God and Work

So what do you do? In our world, that question is a matter of our identity. Certain jobs invoke a sense of wealth, a sense of respect, a sense of power. Other jobs convey a sense of nobility or goodwill. Some jobs have a sense of humility and even shame. They run the gamut. But what the Bible tells us about work is something completely different. The Bible tells us that it isn't our work that ultimately defines us, but it's our relationship with God. And first, Peter is all about our new identity as God's people. He has called us out of darkness into his light. He has made us now citizens of his kingdom and therefore sojourners, exiles, aliens in this current world. And so what God tells us is that no matter what our vocation is, our identity is determined by being born again in Christ. So this morning, we're going to see a continuation in Peter's thought. He's giving us implications for what it means that we are sojourners, that we are exiles in this world, that we're called to abstain from fleshly passions and to commend the gospel to the world around us as it watches. And so Peter is he's explaining what that looks like. The last time I preached, we looked at what it means as far as how we as Christians relate to government, those who are in authority over us. This week, we're going to be thinking about vocational authority. And the next week, Lord willing, we'll look at how it relates to authority in the home with the relationship between husbands and wives. Our text today is very straightforward. It's very clear, but it's very hard. We're going to be seeing this morning, I hope, that Christians are called to endure unjust suffering, following Jesus' example of suffering for them. Christians are called to endure unjust suffering by following Jesus' example of suffering for them. We're continuing our study in First Peter will be in Chapter two verses 18 to 25. It's going to be on page one thousand fifteen of your few Bibles. And if you don't have a Bible, please take that home with you. Make it our gift to you and read it. First, Peter to. Servants be subject to your masters with all respect. Not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing when mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure, but if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. For you were strained like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. Amen. We've got a very simple outline this morning, what, why and how, what are we called to, why are we called to that and how are we to do it? First, I want us to see what in verse 18, what we are called to, which is to submit to our authorities. Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust. Now, right off the bat, we have to deal with this word that's there, servants or slaves, in some translations, we have to talk about that because that's not something that exists in our culture. None of you are here this morning as servants or slaves. And most of us, when we hear that term, we think immediately about the 17th and 18th century British Empire, the slave trade that happened that affected our country. That's not exactly what the Roman slavery was like. A few differences. Slavery, first of all, was not based on race. Slaves could do all kinds of things that we think about, like slave labor in terms of working in the fields. But they could also be educated. They could be doctors. They could be teachers. They could be musicians and other things. Slaves could own property. They could even own other slaves. Some at some points in Roman history, slaves actually had legal rights where they could bring claims against their masters. And one of the big differences, slavery was not always permanent. There were provisions made for slaves to find their freedom. Now, that's not to say that slavery was great. It's certainly not the case. They were obviously subject to mistreatment. That's why this text is in the Bible. And so when we get to a text like this, a lot of people want to ask first, why? Why aren't the New Testament authors dealing with that? Why aren't they calling out injustice? Why aren't they condemning slavery? Why isn't Peter addressing the immorality of the system? Now, that is probably worthy of a whole sermon in itself, which you won't get this morning. But but I do want to say this. The brilliance of the Bible. Is that the authors are seeking to deal with real problems and not the circumstances that cause those problems. You see, the Bible authors are much more concerned about our personal sinful rebellion against the holy God than they are with calling about cultural transformation. And what they realize is that God's plan through Jesus Christ is to change individuals and not circumstances and not culture. Those things may happen as fruit of that, but God is about changing people. And so even though their citizenship is now in heaven, even though he's writing to people who whose identity has been dramatically changed by the reality of what Jesus Christ has done for them, they are still called to live as responsible members of society now. So we see this amazing balance where their identity is radically changed and yet they're still called to be faithful where they are. The New Testament writers are able to uphold society's expectations and household codes, but they also revolutionize them by doing things like addressing slaves directly, giving them moral responsibility. And so the beauty of this is by not addressing the social ills, but addressing the roots and the causes of them, the humanity behind them. telling Christians how to respond and to deal with persecution. What we have for us today is words of life, words of instruction that are living and active and applicable now. So what I hope that we see this morning is that even though we're not here as slaves, the principles that Peter is giving us apply very directly to our work. Peter speaks to those who are lowliest in the church in a way that illustrates the principle that is true for all of us. The issue is that work is how we spend a lot of our lives, unlike the government, which a lot of times can seem very distant and very impersonal most of the time, except on April the 15th. The government is kind of out there, but work is in your face. Work is here all the time. Almost all of us are dealing directly with an authority in the context of work. And what we see today in our text is that the way that we respond to the authorities is an indication of whether or not we have really understood the gospel and whether or not it's really had its intended effect upon us. So let's look back at verse 18. Servants be subject to your masters with all respect. So we see the call be subject, submit the same call that we heard as it relates to government back in verse 13. We are to submit, be subject with all respect is how Peter qualifies it. Now, that word actually is the same word that's used in 17 translated fear. And I think fear is actually a better translation than respect. Fear is something if you study first Peter, he always uses as it relates to our relationship with God. Fear is the is the all controlling, all dominant sense emotion. It's what motivates our behavior, what we fear ultimately drives what we do. And so I don't think Peter's talking about fear of what the master will do to you. I think he's talking about fear of God, knowing who God is, knowing that it's all under his providence, under the fear of God. These slaves, these servants are called to do what they do in respect to their excuse me, in respect to their masters. And we'll talk about that more in just a minute. But before we even go further, I just want to take that in and meditate on that simple phrase, submit to your earthly authorities. Your posture to your boss, your supervisor, your manager, your board of directors, whoever it is that you answer to should be one of submission and subjection. That means that when your boss tells you to do something, you do it. Doesn't mean that you do what you like. or what you think is right, or what you think is important, or you do it in your own way, on your own time, you do what he or she has asked you to do in the fear of God, as if it were God himself giving you the command. Children, still early in the sermon, all eyes on me. Children, your job is to obey your parents. You were to submit to their authority. And by the way, you're a child if you don't pay all of your own bills. So you determine yourself what your age is for children. Your job, if you are here as a child, is to submit to your own parents completely, quickly, happily, not because it's what you want to do, not because it's what you like to do, but it's what they tell you to do as if God himself were giving you those instructions. Now, this is not the hard part of the sermon. I want you to hear that. This is not the hard part yet. We haven't even gotten there, but already we see how countercultural and how counter flesh this command is. You see, work in and of itself creates this environment, doesn't it? It makes us balk at this command. Work is hard. Work is the daily grind, the stress, overtime, sore backs, carpal tunnel syndrome, deadlines, pressure, competition, cronyism, dirt. failure and humiliation. That's the nature of work. Work wasn't meant to be that way. We see in Genesis three that when God created man and woman, he created them for work, he gave them a job to do, he put them in a garden with the responsibility of working and keeping it. But they rebelled. They rejected God's authority and they were banished from his presence and sentenced to death. And as a result, their work became toil, became painful labor, thorns and thistles and sweat. Work in itself is not bad. God works. God works to create the world. He works now sustaining the world. And as bearers of his image, we have the responsibility of stewardship of work in this world. But because of sin, we not only have work, but we have toil. We have thorns and thistles and traffic and network network issues, and we haven't even mentioned co-workers. All of that just compounds the difficulty of this command to submit to our authorities. But that's clear, that's clear in this text, that's where we find ourselves and where we find a lot of our life. Do what we're asked to do. Submit to those in authority over you. Now, if you're like me this morning, that really is enough that we really could stop there and just meditate on how we could do that better. But Peter just continues to ratchet up the tension. Not only are we to submit to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust. The unjust, so in that verse, good and gentle, the opposite of good and gentle would be evil, cruel, harsh. So we're not talking about here somebody who's been trained in the art of workplace sensitivity. These are the bosses that are arrogant, rude, demeaning, unreasonable, fill in the blank. And yet Peter tells us to submit to them, to do what they ask. There's no room for exceptions here, is there? There's no Peter, you haven't met my boss. I mean, come on, you don't know what a jerk he is. And Peter says, is he cruel? Is he evil? Yep. Yep. Submit to him. Do what he tells you to respect him, obey him. Now, of course, the same exception that I talked about when we talked about government would apply here. This is where Peter breaks dramatically from culture, where slaves would have been expected to worship the same God as their masters. Slaves have a freedom to not violate their conscience, to obey God. And in fact, that brings the occasion for the rest of this text. But that's not what Peter's talking about here. He's saying that the character and the behavior of your boss, your master, has no bearing on your relationship with him at all, so that as long as that person is in authority over you and as long as he doesn't require you to violate your conscience before God, your responsibility is to submit to him no matter how dumb what he's asking you to do may be. It's tense. This is hard. This is hard. That brings us to the second point. Why in the world would Peter ask us to do something like this? And the answer is because suffering brings reward. We see that in verses 19 and 20. For this is a gracious thing, when mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. Why would Peter tell us to do something so radically different from what everyone in the world would say? And so different from every natural impulse we have. It's because, as he says, it is a gracious thing when mindful of God, we endure suffering. Now, literally what he says is this is grace, this is grace, and he uses the phrase twice at the beginning in verse 19 and then at the end in verse 20. And I don't think he's talking about evidence of grace. So sometimes we'll talk about seeing somebody doing good stuff and saying, oh, brother, praise God for that evidence of grace in your life. I don't think that's what he's talking about. We see in this language that the idea of a blessing and favor and credit, you see that credit phrase using in verse 20. And I think what he's talking about is the reward, the salvation, the inheritance that awaits us is that suffering is the means it's the path to receiving God's inheritance. God's reward comes from our suffering injustice. Now, notice that we have to suffer the right way. He says, when we suffer, suffer mindful of God. In other words, suffering in and of itself is not commendable. God is not impressed just by your suffering, your ability to endure anything. And he says as much if you sin and you're beaten for it, what credit is that? That doesn't bring any value. That's not that doesn't earn anything from God. But what he's talking about is enduring suffering for good. Mindful of God's suffering, God conscious suffering comes from having the fear of God comes from doing the right thing and continuing to do it even when you know it's going to cost you. And because of the realities of Genesis three, this is a real possibility. You can do good only to be answered with evil. You can work on something and only have to have somebody else take credit for what you've done. You can be asked to redo something just out of spite. You can be asked to move to your workspace, to the closet that only has the 40 watt bulb. You can get passed over for a promotion. You can work your tail off without ever getting a thank you. You may have to refuse to do something. You may have to pass up on an opportunity. You may have to walk away from your job. You can be made fun of, abused and even fired. And what's our typical reaction in those moments? What's our typical reaction when we when we receive that unjust response, whether audibly or not, our typical reaction is to scream, that's not fair. It's not fair. Our typical reaction is to cry out for injustice, to seek retribution, and we can justify it so easily because it feels so natural to respond that way when someone wrongs us. And yes, that's the exact opposite of the way Christians are commanded to behave. We talk a lot about spiritual maturity. We, as elders, labor for the spiritual maturity of this body. We pray for it. We think about how we can grow in spiritual maturity. And when we talk about that, I'm not sure what what you think of what comes to mind. It may be something like how much scripture a person is memorized or how much of the Bible or theology they know and maybe how much money a person gives away or how much time he or she spends visiting those who are needy. None of those things in themselves are bad, but I would submit to you this morning, the best way to gauge the spiritual maturity of an individual is exactly what Peter is talking about here. It's God consciousness. How real is God to you as you go about your everyday life? Is he someone that you sort of check in with here on Sundays and then go about your week? Is he somebody that you speak with in the morning or in the evening and then kind of the rest of the day is your time? Is he someone that you read about and study like a great figure of history? Is he a vague idea that you kind of share with other people? Or is God as real to you as the people sitting around you in this room right now? Do you go about your day with the knowledge of his watchfulness, his presence in every interaction, every decision, every conversation that you have in every moment of your day, waking and sleeping? You see, growing in spiritual maturity means growing in that understanding. It means that every action, every thought, every word is increasingly informed by God's presence as if he were right here with us. Spiritually mature people are completely affected by the reality of who God is. The spiritually mature are able to to be convinced that God sees and remembers his people. They believe that God cares about them deeply. He's concerned about their well-being, that he watches over them, that he rewards them with the grace of their eternal inheritance. And brothers and sisters, that is hard. That is hard. And let me confess to you, even as a pastor, even as the one standing here telling you about this, this is hard. And I, as an individual, have a lot of room to grow in this area. But what Peter is telling us is that in that moment of injustice, when we're wronged, when we're mistreated, God's sovereignty, his existence, his perfect justice must be more real to us than anything else that's happening. We must know that God sees what's happening. We know that God knows what we really deserve, and yet we don't insist on it. We don't have to be consumed with what is fair or what is right, because we know that our God is all about what is fair and right, and we can entrust it to him. We set our minds on the reward that's coming from him, the blessings of salvation that await us. So the big question for us this morning is, how do we get there? How do we grow in such a way that in those moments of injustice we can actually endure suffering? And that's our third point. How we endure suffering. We endure suffering by following Jesus example in verses 21 to 25. For to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed for you are straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. So as we think about how to suffer, I want us to see two things. First, Jesus is our example. The first phrase in verse twenty one is staggering to me. To this, you have been called. As a Christian, it is your calling to endure unjust suffering. It's not a detour by which God gives us his inheritance. It's not a stop along the way. It is the path. It is that God's means for inheriting our salvation. Because Christ suffered for us. Christ suffered as an example that we should follow in his steps, and the idea of the word example there is like the same word that would be used when you're teaching children how to write. You give them the letters and they trace the letters, they learn to do them exactly a certain way to move their pen in a certain or pencil in a certain way. This is the model. It is the template. It's not an option. It is the way. And so for Christians, following Christ's steps of suffering is not an option. It's not a way to do things. It is the way. Just as the cross lay in his path to glory, so to suffering is the means to our inheritance. So let's think for a little bit about Jesus's example. He committed no sin and neither was defeat found in his mouth. He was absolutely perfect. He never sinned ever. No deceit, no guile was ever found in his mouth. He never lied. He never slandered. He never spoke a single careless word. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten. And we've heard through a lot of the ministry, the public ministry of Jesus in the gospel. John, there was opposition. There was a lot of attacks, a lot of questioning and threatening him, even attempted murders. And we see over and over again, Jesus never retaliates. He never snaps back. He never counter punches. He never tries to hurt someone just because he's been hurt. We see it most clearly in his path to the cross. So think back to the Garden of Gethsemane. It starts with his betrayal by a close friend with a kiss. He's arrested like a criminal as they come against him with torches and with weapons. He's tried by the high priest where they can find no real charges, no real evidence against them. They slap him. They spit on him. They blindfold him and make fun of him, saying, prophesy, tell us who hit you. This is these are people that he made. These are people that he upheld that he gave They gave the air to their lungs. He gave their hearts beating, keeping their minds working for all this to go on. And they're mocking him and beating him. They deliver him to the Roman authorities who still find no fault with him, but they beat him with a whip that's designed to rip the flesh off his body. They cover him with a robe. They twist together this thorny vine and jab it into his head. And then they mock him, the king of the universe. saying, Hail, King of the Jews, while they beat his head with a reed and spit on him. At this point, he's been through so much that he can't even bear the weight of his own cross, and so they get somebody else to help him carry it. They crucify him. They nail him to a cross, driving spikes into his wrist and through his legs, leaving him to suffocate in his own blood. And while he's hanging there, the soldiers, the crowds mock him, saying he saved others. Can he save himself? Even the thieves on either side of them hurl insults at him. And what did Jesus do? What did he say? How did he respond to all of this? We remember the famous words on the cross that capture everything when Jesus cried out, this isn't fair. Of course he did. He never reviled in return. He never threatened. He never said, you people have no idea who you're dealing with. He suppressed every human instinct to stop the pain, to silence the mockers, to call down 12 legions of angels to come and fight for him, to end this rebellion against his right rule over humanity. He suppressed it all. Friends, if there was ever a moment to cry unfair, this was it. The only innocent man to ever walk the face of the earth is condemned and executed as a criminal. But instead, he continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. And now the word himself isn't actually there in the text, and I think it's better without it. He kept entrusting to him who judges justly. He kept entrusting every insult, every assault, every enemy, every instance of injustice from his whole life on Earth, every moment, every second from the time he was betrayed until he died, handed it all over to God, who judges justly. He was absolutely confident in God's vindication. That's our example, brothers and sisters, that is our example, that's how first century slaves were supposed to go back to their masters and submit to them, even if they were going to be mistreated. And that's how you and I are supposed to go back to our life this week, whatever is in store for us. And notice how much emphasis there is in Isaiah 53 and here on silence. How much does that cut against our pride and our instinct to speak out in self-defense, to threaten, to bad mouth, to put down or to lie? It feels like our right, feels like our duty in that moment to set things straight. But our calling as Christians is exactly this, to suffer for doing good and not to retaliate. I wonder this morning, how do you respond to the injustice that's committed against you when you've suffered for doing good or when your good has gone unnoticed? Oftentimes, we do retaliate, we do get even, we do exact justice for ourselves. And even if we can't, we get angry and we get bitter. When our good goes unnoticed, we pout, we go into self-pity and suppression. But what did Jesus do? He entrusted to the God who judges justly. Friends, is there something you need to entrust to God this morning? If your good has gone unnoticed, if your good is being punished, entrusted to God, who is the just judge. Human justice is always insufficient. We actually can't bring about real justice, can we? We're not powerful enough to bring it up. Think about it. Even our most extreme form of justice, when somebody goes to court, they're sentenced, they go to prison, they have to pay fines, whatever it is, that doesn't restore everything that's been lost and broken. There's no way we can do that. And besides the fact that we're not powerful enough to bring about justice, we're not good enough. We are too vindictive, our sense of justice is skewed by our own sin. But God's justice, God's justice is perfect justice. God is perfectly righteous, and so he can actually weigh and judge everyone's sin. And not only that, but God is powerful enough to bring about real and final justice. That's why Jesus was able to entrust himself to God and everything to God. And that's why we should as well. And so as Christians, we are called to endure suffering injustice, not to cry out, but to leave it in God's hands. And friends, I hope you see this morning. That is not passivity. That's not a passive resignation to whatever may happen. It is patient confidence in a God who is perfectly just. Jesus was the obedient son who submitted everything to the authority of the father. He has gone before us, and so we follow in his steps, his past suffering is our present condition and his present glory is our future glory. And so, friends, see this morning that that gives meaning and significance to our work beyond we could ever imagine. Whenever wherever it is that we're called to work, We must realize that we have been placed there by God to follow the example of Jesus Christ. That means that no job is is more significant than another. That means being a pastor is no more holy than being a mechanic or a mom. God is much more concerned with how we do what we do than what we actually do. And by coming into the world and subjecting himself to such mistreatment and shame, Jesus identifies with the lowliest of us. He gives tremendous value to anything we do for him. We bring him glory when we depend on him in our darkest moments, when we show his character over and against the world, when we exhibit the fruit of the spirit rather than the works of the flesh. We show that he's more valuable than the things that we have to give up for him. We show that his care is better than the security that the world can give us. We show that his glory is better than the own glory we get from being right. And we show that the life to come is better than this present life. You see, church, this is this is much more than just another rule that God gives for us to follow. This is a miracle that he must do in us to transform us. That leads us to the second thing I want to see here is not only is Jesus our example, but he's also our substitute. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. He suffered for us. His suffering was the suffering we deserve. We see in his crucifixion the punishment for our sins, we read about it in Isaiah earlier in the service, our pains, our sickness, our transgressions, our iniquities, our punishment, all our rebellion, all of it on him. Jesus suffered for us as our substitute, he endured the wrath of God against our sins, his death is the means to our forgiveness. You see, there's basically two ways to live. You can be a person who lives by justice. You can come up with your own standard and do your best to live by it. You can hold others to it, reward them when they succeed, punish them when they don't. You can expect it from other people and cry out injustice, not fair, whenever you get what you perceive to be an unfair shake. And on the day of judgment, you can stand before God and God will give you justice. When you stand before God to give an account for yourself. You will be found wanting. God sees all that we've done, hears all that we've said, knows all that we've thought. And because he's holy and righteous, he must punish sin. Any of us judged according to the standards of God's holiness would be undone. And so if you want to stand before God and you want to demand justice from him, you will get it. You will get justice from God, which is hell. It is unending punishment, torture, torment for your sins against an eternal and holy God. The other way to live is to embrace injustice. to really come to terms with who you are before God and to hear the words that we just read as your own. He bore my sins in his body on the tree. In order to be a Christian, you must come to terms with the injustice of the cross. Because God is holy and righteous, he must punish sin, he can't overlook it, but in order to show his mercy and his grace, he has to do something about our sin. And by punishing Jesus, God is able to uphold both his righteousness and also forgive sinners at the same time. He upholds his righteousness by judging our sins in Jesus as an eternal being. Jesus was able to suffer the wrath of an eternal God against sin, dying the death that we deserve because he was sinless. He was able to offer God the perfect life that we owed him. And so God maintains his perfect righteousness by really, actually fully pouring out his wrath against sin. But because Jesus paid the price for sin, God can show mercy to those who are united with Christ by faith. If we repent of our sins and believe in Jesus as our Savior, we can be forgiven and credited with his righteousness so that we who were once sinners can actually have a relationship with God. And if you're here this morning, friend, and you don't know that to be true of yourself, please talk to me or someone else after the service. But when you come to terms with this, when you come to terms with the injustice of the cross, you really understand what's happening there. It changes your life forever. You see in the cross the depth of God's love that he didn't spare his own beloved son, but gave him up to make us his own. We heard this in Isaiah, Jesus entrusted himself to God and he was forsaken. God didn't come to his rescue. But as we heard from Isaiah, this was the only way for him to justify the many. Jesus willingly took upon himself the injustice of the cross for us. The anguish of his soul, the depth of his suffering was so that he could be with us, it pleased God to crush him. It was satisfied Jesus to be crushed because it was the only way to unite us to himself. unjust suffering was the means of accomplishing our redemption. And because he endured his suffering conscious of us, we can endure our suffering conscious of him. When you really get this, when that really sinks down into your soul, suffering has a completely new significance for you. It doesn't mean that it's not painful, doesn't mean that it's not real, doesn't mean that it doesn't cost you anything, but it does mean that it is never ultimate. If Jesus has completely exhausted God's wrath against our sin, then we know that nothing that we are experiencing in this life is punitive. God is never punishing us for something. We don't always know exactly why it is that we're suffering, but the one thing we always know that is never because God doesn't care. In fact, our suffering becomes the evidence that God does care, that he does love us. It's the evidence that he's chosen us. The cross always stands for us as a reminder that God was so willing to end our suffering that he entered into it and subjected himself to it. Friends, when you get this, when you really understand what's happening there, then what happens is all of the injustices committed against you start to melt away in light of the enormity of the injustice you have committed against God. And when you come to terms with the reality that they've all really been condemned with Jesus on the cross, it frees you. You actually can submit to authority. You actually can entrust to God all the injustice that's happening to you. You can do it and you will do it because you're not consumed with that. You're blown away by what God has done for you. And so you're freed from the need to constantly justify yourself now because you know that God has justified you in Christ for all eternity. When we embrace the injustice of the gospel, we are transformed into people who don't spend ourselves trying to find justice for ourselves in this world. We understand that unjust suffering caused is caused by the world's hostility to God, and it's the very means that God uses to accomplish his purpose in us. And so when our good goes unnoticed, we know God sees, we know he promises to reward. When we suffer for doing good, we know that God will judge perfectly. And so we don't have to. You see, Jesus doesn't merely forgive our sins. He doesn't only forgive our sins. The purpose of his death is to empower us to live for righteousness. By his fatal physical wounds, our fatal spiritual wounds are healed. And the healing that Peter is talking about is the removal of our sin, healing us from the sickness of sin so that we can actually live for righteousness. See, Jesus' suffering on the cross changes everything for us. We don't become God's people by being good enough to be chosen. That would never work. But God claims us through his son, and he does so for the purpose of making us righteous. We were straying. We were out of the fold, but we've now been returned to the fold. We've been brought in to the flock of our heavenly father. Yes, he is our shepherd. He is our authority and our overseer. But he's not a slave master. We are his sheep. We follow his voice and we obey him. By Jesus's death, he exposes the lie of sin. We now see that there's no life, no good, no hope apart from the gracious care of our loving shepherd. And now we have the power to resist sin, to put it to death in us so that we look to Christ and live for righteousness. Brothers and sisters, I want you to hear something this morning. If you are in Christ Jesus, you are free. You are free. Free from self-justification, free from vengeance, free from self-pity, free from bitterness. You are free in Christ to live a life that is ever mindful, ever trusting of God. Jesus came to free us from the power of sin and to go before us in the way of trusting God as an example. And he supplies everything we need for the life that God requires. So what do we take away from all of that? What do we what do we do? How do we go about the injustice that awaits us this week in the workplace or wherever else you may find it? Three quick things and then we'll be done. Number one, watch your mouth. Watch your mouth. Gossip and slander are things that are clearly prohibited in scripture, and yet they are so prevalent, particularly in the workplace, but everywhere, really. But and brothers and sisters, let me say I've been there before. I've been there. I know how easy it is to be around co-workers and sort of let the conversation get a little bit off track and then you're somewhere you don't want to be. Let me say, stay away from those scenarios. The really easy thing about this one is a lot of times one awkward conversation will take care of it all. If you're in a conversation with people and you say, you know what, that's gossip and I'm not really want to participate in that. Sorry, that usually is going to end it because those people are going to avoid you. Now, you may not get invited to have lunch with them anymore, but it will avoid the sin in the context that causes you to sin. But let's take that a step further. How about this? Never complain. Never complain, even when you're talking about true things, complaining denies God's sovereignty and his goodness. Our complaints tell others that what's happening around us is meaningless and bad, and yet God has promised that he is working all things together for good to those who love him. So think about what a terrible witness it is if you're a Christian and you're just complaining all the time about how bad things are. And yet how otherworldly is it? If you're able to endure things that other people can obviously look at and see are not going well, and yet they never hear a complaint from you. What a powerful testimony to the gospel and God's power in you. Second, watch your attitude. Remember that no matter what you're going through, God sees and knows not only what you say and do, but how you do it. Discipline your heart to be in happy, glad submission to those who are in authority over you, because you know that they have been appointed to that authority by God. Just as Jesus could look at Pilate, the man who was going to condemn him and say, you would have no authority over me if it hadn't been given you from above. So remember that no loss of yours is ever an accident. Even more, pray for and pursue the good of those who are in authority over you. That may be a great conversation to have with your boss. How can I pray for you? How can I do good for you? Third and finally, watch your heart. Be humble, humility is what we're talking about here. As you look to Jesus as example, remember that he was God, but that he emptied himself of all the glories of heaven in order to become your servant, to take on flesh and to die in your place. And friend, when you consider that, when you consider that he left the glories of heaven for your sin, what is beneath you? What could possibly what could you possibly be asked to do that's below your pay grade? The answer is obviously nothing. So preach that preach the gospel to yourself constantly and serve humbly. Brothers and sisters, injustices await us. Even this week, let us look to our reward. Let us look to the shepherd and overseer of our souls and let us follow his example as we entrust ourselves to God in Christ. Let us pray. Our father in heaven, this vision that you have set before us feels impossible. But we can be so consumed with being right with our own justice, that we can miss Christ in the very moments when he should be most real to us. And so, Father, we pray that you would grant us to see and to know your presence, your watchfulness, your perfect justice. Lord, may we follow in the example of Christ by entrusting everything to you. May we remember that he died for us so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. Help us, Father, to look to the cross this week and to find at the cross both the power and the example we need to live the life in a world that's hostile to you. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.