Good evening, everyone. You can turn with me in your Bibles to the book of 1 Peter. We're continuing on in my exposition of the book of 1 Peter. Tonight, we'll be looking at verses 17 to 21 of chapter 1, verse 17 to 21.

If you recall from our previous sermons that Peter has gone through a series of instruction in the truths of what is all involved in the Christian life and salvation as a whole. What does that all mean in verses 1 through 12? And then in verse 13, he turns to practical application of that. How do we live our lives in light of all these glorious truths that he's just taught on?

And then in this passage here in 17 to 21, he sort of takes the entire book and and brings that into one little passage here. He gives us the root of the gospel message in verse 19 there, being in 18 and 19, redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb, and how we live our lives in light of that. So we will read the entire chapter, and then we'll pray, and then we'll look at those verses there. So 1 Peter 1, beginning at verse 1.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom, having not seen, you love.

Though now you do not see him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you. Searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who is in them was indicating when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things which angels desire to look into.

Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance, but as he who called you as holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, Be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, Conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear, knowing that you are not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who through him believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and abides forever. Because all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever. Now this is the word which, by the gospel, was preached to you.

Amen. Well, let us pray.

Opening Prayer

Father in heaven, when we come to passages of scripture like this that we hope to look at tonight, Lord, how can we do justice to the glory of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ? And Lord, we thank you that, as Paul said to the Corinthians, it's not about persuasive words of human wisdom, but that it would be a demonstration of the Spirit and of power. And Lord, that is our desire tonight, that your Holy Spirit be here in much power to aid in preaching the Word, and Lord, and to shine a light on the Savior, on our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. That whether, if there be sinners here tonight who have not come to Christ, have not believed on Him, that tonight, they would see the Savior, and that He would be exalted, and He would be made much of, Lord, tonight, and that they would believe on the Savior.

And Lord, if there be those, and for the rest, Lord, of Your people, those who have believed in the Savior, that tonight would be a means for their edification, for their growth in grace and knowledge for love of the Savior, Lord, that you would be pleased to bless each one of us here tonight through the preaching of your word. And, Lord, we look to you and we ask you for aid and for assistance in this, and we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

Introduction

Well, the section that we hope to look at tonight there, verse 17 to 21, breaks down into four main sections. I'm not necessarily going to preach them that way. Tonight I'm going to sort of jump around a little bit back and forth through there, but you'll be able to follow, I hope. But basically we have the condition in verse 17.

We have the command in verse 17a, sorry. We have the command in verse 17b. We have the reason for the command in verse 18 to 21a. And then we have the result in verse 21b.

The Condition: Calling God Father

So then if we begin there in verse 17, The condition, it says, if you call on the father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work. The NASB, I believe, translates that a little bit better. It says, if you address as father the one who impartially judges. So if you call him, if you call God, or the impartial judge, your father, then.

So that's the condition. If you profess to be a child of God. And in the Greek language there, this word, in the construction that it is, and it's not so much an if, but it's rather a since. Since you do this.

Since you are children of God, since you call him your father, then do this. So he's speaking to the believers here, and he knows that. And that's why he uses the word father here. If you address him as father, if you call God your father, And this is not an uncommon concept to his readers, and Peter knows that.

And his point here is not so much to highlight the doctrine of what we call adoption, that we are adopted as the children of God there, but because they already understand that he's been teaching on that. but it's more so how do we respond in light of that. So he's already spoken of the inheritance in verse four, and inheritance that they will receive. He's really given a lot of focus to this in the previous verses here. And obviously, inheritance means heirs, and heirs are children, and obviously children by birth or children by adoption.

So they understand they've been adopted as the children of God. Jesus taught the same thing as well. We see that throughout the Gospels, Matthew 5, for example, verse 48, you shall be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. We see all through the Sermon on the Mount.

He keeps referring to your father in heaven, your heavenly father. And again, I don't want to spend much time on the adoption factor, but it is something that as believers is really such an encouragement to us that we have been adopted by the High King of Heaven, the Creator, as His children, and that we have this inheritance. That's been the whole point of Peter's teaching so far. But again, here is the condition.

If you call God your Father, But then look how he explains who they're speaking of here. And that's the one who without partiality judges. That's how the New King James translates it. It's one word.

As a noun, the impartial judge. we could say in our language now. Literally what it says is that God does not, or it's the one who does not receive the face of a man. That's a very wooden, literal translation, does not receive the face of a man. So sometimes we say that God is no respecter of persons or something like that.

God does not judge by outward appearances. That is the point here, that God God cannot be bribed. He cannot be bought. We can see that in the next verse there.

He says, you know, you haven't been redeemed with silver or gold. You can't buy off God. God is a perfectly just judge. And when it comes to that, then that means that sin must be punished as sin.

And that is something we have to understand to fully grasp what Peter's trying to teach us in this section here. Sin must be punished as sin. And it says here then that he will judge according to each one's work. So there's a day coming.

The Bible tells us, you know, the great day of judgment, the Bible talks about. Every single person will have to stand before God and have to give an account of all their deeds. And this is not just unbelievers. This is all men.

The Judgment Seat of Christ

Turn to 2 Corinthians for a second, chapter 5. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 9. Paul says here that, therefore, we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well-pleasing to him, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men But we are well known to God, and I trust are well known in your consciences. So if it was only unbelievers that had to go before the judgment seat of God, then creation, then no one would be able to witness the great grace and forgiveness of God.

So that's why it's important to understand. We all have an account with God, and we all will have to one day be called to give an account for that. If we look at, if we remember in Philippians chapter 3, Paul gives a real explanation there in terms of our account with God, that we all have an account. And Paul uses the accounting terms there.

He talks about gains and losses. And I find that always so helpful, that if we understand that, the gospel becomes so much clearer, easier to understand when we think in terms of our account with God. We have a column of gains, things that we had to do to earn eternal life. That's what Adam had to do in the garden, covenant of works.

And then we have the lost column, all the sin on there. And that each one of us has this account with God. And there's a day coming when each one will be called to give an account.

The Great White Throne Judgment

Turn to Revelation 20 for a minute. We see that day pictured there. Revelation 20 verse 11 and following. This is the great white throne judgment.

And it says, Then I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books.

The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. and they were judged, each one according to his works. Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, and anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." So we have this scene here. We see books being opened, and that indicates a record of all of our deeds, that account that we have with God.

The records are all there. It's all listed, and we are called to give an account. And that is a terrifying thought, especially for an unbeliever. What a terrifying thought to stand before the creator, the judge of all, the lawgiver, the judge, and to be called to give an account for how you've lived with reference to his law, how have you obeyed that law.

And it's one of utter disobedience. You think of Paul in Philippians 3 again. He says, all these things that I thought were gain, to me, all the things, the good deeds he thought he was doing, I had to count them as lost. They all actually counted against him.

He had nothing there. Everything was against him there. And that's the state that we all find ourselves in. But if you are an unbeliever, there, then it ought to be terrifying, because his law says you should have no other gods before him.

Yet you have not lived a life of serving him. You've rejected him. You've served yourself. You shall not use his name in vain.

Yet you've done that. You've used his name as a swear word. And when you bash your knuckles at work or something, or any of the commandments insubordinate to authority, parents' authority, murdering, and hatred going together, their adultery, and lusting, stealing, lying, coveting. It's, you know, you've broken them all.

And there you stand on that great day, everything exposed, all of creation witnessing that, and there's no help, no mediator for you, and nothing you can do but receive the punishment for your law-breaking. The wages of sin is death, says the Bible, eternal death. In hell, that is. So there's no running, there's no hiding.

You can't get away. You'll cry out, like the Bible says, for the mountains to fall on you and the hills to cover you. But there's no escaping the Almighty God. And that day is coming.

That day is sure. But the good news, the gospel that we'll see tonight, is that there is a way of escape. to escape that eternal wrath of the Lord. And that is through the precious blood of Jesus. And we'll see that in a minute.

Because for believers, it's different. Yes, it will be shown from the record books that you too have lived a life of disobedience. You have broken all those laws as well. You have not loved the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself, to sum it all up.

You've broken every one of those laws. But as we saw in Revelation there, there's a second book. There's another book. It's called the Book of Life.

And in that book is a list of names as well. And those names are all the elect, all of Christ's people, all those who he has redeemed. And from our side, we say that it would be all those who have believed in the Lord Jesus. So when it comes to your page in the record books, when your account is being read, and the judge, God, the great judge, is there, and item by item is being read out of your sins, And then each time, each one receives that stamp of payment, saying, paid in full, paid in full, every one.

We think of in Colossians chapter 2, Paul gives us that analogy there of Christ paying in full for all that record of debt that we had. Colossians 2.14, he says, having wiped out the handwriting, requirement that was against us or we would say the the the certificate of debt that was against us you know that was contrary to us and he has he has taken it out of the way having nailed it to his having nailed it to the cross so so that's So just imagine imagine that that that day for a minute as your And a multitude of people in this book of life, all those who are listed in there, a multitude that no one can number as they're being called to account. And everyone, as their sins are being read off, if I can use that language. I don't know if it's going to be a line by line type of judgment, but either way, we see there a multitude and everyone paid in full, paid in full.

Just imagine the glory that Christ will receive on that day there, as creation stands and witnesses this judgment here, and multitudes are declared that their sin is paid in full by Him, and they have a righteousness granted to them. That day will be all about Christ. Christ will be receiving the glory on that day, both in the justice and the just condemnation of sinners who have rejected Him and who have who have not believed in him, and as they are cast into the lake of fire, as we saw in Revelation there, that Christ will receive the glory for his justice on unbelievers, but Christ will receive the glory for his mercy for all those who are in that book of life, all those who have believed on him, for that redemption that he has done on their behalf, that he has redeemed them And that's what, back in 1 Peter again, that's what he says in verse 18, a literal reading which helps us to understand maybe a little bit better, he says,

Redeemed by the Precious Blood

but you were redeemed, then it inserts there, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. Redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. And that's what redeemed means, is bought and paid for. And that's how it can be said. paid in full on your account.

I always picture this stamp on a statement that says paid in full. You know, that's what we will receive from when Christ's atonement has been applied to our account, paid in full, because of the death of Christ. That's what the Bible tells us. The wages of sin is death.

And so the blood of Christ here, obviously speaking of His death, that he shed his blood on the cross of Calvary and died. And because that death was not any ordinary death there. That was a death of cosmic significance, a death whereby the wrath of God for sin was satisfied, that justice was met, the propitiation was made. That's the word Paul uses in Romans, propitiation there, that Christ had paid paid the price to satisfy justice.

Justice was served so that grace could be given. And that's what happened on the cross, that Christ took on Himself the punishment of every single sin, of every single believer, and He paid it in full. Because remember what I said earlier, God is a just judge. Payment for sin had to be made.

And the payment which the law demanded was death, that the payment could not be made in any other way. It could not be made with silver or gold. It had to be made with death. That's what the lawgiver had, the one who made the law, had given that as the punishment, death.

God as the just judge, he cannot be bought off in any way. You cannot bring silver or gold, perishable things like that. And now obviously we know, we can't come and offer God some change and say, you know, please God, forgive me. But the idea is that he's saying you cannot be bought off with something that does not meet the terms of the law.

The law was death. You cannot be bought off with anything else. does not want, neither can he or will he, except any other sort of something from us on our behalf, you know, not some sort of any sacrifice to try and appease him. It's, you know, we can't give, you know, a certain amount of money to the church or to humanitarian work and expect that, you know, that's going to somehow curry some good favor with God, you know, or church attendance or things like that. You know, it's not about cleaning up our life and trying to trying to, you know, become a better person so that we can, you know, hopefully the good that we do will outweigh the bad and somehow we're balanced on, you know, some sort of a scale.

And if the good, you know, outweighs the bad, then we get to go to heaven. That's not how it works.

No Corruptible Thing Satisfies Justice

Turn to Isaiah chapter 1 for a minute. We can see, we see God, through the prophet, indicting the nation of Israel there in Isaiah chapter 1 for these exact things that they were trying to do. They had left off all true worship of the true God, and they were just going through these motions, thinking as long as they did that, they were in some sort of a good favor with God. Start at verse 10.

It says, hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. Now, he's not speaking to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, obviously, those cities were long gone, he's likening them to that. If you see that in verse 9 there, he's likening them to, you know, as wicked as Sodom and Gomorrah there.

So he says, but verse 11, to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me, says the Lord? I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required this from your hand to trample my courts?

Bring no more futile sacrifices, incenses, and abomination to me. The new moons, the Sabbaths, and calling of assemblies, I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates. They are a trouble to me.

I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

So you can see the Israelites there, they thought that they were earning God's favor through this religious rituals and outward obedience to the law there. The context may be a little bit different than we find ourselves in today, but yet the point is the same, that we cannot earn favor with God somehow that by something that we can we can offer God is but God is the lawmaker and he's the judge he's both and and as Lawmaker he determined that the punishment for breaking the law would be death and as the judge a just judge He will see to it that the punishment is dealt out but but God is is gracious. We see that in Exodus, God saying to Moses, I delight in forgiving all types of sin and iniquity and transgression. You know, God is a God of mercy.

He provided a way of salvation, you know, and that is through his son, the Lord Jesus there, the precious blood there. And as we just looked at there, that Christ was declared, he was condemned, in our place. That's why we sing the hymn, you know, in my place, condemned he stood, sealed my pardon with his blood, hallelujah, what a savior. You know, and that is the good news.

That's the gospel in a nutshell. That the precious blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Now, if you're still in Isaiah, look at verse 18 of chapter 1. "'Come now, and let us reason together,' says the Lord.

"'Though your sins are like scarlet, "'they shall be as white as snow. "'Though they are red like crimson, "'they shall be as wool. "'If you are willing and obedient, "'you shall eat the good of the land. "'But if you refuse and rebel, "'you shall be devoured by the sword, "'for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.'" So he says, though, you know, come and let's reason together.

Though your sins are scarlet, they shall be white as snow. So that's the, that's the, you know, the gospel, the invitation that goes out to each one. If you're an unbeliever here tonight, the answer to your problem, if you imagine yourself in that scenario of that great day of judgment, standing before the Lord, and all of your sin exposed with no one to cover those sins, no one to have it paid in full for you, this is the answer. This is the solution to your problem, and that is faith. in Christ.

That is how Christ's work can be applied to your account. It is through faith in Him. And, you know, it's because, and that's, when I say, when I said, or we saw that God is impartial in regards to His justice. He does not judge on the outside, according to, you know, something that someone else, someone offers.

It's the same thing. when in regards to his mercy, he's not impartial, he's no respecter of persons when it comes to his mercy. And when I say that, you know, that he's not impartial, I mean that he's not, acceptance is not based on something that we offer. Acceptance with God is not based on something that we can offer to him.

Whoever Believes Receives Remission

Turn to the book of Acts for a minute, Acts chapter 10. Acts 10, verse 34. Peter's preaching here to the household of Cornelius. Then Peter opened his mouth, Cornelius being a Gentile here.

So, then Peter opened his mouth and said, In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation whoever fears him and works righteousness is accepted by him. Now jump ahead for a minute to verse 43, sorry. To to him all the prophets witness that through his name whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins so the context here is is is Gentiles being being saved as well as as as the Jews and and here Peter Peter has come to this realization that whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins and and that's and that's that word whoever there we see that connected many times to the call of to believe in the Lord Jesus, whoever. And that shows us there's no prerequisites.

There's nothing that we need to bring. There's no condition that we first need to meet before we can believe. God does not accept you because of something that you offer to him. But it's rather you receive what he offers to you.

He's offering to you the righteousness of Christ and the payment, the atonement of Christ for your account. That's what faith is, is receiving those things, trusting in that. Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your heart, the writer of Hebrews says there. So the day that you stand before God, that great day of judgment, or after you die, it's too late at that point.

There's no second chance. That will be the end. to repent of your sinfulness and to trust in Christ is now. It's in this life, it's today. And that's the beauty of this word, whoever, no condition, nothing that we need to offer to God.

I think of the hymn often that says, nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. Naked, come to thee for dress. Helpless, come to thee for grace. Foul I too, the fountain fly.

Wash me, Savior, or I die. what faith is, is coming with nothing. And that's the beauty of the Christian gospel, that we don't need to bring anything. We have nothing to bring, but rather we receive that mercy, that grace from God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And then Peter continues on here in explaining Christ here.

So he says, we've been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. And then he says, as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot. Now, speaking of, you know, he calls them the Lamb, referring to Old Testament, the sacrificial system there, the daily sin offerings of two lambs every day were brought as sin offerings, one in the morning, one in the evening, you know, and they pointed forward to that true Lamb of God, Jesus, you know, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. You know, we're all familiar with the passage in Hebrews that says that the blood of, you know, goats and bulls could never take away sin.

You know, that was all symbolic, the writer of Hebrews tells us. You know, that these things pointed forward to that true priesthood of Christ coming to make that once for all, that true atonement, that true payment for sin.

Christ the True High Priest

We can turn there for a minute. Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews 9, verse 11 and following. But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And for this reason, he's the mediator of the new covenant by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant. So he makes that connection with the Old Testament there, but he calls him the spotless lamb, or the lamb without spot and without blemish. Sometimes we forget the importance of that as well, that the fact that Christ was Spotless he was he was he was without blemish meaning.

He was sinless, and you know I had a discussion with a brother this morning talking about Roman Catholicism and and you know we're talking about this difference And that's where where they miss the the importance of the spotlessness the sinlessness of Christ and the fact meaning that Christ fully Kept God's law he obeyed God's law perfectly if you remember now when I talked back to that of that statement of account. We have a column of the gains or the credits, the things that had to be done to earn eternal life. And on our account, we have nothing in there. We have not one thing that has incurred any sort of favor with God.

Nothing has done that. But as Paul said there, I had to count things that I thought I had going for me, I had to count them all as loss. And that's where, so on our statement, without Christ, that column is empty. There's nothing in there.

We have not earned God's favor in any way through obedience to that law. But Christ came, and Christ perfectly kept that law, and that's the righteousness that we need, that needs to be imputed onto our account. The charge to our account there is the righteousness of Christ, by which we are given entrance into heaven, because Christ has earned it. It's important to always remember that too, the two-fold work of Christ.

Not only did He come and redeem us by His blood, making that atonement for sin, that payment, taking care of the debt column that we had, all those things paid in full, He also gives us a righteousness whereby we can stand accepted with the Father because we have kept His law on our account because Christ has done it for us.

The Twofold Work of Christ

So then just, so continuing on then here, he says that, so knowing that you were redeemed from your, sorry, knowing that you were redeemed from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, you know, the NASB says your futile way of life inherited from your fathers. So it's futile, it's empty. You know, when he's speaking to the Jewish, His Jewish audience there, you know, we think we know that his audience is mixed He's got you know, there's a lot of Jews in there probably primarily Jews, but also also Gentiles there But when in regards to the Jewish readers when they read this, you know Peter's not saying that their sacrificial system was you know was wrong It was of course not because it was instituted by God It was something that they were called to do there, but it was not it was not meritorious and dealing with sin it did not earn any sort of favor with God. We just saw that in Hebrews, that the blood of bulls and goats, it can't take away sin.

It couldn't deal with that. It wasn't meritorious, but it was symbolic. It was pointing them to the true sacrifice for sin, the Lord Jesus, His atonement for sin. It was there to point them to Christ.

And, you know, so in and of itself, it was futile in the sense of taking away sins, of any sort of redemption. It could not do that there. Charles Spurgeon, he says, no Jew could ever talk of a finished work. The bull was offered, but he must bring another.

The lamb was offered this morning, but another must be offered this evening, another tomorrow, and another the next day. The Passover is celebrated with holy rites. It must be kept in the same manner next year. The high priest has gone within the veil once, but he must go there again.

The thing is never finished. It is always beginning. He never comes any nearer to the end. The law could not make perfect those who drew near.

But see our position. We are redeemed from this. Our law is fulfilled, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Our Passover is slain, for Jesus died.

Our righteousness is finished, for we are complete in him. And now for the Gentile, the Greek readers there, it's the same thing. Anything that they did prior to their salvation, to their faith in Christ, was futile. It was a life of futility, a life of emptiness.

But they were redeemed out of that. They were taken out of that kingdom of darkness and they were transferred into the kingdom of Christ.

The Command: Conduct in Fear

So then we come to the command. Now again, like I said, I was going to sort of bounce around back and forth a little bit, so now we're sort of back in verse 17 there. So in light of all this, in light of the gospel of Christ, how do we live our lives? And he says, you conduct yourselves through the time of your stay here in fear.

So living in fear. What is fear? Now we typically talk about two different types of the fear. The first is what we call slavish fear.

And slavish fear is a terror, being scared of. There are examples in the Bible of coming face-to-face with God, so to speak. We call that a theophany. And the result is fear.

It's a terror on the part of the beholder, falling on their face, becoming prostrate, on the ground, and that is the right response. I'm not saying that's a slavish fear. I'm just saying that there's a terror aspect to coming face-to-face with holiness of God and realizing our own unholiness, and that is a terrifying thing, and that we see that in these encounters, especially in the Old Testament of this, and Paul is a good example of the New as well, of being face-to-face with God and being being in terror, but we don't experience theophanies in the same way anymore because we have the written word of God now. But this slavish fear is a fear that is, it stems from a wrong view of God, viewing God as a tyrant and carries a big stick and we are his slave, and that we must obey God or else we're gonna be crushed by this tyrant, that we're gonna feel the blows stick if we don't obey him.

And I think Christians can struggle with this type of fear as well, that we don't understand, we don't look at God in the right way, that we think, oh man, I've messed up today and God's gonna get me, I'm gonna feel the blows of his big stick. But we have to understand, God is a father, he's a loving father, and he's not a God of, he's not vindictive, he's not out to get us if we mess up. He's there to, we do suffer in various ways, to be sure, in this life. But the purpose of that, as we saw earlier in the book of 1 Peter here in chapter one, that the purpose is for the testing of our faith and strengthening our faith, drawing us closer to him.

It's not to, God's not out to get us. So that's a slavish fear of God. But when we properly understand redemption, this being redeemed by the blood of Christ, then we don't have this view of God that our acceptance with Him is based on our merit, something that we've done. We know our acceptance with Him is based on what Christ has done, and that never changes.

Then we ought to have this other type of fear, which is the fear of God, which is a reverential fear. it's an awe of God, seeing God as so holy, yet so merciful, you know, being amazed at this, being in awe, having this reverence, and a proper fear, this right reverence of God, how do we have that? It comes from a proper understanding of who He is, like I said, you know, a slavish fear, comes from a misunderstanding, so then obviously it becomes important that we have the right understanding of God, knowing who He is. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1, verse 7.

Then they will call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 1, 28 and 29. Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

For the Lord gives wisdom. From his mouth come knowledge and understanding." Proverbs 2, 5, and 6. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Proverbs 9, verse 10.

In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence. His children will have a place of refuge. Proverbs 14, 26. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life.

To turn one away from the snares of death, The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, Proverbs 15, 33. In mercy and truth, atonement is provided for iniquity, and by the fear of the Lord, one departs from evil, Proverbs 16, 6. The fear of the Lord leads to life, Proverbs 19, verse 23. So notice the common theme there.

The fear of the Lord is equated with the knowledge of God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Notice the parallelism there.

So the Bible doesn't give us subjective feelings about what the fear of the Lord is going to feel like. Rather, it tells us that it's a knowledge. It's knowledge of God. Remember these theophanies that we see in the Bible here.

It was a result of seeing God. Now, as I mentioned, we don't have these theophanies anymore because we now have the written revelation of God. We can see God, as it were, in the scriptures. So we don't have these theophanies, but the result of seeing God is what leads to this fear.

You know we ought to one man says here He says from from this it may be inferred that if we wish to have a proper attitude before God We should cease to study attitudes and instead seek and study God, you know So it's it's it's don't try to figure out what type of attitude or feeling that you know, you need to have you know that you should be having but rather study who God is what he has done and then the Proper attitude will come as a as a result of that, you know, and then and then the the practical obedience That will follow. When we have a right understanding of God, not viewing Him as a slave master, but rather as a loving Father that we want to please, we want to obey Him. We live in obedience because of what He has done for us. But it's not to try to repay Him.

And it's not to try to escape his big stick, that we don't get punished for misbehaving, disobedience, but rather it's out of gratitude for his grace and his mercy that he has shown to us. Because when we believe in the gospel of Christ, if you remember from last time, we become obedient children, in verse 14, He says here, but rather it's it was children of obedience as a literal meaning. It's it's in regards to our nature He's not so much telling us that we're obedient that we're just you know, obeying God as his children there But rather that we are it has me to do with our nature nature has been changed to a nature of obedience a change of heart so But again, it's always important to understand that, you know, if you're an unbeliever here tonight, it doesn't start with obedience to God, you know, becoming a good person, doing your best to keep His commandments. You know, it starts with knowing who God is, seeing Him as holy, and then you'll immediately, you will be confronted with your own unholiness, that you, you know, that you cannot come into the presence of such a holy God.

You know, our own, your sin has you're unholy because of your sin, you cannot come there, but also learning about God, knowing about Him, knowing Him from the Scripture as a gracious God, then you cast yourself on His mercy, knowing that there is a way, that all of your unholiness can be dealt with. That is by believing, trusting in Christ as the Savior, that He has paid for it all with His precious blood on that cross there. David said, if you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared.

The fear of the Lord, the proper fear of the Lord there. So the right fear of the Lord begins with finding forgiveness in Him, knowing and trusting in His mercy. And then he says here, Peter says again, carrying on, he says that we have to conduct ourselves through the time of our stay here in fear. So it's this idea of sojourning.

I just want to briefly point this out again, just another reminder that the idea of sojourning is one of having residence in a place without being granted citizenship. That's sort of the dictionary definition of it there. And that's what Peter's called them. He's addressed them as pilgrims in the beginning and all through this. this whole section, he's been continuing to show them, you are not of this world.

This temporal world, it's just that, it's temporal, but you're of something much better. And our time here is just simply a sojourn, a stay, just temporary there. And again, we just need to always have that proper perspective of this temporal world. We're not citizens of this world.

This is not our forever home. of heaven, Paul tells us, elsewhere. So we look forward to that new heaven, that new earth, wherein righteousness dwells. So that's Peter's whole point through this book, is that when things go wrong in this life, when we struggle, when we have difficulties, focus. Remember, this is temporal.

We're headed for glory. And having that right perspective at all times is so important in the Christian life and dealing with the trials So again, Peter just gives us that one brief little reminder again, don't forget, this is temporal. It doesn't mean we don't become Gnostics where anything physical is wrong and bad. That's not the point here.

The point is just maintaining that proper perspective. Don't become so attached to everything in this life. It's not our future. It's not our forever.

So that was just a brief reminder there again of that.

Christ Foreordained as Redeemer

Now we're going to jump ahead to where we sort of left off before in verse 20, now speaking a bit more on the nature of Jesus, the Redeemer. Here he says that he was foreknown or foreordained before the foundation of the world. So he's not just speaking here of Christ as being present as the, as creator, you know, prior to the creation of the world, but this is, but the concept of Christ as Redeemer was also, you know, part of God's plan prior to creation. You know, and we call this the covenant of redemptions, and this is the covenant, the inter-Trinitarian covenant, you know, wherein God purposed that he would save his elect through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, you know, something that was decreed in eternity past, you know, before the creation of the world. Because the atonement and the death of Christ on the cross and all those things, that was not an afterthought on God's part. It was not a reaction that God did in response to the sin of man, you know, because God does not react. determines all things. We call that the decree of God, and the decree is what takes place in eternity prior to creation, and all things that happen, including redemption, the fall of man, everything, was decreed by God, yes, and including the fall of man.

Now, he did not force the will of Adam and Eve to sin. They made that choice from their own will, because God is not the author Evil, you know, he uses second causes to bring about his purposes and and at times those second causes are wicked actions of men, you know But but man is still the one responsible for those evil actions. God doesn't force the force the will of Man to you know to make evil decisions they come about from the sinful nature that man has You know evil always originates in the will of man. I think that our confession says it says it beautifully It says that you know in in regards to God's decree that he doesn't violate the will of man, without violation to the will of man.

And that's how God carries out his decree. Nor is violence offered to the will of the creature. So that is how God is not responsible for evil, but yet it's part of God's plan. And this plan of redemption, we call it the covenant of redemption, You know, God uses evil actions of men to bring about his plan, to be sure, but all decreed before the foundation of the world.

And I want to quote a lengthy quote. It's probably familiar to many of you from John Flavel. And just to help us to understand this covenant, it's just a beautiful quote. And I'm sure if you're familiar with it, it won't be a burden to listen to it again.

And then Flavel just gives us some good exhortation at the end there. So this is called the father's bargain with the son. And basically what it is, is a dialogue between God the father and God the son in negotiating the terms of the covenant. This is happening in eternity past.

So he says, Flavel says, here you may suppose the father to say when driving his bargain with Christ for you, My son, here is a company of poor, miserable souls that have utterly undone themselves and now lie open to my justice. Justice demands satisfaction for them or will satisfy itself in the eternal ruin of them. What shall be done for these souls? And thus Christ returns, O my father, such is my love to and pity for them that rather then they should perish eternally.

I will be responsible for them as their surety. Bring in all thy bills, that I may see what they owe thee. Lord, bring them all in, that there be no after reckonings with them. At my hand shalt thou require it.

I will rather choose to suffer thy wrath than they should suffer it. Upon me, my father, upon me be all their debt. The father replies, but my son, if thou undertake for them, thou must reckon to pay the last mite. Expect no abatements.

If I spare them, I will not spare thee. Content, Father, let it be so. Charge it all upon me. I am able to discharge it.

And though it prove a kind of undoing to me, though it impoverish all my riches, empty all my treasures, yet I am content to undertake it. And then Flavel exhorts us at the end. He says, And that's what Peter wants us to see and wants us to have a proper appreciation of here. You know, that's what this whole epistle is about.

You know, and that's why I said he's packaged this whole, the whole epistle into a few verses here so that we can really grasp this. You know, that our salvation was planned out in eternity past. You know, Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the world as the Redeemer, manifest in these last times for you. You know, Christ did this for you.

He redeemed you, saved you from an eternity in hell where the rest of the world is headed. And he did so by, sorry, and now we're headed for glory, all because of what Christ has done for us. That's what Peter wants us to understand here. And then we'll be willing to suffer for him, as Flavel says here, because we know what Christ has done for us, and we have this future hope of glory to get us through these trials.

So he says your Christ was manifest in these last times for you. And for you who believe in God through him. And that's the... Christ is the object of our faith.

He says that we believe in God through Christ. And you know, the forgiveness of sins, redemption from the from the kingdom of darkness, it's for all who believe, whoever has faith in Christ, whoever trusts in Christ as the one who's lived this perfect life for them, because they can't. The one who fulfills that gain column, that credit column on their account, Christ has done that for them. And trusting Christ as the one who has who has paid for all their sins so that you don't have to.

And then as Peter says here as well, trusting that he's been raised from the dead and entered glory as well, believe in God, sorry, who raised him, Christ, from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. is in the resurrection as well, that God was pleased with the sacrifice that Christ made, that it was in fact paid in full, that Christ was resurrected again and now has entered glory so that we too can be raised from the dead at the last judgment and enter glory with him.

Justification by Faith Alone

And again, as I said, that is through faith alone in Christ, nothing that we bring, nothing that we offer to him, no silver, gold, corruptible things like that, but simply faith receiving what Christ has done for us, and that is what we call justification by faith alone. Justified means to be declared right with God, to have a perfect righteousness that's worthy of eternal life, that meets those standards there, and to have no unpaid sin on our account that's worthy of eternal damnation, you know, so coming from the perfect life of Christ, credited to our account, and the payment for our sin made by Christ, and those credits, as it were, being credited to our account, imputed is the word that we often use, that happens when we receive Christ through faith. Nothing is required on our part, no amount of penance. When I say penance, I mean sorrow over sin, and that sorrow over sin is a fruit that happens, to be sure, but it's not a requirement.

It doesn't need to happen up front, that we experience so much sorrow first. It's no amount of penance, no amount of good deeds. It's simply receiving what Christ has done, because Christ has done it all. Nothing that we need to bring.

Jesus himself, he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me, through him alone. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. You know, there's no other way.

Jesus is the only way. Jesus is the only one who's met those requirements for eternal life, and the only one who provided a satisfactory atonement for sin. And then we have the goal of all of this, you know, is that our faith and our hope are in God. And notice the present tense here, that they are in God.

It's not, you know, this is not something bound in the past. that, you know, something that we just do once and then that's it, you know, and it's not something that we should do in the future, you know, but this is a continual, continually to be doing this here. Our faith and our hope are to continually be in God, and that's what Peter wants us to learn, you know, from this year, is that when we, you know, we understand that when we all must stand before God, we all have to come and give an account before Him, that impartial judge, the one that we can't, We can't try to buy off, you know, and we have to give an account of our actions, you know, but also knowing that all of our sinful actions, they've been paid for in full by the Son of God Himself, you know, that we've been redeemed from the futility of our previous life, out of the kingdom of darkness, you know. is our faith in God for our salvation and those things, but then we continue to believe in Him and trust that He will do as He says, that whoever believes in Christ will not perish but have everlasting life, but also that we are now adopted. He is now our Heavenly Father and that He indeed does love us and does care for us and will never let us go. And just trusting that, as Christ said, earthly fathers, being sinful, know how to give good things to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give good things to those who ask him his children?

So, you know, then we can have that faith that Paul speaks of, you know, knowing that all things really do work out for good to those who are his. We might not understand why, why this is happening to me, this difficulty, but yet we can know that this is nothing happens outside of God's plan and God's and God is our Father in heaven who loves us and and cares for us you know and that that we can have that that that faith and that that firm hope that everything in our lives is somehow for our good and and again we have this this hope here that he says as well this that our hope is in is in him And again, as I've mentioned in the past, this hope is not a subjective desire or a wish. I hope this happens. I hope that I get to go to heaven one day.

This is an objective reality. It's based on the promises of God. So our ultimate hope is the hope of glory, that we as believers will one day be with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth. No more sorrow, no more sighing, no tears.

It's pure joy, pure bliss, pure glory. And that is a reality. That is where we are headed as believers. A time when soul and body is as real as you and I are here today.

It will be that real where we will be In the new creation, the presence of our Savior. That is what the new heaven and the new earth is. Heaven and earth coming together. God and man.

God dwelling with man. We see that scene in Revelation. The new Jerusalem coming down. God and man dwelling together in glory for all eternity.

And that is the hope that we have as believers. Until then, you know, we fix our minds on this hope, our faith, and our hope are continually to be in God, you know, until our faith becomes sight, our hope becomes reality when we die, and enter into the presence of God to be with Him for all eternity. Blessed day that we look forward to. Let us close in prayer.

Closing Prayer

O Lord, we do thank You for Your Word, and we thank You for the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, what a glorious, glorious gospel it is that we have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. Lord, I pray that our hearts would be encouraged today, that our hearts would be filled with love for you, love for the Savior, and that we would This would have been a means for the growth in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for your people here today. And Lord, I do pray if there are those who have come in among us who do not know the Savior, have not trusted in Him, Lord, that you would make it so clear today, that it would be so clear, the simplicity of the gospel, that we come, nothing in our hands, we bring nothing, Lord.

We come and we receive everything from Christ, everything that we need to stand in right favor with you is being offered to us through Christ. Lord, we are so thankful that your word tells us whoever believes in the Lord Jesus will be saved. Not those who have first found their name in the book of life somehow, not those who have cleaned up their act somehow, but those who believe. All who believe, all who come to me by no means cast out, says our Savior.

So Lord, I pray that you would make that abundantly clear tonight. If there are any who struggle with that and who are trying to sort these things out in their hearts, Lord, I just pray that you would work mightily by your Spirit in power powerfully Lord to revive the dead hearts to shine the light on the Savior and to and to show him that and that he would be seen as the bride says of the bridegroom, altogether lovely, chief among 10,000, the only way of salvation. Lord, I pray that you will be glorified through all this, and I pray that you would bless each one of us in this upcoming week. Lord, watch over us, help us to live a life in fear as we have been commanded, not a slavish fear, not scared of you, but a reverence for you. that we would live striving to live to be holy as we are commanded to to be holy as you are holy to live a life of obedience to you out of thankfulness and gratitude for for what you have done for us in in christ lord bless us watch over us be with those who are struggling lord among us and and those who those we just pray for for healing for those who struggle physically those who struggle mentally relationally lord we just Please grant healing, and we thank you that you hear our prayers, for we come to you boldly before your throne of grace, knowing that we come clothed in the righteousness of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.

Scripture References

• Psalms 130:3-4
• Proverbs 1:7; 1:28-29; 2:5-6; 9:10; 14:26; 15:33; 16:6; 19:23
• Isaiah 1:10-15; 1:18-20
• Matthew 5:48
• John 3:16; 6:37; 14:6
• Acts 4:12; 10:34; 10:43
• Romans 3:25; 8:28
• 2 Corinthians 5:9-10
• Philippians 3:7-8
• Colossians 2:14
• Hebrews 4:16; 9:11-15; 10:4
• Revelation 20:11-15
• 1 Peter 1:4; 1:13; 1:14; 1:17-21