1 Peter - 2022

Our reading this morning is taken from 1 Peter chapter 2 beginning at verse 18 and continuing to chapter 3 verse 7. 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 18. Slaves, in reverent fear of God, submit yourselves to your masters. Not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.

For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering, because they are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.

When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, He made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness by his wounds, you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

Wides. In the same way, submit yourselves to your own husbands, So that if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives. When they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes, rather it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in god used to adorn themselves.

They submitted themselves to their own husbands like Sarah, who off who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You're her daughters, if you do what is right, and do not give away to fear. Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives. And treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life. So that nothing will hinder your prayers.

My name is Pete Woodcock. I'm 1 of the pastors of the church. We're Working our way through 1 Peter. We're on 1 Peter 3. Keep your finger in there.

There's some great stuff the Lord's got to tell us from that passage. Just just a quick thing to say that those of you, and there's quite a few in the church that are interested in putting up some Ukrainians refugees, and what we need to know is we we need to know if you're if you're interested in that, we need to know it this week, because the Lord in his utter kindness and we had no idea how he why Tarras and Julia and the family were in Poland. Remember they they couldn't go back to Belarus because they preached the gospel, They were in Ukraine, they moved to Poland, and we didn't know why they were there, we were trying to work out, we went over and prayed with them, and now we know the answer they're there, and they're working amongst Ukrainian refugees, and they've got names of people that could join us over here So if you've got a room that you can put up a refugee, then can you can you let Catherine know the room and how many you could put up tomorrow because she's gonna do some work on that. So as a church, we can work together.

On that. So that's quite an important thing. So if you have got space and you want to do that, then please can you see Catherine. It'd be very helpful tomorrow where gonna work on that and try and get some names so that we can get to help out. So that that would be really helpful.

Now we're in 1 peter. Let me just pray. Father help us now, as we look at this passage, please challenge us, change us, to be people that love your word and love you more, help us to see the Lord Jesus Christ and want to live for him, we pray. In his name, r m. So 1 peter chapter 3, we're looking at.

The old phrase that you've probably heard, pre the gospel at all times and if necessary use words, it was attributed to Francis of Acesis, but apparently, he didn't say that. And no one's claiming to have said it, which is good because it's wrong. Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary use words. It's not actually right. And we see that if we look at 1 Peter.

Just look at 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 23. Peter says this, for you have been born again. How? How are you born again? Not with perishable seed, but imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

So people need to hear the word God in order to be born again to become Christians. And then verse 25, you'll see that Peter describes the word of the lord endures forever, and this is the word that was preached to you. So we do need to preach the word. We do need to speak out so people understand what the Christian message is. And yet, having said that, We're in this section, and you may have noticed in chapter 3 verse 1 that Peter's arguing or tell or or or communicating with wives who have unbelieving husbands and he said he he says to the wives, they may that they may be won over without words.

By the behavior of the wife. When they see your behavior. So so there's definitely people being 1 over without words when they see behavior. And in fact, we're in this larger section as we were seeing last week. Where Peter's really concerned for Christians, how we gonna win the the the hard line resistant pagan to Christ.

How how is the Pagan ever going to bring glory to Christ? And his emphasis has been on behavior, principally submit to the authorities. So stop going on about your own rights and yourself, live a selfless life. Stop demanding your rights, but actually live for other people. That's what he's saying.

So chapter 2 verse 12, live such good lives among the pagans that Though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. If they accuse you of being the bad guys, which is increasingly happening in our country, Christians are the bad guys, With the bad news message because it stops freedom of behavior of lifestyle and stuff like that. We're the bad guys with the bad news message, even though we think we're the good guys with the good message, we're being increasingly serious. How do we live in a world that sees us as the bad guys accuses us of being wrong, well Peter says, live such good lives. But even though they accuse you of being wrong, they'll see that you do good.

That that's his argument, isn't it? So what you've got here is both, both preaching and living. It's life and lip they used to say years ago. Life and lip, I remember joining a church where it was always the prayer from this bloke was always life and lip, life and lip, and I was thinking, I always anyway, my imagination, I just had this just 1 massive lip. But anyway, life and lip there was also the church that would pray for the preacher, that he would gird up his loins as he mounts lie at Zion's hill, which basically translated means, pull up your trousers as you go into the pool which is a very good thing to pray for.

Alright. Anyway, life and lip, life and lip. And that that's what it's about. So preach the word but have a life worthy of the word that you preach. That's that should be the saying.

It's not preach the gospel at all times and if necessary use words. It's live at all times. A life worthy of the gospel that you preach. Now, historians, if you read the history of the early church, it's fascinating. Because historians will tell you that the growth of the early church is largely through that.

The lip and the life. That the Christians lived out 1 Peter. And they so lived it out that many pagans, worshipers of other gods became followers of Jesus. So let me give you some some stuff here. At the height of the great epidemic or the second great epidemic that that covered the Roman Empire, which was the plague.

In 260, Dionysius wrote this tribute to Christians, who were nursing people that were falling under the plague. Now you've got to get it that the pagan religions all ran away. According to the historians. They ran away. The Pagan priests ran away and went to the countryside to get away from the epidemic.

But Christians stayed. This is this is what he wrote. Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, Never sparing themselves and thinking only of 1 another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick attending to their very need and minister to administering to them in Christ. And with them, and with with them departed this life serenely happy for they were infected by others with the disease.

Drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pain. Many in nursing and curing others transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead. That's what Christians were doing. They were right in the heart of the plague, and they were prepared to die to heal people. And 1 of the reasons historians would say the church grew was because very simple administration to people that were dying of play like water and food that the Christians gave.

Actually healed lots of people, and those people became Christians. You see? They preached and they lived. Let me give you another 1. Julian, Julian became Roman Empire in 3 61 AD.

He was a Zealous pagan. He grew up in a Christian home, but he hated Christianity, and became a hater of Christianity at but he saw how successful Christianity was and I'm quoting, launched a campaign to institute pagan charities in an effort to match the Christians. Julian complained to a letter to a high priest in his Pagan religion in Malaysia that the pagans needed to equal the virtues you of the Christians. For recent Christian growth in their churches was caused by the moral character And by their benevolence towards strangers and care for the graves of the dead, they even buried the dead, they just didn't leave them. Even if they were had had plagued.

And listen to this, in another letter to another pagan priest, Julian wrote, I think that when the poor happened to being neglected and overlooked by our priests, the impious Gallians That's Christians. The Empireus Galileian observed this and devoted themselves to benevolence. The impious Galileians support not only their poor, but ours as well. Everyone can see that our people lack aid from us and get it from the Christians. It's amazing, isn't it?

You see what he's doing? He's calling the Christians impious. They've got this horrible message. They're the bad guys. They're not worshiping our gods.

They're the bad guys. But look at the lives they live. The moral character, the benevolence. That's exactly what's going on here, that Peter's talking about. So you can see that Christians were obeying Peter's letter even back then.

They were living a life worthy of the gospel, as they preached the gospel, and pagans noticed it, even the emperor and many came to Christ. Bear with me. We're getting to our passage. That gospel And that gospel behavior in the early in the early centuries of this of the Roman Empire was massively massively attractive, to women. Massively attractive to women.

They came in their hundreds into the church. Now historians tell us that 200 AD, if you looked around Italy Asia minor, that's where Peter's writing to, and North Africa. In 200 AD, there were only a hundred women to a hundred and 40 men. In the empire. There was a lack of women.

And yet, women flocked to the church. So much so that 1 emperor made an edict against Christian missionaries and told them stop evangelizing and telling the gospel to women, because so many were becoming Christians. And there are many, many reasons why women were attracted to the church. And I have no time to go into detail there, but I can show you the books. If you wanna know.

Women were treated with respect and love in the church. They found a freedom in Christ. They didn't find in any other religion. Paganism often sexualized women, and Christians didn't. Christians didn't kill kill female babies at birth, which was common practice?

In fact, Christians rescued female babies that were left out to die. So with all that success, with lip and life, with all of that success, With reaching the pagans with speaking and living, and all of that success amongst women it brought problems. Because culturally, women were meant to take the religion of their husbands, not lead the way. That was the cultural thing. So that brings us to our passage.

There's the background to our passage. 1 Peter chapter 3. Peter now addresses wives. Wives of women that are married to non Christians, and wives generally. Now hold it.

Before I get into this passage, You've got to understand, that I understand, that this is a bad guy, passage today. Yeah? This is a very passage that people would see as a bad guy message. The next word I'm going to use or the the word for my first point is a bad guy word. Yep.

Now, I want you to know that I know that, that I'm not that stupid, but here's the first word. Here's my first point. When wives submit. Bad going bad guy alert. Bad guy alert.

Bad guy alert. Bad guy alert. Yeah? Submit. Well, you gotta listen to me before before you just completely turn off.

There's people going already, coats are going on. You know? Yeah. Are you alright, Andrew? Put your coat on.

Head phones on. Yeah. Okay. Submit verse 1. Look at it.

Wives. In the same way, submit yourselves to your own husbands so that if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives. Now first of all, this is not a rule for husbands. Get that. He's not saying husbands make your wives submit.

That would be a very ugly distortion of what the Bible says. He doesn't say that. This is spoken to wives. Husbands, you'll get it next week. Yeah?

It's amazing. It's 6 verses for the women and 1 for the men. And everybody gets worked up about that. It's just that men are just very simple and they need just 1 verse. Yeah?

Women are much more complicated they need 6. Yeah. But anyway, look, it's spoken to the wife, which is utterly, utterly radical for the times. Writing to women as if they're acceptable human beings. Intelligent people who have a choice and a freedom.

So that's amazing. But as we saw last week, the word submit or submission is not coming out of weakness and a lack of freedom, quite the opposite. It's a deliberate use of freedom and strength to put yourself under someone else, in order to do that someone else good. It's putting your resources at the means of doing good for another. That's what submission is.

So notice what verse 1 says. In the same way, submit yourselves to your own husbands, in the same way, the same way as what, in the same way as Christ submitted to his calling. This isn't some little womanly calling here. This is for you to be like Christ, none other than like Christ, the darling of heaven. So Peter's calling wives to be like Christ.

Even when our Lord Jesus suffered injustice, he entrusted himself to God the father and his will. He didn't hurl insults or threats. He didn't sin or use his mouth for deceit. He willingly, voluntarily gave himself for his enemies. He absorbed the injustice and the threats and the sins against him in order to save those who were against him.

Wipes. In the same way, submit yourselves to your husbands so that if if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives. Chris women submit to their husbands, not out of some inferior thing. I mean, they're they're god's elect for goodness sake. They're amongst the imperishables.

They're blood bought children of Christ. Yeah? They're not inferior. Women are not inferior, but they're to submit like the Lord submitted. In order for the good of someone who doesn't believe that they might come to believe.

You see, they've got the big plan of God in view as Christ's head. So Peter says, that's the way to win them. Look at the second half of verse 1, that they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives. This is a very powerful principle here, I think. And worthless getting.

Especially for those of us that have non Christian relatives and we get more and more anxious about them, and more and more sort of wanting them to come to know the Lord Jesus. And the more we love Jesus, the more we sort of are frustrated that they don't. And they don't understand him perhaps. But Peter's giving us a good principle here. Be very careful not to abuse the privilege of a captive audience.

Be very careful of that. So He's saying to those who've got sons and daughters and brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers and husbands and wives that don't know the Lord, we can increasingly get desperate and we can increasingly just blast them with words. So Warren Worby in his little commentary on 1 Peter talks about a woman that soon as the husband came in, she he was a non believer and she was a believer, She turned on Christian radio, really loud constantly. But she couldn't understand why he was always going out with his friends. It was just, you know, it was just blasting.

I I remember some years ago, really not far from here, only just a few roads up. A woman came to our church and I was preaching and she, some, for some reason, liked me preaching and she said, would you come and speak to my husband? And I said, yes. I've never met this woman before. I said, yeah, of course.

He wants to believe, and he needs you to speak to him. And I thought, oh, okay. Fine. She was Very strong woman. But anyway, I went and it was a tiny little flat, just just over here, a tiny little room And in the corner of the room when I went in was a cowering man in 1 corner.

This woman standing up saying, there he is. And on the other side of the corner was was was a what was 1 of these? Over in the other side of the corner. And I didn't really think too much about that. I sat down and I and I realized he was there under duress.

And I said, well, alright, mate, you know, I guess you wanna know about Christ? No. But, you know, she wants me to know and all of this sort of stuff. And then she stood up and said, Tell him. I said, yep, while I'm sort of, get up and use the lectern and preach at him.

And she and I said, what? It's only you me and, you know, him and they're here. She like you did in church, Get the bible open and preach at him. And it was like, no. Thank god, I never met that woman again.

Unless she's here, if you're here, there's plenty of churches around here you could go to. You don't treat people like that, and Peter's giving this great principle. Be careful of captive audiences, you know. Let your life speak. He's not saying don't speak.

But let your life speak louder than your words. First 1 and 2 then, wives. In the same way, submit yourselves to your own husbands so that if any of them do not believe the word, that they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and the reverence of your lives, it's such a beautiful little thing here. The purity and reverence of your lives, Isn't it? There's something beautiful.

This isn't shouting out sort of me too stuff. This isn't shouting out Well, we're we need this. There's there's something very beautiful purity and reverence of their lives of someone committed to Jesus. While submitting to their husbands, he's saying, your whole motive will be seen, and it's beautiful purity and the reverence of your life. In other words, her faith is very, very real.

This is a deep growing beauty of a woman who trusts the Lord. Which even a harsh unbelieving husband will see. Augustus is the fourth century, sort of church leader, African church leader, very wicked man, and did all kinds of sins and then remembered that his mother prayed for him and then heard the the word of the Lord and became a Christian, but he writes this And he's sort of writing to God actually in his confessions, but he writes this about the faithful witness of of of his Christian mother Monica to his pagan father, Patrickus. He writes this, and he's sort of talking to God. She served her husband as her master and did all she could to win him for you.

Speaking to him of you by her conduct, by which you made her beautiful. Finally, When her husband was at the end of his earthly span, she gained him for you. Now that could sound really sort of nasty. You know, she's like a spider waiting and grabbing, but it's not. By her whole life, by her prayers, by her words, by her kindness.

In the end, he saw, This good woman has good news. So there's the first word, wives submit. It's a beautiful word. It's a beautiful word. Submit.

Submit. And it will make you beautiful, and that's my second point. Beauty. Look at verses 3 and 4. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes.

I was saying to this to Anne as she had just washed her hair, hadn't combed it and hadn't dried it, and I said, I think we need to go. Don't worry about brushing it. And I read this to her. It didn't sort of stick to be quite honest with you. But anyway, rather, it should be that your inner self, I actually read this as well, an unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is of great worth in God's sight.

Now, look, let's get this right. Peter's not This isn't apa stolic banning of hairstyles. So if anyone's got braided hair today, then then he's not saying you can't have this. This isn't apostolic banning of jewelry. He's not saying you can't have braided hair or good in in in the outward, but he is saying this, if your beauty depends on outward things, you're not beautiful.

That's what he is saying. If your beauty depends on something you buy, you're in big, big trouble. That's what he is saying. It's interesting because in the old testament, that sort of whole use of gold here, in making yourself beautiful. In the old testament, that's that's what actually happened with the temple.

So the temple was sort of covered in gold. Because it was the beautiful place of God. It's where God lived, so it was gold. Yeah. In the new testament, this is the interesting difference, that it's the people.

It's Christians who are the temple of God. And the question is, how does the temple of God in the New Testament era which we're in? How does that make itself beautiful? Well, not by having layers of gold on. But having this fading beauty of gentle and quiet spirit.

That's what God's attracted to. It's not gold, temple, It's a temple with someone who's got the spirit of God in them, and that's such a beautiful sight to God. Look at verse 4 of great worth in God's sight. God sees that. See, this is the question.

What are we living for? Self or to please God. And when we live with this submission to our husbands, if your wife, and and there's this gentle spirit then God says, that's wonderful. God is looking at you women and say, wee wee wee wee, you know? Are we not allowed to do that anymore?

Are you? But, you know, He's wolf whistler get you. Now, we live in a culture where there's, as we know, tremendous tremendous pressure on look, Why do the movie stars dress the way they dress? Even in a me too thing that they could put up. Why do they dress sexy?

Why? Because there's power in sex. That's why. Look at me. I'm sexy looking.

Take photos of me. Peter's saying, there's no real power in that. That's outward that would only attract people for a little time, but the inner life This unfading, which is unperishable. That's the same word. Imperishable beauty, in Christ.

We mean, that's what you've got and that's attractive to God. Clothing, hair, How you keep your out with appearance? May attract your husband for a bit, but there's something much more beautiful. That attracts even God, and is louder than words, concentrate on cultivating the inner life Don't fall for the trap of attractiveness on the outside of hairdos and jewelry and so forth. There's a beauty that can't be destroyed.

It's unfading imperishable, and its main features, did you notice, its main features are gentleness and quietness. Now what does that mean? Well, the word gentleness is the word meekness, and the word meekness is what the word you'd used for a horse that's been trained. Power. There's power in the horse, isn't it?

If you saw, you know, the woman's just I forget even what she won, but on the horse this week. What was it? Gold Cup Chilton, was it? Chotenham. Sorry.

You're pretending not to have any idea. Yeah, even though you did quite well. Yeah. Yeah. So it was Choltenham or something.

There's that that woman jockey was phenomenal. That power of that horse, I saw it on the news, you know, it was whacking a lot. It's massive power, but it's under this little woman's control. And there's meekness here. So it's not that you're not a powerful person.

But it's under control and then quietness, doesn't mean to say you're just not speaking or anything, But it's a calmness. It's a steadiness. It's a lake, not a sea. There's not a storm at sea. You're not a stormy person.

There's a gentleness and a quietness. There's a beautiful, strong impression in meekness. Free from anger, free from pride, free from assertiveness. God loves that. Why does he love it?

Because that's Jesus. Jesus is the meek 1. Bless it of a meek. Says says God. That's who If you're living out a meekness, gentle, quiet life and you're not in turmoil all the time and you're angry free, then actually you're following the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus was strong, but he was meek. And let me just say this to ladies that, you know, a big personalities. This is talking about a quiet spirit. It's not talking about different personalities here. There are different personalities.

And that's good. We have some women in the church that are loud, aren't they? But it doesn't mean to say they're not meek and quiet and quiet in spirit. So don't muddle up personality, the outward, with with this inner Lovely. Calm.

Calm this. This is an unfading beauty that God loves. No amount of wrinkles of age will take this imperishable beauty away. So wives, is that what you're looking forward to? Meet this, stability, underneath.

And so Peter says, let me show you, not just Jesus Christ, but I'm going to show you An example of a woman of this. So he goes to Sarah. That's my third point. First point, submit. Second point, look at the beauty of submission.

And 30 Sarah. Let's look at Sarah. Versus 5 and 6. Look at it. Can you look down?

For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. So don't adorn yourself with braided hair and gold, but you'd dawn yourself like this. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters, if you do what is right and do not give way to fear. Lots of things change over the ages.

Lots of things are different today than they were in Peter's day, but not this. What people try to argue is, oh, this submission word was alright for Peter's day but not for our day. Well, Peter doesn't have that. He says, this is how the holy women of the past. This is how they've always done it.

They've always done it this way. This is what makes a holy woman So therefore, he must mean the future as well. So if you're someone who wants to cut this out of the bible, then you're wrong. You're not understanding, you'll never be a holy woman. This is how holy women if you want to know what holy women adorned themselves with, They adorned themselves with this.

They put their hope in God. They put their the the plan for their life in God. They wanted to do God's work in this world, and that means submitting in order to reach people for Christ. That that means living out a Christ like life in this world in the job that you've given me God, which is to be a woman. A wife.

So they entrust themselves to God, they get their joy, their security, their life, from God, and therefore they're able to serve their husbands. Going back to the second century again, so not long after Peter wrote this letter. To Tullian, who was a church leader. He got the women together, because there were so many women in the church. Remember, I've told you why, and he got the women together to preach at them.

It's great, ain't it? This was what he said to them. Clothe yourself with the silk of piety. Yeah? With a satin of sanctity, with the purple, which is only a kingly thing that wear, with the purple of modesty.

And then this is what you said. So you shall find God himself as your suitor. Clothe yourself in that and God is attracted to you. So Peter says, look at the the the godly women of the past. Do what they did.

But then he picks on Sarah. Now bear with me here. Are you ready? Why Sarah? Well, look at verse 6, the second half of verse 6, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord.

Right? Right? So Sarah calling her husband Lord. He's submitting to her in other words. Now when did Sarah say this?

When did Sarah say, my lord? There's only 1 incident in the life of Sarah and Abraham where she said it, so it can be the 1 that he's picking on. She herself would be quite wrinkly at that time. She's 90 years old. If you wanna know what a 90 year old looks like, Have a look at Les.

Yeah? Let's see if he's got any wrinkles. Yeah? But so she's a pretty old woman. But she's gorgeous in the sight of God.

Why? Because she called Abraham her Lord. Now, when did she do this? Well, she was 90 years old, and she was listening in to a conversation that Abraham was having with some angels. Yeah.

I don't know whether he knew they were angels, but she's listening in. Yeah? So this is a great woman. She said, I wonder what my husband said, it wasn't. And she listens in and she laughs She can't help laughing.

In fact, she's discovered because she because The angel was telling Abraham, who was a hundred years old. Yeah? That Sarah was gonna have his baby. Right? So a hundred year old man who in a few weeks time was going to be circumcised, there was a hundred then he circumcised, and he's gonna have a baby through 90 year old Sarah.

Yeah? So you gotta get the picture. She laughs. And she laughs and she speaks to herself, but it gives away what she believes. In that moment of laughter, She says, after I'm worn out and my lord is old.

That's where she says, calls Abraham my Lord. Now, what's this 1 about? It's in those default moments It's the moment of laughter that she calls him lord. It doesn't mean to say that she wasn't up and down in her with him. It doesn't mean to say that actually, you know, there was some battling going on.

I mean, Abraham must have been a difficult bloke to live with. Must have been. It doesn't mean just but the default mode, the big picture of her, when she's on her own, and she's just coming out with a laugh. She calls him Lord. That's the picture of what she had.

For her husband. Now, I say, Sarah's no pushover. And at 1 time, actually, Sarah stood up to Abraham and said, you're wrong. You're going the wrong way, and Abraham was very angry at Sarah, and then God steps in and says, Abraham, you should listen to your wife. She's right.

You're wrong. So there's no pushover going on here. But at the default mode, when you're on your own or you're with other women, And people are having a laugh at the husband. At that moment, Sarah Willough said, he's my lord. But hold it as another thing.

Why, Sarah? Sarah was utterly utterly needed in Abraham to be the man of faith. I don't think Abraham could have been the man of faith without Sarah because she bore the child. Called Isaac, which means laugh. He couldn't have done that on his own, could he?

Abraham to be the man of faith, Had to have Sarah there. Sarah was important. And through Sarah giving birth to Isaac, laugh. Yeah? Eventually, Jesus Christ was born through that lion.

Through Sarah In other words, what Peter say is, through Sarah's faithfulness to submitting to Abraham her husband. Through Sarah's faithfulness, Jesus is born, and the whole church has been born through that 1 bit of obedience, loyalty to her husband. Jesus is born and salvation has come to the pagans. Do you see that? Do you see what he's trying to get you to see?

So he says in verse 6, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord, You are her daughters, if you do what is right and do not give way to fear. In other words, this isn't all about being scared of a husband, and obeying him because you're some little woman in fear. No. No. No.

This is your freedom woman of God, child of Christ. Elect of God. This is your freedom to submit so that in your submission, You fulfill the plan of God and through it, look at Sarah, the whole church is born. The whole church is born through your obedience in this 1 area where the world thinks you're mad to do it Christ brings pagans to himself. Do you see the power of you?

So look at Sarah. Now here's my fourth point. You are still alive. Yep. Men, wait until we get to you next week.

Okay? I know more about that subject. Here's my fourth point. It's just the watching world. It's a watching world.

I just wanna land it in our hearts. So in verse 2, it says, when they see, so it's particularly talking about wives, and when the unconverted husband sees, there is something it's watching world, in other words. There's something very, very beautiful, strangely, strangely powerful, and impressive about a Christian woman that's living like this. Really beautiful. The meekness of Christ that Christian women can display.

It's a very beautiful thing. But I think some of these principles can apply to all Christians, not just wives. Do your neighbors read the Bible? I doubt it. Most won't.

The only bible they can read. The only sermons they can hear is you. Is you. What impression do you give of your Christian faith? What words do you use?

Of your Christian faith. What's your silent preaching and your words? Do they go together? Liver all times a life worthy of the gospel you preach to your neighbor. Do they know the motivation of why you do things and don't do things.

Yeah? If if you don't say words by the way and just live the life, they might just you're a really good communist or a nice Buddhist or just a nice person. You've given me, haven't you ever had when you've done something good to someone? You've had them say, oh, you've you've reignited my faith in humanity. And you think, I don't mean to do that.

What what can I do? Swear or something? No. That isn't our message. Faith in the goodness of humanity.

The reason I do this is because of Christ, so you do need to explain, but you do need to live. Second thing, we must be submissive. It's not a spineless submission. It's a voluntary selflessness. It's a submission that's based on the death of pride and the and the desire to serve.

We heard about pride at the men's meeting. Please listen to that talk. It was fantastic. Wasn't it blokes? And it was all about pride.

It was so very very helpful. It's a beautiful understanding of of pride and how stupidly proud we can be. Well, submission is not being proud. Yeah? So we we're not to be proud people.

Stomping around shouting out pride. It's a complete opposite to what we're meant to be. I know my rights and not to be like that. And I think the beauty of of what what I was thinking about that that sermon afterwards and from yesterday morning at the men's breakfast, and it was the beauty of it is that He says, we've all got pride. So if I've got pride and Craig, you've got pride.

I know you've got pride. You know I've got pride. So let's not be proud. Let's admit, we've got pride. Yeah.

And if I say something to you that gets you a goat and you come at me, because that's what we do, because pride hits in quickly, Then that's that's what I would have done. So I can't really judge you for that, but I love you for it and think, yeah, that's what I would have done. Then you need to calm down and say, sorry. And I need to say, that's okay. I'll forgive you because I got that as well.

Because you did that to me, I would have come at you. Yeah. So we've all got pride, we can take the sting out of this sin by just saying we've got it. So let's love and forgive. Yeah?

You haven't got anything to prove you're in Christ. I haven't got anything to prove. I mean, go, sorry, I don't have an argument with you, Craig. I know that. But maybe after this we might.

So, let's be submissive, let's love each other. Let's be pure. Let's be reverend. Let's be convicted that God has plan for us, and it's not all about me and putting me on a pedestal, but it's about the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's be submissive.

Secondly, thirdly, rather. Are you ready for this? Wife be supermodels for your husband, I mean, come down that catwalk and get their attention. All of us though be supermodels to the world, Not the catwalk supermodel type thing that you see in the fashion shows of self confident, sexy, power struts. With the cameras and the lights, look at me as they struck down the thing.

Be supermodels, Like Jesus, walking down the catwalk of life with a cross on your back and looking out for the care of other people. As we submit, even to suffering in order to bring people to Christ. And my last word, My last word is the wives of Cornerstone. You listening? Wives of Cornerstone.

What do you think I'm gonna say? It's not a rebuke. It's a massive thank you. You are an amazing blessing. By and large.

At our elders' meeting, we had an elders 30 hours away. In a place down in Windsor. And we went through what are we thankful to Cornerstone for? What's the things we thank for? Wives came up.

We're thankful for the wives and the women in our church. All I have to say is fantastic. You are living this out. It's not a rebuke, this is an encouragement to carry on. We weren't rebuking it at all.

We were very thankful. We had a time of prayer where we thanked God for you. Largely, the women in our church are really happy because they're doing this. So we're very thankful. And the hope is wives, if you're married to an unconverted man, The hope is that your simple act of obedience to God's word, even though that's seen as a bad guy message, People will see your good works and know you believe in doing it for Christ, and it will bring salvation.

There'll be a great crowd in heaven because of your obedience to these truths. Let's bow our heads and and pray. I'll hand over to Tom. Heavenly father, we thank you for your word to us this morning, and we pray that in whatever relationships we're in, whether we're wives, husbands, neighbors, parents, children living flat shares or house shares wherever we are that you would help us now to live a life that is worthy of your name. That you would help us both with our lips and with our lives, with our words to live live lives that bring glory to the Lord Jesus, to be distinctive, to be winsome, that those around us, whether our very close relatives, or those just we happen to live alongside and nearby would be 1 to our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, and we ask it in his name.

Ah, man.