Healed by Returning

Introduction to Undeserved Suffering and Peter's Context

0:03 Now let us turn in the word of God to 1 Peter chapter 2, 1 Peter chapter 2, and I begin the reading at verse 18, 1 Peter 2 and verse 18.

0:24 Servants, or better and more accurately rendered, household slaves, be in subjection to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the perverse. For this is acceptable, if for conscience toward God a man endures griefs suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it if when you sin and are buffeted you shall take it patiently? But if when you do well and suffer you shall take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.

1:02 For hereunto were you called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you in example that you should follow his steps, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered, threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously, who his own self bore our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness.

1:41 By whose stripes you were healed, for you were going astray like sheep, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop, or better rendered, overseer of your soul.

2:00 I am sure every man, woman, boy, or girl would agree with me when I make this statement that suffering of any kind is both distasteful and unpleasant. Only someone sick in the head or governed by principles that totally alter one's natural response to suffering ever finds suffering anything other than distasteful and unpleasant. When we are suffering pain of any kind as a result of the general effects of sin upon the human constitution. That suffering is always distasteful and unpleasant. If I could, with a wave of the hand, take away the discomfort I have known for three and a half weeks with this hand butchered by a surgeon, I would wave my hand many times if by waving the hand the discomfort could be taken away. When we suffer emotional pain because others disappoint us. It also is both distasteful and unpleasant.

3:19 But perhaps the most difficult kind of suffering to endure is that kind of suffering which comes to us undeserved.

3:32 And it is that very kind of suffering that Peter is addressing here in the passage read in your hearing. You remember in verse 20 he says, What glory is it if when you sin and are buffeted, you take it patiently, but if when you do well and suffer. It was in the way of doing well that these people were suffering. And Peter addresses this subject in the larger context of this portion of the word of God.

4:06 And I give you just a brief reminder of what that context is. Here in the unfolding of this letter to the believers in Asia Minor. Peter has begun this second cycle of pastoral, practical exhortations to the people of God. Calling them to a lifestyle that will shut the mouths of unbelievers and will prepare them to glorify God in what Peter calls the day of visitation.

4:38 As he descends from that general appeal to that kind of a lifestyle, the first specific area he addresses is the right to do these things. is the issue of their relationship to every structure of human authority. Verse 13, be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. And then he descends to three specific areas in which that submission is to be rendered.

5:08 The citizen to the state, 13b through verse 17. The house slave to his master, verses 18 to 25. And wives to their husbands, chapter 3, verses 1 to 6. Now it's in the midst of his dealing with this second specific area in which Christians are to manifest their alternate lifestyle, to use contemporary jargon, that Peter brings forward the subject of suffering.

Incentives for Patient Endurance of Suffering

5:41 And why does he do that? Well, in verse 18, he had given what is a very, very difficult directive. Servants or household slaves be in subjection to your masters with all fear. There's the generic description.

5:58 If you find yourself in the posture of a house slave, you are to be in submission to your master, and you are to be such in a climate of the fear of God, of the awareness that God has placed you there in His presence, that your life is under the scrutiny of your God, who is your Father and your Redeemer. You are to be in submission to your masters in all fear. And then he qualifies and says not only to the good and gentle, but also to the scolios, to the crooked, to the perverse, to the unjust, to the unreasonable. And then he launches in, beginning with verse 19 to 25, to a section of giving incentives, encouragement, for these house slaves to obey what Peter knew was a difficult directive. And we have studied those incentives under two headings. Number one, Peter says you must do this because such a pattern of patient endurance of undeserved suffering is acceptable before God. It is praiseworthy in the presence of your God.

7:10 That's verses 19 and 20. Then in verses 21 to 24, he says such a pattern of patient endurance of undeserved suffering is consistent with the very thing to which you were called. For hereunto were you called. And he said your calling involved two things.

7:30 A calling to follow Christ's example of patiently enduring undeserved suffering. And your calling involves God's purpose, that you should die to sin and live to righteousness. So incentive number two is such a pattern of patiently enduring undeserved suffering is consistent with your calling. Now we come this morning to verse 24C and verse 25.

The Third Incentive: Benefits of Conversion Secured by Christ's Sufferings

8:01 And I concur with the commentator Robert Johnstone who wrote, the division of the verses has not been satisfactorily made here. The last clause of verse 24, by whose stripes you were healed, ought to have begun verse 25. And the reason is simply this. It is not a mere additional thought added to what precedes, but rather it is a new thought, a new thought that is expanded and explained in verse 25.

8:36 And there's a very shift in the language. Notice verse 24. He bore our sins in his body upon the tree, that we having died unto sins. Now he moves from the first person plural to the second person plural again.

8:51 By whose stripes you were healed, for you were going astray like sheep, but are returned unto the shepherd and overseer of your souls. And here in these verses, the latter part of verse 24 and verse 25, Peter sets before us this third incentive to help these household slaves knuckle under and embrace from the heart a difficult directive. And that incentive simply stated is this. He reminds them of the benefits of their own conversion secured by the sufferings of Christ.

9:35 And he says to them in essence, do you find it difficult to be obedient? Yes. Even to your scolios, your crooked, unreasonable masters, then you must not only remember that such a course of patient endurance of undeserved suffering is acceptable to God, is consistent with your calling, but if you allow your mind and your heart ever to be suffused and percolate with the wonder of what it is to be converted because of the sufferings of Christ, then you will be enabled to comply with this directive from the heart in the grace and power of Christ. And so he describes their conversion in order to awaken afresh in them a sense of wonderment and gratitude that will in turn spur them on to a life of obedience to the very difficult directive given in verse 18. And so he describes their conversion in order to awaken afresh in them a sense of wonderment and gratitude that will in turn spur them on to a life of obedience to the very difficult directive given in verse 18. And so he describes their conversion in order to awaken afresh in them a sense of wonderment and gratitude that will in turn spur them on to a life of obedience to the very difficult directive given in verse 18. And so he describes their conversion in order to awaken afresh in them a sense of wonderment and gratitude that will in turn spur them on to a life of obedience to the very difficult directive given in verse 18.

10:29 that will in turn spur them on to a life of obedience to the very difficult directive given in verse 18. And as he sets forth their conversion, he does so, you'll notice, under two metaphors or two vivid figures. He says at the end of verse 24, By whose stripes you were healed. Their conversion is described as a healing from sickness.

10:59 And then in verse 25, For you were going astray like sheep, but are returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. They were made healed sinners, and they were made returned sheep. And in reality, what Peter is saying is not really two distinct and separate metaphors, but two separate metaphors. But really what he says is, You were healed, and your healing consists in your being returned.

11:33 For look at the language. He says, By whose stripes you were healed. And the first word of verse 25 is not and, a coordinating conjunction. But it is the little Greek particle dar.

11:46 For. You were healed for. In what does their healing consist? Their healing consists.

The Divine Origin of Peter's Metaphors

11:54 In being sheep who have returned to the shepherd and overseer of their souls. Now before attempting to open up, to explain, and to apply this passage, we must, by way of introduction, ask and answer a question that will press itself upon any thoughtful reader. And the question is this. What in the world prompted Peter to bring together these very unrelated figures of conversion?

12:25 I don't think in 50 years I would bring together the concepts of conversion as healing and being a returned sheep. Why did Peter bring those two things together? Well, you might answer, well, because the Holy Spirit prompted him to do so. And you would be perfectly right.

12:45 As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2, 12 and 13, Now we have received, speaking of himself as an apostle, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know, the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but in words which the Holy Spirit teaches. And in his second letter, when Peter is describing the nature of Scripture, he says in chapter 1 and verse 21, that the prophecy did not come by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were literally borne along by the Holy Spirit. So if you were to answer that question, why did Peter bring together, you were healed and you were returned, it's because the Spirit of God prompted him and directed him. Amen.

13:37 But in prompting and directing him, did the Spirit of God use anything that was there in Peter's mind? Well, when we came to this section, I told you that there were the two streams beating in and pressuring Peter's mind in this whole section. Isaiah chapter 53, and all the things Peter saw as an eyewitness of the sufferings of Christ, and if you turn back to Isaiah 53 for just a moment, you'll see how the prophet Isaiah brought these two concepts into the closest conjunction in that very chapter that was very present in Peter's mind when he wrote this section. Verse 4 of Isaiah 53, speaking of the suffering servant of Jehovah, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did. Esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.

14:37 The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And now notice, and with his stripes we are healed. Verse 6, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him, the iniquity of us all.

15:01 The prophet Isaiah was the first to bring these two metaphors into the closest relationship. By his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. And it is because Peter's mind is saturated with this chapter, and we'll see how relevant that is when we come to expound it and seek to ascertain its precise meaning.

The Healing of True Conversion Asserted: Nature and Basis

15:28 It is in connection with the sin-bearing, suffering servant of Jehovah that the idea of healing by his stripes and straying sheep are found in this intimate conjunction. Now if I were to give a title to the remaining exposition this morning, this is how I would entitle it. Healed by returning the blessed reality of true conversion. Healed by returning the blessed reality of true conversion.

16:07 Are you a truly converted man or woman? Have you experienced that which Jesus said is essential to entering the kingdom?

16:18 If so, then you've been healed by returning.

16:23 You may not know precisely when you were healed by returning, but you have been healed by returning. And if you've not been healed by returning, you are a stranger to true and saving conversion. So brethren, this is not an interesting academic exercise concerning the things that Peter would set before some household slaves to help them from the heart conduct themselves as true believers in the presence of unreasonable masters. It's a matter of your soul's life and death.

16:58 For what Peter says to them with respect to their conversion, he says to them not because they are converted slaves, but because they are converted sinners. And what was true of them, and Peter can speak so dogmatically, is true of every one of us, both in our state of nature and in the transformation of God's grace. Now then, consider with me under two major headings what is taught in this passage. First of all, we have the healing of true conversion asserted, and then second, secondly, the healing of true conversion expounded.

17:38 Now that shouldn't be difficult to remember those two simple heads. The healing of true conversion asserted. By whose stripes you were healed. And then the healing of true conversion expounded, for you were going astray like sheep, but are returned.

17:57 The healing of true conversion asserted. To assert is to declare in a positive, affirmative manner. And with respect to these household slaves, and with respect to all true Christians, Peter can say simply, dogmatically, emphatically, by whose stripes you were healed. Now note with me the two categories within which this healing is asserted.

18:24 The nature of it, and the basis of it. What's the nature of this healing? Well, our text informs us that it is a past, and an accomplished fact. Peter says without any fear of being contradicted, concerning these whom he is addressing, by whose stripes you were healed.

18:46 And he uses a form of the verb that speaks of an action that is definitive, it is accomplished, it is done. He does not say by whose stripes you are being healed, as though it were a process. Nor does he say, by whose stripes you ought to be healed as though it were a duty. Nor does he say, by whose stripes you may be healed as though it were a possibility.

19:15 Nor does he say, by whose stripes you shall be healed as though it were a prophecy. It is none of those things. He says in this dogmatic, authoritative, emphatic way as to the nature of their healing, it is a past and an accomplished fact. There was not a one of those household slaves who has not been healed, if he's a true Christian.

19:41 Whatever the healing is, every one of them has been healed. The second thing we learn about the nature of this healing, it is a fact true of all the people of God. Peter could say this in a special way to those household slaves, and I already indicated he's moved back to the second person plural, to drive this home to them with peculiar emphasis. He spoke of himself and all believers generally in verse 24, bore our sins that we having died to sin might live to righteousness.

20:15 Now he becomes more focused and says, but you, second person plural, you were going astray, but are now returned. But now the question is, why could he say this of these household slaves? Was there something? Was there something peculiar in their experience?

20:33 No. It is because they were Christians that they had experienced the healing to which Peter refers. They had undergone the marvelous realities described in chapter 1, verses 3 to 12. They had been begotten again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

20:53 They had experienced what Peter describes in verses 18 and 19 of that chapter. They had been redeemed, not with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ. They've experienced what he says in verse 22 and 23. They've purified their souls in obedience to the truth.

21:11 They've been begotten again. Peter can say they were healed because he's already described in generic terms their Christian experience that they have in common with all of the people of God. So the nature of this healing, what is it? It is a past and accomplished fact.

21:30 You were healed. It is a fact true of all the people of God, and it is a fact that relates to spiritual healing. It has nothing to do with bodily or physical healing.

21:46 Remember the context of Isaiah 53. What's the whole context of Isaiah 53? It is the suffering servant of Jehovah who is vicariously in our room instead bearing the guilt and wrath of God. Wrath deservingness of our sins.

22:05 The Lord hath made to light upon him or strike upon him the iniquity of us all. To read into Isaiah 53 that somehow Christ's death was a vicarious bearing of our physical illnesses, and therefore if we truly believe on him, we can claim from him physical healing. This side of the resurrection is ludicrous. The context of Isaiah 53.

22:32 Isaiah 53 does not warrant such an interpretation. The very context here. He's going to describe what the healing is in verse 25. He says, By whose stripes you were healed for someone laid hands on you and exorcised your demon of arthritis.

22:53 Nonsense. For you were healed. Why? For you were like sheep going astray, but a return to the shepherd and bishop of your souls.

23:02 Their healing was spiritual. They were healed by returning. Not by claiming their physical healing. Not by finding some so-called healer and having him give them a handkerchief and all this other nonsense.

23:16 It has nothing whatsoever to do with it. Look at the concluding statement in this very paragraph. You were returned unto the shepherd and overseer of your souls. Your healing had to do with the state of your souls in relationship to him who is shepherd, and overseer, even the suffering servant of Jehovah.

23:38 So the nature of the healing is found in this text. Past and accomplished. True of all the people of God. And it is a spiritual healing.

23:48 And what's the basis of it? Again, look at the text. By whose stripes you were healed. It is a healing derived and based upon the stripes of Jesus.

24:03 A healing based upon and derived from the stripes of Jesus. Now in this phrase, loosely quoted from Isaiah 53, 5, Peter used a word that literally rendered is by whose wealth, singular, or bloody bruise, singular, you were healed.

24:31 Now can you think of the peculiar poignancy of the use of that word to the use of the word of the Lord. To the use of the word of the Lord. To the use of the word of the Lord. To the use of the word of the Lord.

24:36 Perhaps some of them at the very time this epistle was being read sat in an assembly of God's people with a raised welt upon their backs from the lash of an unjust, scolios, crooked, and perverse master. But he says the healing you've experienced is based upon and derived from the welt, the bleeding, the bruise of the suffering servant of Jehovah. From the molots that our Lord received. And it is my judgment shared by many of the commentators that though Peter focuses upon this particular aspect of the suffering of Christ, he is using the part for the whole. The scourging of our Lord, being beaten with rods and clubs as Matthew, Matthew 26 tells us, were but one aspect of his vicarious suffering. And Peter is marshalling all of the language of Isaiah 53 to point these household slaves never to forget the one whom he has set before them in the previous verses, who suffered for them, who did no sin,

26:04 neither was dial found in his mouth, who when reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, threatened not. And out of his sufferings, he says, comes your healing. Now when he requires of you to do that, which means you must embrace the way of suffering, can you not out of gratitude for him, towards him, whose welt, whose bruise is the source of your healing, can you not embrace the way of patiently enduring undeserved suffering?

26:39 In gratitude for his converting grace and mercy. Peter then, encouraging these slaves, says you may be abused, yes, but you were never abused as your Lord was. Your Lord was so abused that out of the crucible of his stripes, out of his welt, out of his bleeding torn back and all the sufferings associated with it, you have been healed. Now we move from the healing of true conversion asserted to consider, secondly, the healing of true conversion expounded.

The Healing of True Conversion Expounded: Grim Past

27:22 For, and I underscore again, the Spirit of God is just as much inspired the little connected words in Scripture as he has the big words. And as I was sharing with someone this week in a counseling session, when I first looked at this text, I said, oh, this is going to be a delight to labor over and prepare. We've got these two vivid images, converging, conversion is a spiritual healing, conversion is a sheep returning. As I carefully studied the text, I said, no, you do not have two parallel images.

27:59 You have healing by returning. You have this spiritual healing asserted, but now it's going to be expounded in verse 25. And as we look at it, notice the language of the text. For you were going astray like sheep, but are now.

28:19 Now, I want to pause on those few words for a moment. You were separated by a very strong adversative. In the Greek, the adversative Allah. It's a but with capital B, capital U, capital T.

28:35 You were, you now are. You were, but you are. You were, but you are. That's why I use the term conversion.

28:47 It's speaking of this transformation of God's grace. It's speaking of this transformation of God's grace. It's speaking of this transformation of God's grace. You were, but are now.

28:54 And in opening it up, notice with me the grim picture of the past. This is what they were. And then the glorious portrayal of their present. This is what they now are.

29:06 The grim picture of the past. Using the general description of Isaiah 53, 6, which reads this way. All we like sheep have gone astray. Peter makes it very personal.

29:21 And applies it more closely and says, for you were going astray. You see, Peter didn't have this notion that preachers should never point the figure and say you. They should only say we and us. No, he says to these converted household slaves, you were.

29:42 And what does he say of them? He paints this grim picture using the language of Isaiah 53, 6. For you were going astray. You were going astray.

29:52 You were going astray. You were going astray. You were going astray. You were going astray.

29:56 You were going astray. You were going astray. You were going astray. You were going astray.

30:00 You were going astray. You were going astray. Like sheep. And Peter's language is very precise.

30:04 He uses a form of the verb to be and then a participle construction, which literally rendered with me this, you were continually and constantly going astray like sheep. You want a brief description of your pre-converted history? Here it is. Continually going astray.

30:22 You know what's involved in that imagery? Most of us could live in that image. We've seen it. live and die in northern New Jersey and never see a sheep, let alone a flock of sheep, let alone some straying sheep. What's bound up in the concept that the prophet captured in Isaiah 53, 6, and that Peter seizes upon here, that you were going astray like sheep, continually. This was your pattern. Well, one writer has captured much of the essence of it when he wrote, the natural state of mankind is like that of strayed sheep. It is a state of error, of want, of perplexity, of dissatisfaction, and of danger. It is a state that gives no

31:10 promise of improvement. The strayed sheep, if left to itself, will wander further and further from the fold till it perish of hunger, fall over the precipice, or be devoured. By the wild beast. You see, for us, it conveys primarily a tender, poetic image. But it's not tender and poetic. It's a grim picture. Strayed sheep are sheep who are in a place of constant danger, of vulnerability, helplessness. The precipice awaits them. The wild beasts await them. They are away from the shepherd, the place of the sheep. They are away from the shepherd, the place of the sheep. They are away from the shepherd, the place of the sheep. They are away from the shepherd, the place of the sheep. They are away from the

31:59 provision and protection and safety. Another has written, the comparison of sinners to straying sheep is a common biblical figure. It's not a complementary comparison, since sheep are notoriously dull, prone to stray, and helpless to find their way back. Straying sheep lost in the wilderness or mountains and exposed to wild beasts and destruction present a wretched picture of the needy state of the lost.

32:28 We sense something of the grimness, the pathetic state of stray sheep. But if we're thinking biblically, we must add to that pathetic strain the culpable state of these sheep. For unlike the brute beast called a sheep, you who are an image-bearer of God, made with the consciousness of moral accountability to God, and therefore the prophetized, the righteous, the righteous, and the righteous, and the wise, as the prophet of Isaiah, from whom Peter's quoting goes on to say, all we like sheep have gone astray. And what lies beneath that strain? We have turned every one of us to his own way. You see, our straying is a matter of a clenched fist in the face of almighty God, saying, Don't mess with my life! I'm on my own! All we like sheep have gone astray. We like sheep have gone astray.

33:44 We have turned every one of us to his own way, viewed in our vulnerability, viewed in our universal condition of straying. We're a flock of sheep, but get close enough to every sheep and there you find a stubborn, rebellious, suitor daughter of Adam saying, I'm going to do what I want to do my own way. Not a pretty picture. Not a pretty picture.

34:21 It's the grim picture. Did Peter know the personal life history of all of those household slaves to whom he was writing? Of course not. Did Peter have an in-depth interview with all of them before he could say you were going astray like sheep? And behind that straying was your own rebellious determination to live your own life by your own standard, cut your own path, make your own way. No, but he knew this because he knew his Bible. He did not interpret human experience by observation, but by divine revelation. And until you interpret who and what you are by divine revelation, my friend, you'll just wander more and more and take yourself deeper and deeper into a path of vulnerability and danger and exposedness to the wrath of God itself. The grim picture of the past. You were going

The Healing of True Conversion Expounded: Glorious Present

35:24 astray. Like sheep. But, bless God for the buts of Scripture. Any of you ever heard Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones' sermon from Ephesians 2-4? But, God. A whole sermon structure around that blessed but. And our text says you were going astray like sheep. But, but, here is the glorious portrayal of their present. But are now. And that little particle now is precious. But are now is what you are right now. And whatever grace has mapped out for you in that inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fades not away, or what he refers to in verse 9 of chapter 1, waiting for that salvation ready to be revealed, whatever future dimensions of grace spread out before them, he says you are now. You are now returned unto the shepherd and overseer of your souls. Two things now about this glorious portrayal of their present. The first, it is the present state brought about by another. Look at the text. If you have a good translation, it will

36:40 reveal that there is a passive verb. You are now returned. It doesn't say you have now returned yourself, but you are now returned. Now you children know the difference between an active and a passive verb, don't you? If I say, the children, you are now returned.

36:59 The children carried the books to the library. The children were active. They picked up and carried the books. But now if I say, the books were returned to the library, there is a passive sense. You have got to ask, how did they get there? If they were returned, they didn't walk there, they didn't fly there, they didn't crawl there. Some magician didn't wave a wand and have them fly there. Somebody picked them up and carried them to the library. They didn't walk there. Somebody climbed them up and carried them. And here Peter writes and says, you were going astray. And your straying was all of your own doing. You turned to your own way. You joined that flock of Adam's sheep in rebellion against God. But he said, another

37:47 agency has entered in to make you what you now are. You are now returned. Your present state is brought about by another. And who is that other?

38:01 Well, if you know your Bible a little bit, you don't need to wonder. You remember in Luke 15, when Jesus is answering the objection of some of the religious crowd that he hobnobs with the riffraff and sinners, he gives them three parables. The parable of a lost sheep and the lost coin and the lost son. And in the parable of the lost sheep, he says the shepherd goes out and he seeks the sheep until he finds it.

38:28 And Peter is reminding these household slaves that it is God himself, God in the person of his son, that has sought the wandering sheep. But then notice, secondly, it's a present condition that centers in a relationship to a person. You were going astray like sheep. There's the grim picture.

38:51 But here's the glorious present reality. You are now returned unto what?

38:58 Unto the sheep. The shepherd and overseer of your soul. You are now returned or brought back to what? Not to new religious forms and rituals.

39:12 It's amazing how people will give up a life that outwardly is irreligious and impious and indifferent to God and to his church and to his ways. And they will adopt a whole set of religious rituals and forms and have no hard dealings with God. God himself or with his son. But that isn't what Peter is describing here.

39:35 He doesn't say you are now returned unto a new religion of forms and rituals, a new set of dogmas in abstraction or a new rigid standard of conduct. He says you've been brought back to a person. You see that in the passage? You are now returned unto the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

39:57 Their present condition is one that centers in a relationship. To a person. And that person is described in terms of two functions. Shepherd and overseer.

40:10 And then the specific and primary sphere of that function of your souls. You see that in your Bibles. It's not written on my face. Do you see that in your Bible?

40:20 My task is to expound the Bible. Do you see that in your Bible? On your lap. Open the 40.

40:27 Who are they returned to? To someone called in terms of two functions. Shepherd and overseer. Now again, who is that someone?

40:40 Well, we know it is the Lord Jesus. And if we had time, we would open up that rich vein of Old Testament teaching in which God promises in his messianic promises that there would come one true shepherd. One who would seek out his sheep and gather them. And then through the New Testament, we'd come to the climactic statement in John 10 where Jesus said, I am the good shepherd.

41:04 I lay down my life for the sheep. Other sheep I have which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring. And they shall hear my voice.

41:14 And there shall be one fold. One shepherd. Peter later on in this very passage, in this very epistle, chapter 5, when he's charging pastors, he then speaks of Christ as the archipoimane, the chief shepherd. He describes the Lord Jesus in his function as a shepherd.

41:34 And what does that function involve? Well, just think of Psalm 23. The shepherd is committed to protect, to preserve, to guide, to guard, to provide for all the needs.

41:50 Think what that would have meant to these household slaves. They'd just been told, household slaves, be in subjection to your masters, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the perverse. And even though it brings upon you suffering, undeserved, you must patiently endure it. Peter says, remember in your conversion, you were brought from all of your vulnerability and exposedness as wandering sheep into this relationship where your true shepherd is the one who laid down his life for you.

42:29 The one who tenderly guards and preserves and protects you, nurtures and cherishes you, you have returned to the shepherd. And then the word translated bishop is the word overseer. It comes from a verb which simply means to inspect and to look over. And the way the construction is in the original one article, the shepherd and overseer, not two separate categories, but as shepherd, he constantly inspects you in all the particularity of your need with a view to what?

43:06 Not with a view to getting on your case if you don't do everything according to the book, but with a view to caring, providing, nurturing, caring for all your needs. You have returned to the shepherd and overseer. And what's the primary sphere of his concern as he performs the function of shepherd and overseer? The text says, of your souls, of your souls.

43:34 Man is both body and soul. God made both. Man is both body and soul. Man is both body and soul.

43:38 He cares for both. In redemption, he will glorify both. Our redemption is not complete until our bodies are glorified. But there is a primacy given to the soul.

43:50 It is the state of your soul that will determine the eternal place in which your body resides. That's why Jesus said, don't be afraid of those that kill the body, and after this have no more that they can do, but fear him who can destroy both soul and body in heaven. Well, the gentle Jesus said that. Matthew 10, 28.

44:13 And even in this epistle, there's a primacy of concern for the soul. Look back at chapter 1 and verse 9. Peter said, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Verse 22, seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth.

44:34 You see, the primary sphere of the shepherding overseer, being concerned of the Lord Jesus, is the souls of his people. Is he indifferent to their bodies? No. Read Matthew 6.

44:50 Jesus says we're not to be sinfully anxious about what we will wear, what we will eat, what we'll put on. This is no platonic division of man into material and immaterial, but I've got to be honest with you. He is shepherd and overseer primarily of your soul.

45:11 Here in chapter 2 and verse 11, the very verse, that began this section, he says, abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the what? Against the soul. I resent it when anyone says to me, well, this emphasis upon the primacy of the soul, that's Greek and that's platonic, that's not biblical. Then you explain those four uses of soul in this one epistle.

45:36 I'm weary with people that deal in these vague generalities and don't know their Bibles.

45:43 Is Christ concerned with my body? Yes. When this body goes, is in the grave and is eaten by the worms, it is still in union with Christ. Those that sleep in Christ will God bring with him.

45:57 The dead in Christ shall rise first. He's not unconcerned about this body,

46:04 but there's a primacy of concern about the soul. What shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul? And why do I emphasize it? Well, because it's here in the text, but I emphasize it because I have lived long, long enough to see a whole nation move from a perspective in which men's soul was the primary concern of men to this crass body worship is now the God of the average American.

46:38 Get the sags out and the wrinkles out. Spend tens of thousands of dollars on plastic surgery.

46:46 How much of the world doesn't have the most elementary medical needs met? And how can people do this and unashamedly advertise what they're doing? It's because they, they've forgotten this fundamental truth,

47:00 the truth in the catechism. You have a soul that can never die and is the state of your soul that will determine the place in which your body dwells forever. For that soul will be joined to a body in the resurrection. And if that soul is unpurified and uncleansed and that soul has never been returned to the shepherd and overseer of souls, you'll go to judgment with none to plead your case.

47:30 You'll hear, hear the Lord Jesus say, depart from me, I never know you.

Practical Application for Believers: Gratitude and Obedience

47:36 Well, we come around full circle to where we began. We've looked at the passage. We have seen that Peter gives as the third incentive to these household slaves that they might embrace from the heart the difficult directive of verse 18. He says, in essence, remember, remember you were healed on the basis of the sufferings of Christ and you were healed on the basis of the sufferings of Christ.

48:02 And you were healed on the basis of the sufferings of Christ. And you were healed with a healing that consists in this great contrast. You were. Don't forget what you were.

48:12 But you are now. Don't.

48:16 John Brown, as he so often does, hits the nail on the head when he comments,

48:24 have we in consequence of the good shepherd laying down his life for us been reclaimed from our wanderings, joined to his flock and blessed with his pastoral care? Should we not then entirely resign ourselves to his love? Should we not then entirely resign ourselves to his love? Should we not then entirely resign ourselves to his love?

48:37 Should we not then entirely resign ourselves to his love? Should we not then entirely resign ourselves to his guidance? Follow him fearlessly and readily through paths however rugged and thorny while he is conducting us to his heavenly fold? Should we not have perfect confidence in his love and power manifested in dying for us and in reclaiming us from our wanderings and therefore readily do whatever he commands?

49:00 Because he commands it. Cheerfully submit to whatever he appoints because he appoints it. That's the practical application of this passage. And what it says to these household slaves, it says to every one of us who is placed in a situation of human relationships where our duty is clearly to be the submissive and the obedient one.

49:29 And in that course we suffer and we suffer undeserved punishment. What are we to do? Remember, you were healed. You were healed.

49:44 And you were healed with a healing that is comprised of being returned to the shepherd and the overseer of your soul. And a few more inconveniences, a few more unjust demands, a few more unrighteous responses, this life will be over and you'll stand in the presence of him who healed you and caused you to return to him as shepherd and overseer and so shall we ever be with the Lord himself.

Call to Unbelievers: Recognize Spiritual Sickness and Straying

50:17 And as I close this morning, I am constrained from this passage not only to try to encourage you, the Lord's people, but to ask you who sit here who are strangers to this converting grace, have you come to grips with what you really are? That you are spiritually sick.

50:43 See, Peter had no fears that any one of these people could write back to him. And say, now, Peter, what in the world do you mean I've been healed? To be healed assumes you're sick. A healthy person doesn't get healed.

50:55 He remains healthy. It's only sick people that get healed. No, Peter had no reservation that when he said, by whose stripes you were healed, assuming that they were all natively, spiritually and morally sick, that any could legitimately contradict him. And you say, well, if I'm sick, in what does my sickness consist?

51:17 Do you really want to know? Well, you ought to. Because you see, Jesus said, they that are whole or healthy have no need of a doctor, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

51:30 The religious leaders in Jesus' day wanted nothing to do with him. Why? Because they didn't know how sick they were. Jesus was among them as God's heavenly physician ready to heal the vilest, the neediest of sinners.

51:43 But he says to these people, they that are healthy, that is, who in their own eyes are not sick. They are not sick. They are not sick. They are not sick.

51:48 They have no need of a doctor. He said, I did not come to call the righteous. There are none righteous in themselves and in fact, but in their own eyes many are righteous. That's why you don't go to Christ.

52:01 But you are sick. You want to hear an 18th century preacher tell you what your sickness is? If we're a large task to name our spiritual maladies, how much more severally to unfold their natures? Such a multitude of corrupt, false principles in the mind which has gathered gangrene spread themselves through the soul and defiled the whole man.

52:26 That total gross blindness and unbelief in spiritual things. That heart of stone, hardness and impenitence, lethargies of senselessness and security. And then, for there are such complications of spiritual disease in us, such burning fevers of inordinate affections and desires, of lust and malice and envy, such racking and tormenting cares of covetousness.

52:55 Then he goes on to speak of tumors of pride and self-conceit that break forth as filthy boils and ulcers in men's words and in their relationships one to another. In a word, what a horrible disorder must needs be in the natural soul by the frequent interchanges and fight of its contrary passions. You see what he's saying? You've got one lost.

53:21 One cries to be fed and another fights to get in its place. He goes on to several pages to describe how sick we are. My unconverted friend, have you ever had a sight of your sick?

53:38 I shall never forget when the godly, gracious, wonderful man of God, A.W. Tozer, toward the end of his life said this, In my life I have seen many ugly, ugly things, but the ugliest, most detestable thing I've ever seen is my own heart. My unconverted friend, you're sick.

54:05 You're sick. And the tragedy of your sickness is it brings you to the depths of your malady.

54:14 You need to cry to God, Oh God, show me how sick I am until nothing matters but being returned to him who is the great physician who as shepherd lays down his life that by his stripes that moral, spiritual sickness might be healed. You see, there is no healing outside of Christ. He doesn't say you healed yourself, but you were healed by his stripes. You're sick and you're straying.

54:49 You're straying. Peter could say of those slaves in their former condition, you were continually and constantly and only going astray like sheep. You say, that's not me. I'm focused.

55:04 I've got my goals. I've got my plans. I've got my plans. I've got my directives.

55:09 I know where I'm going. I'm not aimlessly wandering, my friend. Listen, I don't care how focused and concentrated you are in pursuing your goals. Every one of them is the path of a wandering sheep.

55:22 And you know what happens to wandering sheep? The Bible says they will one day become wandering stars. So what are you talking about, Pastor? I'm using biblical language.

55:34 One of the most frightening pictures of the eternal state of a lost soul found anywhere in the Bible is in the book of Jude, where it says they are wandering stars to whom is reserved blackness forever. You've heard of the black holes? You've heard of the black holes that the astronomers talk about? God says your soul will be swallowed up in an endless black hole. Why? Why? Why do you go on?

56:25 A wandering sheep. And as a wandering sheep, you'll become a wandering star.

56:45 Do you have an answer? What's your answer? Well, it's coming near the end. I'll tough it out and then we'll go home.

56:53 No, my friend! A moment is coming when there'll be no more toughing it out and going home. This very Christ who is set before us in the plenitude of His grace and mercy as shepherd and overseer will be your judge. And when He says, depart, there's no toughing it out and going home.

Invitation to Return to the Shepherd

57:14 It says these shall go away into outer darkness. And it could be said, for the rest of you this day, you were, but you are. That's the wonder of the Gospel. That which keeps an old man of retirement age preaching like a teenager is the confidence that as I preach this word, if God is pleased, you can become one of those of whom it is said, you were, but you are.

57:50 You were, but you are. Will you be one of those? We become that. How did these people become?

57:59 one? He who says these things have been preached unto you in the gospel. You've heard the same message you've heard this morning, that God has sent his only begotten Son, and that in the sufferings of Jesus, righteous recompense has been made to the law of God, that he might be just and the justifier of all who believe in Jesus. I close with the language of that same prophet, who having opened up the sufferings of the servant of Jehovah in chapter 53, prophesies in chapter 54 that as a result of his sufferings, the people of God will be expanded throughout the earth. And then in chapter 55, God gives gracious invitation. He takes the role of a street hawker, and he says, O everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And he who has no money, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.

58:57 And then he reasons, why do you spend your money for that which cannot satisfy? And then he says these words, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, for he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

59:25 I plead with you to seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Forsake that way of straying. Forsake that way framed by doing your own thing, by your own standards to your own ends. You were never made for that. You were made to do God's thing, God's way, to God's glory. That's why he lets you breathe his air. And that's why hell is a necessity, when creatures will not be what God made them to be.

59:59 God sends them to hell, and they will glorify his justice in spite of their determination to give him no glory. But my friend, God holds out to you the promise of mercy and pardon. If you will forsake your way, return to this shepherd and overseer, and you will find him to be all that scripture says he is, and that we his people affirm that he is to those who trust him. Our Father.

60:42 How we plead with you to bless your word. We cannot reach into the hearts of straying sheep, but you can. Oh, God, you can. And we pray that you will. We thank you that sitting here this morning are many of whom it can be said, we were, but now are. And we thank you for the grace that sought us, for the wounds and sufferings of Jesus. The virtue of which has terminated upon us, that we might be forgiven, pardoned, restored. Oh, Lord, we thank you. Help us, help us ever to live with a sense of wonderment upon our

61:32 souls that we have been healed. And we've been healed by being returned to the shepherd and overseer of our souls. May this word bring forth fruit in all of our lives to your praise. Amen.

61:47 And to our benefit. Amen.