Live in light of the Gospel
Notes
Transcript
Last week I wrote a devotional to you based upon the words of . My desire was to show that what we needed in these times was to be reminded of the Gospel, because the Gospel is our greatest need in all times and seasons of life.
I have found in my life that as I focus on the great truths of the Gospel, and the great Saviour of the Gospel, Jesus, that things seem to come into perspective. I have God’s peace, and the thing that caused me fear, uncertainty, or even just annoyance, are suddenly held in light of the eternal greatness of the Gospel and are no longer the things that occupy my mind.
As I was praying about what I wanted to share with you this week, God placed a number of articles and books in front of me that dealt with the topic of growing in Holiness as we mature in Christ. So then when I went back to look at last weeks passage, I was reminded of where Peter goes next and as I looked at Peter’s first letter, I was greatly encouraged. So I believe that what I am going to do is go through 1 Peter as our weekly devotional during this time and we will return to Mark when we are able to gather together again. I would like to encourage you to join me in reading 1 Peter at least Once through each week.
So last week we looked at the Gospel and I encouraged you to meditate on it, because we need it for all of life, next we saw that we are to rejoice in it. And finally we saw that we are to reflect it to others, by encouraging each other in it and by sharing it with those who don’t know Christ.
This week we are going to look at how to live it out by looking at .
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for
“All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
but the word of the Lord remains forever.”
And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
In this passage Peter gives us 4 commands, and I want to briefly look at those commands.
1pt
1pet1In this passage Peter gives us 4 commands, and I want to briefly look at those commands.
1. Set your hope
1. Set your hope
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
The command here is to set our hope, all the other stuff augments the command. So how do we set our hope on the grace of Jesus? How do we set our hope in the Gospel? By preparing our minds for action, by being sober minded.
I think that there are a couple of implications here. First, If I put my mind to the fear, to the things that the world is clanging about, to the things that I dislike or find annoying, those things quickly become what my hope depends upon.
This is a danger that I have found to be prevalent in social media for myself. On social media I am bombarded by political thoughts, animosity over people who disagree with each other, with the news of what is going on, and pretty soon I am so distracted by them that I quickly become anxious. If this bill passes, it will be so scary for us, it is all over. Or that political party or politician is so evil that I am scared when ever they win a victory. Or The world is so evil that I become terrified for what my kids may face. Or these friends of mine don’t agree with each other and are fighting, how can I be friends with both? They are so adamant that I am going to have to chose a side.
But you see the problem is, I am focused on the wrong things. My mind isn’t on the Gospel, My mind isn’t on Christ. He is my hope. My hope isn’t in politics, news, or any of the other things that I can fix my mind on. He is my hope, and regardless of what is happening in this world, he has promised that he will bring me through it. I know that my future is sure and that this world is ultimately not my home.
There is a second aspect of this command and it is that holiness begins in your thought life. What you think determines how you live. One of the most practical things I can tell you about living the Christian life is: Deal with sin on the thought level! Judge wicked thoughts the instant you have them, confess them to God and replace them with thoughts of Him and His Word. If you are envious of someone, judge it, confess it, and ask God to replace it with His love for that person. If you are lusting after a woman (or man), deal with it instantly. Flee from it, both mentally and physically! As Paul put it: “… take every thought captive to obey Christ,” (, ESV).
It’s on the thought level that your Christianity is either real or fake. You can fool everyone else, but God knows your thoughts. If you’re faking it and not cultivating a holy thought life, sooner or later it’s going to come out in the open in some form of sin that everyone can see.
Peter says that we must fix our hope completely on the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Holiness begins in our minds as we think often of our Savior and the gracious salvation we will fully experience when He returns and we are changed into His likeness!
You need to guard what enters your mind as carefully as you guard what you eat. You wouldn’t think of eating garbage from the gutter because it would make you sick. If you feed your thoughts daily on the sensual, materialistic garbage on TV and in the other media and you seldom feed on God’s Word, you will not become a holy man or woman. Peter says that we must fix our hope completely on the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Holiness begins in our minds as we think often of our Savior and the gracious salvation we will fully experience when He returns and we are changed into His likeness!
This takes us directly to the second command.
2. Be Holy
2. Be Holy
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
1pt. 1:14-
We must avoid sin but also delight in pleasing God. Our standard for living is not those around us but God himself. Since He is holy, we must be holy. To “be holy” has a sense of urgency behind it.
We need to be hopeful by being intentional in our minds and by not living inebriated lives. But there’s more than that. We must avoid sin but also delight in pleasing God. Our standard for living is not those around us but God himself. Since He is holy, we must be holy. To “be holy” has a sense of urgency behind it.
It’s hard to get our hands around holiness but essentially it means that we’re to reflect who God is. And it should affect all of our conduct, every part of our lives.
Peter gives us a couple of things in this passage that help us understand how we do this. First we do it as obedient children.
It’s not so much putting together rules and prohibitions but instead striving to please your Father. In , Paul tells us that regulations like “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle…are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.”
Verse 14 begins: “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,” (, ESV)
Second, we are not to be conformed to our former passions.To conform means to fit into a mold; to pattern one’s life and actions after another. I like how the NLT translates :
In biblical language, to be a child of something is to be controlled by that something. The word for “obedient” means to “hear under.” It’s a picture of submitting and serving someone in authority over us.
It’s not so much putting together rules and prohibitions but instead striving to please your Father. In , Paul tells us that regulations like “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle…are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.”
To conform means to fit into a mold; to pattern one’s life and actions after another. I like how the NLT translates :
Verse 14 continues: “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,” (, ESV)
The phrase “not conforming” is in the present tense, which means we’re to cease an activity already in progress. To conform means to fit into a mold; to pattern one’s life and actions after another. I like how the NLT translates :
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Rom12.2“Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remold your minds from within.”
And the Message, which isn’t a translation but one man’s paraphrase puts it this way:
And the message, which isn’t a translation but one man’s paraphrase puts it this way:
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
We need to let God shape us, not just copy the world. In short, we’re not to go back and do what we used to do because we’re no longer who we used to be.
But do you catch what this means? It doesn’t mean that I am to do this on my own. I do it through the power of the gospel. As obedient children. How did I become a child of God? Through the Gospel. Jesus has paid it all, I am now reconciled with God and he is now my Father. I am a new creation, I am not who I once was, This is because of the Gospel that I am now dead to sin but alive to Christ. Believer, be reminded of the gospel often!
In short, we’re not to go back and do what we used to do because we’re no longer who we used to be.
3. Conduct yourselves with Fear
3. Conduct yourselves with Fear
The third command is to conduct yourself with fear.
And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,
And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Now this seems like it goes against hope. Fear and hope seem like two different responses. However as we walk through this I think that is will make sense.
You see, there is a paradox here and we must not overlook it. The Judge is our Father, and the Father is our Judge. And he judges impartially. There are not two different standards here. Peter doggedly holds onto both poles of this paradox: Father and judge. Impartial judgment and heaven-bound exiles.
There is a paradox here that we cannot overlook. The Judge is our Father, and the Father is our Judge. And he judges impartially. There are not two different standards here. Peter doggedly holds onto both poles of this paradox: Father and judge. Impartial judgment and heaven-bound exiles.
This commands gets stranger in the following verses by giving us an argument for conducting ourselves in fear:
knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
Peter will not let us slip away from the paradox. He insists on calling the Judge our Father, and calling our Father the Judge. And just when you find yourself slipping toward presumption that your Father is behind the bench, he reminds you that the Judge “judges impartially according to each one’s work.” There are not different standards, one low standard for the Judge’s children, and one high standard for the others.
In other words, conduct yourselves in fear because Christ paid infinitely to free you from perishing. This at first glance, at least to me, kind of strange, but as we continue on I think that it will make sense.
, ESV)
The second argument he gives is found in in verses 20-21
In other words, fear God because you were redeemed with something that is infinitely valuable and that will not perish. In other words, something you can base your whole future on. In other words, conduct yourselves in fear because Christ paid infinitely to free you from perishing. Strange.
, ESV)
He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
A. Live in Fear Because God raised him from the dead so that our hope would be in God.
So the fear of verse 17 is grounded first in the fact that God judges impartially according to our work, and then it’s grounded in the fact that the Judge is our Father. And then it’s grounded in the fact that Christ ransomed us with precious and lasting blood, and then it’s grounded in the fact that God raised him from the dead so that our hope would be in God.
And the argument goes on in the same way in verses 20–21, “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” (, ESV)
So the fear of verse 17 is grounded first in the fact that God judges impartially according to our work, and then it’s grounded in the fact that the Judge is our Father. And then it’s grounded in the fact that Christ ransomed us with precious and lasting blood, and then it’s grounded in the fact that God raised him from the dead so that our hope would be in God.
All of which means that there is a real kind of holy fear that does not destroy strong, confident hope, but exists beside it and deepens it and strengthens it, and leads to a strange and wonderful and holy life.
Since our hope originates from the gospel of Jesus Christ and it is sure, I would describe holy fear like this in distinction from unholy fear. Unholy fear runs away from the judgment on sin, and looks for safety in all kinds of excuses and moral and religious camouflage. Holy fear runs away from the sin itself, and looks for safety in the pardoning and empowering grace of God.
Or here is another way to put it: Unholy fear runs away from the one who judges those who don’t hope fully in God. But holy fear runs away from not hoping in God into the arms of the Judge, his Father. Unholy fear ignores the preciousness of the ransom and trembles at the judgment of God. Holy fear cherishes the ransom and trembles at the prospect of insulting the goodness of the one who paid it.
God is very scary — when you are running from him or against him — putting all your hope, your desires, somewhere else. But if you will hope fully in the grace that he gives and the treasure that he is, he will walk with you and be your friend and your protector and your Father, all the way home.
That was a picture of God for me. He is very scary — when you are running from him or against him — putting all your hope, your desires, somewhere else. But if you will hope fully in the grace that he gives and the treasure that he is, he will walk with you and be your friend and your protector and your Father, all the way home.
4. Love One Another
4. Love One Another
Finally, the last command is to love one another.
1 Peter 1:22-
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for
“All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
but the word of the Lord remains forever.”
And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
Peter here is saying, If you have purified your soul, if you have been born again, that is if the gospel has taken root in you, love one another. Jesus said that this is the world would know that we are his disciples, by our love for one another. As we focus on the gospel, it should drive us to love one another.
God has given us a number of means of grace, that is a number of things that are used to cause us to grow in the gospel and in his grace and into holiness and maturity. One of those means is each other. When we love one another, we come alongside each other and bear one another’s burdens as we live out the gospel to each other. We speak the gospel and sing the gospel to each other, We grow as we help warn and turn one another from sin, as we show how we can live out the gospel in our lives.
Paul David Tripp wrote a book called Instruments in the Redeemers Hands and in it he shows how God has chosen to use each of us as redeemed sinners to help each of us grow in holiness and sanctification. Right now, we are not able to meet face to face to do this, but we can still call and encourage and pray for one another.
Another means of grace that he uses is his Word, which as this passage tells us abides forever. I want to encourage you to take time to daily be in the Word. Read it, study it, memorize it, and meditate on it. God will use His Word to sanctify you, to remind you of the Gospel, to encourage, to convict , and to equip you.
I want to encourage you to practice family worship. Read the bible together as a family, pray together, sing, make it a family habit. And if you live alone, find time to be in the Word and prayer on your own. Call a fellow believer discuss what God is teaching you. Pray together. And join me in longing and praying for the day when we can gather together again for corporate worship, where we can love each other and live the gospel out with each other.
Brothers and Sisters Live out the Gospel.
I want to end with a prayer for you all. I do not believe that I can state the prayer that is on my heart any better what Scripture records for us in what Paul prayed for the Thessalonians.
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
Brothers, pray for us.
1 Thes. 5:23-25
Amen