Christianity does not free slaves. Christianity does not give equal social rights. Christianity does not guarantee to you that you no longer have to submit to any earthly employer or leader.
That's just not so. It does not upset the social order. Jesus did not propound equal rights and He did not upset the social order. Neither did Peter, neither did Paul, neither did John, neither did any New Testament writer. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Today John MacArthur continues his study titled, Singing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land, helping you apply biblical principles at your office, in your shop, or with your clients. And the fact is, if you're a believer, you have the same boss that I do, and the same boss as every other Christian. Ultimately, we all work for Jesus Christ. So, if Christ is ultimately your boss, how should that affect your perspective when your earthly boss mistreats you? What are your responsibilities in a work environment filled with foul language or bitter co-workers or cutthroat competition? How is it that you can sing the Lord's song in a hostile, secular workplace like that?
To help answer those questions, here's John MacArthur. I think it's obvious to everybody who's a Christian, certainly to those of us who know the Word of God, that the world is a battleground. That goes without saying. And I know there are many ways to define the battle of the world, but let me look at it from a spiritual viewpoint and say the world is the arena of a spiritual battle. From Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, where there will be conflict between Satan the serpent and the seed of the woman, there has been an unending spiritual battle, an immense pervasive conflict. As you read through the prophet Daniel, you find that the demons are engaged in warfare in heaven against the angels of God. As you come all the way down to earth, you find out from the apostle Paul that we do not wrestle flesh and blood, but we wrestle fallen demons and fallen angels called principalities and powers. There is then a pervasive conflict between the people of God and the people of Satan, the children of God and the children of the devil. Now, this whole spiritual warfare came into bold relief and clear focus in the time of Jesus Christ.
When he came into the world, for one thing, what he did was specifically identify the two sides. He talked about the children of God and he talked about the children of the devil in John chapter 8. Jesus said very clearly in chapter 15 of John that there would be a battle and that it would be waged from the children of Satan against the children of God, those who belong to God through Christ.
In John 15, 18, listen to this. It says, Jesus said, if the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you're not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
That's the basic battle. The children of God are defending themselves against the children of the devil who hate them. It's not that we hate the world, that is the people in the world, it's that they hate us because we are associated with God, with Christ. We are a threat to the system and the system is predicated on sin. In John 16, he says, an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think he's offering service to God. In other words, some people have killed the people of God in the name of God. In other words, in the name of their God or their assessment of who God is, they have killed the true children of God. To put it simply, one of the greatest persecutors of the people of God has been false religion. And he says they do these things because they have not known the Father or me. So you have a society of people, the world they're called, who do not know the true God or Christ, they have a false religion and they hate the children of God. We are in a war then all the time.
It's not new, it's very old. It has gone on since God's people were first begun. The people of Satan resent, resist the people of God. And Satan energizes them in an effort to overthrow the work of God and overthrow the people of God. So we are constantly under attack.
Now I just want you to fix that in your mind. And Satan attacks us many, many ways, many ways. Everything from religious persecution that causes people to lose their lives, to threats, to innuendo, to alienation, to ostracizing people from society and to culture. Many, many ways the church has been and is persecuted. But listen, one of Satan's favorite weapons to devastate the work of God, to wound the kingdom as it were, to debilitate the church, to cripple our message is to find the failures of the people who say they belong to God, identify those failures and then parade them before the world.
You understand that? One of Satan's favorite weapons is to dig up dirt on the people who say they know God and then parade the scandal before the watching world. Inevitably that discredits us in a major way. Scandals over sex, scandals over money, scandals over power and authority, all of those kinds of things and many more are the tools of Satan by which he discredits the church.
Now let me take it a step further. Satan also plants people in the church. He plants people in the environment of Christianity, has them take the label Christian and then live such totally non-Christian lives that they can be used to destroy the credibility and the integrity of Christianity. So he not only uses the real failures of real Christians but he uses the failure of hypocrites who are planted in the church as tares among the wheat for no other purpose than to scandalize the church and discredit its testimony. So the church, because it is under attack by Satan, because it is under attack by the world system, the church is under constant scrutiny and Satan wants to expose our failures. Do you know that the world loves to see the church exposed as sinful, wicked, money hungry, power hungry, sexually deviated?
And every time a scandal comes up it is front page news so people can justify their unbelief by saying they're all corrupt, the church is a sham, all those so-called Christians are phonies. So it is essential to Christian testimony that we live in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, godly lives. That is the heart and soul of the church's integrity. That is the heart and soul of the church's credibility. Much more important than what we say is how we live, much more important than what we affirm in our theology is how we act because we can scandalize the church with our unholy life. To put it into a very bold relief for you and me it means that how you live every day is essential to the testimony of Christianity, to the testimony of Christ, to the believability of the gospel and the transforming power that it has in one's life. This very issue, and stick with me on this thought, unlocks the whole epistle of 1 Peter. Spiritual conflict, one of the great weapons discredit the church by the failure of its own members. Therefore the high calling of the church live godly lives so that there is nothing that discredits us or Christ. And that is deeply set into Peter's heart as he writes this epistle. He is calling the church to virtue.
Back in chapter 1, let me give you a quick run through so you can see this. We'll start in chapter 1 verse 7. He talks about the proof of your faith being more precious than gold.
Well what a statement. When you live a godly life, when you verify the reality of your faith, that is more precious than gold. That is priceless because that's the credibility of Christianity. Chapter 1 verse 14. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the holy one who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior.
And again it's the same idea. Be obedient children. Don't behave like you used to when you walked in lust and ignorance. Your testimony is at stake. Chapter 2 verse 1. Put aside all evil and guile and hypocrisy and envy and slander and long for the pure spiritual milk of the word that you may grow in respect to salvation. It is essential that you live a godly life. Hunger for the word.
Let the word shape you. Verse 9. Because you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession.
Here it comes. In order that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. You're to live a certain kind of life, a holy life, a life that desires the word and grows by the word. Why? Because you are to show forth the excellencies of the one who saved you.
That's basic. Chapter 2 verse 12. Beloved, in verse 11 he says, you are aliens and strangers in the world. But verse 12, keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles. And as you live a godly life, they will not be able to slander you as evil doers is the idea. But rather when they see nothing but good deeds, they will glorify God in the day of visitation. What does he mean by that last phrase? He means that they'll get saved. And when the day of judgment comes, they'll glorify God with the rest of the redeemed.
You want to lead someone to Christ? It's a matter of how you live. Not a matter of what you say.
It's a matter of how you live. Keep your behavior excellent. Because this is how you lead people to the knowledge of Christ. And then you remember, don't you, verse 15. It is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. The way you live your life will silence the critics and even bring them to salvation. Look at chapter 3, verse 1. Here you have a Christian wife with an unsaved husband.
What's she going to do? Preach the gospel to him all the time? It says, you wives, you want to win your husband? Be submissive to your own husbands.
That's how. Be what a wife ought to be. So that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, that is their unsaved, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior.
How does a saved wife win an unsaved husband to Christ? By her conduct. By letting her adornment, verse 3, not be merely external, braiding the hair, wearing gold jewelry, putting on dresses, but the hidden person of the heart, the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit which is precious in the sight of God. For in this way in former times the holy women also who hoped in God used to adorn themselves being submissive to their own husbands such as Sarah who obeyed Abraham calling him Lord. In other words, a wife wins her husband by her conduct. Not her words.
Without a word. Godly, virtuous conduct. Look down at verse 13, chapter 3, and who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? The world may attack you all the time, but if you're zealous for what is good, how are they going to be justified in harming you? But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed and do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled. But sanctify or set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you yet with gentleness and reverence and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
You can shame your critics because they come after you with a vicious attack and they scrutinize your life and they can't find anything to discredit you. That's a powerful testimony. That's a powerful testimony. You see, Peter is over and over hitting this same theme. You're in a persecuted environment.
They were scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, and they were in a hostile world. And Peter says if you want to win that world, it isn't by what you say, it's by your holy, virtuous life. It's by being obedient to the Word of God that you silence the critics.
It's by being obedient and living an excellent life that you bring them to the knowledge of Christ and salvation. In chapter 4, verse 2, he says that we are to live the rest of the time no longer for the lusts of men but for the will of God. Now that we've been saved, we live for the will of God, not our own desires. The time already has passed when we were carrying out the desire of the Gentiles and pursuing a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousals, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. That's past.
That is past, he says. We have to live a different kind of life, totally different kind of life in the present. Look at verse 12, chapter 4. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you. That's persecution. That's the spiritual battle which comes upon you for your testing as though some strange thing were happening to you.
Don't think it's strange when the world hates you. But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exaltation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. But by no means let any of you suffer as a murderer or thief or evildoer or a troublesome meddler. But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed, but in that name let him glorify God. So you're going to suffer, but don't be suffering for sin. Be suffering for righteousness. Chapter 5, verse 8 tells us more about this. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert.
Why? Your adversary the devil prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, but resist him firm in your faith knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who called you to His eternal glory in Christ will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. No matter how tough it gets, no matter how hot it gets, no matter how vicious the roaring lion is, resist him, stay firm in your faith, stay true to Christ.
There you have it, chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5, all the same theme. We are constantly exposed to a hostile hating world energized by Satan and his demons, and their effort is to discredit the church, destroy its believability, destroy its credibility, destroy its integrity. And the way they do that is by finding Christians in the church whose lives are not consistent with the Word of God and parading them before the unbelievers to show what a sham the church is, and that is an effective tool. The only way we can silence the critics, the only way we can stand against the enemy is by the power of a holy life. That is why what we have seen in the church in America with all of the terrible sex and money scandals is the worst conceivable thing that can happen to the church because it discredits us at the very foundation of our existence, and that is the gospel that says Jesus transforms people into holy people.
And the world is saying, ha, what a joke that is. And thus the church is discredited. So we must live godly lives. Now as we come to our text, Peter lays that out for us beginning in verse 11. He starts out by saying we are aliens in the world.
We're strangers. We live on a different level. We live on a supernatural plane, a spiritual level.
We transcend this world by the divine life of Christ that is in us. That's assured in verses 11 and 12. But then in verse 13, we are not only aliens, we are citizens.
And we went through that down to verse 17. We are citizens and as long as we're in the world, even though there's a sense in which we live at another level, we live in the heavenlies, we must live submissive to every human institution. Verse 13, we must submit for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether the king is one in authority or governors and so forth. We have a responsibility within the social order to bow to those in authority over us. So a Christian is an alien. We live on another level, but we are to be model citizens.
Why? So they don't discredit us. And we do not have the world accusing us of not only being not transformed on a spiritual level, but not even transformed on a carnal level because we cannot even abide by the rules and laws of man. Now he adds a third dimension in verse 18. Aliens in verse 11, citizens in verse 13, and now servants in verse 18. Now he is going to describe the role of the Christian as a worker, as an employee.
That too is a very important part of society. Now let me read you starting in verse 18. Verse, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.
Now here Peter moves from governmental authority, national authority, federal authority, state authority, police, to the social order in which we work, the labor environment. And he is saying it is very important how you conduct yourself there as well if you are going to silence the critics and lead people to Christ and if you are going to avoid discrediting Christianity. And verse 18, I told you last time, he gives the mandate for submission, the mandate. The mandate for submission is simply this, be submissive to your masters. If you are working for someone, submit to him and do it with all respect, literally with all fear.
And the fear is the fear of God because God ordained this social order. God has designed that some people are the employer and some the employee. That's why 1 Corinthians 7 says if you are a slave and you become saved, stay a slave.
That doesn't change that role at all. We as Christians, as we saw last time, are to submit to the authorities that are over us in terms of our work. The slaves, you remember, some of them would come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ and say, hey, now that I'm a Christian, I don't need to be a slave anymore.
Peter is saying not so. Christianity does not free slaves. Christianity does not give equal social rights. Christianity does not guarantee to you that you no longer have to submit to any earthly employer or leader.
That's just not so. It does not upset the social order. Jesus did not propound equal rights and he did not upset the social order. Neither did Peter. Neither did Paul. Neither did John.
Neither did any New Testament writer. Rather, they all affirmed that with great fear of God and great respect, you are to be submissive to your masters, whether they are good and gentle or whether they are unreasonable. You are to submit. The Christian's conduct is the same in either case. And by your submission, you will set a testimony. Now listen to this very carefully. It is more important to God that you maintain a faithful Christian testimony than that you get what you think you have coming to you in this life.
You understand that? It is more important that you provide a platform for the integrity of Christianity than that you have equal rights. It is more important for you to uphold the credibility of the church than it is for you to get a raise.
It is more important for you to show that you submit to God in everything and you give your life to his control than that you protest against your employer by a sit-in, a walk-out or a strike. Your Christian conduct is what matters to God because the only reason you're in this world is in order that God might use you to bring someone else to Christ. Putting your witness before your rights at work, John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, made that clear on today's Grace to You.
His current study is titled, Singing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land. Now John, you said today that leading someone to Christ is as much about how you live as it is about what you say, and it seems clear then that pursuing holiness isn't just about your personal growth in the Lord. It's about evangelism.
Well, that's so foundational. Let your light shine before men so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who's in heaven. Look, if you're going to make the gospel convincing, it has to be believable. If your message is, Jesus will change your life, forgive your sins, make you a new creation, the first question is going to be, well, let me look at your life and see if that's what happened to you. There was a German philosopher many years ago who said, show me your redeemed life and I might be inclined to believe in your Redeemer. You know, when we do evangelism, we're talking about transformation. We're telling people they can be a new creation. The convincing argument that Christ can do that is that He's done it in the life of the person giving the testimony.
It starts with you. You want to make sure your life is everything it should be. Personal evangelism that is effective is built on the foundation of a believable testimony. It would be good for you to work on that Christian character then, wouldn't it? Let me tell you about this book, The Quest for Character, beautiful hardback gift book, The Quest for Character.
It talks about integrity, virtue, shaping your own life by the power of God into the kind of life that makes the gospel believable. Again, here's the good news, the book, The Quest for Character, and boy, do we need that in this world, will send it free to anyone who's never contacted us before. That's right, contact us today and you can have it free.
Thanks, John. And friend, John's book, The Quest for Character, will help you see what a transformed life should look like and how your life should point people to Christ. Again, it's free if you're contacting us for the first time, so call or write today. Call us at 800-55-GRACE or email your request for The Quest for Character to letters at gty.org. Again, if this is your first time contacting us, we will send you this book free of charge. If you have contacted us before, this hardcover book costs $9 and shipping is free.
It makes a great gift for someone going away to school or starting a new job. To order The Quest for Character, call 800-55-GRACE or go to our website, gty.org. And keep in mind, you can download John's current radio study called Singing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land, along with 3,600 other sermons from John, free of charge in both MP3 and transcript format, when you visit gty.org. So log on to the sermon archive today and come back often to gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making this broadcast part of your day and be back tomorrow to see how your attitude at work can honor God and point others to Christ. John MacArthur will continue his study, Singing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land, with another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace To You.
