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Bro. Otis Fisher
I want to ask you a question, and Roger you can answer. Is the devil at war against God? Now this is God the Father I'm speaking of. That wasn't the question. Just answer yes or no. Yes. Now I wish you hadn't answered.
Is God at war against the devil, Joy? David, is Jesus at war against the devil? Just a yes or no. Is the devil at war against Jesus? Yes. Yes. The war has been settled, but the devil persists. Twelfth verse of 1 Peter 2.
1 Peter 2 .12. Having your conversations honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Now, we are to have our work honest, to be Christ-like, so that the evildoers, and that classifies them as the seed of Satan, they will speak evil against us, and even some that are not saved yet will speak evil against us.
But he says that they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. What is that, David? Day of visitation. Well, is that the only visitation? Is there any other visitation? Is there any other? Keep going.
Well, let me ask this. Did God visit you for the first time sometime in your life? He did because he called you, and you knew it. So these people, I'm talking about the saved that are not yet saved, they don't know it, but they can glorify you when they are saved.
They'll think back to the wonderful things that you did. All of the other visitations are true. It is not simply refraining from doing worldly things. It's a very positive action. It includes honesty, good works.
All believers in all kinds of business, they're dealing to show forth the praises of God by their honesty. That is a witness to the world. Thirteen, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well.
Roger, is there any office or sanctions of that office that are not oriented by God? No. So even though I dislike the law, I must obey it. Mad Nero was just coming to the throne in Rome as the new emperor.
The Roman Empire boasted itself that it gave justice to man. I wonder if that's true. However, it was like any other government, including our own. The poor man does not have a chance. The rich can hire slick lawyers that know the loopholes in the law where the poor man can't.
For so is the will of God that with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. When the Christian submits to government and to those who are in authority over his life, what is he doing, Greg?
When the Christian submits to the governor or any other officer over us, officer of the court, he submits to them. What is he doing? That's right. He's showing his faith in God. Now, I've never accepted a traffic ticket, but I pay my fine and go on and try to do better next time.
Well, I'll say I have received many traffic tickets, but I've never accepted one. Sixteen, as free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Joy, what's maliciousness?
Maliciousness means, all right, how could a person use his freedom in Christ as maliciousness? Believers have a marvelous liberty in Christ Jesus, and if they all believed like you did, you wouldn't offend anybody.
I personally believe that I can go places and see things which the average Christian cannot, although I don't think it's necessary. I avoid them because of my testimony. I don't want to use my liberty as a cloak of maliciousness.
I don't want any weaker brother to be hurt by what I do. We must remember that although we are free, we are God's servants. Everything of God does not mean that I automatically like it, but I must do it.
Yes?
Other God's people have it, so that's a way for you to do things together. Well, that's true. Go ahead. I'm a servant, and if I'm getting from this, I could be off base with it, but the word maliciousness, yes.
Greg, you want to say something?
As the word is used here, you are a Christian, but you will not do anything knowingly that will hurt another Christian. Maliciousness, in this case, is tied down to this. Now, what you said was right, but we are free in Christ.
We are free. We have liberty in Christ that those others do not. What he's saying is, I don't want what I do to be misinterpreted by this weak brother. Therefore, I won't do it. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood.
Fear God. Honor the king. Now, that takes in about all of the joy. Honor all men, respect other human beings. He doesn't say to love all men, believe, because all men are not very lovable. Some of them are very unlovely.
Love the brotherhood. While we respect all men, we are to love the brotherhood, meaning other believers. Fear God. Certainly, we as believers are revealed by our lives that we are a God-fearing people.
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, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
For what glory is it when you are buffeted for your faults? You shall take it patiently. But if when you do well and suffer for it, you take... I've messed that up. Let me go back. For what glory is it if when you be buffeted for your own 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. What's that saying, Greg? For even hereto were you called. Now, Joy, that means that the call that you received includes this.
Because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps. Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Now, when our Lord Jesus Christ was here on earth, he suffered two kinds of suffering.
He suffered as a human being down here when he'd become a man, suffering for righteousness' sake. Also, he suffered for the sins of the world. Now, we cannot be expected to do that. That's our redemption.
It is something we believe and receive, but we can by no means imitate it. However, in his life down here, he did leave us an example. In Nazareth, during his first 30 years, he suffered ridicule and misunderstanding, as Psalm 69 makes clear.
Then, when he moved out in the public ministry, the gospel records tell us how he suffered for righteousness' sake. When you and I suffer for our faults, we remember the example he left for us in this connection.
We cannot suffer for righteousness' sake. We may suffer because of righteousness. Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again. What does that mean, David? He suffered. He threatened not. He didn't threaten them, but committed himself to him that judges righteously.
We are to do the same. He let his father settle the account. Again, let me remind you of Romans 12, 19. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine.
I will repay, saith the Lord. So, let's let God handle these accounts. And he will handle them. 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, but that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed.
Now, you have heard many times the faith healers, how they have quoted this. This is not an example that is set for us. You and I cannot suffer to wash away our own sins, much less suffer for the sins of the world.
Peter is thinking here about redemption. That we, being dead to sins, that was our condition. By those stripes ye were healed. Healed of what, Greg? All right. But when these so-called faith healers, they're quoting Isaiah 53, 5, which Peter did also.
Peter makes it evident, makes it clear that the healing of sins, not of physical ailment. Nearly every time they'll say, his stripes healed me. If I have a malignancy, I'm sinning. Is that true, David?
No. I certainly agree that the Lord Jesus came to be the great healer. But the great healer heals our sins. Now, all healing is with God, don't misunderstand. No human physician can handle that problem.
And Peter's use of these words from Isaiah 53, 5 reveals that the prophet Isaiah meant the very same thing. 25, for ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your soul.
Ye were sheep going astray. Roger, who is that? Who was it that was going astray? All right. David, could this apply to sheep that did not yet know they were sheep? Then he says, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls.
Returned. Yes. Even though you come for the first time, you're returned. How can that be, Joy? That's right. Absolutely right. We were in Adam. We were known before. Before there was ever a world, we were with him.
So the word return here reaches back to that also. It's not just a sheep that knows he's a sheep, but he's going astray. It means that too, but that's the tertiary meaning, the thing that you see when you read.
But returned can go all the way back before Adam. We were returned to him. What's it speak of, David? That's right. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53, 6. As you can see, the suffering of Christ is actually the theme of the last part of this chapter. Christ suffered to set us an example, and he suffered a vicarious substitutionary death for our sin.
What does vicarious mean, Greg? All right. Then what does the word substitutionary mean? Right. But are now returned. The same word is often translated converted unto the shepherd and bishop, the overseer of your soul.
Is there any questions or things that you want to discuss in that chapter? All right. He did it voluntarily, and it become a substitute for me. Well, the third chapter opens up a completely different line of thinking.
I'm going to ask you a question in lieu of going into the third chapter. You're going to have to think on this. Now, if everybody had been here, I wouldn't let them think. I'd simply give you the question.
You cannot answer both. Is salvation physical or is it spiritual, Greg? Well, that shows that you're thinking of yourself. What do you think, Roger? Joy? Well, I need to do a whole lot more studying, a whole lot more teaching.
All right. No. Is salvation as a noun physical or spiritual? Joy? Roger? You can't answer both. Salvation is Jesus Christ. Is that right, David? Salvation is physical. He's a person. I think David will touch on this this morning in his lesson.
Did he say that, well, he did say, let me take it from that side. He did say, I am the resurrection. What's that mean, Greg? That's right. That's hard for me to grasp, but I'm getting there. Salvation is a person.
Now, the effect of salvation is mine, but salvation is a person, is a person. That's right. Now you're thinking from God's viewpoint. Stay there. What do you think, David? If I had said, is your salvation physical or spiritual?
It is a physical thing. It is Jesus the Christ. He is our salvation. That's right. And I want us to quit thinking of it as a verb primarily. The first thought is it is Jesus the Christ. It's a person.
That's right. It's not an it. All right. Salvation is physical. Now you know something that the other people don't know. That's right. The word came from God. It brought the mind of God to the mind of man as a word.
He was a vehicle. As the word. In Genesis 1 -1, the word the is not there. In beginning, God. Now, David, I don't understand all of the Trinity. In fact, I have to take it one at a time. But in Genesis 1 -1, the word God is plural.
Always plural. Salvation is physical. He is a person. Anything else? Well, David, if this is all that's going to be in church, you might as well get up now. Then we'll go home. Greg, dismiss us, please.