Latest / Admonition Podcast / 1 Peter 3 (Lesson 3) - Aaron Cozort - 03- 27-2025
Transcript
- 0:00In 1 Peter chapter 3 and in verse 7, Peter writes, having written to the wives, having written to the servants, having written to the citizens, he writes to husbands and says,
- 0:16husbands likewise dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel.
- 0:26and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered." Peter makes it clear that if husbands do not properly dwell with their wives, it will
- 0:43affect their spiritual life.
- 0:49There are few who can try and convince anyone that if their wife is not happy, everything is still just fine.
- 1:00The adage is true, if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.
- 1:07But Peter points out that it goes beyond just peace at home.
- 1:15It goes beyond just the scenario you find yourself in, in the comfort of your own house.
- 1:23That it affects your spiritual life.
- 1:26That he says specifically that it affects your prayers.
- 1:31He says that your prayers being not hindered.
- 1:36Now, there's an interesting concept there in that Peter makes it clear that how we live
- 1:45how we interact with others, the relationships we have can hinder the results of our prayers.
- 1:59Have you ever stepped back to consider that there may have been an occasion in your life where you were praying for God to deal with something, or you were praying for God to do
- 2:14something, or you were praying for God to act in some matter, and yet it was your relationships with those around you that caused that to not actually take place?
- 2:30Peter tells us that that's a distinct possibility.
- 2:37That when we do not behave in the way that we should towards those who are on, shall we say, a horizontal plane with us, it affects the relationship we have with God on a
- 2:54vertical plane.
- 2:56that what we do with one another affects what he will do for us.
- 3:03Turn over to 1 John chapter 4 and notice this.
- 3:11In 1 John chapter 4
- 3:17John writes,
- 3:45God, little children, and have overcome them.
- 3:49Because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world."
- 3:53They are of the world, therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.
- 3:59We are of God.
- 4:00He who knows God hears us.
- 4:03He who is not of God does not hear us.
- 4:06By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error." Now, as he's introduced this discussion, he's said twice, we are of God.
- 4:20He's making it clear that those who belong to God, those who are the children of God, those who are Christians are of God.
- 4:31And those statements are the foundation upon which he says, beloved, let us love one another.
- 4:40For love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
- 4:45He who does not love does not
- 4:50Know God, for God is love.
- 4:56Now Peter says to the husband, dwell with your wife according to knowledge, you give honor to her as to the weaker vessel, you do these things and you make sure that your
- 5:07relationship is what it should be because if you don't your prayers will be hindered.
- 5:16because if you cannot dwell with your wife in love...
- 5:24which involves how you behave towards her, how you provide for her, how you interact with her.
- 5:31If you can't do that, you're not going to have a good relationship with God.
- 5:36For the same reasons that John tells the Christians in 1 John chapter 4, if you do not love, you do not know God.
- 5:49In this the love of God is manifested toward us, that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
- 5:59In this is love not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
- 6:06Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
- 6:16John is making it clear you do not love one another because they treat you right.
- 6:24You do not love one another because they interact with you in a way that you enjoy.
- 6:32You do not love one another because they are perfect and flawless and sinless.
- 6:39You do not love one another because they have no faults and they have never done you wrong.
- 6:46You do not love one another because you are perfect.
- 6:52None of those are the reasons why you love one another.
- 6:57John says you love one another because God sent his son to die on the cross as the sacrifice for you that you could never have paid for yourself.
- 7:12So doesn't matter if they treat you right.
- 7:15It doesn't matter if they behave the right way toward you.
- 7:18It doesn't matter if they are everything that they ought to be.
- 7:23It doesn't matter if they exhibit faults that you think they shouldn't have.
- 7:29What matters is they're the children of God and they are of God.
- 7:41And you'll notice back in verse 9, he says,
- 7:59Sometimes when you have a positive statement like that, you can dwell momentarily on the negative of that statement, the opposite.
- 8:12That had God not sent His Son, we were dead.
- 8:21and had no life.
- 8:27And so we are reminded.
- 8:31that without Christ we're nothing.
- 8:34We're dead.
- 8:35We're hopeless.
- 8:37We're without hope.
- 8:39And yet with Him we have everything.
- 8:43And so as we consider the love that we are to have with one another, we are to love one another with Christ in view.
- 8:54We are to love one another as if they are Christ.
- 8:59We are to love one another as if their sins and their faults and their failures and their imperfect actions are covered over by the blood of Christ.
- 9:13Go back to John chapter 1 verse 1 and that's what you read.
- 9:18If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.
- 9:24The blood of Christ is the connector between all Christians.
- 9:31Without the blood of Christ, we do not have fellowship.
- 9:38But with the blood of Christ, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ continually cleanses our sins.
- 9:47So.
- 9:48John helps us to understand what Peter is telling these husbands in that he doesn't say, if your wife treats you the way that she ought to, if your wife respects you the way that
- 10:00she ought to, if your wife submits to you the way that she ought to, if your wife does everything that she ought to do, and if your wife is easy to get along with, and if your
- 10:08wife is genial, and if your wife doesn't give you a hard time, then dwell with her in honor.
- 10:16and dwell with her according to knowledge and dwell as heirs of life." No, he doesn't say that.
- 10:26Peter is pointing out to them their responsibility to dwell with their wife as a Christian first.
- 10:42having already shown her the honor of providing for her.
- 10:50Then Peter writes, finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another.
- 11:02Love as brothers, be tender-hearted, be courteous.
- 11:09As Peter.
- 11:11exemplifies in his message the characteristics that these Christians are to have.
- 11:18He says first and foremost, have one mind.
- 11:27when people work together, not because they all do the same thing, not because they're all mimicking one another, but when they work together, when they complement one another, when
- 11:41they strive together to achieve the same goal, it's an amazing thing to observe.
- 11:49It's just worthwhile to pause for a moment and watch.
- 11:54because you have a group of people working together in an excellent way.
- 12:00Peter says that's what the church is supposed to be like.
- 12:03It's supposed to be like a group of people being of one mind, not because they're perfect.
- 12:15but for the same reason that Paul described.
- 12:19He says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus over in book of Philippians.
- 12:27But he also says having compassion for one another.
- 12:31Do you have to have compassion for one another if there's never any problems?
- 12:36If nobody ever has any hard scenarios to deal with?
- 12:40Nobody ever has some unfortunate situations they have to put up with?
- 12:45You don't have to show compassion if everything's rosy and sunny all the time.
- 12:50You've to show compassion when things hurt, when things are hard, when things aren't going right, when invariably difficulties of this life begin to mount up.
- 13:04You need Christians who will show compassion.
- 13:09But he then also says, as brothers.
- 13:14Do brothers always get along?
- 13:18Only the people who have never had brothers would assume that they do.
- 13:23Because all of us who have had brothers know that that is not how brothers work.
- 13:31And yet, what is typically true, not always, but typically true in families with brothers, is that brothers will be the hardest on one another, but the minute there's an outside
- 13:45person trying to pick on the brother, now they're the defender.
- 13:51I mean, they will give the one who is their brother the hardest time, but the minute there's somebody who's not a family member picking on that brother, it's the outside
- 14:02person who's gonna get the whooping.
- 14:07Peter says, love as brothers.
- 14:13Love as those who are part of family, who are tied together by blood.
- 14:25Because we are brothers not according to birth in the physical sense, but according to the blood of Christ.
- 14:33He says, love as brothers, be tenderhearted.
- 14:36be courteous, not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.
- 14:54Peter calls upon these Christians to interact with those direct context within the church, greater context within the world,
- 15:06in such a way that they offer blessings and not revilings, that they offer good and not ill, and that they understand that when they do this there is an inheritance of a blessing
- 15:22awaiting them.
- 15:23He says, verse 10, for he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.
- 15:35Let him turn away from evil and do good.
- 15:38Let him seek peace and pursue it.
- 15:41For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers.
- 15:45But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."
- 15:50Peter here brings in Psalm 34, and he brings in a passage which lists a number of things that the psalmist writer says, if you want to love life, if you want to see good days, if
- 16:06you want to have joy and happiness and all of these blessings that are invariably part of the life that people desire, he says you need to do a few things.
- 16:18You need to help yourself out.
- 16:20I was talking with a business consultant earlier today who I've got a good relationship with and he's getting ready for a presentation he's doing tomorrow and it's all on, he's
- 16:30just beginning with a list of don'ts.
- 16:32If you own a business, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't, help yourself out and don't make all of these mistakes.
- 16:43That's what Peter's doing.
- 16:44Peter's like, you want to love life and see good days?
- 16:50Refrain your tongue from evil.
- 16:54Refrain from speaking that which is not good.
- 17:03Have you ever met the most miserable people alive?
- 17:10They're the people who cannot say anything good about anything, no matter how good their situation is in life.
- 17:19They have a complaint for every moment of every hour of every day.
- 17:24All you have to do is talk to them, walk near them.
- 17:27They will tell you about something that is wrong.
- 17:32Hehehehehe
- 17:37You know, there's two senses in which there's in scripture.
- 17:43Evil carries with it an idea of that which is sinful at times.
- 17:48It also carries with it the idea of that which is negative.
- 17:54Both of those fall into the use of the term evil.
- 18:00And Peter,
- 18:01is describing how we use our tongues and he says if all your tongue dwells on is negative, if all your tongue puts out is that which is evil.
- 18:17then you're not going to have a good life.
- 18:20You're not going to see good days.
- 18:23You're going to kill all the good days with your mouth.
- 18:31And we've all experienced this at some time in our lives where we were just having the best day you could have.
- 18:41And you walk in a room and somebody shoots their mouth off and it's over.
- 18:47Everything about the day from that moment forward is bad.
- 18:55Imagine if, yeah.
- 19:04That is absolutely true to a degree, but sometimes those days just turn around no matter how hard you try.
- 19:22if I'm trying to.
- 19:24I tell my story a lot.
- 19:27And it's not good.
- 19:29Is that bad?
- 19:31No.
- 19:33So.
- 19:37Sure, there's talking about things that are bad because you're trying to cope with things that are bad.
- 19:44And then there's talking about things that are bad when everything's good, all right?
- 19:50And the difference is, and let me add, one of the things that we need to avoid is talking about negative things.
- 20:06with people who have no ability to help with those things.
- 20:10Okay?
- 20:11So sometimes we as Christians will describe the difficulties that we're going through and we'll talk to people, especially other Christians around us about the difficulties we're
- 20:21going through because we need comfort.
- 20:24We need strength.
- 20:25We need encouragement.
- 20:26Okay?
- 20:27That means the person who's on the receiving side of that can provide that comfort, provide that strength, provide that encouragement.
- 20:35They can do something about it.
- 20:38But if we go about our day and all we ever do is talk about the negatives, even to the person who can do nothing about it, even to the person who all they'll do is feed off of
- 20:50that to cause more harm.
- 20:53then we're not even working in our own best interest.
- 20:58I don't agree with everything Dave Ramsey's ever said, but one of the policies he has at his company, and it's been ranked one of the top companies in the state of Tennessee to
- 21:08work for for I don't know how many years in a row, they have a policy.
- 21:12If you complain about a company issue to a person who is not authorized to fix the issue, that is a fireable offense.
- 21:25because they have a policy of there's not going be any gossip, there's not going be tearing everybody down, not going be tearing the company down.
- 21:33So if there's a problem, take it to the person who can fix the problem or be quiet about the problem.
- 21:40Because if you're only talking to the people who aren't authorized to fix the problem, you're not trying to solve the problem.
- 21:49You're part of the problem.
- 21:51And so it's a fireable offense to talk about a company problem with someone who's not empowered to actually solve the problem.
- 22:03You've got a recommended solution to go with.
- 22:05That's exactly correct.
- 22:07So, as you consider what Peter is saying here, he says, if you want to love life, and I kind of skipped over that phrase, I thought that John wrote over in 1 John that we're not
- 22:26supposed to love the world or the things in the world.
- 22:29He that loves the world, love of the Father's not in him.
- 22:31So why is it that Peter's saying you're supposed to love life and John's saying you're not supposed love the world?
- 22:40All right, when you love life as a Christian, you do not prioritize the physical over the spiritual.
- 22:52You do not prioritize the here and now over the eternal.
- 22:57You love life in its fullest extent and not just the temporal, physical lusts of the flesh, which is what John's talking about.
- 23:10John's referring to a love of the world and the world's view of that which is worth loving.
- 23:20And John says, no, you can't even, you're an enemy of God if you love that.
- 23:27Peter's saying, you ought to love life.
- 23:31You ought to love what God has created.
- 23:34You ought to love the existence that we have in this world.
- 23:38You ought to love the church that is around you.
- 23:42You ought to love life even when your government is opposed to you, even when your master is opposed to you, even when your spouse is opposed to you.
- 23:51All of those occasions, you still ought to love life.
- 23:55because he says you have the ability to impact it.
- 23:59Consider as well, he says, he who would love life and see good days.
- 24:06Some come to the disposition and come to the mindset of life that they have no control over how their life is going.
- 24:18And that is nonsense.
- 24:22Every individual has control over how their life is going.
- 24:26They don't have control over every aspect of how their life is going.
- 24:31But Peter makes it clear.
- 24:32The psalmist writer makes it clear.
- 24:34It's been clear for a thousand years.
- 24:38You have control over how your life is going because you can negatively impact it by allowing your tongue to speak evil.
- 24:49Well, if you can negatively impact it, that means you have some control over it.
- 24:53It means you can positively impact it.
- 24:55He goes on to say, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.
- 25:03You start lying, you start deceiving others, you start being deceitful, and you will find your world crumbling around you.
- 25:13He says, him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.
- 25:17Let him turn away from evil and do good.
- 25:23But wait a minute, if I do this thing that's evil, I'm going to make so much more money this year.
- 25:30If I participate in this thing, that yeah, defrauds the client, but hey, I'm going to get paid.
- 25:40Peter says, you are going to destroy your happiness.
- 25:51You are going to destroy your good days.
- 25:59He says, rather turn away from evil and do good, let him seek peace and pursue it.
- 26:09back in the silent film era.
- 26:17there were the Keystone cops back in that era of film.
- 26:23And every aspect of that involved them chasing something.
- 26:28They were chasing it in a car, then they were chasing it on foot.
- 26:33The disaster would happen, they were chasing it on a horse.
- 26:36But they were always chasing something.
- 26:39There's only so much you can do with silent film.
- 26:41Sound was actually kind of important.
- 26:45So there were a lot of chases in those films.
- 26:52Peter saying, see peace and you pursue it.
- 26:59Now, the world would have a substitute true peace for the world's version of peace.
- 27:07You see people all over the place, especially online, trying to sell you peace.
- 27:17Peace is sitting in a house on a porch on the edge of the beach with no work to do.
- 27:25Peace is the four hour work week.
- 27:29Peace is having freedom of time.
- 27:32Peace is being wealthy.
- 27:34They'll describe peace as all of these things.
- 27:37This is what we're all working for.
- 27:43They haven't read the book of Proverbs very well.
- 27:50Proverbs writer will describe the sleep of a laborer as peaceful.
- 28:01He's labored all day.
- 28:04He's provided for his family.
- 28:07He comes home.
- 28:08He's exhausted.
- 28:09He's tired.
- 28:10He goes to sleep.
- 28:12And it's peaceful.
- 28:15And then he compares him to a rich man who's always worried about something.
- 28:22Always worried about one thing or another that he always has to keep an eye out for somebody else inflicting some sort of harm on his riches.
- 28:33And he can't get any sleep.
- 28:38So here's the man who has virtually nothing and he sleeps well.
- 28:43Here's the man who has abundance and he doesn't sleep at all.
- 28:49We fool ourselves sometimes when we allow the world to dictate what peace is.
- 28:58God tells us what peace is and then God offers us in Christ peace that passes, surpasses understanding.
- 29:12Which Paul says will guard our heart and mind.
- 29:16Peter says you pursue peace.
- 29:20Because Paul has already told us when you reach that peace, when you achieve that peace, when you obtain that peace, it is a defense for your heart and your mind.
- 29:34And so you should hold on to it.
- 29:36But notice verse 12, Peter says, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous.
- 29:42Sometimes we approach,
- 29:47God looking at people with a disposition that that's probably only something that brings about judgment.
- 29:55that, you know, God's watching me, so I better not mess up.
- 30:02Like every moment of our lives we ought to be looking to wonder, is God going to see me mess up?
- 30:07Because if so, I'm going to have punishment.
- 30:09That's not how God's children are supposed to have a disposition towards God.
- 30:19Rather, we are to be those who go, I have assurance, I have confidence, I have the ability to do what I need to do in this life because I know God's eyes are watching me.
- 30:42Most adults at some point have helped a little toddler try and walk.
- 30:53When you do that, especially as they're just starting to get their feet under them, you're looking for everything that could cause them to fall.
- 31:03And you're, yeah, they're gripping your fingers and you're guiding them this way and guiding them that way, don't step on that toy.
- 31:10You're watching them to make sure they don't stumble.
- 31:15That's the picture here.
- 31:18God watching His children.
- 31:24so that their feet are on steady ground.
- 31:29He says, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers.
- 31:36But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
- 31:42Now he's wrapped back up what he was stating in verse 10 when he says, if you would love life and see good days, you better not have God against you.
- 31:57Because if God's face is set against you, this is what you can have guaranteed.
- 32:05You will not love life and you will not see good days.
- 32:11Now, Psalms writer over in Psalm 73
- 32:16from a single moment in time with a single sliver of time will look at life and he'll look at the righteous and their struggling and their being defrauded and their being abused and
- 32:29then he'll look at those who are doing evil and he'll see them just everything's great nothing goes wrong they die in peace well clearly they're loving life and seeing good days
- 32:44except the psalmist writer then describes that he struggled with this situation almost to the point of giving up until he finally understood.
- 32:57He says, when I went into the house of the Lord, then I understood their end.
- 33:07So while there are those who do evil who will see nothing but seemingly outwardly happiness, comfort, peace, enjoyment, leisure, they're still gonna leave this life and
- 33:22they're still going to meet God.
- 33:27And the reality is when you dig a little deeper into their lives, rarely do those lives quite look inwardly the way they look outwardly.
- 33:38He says, verse 13, and who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good?
- 33:52As he's just described, pursuing peace.
- 33:56He now describes the Christians as those who are followers of what is good.
- 34:06And the picture here is, here's a Gentile, a pagan Gentile, and he looks at these Christians, he considers them meddlesome, he considers them troublemakers, he considers
- 34:20them those who, you know, upset the peace, not to mention the prosperity of the idolatry and the land, and he's looking for any reason to accuse them.
- 34:34Except just like Daniel, when the other rulers tried to do that to Daniel, the only thing they could find against Daniel was what?
- 34:48disfaithfulness to God.
- 34:51Daniel is that epitome in the Old Testament of one who followed good.
- 35:00They couldn't find anything about him that they could actually present as a reason to the king to have a bad disposition towards Daniel.
- 35:11They could find nothing that he did that would be worthy of accusation.
- 35:18Certainly nothing that would cause the king to not hand over all control of the entire region to Daniel.
- 35:28the only thing they could find.
- 35:33Maybe that's my new bell.
- 35:36It's a new buzz instead.
- 35:38The only thing that they could find.
- 35:43was his complete devotion to God.
- 35:48Peter says, and who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good?
- 35:57Will there be those who, just like those rulers of old, tried to harm Daniel?
- 36:05Yes.
- 36:07But when they tried to harm Daniel, who was defending Daniel?
- 36:13Number one in his camp, God.
- 36:19So they throw him in a pit with all the hungry lions, and the lions never even open their mouths.
- 36:31But who else did he have on his side?
- 36:39Who came to the den first moment of the day and hadn't slept a wink?
- 36:51The King!
- 36:54Now here's someone who clearly probably had really important things to be doing that day.
- 37:04The only thing he was concerned about was Daniel.
- 37:09The only thing he wanted to know is, did your God save you?
- 37:20when we follow what is good.
- 37:25We may not convert everyone that we know.
- 37:33We're going to have people who are invested and on our side, even if they don't agree with everything that we believe.
- 37:43because they see a character of life that they're willing to defend.
- 37:50So Peter says, but even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you are blessed.
- 38:01And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.
- 38:06Isaiah chapter 8 and verse 12.
- 38:07Turn over to Isaiah chapter 8 real quick.
- 38:29Isaiah chapter 8 and verse 11, "'For the Lord spoke thus to me,' Isaiah says, "'with a strong hand and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people.'" Isaiah
- 38:44begins as he's about to deliver what the Lord had spoken to him and given to him to say.
- 38:50The first thing that the Lord had to say to Isaiah was, don't walk the way this people
- 38:59walks.
- 39:02Don't live like these people.
- 39:09So do you think Isaiah's message is gonna go over real well with those people?
- 39:16No.
- 39:18And yet notice, he says, do not say a conspiracy concerning all that this people call a conspiracy.
- 39:28man, we could use a little bit of that today in America, couldn't we?
- 39:34He says, nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.
- 39:40the Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow, that is to make holy.
- 39:48Not because He's not holy, but because you recognize Him and react toward Him and behave toward Him as if He is holy.
- 39:59The Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow, let Him be your fear and let Him be your dread.
- 40:10tired of Israel whining and complaining about every bad situation they come across thinking there's some grand conspiracy by men that they should be afraid of.
- 40:26And God says, are you kidding me?
- 40:30Why don't you try being afraid of the person you should be afraid of?
- 40:36Me.
- 40:39Why don't you fear the one who can actually do harm to you?
- 40:45Me.
- 40:48Why don't you DREAD ME?
- 40:53because you're afraid of all these other things.
- 40:57They were afraid of Assyria.
- 40:59They were afraid of the Philistines.
- 41:01They were afraid of this people and that people and this people and that people.
- 41:04And they were never afraid of God.
- 41:09yet he was the only one they should have been afraid of.
- 41:13He says, will be a sanctuary, but a stone of a, excuse me, he will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of a fence to both the houses of Israel as a trap and a
- 41:31snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
- 41:36Interestingly, Peter's already discussed back in chapter 1, Jesus Christ, the stone of offense.
- 41:49the stone of stumbling, also the cornerstone.
- 41:54And Isaiah, as Peter references him here, says, let me be what you fear.
- 42:07And instead, do not fear their threats and do not be troubled by their words.
- 42:17So Peter helps us to realize that when we follow after what is good, we don't have anything to fear from the people around us.
- 42:27that doesn't mean they won't ever act against us.
- 42:30It means we have nothing to fear from them, which reminds us of what Jesus taught.
- 42:36Do not fear him who can destroy the body, rather fear who.
- 42:45He who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
- 42:49All right, thank you for your attention.