Submission to authority - Part 1

1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 11 we actually started a new section in Peter and let me just go ahead and I've relied upon Chester McCauley quite a bit in this outline so basically the section that we're going to look at we started last week is what's called submission in the state of And actually, the first two verses that Bob covered last week, it's not you know, you look at that and it's not really apparent that he's talking about that subject into the next verses.

So. So anyway, a possible outline for four. for these verses, basically for this section on submission, chapter 2 verse 11 through 3, 7, basically you have submission of the state, which we'll talk about today, submission of the household, which would be 18 through 25, submission of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is basically the rest of that chapter, and then submission of the family, which is 1 through 7. So we're just going to do a portion, the next portion of submission in the state. And so that was adapted from Macaulay. And can I get someone to read these 11 through 17? You can read it from the overhead or from your Bible or electronic device, whatever you like.

Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you. Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that in a case where they speak against you as those who do what is evil, They will, by observing your good works, glorify God on the day of visitation. Submit to every human authority because of the Lord, whether to the emperor as the supreme authority, or to governors as to those sent out by him to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do what is good. For it is God's will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good. As God's slaves, live as free people way to conceal evil. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor.

Thank you. Okay, so last week Bob covered verses 11 and 12 and what you begin to see here, if you look at 12 in particular, 12 and 15 kind of talk about somewhat similar ideas. The idea that your behavior is going to be a testimony to people around you. In 12 it talks about keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles so that the things in which they slander you as evildoers they may because of your good deeds observe them and so on. And then down in 15 it says For such, talking about the submission passages, we're going to talk about 13 and 14, for such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish man.

So 12 and 15 kind of bracket our section on submission in terms of the state. Another outline, 11 and 12 have been called the root of submission. What we're going to talk about today is the command to submission. And then 15 through 17, which will be next week. And actually Bob's going to teach that he can apply that from India to study this and teach it. Anyway, so we're going to talk about the command to submission and that kind of breaks down into three sections. There's the initial statement about submission, basically. Submit yourself for the Lord's sake to every human institution.

Then there is the B part of that talks about kings and my translation is king. Translations vary a little bit. It's kings and governors in my translation, the American Standard. That's who we submit to. And then the function of government. That's going to be kind of interesting. We'll see that there's kind of a twofold function of government. To punish evil doers and to praise those who do what's right. It occurred to me. as I went through this section.

And this is a very, if you haven't studied this in a while, we probably all have been exposed to human government, you know, what scripture talks about, especially the Romans, which we rely upon a lot today. You look at what God says about that, and you look about what our government is, and you see they haven't read scriptures. So in the expectation that the government Even in our country. Maybe at one point, you could possibly argue, but the human government in any particular place probably doesn't know about what God says, or doesn't care about one way or another.

But God has given us its information, and he wants us to understand what he's in control of. You read this and you say, you've got to be kidding. You mean you're in control of the king? That's abuse of the president. The supreme leader? We don't have a supreme leader. North Korea has a supreme leader. I guess you could argue we have a supreme leader. That talks about governors.

All that flows down from that. I think even down to the... It's kind of convicted me. How about your neighborhood HOA? That's an organization. Maybe you don't like the colors they tell you you should paint your house. Well, how hard should you protest these? Should you take them to court? I don't know. I was kind of convicted by some of the things in here. Just kind of thinking about that.

Because you see that God looks for a peaceable lifestyle. You're a good citizen, you know, unless it conflicts with his law, in quotes. Actually, it's very specific we're going to see. The objections we're going to see are preaching the gospel. In Acts, that's where it says, I must obey God rather than man. There are very few objections to what we're going to see this morning about obeying human government. And you think, boy, they're just... How can I obey these guys? They're terrible. And actually, in Peter's time, he had to obey Nero. And Nero put him to death. Go ahead. This morning I reviewed Hebrews 12 and 13. Hebrews 12 and 14 says, pursue peace with all men. A Christian is to be a peaceful kind of person. We're not to be rabble-rousers.

It doesn't mean we don't speak out for what's right. We do. The tenor you are going to see is that we are good citizens. If the government is right, it should be praising us. If you are walking with the Lord and doing what is right, you should be praised. You occasionally will see that. Occasionally we will see people are praised. Not too often. The news is just headlines, another praise, good work.

It is always about some terrible, awful thing. You get so tired of that. OK, so let's kind of just jump into it here. OK, so the first part A of 13 is submit yourself for the Lord's sake to every human institution. So there's actually a parallel passage. I'm going to be referring to Romans 13 1 through 7 a lot. A very similar phrase in Romans 13 1a, every person is to be in subjection to government authorities. Part of the question is what is submit? What is submit about? Submit yourselves or literally to be subject to. And it's in what they call the imperative mood, it's a command.

And it's in the passive voice, which is kind of hard. It says basically, put yourself, the passive part, you're allowing the, You're allowing the order of the system. You're fitting into the order of the system. I guess that's kind of where the passive idea comes in. It's a little hard to totally understand that. Here's kind of the definition of submit is to. It's literally, it's this word, cupo taso.

That's actually to arrange under or to line up under. It's a military term as Macaulay says. It's a translation of a Greek military term that means to arrange under in military fashion, under the command of a leader. So it's sort of like, get in line, do your duty, fit under the system. And we're going to see the system or the institution is something that God has ordained. And it's a struggle.

When Peter saw Nero burning Christians, and when we see governments being awful, and terrible, unjust, unfair, not truthful, lying, all kinds of things, you say, how in the world can I do that? But scripture says that's what we're to do. It doesn't mean you agree with what they do, but you line up under and you do your part as a citizen. During the tribulation, Antichrist is going to be slaughtering millions of people, not just Christians. And it seems to be implied in Revelation not to resist him. You know, it's going to happen anyway. And the one who resists will be punished more severely.

Wait, this brings up a really interesting question. Actually, it turns out that Vern emailed me last night. He's going to cover today, in main service, he's going to cover about pacifism. Which actually, he almost said, well, are you telling us we should be pacifists? We just lay down and just do what we want? Well, scripture doesn't, there's kind of a balance here between lining up under authority, And if someone comes into your home, I have no problem with defending my home and protecting my family. I mean, I have no problem. So Vern's going to talk about it. So we're going to get another little view of this. I'm going to talk about what we've talked about.

Submit yourself to every human institution. That's part of the truth of God's word. And we need to understand that. And we also need to understand that we just don't lay down and we protect ourselves. It seems like the part of it is that we We are good citizens. We do what is right.

And that's where people will notice the difference. And then in protecting yourself, that's something that is inherent in being a person. It protects your family, yourself, and that kind of thing. I'm actually not prepared to get into all that and let Verdi talk about that.

Well there are laws in place too. Exactly. And that's exactly what, if the government is following scripture, it should be taking care of those guys and protecting you. Now, as we well know, the government doesn't do a very good job of that sometimes. It doesn't do a good job of protecting us. Not that I don't applaud all the policemen and the firemen, all those people are just amazing. I'm very thankful that we have those people out there that are doing that.

Actually a couple of verses here in Luke. The Lord Jesus, let's read Luke chapter 2 verse 51. This is the Lord Jesus when he was 12 years old. You probably are familiar with this passage already. Does someone read Luke chapter 2 verse 51? And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them, but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. Right, so that word subject is the same word we have here, hupotasso. So he lined himself up under, the God of the universe lined himself up under you know, his parents. And then there's the Luke 10, 17 passage, you don't have to turn to that one, basically talks about that, that even, you know, it says the demons are even the apostles come back or the disciples come back and say, wow, the demons are even subject in subjection to us in your name.

So it's used throughout scripture in a variety of different ways. But we're going to look at the context in these couple passages and other passages that talk about human government. OK. So that's the first part. So I'm going to skip. So now we're going to go and look at, we're going to look at, submit yourselves to every human institution. Let's look at the human institution. Then we'll see kind of the motivation for that. The motivation is kind of what you might think. We're not looking to the institution for motivation. That probably is pretty obvious. If I look to the institution for motivation, I'm going to be disappointed.

To every human institution. What's interesting here is that it uses this word every. In Romans it uses every, which is this word pas, P-A-S, all, every, none excluded. It's all inclusive. Which is pretty mind-boggling there. Institution is this word, I'm not sure how to pronounce it exactly. It's the idea of creation. It's the sum total of what's been created. I'm not exactly sure how they can exactly translate institution.

Here's two other passages. So basically, in scripture there are about four passages that talk about human government. The passage we have today, and the verses beyond that, the Romans passage, Romans chapter 13, one through seven, and then we have a passage in Timothy and a passage in Titus. The passage in Timothy says, first of all, then I urge you that in treatise and prayers and petitions and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men, for the kings, plural, and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness.

Kind of back to the point that was made earlier, is that our lifestyle is to be one that's tranquil. We're not necessarily an activist. We're an activist in the sense that we're proclaiming the gospel. And that's where we're going to see some exceptions there. I don't want to say a pacifist. We're tranquil. We're godly.

And then here's the other passage in Titus. Titus 3, 1 and 2. Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities. Notice the plurals there. To be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men. All right. So that's. Submit yourselves to every human institution. And it says for the it says for the Lord's sake or because of the Lord. So. So look at my nose. You see where I'm going. So why do you think. So what's that tell us.

Or maybe it doesn't really deserve a question. I've already commented on this several times. The focus is on the Lord as you go through this lifestyle of submitting to every human institution. Your focus is on the Lord. And I like what Macaulay said here. He says, the cause for submission is never found in the human institution. The cause is always found in God. And that's probably consistent across a lot of other truths in scripture.

We look to the Lord, what he's done. We look to Christ in us. That's the life that will accomplish what he has in mind. And then I like this passage. The Lord Jesus was here walking on the earth and was about paying taxes. In Matthew 22, they asked him a question about paying taxes. And he says, show me the coin used for the poll tax. And they brought him Daenerys. And he said to them, whose likeness and inscription is this? They said to him, Caesar's. Then he said to them, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.

So there's a balance there. As we read back earlier, we're aliens and strangers, right? We're heavenly citizens. We're running into God and things that are God, and we fit into the earthly system that we're in. So the question is going to come up, so I just thought I would... Can we refuse to submit? So let's see, though, you know, there are some exceptions. And if you guys think, well, these are the two that I found. So let's turn to Acts. Could someone read Acts chapter four? Let's see, it's 17 through 20. Can we start at 15? Sure, that's fine.

But when they had commanded them, to go outside of the council, they convert among themselves, saying, what shall we do to these men? For that indeed a notable miracle has been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But that it spread no further among the people, let us straightly threaten them that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge you. But we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. What I find is remarkable is about how he tells them to be the judge. But he does come back and say, but we cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard.

But it is interesting. Do you see that as a forceful, in your face? I just see that as such a gentle and quiet spirit, really. Now, the other passage has a little more forceful, possibly. And that's over in chapter 5. I want to go back to 26 through 27.

Can I read it? Paraphrase? You can read it however you like. The police captain went with his officers and arrested them without violence for they were afraid the people would kill them if they roughed up the disciples and brought them in before the council. And how far? To 29. Didn't we tell you never again to preach against this Jesus? The high priest demanded. And instead you have filled all Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring the blame for this man's death on us.

But Peter and the apostles replied, we must obey God rather than men. So, you know, I did a search on, I was, I wondered if, I couldn't find, you know, it seemed there were other passages that talk about we must obey God rather than men. I couldn't, I didn't spend a lot of time, but I did a quick search. I did it this morning. So it's another passage that must obey God rather than man.

That's what typically, and I think rightfully so, is used. If someone asks you to do something that's contrary, to take a life, you say, no, I can't do that. Now, in the context of military service, that's a different question. That's the state working. But in the context of our daily lives, that's sinful. So there are cases where it goes against what God has clearly said in his words.

So that seems to be the exception. You know, this is these are the examples that I could find doesn't talk a lot. I mean, give you a whole shopping list. Here's all the things you can say. No, I won't submit to. So I don't know. It's interesting. It's really interesting. I probably have more questions than answers here, guys. I'm just, you know, presenting it as we study it here. OK. All right. So that's some. So let's go on. Now we have the next section.

So it says basically we are to we are to submit ourselves to every human institution for the Lord's sake, whether. to a king as one in authority or to governors. So he talks about two kinds of people here. The king, and notice the singular in this, and the governors are plural. So first of all, the king. Whether the king as one in authority. And the king basically is a word in scripture that talks about viceroy, prince, leader, chief. Herod the Great and his successors had the title of king.

One authority. He has the authority. He has a certain authority. And we're going to see that that authority... Man thinks, well, I got this authority and I can do all these great things. But it says, we're going to read in Romans, other places, that authority is given from God. Which is, like I said, believers aren't reading scripture. They ought to be quaking in their boots, so to speak. But they're not. They're very foolish men sometimes. So actually, here's part of the passage in Romans.

For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinances of God, and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. Pretty strong words. So we're to look at the king and governors as God's agents.

And they have a task to perform. That's going to come up in a second here. As one in authority. OK. And then I got to put all these little quotes in here. The existence of authority is germane to all order, whether in the family, the church, or society. You can see why God has to be involved in this.

I think of places where there is really no leadership. What I understand in the terrorist organizations, they are kind of spread out. There is a general idea, go forth and do awful and terrible things. We will get you money. Just go forth and do it. Not really. There's just general ideas to do awful and terrible things. It's not any leadership necessarily. The general or whatever. Just. And those are just look at the chaos that's created in all the world. Just all these cells of people doing awful things.

I'm just talking about how important order is to have to have, you know, even as faulty as they are to have. authority that goes down a chain of command down below us to the police officer and whatever. That is what society needs. Even society outside of Christ. Without that we have anarchy, we have chaos. We see bits and pieces of that with all those terrorist groups and organizations. It's just awful.

Governor is this word used for prefect, procouncil, and actually in scripture a lot of times you'll see it's used, let's go back for a second, you'll see it's used, there'll be a term like governors and kings, Like some of the passages there, like in the Matthew 10 18, it talks about you'll be brought before governors and kings. A lot of times I mention together.

And because this was a Roman rule, in our situation, in Rome, everything flowed down from Rome. You have the governors and that would go down. I mean, you would go to the king, then the governor, and so on. But in our society, it's a little bit different. We have the president and we have congressmen, but they don't flow down to the local level. We then have a governor of each of the states and it flows down to mayors and so on. But there's not necessarily a connection between the governor of a state and the president. I don't know all the shenanigans that are going on. Our situation is a little bit different.

What we see in scripture it seems like is a picture of the Roman system, where the governors are tied back to the king. I look at governors in our case as being possibly a governor of a state, or maybe a mayor, and so on, something like that. Okay, so this gentleman named Hebert, which is a source I use sometimes, he talks about the fact that Pilate, he was a governor. In Roman times, he was a governor. Felix was a governor. We saw it in Acts and so was Festus. They were all governors.

When the Lord Jesus was He was taken before all these sets of people that kept passing him along. He went from this person to that person. He was passed from all these different authorities. He was a hot potato. Nobody wanted to know what to do with him. They realized he was innocent. As we know, the Jews prevailed.

So we basically had, whether to the king as one of the authority, or to governors. And now it's going to define the role of governors, as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers. So basically, the governors have two functions, two purposes. To punish evildoers. and to praise those who do right.

Like I mentioned, I don't see much praising going on these days. Here's something that you're seeing, and I kind of went back and forth. What do you think, what's, you see it says, or to the governors as set by him. Who's the him referred to there? And actually I looked at this, I've gone both directions on that hymn. To make it easy, I'll give you the choices. Here's the two choices I think you have. Usually, they say, what's the antecedent?

You go back in the passage. You could go back to the Lord, right? That's one possibility. You go back in the verse and it says, the hymn could be referring to the Lord, conceivably. Submit yourself for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to the king, as the one of authority or the governors as sent by him. So you could say it's the Lord.

And that actually is what I first thought. Maybe I should have stopped reading at that point. But then a point was made, well, if you look at the original, it possibly points back to the king. Because in Roman times, it's this flow down. It's this hierarchy of authority. The king flows down to the governor. the hymn might refer back to the governor.

So what do you guys think? Do you have translations? Also he knows the hymn isn't capitalized. So at least the translators thought, at least in the ones that I have, the translators thought it wasn't the Lord. They would have capitaled it with a capital H if they thought that. But I thought, well, you know what?

I kept thinking about, well, you could have a person that maybe knows this, he knows scripture at a lower level, a governor down here, he may know that, and why couldn't he be sent from God? And he could be sent from God, but not necessarily in this flow down. Maybe he's sent from God just like we have In all our lives we see people that we come across and why things happen, the Lord is so gracious. He provides people in our paths that help us and encourage us. Bodies of believers, all kinds of things. So he can be sent in that sense. But this is kind of talking about sent for these two purposes here.

Son, go ahead. It seems like the HCSB says or to governors as those sent out. So it seems to be the antecedent is to the emperor or the king. Right. Right. And that's what most that I would say that's the majority of I look for some I look for a translation that capitalized H.I.M. I didn't see that. So the king is sending out the governor. Right. And that fits exactly with the Roman model because it was a fluke. In our case, in our society, that's not the case. The governors of the state or the city mayors were not sent by the president. Thank goodness.

I mean, we have, you know, there's enough problems with that. Well, this, this, this here is talking about a sovereignty. We work in democracy. We have to realize in a sense that this is God's word to us now and we are to apply it as we can. How do we apply it? This was written in the Roman times. How do we apply that to our situation in a democracy? Go ahead. I'm just thinking about our country during the time of slavery. Slaves were praying to God for relief and so forth that maybe didn't God influence. Who was elected to make these decisions?

Well, yeah. And you can argue, you know, you look at Abraham Lincoln and you think, wow, such an incredible man and prevailing through all that. I mean, having you get elected, you can't even go to Washington without fear of your life. I mean, it's just it's amazing. No, I agree.

And I think on a local level, you see I see godly people at work and I'm very thankful for that. But I don't see any connection with them back to the president. So that's why I kept thinking, well I want to make that a capital H. Because I want to have the local, and I think it is true.

It is true that God works in individual believers' lives, works in unbelievers' lives, and provides things for people. I think that does happen. Well, God has control. We're going to read the first seven verses in Romans chapter 13. I think it's so important to go through that.

It basically says, when you look at the human institutions, the authority there is from God. He's the ultimate authority. They may do wrong things, and they probably will, but He's the authority behind that. And if you go against that authority, you're going against God. Right. You have to be very careful. You have to choose your battle. If it's proclaiming God's word, you're on really good ground.

And related to God's law. Law in the sense of what is right and wrong. As set by him, literally as those being sent by him. Sent is this idea of... I gave you a whole bunch of different passages here. Sometimes it's used... Let's look at the first one there. There are some issues in the sense of the Lord, or God the Father doing something.

Could someone read John 4.34?

My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish his work, Jesus told him. So it's the same word here. Same word sent here. So this is speaking of Christ saying that, you know, my food is to do the will of him who sent me. So this is God the Father sending the Son, basically. And then we see that the Holy Spirit, he sent, that's basically when the Lord said, and John actually says, In John 14 it says, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name. Christ is speaking there, so the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father.

But it kind of trickles down, John the Baptist is sent, the Apostles are sent, then we get down to, and let's look at the one in Ephesians here, Ephesians 6.22.

And this speaks more of just people sending someone else. Paul is going to talk about sending someone. I'm going to go back to Ephesians 6, 21 and 22. It says, but that you also may know about my circumstances, how I am doing. Titicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will make everything known to you, And I have sent him, this is Paul speaking to you, for this very purpose, so that you may know about us and that he may comfort your hearts.

So the word is used in the sense of the Godhead doing some action. It's used in the sense of Paul sending someone. And then here, it seems like it's used in the sense of the king sending the governors. OK, so the first purpose for the punishment of evildoers. So punishment here is basically, and this is a pretty strong word, the execution of right, justice, in the sense of vindictive justice, punishment. And then evildoers, it's actually the word for criminal. So, the function of the government, the function of the authorities are to punish evil doers.

Some of those verses I have in there, some refer to, they are pretty strong words. So I have a quote here. Macaulay says, government authority has certain basic functions. One is to punish evil doers. The word translated punishment. means vengeance or punishment. As noted earlier, evildoers is a word for a criminal. Human authorities are responsible for the punishment of criminals. I see an editorial comment, are we doing a very good job punishing criminals?

It seems like things get dragged out. It takes forever. Cases that are so obvious. It seems like we've lost this. We don't punish people that should be punished. And we don't do a very good job in doing that. Well, I think that all study, you know, that's turned back to what we're dealing with now about police. You know, whether they do too much, that kind of thing. And they're supposed to be keeping the peace, keeping the order and so forth. It's very difficult.

Well, the thing is we're dealing with fallen institutions and a fallen man. And God is giving us, here's what his His plan is. And of course man is, like I said, they haven't read the scriptures or understand the scriptures. And it seems like we're not doing a very good job of punishing evil doers. We're not doing a very good job of praising those who are good citizens. We're not doing a good job of either of those.

And just to add to something so basic is, The police put their lives on the line. I don't know why anybody would want to be a policeman. I totally agree with you. And you have that same contradiction now. The thing is what happened now is the police are under this microscope. I look at the things reported and I don't know what to believe after a while. I think sometimes it seems like The media is out to get the police, which I think is totally crazy. They're protecting us and we're out to, you know, it doesn't seem right to me.

Anyway, no. Okay, so that's for the punishment of evildoers. That's part one. Then part two is, and the praise of those who do right. It's basically the idea of of approval, praise, commendation of those who do well. And basically the passage of Romans 13.3 is one of the parts where you will have praise from... Anyway, we'll read that in a second here. Of those who do what's right, who do good, And the passage I have quoted there in 3 John talks about, it says, Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God, and the one who does evil has not seen God.

And then 2 Peter says, Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. And another quote, on the other side of the issue, he, the governor, is an authority for the praise of those who do right. Well-being citizens are to be commended and rewarded by authorities. OK. So I thought it would be appropriate just to go through the time we have left here. Just go through and read, I'll read it for you, and just read each verse of Romans 13, 1-7. The first verse is, and we've already read this before, Every person is to be in subjection to governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those who exist are established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinances of God, and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.

3. For rulers are not a cause for fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the saint.

Just a comment here, we see this perverted too, right? We see people doing what's right, and it shows you the fall. One of the testimonies of the truth of scripture is to look at our world, to look at the fallen nature of man, and look at how wrong becomes right in the world's eyes. That's pretty sad. We see this truth here violated. We shouldn't have fear, we do what's right. But depending on your politics, you can be fearful, unfortunately. Or you may be fearful. For it, authorities, is a minister of God, to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid. For it does not bear the sword for nothing. For it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.

And that's the fourth. Five. Therefore, it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience's sakes. I think that's because they have a clear conscience. I think that's what it's kind of saying there. For because of this, you also pay taxes, for the rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Lastly, and this kind of reminds me of what the Lord said about the coin. Render to all what is due them, tax to whom tax is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, and honor to whom honor. Anyway, I found this a very difficult passage to go through because I look at it and I see how far, far we're from this. So, but it's, it's quite, you know, we're, this is the first section on submission.

We're going to see if we're going to move to the household. Actually, next week, we're going to kind of clarify some additional points on this, but it's going to move from there to the household, which is in Roman times included the, the, they have people that work in the household, slaves and I don't know if it's better to be a slave now than it was to be a slave ever. Anyway, they're talking about how you treat your slaves. Then we're going to talk about the Lord Jesus submission. And then we're going to talk about husband and wife, the family.

So any thoughts or comments? Like I said, Burns is going to talk about that. So you almost could come away with, well, I'm just going to roll over and beat me all up. But there is an aspect, I think Burns is going to do a good job of that. I looked at his handout and he's going to talk about, well, there is a time that you are to defend yourself and defend your family.

That is appropriate. Well, Paul spoke up to the Roman authority. Exactly. Right. And I see nothing wrong with using, you know, if you're part of the system, you have rights under that system. Like we have the right to vote. Somebody says, well, I'm not, I don't want you to vote anymore. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to hurt you. If you go vote, you're going to get shot. You know, that is, I mean.

Do you think that in all of this, the fact that they expect to do large return very quickly then that that kind of affected some of this because you know the point that you're making about Peter writing this and there's Nero who couldn't have been anybody else. So I think they were saying though that I do think that that we take a somewhat different view for some of those. Right, we do. If it weren't for the fact that they expected the Lord's return so soon and that influenced everything that they... He talks about, you know, kind of comparing... We're going to see when we get into the trials and sufferings. He's going to talk about... It's awful. I read that Paul, I think it's Corinthians, about how he didn't do it. It was terrible.

But Peter always talks about, you know, counting your heavenly rewards. I'm looking to that saying, you know, it's not worthy to be compared with what I have. Right. So the concept of comparing what we'll have with the Lord in glory that we have right now. And that's to encourage him. And it's true. I mean, with the threat of Nero just around the corner, I don't know how, you know, it's amazing to me. As a Christian myself and I have to judge myself about is the word malign considering the state of our society. Yeah. Yeah. Right. It is. It is pretty. Yeah.

And actually you kind of see it's gotten so bad. So I work in the kind of the military industrial establishment. And so does Cheryl and I. This general that was fired. I keep thinking. Boy, it's got to be so bad that you have to, you know, and it could happen with policemen. I mean, everything is so politically motivated. You know, if this person says this or that, they're gone. They're fired. It just seems so ridiculous.

When you quote McCauley, that's from Chester McCauley? Chester McCauley, yes. Where do you get his quotes? Well actually he has, and if you want I can, there's an electronic version, I can email you the electronic version of his notes on 1 Peter. And there's also, he has a website, and you can listen, and he actually went through and covered 1 Peter, a little bit, pretty quick, but in about maybe 10 lessons, 10-12 lessons he covered 1 Peter. He does an excellent job. Actually, there's some connectivity with Holly Hills. He's he's he's now going to be bored. But he actually spoke here. How long ago, Cheryl? Back in the 70s.

Right. Right. He traded purpose with the pastor that we had. Right. He would go to Kansas City and would come here. Yeah. We'd have a saturation weekend. So he's. He's very good. He's very good. You know, verse by verse. So I find it very helpful. That's why I quote him a lot.

I didn't know he had any written works. No, he actually, if you go to his website, it's wordoftruth.net. All together, all one word, wordoftruth.net. If you just go on there, you can download any of his material and you can get written hard copies too.

Mike said get his messages worth word of truth. Casey dot org. I thought it was word of truth. Word of truth. You'll get it. Yeah. You type it. You just type in word of truth. And like in your browser, you know, in your browser or in your search saying Google or whatever, it'll come up and you just get it. I'm pretty sure it's not that. And that's what can be a little confusing. Let's close it.

Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for this day, Father. We thank you for the blessings we have, Lord. We thank you, Lord, that even with all the fallenness of our human institutions, Lord, that you have established them, Lord. And we trust that you know what you're doing and that you understand their fallenness and that you will provide for that situation, Lord. Give us wisdom as we live as good citizens in this world. In Christ's name, Amen.