That's Not Fair

You're listening to a message preached at Front Range Baptist Church by Pastor Dean Miller.

It is our prayer that this message will be a help and an encouragement to you in your spiritual walk.

Now, here's Pastor Miller.

But you have to have your right behavior in front of the unbelieving world.

In verses 13 to 17, he's already told us what we're supposed to do with our unjust civil government.

What do you do when the government over you is not always treating you fairly?

You have a responsibility to the lost world.

You have a responsibility to your civil government.

And now he's going to teach us what do you do when the authority is much closer to you?

In fact, the language that he's going to use is pretty blunt.

You're going to find out that when you live under unjust authority, and you've had to deal with difficult things in your life that have been brought to you by other people in positions of authority, that there's one constant.

You have to remember that the unsaved world is watching, and that the character of Christ should be seen.

That's the constant.

The constant is what do you do in an unjust world?

You have to display the character of Christ.

Now you can't do that.

And Peter's going to show us this.

Look at chapter 2.

Let's look at our text this morning.

Look at your Bible.

This is not Dean Miller's word.

This is God's word.

So let's look at verse number 18.

Ready?

Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear.

Not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.

For this is thankworthy that if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.

For what glory is it if when you were buffeted for your faults you shall take it patiently?

But if when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently.

This is acceptable with God.

For even hereunto were you called.

This is why you were saved.

Because Christ also suffered for us.

Do you know that your very salvation came because he who was just was treated unjustly by the unjust?

And this is your whole salvation came out of the mistreatment of our Savior.

And so, this is what you were called to.

You were called to because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps.

So Peter's going to give us some principles here of what to do when you have somebody in your life who is an authority, a legitimate authority in your life who is not worthy.

They are not the good and gentle.

They're the forward.

What do you do?

Well, the first thing that Peter's going to remind us of is that you have to respond, number one, respond with reverence.

You have to respond with reverence.

See, let me tell you something about the Christian life.

God has ordained authority, and God has ordained the responsibility of submission.

I want you to see that in this text.

There is a responsibility of submission.

Now, the context that we're reading here is the context of Roman household servants.

This often gets really caddywompous because modern devotional guides, modern contemporary teachers of this text will always make this about an employer-employee relationship.

Servants be subject to your masters.

This is employer and employee relationship.

But this is a cheapening of that text because the principles are going to apply to that, and I'll show you in a minute.

The principles are going to apply to how you deal with people at work who are unjust and unkind authorities.

But the context of this has way more implication than just an employer employee.

Listen, if you have a bad employer, get a different job.

But what do you do when you are born into a home as an in-home slave?

You're an indentured servant, born into this family.

And you oftentimes in the Roman world, half of the Roman population were slaves.

And half of those slaves were homeborn slaves.

They were kids born to slaves in slavery, and then they were automatically put under those masters.

And many of these people would it would involve abuse, coercion, massive restrictions of personal freedom.

Peter's writing to those people.

Honey?

Sir, kids.

We love to talk about injustice and suffering in America.

You're not suffering that bad.

You just don't like what your parents tell you to do.

You just don't like the teacher.

You just don't like what your husband is saying or the tone in which he said it.

And then all of a sudden we're up in arms.

Foul, foul, I'm suffering, I'm suffering.

Now, are there legitimate sufferings?

Yes, there are abusive husbands.

There are abusive parents.

There are abusive bosses.

I get all that.

But I just want you to understand that when Peter's writing this, he's not writing to people who are just having a difficult time.

He's writing to people who are enslaved.

And they have nowhere to go.

And they have been saved.

And Peter's saying, now let me show you what you need to do about that.

You submit, because it's your responsibility as a slave, to submit to the master.

And you respond with reverence to God, who is the ultimate master.

So what he's telling us here is that he's writing to people who have zero control over their circumstances.

And he's telling them to live in a way that honors God.

Subject yourselves to your masters.

Be subject to your masters with all fear.

Put yourself under established authority.

In Peter's day, they had no choice.

It was the custom, it was the culture.

Listen, back in this country, back in the 1800s, slaves had no choice.

They were bought and owned.

They had no choice.

And what do you do when you're in a situation where you have no choice?

You can't quit your job.

You know, a slave just couldn't look at his master and say, I quit.

You're mean.

They came to Peter and they said, Peter, what do we do?

And Peter said, subject yourself to your master in the fear of God.

He already talked about this more broadly in chapter 13 when he was talking about civil government, when he said, Submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake.

Christian submission is ultimately to be motivated by our relationship to God.

People on the outside can appear submissive, they can outwardly appear like they are in submission to their authorities, but inwardly they can have resentment, bitterness, rebellion.

It's like a little kid who was told by his mom to sit down and he wouldn't.

And she said, You sit down and he wouldn't.

And she said, You sit down right now.

And finally, he finally sat down and he just sat there and looked at his mom for a minute and she said, What?

And he said, I'm standing up on the inside.

There's a lot of people who outwardly look like we're submitted to the authority, but inwardly we have resentment and bitterness and rebellion, and we let other people in secret know how we feel.

Our conduct as a Christian should reflect reverence for the Lord.

Most believers today will only encounter this in principle.

You're only going to encounter this in situations like an employer-employer relationship, with a supervisor, with a teacher, with parents, with church leaders, with legitimate authorities that God has established in life.

You're going to come to a place where you're going to see leadership in your life who is going to treat you in an unjust way.

Now, don't equate your situation with Roman slavery.

It's not the same.

However, the spiritual principle remains, in whatever situation you're in, that you can and must honor God with your conduct in the difficult situation.

So let's talk about difficult submission.

We saw the responsibility of submission.

What is difficult submission?

He says in this passage scripture, look at verse 19.

I'm sorry, verse number 18.

Be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the forward.

Peter's going to talk about two kinds of authorities in your life, the good and gentle.

We love those.

I love good and gentle authorities.

They're kind, they're considerate, they're reasonable, they're fair, and it's easy to submit to people who treat you well.

But then he goes further than that.

He goes, and by the way, also to the foreword.

The Greek word for this is skolios, which is where we get our word scoliosis, which is a curvature of the spine, it is a bending of the bones, it is something that is crooked, it is something that is twisted, it is something that is perverse.

What happens when you have an authority who is crooked and twisted and perverse?

Unreasonable, harsh, difficult.

You know what the Bible says?

The Bible says that your character must not depend or reflect the character of the person over you.

That your character must reflect the character of the person in you.

And that's Christ.

So this is the challenge.

Everyone can be kind to people who are kind to them.

Everybody can be respectful to somebody who respects them.

But what if they're unreasonable?

What if they're disrespectful?

What if they're unrestrained in their treatment of you?

Jesus even taught this same principle in Luke chapter 6, verse 32.

Luke 6:32

Jesus said, For if you love those that love you, what thanks have ye?

For even sinners do love them which love you.

So the Christian life, Jesus himself teaching us that the Christian life calls for a different response in positions of unjust treatment.

Thirdly, he talks about the motivation of submission.

The motivation is with all fear.

So he says you have a responsibility to submit, even in difficult situations, and your motivation for that is reverence for God.

He talks about that in verse 17.

Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

Verse number 19, he's going to say this is thankworthy of a man for conscience toward God, endure grief, suffering wrongfully.

In other words, Peter's saying the motivation for you in an unjust world, in a world filled with injustice, is to live with a deep awareness of your accountability to God.

This is what happened in the life of Joseph.

Joseph at 17 years old was mistreated by his brothers, abused by his brothers, and then human trafficked to the Midianites who took Joseph all the way to Egypt.

And at 17 years old, he's put on an auction block and he's purchased by Potiphar to be a slave in his house.

Here he is, no control over his circumstance.

He has no control over what kind of a master Potiphar is going to be.

But let me tell you what Joseph did.

Joseph got into his house and he understood his responsibility for submission.

He understood that even if this was a difficult situation with an un with a with a perverse boss, I'm going to do what's right.

And he was motivated by the fear of God.

You say, how do you know that?

Because he rose to the top, and Potiphar, who was good and gentle, put him over everything in his house.

But Potiphar's wife didn't.

Potiphar's wife came and said, I want you to lie with me.

And she coerced him sexually, wanting to come in and to uh and to do unclean things.

And what did Joseph do?

She caught him one day and said, There's nobody in the house with us.

It's just you and me.

And Joseph said, How can I sin and do this wickedness in the sight of God?

Joseph lived with an awareness of his accountability to God.

Nobody else in the world would have known.

And Joseph, if he'd have been like most of us, self included, I would have probably been thinking, you know, man, I've had a pretty rough go with this thing.

My brothers rejected me, my dad hates me, everybody thinks I'm dead.

Nobody even cares for me.

I mean, I'm 17.

I'm living down here.

Look where my life has got me.

You know, I deserve a little fun.

This is what we do.

We give ourselves a past because of something that happened in our past.

And we take no account to our future.

Joseph wasn't looking back at what had happened to him, he was looking at him who he was accountable to.

I cannot do this wickedness in the sight of God.

I have no justification to sin against him.

He was motivated by his response was reverence toward God.

Biblical submission, by the way, and I want you to get this straight.

Don't miss this.

Biblical submission is never permission for someone to sin against you.

God is not saying here, hey, it's okay for a guy to treat you badly.

God's not dealing with the master, God's dealing with the servant.

He's not giving permission for someone to sin against you, nor is he requiring you to participate in things that are sinful.

And he's not giving you the right and the responsibility to remain in danger.

The Bible establishes legitimate authorities that we can appeal to that are lawful authorities to seek permission protection from something that is abusive.

And by the way, you can read about that in Acts chapter 16, when Paul and Silas were mistreated at Philippi.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

Paul had to appeal to a higher power there to get them set at liberty and to make sure that they righted that wrong.

They were falsely whipped.

Paul made them make that right and give them protection as they left the city.

In Acts 22, Paul appealed to Caesar when he was falsely imprisoned for two years in Caesarea.

Romans chapter 13, verse 3 and 4 teach a believer how to appeal rightly to unjust, about unjust powers to higher powers.

Romans 13:3

And here's what I want you to understand.

We as Americans have a whole different understanding of this text because of the privilege that we have of living in this nation.

Our nation, a kindergarten amount of history study, would teach you that our nation was founded in Christian principle.

This was a Christian nation.

Our founding documents are filled with that foundation.

Our founders said that it is the Creator that has given us our rights, and they're unalienable.

Listen, these rights come from God.

Nobody can take away your right, and we are all equal.

There's equality.

But I can't get pulled over by a police.

Like, okay, one day, one night, I was late, my flight was late, I got into DIA, way late.

It's a Saturday night.

I'm tired.

I've been preaching a camp all week long.

I preached like 14 times that week.

I get into the thing, I got church in the morning, I get to my car, I'm like four hours late.

I was supposed to be home at like seven o'clock.

It's now 11 o'clock at night.

I get in my car and I am booking it to Fort Collins.

And you know how you get behind some cars on the interstate and you just kind of become a brotherhood?

You know, like we're all fam right now.

I was behind this little convoy.

We had a convoy, four of us, and I was in the back of it, and I was even singing Dark of the Moon, the 6th of June, and the Kenworth Holland Logs, Cavalry Pete with a reefer on, and Jimmy Holland Hoggs, who's headed for Bear and I 10 about a mile up.

No, I wasn't singing that.

So we're driving up.

Some of you have no idea what I'm talking about.

But Mark, you do.

Sing the chorus with me.

Ready, Mark?

Convoy.

It's one of the great hymns of the faith.

Convoy.

So we're rolling down the road.

Now, Kit, let me tell you what happened.

I will be completely honest.

We all four of us had our crews set at 83.

Speed limit is 75.

Was I speeding?

But I was equally wrong with everybody else.

So we're moving on the road.

We passed a semi-truck.

All four of us got over, we're in the left lane, and all of a sudden, this vehicle comes up behind me so fast, so quick, I couldn't even see their headlights right behind my bumper.

I mean, they were right on me, and I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

And as soon as I cleared that semi-truck, that guy just whipped over, whoa, and he took off.

Now we were doing 83, he was doing like 103.

Well, we got back over.

About a minute later, we got back over in the left lane, and here comes another car right up on my bumper, and I almost brake checked him.

Thankfully, I didn't because he lit me up.

And I thought, well, it can't be for me.

I mean, what I'm doing's not that bad.

So I moved over thinking he's gonna go around me, and he didn't.

He moved over with me.

I got in the shoulder, he got in the shoulder.

He's pulling me over.

What did I do?

So this guy, it's uh it's like five minutes to midnight.

He walks up to my passenger side, he goes, Where do you think you're going so fast?

And I said, Well, I'm going home.

I'm a pastor, I got up to church in the morning, I've been gone all week.

He goes, Pastor, you should know better than speeding.

I said, You're right.

I was doing 83.

He goes, 83?

I clocked you at 103.

I had to do 110 to catch up to you.

I said, sir, this is a true story.

The Lord is my witness.

I said, sir, you're the authority in this situation.

And so whatever you say goes.

But I was kind of in a little convoy with some people, and we've been on for miles and miles and miles, we've been together.

And there was a guy who flew up behind me and went around me and goes, That was you, I caught you.

And he gave me a ticket.

I had to go eight hours to traffic school.

I'm sitting in traffic school with 15-year-olds.

And one lady who could never get her kids to school on time, and the whole traffic school turned into a parenting class for that lady.

Now, do you know what I did not tell that police officer?

Well, hey, buddy.

We're to submit ourselves to each other.

Submit to one another.

I have as much authority.

We're all equal under God, so you know what?

I'm not taking your ticket.

Now I will tell you this.

I was wrong, but I wasn't that wrong.

And what he did was not full justice.

And how I had to respond to that was going to be more of an indication of my character than his character.

I don't believe that man targeted me out to do some evil thing to me.

He really thought he was right.

And I really thought he was wrong.

But guess what?

His right was bigger than my right, and I had to go to class, right?

Now I went to the judge, and when I got to the judge, I appealed to that judge and I asked that judge for leniency.

And so he waived the$550 ticket.

But still made me go to traffic school.

Let me tell you what Peter is not doing.

Peter is not defending the injustice of a cruel master.

What he is telling us to do is how to be faithful to God while experiencing injustice.

You cannot control how others treat you.

But by the grace of God, you can control how you respond.

So we saw, first of all, respond with reverence.

Number two, we want to endure with patience.

Now we'll hustle through this one, so listen carefully.

Verses 19 and 20.

Endure with patience.

Patience.

He says in verse 19, for this is thankworthy.

If a man with conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.

Now, once you see that word thankworthy, underline that in your Bible.

That comes from the Greek word keras, which is most often chosen.

Translated grace.

But in this passage of scripture, it is thankworthy, it is commendable, but it's even more than that.

In the context, it is responding with grace-filled hearts in a way that is pleasing to God, where God would say, This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.

Peter does not say that injustice is good.

He does not say that mistreatment is deserved.

He is not saying that we should all go out and seek suffering.

We should not go say, hey, if I get grace because I suffer, I'm going to go suffer more so I can get more grace.

That's not what he's saying.

What he is saying here is that sometimes we need to recognize that suffering is not always deserved.

That a godly response to undeserved suffering is precious in the sight of God.

Now, I will grant this.

Sometimes we suffer because of our own choices.

Sometimes we commit sin and we make bad choices, and then we have to pay the consequences for that, like traffic school.

And if I go through traffic school and I had a good attitude for eight hours and I finished it and I got done with it, nobody needs to say, hey, great job.

It wasn't thankworthy that I did that.

I deserve that.

Hey, sir, if you cheat on your wife, you commit adultery on your wife, and then there are a bunch of fallout consequences of that, you're not suffering persecution.

That's called prosecution.

See, what happens sometimes is we we don't want to have to pay for the sins that we've committed.

Well, I've said this many times before, but some of the hardest things to endure in life are the consequences of forgiven sin.

God can forgive, but consequences are still there.

If I went up on the roof today and I jumped off the roof and on the way down, I thought, Lord, that was stupid.

I shouldn't have done that.

I'm so sorry.

Forgive me.

He would forgive me before I smack the pavement.

But I'm gonna smack the pavement and I'm gonna go to the hospital if I'm still alive with a ton of wounds because of my choices.

Forgiveness doesn't just mean erasure of all consequence.

Joseph suffered because he did right.

Daniel suffered because he prayed.

Paul and Silas suffered because they preached the gospel.

Jesus suffered because there was no fault found in him.

That's the craziest thing.

I find no fault in him.

So we're gonna beat him and we're gonna crucify him.

Doing right does not always guarantee being treated right.

You can be in the very center of the will of God and in the middle of an unfair situation.

So recognize that suffering's not always deserved.

Second of all, remember that your response reveals your character.

He says in verse number 20, for what glory is it if when you be buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently?

There's a distinction between suffering for wrongdoing and suffering for righteousness.

There is nothing commendable about enduring the consequences for your own sin.

That's just, you gotta do it.

What is commendable is when you've suffered without cause and you respond in righteousness.

That becomes a testament for spiritual maturity.

Three ways that human beings respond to injustice.

The first one is retaliation.

I'm gonna treat you like you treat me.

Look, there are three levels of life that people live.

There are people who do good for good and evil for evil.

Then there are people who turn evil for good.

That's the first one is soulish.

That's just human nature.

Good for good, evil for evil.

Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.

That's just human nature.

The other one is demonic, evil for good.

But then there's the highest level, which is Christ-like, which is good for evil.

But when we respond in resentment, what we're saying is, I'm gonna get even with you.

I had a I had a bully in high school that was that was just tormenting me all the time.

And I came home one day and I said to my dad, I'm gonna get even with that kid.

And my dad said, That's exactly what you'll do.

I said, That's exactly what I'll do.

I thought I had my dad's permission.

And he goes, No, you're gonna get even with him.

I said, Yeah.

He said, Dean, let me ask you a question.

Do you feel like you're keeping the rules and that you're being a student that you ought to be in the school?

Do you feel like you're being a good friend, that you're treating people the way you ought to be?

And of course I said, Yes.

He said, Okay, well, a person who does that is up here.

That's that's it that's what you should do.

This is what's expected of you.

Is he doing, is he doing evil to other people?

Is he mistreating other people?

Is he disobeying the teachers?

Has he got a rotten attitude and he's just a uh a snot to other people?

Yeah.

He said, okay, get even with him.

That's what you'll do.

You'll get even with him.

And you'll be just like that.

Can I just tell you something, church?

We gotta be very careful when our kids endure hardness in life, because we gotta be careful that we don't just bubble wrap them and keep them.

People are gonna mistreat them.

How many of you ever been mistreated?

Okay?

It's not fun to watch as a parent.

But if I want to properly prepare my kids, I've got to teach them look, you can you can you can respond this way in retaliation, and you can just be going around the whole world seeking justice.

I'm gonna get even with you.

And you'll just be even with everybody who's doing wrong.

Which means you'll be doing wrong.

Or you can respond with resentment.

You never do anything to them, but you hang on to that.

And then when you wake up as an adult one day, you're still carrying around all this resentment for what somebody did to you 20 years ago.

And that bully is out of your life and has been out of your life for 25 years, and yet they're still in control of your mind.

Because you have resentment.

You got bitterness.

You're still in bondage to that.

So you can retaliate or you can be resentful, or you can respond righteously.

Which means that I respond to you in a way that honors Christ.

The Bible says that you take it patiently.

I think Christians have a problem sometimes defining meekness as weakness and patience as pacifism.

Patience is not pacifist.

Patience is strength under the control of the Holy Spirit.

It is the Proverbs 16, 32 principle that he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty.

But he that has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down and without walls.

Look, if you have no control by the Holy Spirit in your life, then anybody and everybody can take over your city.

Everybody can pillage your village.

Anybody can make you mad.

It just takes one person cutting in front of you in traffic.

You're set off.

It takes one decision by your husband, I'm off.

It takes one word from your wife, you're off.

It takes one thing from your parents, slamming doors.

It takes one thing from a teacher.

That teacher hates me.

It takes one thing from a coach.

That coach is miserable to me.

And all of a sudden, anybody and everybody outside of you has control over you because you have no Holy Spirit control in your life.

You're a city broken down without walls.

Anybody can come and take control of your city.

What Peter's saying here is that you can't control what happens to you, but you can respond by what is happening in you to what is happening to you.

And if what is happening in you is the work of the Holy Spirit, then the work in you is greater than what's being done to you, and you respond in that.

And then the third thing, you rest in the fact that God sees faithfulness.

Look at verse number 20 again.

He says, For this is acceptable with God.

Notice the progression here.

You recognize, and then you remember, and then you rest.

You recognize that it's not all always deserved.

And then you remember that you have to respond according to Christ.

And then you rest in that.

This world is so busy trying to go out and picket social justice.

They want reparations for everything that's been done wrong generations ago.

Trying to set right every wrong that was done.

Listen to me.

As a Christian, we need to understand that when we do well and we suffer for it, we take it patiently.

This is acceptable with God.

It means that this is pleasing, it means that it's commendable in the sight of God.

That's an encouraging thought to me because others may not recognize your faithfulness, others may not recognize their wrongdoing.

You may never receive the apology that you feel you deserve, but I want to tell you something.

God sees all of that.

Peter reminds us that patient endurance under unjust suffering is pleasing and acceptable with God.

Why?

Because of these three truths.

God knows the truth, God always honors faithfulness, and God will ultimately judge righteously.

You know what I have to do as a pastor?

You know, I was reading something the other day.

A dear friend of mine sent me a book that was written by a great pastor in New York City back in the 1800s.

And I was a little offended when I opened the mail because the title of the book is How to Be a Pastor.

And I thought, what's he trying to say?

What's he trying to tell me?

But it's a short little book, and man, it has just been so impactful.

You know one of the things he said in there?

He said, let me tell you something about being a pastor.

He said, the average person, the average human being will lose seven deep, meaningful relationships in their lifetime.

Mother, father, spouse, children, dear friend, like seven deep, you'll lose seven deep, meaningful relationships in your lifetime.

The average pastor will lose eight to ten a year.

People that you've led to Christ, poured your life into, built, spent time trying to reconcile things in their lives and helping them, will get upset at something in the school or the church or whatever, and then they leave.

And then they tell people all these things about your leadership, and you can't go defend yourself to every person.

And I want to tell you, as a human being, when you have situations like that, it hurts.

But you know what Peter's gonna say?

Suck it up, buttercup.

It's what you've been called to do.

So quit complaining.

Everybody's got a tough life, everybody's got injustice in their life, everybody's got an imperfect husband, everybody has an imperfect wife, everybody has imperfect parents, everybody has situations in their life outside of their control.

Suck it up.

God knows the truth, God honors faithfulness, and God will ultimately judge righteously.

This is what the Bible says in Genesis chapter 18, one of my favorite verses in all the scripture.

Genesis 18 · chapter mention

He says, Should not the the the Lord of all the earth judge righteously?

God is always gonna make it right.

When others fail to recognize your faithfulness, you better remember that the approval of God is greater than the applause of men.

And then the last thing, and we're done, we'll go home, is to follow Jesus.

Respond with reverence, endure with patience, but follow Jesus.

Verse 21, even here unto were you called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in his steps.

This whole passage right here, this brings the entire, this verse brings the entire passage into focus.

Peter moves from the conduct of the servant to the suffering of the Savior.

He's saying, look, I know that you're in situations as indentured slaves.

I know that you can't choose your masters.

I know that what's being done to you is not always just and fair and easy.

Some of your masters are crooked and perverse and twisted, and they just want to see you suffer.

They're doing things harshly and vindictively and meanly.

I understand all that, and there's nothing you can do about it.

But in that you can follow Jesus.

He points us to Jesus Christ.

Peter has already established that believers will sometimes suffer unjustly.

He's instructed us how to respond with the reverence and how to endure with patience.

But the greatest motivation in every Christian's life to respond properly when life isn't fair is the example of Jesus.

This is why, by the way, you know where this is most lived out is in marriage.

And you know what the Lord Jesus did in Ephesians chapter 5 and in other great passages of scripture in marriage?

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

He put the marriage relationship, both for husbands and wives, at the example of Jesus.

The wife submitting to your husband as Christ submitted to the father.

Husbands loving their wives as Christ loved the church, gave himself for it.

Listen, if a wife and a husband would both live like Jesus, heaven would be in the home.

Little kids, don't say this word, but I'm going to say this in the context of the Bible, okay?

I'm not saying it is at a curse word, but I want to tell you something.

It is a shame when God's people who could be having heaven in our homes are living with hell.

Fighting.

What is in hell?

Screaming, bickering, torment, pain, darkness, separation.

That's how many Christians are living in our lives.

Why?

Because we don't understand the principles of what to do when things aren't always fair.

The word example here in the Greek has the idea of a writing pattern for little kindergartners when they're learning how to trace letters, learning how to write.

He becomes the pattern.

I want to make a very clear distinction here.

Christ's suffering was not just intended for us as an example to follow so that we can be saved.

Uh-uh.

Christ's suffering was the sacrifice that was required to purchase our salvation.

But those of us who've been to his suffering for salvation now can follow his example in suffering.

Does everybody understand that?

I don't just follow Christ so that I may be saved.

I've come to Christ and I've been saved, so therefore now I can live like Christ in bad situations.

Why is that?

Here's the natural explanation that he gives us in verse 21 that Christ suffered unjustly for us.

Christ also suffered for us.

Isn't that amazing?

That the motivation for Jesus Christ to endure unjust suffering, he who knew no sin, was being accused of sinners.

The Bible says that he endured the contradiction of sinners.

What does that mean?

He had ungodly, filthy, perverted people calling him untruth.

He had false witnesses testifying against the truth.

He had unrighteous men executing justice.

How can that happen?

Unjust men couldn't have justice.

They were going against he who is justice.

And yet, what did Jesus do?

His motivation was for the joy that was set before him.

His motivation was you.

He suffered for you.

And you know what our motivation is?

Our motivation is him.

Consider the injustice of his suffering.

Innocent, yet condemned, truthful and lied about, compassionate, treated cruelly.

He was holy and he was crucified as a criminal.

He was the creator and he was rejected by his own creation.

Who did no sin, neither was Guile found in his mouth.

Jesus never committed a single sin.

He never committed one thing that deserved punishment.

And yet, even Pilate said, I find no fault in him.

And Jesus willingly suffered.

Why?

He suffered for us.

This is where Christ's suffering differs from our suffering.

Sometimes we suffer unjustly because the wickedness of others.

Jesus suffered voluntarily so that he could accomplish our redemption.

Isaiah 53 makes it plain.

He was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities.

By his stripes we are healed.

His suffering was substitutionary.

His suffering was in our place.

When we experience unfair treatment, we should remember that our Savior understands unjust suffering.

He is a high priest who is touched with the feelings of our infirmities.

I love that.

Jesus knows how it feels.

When someone misunderstands you, Jesus understands.

When somebody falsely accuses you, he understands.

When somebody treats you unfairly, he understands.

When life isn't fair, you have to remember that you're following a Savior who endured the greatest injustice in history, and he did it for you.

You could do it for him.

Christ demonstrated perfect patience.

When he was reviled, he reviled not again.

When he suffered, he threatened not.

Notice how he responded to unjust treatment.

He refused.

Watch this, listen to it.

Look at the verse.

Look at verse number 21.

He refused to retaliate.

When he was treated, in verse 23, when he was reviled, he reviled not again.

When he suffered, he threatened not.

He refused to retaliate.

To revile means to insult, to abuse, to speak contemptuously towards somebody, to name, to name call, to mock, to ridicule, to be falsely accused.

I want to tell you something.

I got to close.

But I was out street preaching.

It was a requirement in college.

We had to go out on the street publicly in a park somewhere and preach.

I was at Acacia Park in Colorado Springs.

Drug deals going on everywhere, rough and tough people.

And I was standing up on this little pavilion and I was preaching.

And there were people standing around us, they were mocking us.

They were jeering us, they were calling us names, they were doing vulgar antics in front of us, all kinds of things.

And I could deal with most of that.

Let me tell you what got me.

A guy walked up on the pavilion while I was preaching, he cleared his nose and his throat and he spit in my face.

I have never been more mad in my life.

You ever had somebody spit on you?

This is what they did to Jesus.

This is what it means to be reviled.

They cleared their noses in his face.

Somebody slammed a door on me.

So I'm going to break the door down to get to them.

Somebody called me a name, so I'm going to call them a worse name.

Someone raises their voice, so we raise our voice.

Someone speaks harshly, so we speak harshly.

Somebody hurts us, so we hurt them back.

But Jesus demonstrated something different.

We are never justified in responding sinfully simply because somebody has sinned against us.

Two wrongs.

Don't make a how can you be right if you're doing wrong?

Well, they did wrong.

That guy was doing 103, but you were doing 83.

And his wrong doesn't make your wrong right.

Secondly, Jesus refused to threaten.

When he suffered, he threatened not.

Jesus possessed all power and authority.

He could have called 12,000 angels.

He could have used his power to destroy the world.

But the one who had the greatest power demonstrated the greatest restraint.

This was not weakness, by the way.

This was strength under perfect control.

A spirit-filled believer does not have to win every argument.

We don't have to answer every insult.

No, you know what we do?

We return good for evil.

We pray for the enemy.

I've had husbands and wives.

They're just, they just cannot get along.

And I want to say to them, go get in a room by yourself, get on your knees before God and pray for your spouse.

And don't come out until praying for them has changed your heart towards them.

It's so easy, man.

Well, she does this and this and this and this.

Write down a list of all the things that they do that are great.

What are you thankful for?

Jesus didn't retaliate.

He didn't keep score.

He didn't try to settle the score.

And the third thing is he remained faithful to the Father's will.

He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Man, this is a powerful lesson.

He didn't allow the cruelty of other people to keep him from accomplishing the will of God.

God has a plan for my life, and I am not going to allow people who would mistreat me or say things against me to distract me from the will of God.

I still have a will of God to do.

I still have a purpose and a calling in my life to fulfill.

And I want to tell you, when we're tempted to become bitter and angry or withdrawn, you have to step back and you have to commit it all to Him who judges righteously.

Jesus left us an example to follow.

And his example was we leave it with God.

We surrender our desire for revenge.

We follow the steps by trusting God's righteous judgment.

Shall not, Genesis 18, shall not the judge of all the earth do right?

How many of you believe that God's going to set it all right one day?

Yes.

Ahithophel, David's friend and faithful counselor for decades.

He was with David through his whole rise to power, his whole kingdom, the conquering, the peace, all of the things that David did.

Ahithophel was his counselor and a mentor and one who was a friend and spoken to his life.

And Ahithophel's life came to an end at the end of a rope, swinging by his neck in his own house, by his own hand, dead by suicide.

Why?

Because when Absalom rose to power and threw David out of the throne and ran David out of the kingdom, and Absalom took the throne in rebellion and he overthrew David his father.

Ahithophel stayed with Absalom.

And Ahithophel became a counselor to Absalom.

And when Absalom sat down with his counselors and said, I want to kill my dad, how do I kill David?

Ahithophel said, This is what you do.

And Ahithophel was absolutely right because nobody knew David like Ahithophel knew David.

And had Absalom followed Ahithophel's advice, David would have died.

But Ahithophel didn't wasn't listened to.

Absalom chose the other counselor.

And when Ahithophel saw that David didn't, that Absalom didn't listen to him, he went home, he cleaned his house, put everything in order, and took his own life.

You know why?

Ahithophel was Bathsheba's grandpa.

And he had watched David, his friend, violate his granddaughter, kill her husband, bring her into his harem of eight wives.

And he wanted God to do something about that.

God punish him.

It took 18 years, and he finally had an opportunity to get his revenge.

He was hanging on to that resentment.

I'm going to get that man back if it's the last thing I do.

And he finally had the opportunity.

Absalom, go to that place and you will kill your dad.

And David will pay for what he did.

And when that was rejected, Ahithophel had lost all hope that David would pay for his sin and he killed himself.

That's what bitterness always does.

This is why the Bible says, avenge not yourselves.

Vengeance belongs to the Lord.

You have to commit yourself to him that judges righteously.

Jesus, 2,000 years ago, was reviled, and he's still being reviled today.

His name is a curse word.

He's mocked, he's shamed, he's hated, his name is drug through the mud.

But I want to tell you something.

One of these days, the righteous judge will exalt him and has given him a name above every name.

And every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

And I want to tell you something, Jesus will have his day.

And those of you who have been in a bad situation and been treated unfairly, one of these days, God will make it right.

But if you gotta make it right, you're just gonna keep walking around like the angry little elf you are.

And no one's ever gonna want to be around you because all you ever do is be a little curled up to you.

And where's the joy?

Where's the love?

Where's the peace?

Where's the long suffering?

The gentleness, the goodness, the kindness, the meekness, the faith, the temperance.

Where is Jesus?

So today, we remain faithful when others are unfaithful.

We remain gracious when people are unkind.

We remain obedient when righteousness is costly.

Now, if you're suffering because of your own sin, stop trying desperately to get everybody else to forget it.

Sometimes you just gotta sit in the mess you made.

And you gotta let God sort it out.

And you know how God does that?

Through forgiveness and repentance and faithfulness.

There's been a lot of times I have sinned against my wife.

I've said things and I've had consequences and I've had to go and apologize.

But it didn't mean that my wife just fixed me my favorite meal and just I had to prove and demonstrate a repented heart.

How many of you men are with me right now?

Cowards.

Listen, when we suffer for wrong, it's not thankworthy when we suffer for that.

But when you suffer for right, and you take it patiently, and you look like Jesus, remember that God sees it.

And God will bless that.

Let it go.

What God said, Father, forgive me as I forgive them that trespassed against me.

Put, listen to me, put their sin where God put your sin on the cross.

And then you'll find that forgiveness and that freedom, and who the Son sets free is free indeed.