive to God and in doing so your husband will see the pattern of you implementing in your life the characteristics of these women that they
hold up in high stature where they hold them in high regard for a Jewish man to speak
concerning Sarah or concerning some of the other Old Testament women, they would have done so saying, this is the model that women need to be.
This is the model they need to follow.
And so what Peter's saying is live out the model's life.
Live out the exemplary life of those Old Testament women and then see if your husband will listen to you about Christ.
Now, if you turn over to Hebrews chapter 11...
There are a number of women who find
themselves in the record of the Hall of Faith, and Sarah is one of them.
In Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 8,
For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed.
And she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged him faithful who had promised." Where do we learn about Sarah in this passage?
All right?
That she did not operate on the faith of Abraham.
She operated on her own faith.
She trusted God herself.
She was there and going through that journey, that sojourning with Abraham.
and in agreement every step of the way to do so because of her faith in God and not just her husband's.
When you get over in just a few verses and you read the passage where Peter writes that Sarah called Abraham Lord, there are some women who think that's a, can't imagine that
idea.
of a wife addressing their husband that way.
And they think, how demeaning!
Nonsense!
When you look at what the Hebrew writer is saying, he's not saying she became a non-person and just was another slave to order around.
He's saying that she was a woman of faith who sojourned for 25 years waiting to have a child.
And when the time came, yes, did she laugh on the occasion that God came there and said, within a year you're going to have a child?
Yes, she did.
But a year later, what did she do?
She had a child.
which means there were some actions that took place after she left that were establishing her faith and her understanding that God was able to do this thing.
Now, you go forward into verse 12.
And we read, from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises.
But having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
As the Hebrew writer is writing these things, he's not just talking about Abraham.
He's talking about Sarah, too.
For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.
And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.
But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country.
Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them." You go down through the text and you get to verse 30.
And you'll find by faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days.
By faith, the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace.
Here's another example of a woman.
What's unique about Rahab in contrast to others in the Old Testament?
Alright, she was a harlot.
She was a Gentile.
She was, I don't know what someone from Jericho was, a Jerichoitis.
She was a Canaanite.
She was one who was among that group of people that God had condemned every single one of them to death as a result of their wickedness.
So here is a woman who has such
faith in God, a faith that was not based in understanding everything about who He was and everything about what He commanded, but rather based upon her fear of who He was and the
proof that He had established in Egypt and in taking the people out of Egypt 40 years before that point that she knew.
He was going to hand Jericho and the land over to the Israelites.
She knew that God was going to deliver her people into their hands.
So did she know all the rules, all the laws, all the moral commands that God had issued?
Probably not.
She knew this.
He was God.
And she was going to be on His side.
and not hurt people's side.
But then consider as well, by faith, the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace.
And what more shall I say?
For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness,
obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to
flight the armies of the
Aliens?
Women received their dead, raised a life again.
What women might the Hebrew writer had in mind from the Old Testament in that description?
There's the widow who has a son who is that son is going to be her only son.
The son is going to die having been out in the field with his father.
He comes back in, his head is hurting, he comes in and dies.
She goes off to get Elijah to come raise her son back to life.
And he does.
There are so many other occasions as you go through the Old Testament, but there were women who had this great faith.
And what Peter's doing is he is calling upon the Christian women to have the same faith.
He is calling upon them to have a submissiveness to their husband that exemplifies a faithful woman's submission to God.
which is why, as he's already addressed in chapter 2, as he spoke to servants,
Peter says,
for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps.
He says, here's your pattern.
Christ who submitted to God.
Now question.
Which one's greater?
The first person in the Godhead, the second person in the Godhead, or the third person in the Godhead?
The answer is there can't be one greater.
They can have different roles and you find in Jesus emptying himself to become man, him lowering himself, the text specifically says he made himself lower than the angels for the
suffering of death.
But question, who made him lower than the angels?
He made Himself lower than the angels.
He emptied Himself.
He didn't come to God the Father and say, hey, could you demote me for a period of time so that we can accomplish this?
He didn't need God the Father's help.
He didn't need God the Spirit's help to do it.
He did it of his own ability, of his own power.
It was only in that state of having lowered himself that he needed God's power and ability to do certain things.
And he received that through the Spirit.
You see in the text where he's strengthened by...Christ is strengthened by angels.
You see in the text where he is aided by the Spirit.
You see in the text where he is testified about by the Father.
All these things occur.
And yet they're not in any way to diminish his status as a member of God.
Rather, they are to emphasize what He did for us.
That's correct.
And it was because he had limited himself in taking on that flesh and blood.
All right?
But he, as a member of the Godhead in it at the beginning, right, before the world was formed, when God said, let us make man in our image and after our likeness, well, which
one was the greatest God?
Which one was the greatest in the Godhead?
It wasn't.
It was us.
It was God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.
Although it was actually God, the Word, and the Spirit.
Go ahead.
It was correct.
They had complete unity, complete oneness.
And yet Christ chose to submit Himself to God the Father for our sake.
Turn over to 1 Corinthians.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 1, Paul writes, imitate me just as I also imitate Christ.
Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you.
But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ.
Wait a minute.
As we get into the next verses in Peter, I want you to remember this phrase, the head of every man is who?
Christ.
When we get into the next few verses of 1 Peter chapter 3, I don't want anybody walking out of this discussion thinking, the woman's got somebody over her, but that man, can do
whatever he wants to.
Nonsense.
Because he's got somebody over him.
Who is it?
Christ!
But watch it.
I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of every woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
Christ willingly submitted himself to that position.
as every man is supposed to willingly submit themselves to his position.
And then every woman is supposed to submit herself to her position.
Why?
Because those are the roles decided upon by God.
Now, go back over to 1 Peter chapter three.
Verse 5, 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.
Wait a minute.
Why is he talking about fear and terror?
Fear and terror of who?
Could be?
More likely.
Needless to say, women didn't have the same position in society in the first century that they enjoy today.
So for a woman, if she was considered by her Jewish husband to be one who is departed from the faith, departed from obedience to Moses and the law, what could he do under the law?
Bye bye.
Here's a writing of divorcement.
Leave.
He found something unclean in her.
She wasn't keeping the law anymore.
Now, would she have had the adequate capability of providing for herself, most likely, if her husband divorced her?
Uh-uh, not back then.
It's worth noting that there is only one category of people that the Church is ever told to financially support on a continual, benevolent basis.
And it's women without a husband.
Specifically though, Paul gives us qualifications, we'll get into that when we get there in Timothy, but the women who are widows indeed, says widows.
Widows indeed.
That is, they've met certain qualifications in their moral life and in their character and in their Christianity that they've reached a stature which they are worthy to be supported
by the church because they have exemplified Christianity.
But it is a real possibility for a woman in the first century who is a Christian to be faithful to Christ and as a result lose her family and her income and her home.
And Paul's going to write about that over in 1 Corinthians chapter 7.
Because it's not just happening to Jewish Christian women, it's happening to Gentile Christian women too.
question, what do you think would happen today in an Islamic society with a wife who becomes a Christian in a Muslim household?
So, any direct application today of this passage?
absolutely.
Now, what would Peter tell an Islamic woman who becomes a Christian who's married to a Muslim about being submissive to her husband?
he'd tell her to be submissive to her husband.
but he would do so saying you live out the faith of these women in such a way that you could not have any accusation made against you by your husband because of your moral
character, because of your actions, because of your submissiveness, because of everything that you do exemplifies the
the model of what a woman should be.
What's he gonna accuse you of?
He says, you do this.
whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror.
You live out this life and you trust God.
Because that's what Sarah did.
Think about it.
God is going to tell Abraham and Sarah to go to a land that He's going to give to their descendants because He's going to kill all the people in the land.
and judge them because they have committed themselves entirely to wickedness.
Raise your hand if that's the neighborhood you want to live in.
I Abraham was so afraid when he traveled from where he was at to another area, what did he convince his wife to do?
lie and tell people she was his sister so they wouldn't kill him and take her.
Peter's pointing out.
that these women in the first century, much like women who could be absolutely in a similar situation today, still have a responsibility to be submissive to their husbands,
even if those husbands are not Christians, even if those husbands are not good to them, even if those husbands mistreat them.
He says, you still be submissive to your husband.
But then he goes on to say, husbands likewise, all right, reverses this.
He says, husbands likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife.
As to the weaker vessel and as being heirs together in the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.
Follow the context here.
He told servants to be submissive to masters that are not good upstanding Christian men.
He told wives to be submissive to husbands who might be those who would act against them because they're Christians.
He told citizens to be obedient to governments that act against them because they're Christians.
And he turns around and he says, now husbands, dwell with your wife according to what?
Knowledge.
In the first century, could a husband say, know what, we're going to be Christians?
I don't care what you think.
I don't care if you're devoted to the Old Testament law and you think that Moses is who we should follow.
We are going to be Christians.
Go get baptized.
Could a Christian husband do that?
Or would that be consistent with the way things may have occurred in some households in that time?
Sure.
Peter's saying, no, you don't.
You don't act toward your wife that way.
You dwell with her according to knowledge.
You instruct her in the faith.
You impart to her the knowledge that she needs to be obedient to God and live by faith.
You don't withhold that knowledge from her.
And you don't force her to do what God would have her to do.
You provide her the knowledge to do what God would have her to do.
You make sure that she knows what God has said.
When Paul addresses in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, when he addresses the woman's role in the assembly, what does he say about wives who have questions?
Alright, learn in silence and ask what?
Their husbands at home.
He's talking about a similar situation here.
Peter is addressing the role and the responsibility of the husband to know what God said, to take what God said and communicate it to the family.
You go all the way back to the patriarchy.
You go all the way back to the earliest period.
And who was the one who was responsible to be the mediator between God and a family?
The husband, the father.
Look at Job's life as an example.
There in Job chapter 1 when we read about Job's family and his children, who is offering sacrifices on behalf of his children?
Job is.
Who do you see over and over in life of Abraham offering sacrifices to God?
Abraham!
Because it was the role of the patriarch, that's why we call it the period of patriarchy, it was the role of the patriarch, the oldest male member of the family, to serve as the
mediator between the family and God.
but also to be the instructor of his family concerning God.
So, as you examine this, as you consider this, Peter is making it crystal clear.
that these Christian men who were Jews do not operate the way the Jews had gotten into the habit of operating.
Think about how they structured the temple.
There was the most holy place.
There was the holy place.
There was the court around the holy place.
Then there was the court of the Gentiles.
Then there was the court of women.
You notice what's going on?
didn't exactly hold their own wives and their own women in their own country, their own women in their own nation in high regard.
So the key here is the difference between submission and do everything even if someone is doing violence to you.
Do everything they say, okay?
When...
A citizen is responsible to be submissive to the government.
Does that mean that they are to do everything the government says no matter what the government says?
No.
When a servant is to be submissive to a master, does that mean the servant has to do everything the master says no matter what the master says?
All right.
When a wife has to be submissive to a husband, does that mean she does everything the husband says no matter what the husband says?
See, and we're going to be consistent all the way through.
God is not commanding, nor has He ever, that any person is under an obligation to do that which is wrong, that which is in objection to His Word, or that which would violate their
own safety in order to be submissive to someone who is
wrong and out of wrong motives telling them to do that, which is wrong.
So, Sherry, if you wake up tomorrow morning and Philip says, sweetheart, I need you to go down and rob the bank.
He may be joking, but if he's serious, the answer is no.
Okay?
You have permission to say, no, I'm not going to go rob the bank.
We can go take out a loan, but I'm not robbing the bank.
By the way, an example of this, interesting example from the first century church Aquila and Priscilla.
Peter gave Priscilla the opportunity to correct...
Do I have the right names?
Yeah, okay, all right.
For a moment there, I got confused with the ones that were with Paul in Ephesus and Corinth.
Anyway, so had the opportunity...
after one of them dies at the feet of the disciples, she comes in and he says, is this what happened?
Ananitis and Saphira, it's Ananitis and Saphira.
Quillen, Priscilla, I did have it wrong.
Ananitis and Saphira, when Saphira comes in.
Peter asked her the same question he asked her husband.
She had the responsibility from God to tell the truth, no matter what her husband told her to do, no matter what her husband had said.
So, Sapphira's held accountable because Sapphira had the responsibility to obey God over her husband.
Does that answer the question?
Okay.
Absolutely, and and that's that is that exact principle you ought to obey God Rather than men so at any point any human being on the face of the planet no matter their position or
authority tells you to disobey God the answer is No Daniel and his and and his friends and Daniel chapter one are fine example of that I Will
Defile myself with those things.
If the king decides to kill me, then the king decides to kill me, but I won't do it.
Why?
Because God told me no.
So one of the things that you see here is you see a principle that's embedded in Christianity that is uniquely different from many of the other religions that exist in the
world because Christianity insists that women are to be educated so they can know the Word of God and understand it.
And everywhere Christianity has gone, true Christianity has gone, in this world, the stature, the education, and the position of women has gone up.
Some people approach the New Testament and they say, that's a book that hates women.
Nonsense!
That is women's best friend in all history, right there.
Because God tells husbands, know, keep your woman ignorant and in the dark.
You dwell with her according to knowledge.
But he goes on to say, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor.
You want to tell me this book is in opposition to women?
And then Peter's going to come along and tell husbands, you honor your wife.
By the way, that word honor,
Here also carries with it the same idea that the word honor does when God speaks of children honoring their parents.
When a child is commanded to honor their parents, what is it that God is speaking of?
Is he talking about little kids obeying their parents when their parents tell them to go put their stuff in the room away?
Listening?
Heeding their their instructions and their rules But what about when they're old
providing for them.
The application that Jesus makes concerning honor your father and mother over in Matthew chapter 17, Matthew chapter 15, is that when God commanded that a child honor his father
and his mother, He means when they're old, you provide for them.
When they can no longer provide for themselves, they are your responsibility to provide for.
And I will hold you accountable if you don't do it.
Well, Peter says to Christian men, you provide for your wife.
You honor your wife.
He goes on to say, honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel.
and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered." The same way he's addressed the wives saying, you have the ability to convert your
husbands.
He turns around and...
says to the husband who has a Jewish wife, you have the ability to dwell with her according to knowledge.
You have the ability to honor her.
You have the ability to show that you honor your position before God, and you can influence her to be a Christian so that your prayers aren't hindered, so that you have
this grace in your life.
because you are living a very different life in how you treat your wife compared to the Jews who she's around.
And then we read verse eight.
Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another, love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous.
not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.
for he who would love life and see good days.
Let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.
Let him turn away from evil and do good.
Let him seek peace and pursue it for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
As Peter here draws in Psalm 34.
He's emphasizing to these Christians, you have the mind of Christ.
You have the mind of God.
You live out your life in such a way that you don't return back to people what they do to you, you return back to them what God has done for you.
You learn from God how to live and then you live that way.
And he says, God's promised you if you will be faithful to him, if you will do these things, he's promised you a blessing.
Remember back in chapter two where, let's see, let me find it again.
So verse 19, he says, for this is commendable if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully.
For what credit is it when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently.
But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.
Peter is establishing that God reserves his blessings for those who suffer.
wrongfully, who suffer for doing good, who suffer for righteousness sake.
You go all the way back to Matthew chapter 15, or Matthew chapter five.
I've got my numbers all mixed up tonight.
I don't know what's going on.
Matthew chapter five, and what does Jesus say?
Matthew chapter 5 beginning in verse 10, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.
Peter's talking about the same blessing over in first Peter chapter 3 that Jesus is talking about in Matthew chapter 5.
Okay, we're out of time for this evening.
Thank you for your attention.
You're due dismissed.