30. Submission to Authority p2

Submission to Authority

Last time we began looking at these five verses

1Pe 2:13-17  Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme,  (14)  or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.  (15)  For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men—  (16)  as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.  (17)  Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.

4 pts

1.The Foundation of Submission -Therefore

2.The command of submission.

3.The purpose of submission.

4.The freedom in submission.

IV. The Freedom in Submission

If you have been watching the news you have seen Afghanistan lose it’s fight for freedom. I have seen pictures of parents trying to hand their children to soldiers in hopes that they would protect them. There are images of people clinging to the outside of aircraft taking off trying to escape the evil that is overtaking them, falling to their deaths. My Haiti has suffered an earthquake on the southern side of the country and a couple of days after pelted by Tropical Storm Helen. There is still political uncertainty but for now it is quiet. The sad thing is American missionaries are leaving the country. Our people on La Gonave and in Haiti are discouraged so the director Ben Baugh and I are trying to make a trip leaving Sunday afternoon on the 5th and returning the following Friday. So if you would pray that the details be worked out I would appreciate that. But I digress. Why introduce this verse in this way? Because the very first words of this text say ‘as free’. The NASB inserts “Act’ the ESV inserts “Live” to emphasize Peter’s meaning. Free, Freedom, Liberty. Not just any kind of free, nor just partially free, but completely totally free. It is a radical freedom. It is a freedom from and a freedom to. What have we been set free from?

A. Set Free from What?

1Pe 1:18  knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers,

What comprises ‘aimless conduct’? Sin and it’s fruit.

First -We are freed from the dominion of sin.

We are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners. The first state has to do with consequence the second and rightly so is because of our nature. By nature we are sinners. Born into it because of the sin of Adam and Eve. It is all inclusive. Rom 5:12  Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— Rom 3:23 states all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The nature of sin is that it is a harsh task master. It demands constant feeding. It is a bottomless pit of indulging the flesh, whether it is anger, gossip, sexual immorality, gluttony, drunkenness, or a host of other sins. It could even be the sin of self-righteousness, always complaining and criticizing someone because they don’t meet your standards all the while thinking that you meet the standards of God. We may be tempted to think that some sins aren’t so bad, I know that I do. That is until I am reminded that all sin from the smallest to the largest is, in the words of R C Sproul, cosmic treason against God, our Creator. Even the slightest sin that a creature commits against his Creator does violence to the Creator’s holiness, His glory, and His righteousness. Every sin, no matter how seemingly insignificant, is an act of rebellion against the sovereign God who reigns and rules over us and as such is an act of treason against the cosmic King.” Scripture describes our sin as a moral debt we cannot pat. It also describes it as enmity. It goes to the motive of sin. We do not want to bend the knee to God, we do not in ruling over us and we do not even want him in our thoughts. Third, Scripture describes sin as a crime. It is breaking God’s law. The bottom line is we are enslaved to sin. BUT IN Christ Jesus we have been set free from slavery to sin.

Rom 6:6  We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

Rom 6:14  For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

1Pe 3:18  For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,

Second We are freed from the demands of the Law. What does the law demand? It demands perfect obedience. Gal 3:10  For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” We have already seen that all mankind is shut up under sin and what that means is there is no keeping the moral law perfectly. It isn’t a matter of keeping it outwardly but it is also the inward attitude of the heart.

Mar 7:20-23  And He said, "What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.  (21)  For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,  (22)  thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.  (23)  All these evil things come from within and defile a man."

Jesus has fulfilled the moral obligations with perfect obedience. Rom 5:19  For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.

3. We are freed from the curse of the Law

What is the curse? The curse is God’s judgement against sin. Gal 3:10  For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT CONTINUE IN ALL THINGS WHICH ARE WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO DO THEM."

Someone may well say, I am not Jewish so the Law doesn’t apply to me or I didn’t know the Law but they would be wrong. All of us being made in the image of God though sinful bear the imprint of God’s law. Rom 2:12  For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law. In the previous chapter of Romans Paul states clearly that God is known to all in His creation. And by reason of that know His law. All over the world there is a general consensus of what right and wrong is. Most cultures understand that murder is wrong, lying is wrong, stealing is wrong, that adultery is wrong. All mankind is under the curse. But Jesus has set us free. How? Gal 3:13-14  Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE"),  (14)  that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

He became a curse by taking our sins upon Himself. His righteousness has been imputed to us or sin was imputed to Him. 2Co 5:21  For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

The writer of Hebrews says…

Heb 10:11-12  And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.  (12)  But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,

If you were not in Sunday school this morning, the lesson was on the LBCF 31 p1b. It covered the state of the wicked between death and judgement. It was sobering to say the least. It is a state of torment and suffering, of being in prison awaiting for the ultimate court date – Judgement Day. All of this is what we have been rescued from.

I have focused on what Jesus has done. But it isn’t Jesus acting alone. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit planning, executing, and applying redemption for His people. We are free.

As I said before we are set free from and set free to and this text approaches it negatively and positively.

II. What are we free to

1. Negatively we are not to use of freedom as a pretext for sin. “yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice” The fact that Peter states it means that it was an issue. But this is nothing new. Rom 3:8  And why not say, "Let us do evil that good may come"?—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.

Rom 6:1-2  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?  (2)  Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Salvation is not the freedom to do whatever we want. We have been saved from sin not so that we can go back to it like a pig to its own mire or a dog to its vomit. That is the picture that Peter paints in second Peter of those who return to their sin. Yes, we are strangers and aliens, yes our citizenship is in heaven, yes we bend the knee to King Jesus and to no other but we are to as the Scripture clearly states submit to our governments in so far as they do not cause us to go against what the Scripture teaching.

The Puritan Samuel Bolton, the his book The True Bounds of Christian Freedom” said this. Christian liberty is not the freedom to do what we want but do as we ought,”

2. Positively – circling back around we are to do good. We are to submit, we are to pray for the leaders of our nation. But there is something more. Peter uses the phrase ‘as bondservants of God”. You may be asking yourself haven’t we not long ago had several sermons on our adoption into the household of God. Are we not children of God? And the answer to that is an absolute yes. How then can we be both a bond slave and a child. The former has to do with our attitude, the later with our position. We are to have an attitude of submission to the absolute will of God.

n the Greek culture doulos usually referred to the involuntary, permanent service of a slave, but the use in the epistles of Paul and Peter elevates the meaning of doulos to the Hebrew sense which describes a servant who willingly commits himself to serve a master he loves and respects

Exo 21:5-6  But if the servant plainly says, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,'  (6)  then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.

The Greek word Doulos speaks of submission to one's master The doulos had no life of his own, no will of his own, no purpose of his own and no plan of his own. All was subject to his master. The bondservant's every thought, breath, and effort was subject to the will of his master. In sum, the picture of a bondservant is one who is absolutely surrendered and totally devoted to his master.

2Co 5:14-15  For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;  (15)  and He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

When we look at all that God has done for us, His love for us, His saving us then we too should say the love of God constrains us. It should keep us on the narrow way seeking to serve our God as He commands in both word and in deed.

We are free, but not to sin. We are free to do as we ought, to live right, not to do what we want but to live as we ought. ought.

Our life is not about us, it is the glory of God and being salt and light in a dark world. May God help us and keep us in His way and grant to His people wisdom and discernment. Consider Jesus before the Pharisees and Pilate.

1Pe 2:21-25 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: (22) "WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH"; (23) who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; (24) who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. (25) For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.