We are in 1st Peter. 1st Peter chapter 2 starting in verse 18 through the end of the chapter. Let us hear God's word together as he has revealed himself to us by it. Servants Be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God, a person endures grief, suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if when you are being beaten for your sins, you patiently endure? But if when doing good and suffering for it, you patiently endure, this is favorable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example. that you should follow his steps. He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile back. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but he entrusted himself to him who judges righteously. He himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree. that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness. By his wounds, you were healed. For you were a sheep going astray, but now have been returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. We're looking today at, as you see in your worship order there, Christ the true servant. And I want to remind you today, as I was reminded yesterday while driving, listening to some sermon audio casts of Charles Hodge's statement after teaching at Princeton for 50 years. Half of that is the chair of systematic theology. He said, upon 50 years of teaching at Princeton Seminary, I have not taught one thing that is new. And so that's really my job, is how do I prepare leftovers for you in such a way that they look palatable? Moms, you might be able to identify very much with the job of a pastor, because I don't give you anything new. I simply remind you of what is old. And so I want to remind you that Christ, the true servant, is the Savior and Shepherd of your soul. And I hope that you find comfort in that today. About 125 years ago, a book went to press written by a congregational minister in Topeka, Kansas, that drew out a portion from this verse and extrapolated it into a large illustration. The minister's name was Charles Sheldon, and the name of the book was In His Steps. Those of you familiar with it know the premise of the book, a pastor challenging his congregation to spend an entire year before making any decision, asking themselves this question, what would Jesus do? And so the story goes that this little town of Raymond is is revolutionized. It's completely changed by this handful of people from the from First Church of Raymond, asking themselves, WWJD, what would Jesus do? That question, as we find that we are called to walk in Christ's steps, comes to the top of this passage. And so we want to rightly answer that question But first we want to see in verse 18 the principle that is before us. Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear. That's that same word that is used in just the previous passage of how we ought to fear God. This shows very subtly, but once again, hierarchical structure of our submission on this earth that ultimately we submit to God. We fear God, even in our submission to other earthly authorities, and therefore it is God's word, God's truth that guides and directs how we submit to those earthly authorities around us. Be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. Now, the word that is used here of servants might be, for those of you who are a little familiar with Greek, you might hear in your mind's ear, doulos, you know, servant, bond, servant, but that is not the word that is used here. The word that is used here is the one for domestic servants. And now this seems a world apart from the world in which we live because we have mechanized and electronicized all of our servants in our day. We don't pay people to do what the mixer can do and what the bread oven can do and what the lawnmower can do. We do it ourselves with a lot of technological and electronical help, okay? I'm guessing very few of you grew up with domestic servants in your home, helping you dress, helping you get ready for bed, cooking your meals, taking you to school. It's a very rare thing. In times past, passages such as this were used to justify shadow slavery in the United States, saying, see, servants, slaves, you are to be obedient to your masters. Don't question it. Just go with it. And yet, even though this is instruction, even to those people who would have who would be and we have those situations today be considered merely private property for someone else, while it provides instruction to them, it does not justify the case. And if I would encourage you that if you look at passages like this different than that, if you are allowed the freedom to operate under the conviction of your conscience, how can you justify another not being able to live according to their conscience? This is instruction, gospel guided instruction to those who might be beaten by their masters. And yet it is appropriate for us to do all that we can to stop that hand from beating them. There is not biblical justification for such treatment and consideration of people as people belong to God, not to one another. There are two contexts here in which this principle is applied in this verse, those who have good and gentle servants and those who have harsh servants. This reminds me of the situation in my own family, of my ancestors who came over in the 18th century, sold themselves into indentured servitude to come across the pond and knew that they would spend a number of years apart from one another. And my great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother had very wonderful masters where she served. Her husband was not so fortunate and he was aged many, many years because of the treatment. But both of them and they came over here for religious purposes to help plant Presbyterian churches. Both of them would have submitted to this command from scripture because they knew that they ultimately were submitting to the to the grace of God in their life. They're ultimately submitting to their creator, to the one who made them. And so they were to submit even in harsh circumstances. And that's that's the principle. And then we see the purpose of this and the purpose of submitting to those over you is to glorify the Lord, the Lord of the very conscience, which you use in determining what to do and what not to do. For this is commendable. For this is commendable if because of conscience toward God, a person endures grief, suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if when you are being beaten for your sins, you patiently endure? But if when doing good and suffering for it, you patiently endure this, is favorable before God. That purpose of submitting, even in the harshest of circumstances, is to bring glory to God. He finds it favorable. He finds it commendable. And here we see again the practicality of Scripture. If you are beaten for sin, Doesn't that make sense that you would be beaten for that? If you suffer the consequences of breaking the law, isn't that just fair? So what good does it do you to be patient in that and extol, look how I'm patiently serving my time. Look at how I'm patiently taking my beating when you deserve it. This is talking about patience in treatment that we do not deserve. in treatment that is unjust, in treatment that is seeking to bring the obedience of God to the top, over against the obedience to men. This echoes verse 16, where Peter says, as free people, do not use your liberty as a covering for evil, but live as servants of God. What is glorifying to God as we are ultimately His servants is obeying Him, even if that means suffering for it. However, brothers and sisters, let us be wary of pride. and self-righteousness in this point. We can easily fool ourselves into thinking, because I do this, this makes it right. Going beyond that boundary which we are called to live, because this is right, this is what I will choose to do. And I'm not calling anyone out specifically in that warning other than your pastor. And you know him. You know how much he needs to be reminded of this. It is so easy to fool ourselves. So let us be careful to not just live however we desire to live and find perpetual justification via conscience, via our suffering, via whatever. I've seen many times those who are, well, people just can't stand them. And they wear that as a badge of honor, thinking it's due to their severe righteousness. No wonder people don't like me. I'm so holy. They can't stand it. And I look at them with all the love of the Lord for them and say, no, you're just a jerk. That's why people don't like you. And so let us just be careful as we consider these things and as we weigh our obedience in the various spheres in which we find ourselves. Ultimately, the top sphere being that of the Lord, that we beware our pride and self-righteousness because it will lead us in dangerous directions when considering these things. Well, Peter here then gives us not just the principle and he doesn't just give us the purpose of glorifying God, finding favor with God. He gives us the perfect prototype, the perfect example. For to this you were called because Christ suffered for us. And so Peter very directly draws a line between the suffering of Christ and the suffering of people in this life. If you are suffering now, be encouraged and find hope in that. And I almost did it, did you hear I almost said Paul said? My brother and I were together at a funeral yesterday in which the pastor talked about Adam and Eve committing their first sin in the Garden of Gethsemane. And as we're driving to the to the graveside my brother said he's a minister also he said that stuff is so easy to do. He started by saying I learned something new today and I said listen How many times are you quoting from the epistles and you're quoting Paul, and now I'm preaching from Peter? I think I've done it numerous times. You all have been very gracious not to throw rotten tomatoes or canned tomatoes at me. This is Peter talking, not Paul, right? And so Peter draws that line. And as he has done so many times in this epistle, he draws a very direct line back to a very specific text to bring this out. But he is encouraging us to follow in the steps of Christ, to follow in his steps, as Reverend Sheldon wrote. But there is a problem in this. I told you that question bubbles up and we want to answer it rightly. The problem is that Jesus's footprints are so drastically different than ours. If you ever go to the beach with me and you lose track of me, it's very easy to find me. Because of my feet, if you just look for the large ball with all the little balls that stick out from it and follow that footprint, you will find me. It's just the footprints that I make. As opposed to my son, LJ's feet that are long and skinny and look like more like a machete with little machetes sticking off the end. He might try to follow in the path that I go, but our footprints are drastically different. This is the problem we have in simply asking what would Jesus do? We're not completely capable of doing what Jesus would do. The problem in the theology represented in Charles Sheldon's classic, while it's not an inappropriate question to ask of the decisions that you make, is that Christ during that era in modernist history was presented as our example and that is all. Merely that. merely and sometimes reformed and evangelicals have shied away from the language of Christ as our elder brother because it was so presented as he's like our big brother that we just try to, we want to be like him. My oldest brother was in the army. So when I was a kid, I wanted to be in the army. I wanted to be like my big brother. But redemption would come in this thinking for those who mimicked Christ and mimicked him enough. And sadly, this gave an impoverished view of his perfections and our propensity to sin. Even in the best of our deeds, our motives and our desires can be exposed. Peter drives us to the one who, yes, is our example. Christ is our example. The response to that is not, well, I don't want to be like Jesus. No, we want to be like Jesus. That's the whole point of sanctification is to be conformed to the image of the son. That is the whole point. But we do it by the sanctification of the Holy Spirit as he applies the sacrifice, the person and work of Jesus Christ. to us as we are being made to actually obey and to do so actually from a pure heart. But we're also driven to the one who redeems the whole rotten mess since we continually stumble and fall. He does this by taking us to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. And this is so Peter. This is totally something Peter does, right? He takes that idea and he drives it right back into a particular text where you can go and say, oh. So we'll begin in the very end of chapter 52, where he says, see my servant. See, this is what Peter does. Talking about servants who are suffering. And he can't hear that without going directly to the suffering servant of Isaiah. Praise the Lord for a little cloud cover. See my servant. This is verse 13 of Isaiah 52. See, my servant shall deal prudently. he shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Just as many were astonished at you, his visage was so marred more than any man and his form more than the sons of men. So he shall sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at him for that which had not been told them they shall see. And that which they had not heard, they shall consider. Let that be our prayer for our civil leaders in our nation. Chapter 53, Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. He has no form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should desire him. How often did Israel get in trouble because they wanted the tall, good looking guy? Oh, but then they got David. He was a little shorter, but still very good looking. They wanted the attractive person. I know it's tempting. I know that's why you called me to be your pastor. You thought he is so good looking. We have got to have that guy. And all God's people said, oh, my, no, no. But how often do we get distracted by the shiny things? And Christ, even in his physical appearance, was there was not that just charismatic draw. It was the work of the spirit that draws people to Christ. He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our grief and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And by his stripes, we are healed. All of us like sheep, have gone astray. We'll hear that again in just a moment, direct from the lips of Peter. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before it shears is silent. So he opened not his mouth by oppression and judgment. He was taken away and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people. He was struck. His grave was assigned with the wicked yet with the rich in his death because he had done no violence, nor is any deceit found in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. If he made himself as an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days and the good pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. he shall see the anguish of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify the many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death, and he was numbered with the transgressors. Thus he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. What a passage for those who are suffering in their life and in this present age for doing righteousness and for doing right things. Peter asked that question, if you are beaten for sin, duh, that's the theological term from the Latin de. OK. Of course, you're going to get beaten for sin. The injustice is in being beaten for righteousness, righteousness. But the righteous servant, the suffering servant of God goes another step further and he is beaten for your sin. He takes the stripes that belong to you and to me and opens not his mouth. We know the first thing we would say, this is unfair. This ain't right. This doesn't belong to me. But Christ stepped forward, he made himself a sacrifice. so that we should follow in his steps, not that we are able to go and accomplish redemption for ourselves, but we are able then to walk in righteousness as his spirit comes to us and applies to us that sacrifice that Christ accomplished for us because of our sin. Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that wonderful? that that we might suffer for some injustice or some righteousness in this life. But Christ has suffered for our unrighteousness, for our sin. He took the beating that we deserved. And he suffered in silence. And even in that, we abandoned him. We turned our back on him. We hid our face from him. And there's an incomplete tenor to Isaiah 53. At least in the midst of that. Towards the end, as the suffering servant then is called the righteous servant, and he's talking about seeing his offspring and receiving an inheritance, but in the midst of it, it's declared, all we like sheep have gone astray, we've turned everyone to our own way. And we're left wondering, what's the end of that? The cows got out of the gate. Where'd they go? I don't know. Will they come back? We are the disobedient sheep. We are the ones who wander and stray, but Christ is the one who practiced perfect righteousness, perfect submission to the Father, perfect obedience. When he was slandered, which is that nuance of reviled, and it's really great in the Greek because it uses the same word, only just adds anti in front of the second word. When reviled, he didn't anti-revile. When he was slandered, he didn't slander back. When he suffered, he trusted in his father. And he didn't threaten. Remember his words, forgive them, father, for they do not know what they are doing. What words of grace. And he was sacrificed to save those who did not deserve it. Spoiler alert, that's me. And that's you. He died on the tree to remove our sins from us. He died so that we might live. And as we come back to 1 Peter 2, this is what we find. When he was reviled, he did not revile back. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but he entrusted himself to him who judges righteously. He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness. By His wounds you were healed. And what does that mean? Does that mean that my feet will no longer be fat because I will be supernaturally healed of my Milroy's disease? Does that mean that my pancreas will just get off the couch and start doing what it's supposed to be doing and I will no longer have diabetes? Does that mean that I will no longer be follicularly challenged and my hair will start to grow? Does it mean that all of your physical ailments will somehow be miraculously cured in this life? What does Peter say on the heels of saying, by his wounds you were healed? He says, goes right back to Isaiah 53, keeps that text going before us, for you were as sheep going astray, but now have been returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. What is the healing that Christ has brought to us by his sacrifice? It is nothing other than the embrace of our heavenly father as we have been returned to the great shepherd of the sheep in Christ Jesus. Our greatest illness is not anything that might be on our doctor's charts. Our greatest illness is what's logged in heaven that we are rebellious centers against God apart from Christ. And by Christ's stripes, we are healed. And so we have fourthly the promise. Not only did Jesus die on the cross, for our sins that has been accomplished. It is now applied to the sheep. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned each one to our own way, but now our iniquities have been laid on him and we have been returned to the guardian and shepherd of our souls. You might find in your life that you are a servant who is suffering. And it is unjust. It is wrong. But it brings glory to God and know. That the true servant. The one who in no way deserved any. Bad treatment. Or beating, especially not death on the cross. know that he took your place as he hung there. And by his stripes, you are healed. Stand with me as we pray. Our God and Father, we give you great praise for our great savior, your son, Jesus Christ, our elder brother. We praise you that he made himself a sacrifice laid down his life that we might live. That by his stripes, by those wounds inflicted because of us, that we are healed. Through the stripes that we receive in this life, our masters try to break us down and to wound us. And yet through the beating that he has received for us, we are made whole. And for this, we give you praise. And for this, we ask that you would do this and accomplish this in the lives of each one here. That young and old alike would know their sin, confess it to you, believe, and be saved. We pray in Christ's name. And church, let us pray together. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.