In the sermon 'Proclaim the Praises of God in Your Conduct,' delivered by James Lundquist, the focus is on 1 Peter 2:11-17, which urges believers to live honorably among non-believers. The sermon emphasizes the importance of abstaining from fleshly lusts and maintaining moral excellence through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. Lundquist stresses the significance of submitting to government authorities as an expression of faith in God's sovereignty. He highlights that Christians should use their freedom in Christ to serve God, not as a justification for sin. The sermon underscores that good conduct serves as a form of evangelism, proclaiming God's praises and potentially leading others to glorify Him.

We are reading from God's Word this morning. May it be the discernor of the thoughts and intents of our hearts as we read and then listen to it explained to us. 1 Peter chapter 2, beginning at verse 11. Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king and supreme 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.

For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. As free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bond servants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God.

Honor the king. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for the privilege we have to open your word this morning. Each man his own copy, in our own language, that we can read at our own convenience. But may it not be a convenience for us, but may we do this diligently day after day And may we learn from the word this morning as we hear it preached I do pray that we would be active and not passive listeners And may the Holy Spirit convict us as we hear the word this morning.

We pray in the name of your son Jesus Christ, amen. Please be seated. Where have we been in 1 Peter to this point? Chapter 1 through verses 2 through chapter 2.13, we're reminded of the heap of blessings that we have through Jesus Christ and how we ought to respond to that heap of blessings. And We're going to talk a little bit about that today, quite a bit about our response, those heap of blessings.

And then the last few weeks in chapter 2, verses 4 through 10, talking about God glorifying Himself through living stones that are built on Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone. That we are proclaiming the praises of God. We are proclaiming the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. And today in verses 11 through 17, we are going to be talking about proclaiming God's praises of His wonderful mercy, right? In salvation, continuing to do this in salvation, but to the world through our conduct that they then would proclaim the praises of God, that they then would glorify God.

And not just them, that all of us would glorify God through our conduct. And this is talking about visible conduct. We're talking about moral excellence. We're going to be talking about submission. We're going to be talking about honor, the fear of God.

Matthew 5.16 really sums this up very well. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. We're here to proclaim the praises of God in your conduct. I'm going to talk quite a bit about our conduct. Our conduct.

And hear this. I may not say this every time, but hear this. Our conduct, this good conduct I'll talk about, is only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is none of my works. I can't do it.

We sang about that today through the power of the cross. So I'm going to talk quite a bit about our conduct. Our conduct in front of people, our moral excellence in the way we submit, in the way we honor, in the way we fear. But although I may not mention every time, please when you hear your conduct, hear it as Holy Spirit-enabled good conduct. It's not my own.

I cannot do it on my own. So let's read. I'm going to read verses 11 and 12 of 1 Peter chapter 2. Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lust which war against the soul, Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works, which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. Here we're talking about proclaiming the praises of God through our conduct, through moral excellence.

And he starts here talking about beloved, dearly beloved. There's a couple things here. One is telling us that we are loved by God, that we're highly esteemed, that we are esteemed by God. He's also identifying himself as one of our brothers. And we identify each other as brothers and sisters.

We are all beloved. That's a proper greeting that we can have for each other. Beloved, dearly beloved, brothers and sisters, we are loved by God. We've been adopted by God. We are esteemed by the King.

So what are we? We're beloved pilgrims. Beloved pilgrims. I'll get back to the begging. But we're beloved sojourners and pilgrims.

Those from a foreign country that are now living among other people, residing near them. We look at these words, We're residing near them. Yeah, we're to be separate. Yeah, we're to be in the world, not of it. But we're part of it.

We are around them. We are sojourners. We're strangers. Yes, we're foreigners. We're aliens.

We're exiles. But we are living among the people that reject Jesus. We know that. And we're supposed to be here. This is where God has us as sojourners, as pilgrims, living among people that reject Jesus.

And we're going to see God is going to use our conduct, our Holy Spirit-enabled good conduct, to draw some of them from darkness to light. Some of them may dig in deeper, but some of them from darkness to light. Why? That they may glorify God, that they may proclaim his praises. So Peter starts off, beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lust.

He's encouraged us, he's told us who we are, now he's begging. He said earlier in a prayer, this is like a father. This letter is a fatherly type letter. And so this begging, this urgently appealing, think of it as a father, as a dear brother, begging, urgently appealing you to abstain from fleshly lust. Having our moral excellence, having moral excellence is so key to keeping our conduct honorable, as we'll see in verse 12.

So abstain. When we hear abstain, we think of abstinence. We know what this means, especially when We're talking about immorality, fornication, those kind of sins. We know that, but this is intentional. When we talk about abstaining from something, that's an intentional activity.

That's a purposeful activity. It's not just something that happens. It's not even, It's this idea of not even giving the smallest opening to anything. Listen to what Mr. Ryle says.

Nothing darkens the eyes of the mind so much as an allowed sin. Never spare a little sin and show no mercy to little sins. Abstain from fleshly lust. Abstain from the cravings, these appetites, these desires for fleshly, for bodily pleasures that are just an inordinate affection. Some of these things that we like are good, But when we lust after it, when we give it an ordinary affection, it's wrong.

It's a lust. And it's a fleshly lust. And it's not included, it's not limited to just immorality. Let me, I'm going to read Galatians 5, Galatians 5, 19 through 21. Although it's talking about the works of the flesh, it's not talking about exactly fleshly lust.

These are works that we'll see can lead to fleshly lust. And it's a pretty big list. It's not limited just to immorality, fornication, those kind of sins. Listen to this. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, evil envy, murderers, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

If you obey, if we obey fleshly lust, We will not be proclaiming the praises of God. We will not be praising for His mercy. What we will in essence be saying is that God's salvation is not enough. I need more. I need more is what you're saying with these fleshly lusts.

They're not an attitude of thankfulness for God's provision in every way. When you think about life, when you think about food and shelter, but salvation. We're saying that we need more than God is what we're saying when we obey these fleshly lusts. That's how important it is to abstain from this, to fight against this. So Peter continues to talk about this in terms of a war.

And it is a war. And he continues on. And he says, abstain from fleshly lust which war against our souls. That's a proper language, that language of warring against it. We know the effort it takes.

It takes a lot of effort to war against these fleshly lusts. And it is a war. It is a battle. It is a fight. We have not been totally perfected yet.

Our souls have been redeemed, but our bodies, we still war against this. Listen to Richard Baxter. Says, lay siege to your sins and starve them out by keeping away the food and fuel which is their maintenance in life. That war, lay siege to your sins. Starve them out by not feeding them.

Don't feed them. You can all think of ways that we may feed them. And it's not just the internet. It's not just billboards. It's not just the people out there that you may see.

You know. You know the things that you may get inordinate affections for and say, boy, if I only had this, I'd be happy. If I only had that, I'd be more happy. If I only had this, I'd be more happy. And all these things that we lust after and say that we really, really, really need, no.

No. War against those, most of those desires. This is an intentional guarding of our souls that we must have here. War is intentional. You don't just accidentally go to war.

It's an intentional guarding of our souls. This is the war that Paul anguishes over in Romans 7. He spends Romans 7, the bulk of that chapter, talking about this war between his flesh, about what he wants to do and what he does and what he does and what he wants to do. And he talks about this. He's anguishing over this.

Paul is. But how does he end that section in Romans 7, 24 and 25? He says, oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? And He doesn't stop there, right? He doesn't stop there in hopelessness.

Oh, there's nothing I can do. No, he ends with, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He knows how he can possibly win this war. He cannot win this war by himself. Listen, Christians, you cannot win this war by yourself.

You couldn't win the war of being gone from darkness to light by yourself. Don't think you can win this war by yourself. Non-Christians, if you're failing in this area, you probably are failing in this area, you need to examine yourself. Everybody needs to examine yourself if this is a great failure, but non-Christians especially. Look at yourself honestly.

If this is a place where you're failing consistently time after time after time again, That's not an evidence of one that is saved by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. For my Christian brothers and sisters, I don't mean to say this to cause doubt. I don't want you to doubt your salvation at all. I want you to war here and fight here and guard your souls. I will see in 1 Peter 5, 8, hey the devil sees us as a war.

He's on the offensive. He's not holding back. He's roaring like a lion seeking whom he may devour. He wants to devour. Now as a Christian we know he has to seek permission to do anything, anything.

Satan can't just do what he wants. He went to Jesus to ask for the soul of Peter. He went to God to ask for Job. We see these things. Satan does not have supreme authority and sovereignty over the land, but he is seeking whom he may devour.

He is asking for whom he can devour. That he is doing. Listen to Robert Layton, a Puritan preacher, on this war. Oh, that you would be convinced to esteem your precious souls and not wound them as you do, but to fight for them against those sinful desires that attack them. The service of Jesus Christ is alone appropriate for the soul's loyalty.

The only honorable way for a soul to live is to serve Christ as its Lord and to serve him alone for he has bought it at such a high price. Fight for them. Fight for your souls against those sinful desires that attack them. Why? Because of the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the high price He paid for us.

Brothers and sisters, how precious is your soul to you? Do we live in a way that we understand that we live in a way showing people that we have been saved by the precious, incalculable price, precious blood of Jesus Christ? Do we? Abstaining from fleshly lust is one way that you show how precious your soul is and how precious the blood and how high of a price it was paid for it to be precious, for it to be redeemed, for it to be saved, to move you from darkness to light. Second Timothy 2, 22, flee also youthful lusts, but pursue righteousness, love, faith, peace, with those who call on the Lord of a pure heart.

We're not just told, oh, just abstain and just flee, but God tells us, He is so gracious to tell us, but pursue righteousness. There's where you put your efforts. Pursue righteousness. Pursue love. Pursue peace.

And the Holy Spirit, only through the Holy Spirit, only through His power can this be done. The power of the cross enables people to go from darkness to light to love pursuing these things. So brothers and sisters, this is not also a war for us to do on our own. Yeah, there's an individual aspect of it, of guarding our souls. But we're also brothers and sisters.

Peter is a brother. And as a brother, he's appealing to us. And he's helping us. God is helping us through Peter to guard our souls. And brothers and sisters, as a local body and as a church body at whole, let's help each other guard our souls.

Let's help each other in this war and this fight. It's not just the job of the elders. It's not just that. It's easy for me to say because I'm not one of them. It's not just Jason's job.

It's not just Dan's. It's not just Scott's. Yes, they watch over our souls, but it's not just their jobs to make sure of the state of our souls and to guard them and to watch over them. In chapter 1, 22, Peter exhorted us to love each other fervently. This is a love of each other fervently, to be on the offensive, to actively pursue together and individually the means of grace that God gives us to guard our souls.

The means of grace, prayer. Prayer, how much are you praying? Not just for your souls, not just for your children's souls, for the church's souls, for your elders' souls, for the souls of those around you, your brothers and sisters. The preaching of the Word is a means of grace. It was of the prayer that was done for this.

Actively listening, not just here and listening to the preaching because it's part of the church service, but You desire the preaching. You desire to hear it, not hear my words or Jason's words or anybody else's words necessarily, but you desire to hear the preaching of the word that God may use that to guard your souls, help you abstain from fleshly lust, but encourage you in righteousness and encourage you to pursue righteousness. Actively listening, actively ready to apply. Baptism is a means where we get to see the gospel on display. The Lord's Supper is a means where every week we get to remember the gospel, Remember Jesus Christ.

Bible reading, the study of our Bibles, the meditation on our Bibles, the recitation, the memory of our Bibles, the life of the church. Make sure the Sabbath, make sure Sunday, is such a high priority to each of you on how you prepare for it on Saturday and how you intentionally observe it on Sunday. And your work up to it may be the sweetest day of the week. And prayer meeting, we talk about prayer, prayer meeting, the life of the church, these are means of grace God has so preciously given us, so wonderfully given us to help guard our souls and to encourage one another and build each other up. Guard the souls of your household.

Family worship, family discipleship, members of Sovereign Redeemer Community Church, we have taken a covenant together, we heard it read not too long ago, we have taken a covenant together that we will have family worship, we will have family discipleship Because we know how important it is in the guarding of the family souls from fleshly lust, but also building up and encouraging, and that's evangelism of our children, of learning the Word of God, that's all part of the means of grace, of guarding our souls and fighting this war that we have. In verse 12, part of war against these, why have this war? That our conduct would be honorable. Our conduct would be honorable among the Gentiles, not just so I can say, look how good I am, look how good our church, no, because they're watching. And God wants them to watch us and God wants us to be among others, right?

That we would proclaim the praises of God through Holy Spirit-enabled good works. That our conduct would be honorable, our behavior excellent, our conversion honest, the King James says, conversion honest among the non-Christians, among the Gentiles. When he says Gentiles, he's talking about non-Christians. Non-Christians is what he's meaning. Wants our conduct to be honorable.

We need it to be honorable because, as he says here, they're evildoers. And they're going to accuse us of being evil. Why? Because they're evil doers. That when they speak against you as evil doers, when they speak against you as evil doers, here are some accusations of the time that was happening against the church, all right?

Here's the accusation of time. And in this section and other sections, especially when we get the government, we're going to be tempted to think about just how horrible our government is and how horrible people are. And yeah, there are horrible aspects of it. But listen to these accusations that were happening at the time of Peter. They were being accused, Christians, disloyalty to the state or Caesar because they wouldn't call him as a, they wouldn't treat him as a god.

But disloyalty to the state or Caesar. Upsetting trade. Now, I'm all for trade. I like a paycheck. You guys like a paycheck.

I'm all for trade. Now, that one, thankfully, was partially true. When you look at Acts 17 and what happened with Demetrius, Demetrius was an idol maker. And his fellow idol makers were upset because people were getting saved, and they weren't spending money on idols. Amen.

I'll upset that trade all day. Let's upset that trade. So part of that accusation is true, but Christians aren't against trade by no means. That divination, they accuse them of divination, of not participating in festivals because of hatred of mankind. We hated mankind.

That's why they don't participate in their festivals. No, it's because we don't worship your gods. They accused them of being atheists because they had no idols, because they were monotheistic, because there's only one true God, they're accused of being atheist. You can't be godly if you only worship one God. That's what they're being accused of, right?

And they were accused of cannibalism. People wrongly seeing the Lord's Supper, And we have the Catholic Church and others that perpetuate that, that help perpetuate that idea. But these are things that are being accused of. Peter knows the depths and the hatred of non-Christians towards Christians, doesn't he? He knows the real world.

When he exhorts us to submit, when he exhorts us in conduct, He's one that knows the real world. He saw Jesus crucified. He's been in prison with John, which we'll talk about. He was in prison with the rest of the apostles. He knows of Stephen's murder and what happened there.

He knows of Paul being in prison, stone and beaten. He knows the suffering that these specific pilgrims and sojourners are in the middle of or is to come. And he may have revealed and understand what's coming in 70 AD even. He's heard the teaching of Jesus. He knows it's coming.

He may not know when, but he's pretty confident in his generation and of that that's coming. So he understands that these are evildoers and they will accuse us of evil. But what does he continue to say? That when they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works which they observe glorify God in the day of visitation." So what's our counter to their evil? We proclaim the praise of God through good works for them to observe.

That's our counter, is we continue in that all the time. At 1 Peter 3, 9, not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing. We bless them. Have them in your house. Find a way to bless them.

You bless them. One way you bless them is through your good conduct. That is a blessing that they would see your good conduct, how the Holy Spirit has changed you from darkness to light. That is a blessing. Romans 12, repay no one evil for evil.

Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. That's back to Matthew 5. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. The goal of your Holy Spirit enabled good works is a glorification of God that it says here. To glorify God, not to puff you up, not to build up your pride at all, but to glorify God.

We only boast in his cross. We only boast in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. That is it. And we glorify God. And we tell people why we have these good works, why we're enabled, what we were and what we are now, what we desired then but what we desire now.

The desired outcome of good works is that they would glorify God in the day of visitation. There are several ideas what this day of visitation is, and I don't know. I don't know. There are several people that will be fine to tell you that it is salvation, that it is judgment, that it is ultimate judgment, whatever it is. And in this case, I don't believe the text demands that we fall on a certain place.

I don't think it demands because whatever it represents, this we do know, God will be glorified. And that's what matters is that God will be glorified, right, that Because he has made us into living stones through his mercy to proclaim his praises, and because of that, God will be glorified whenever that day of visitation is. That we do know. Now, If it is for salvation, glorifying God, we pray for revival. We pray for revival.

One way for revival is God mercifully bringing the people surrounding us to salvation by using us to proclaim his praises through our daily living. That's one way that revival will happen. And then just sit around and wait, what are you doing? What are you doing? And God may use that for revival.

It could be a big revival for all of Youngsville, it could be a revival for another family. Your individual salvation is a form of revival. Through our conduct, we heard this from Jim Santles last week in his testimony. Through the good works of those around him. He saw the Christians around him.

If you didn't hear that testimony, ask him after church. Through the good conduct of those around him, he saw a difference in Christians and he said, that's something I don't have. And it made him search and God saved him. And God saved him. Jesus will save some through the proclaiming the praises of God through the visible good works.

Preaching is the primary means that God uses. It's the preaching, the physical preaching, but it's also the preaching through our good works. Here's the focus, evangelism through our works. You may say, I don't have the gift of evangelism. You may not have that gifting to go out and preach and do this and that, but you are filled with the Holy Spirit to give you good conduct.

And that good conduct is used that others would observe it and proclaim the glories of God and glorify Him. Some will be saved. That is evangelism. Your good conduct that is enabled through the Holy Spirit is evangelism. So don't say you're not a gifted evangelist.

These good works that other people can see abstaining from fleshly lust, pursuing righteousness, pursuing faith, pursuing love, pursuing peace. We're going to see submission to government. The conduct of servants is coming up next week. The conduct of husbands and wives in the household coming up in chapter 3, And also look at Ephesians 5 and 6. That is conduct.

That is evangelism conduct. How you homeschool is conduct. What do people know about why you may homeschool? Your love of children, how you keep the home, provide for the family, our church life, care of widows and orphans, care for the unborn. Micah 6, 8, how you do justly to love mercy and walk humbly with your God.

Proclaim the praises of God through Holy Spirit-enabled good works that others would glorify God. We pray that others are glorifying God because they've been saved. But it's also going to be a blessing with them because, as we'll see in the government aspect, we can be used to help constrain their evil. And we know at the end of all things, every knee will bow. And every name, every person will bow their knee and proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord.

We know that will happen as well. God will be glorified. That's what we know from this. Verses 13 and 14. Now, verses 13 and 14 talking about civil government.

We are continuing the exhortation here of good conduct. This is a continuation. I want to encourage you on a couple sources. Read the Second London Baptist Confession, the confession we adhere to as a church, Chapter 24 of civil magistrates. Watch the video that the elders did.

Also, listen to the message that was on that. If you don't have access to this, let me know. I'll make sure you get access to this. But before we get into this section, this can be a loaded section. I'm aware of that.

We're all aware of that. This is a loaded section where we can come with our ideas and our hopes of what might be said or what I want to be said or what I think about government. But here's my exhortation to you. I want you to be prepared for something, right? Hopefully not.

My God's grace will evolve beyond the same page here. And, but this one I want to prepare you for. This text just may, and please look at your heart, this text may uncover your biblical disposition in submission to civil authorities. It may. Just like any text may uncover our unbiblical thoughts in our hearts, this one is one that may also, in the way we think of our civil authorities.

The bar is really high. The bar really is high. When you don't want to submit to government, The bar is high on not submitting to government. How much do we value that God ordained the authorities around us? Not just in civil government, that's the focus here, but in authorities all around us, whether it's in home, at church, at work.

God has ordained the authorities over us. So our default position and desire should be to proclaim the praises of God by submitting to government. That would be a similar, I could say a similar statement about home, about church, about our work authorities, but proclaim the praises of God by submitting to government. At the heart of this is the acceptance in the sovereignty of God in setting up authorities. That's the heart of this.

Is God sovereign in setting up these authorities and ordaining the authorities over us or not? Before we get into there, I want you to turn to Romans 13. Please turn to Romans 13. When you think about submission to government, you should think Romans 13. That's the most comprehensive passage.

We could go to Titus 3 as well. Titus isn't just about men and women, but there is submission to government in there. You can think of Matthew where God talks about taxes, but Romans 7 is a key text. I'm going to read verses 1 through 7, just briefly, just walk through the verses, and then we'll go back to 1 Peter. Romans 13 verses 1 through 7.

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority?

Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid. For he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is God's minister and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.

Therefore you must be subject not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due, taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. In verse 1 we see that everyone submits, we're going to see this in 1 Peter, therefore submit yourselves. Everyone submits because God has ordained and set the authority over us.

In verse 2, resisting authority is a form of resisting God. In verse 3 and 4, don't fear government, only fear God who ordained the government for our good. And the good is constraining our evil with the power of the sword, and praising good, and encouraging us to do good. Verse 5, Christians don't submit just to avoid the punishment, just to avoid the wrath of government, but because we fear God. Christians know obeying God is right.

And because He has set up these governments, ordained these governments, submitting to civil authority is right. And we'll see that. In verse 6 and 7, we see about paying taxes, honoring people, which we'll talk about in verse 17, and fearing God we'll talk about again. See that? So, over the 1st Peter, verses 13 and 14, Therefore, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme 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." Submitting ourselves, and We'll talk just a bit about just submitting ourselves.

Submitting is a good work, proclaiming the praises of God. Submitting is also a good work because it proclaims the gospel, that we are a people under authority. We don't do just what's right in our own eyes. We are a people under authority. We don't do just what's right in our own eyes.

We are a people under authority. Remember, you've got God, Jesus, man, women, children. There's an authority structure in the home. There's an authority structure that God has set up that will be good for us to follow. Submission is proclaiming the gospel.

Submission is to rank under. It is also a form of humility. To be under authority is a form of humility. We'll see in verse 18 about servant submitting and in chapter 3, 1 through 7 about in the home. Here's a visual maybe to help you with understanding submit.

We understand submit. It's just when we talk about government, right, it just, it rubs us a little wrong because we know what's, we can think easily about all the bad they do and how much they intrude in our lives and the bad laws and wicked men and this and that. But When we talk about submit, we get it. We'll get it when it comes to verse 18 on servants, when it talks about in the home. So just think about it this way.

In verses 18 of this chapter, when we get to it, you have a servant that's saved, goes back to a wicked master, and If we were advising him on how he needs to behave to proclaim the glories of God, would we say, hey, the best way to proclaim the glories of God of your salvation is, don't submit, rebel against that guy. That will draw him to Christ. No, we wouldn't say that, right? When we're talking about wives in chapter three, wives that are redeemed, that are saved, and they go back to their household and they have a husband that's not saved, they have a husband that's not saved, they may go, will we tell that wife, will we tell that wife, hey the best way to proclaim the gospel to that husband and draw him to Christ, hey, the best way is don't submit to him. Rebell against everything he says.

Don't do anything he says. No, we wouldn't do that, would we? When it comes to children, to many of the parents, it's not in these passages. Children, would we do the same thing? A child saved, goes back to an unsaved home.

We say, hey, the best way to proclaim the gospel of your salvation, proclaim the praises of God, when we say the best way is to disobey, dishonor, rebel against your parents, we would not. Right? In all of those fears, and we can say the same thing about elders, in all those fears, we would tell them, no, submit, submit. Yes, we'd think of the little things and we caution them on this and that, but in general, what would we tell them their disposition should be? Submit.

You should want to submit. That's your desire. You're looking for how to submit and how to honor. You're looking for that. My tendency, especially with the government, is not to look how I can submit.

My tendency is to look for reasons why I don't have to submit. I tend to get that backwards. I tend to get that backwards. So in verses 13 and 14, what do we submit to? Every ordinance of man, every human institution, all human authorities, kings, presidents, congressmen, senators, commissioners, police, whatever it is, all their laws.

And when you think of several that we just cherish, gun laws, right? There's gun laws. We can talk about that. Does God say that we have to have a gun if they come after? Right?

What does submission look like? We need to be wise as serpents, harmless as doves. We can think about the what-ifs. Let's be careful of the what-ifs. Let's be careful of the hypotheticals we might make up.

I'm not talking to a church in Syria right now. I'm not talking to a church in Iran or in China, where we would have actual cases that we're working through for what it would look like. I'm talking to a church in United States of America, which generally should be easy to submit. Generally easy. Homeschooling laws in the US.

Hey, generally we can obey them. This is the tough one for me when I lived in Pennsylvania. I don't want some teacher coming into my home to look over my portfolio and tell me whether it was good or not? But is that against God's law for me to do that? No.

In fact, it may have been a blessing to them to see how a homeschooler worked out. And I worked through that wrongly. I've told several people, I worked through that wrongly. But homeschooling laws, right, the distance and sound laws at the abortion clinic, I'd love to be right there on the front door or inside. But be thankful that at least we can be where we're at.

And we'll submit to those distance laws. We'll do that. Here's one that I mentioned the name Dan Horn that people know which one I'm going to. Speeding laws. Speeding laws.

Driving laws. Hey, it may seem silly, but is it Really? Is it really? You see a policeman, this is me too, you see a policeman, you're speeding, what do you do? You hit the brakes.

Right? You hit the brakes. Now what have you just told your children? That you only need to obey when the authority might catch you. Or you only need to obey when there's an authority around.

No. No, who's our ultimate authority? God. Are we telling our children that God's only around at certain moments? Are we telling them God is everywhere?

So even driving laws. Can I go 45 down? Yes, I guess I can. There's nothing against God's laws. Say I can't.

You've got Peter and John in Acts 4 being told not to preach. Being told not to preach. So here's one of those case studies. Being told not to preach. They'd healed a man, the authorities told him not to preach, and what do they do?

How do they respond? How do they respond? They don't respond by rebelling. They don't respond by rioting, calling for the overflow of the government or trying to, hey, let's get all the Christians together. Let's occupy the temple.

Let's do this. No, they're not doing any of that. What are they doing? They're humbly recognizing the authority to do what they think is right. They humbly do this with courage and boldness, humbly do this and say, you do what you think is right, but we have to do this and we will preach.

Whether you put us in jail, whether you beat us, no matter what you do, we're going to preach. Just like Paul and Silas did, just like I'm sure Peter and John, just like Peter and the apostles, and I'm sure many others did that were in prison. They preached. They said, this is what we're going to do. And when you look through scripture for civil disobedience, for not submitting to the state, what you find is preaching.

I'm not submitting because of preaching. I'm not going to bow to your idol Nebuchadnezzar. I'm not going to murder children, midwives in Egypt. That's what you see. Actually, protecting life, preaching the gospel is generally what you see.

And what was the response here? In verse 21, they were let go. This is not going to happen to everybody. There's murders happening right now to Christians. Murders that happen across history, Christian slaughter, doesn't happen to everybody.

But here, because of their good conduct, verse 21, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done, that's why they were let go, because of their conduct and the people. And the government in this case was fearful. And what happened? The good conduct actually constrained the evilness of the government. Actually constrained it, their good conduct.

So continuing, why do we submit to every ordinance? It says here for the Lord's sake. This is the key on why we do this. Why our tendency should be to submit for the Lord's sake, because of the Lord, with the Lord in view that he sovereignly ordains and rules all. By submitting, we're ultimately submitting to Jesus Christ who set up the authorities.

We tell that to our children. By submitting and obeying your parents, you're learning, I'm not God. But that's a way of you submitting to God who gave you the parents you have. You didn't choose your parents. Other than maybe one family here, we didn't choose our government that we're in right now.

Right? We didn't choose. We're born into our families. But even if not, even if you move to the United States, these are authorities that God has set you under. And not submitting to God's commands is rebellion.

That's not good conduct to rebel against God's command and bring disgrace and dishonor on Jesus Christ. So our obedience, our submission serves God's purposes. And what are God's purposes? Lined up here, what are God's purposes for government? God's purposes for government are to punishment of evildoers, constrain evil, we're seeing in verse 14, and the praise of those that do good, encourage good through the public praise.

Right now, no government, there's not a single one on earth that does those well. And that's what we tend to go to. Well, they don't constrain evil well and they don't praise well. We know that. But because they don't do that well, that doesn't determine whether we submit or not.

We do not get to judge or we do not get to determine what's right in our own mind and have this gauge that says, all right, I think you're doing well in these areas so I'll submit. Oh, no, today you're not so I won't submit. That's what I think. But Josh says, no, James, actually I think they are so I'll honor them today while you dishonor them. No, that's subjectivity and we can't have that.

We would not allow that in our home for our children to say that to us, right? What do you think? Yeah, but children say, you know what dad, you got a gold star today. Yeah, okay, I'll submit. No, we wouldn't allow that, right?

We understand submission in these other spheres, in these other realms. But man, this government, it rubs us wrong. And that's one reason why God was so gracious, to give us such consistent teaching in Peter, and in Romans, and in Titus, and Jesus himself, and Matthew. So consistent in these areas. So just briefly, the context where we live.

The context where we live, although we are far from where we started, far from where this nation started, it started generally with Christian roots. What a huge blessing. What a huge blessing. If we don't like what's going on, if we think it is evil and it is wrong, we live under a system without a king, without a dictator that's made up of laws, not a man's whims, of laws. And what can we do?

We can vote. We can get out and talk to our leaders. Or we can work through to try to change the law. We have this, right? But our government's wicked.

Our judges, they don't judge rightly. School boards, they don't really love children. Our government allows homosexuality. Sodomy even promotes it and promotes abortion. Look how wicked they are.

Look at the things they do. Let's look at this. This is not the most wicked government that's ever been. We know that. And who are we, when it comes to submission, who are we to say that we know God's purposes from the beginning to the end, that we know why God is doing this right now.

Let's just take one example of Joseph in Egypt. So Joseph's sold into slavery by his brothers, right, bad. But here he is in Egypt. He ends up in jail because he's fleeing fleshly lust. He ends up in jail.

And then he interprets Pharaoh's dream of seven bountiful years and seven years of famine. He's raised to second in command in all the land. He taxes the people pretty heavily, 20%. A lot of them end up being slaves to him. And what happens?

What's God's purposes? In all of this, what's God's purposes? That Jacob and his brothers would end up in Egypt. And What would happen 430 years later? 430 years later, the setting up of the Passover, right?

The type, the imagery of God redeeming people, taking us from darkness into light, of God covering us with the precious blood of Jesus Christ and pointing to the Messiah. That was his purpose, to get Joseph into Egypt with the famine and his family for 430 years later with this multitude. So who am I to question God and what he's setting up from beginning to end. And it may not be for centuries. The general disposition, our general desire is to look for how to submit an honor.

Peter living under Nero, could be making the case for the most wicked ruler ever. 1689 when the confession, when Second London Baptist's confession was being drawn up, over in Scotland thousands of covenanters are being murdered, being slaughtered including children, Including children, young girls being drowned. And so the confession lines up with scripture. And that's what they're thinking. Biblical history we already talked about of Pharaoh and Herod killing boys, Nebuchadnezzar killing people for not bowing down to him, pilot crucifying Jesus.

But we need to proclaim the praises of him who saved us. Our desires do that by submitting to God, by submitting to the authorities that he has ordained. And we get this wrong. We do get this wrong and the effects on society are great. When parents don't constrain the evil in their children and train them to be under authority, look what happens.

Look what happens. We see that. People hate authority. They don't want authority. They think that, and they're just at the whim, just, we'll just rebel and riot and cause all kinds of problems.

Right? At home, so let's just bring this. That's them at home. What am I teaching my children about the authority, about the authorities over us? Right?

Do I complain about my civil authorities a lot? Do I tend to complain about whom God has put over us? It's not saying we don't point out wickedness, not saying we don't point out evil, but do I complain? There's a difference about teaching them about what is righteous and what is evil versus complaining. Do you complain about your church?

Do you complain about your elders? Do you complain about your dear brothers and sisters? But when it comes to authority, the church authority, which are the elders, deacons are not authorities, right? But your elders, right? What happens when wives complain about husbands?

What does that do in the household? What does that disrupt? What does that cause? That right there, look at the disruption that's caused in homes and the divorce that goes on. And children complain about their parents.

Look what happens there in the rebellion. Men, How much do we complain about our employers? What is that saying about the authorities God has put over us? Dan Horn also says one of the idols that we have is our desire for new and different authorities. That is an idol.

We always look forward to the next election. Oh, if somebody else gets elected, it'll be much better. If I had a different boss, if I had a different spouse, if I had different parents, no. The authorities God's giving you seek to submit, desire to submit, desire to honor. God is merciful and He gives authority for our good as we saw in Romans 13.

Here's where our big response should be. Yes, we can be active in government and know what's going on and vote and know how to change laws. Great, right? Paul knew how to do that very well. But here's where we see it all throughout scripture.

What should be our response? Prayer. Prayer, prayer, prayer, and more prayer for our civil magistrates. That's what God constantly calls us to do. And this is the great appeal you can make.

We teach our children about making a righteous appeal. Instead of complaining about us, complaining about what we say, learn how to make a righteous appeal. Well, this is our form of righteous appeal, praying to the king of kings that is set up the, if I can use the word, under kings, that is set up under shepherds, that is set up parents. Pray, make a righteous appeal that God would be merciful to them to have righteous laws and desire righteousness and to us in our response. Verse 15 and 16, why?

This is the will of God, for This is the will of God, for this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. The will of God, this is not a new line of thinking. You have submission before, you'll have submission next week. Will of God partly is submission. It does tie back to submission here.

Not saying just the will of God for silencing these people, but silencing them by your good conduct in abstaining from fleshy lust by submitting to government and what you say about it. We pray and consider a lot about what the will of God is and here's one place where it says, this is the will of God. I don't know where God wants everybody to work. I don't know who God wants, whom to marry, where everybody should live. But here we see this is the will of God that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.

That we know. That we know. That we have proclaimed the praises by doing good, by submitting to government, that it may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. We make speechless that we gag the mouth of the foolish, the obstinate sinners, that they have nothing to say. We hear this by our conduct.

What's the phrase we hear? Actions speak louder than words. Your actions, the greatest tool you have for evangelism is your conduct, is your actions. As we talked about before, that's the greatest tool you have for evangelism. Alexander McLaren, a Scottish preacher during the exact same time as J.C.

Ryle, who was in England, says this, the world takes its notions of God most of all from the people who say that They belong to God's family. They read us a great deal more than they read their Bible. You are an evangelist through your conduct. That's the greatest tool you have. Your Holy Spirit-enabled good works our evangelism.

Our evangelism. And this is not a promise that all will be silent either, is it? We know not all will be silent. Some will dig their heels in more. But may some be saved.

May some be put to silence. May some realize just what an ignorant view they have, What a foolish view they have. And we know they're foolish. They're not Christians. They say there is no God in their heart, right?

We know they're foolish. They know they're ignorant of these things. May God silence them. May we not help them dig in deeper because of our conduct. May not help them dig in deeper to say Christians are this way.

They hate each other. They have fleshly lust. They're really not much different than we are except for on Sunday. But listen carefully, you can't make yourself this way either. I'm not saying just go out there and have this checklist of all these fleshy lusts to make sure, and I'm doing this, I'm doing that.

You've got to appeal to God that he would give you the ability to war and the ability to put forth good works. That only can happen through him. There's no man good, no not one, that's righteous. Only through Jesus Christ can we have any of these good works. Verse 16, as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.

Once again, I commend to you the chapter 21, the Second London Baptist Confession on liberty, the video and the message on it. But This is free from the sting of death, free from the wrath of God, free from everlasting hell, free from being slaves to fleshly lust. That's what you've been made free from. Free to be a bondservant of God, free to submit to civil magistrates, free to honor all people, all unbelievers, all wicked rulers, elders that sin, bosses that sin, parents that sin, deacons that sin, fellow brothers and sisters that sin, free to honor in those areas, free to willfully, joyfully obey Christ and submit to his Lordship, free to proclaim the praises of God in the freedom that he's giving you to love him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. That's your freedom.

And he warns us. He cautions us. He strongly tells us not to dare use our freedom. Don't even dare use your freedom as a liberty, as a cloak for vice. Don't even dare think of it.

Vice, malice, we were told to put it all off in chapter 2, verse 1. Wickedness, depravity. Wickedness, it's not a shame to break the law. Wickedness, it's not a shame to have fleshly lust around. Don't dare use your liberty to cloak your sin.

Don't even dare abstain from fleshly lust, which war against the soul. Don't dare use your freedom from a slave of sin to sin. We who were once not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. You are covered by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. You are covered, you are clothed in Jesus' righteousness.

How precious is that? So we can proclaim the praises of God by using our freedom through Jesus to have good conduct, by submitting to government also, that God would be glorified. That's our focus. Our focus is not our comforts, what we don't like, how it rubs us wrong, how evil they are, how much evil they speak against us. Our focus is glorifying God because he has saved us, he has redeemed us, he's made us a people, he's given us mercy.

We are covered by his precious blood and clothed in his righteousness. So we glorify God. And we love glorifying God. And we love proclaiming his majesties, especially when evil is wrongly spoken of against us, especially If you're put in prison like Peter and John and the Apostles and Paul, martyred like everybody else, proclaiming them. You have brothers and sisters around you helping you to proclaim them and to guard our souls.

Verse 17. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. Proclaiming the praises of God by honoring all people and fearing God alone. Honor all people. Submit yourselves.

The exceptions, in this one, honor all people. There are no exceptions. None. All is all. Take the Greek, do whatever you want with it.

All is still all. I honor all people, no exceptions. And this is with proper respect due to their status. It differs for presidents versus whoever else. The honor and the way it looks is going to differ, but you still fight to honor.

It doesn't mean that we agree with or believe what they do at all, right? That's not what honor means that we're doing that. Why are we honoring? We're honoring because all people have been created in the image of God, right? Why do we fight for, Why do we fight against abortion and fight for the souls of those babies and those mothers and those fathers at the abortion mill?

Why do we say it every week? Because they've been created in the image of God. So we honor all people, all people, every color, every nation, wherever they may be, no matter how rich, how poor, no matter what job they have, we honor all people because they are created in the image of God. God created them And they, especially non-Christians, they were like we once were. Let's not forget that.

They are wretched like we were. Our president is wretched like we were. Our wicked boss is wretched like we were, if you have an unsaved boss. The evil around us, that's where we were. Let's be humble.

Let's be humble. Romans 12, don't think more highly of ourselves than we ought. Remember who we were. Continuing, love the brotherhood. This is the collective love of the church, The local church, our body of believers.

This is a tender, caring, long-suffering, overlooking a lot type of love. We've all been forgiven an incalculable amount. The parable of the unforgiving servant. Read 1 John. Go read 1 John.

1 John is so full of loving the brethren and what it's an evidence of. And let me give you a hint before you go read it. I'm going to give you a spoiler. If you're not loving the brothers and sisters, That is not an evidence that you've been saved. Loving the brothers and sisters is an evidence you've been saved.

Overlooking a lot with tender care is an evidence that you've been saved. Go read 1 John. John 13, 35, by this all will know that you are my disciples If you have love for one another. If we don't have love for one another, why would we really think that anybody would be attracted to Jesus through our good works? How could we possibly obey this if we don't have love for one another, starting right here, starting in our homes.

Train our children to have fervent love for one another in the home. And then let's have fervent love. Let's understand what fervent love means. It's an act of love. It's an act of love.

The world has plenty of people hating one another. We will not add to that. We will not. We're not going to add to that. We're going to love one another.

I'm not saying this because we're not loving one another, not a bit. I commend you on your love. I am so thankful for the love of this church. And I can tell story after story after story after story of how this church has loved me and my family so much. And story after story after story of how I've seen others love each other so much.

I am so thankful for the love of this church, but let's keep fighting for the love of this church. Let's keep fighting. It is a good work that God may use to draw people to one another. Back in chapter 1 verse 22, in sincere love for the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart. Fear God.

Fear and worship God only. No man or institution is to be feared. A reverent esteem of God's majesty. And do we fear God enough to obey The begging and the commands in these verses, do we fear God enough for that? Ecclesiastes 12-13, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.

Fear God and keep His commandments for this is man's all. Job 28-28, and to the man He said, behold the fear of God. That is wisdom. And depart from evil is understanding. How was Job described?

Blameless and upright, one who feared God and shunned evil. Wow, would all of us be described that way? Would that be our prayer for each of us, blameless, upright, fear God and shun evil? One of the reasons why I named my youngest son Timothy Job is that that would be continually before him, continually before me and my family. Look at Job.

Look at Job. That should be our prayer for all of us. Do we fear God enough not to go to the hypotheticals, right? That may have actually built a fear of man, not a fear of God. Do we fear God enough to, Do we fear God enough not to go to these things?

When we do, we're saying that God doesn't know the beginning from the end, that he's not sovereign, that he's not involved, to possibly know how wicked the government is, how wicked the world is around us. When we don't fear God enough, that's what we're saying. That's what we're saying. And lastly, honor the king. There is an honor particularly due a leader.

Honor all people. He says honor the king. There is an honor particularly due a leader. There's a different protocol around the president, around kings of other places. If you were to have them in your home for dinner or be at their place for a feast, there's a different protocol.

If the president comes in, he's still going to participate in family worship, but there's a different protocol. In general, there's a different protocol. We know that. But the king is not to be feared. This is separate.

The king is not to be feared. Only honored. Only God is feared. Matthew 10, do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. And here's our prayer for our civil magistrates.

Here's your prayer. Psalm 2, 10, and 11. Here's your prayer for them. Now therefore Be wise, O kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth.

Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Pray this for our civil authorities. Pray that they would serve the Lord with fear. Pray that they would rejoice with trembling. Pray that for our civil authorities, that God would have mercy upon us by giving us godly authorities.

He's already had mercy upon us in salvation. We're asking for more and more. We're begging a lot in some ways in what we're asking for. But pray for them. Pray for their souls.

Your desire is that they would glorify God in the way that can strain evil and praise good and follow the Lord. Conclusion. I have one umbrella that I'm going to have three short points on. But the umbrella is proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light in three areas. In three areas.

One, proclaiming the praises of God through your daily conduct. This is evangelism. That's evangelism. I'm not talking about specifically like Griffin's or the nursing home or the abortion clinic. Your daily conduct, when you rise up, when you lie down, and what's happening all between there.

Men and women, children, old men, young men, older women, younger women, doesn't matter. Proclaim the praises of God through our daily conduct and its evangelism. May God be glorified through that. Number two, proclaiming the praises of God through our desires, what we desire. Do we desire to abstain from fleshly lust and pursue righteousness?

That's proclaiming the praises of God in what we desire. We desire to abstain from fleshly lust, pursue righteousness, and our desire is to glorify God and why we do that, not just because it's good, not just because it's good because we want to glorify God. And may others glorify God through this because that is a form of evangelism. Number three, proclaiming the praise of God through submission to civil government. Our tendency should be to submit.

When you're rubbed wrong, when I'm rubbed wrong, look for how I can honor, how I need to honor. Can I really submit to this? Can I really submit to this or am I using the Bible to make up things that really aren't there on saying that I can't submit to this or that? Read Scripture, protection of life, these are the two big areas I see, protection of life and preaching the gospel. Those are the main areas I see.

There are other examples and we had this with Kevin Swanson. We were thinking about it on Monday morning, Give me ideas. I'm really looking for them on where this is in our United States. And there wasn't really anything. There's one in Colorado where they made a hate speech to say, to read the Bible in public or to say anything against sodomy.

So what does Kevin Swanson say? He stands up and he reads scripture. Let's say it to the Lord. Not his own rumblies, not his own thoughts, but he reads scripture. And if you don't, you really don't need to do it, but if you did a search on Kevin Swanson out there now on that, He is the most hated man by the sodomy community that's out there.

Oh, they are everywhere. It seems like every day there's a new article against him on that. Great. So he stood up and read the Word of God. Says, no, I will read it.

Do with me what you will, but I will read it. If I go to prison, I'll read it in prison. I'll memorize it and say it there too. Do what you will. The whole matter that God would be glorified by using our Holy Spirit-enabled conduct to cause ourselves and others to glorify God.

That's the summary of this, to glorify God in our conduct and that others would glorify him as well. Let's pray. O God, our Father, as your beloved children, we beg you as sojourners, we beg you as pilgrims, to keep us from fleshly lust, God, which war against our souls, that by your grace our conduct will be honorable among the Gentiles. When they speak against us as evildoers, they may by your Holy Spirit enable good works, which they observe to glorify God in the day of visitation. O God, O our Father, may we submit ourselves to every ordinance of man's for your sake, whether it's to the king or governors or to those that they send for the punishment of evildoers, for the praise of those who do good.

For God, we know you have told us this is your will that by doing good through us we may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men that that would be your will as free we beg you to protect us from using liberty as a cloak for vice but as your bond servants oh holy spirit please make us honor all people oh god make us have a fervent love for the brotherhood. Oh, God, please make us fear you alone and honor the King. Oh, God, because you have saved us, because you have saved us with the precious blood of Jesus Christ and moved us from darkness to light, made us your people, we proclaim your praises with our conduct, that you would be most glorified above all. Oh help us, oh God. Amen.