back to indexWed Bible Study (1 Peter) Lesson 3 : 01-25-17
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We're going to jump into our study now and I'd like to kind of introduce the thought 00:00:11.520 |
in terms of for the passage today with a question of have you ever hit your limit? 00:00:20.720 |
Now I don't mean like have you ever hit your limit at the buffet, you know, when you eat 00:00:27.040 |
I'm talking about have you ever hit your limit where you really just wanted to give up, whether 00:00:34.300 |
You kind of hit that do not exceed line in terms of your stress level and your patience 00:00:38.900 |
was just given out and even physically you're just burnt. 00:00:42.120 |
You feel like you're gassed out and all these many terms that we have, you know, your fuse 00:00:47.160 |
is all gone and whatever it may be, have you ever come to that point? 00:00:52.080 |
I'm sure many of us have, you know, because we have lots of demands on our lives. 00:00:57.080 |
What's really interesting though about the passage today as we transition from the previous 00:01:01.160 |
passage is that regularly as we walk with God, especially even in moments when we hit 00:01:07.680 |
our limit, he tends to call us to do more, right? 00:01:13.120 |
I mean if you think about it, God is a God who is infinitely greater. 00:01:18.560 |
God is a God who is unique in the sense that he is supreme, cream of the crop, far above 00:01:24.680 |
everything, you know, how high he goes, we just can't ever fathom. 00:01:29.080 |
And as we continue to live with him, we just keep seeing whatever we thought was an acceptable 00:01:37.920 |
He reveals to us a greater level of patience, a greater level of what it means to be long 00:01:46.160 |
An incredibly far surpassing measure of love. 00:01:50.040 |
And every aspect of what you and I think perhaps, like man, that's my limit, God tends to keep 00:01:57.800 |
But what's interesting is he also tends to expect more of us as well. 00:02:03.160 |
As he calls us his own, we are going to regularly experience a challenging of the preconceived 00:02:09.480 |
expectations and standards that we have for our lives. 00:02:13.800 |
And sometimes, some of these expectations are going to feel really surprising, like 00:02:22.840 |
Because for us, sometimes it might not seem possible, it might not even seem good in our 00:02:31.860 |
But as we walk with the Lord, because God is holy and because God is far above us, he's 00:02:37.760 |
going to regularly challenge the value system that we practice in our lives. 00:02:42.920 |
I don't know how you felt, but once you start making a list, you know when the Bible does 00:02:46.480 |
one of these rapid fire commands, like do you got to do this, this, this, this, this, 00:02:50.760 |
this, this, and then you take into context where these people were, it's kind of surprising. 00:02:57.120 |
To people who maybe, you know, last time I said these people were in need of encouragement, 00:03:02.800 |
these people were in need of strength and comforting, which Apostle Peter gave. 00:03:09.000 |
But with that hand in hand, he gave to people who were under persecution that we can't even 00:03:17.240 |
He gave these people also the expectations of God. 00:03:21.040 |
And what I remember is Jesus teaching in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 12, Jesus is the one, 00:03:29.120 |
if you recall, he's the one who said, "To whom much is given, from him much will be 00:03:40.200 |
Today is a transition day where there is a big therefore, and you always have to pay 00:03:52.120 |
So what's going on here is, remember in the previous times, Apostle Peter went at length 00:04:06.440 |
It's imperishable, undefiled, unfading, reserved for you. 00:04:12.840 |
You have the Spirit, the power of God, and he continues to go on. 00:04:19.600 |
Therefore, here is the high calling of God for people who have truly experienced this. 00:04:25.480 |
If you've really gone through the experience of receiving such great grace from God, this 00:04:34.580 |
So I entitled this study, "The High Calling of Our Lord." 00:04:38.640 |
Let's jump right in here to the first, or actually, I want to do a quick overview, okay? 00:04:43.880 |
So we're going to read the passage and then do a quick overview. 00:04:48.360 |
As I was studying it more, like first reading, I made an entire outline, which I'm going 00:04:54.960 |
And then I realized, you know what, this section goes a bit longer. 00:04:58.240 |
It actually goes up until chapter 2, verse 3. 00:05:00.800 |
However, if I were to cover all that, it'd be like way too long. 00:05:04.120 |
And just as a preface, there's no way we're going to do an in-depth study of like 10 verses 00:05:11.760 |
So we're going to be covering certain sections and highlighting certain things. 00:05:15.520 |
But let's take a look at the passage together right now. 00:05:18.600 |
It says in verse 13, and I'm reading out of the ESV today, "Therefore, preparing your 00:05:25.500 |
minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be 00:05:30.760 |
brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 00:05:34.040 |
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. 00:05:38.660 |
But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, 00:05:48.400 |
And if you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, 00:05:54.040 |
conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were 00:05:58.520 |
ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers. 00:06:02.120 |
Not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, 00:06:11.360 |
He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last 00:06:18.440 |
Who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory 00:06:26.040 |
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, 00:06:31.960 |
love one another earnestly from a pure heart. 00:06:34.460 |
Since you have been born again, not to perishable seed, but of imperishable, to the living and 00:06:39.560 |
abiding word of God, for all flesh is like grass and all is glory like the flowers of 00:06:44.920 |
The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. 00:06:50.260 |
And this word is the good news that was preached to you. 00:06:53.920 |
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 00:06:59.380 |
Like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation. 00:07:05.520 |
If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 00:07:10.520 |
So the section goes a little bit longer, but today we're going to be focusing on verses 00:07:15.360 |
13 through 21 and taking a look at some of the commandments and motivations that we have 00:07:22.640 |
So as a way of outlining, please just go ahead and yell out what's the first main and I'm 00:07:31.920 |
I asked for not dependent clauses, but standalone independent clauses. 00:07:40.820 |
So let's identify the three that are in these verses, verse 13 through 21. 00:08:11.780 |
So that one we can piece together because there is a negative command is don't do this. 00:08:18.260 |
But that goes hand in hand, almost like the corollary to the second part of that, which 00:08:28.220 |
Second one, you can summarize as be holy as God is holy. 00:08:45.380 |
So we see these three commandments and the way that I would like, I asked you guys to 00:08:52.260 |
outline a lot of times, that's the way I would outline a passage. 00:08:56.140 |
When I see that, Oh, we're getting into a section that is didactic, meaning it's teaching 00:09:04.060 |
Then I'll look at the commands and I'll say, okay, what are the main verbs here? 00:09:09.100 |
There are other commands, like command sounding things, but what are the core ones? 00:09:13.780 |
And I'll set those three as the primary points of an outline. 00:09:18.060 |
And then I'll notice underneath that on a tier underneath, I'll start to write down 00:09:27.020 |
Does that describe a means by which how I obey that? 00:09:35.460 |
And so that's the way that I would outline something. 00:09:38.340 |
I know it'd be helpful if I had like a PowerPoint and stuff, but as you saw last time, I can't 00:09:42.940 |
So we're just going to go with, go with the handout. 00:09:47.940 |
So anyway, I just wanted to share with you that because again, I just want to share as 00:09:51.380 |
I go on, just little like tips on how I outline certain passages. 00:09:55.380 |
And again, that's how I typically am able to better retain that content. 00:10:00.700 |
So I know this section, verse 13 through 21 has three main commands for me. 00:10:06.400 |
These commands that I summarize as God's high calling, which is set your hope fully on the 00:10:12.140 |
future grace, be holy as God is holy and conduct yourselves in fear. 00:10:18.420 |
And as I kind of repeated that to myself and rehearsed, I realized that is truly an incredibly 00:10:23.700 |
high calling, especially if we were in a context where we're already suffering. 00:10:28.660 |
We're in a context where we felt needy, right? 00:10:32.180 |
That would be an incredible high challenge for us. 00:10:38.740 |
The first section we have verse 13 and I'll read it again. 00:10:42.580 |
It says, therefore preparing your minds for action and being sober minded, set your hope 00:10:48.580 |
fully on the grace that would be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 00:10:54.780 |
Now I'm just going to go through these points a bit quickly just so that we get, this is 00:10:58.500 |
the command and then ask good questions about it. 00:11:01.740 |
The command simply is set your hope fully on the grace, right? 00:11:06.020 |
So we have to kind of mention and we have to take note of the fact that this grace is 00:11:11.140 |
not just a God is gracious, be thankful man, stop complaining about your suffering. 00:11:15.980 |
He says very specifically, set your hope on the grace that is to be revealed. 00:11:26.480 |
That's something that you should note here that in this time of suffering, there is a 00:11:31.980 |
need for them to be reminded and we have to remind ourselves a lot too that the grace 00:11:37.260 |
that we receive currently for reconciling with the Holy God, having restoration with 00:11:42.420 |
him, beginning our relationship, we have that as a current reality, but in the full fruition 00:11:49.260 |
of deliverance, we have that as a future hope and that future hope is incredibly vital for 00:11:57.780 |
Now, if you turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11, famous passage, we've all probably 00:12:03.460 |
heard it before, but it's good for us to review. 00:12:05.700 |
Hebrews chapter 11 and I'm going to read the first couple of verses, then verse 13 through 00:12:24.700 |
Remember that this is a kind of running definition here of faith. 00:12:31.140 |
Hebrews chapter 11 verse one says, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, which 00:12:38.460 |
is an incredibly, or is it a keyword for us and the conviction of things not seen. 00:12:46.180 |
So by the very definitions, not simply of the command to set your hope, but by the very 00:12:50.900 |
definition of what apostle Peter was commending the people, you have this faith that's proved 00:12:56.580 |
ingrained in it as the idea that you are looking forward, that you are desiring to see something 00:13:08.260 |
After describing the various people from Abraham down to Jacob and all these people, look at 00:13:16.500 |
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them 00:13:22.100 |
and greeted them from afar and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the 00:13:26.700 |
earth for people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 00:13:32.180 |
If they had been thinking of the land from which they had gone out, they would have opportunity 00:13:37.460 |
But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. 00:13:43.060 |
Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared for them a city. 00:13:52.580 |
Apostle Peter is commanding the people who currently are seeing, in terms of what they 00:14:00.500 |
He says, put your hope on the future grace to come. 00:14:04.900 |
Now a description of that hope, he says fully, fully. 00:14:14.460 |
When I think about that, now we can just make a point and be like, yeah, you just have to 00:14:24.340 |
But then here's an opportunity for us to do a heart check. 00:14:28.580 |
Because truthfully speaking, in moments of crisis, you reach out for anything that's 00:14:34.860 |
My son's learning the swimming and survival stuff, and the teachers always tell him, don't 00:14:41.540 |
grab onto the buoy, or don't grab onto the chlorine bottle, or don't grab onto a leaf. 00:14:46.900 |
Because the natural tendency is you fall in the water and you'll grab for anything. 00:14:51.020 |
But what happens when you grab on to that little buoy or the leaf? 00:14:59.300 |
You lose a precious opportunity to reach out for the wall, something that's secure. 00:15:03.940 |
Yes, we might think like, oh, this isn't it, uh, and then you go over there, but not 00:15:08.100 |
everybody has that kind of time in the water. 00:15:11.020 |
Likewise, there is an opportunity here for us when Apostle Peter is saying, place your 00:15:20.700 |
There is almost the same corollary, stop putting your hope elsewhere. 00:15:24.900 |
Stop dividing, you know, in terms of an investment of our hope, we're not trying to diversify 00:15:31.420 |
I got to make sure, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, and then I'll be secure because 00:15:37.900 |
Apostle Peter is saying, bank fully on the grace to come. 00:15:42.120 |
As a matter of fact, all things, all things in many ways are going to be fleeting and 00:15:52.180 |
Set your hope fully on that future grace that will be revealed at the coming of Christ, 00:16:01.340 |
As we look at that passage, he says, therefore, preparing your minds for action and being 00:16:08.560 |
sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you. 00:16:14.760 |
So you have these two, what I again kind of mentioned as dependent clauses. 00:16:23.960 |
My question to us is, what's the relationship here between setting your minds on the action 00:16:30.180 |
or setting, preparing your minds for action and being sober minded? 00:16:34.920 |
How do those things relate to setting your hope? 00:16:38.720 |
What I'd like you guys to do is just take a moment to jot down an answer on your paper. 00:16:44.700 |
For those of you watching at home, you should do it too. 00:17:19.200 |
I hope you guys got an opportunity to, well actually it seems like the majority of you 00:18:01.560 |
So, the reason why I ask this is because if you compare the different translations, so 00:18:16.600 |
NASB, ESP, and NIV, they kind of all, three of them, read a little bit differently. 00:18:23.560 |
For example, the NIV, okay, gives it to you like a bam, bam, bam, bam, bam command. 00:18:31.320 |
So it'd be like, "Prepare your minds, keep sober, fix your hope." 00:18:37.760 |
So if I asked you, "Hey, list the commands," you would have just listed those two. 00:18:42.240 |
And the reason why they did that is because what they saw is this is just a sequence of 00:18:45.720 |
commands that you need to do where the whole concept of having your hope is a faith exercise. 00:18:55.880 |
So the main command is the setting the hope, but as you do it, there's a sequence of the 00:19:03.880 |
The other translation has the first couple phrases as like a participle, like, "Preparing 00:19:12.080 |
And the reason why is because there's a way to look at it where it's like, "How am I supposed 00:19:21.120 |
"And you're sitting here commanding me to have hope. 00:19:24.560 |
And the main command says, "By preparing your mind." 00:19:27.960 |
"By girding up the loins of your mind and by making sure you're sober." 00:19:32.080 |
And so what you have is a how-to by doing this. 00:19:36.640 |
What's helpful is sometimes you look at these translations and what's helpful is just being 00:19:41.840 |
able to kind of look up using some of these Bible study tools, like, "Is this word in 00:19:47.120 |
the Greek a regular imperative or is it a participle?" 00:19:51.600 |
I know for some of you guys who really don't like English grammar, you're like, "Dude, 00:19:59.840 |
So anyway, in the Greek, those first two phrases are participles showing its dependency or 00:20:10.180 |
But as you think about that, there's something profound to be learned. 00:20:14.080 |
Meaning, yes, there is a sense in which it can be seen as a command because he is asking 00:20:22.440 |
But it gives you a little bit more detail of how is this idea of setting your hope conceived 00:20:27.600 |
in the mind of Apostle Peter as he's commanding these individuals where it's difficult for 00:20:37.920 |
In the Greek, this idea of preparing your mind, he used a very literal term. 00:20:41.720 |
I just kind of mentioned it, "Girding the loins of your mind." 00:20:44.360 |
And essentially, the way you should have a picture is like when you're about to get in 00:20:48.040 |
a fight or you're about to run, what do you do? 00:20:51.240 |
You like get down and you tie your shoelaces, you roll up your sleeves, you know what I 00:20:56.480 |
So it's the same idiom, like roll up your sleeves. 00:21:09.640 |
Your hope entails that you will be preparing for it. 00:21:12.880 |
If you are looking forward to eating a delicious steak, what do you do? 00:21:17.040 |
Get your neck in, get your fork, get your knife in. 00:21:22.120 |
If you're truly anticipating, if you know you're going to be eating it soon, that's 00:21:33.700 |
In their minds and in their bodies and in their lives, they start to prepare. 00:21:37.600 |
Hope is not something you wishfully think like, "Oh man, I hope it don't rain tomorrow." 00:21:43.960 |
But the other way to hope is, "I'm getting ready for this to come." 00:21:48.400 |
The kind of Christian hope that we're supposed to have is a sure assurance, is a sure faith, 00:21:54.080 |
where it's not just simple, wishful, "I guess if it happens, yay, if it doesn't, so be it" 00:22:00.760 |
The hope that we have of final deliverance, pure joy, and the elation of having Christ 00:22:05.760 |
in our lives, to be so sure, "I've got my belt ready, shoes on, I'm ready to go." 00:22:16.680 |
And what you see is, he says, it goes hand in hand, that if you're preparing your mind 00:22:25.600 |
So the two terms that you should place underneath here, this relationship, I guess the relationships 00:22:29.960 |
that I'm talking about here is, yes, I see, eh, set your hope by preparing your mind and 00:22:41.280 |
As you think about keeping sober, I mean, for us, if we throw out the term, like, "Hey, 00:22:48.000 |
you need to be sober," you know, then we're automatically thinking, like, "Yeah, don't 00:22:51.720 |
be drunk, don't be intoxicated, have your mind clear." 00:22:56.400 |
But you know that this is far beyond just alcohol. 00:22:59.760 |
Are there things that are deadening your senses? 00:23:03.280 |
Because truthfully, when I mentioned earlier that this issue of setting hope is vitally 00:23:07.120 |
important because, yes, everybody, not just Christians, but even the people of this world, 00:23:12.240 |
continue to find refuge and hope, escape from suffering, in all kinds of things that make 00:23:20.760 |
Are there not things like, "Oh my gosh, I had such a rough week, I'm gonna go binge 00:23:27.040 |
I mean, gluttony, that too, is a problem for a lot of people, where it's just like, "Oh 00:23:31.560 |
my gosh, I'm so stressed, I'm just gonna eat my sorrows away." 00:23:35.780 |
People turn to different things for escape and hope. 00:23:39.760 |
And if you do that, how are you going to see what's needed? 00:23:42.960 |
How are you going to make decisions to prepare? 00:23:46.880 |
How will you have proper and sustaining, lasting hope? 00:23:52.720 |
We have need for sobriety, we have need to be focused. 00:23:56.440 |
And this I want to make a little bit more, I guess, applicational for us, so by way of 00:24:00.360 |
application, when he says, "Prepare your minds and be sober," you know, there is another 00:24:07.780 |
question that I want to add on to that, which is, "Do you really want what Apostle Peter, 00:24:23.440 |
When we think about hope, and why we don't have hope in our lives, when we think about 00:24:28.020 |
suffering and how sometimes those suffering, the experiences of suffering, feels like pits 00:24:32.220 |
we can't get out of, and we don't have joy, I want to add another question to that. 00:24:37.940 |
Not simply, "Are you prepared and are you sober?" 00:24:40.180 |
But, "Do you want what the author of Scripture, what Christ, and what God wants to give you?" 00:24:49.820 |
Because a lot of times, part of the reason why we are so distracted is because there 00:24:56.660 |
So for example, I'm just gonna use this example, it's a bit silly, just because there's this 00:25:00.580 |
idea of, "Get ready, tie up the loose ends and gird up your mind," like somebody who's 00:25:05.340 |
engaged in athletic competition, imagine somebody who is a boxer, pro athlete, you know how 00:25:14.100 |
If you guys have ever seen the, you know, video shots of them in the locker room, the 00:25:18.700 |
coach is in there, wrapping the stuff, the guy's in there like plastering his face with 00:25:22.380 |
that stuff, you know, and they're getting him all ready, tying it up, lacing up his 00:25:26.100 |
gloves and he can't even get himself ready, there's all these like three or four people 00:25:29.820 |
getting him ready and then there's a guy who's just there for motivation, he's like, "You 00:25:34.900 |
But imagine he gets in there and he's just getting beat up round one, you know? 00:25:39.820 |
And then so after round one is done, the bell rings, he sits down, the coach is in there, 00:25:46.060 |
And he's still over there looking, he's like, "What are you looking at?" 00:25:49.060 |
He's like, "Oh man, I lost round one, I was really trying to impress her." 00:25:54.340 |
And the coach is like, "What are you doing, man? 00:25:57.180 |
Snap out of it, you gotta get in there and fight! 00:25:59.660 |
You gotta get in there and look at his moves, respond to his chest movement and his arm 00:26:03.460 |
movement and how he ducks and stuff like that." 00:26:05.380 |
And he's sitting there like, "Hey, do you see how pretty she looks today?" 00:26:11.020 |
Now the coach is gonna at some point or another be like, "Yeah, get in there, get in there!" 00:26:16.100 |
But a good coach would sit in there and was like, "Do you even want to fight? 00:26:22.460 |
If you want to flirt with a girl, just quit now and flirt with her after!" 00:26:27.180 |
So that's what I mean is, that's like, the distraction comes, we're not sober, but that 00:26:33.400 |
typically is revealing of, is there a desire in our heart that's outside of the big hope 00:26:41.380 |
That's something important for us to consider. 00:26:44.780 |
Now we want to move on here, and I think I just want to summarize that last section with 00:26:52.260 |
"In the end, we kind of want to think about, again, the idea of do we want the right thing? 00:27:01.020 |
And I just want to make a last point of how that's going to play out is, yeah, sometimes 00:27:05.140 |
we're going to experience suffering, sometimes we're going to experience setback, and I hope 00:27:10.100 |
we have such a setting of our hope fully on what God wants to give us, that our response 00:27:17.100 |
could easily be, "I wasn't hoping for that anyway." 00:27:20.140 |
That our response could easily be, "I wasn't looking forward to that that much anyhow." 00:27:26.620 |
Rather than a devastation like, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe!" 00:27:38.260 |
Let's take a look, and it says, "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions 00:27:45.540 |
of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your 00:27:52.660 |
conduct, since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'" 00:28:03.180 |
And just like someone mentioned right up here, the command goes both negatively and positively. 00:28:08.220 |
Positively, be holy, negatively, stop being conformed to your passions and to your ignorance. 00:28:21.340 |
But these are the hurdles that he explains you have to overcome. 00:28:25.000 |
Some of the greater hurdles that we have to overcome are the passions, the lusts, the 00:28:29.780 |
desires of our heart that we attach ourselves to. 00:28:32.860 |
The other hurdle we have to overcome is the ignorance. 00:28:35.660 |
A life of not seeing spirituality, a life of not seeing God. 00:28:46.100 |
Alright, this is a high calling, mehet, right? 00:28:50.100 |
If there was a high calling, this is a high calling. 00:28:57.640 |
Another way to ask it, I think I put it on your packet, was in this passage, what are 00:29:01.900 |
the grounds and the foundation of your holiness? 00:29:06.780 |
So with this one, because it's just an observation from the text, let's just call it out. 00:29:13.260 |
So what do you guys see as grounds or foundations for your personal holiness? 00:29:40.300 |
God is so holy, his very nature demands holiness from anything around him. 00:29:52.220 |
But remember, the whole book of Leviticus, and remember our whole study through the BCC2 00:29:58.220 |
lesson number one, God is so, so holy, right? 00:30:01.980 |
That there is a ramification on anything around him, especially those whom he's called. 00:30:08.180 |
So the passages, he quotes a passage from Leviticus chapter 19, it says, "You be holy 00:30:16.500 |
What's another grounds that you see in this passage? 00:30:26.740 |
There's three blanks there, grace has given two. 00:30:35.020 |
And the third one is the relationship as children. 00:30:48.260 |
So there's a lot of ways to talk about this calling because it's so rich, you know? 00:30:54.940 |
But remember, one of the things that's kind of unique about the book of 1 Peter is that 00:31:02.220 |
There's a lot of running themes throughout the whole book, but also themes running through 00:31:09.300 |
God calling a people for himself and calling them to be righteous and calling them to bear 00:31:13.580 |
his name, calling them to be his children, that's not something new in the New Testament. 00:31:23.500 |
And that calling and what God has been doing is a foundation for our holiness. 00:31:28.900 |
But lastly, like Grace mentioned, our relationship as his child. 00:31:34.860 |
He says as obedient children, you need to be holy. 00:31:39.340 |
That this relationship with our God and our connection with him demands our holiness. 00:31:45.300 |
So what we find is these motives, these foundations and basis for our holiness, and he commands 00:31:51.340 |
that in every way our lives should be marked by holiness. 00:31:55.220 |
Now I have lots of other questions, and I'm just going to leave these questions for you 00:32:15.660 |
I mean when we read the passage, it says, "As he is holy." 00:32:23.860 |
If we ask the question, what kind of holiness is he talking about? 00:32:39.220 |
I mean, and he can't be expecting us to be that, can he? 00:32:44.020 |
Is he just talking about separation from the world? 00:32:54.860 |
Earlier, we talked about how do we get this hope? 00:32:59.460 |
I thought it was hard enough to be hopeful when you're under persecution. 00:33:03.620 |
How are we supposed to be holy to this degree and meet up to the calling of God? 00:33:21.180 |
Peter, I'm sorry, Paul, right, I'm so distracted. 00:33:22.180 |
Peter is saying that he's being holy as like an outpour of who we are because God is holy. 00:33:28.180 |
But the verse he quotes says, "You shall be holy." 00:33:35.180 |
You know, he couldn't, God could have said, "You need to be." 00:33:44.180 |
So Peter is taking that as a command to do now. 00:33:49.180 |
But is this a command or a promise for what we are? 00:34:00.180 |
I mean, looking back into the context, you'll find a lot of different connections too. 00:34:07.180 |
Thanks for, and if you guys had other questions, I mean, that's why the scripture is so deep, 00:34:13.180 |
You can sit and just ask a lot of questions and you can just get deeper and deeper into 00:34:20.180 |
So those are just, you know, questions to help you keep thinking about the passage. 00:34:24.180 |
We're going to move forward just a little bit here. 00:34:28.180 |
The commando is here, that as obedient children, you should not conform. 00:34:38.180 |
And I'm going to run through these quite quickly just for the sake of time. 00:34:41.180 |
The first is you should have a sense of non-conformity. 00:34:51.180 |
Because the world around you, the sin in you, is constantly trying to have you submit, yield, 00:35:00.180 |
So, you may look at this and he has this command, it's like these passions that were yours from 00:35:11.180 |
So, you should be able to see there's this like, okay, I'm fitting a certain kind of 00:35:16.180 |
mold and I have this system, this natural impulse way of thinking before. 00:35:22.180 |
And this is, I'm trying to be a little bit more detailed here because I hope you guys 00:35:25.180 |
identify these things in your own lives as you examine yourself. 00:35:28.180 |
We all have ingrained habitual sins that we have been working under because it made sense 00:35:37.180 |
We have natural reactions to people hurting us. 00:35:41.180 |
We have, you know, pursuit and ambition mechanisms. 00:35:44.180 |
We have mechanisms for our arrogance and our pride and how we view ourselves. 00:35:47.180 |
We have lots of ways in which we naturally reacted by impulse according to our old way 00:35:54.180 |
But now that you know, now that you know God, you've seen God, you've received his grace, 00:35:59.180 |
you know his plans of mercy, you've seen God's, you know, Christ's sacrifice and his redemption 00:36:04.180 |
and his resurrection, your system of thought has to change. 00:36:07.180 |
So stop conforming to those things and you have to start, start conforming to the system 00:36:17.180 |
But number two, he says in every aspect of your conduct, you must be holy. 00:36:28.180 |
By way of application for us, just as the hope that we set is fully encompassing, all 00:36:37.180 |
of our hope is encompassing into the future grace, our holiness is all encompassing over 00:36:44.180 |
So, when he's calling and challenging us to be holy, he's not just talking about sexual 00:36:50.180 |
And he's not just talking about, "Hey, did you go to a, you know, unholy liberal church 00:36:56.180 |
No, he's talking about every facet of your life, every context of your life. 00:37:01.180 |
If you're two different people at like your business and then at church, if you're two 00:37:06.180 |
different people at home versus, you know, out in public, in every facet. 00:37:18.180 |
The fact of the matter is, I think this is an application point for us. 00:37:21.180 |
Sometimes I kind of ask myself this question, "Huh? 00:37:25.180 |
Why did Apostle Peter feel the need to command the people who are suffering to be holy?" 00:37:32.180 |
And then, I quickly realized what my tendency is, and I'm pretty sure there are a lot of 00:37:39.180 |
people who have this tendency, which is, when you have hardship, those are the times when 00:37:49.180 |
When you suffer, those are the times when your excuses all of a sudden gain better weight 00:37:56.180 |
"Oh my gosh, you can't believe, you know, what a rough day I had. 00:38:02.180 |
You know, it's like, it's rationalized and reasonable for me to not be holy because I 00:38:12.180 |
A lot of times, whether it's, you know, I'm counseling people who struggle with different, 00:38:17.180 |
maybe even sexual immoral things to their temperament. 00:38:32.180 |
God is calling us to think more deeply into the future grace, and God desires for us to 00:38:37.180 |
be sober and for us to make sure that we are prepared. 00:38:41.180 |
And so earlier, in the kind of pre-discussion, I asked, "Is there any logical connection 00:38:46.180 |
between set your hope, be holy, and then the last one, which is live in fear? 00:38:55.180 |
In many ways, setting your hope requires you to make sure that you're practicing that faith, 00:39:01.180 |
practicing that assurance of what's to come, and then making sure that your mind is sober 00:39:13.180 |
As a matter of fact, Scripture teaches us that it is, it is this, this, you know what? 00:39:21.180 |
I'm just going to save that for a little bit later. 00:39:24.180 |
The transition to the next part, he says here in 2 Corinthians 7, I think I have it in your 00:39:28.180 |
passage, that we require these three things in our lives for us to come really into this 00:39:35.180 |
perfection, that even when it comes to our holiness, it is perfected by our fear of God. 00:39:43.180 |
It says in 2 Corinthians 7, verse 1, "Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse 00:39:48.180 |
ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear 00:39:56.180 |
So he has all the concepts of the commands of 1 Peter. 00:39:59.180 |
Apostle Paul likewise sees we have these promises that we are hoping for. 00:40:03.180 |
We're cleansing ourselves from the defilement, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. 00:40:11.180 |
If you aren't having a sanctified spiritual mind, it's so difficult for you to have any 00:40:19.180 |
But what's more, in terms of your holiness, it won't come to fruition unless you have 00:40:25.180 |
a clear view of God that produces reverent fear in your heart. 00:40:29.180 |
Let's move forward to the next section then, as we tie it all together, as we conclude 00:40:36.180 |
Verse 17, "And if you call on him as father who judges impartially, according to each 00:40:46.180 |
one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing 00:40:52.180 |
that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with 00:40:57.180 |
perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like 00:41:05.180 |
He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last 00:41:10.180 |
times for the sake of you, through him are believers in God who raised him from the dead 00:41:17.180 |
and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God." 00:41:22.180 |
What's really interesting is this is one of those long run-on sentences, and typically 00:41:27.180 |
I imagine, as an apostle Peter, as somebody who preached powerfully, you read the book 00:41:32.180 |
of Acts and stuff, when you're doing this long run-on sentence, I imagine him getting 00:41:36.180 |
all fiery and, you know, ramped up with passion. 00:41:39.180 |
But he says, "If you call on him as father and he judges impartially, according to everyone's 00:41:45.180 |
deeds, the command is, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile." 00:41:51.180 |
Your entire life here, conduct yourself in a way where it's marked by a reverent fear 00:42:02.180 |
The motives are stuff that we've already seen. 00:42:05.180 |
As a matter of fact, if you're, you know, kind of making your observations, some of 00:42:09.180 |
these words you should have probably circled and said, "Hey, I've seen these before." 00:42:13.180 |
This idea of being ransomed, this idea of perishable versus imperishable things, the 00:42:18.180 |
preciousness of Christ's blood, the foreknowing, remember how God, he has chosen us, the foreknowledge 00:42:29.180 |
If you call him father, you have this relationship, just like with the last one. 00:42:33.180 |
If you are his children, what's more, because God is impartial, this is added onto, allotted 00:42:41.180 |
That means, just because you're his child doesn't mean God's going to be lenient to 00:42:49.180 |
Well, God does see us as precious, but that doesn't mean he's going to compromise his 00:42:55.180 |
His judgment is going to be sure, his judgment is going to be exacting. 00:43:01.180 |
But what's more, in this passage he says, "The motive for you to conduct your life in 00:43:06.180 |
fear is that you are freed from your futile, empty pattern of life. 00:43:12.180 |
Your motivation to live in a reverent fear of God is that you know you are redeemed with 00:43:17.180 |
the precious, undefiled, imperishable blood of Christ, the priceless blood of the Lord. 00:43:26.180 |
And lastly, your motive to live your life in reverent fear of God is that your hope, 00:43:32.180 |
your faith and hope are the result of God's eternal plan to raise and glorify his son, 00:43:40.180 |
Now, I listed those down because I want to ask an important question. 00:43:47.180 |
He says, "Live your life and conduct yourselves in reverent fear." 00:43:52.180 |
Well, that's interesting because the motivation behind all this is the same stuff he said 00:43:59.180 |
So what's interesting is the motivations that we have to hope, you know, all the blessings, 00:44:05.180 |
imperishable inheritance and all that kind of stuff, was a motivation for our hope. 00:44:10.180 |
But he's now referencing them that these same motivations would be for our fear. 00:44:17.180 |
Would you guys take about two minutes in your groups to try to explain how are these motives 00:44:25.180 |
the same cause and grounds for both our hope and our fear? 00:49:13.180 |
Okay. Looks like you guys are maybe wrapping up with some of your discussion there. 00:49:21.180 |
So, as we think about this, you know, we are thinking just kind of deeply of how are these motivations playing 00:49:32.180 |
into the application that Apostle Peter is challenging these believers, you know? 00:49:37.180 |
And you'll notice there is this balance here where you have this hoping in and this kind of endearing like, 00:49:45.180 |
"Oh, we're going to receive the promises, the loving promises that God has for us." 00:49:49.180 |
But on the flip side, there is this like fear that God's going to exact His judgment 00:49:55.180 |
and He's not going to show leniency just because and show partiality, right? 00:49:59.180 |
But then He says, "As you apply these things, remember the same stuff. 00:50:04.180 |
You're born, you know, by the grace of God. You're redeemed by the precious blood." 00:50:10.180 |
And there is this kind of story I want to share with you to kind of bring those two thoughts together, so to speak. 00:50:19.180 |
And the story is a fake story, so let's just imagine it as like a movie, okay? 00:50:29.180 |
Four-star war veteran general who had a young daughter, precious. 00:50:36.180 |
But the enemies of his nation came and sent their mercenaries and kidnapped her and asked for a ransom, you know? 00:50:43.180 |
And the enemies wanted everything, not just a million, ten million. 00:50:46.180 |
They wanted everything the general had, like literally everything. 00:50:51.180 |
So the general is sitting here thinking, "This is my daughter." 00:50:55.180 |
So he empties out his savings for retirement. 00:51:00.180 |
And then that's still not enough because the people who want the ransom, they're saying, "Yeah, that's a ton of money, but we want everything you got because we've got it all for you." 00:51:09.180 |
So he's got to sell his house. He's got to sell his car. 00:51:12.180 |
And then the general, you know, he's got men. 00:51:16.180 |
And the special forces of guys are saying, they're like, "We could just send a drone and bomb that thing," you know? 00:51:20.180 |
And the general says, "No. For risk of harming my daughter, we're going to pay this ransom." 00:51:28.180 |
And then the people who are the enemies bring over the girl to a little transaction spot where they're going to do the exchange. 00:51:38.180 |
The general comes with all the money and stuff like that. 00:51:43.180 |
It's one of those anime where they're like, "Gah! Gah!" 00:51:47.180 |
And then the girl finally appears from the car and she looks disheveled and distraught. 00:51:53.180 |
And then the enemies are saying, "You have all the money." 00:51:56.180 |
And it's like, "Just take it. Give me just the girl," you know? 00:51:59.180 |
And now the girl, rather than, when she's released, running over, she's just slowly dragging her feet and looking back. 00:52:06.180 |
And then you can see her mouth over to the enemies like, "Hey, I'll call you." 00:52:14.180 |
And you're surprised because rather than embracing the father, she gives him this dirty look like, "Tsss." 00:52:20.180 |
She gets into the jeep, you know, the military jeep, and then all of a sudden she starts to mouth off at the father like, 00:52:26.180 |
"Oh, you dirty jeep! You couldn't pick me up in something nicer? 00:52:33.180 |
You're the general, aren't you? Couldn't you have called somebody?" 00:52:43.180 |
Now in that moment, what you have is the complete opposite of what God expects. 00:52:52.180 |
Because God does not want just this terrifying fear of like, "Oh my gosh, it's the general!" 00:52:59.180 |
Because then what? That would not be the right relationship. 00:53:06.180 |
But God also doesn't expect like, "Oh, thanks, Dad. That's nice of you. 00:53:18.180 |
Constantly diminishing the plans of the father. 00:53:25.180 |
Every time we sit and ask the question like, "Why God are you doing what you're doing?" 00:53:32.180 |
"What are you doing? Don't you have better plans?" 00:53:35.180 |
And we just cannot diminish God's authority, His precision, His strength, His sovereignty like that. 00:53:47.180 |
And we can't be the kind, like this kind of girl in the story, the fake story, 00:53:54.180 |
Who doesn't understand and doesn't get the reality. 00:53:56.180 |
Look how much your father just sacrificed to pull you out. 00:54:02.180 |
Already having made deals. Already having emotional attachments. 00:54:09.180 |
That depicts sometimes our relationship with the world. 00:54:13.180 |
But what God calls for is a reverential fear that's in the context of our loving relationship with our God. 00:54:19.180 |
But we're not so fearful. We can't run into His arm embracing Him because He saved us. 00:54:24.180 |
Yet at the same time, we're not so disrespectful. 00:54:32.180 |
There is a harmony of the grace that we receive and the fear that we exhibit towards our God. 00:54:42.180 |
This powerful God of the universe has sacrificed so much. 00:54:47.180 |
Something immeasurable. Something that truly cannot be repaid. 00:54:57.180 |
I share this all the time in my BCC class and every time that I get. 00:55:02.180 |
For us, sometimes after we sin, we feel this incredible sense of fear. 00:55:06.180 |
After we sin, and then we feel a sense of guilt. 00:55:09.180 |
And then we do things to appease our shame and guilt. 00:55:12.180 |
That's not godly fear and that's not doing anything for your relationship with God. 00:55:16.180 |
Because anytime we're trying to rectify guilt and shame through the means of worldly fear, 00:55:22.180 |
where it's just a fear of like, "I feel the shame." 00:55:28.180 |
All that's doing is the same thing that the Hebrews a long time ago did 00:55:32.180 |
when they were thinking that they would pay somehow God with animal sacrifice. 00:55:36.180 |
Or even the Catholics who think that by their penance, they would somehow rectify the situation with their God. 00:55:42.180 |
What that's like is saying, "I will pay for your son. 00:55:57.180 |
and say, "What I'm more ashamed of is that I would disrespect you, my loving God." 00:56:04.180 |
"What I'm more afraid of is to be at odds with you, my loving Father." 00:56:08.180 |
That's the kind of godly fear we hope to have in our lives. 00:56:15.180 |
"In this day and age, while we have time, conduct yourselves in the fear of God. 00:56:22.180 |
Live in this relationship with the Lord where you can run to Him, 00:56:27.180 |
and yet you make sure that you still regard Him and revere Him." 00:56:31.180 |
And I just want to conclude by saying, really, 00:56:34.180 |
what I find pretty amazing about this stuff is, 00:56:41.180 |
some of these things really will feel like, "I don't know if I can do that." 00:56:51.180 |
it was placed in this passage to us like a command. 00:56:56.180 |
It was something that's placed as God expecting and desiring for us to do this, 00:57:01.180 |
not by way of like, "Oh, you can do this in your own power." 00:57:07.180 |
What you feel and what you experience, like you can't in the power of man, 00:57:12.180 |
God will empower us through His gospel and His grace. Amen?