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June 16, 2022 4:00 am
God has a perfect plan, but as he does with all things Satan has corrupted God's instructions and has caused confusion even within the church today on Truth for Life. Alastair Begg explains what a Christian husband should know and why it should affect the way he treats his wife invite you to take your Bibles and will turn together to first Peter chapter 3, first Peter chapter 3 and as we continue our studies in this most practical of letters giving instruction for scattered believers in Peter's day and for the generations that would follow with come to the seventh verse of the third chapter, which reads as follows. 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 as the focus of our study now and before we come to Atlanta's all before God and seek his help in prayer, our God and father, we magnify you for the word that you have given us. We thank you this morning for the Scriptures, which are able to make is wise unto salvation, which contain all that we need for correction, and for reproof, for training in righteousness. We thank you that you are teaching us what it means as a church family to become a people of the book that we might be those who follow underneath its instruction and delight to fulfill the obligations with which it confronts us so we pray for your help both to speak and to listen that we might be different. As a result of these moments spent now gathered under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit by the word of Christ for its in the lovely name of Jesus. We ask it. Amen this morning in the seventh verse now we come to the instruction concerning what it means to be a Christian husband and as you've been reading this, as I'm sure you have you will doubtless have been struck by the intense practicality of this reminding is that if our Christianity doesn't work at home. Our Christianity doesn't work. A tall, it's very obvious that Peter is not providing us here with a manual on arms length religion is no sense in which he is simply pontificating about certain subjects, but rather he is giving to is a very clear handbook on practical Christianity, and as we been going through these chapters we've been discovering that the doctrinal indicative's that he lays down he lays down as foundations for the moral imperatives which follow are if you like what we know all has got to show that's what he's saying if you know it show and you will know that you know it. If you display it in your life and in your experience, and that, not least of all in this whole arena of submission. First is civil jurisdiction. Then within the structure of our daily routine of employment and then within the fabric of our homes and then as he's going to go on to show within the interpersonal relationships of the church family as well. We have been realizing that we come to these verses, not in a vacuum but in an environment of corruption in our society. By that, I simply mean that we live in a society that has corrupted the clear instruction of God's word and has turned its back on the maker's instructions.
By and large, men and women in our Western cultures, especially, have very little time for God's instruction concerning the affairs of family life. Although they may go through the routine of marriage, although they may want very badly to be consecrated in a church. It is apparent that the values that are taken in the words that are spoken in the Scriptures that are red are somehow a kind of anachronism because it makes them feel a little better about things or perhaps deep in their hearts they long that these things might be so. And somewhere between desire and actuality there is a great chasm fixed. Consequently, I've enclosed is it where God's instructions. Mankind scrambles desperately to fill the void. While we are right.
Weird. Paul said we would be if you turn to two Timothy chapter 3. As Paul writes concerning the days that will be as it approaches the return of Jesus Christ. He says in two Timothy 31 but get a hold of this there will be terrible times in the last days, and what will they be marked by what he says people will be lovers of themselves feel out tops. They will be those who are focused on who they are and what they want to be in their love themselves and their loved people who help them to love themselves and their loved books on self-esteem and alarm. All of this stuff will just be in love with loving themselves, he says that will be part of the love money will be boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love the word they are stored God's it means simply without natural affection as you go on and read through that section, you realize that whatever else is through this whole difficulty in the round of humanity in grappling with what it means either to be a husband or wife, a mom or a dad, a child, a brother or sister is going to be severely interfered with source. As Paul and this will be a cyclical thing as the time of the approach of Jesus Christ draws near, and the intense vehement action against the truth of God's word. We can only assume will in fact get greater now that would be bad enough if we were living in a corrupted society that it turned its back on the maker's instructions. But we as a church. I mean the church universal were gathered together under the headship of our commanding officer Jesus Christ and we were saying, Lord Jesus, we own your rights to every control over us. We own your word as an authoritative statement to guidance. If that were the condition in the church, then we would have cause for great encouragement. I want to suggest to you this morning that I corrupted society is more than matched by a confused church. The societies corrupted in the church is confused the root of this may be found by turning back to Genesis chapter 3 Genesis 3 just for a moment and here, in the event of the fall of man. You will notice that the approach of the devil to heave is the same approaches being taken today to the church concerning the authoritative instruction of God in every area of life and supremely this morning under our consideration in the whole matter of family life.
Genesis 3 verse one now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. Never forget that the devil is created. He's not eternal with God. He is Cree is a created being, and he the devil, the serpent said to the woman. Now notice what he said. Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden all there for just a minute.
The Dells approaches the content even the garden and call in question whether God really said what he said and that is exactly his approach today to the minds of men and women who are seeking to walk as it were in communion with God in the cool of the day, those who are redeemed and are in the church.
The devil comes to us to say, did God really see first Peter three verses 1 to 7. Did God really say Ephesians 520 and following. And he wants to get us uncertain about the authority and the authenticity of God's proclamation to and then he goes on to do, just as he did in the Garden of Eden. The woman said to the serpent, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden but God didn't say we know he said you must not eat from fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden you must not touch it or you will die. Now what is he say you will not surely die. That's is a second approach did he say it is. He said it and let me tell you he didn't mean what he said at the approach of the evil one to the church in our generation is just that. That's why the church is confused the evil one comes to ask the believer dealing God really said that about marriage. Do you think that was society going full scale in this direction that God meant for you to be this kind of couple do you think that when all humanity says this, that God really wants you to be that kind of life did he really say that if we are able to say yes. He said it then he comes a second time to say that's not what he mends.
If you doubt me, loved ones, then you just pick up Christian periodicals in our day and from the pens of those who we might have expected to know better will read all this unbelievable confusion concerning man and woman concerning husband and wife can sending concerning God and authority and his church, and the real issue dear ones is not simply about role relationships.
The real fundamental issue is about the authority of this book. This is what is being eroded.
This is the devil strategy. If you can get the church saw in this area, then presumably he will be a will to get it soft in the city and within a generation. Those who ones profess to believe the Bible have become those who by gradual degrees have drifted like pilgrimage of BiPAP meadow, hoping to get back on the road at some other point, and yet a forlorn idea. It really is now, if that is true and you must examine the Scriptures yourself, as did the billions in acts 17 you must examine the Scriptures every day to see if the things are true, is the real issue this morning is not. Did you hear what Alister said real issue this morning is the year were God's word said we need to know our Bible so we can chat with her. What I see is actually what this said that your part. You get to do that and are supposed to come here and take dollops will in a big spoon walk out the door you coming here, you scramble to get into this book myself. I'm going to read first Peter 37 I'm going to examine these things every day. The pronouncements of the church is making her confused and the practice of the church is equally confused. The abandonment of family responsibilities. The abandonment of marriage vows is at a rate not substantially different from the secular culture around us. I mean, we might assume that if we were all committed unreservedly to Jesus Christ and obeying his word that there would be a huge difference in the abandonment of family responsibilities within the church and out with the church but is now is minimal. Why is it minimal is minimal because of the impact of a corrupted society because of the gradual acceptance of confusion within the ranks of the church. Now all of that by way of introduction as we come this morning to God's instruction for the husband and the first thing to notice your bike in first Peter 37 is that the relationships to which Peter affairs are reciprocal relationships.
In other words, there is a reciprocal obligation all the way through. You find this if slaves are to be this way towards their masters masters have a responsibility to be a certain way towards their slaves. If children are to be this way towards their parents. Parents are to make sure that they do not provoke your children to wrath. There is a reciprocal obligation and it is reciprocal obligation within the husband-wife relationship and that is what Peter is resetting now. There is no suggestion of all the privileges accruing to the husband and all the obligations falling to the wife. The fact that I was the case in Roman society as it was made. Peter's words revolutionary in their impact, and you can travel places in the world today.
What is not unusual to see the man riding on a donkey and his wife slaving away through the desert beside him like the guy who was stopped in the desert and he said the chap asked him he said man well how come your wife is is walking and he said cushy and got no donkey and there's that whole approach to things is is baptized into orthodoxy in many areas of life and in Western culture.
There are many others who feel very much the same way. Somehow we have a mistaken notion that all the obligations are the wives and all the privileges of the husband's Peter explodes that mythology and he tackles it head on.
I think that kind of approach the sort of male chauvinist pig approach to life has I so permeated the thinking of many that is not unsurprising to be on the receiving end of a backlash as I was driving yesterday and think about this message. I came up behind a car.
I saw a bumper sticker and it said on the bumper sticker husband is living proof that a woman can take a joke.
I said there we go. That's the backlash notice verse seven husband in the same way same phrase that comes is one word in Greek home wireless you find in the first verse. Wife's home oil must be submissive to your husbands what Peter was saying to the whites was in the same way as Jesus Christ to set a submissive example for us.
So it is the example of Jesus that wife sought to live due to be this kind of wife and then he uses the exact same phrase he says okay husbands in the same way all my us the same pattern is to be your pattern as you fulfill the obligations that God has given you that one of one party while he says be considerate as you live with your wives. What is this mean be considerate as you live with your wife's is he issuing a reminder to husbands simply to be courteous to stand up when his wife enters the room to hold the door of the chariot or whatever it was to carry the grocery bags from the from the markets.
There no such actions are vital and necessary, but it would seem a triviality of that was what Peter was referring to having given such far-reaching instruction to the wife's doing. He said all of these things to the wives, and then he turns the husband's and he says oh by the way open the car door for your wife, would you know it's gotta mean something more than that. And this is where the NIV, I don't think helps is a great deal in its translation because in the phrase be considerate with your wife's. It seeks to explain the Greek, which actually reads literally. Husbands likewise dwelling together according to knowledge is what it says to the NIV said be considerate as you live with your wife's so how do you get to that well I can explain, but that's an old Sunday school class on its own. Just notice this, that consequently the King James version translates it. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge Phillips seeking to paraphrase it says similarly you husbands should try to understand the wives you live with but even there I don't accuse God what you think… When looked at first Peter and the first chapter and verse 14 for just a moment. First Peter 114 Peter is been explaining this for wonder of salvation and he comes to application in the 13th verse and he says no.
Therefore, in light of these doctrinal indicative here are some of the moral ethical imperatives. Now you should live in a certain way, prepare your minds for action B, self-control, set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed in notice verse 14 as obedient children do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. Okay so as non-Christians we learned in ignorance. We were not simply ignorance of the way of salvation, but we were ignorant of the purposes of God for the way that life should be live. Now all that has changed.
So the Christian husband discovers that salvation for him must impact his marital relationship with his wife. He no longer lives in ignorance. He is now to live according to knowledge the knowledge which is become his as a result of the work of redemption within his life before as a pagan lived in the realm of pagan lost but now he lives in the realm of Christian love before he viewed marriage from a secular's perspective, but now he views marriage according to the knowledge which God has given in and through his word and the person of his son. Therefore, as a new believer in Christ. His relationship with his wife is to be put on a completely different plane from whatever it was before he has to live well with that lady are clamping to know what kind of knowledge will certainly these things that husbands are to live with her wife's in the knowledge. First of all of the wonderful provision that God is made for is in marriage. He also comes in the knowledge of the clear parameters that God is set for marriage to be live the way God intended it to be.
So the Christian husband is different from his non-Christian golfing buddies. He doesn't laugh at the same jokes. He doesn't read the same literature why because he is committed to dwelling with that woman Nelson according to the knowledge that he cannot step out with the parameters that God has created format marriage bond and still enjoy the privileges God intended. Thirdly, in the knowledge of the unique purpose for which God has ordained husband-and-wife. Fourthly, in the knowledge of what it would mean for his wife to live out the principles of first Peter three verses 1 to 6 draw when your wife's in light of what I just said says Peter, you're living with a lady who is seeking to fulfill verses 1 to 6, you need to understand the implications of that and fifthly, in the knowledge of what his wife is by nature and what she is by grace that comes in the phrase by nature. She is the weaker partner by grace.
She is a joint heir to that will come in a moment our understanding of the gospel. What Christ has done to save us will dramatically affect the way we view and treat our spouses listing the Truth for Life with Alistair Begg Alister will continue the study tomorrow. If you're not sure what it means to commit your life to Jesus why you should change your relationship with others. You can take a few minutes and watch a couple pre-videos we have available on our website. Visit the learn more page of Truth for Life.org/learn more. There were also links available to several other series that will provide you with more in-depth instruction. Our mission here at Truth for Life is to teach the Bible with clarity and relevance so that unbelievers will be converted. Believers will be established in local churches will be strengthened if this is a mission you'd like to be part of you can come alongside Truth for Life as a true partner. True partners pretty regularly for this ministry for many to come to know Jesus as a result of the teaching. The here and they give monthly to enable this 100% listener funded ministry to exist. If you have a passion to see others become committed followers of Christ become a true partner today.
You can join the team by visiting Truth for Life.org/true partner or call 888-588-7884 each month. Truth partners are welcome to request the book selections we made.
We provide these as a way of saying thanks for your partnership. The book we want to tell you about today is titled gospel shaped marriage grace for sinners to love like saints, as were learning in our series titled, we too are one God has a very specific model for marriage is model contradicts all kinds of alternative approaches that we see in society today. The book gospel shaped marriage will help alleviate the confusion, provides straightforward clarity directly from Scripture to give couples certainty about God's purpose and framework for marriage. The book plainly lays out the biblical purpose of marriage explains why God's roles for husbands and wives are not offensive as culture suggests how marriage is directly related to Christ and the church learn how to pattern your relationship according to God's design request. The book gospel shaped marriage. When you become a true partner or you can request the book with a one-time donation to Truth for Life. Just click the image you see in the mobile app or visit us online at truthforlife.org/donate about Lapine. Thanks for listing Bible doesn't actually instruct husbands to rule or command their wives so how should a husband lead his household. Join us tomorrow to find out how to be a godly husband and what the ultimate goal should be the Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life Learning is for Living