Living the Christian Life

[0:00] 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.

[0:13] ! 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.

[0:27] 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.

[0:44] Here ends the scripture reading.

[1:24] Thank you very much, Joan, for reading. I'm sure most of us have heard the saying, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.

[1:37] But this saying doesn't apply to Christians. And it certainly did not apply to the Christians to whom Peter wrote this first letter.

[1:52] The letter of 1 Peter was first written to Christians who were living in the Roman Empire.

[2:03] And they were scattered abroad in the region that we now know as Turkey. And Peter wrote this letter to them, calling them not to live as the Romans lived.

[2:20] And by extension, Peter wrote this letter to all Christians. Calling them not to live as the world lives, but to live a life that is consistent with their new life in Christ.

[2:36] And so if you belong to Christ, the letter of 1 Peter, like the rest of Scripture, is written to you to be understood and to be applied to your life.

[2:51] Four Sundays ago, we began a sermon series in the letter of 1 Peter. And over the past four Sundays, we considered the introduction to this letter found in verses 1 to 12.

[3:04] As we continue our sermon series this morning, we've come to what is the body of the letter, beginning in verse 13.

[3:16] And in these eight verses, from 13 to 21, what we see is that the Apostle Peter is calling God's people to live out their new life in Christ.

[3:28] And in our remaining time this morning, I want us to consider what he says to those of us who belong to Christ and who are living in a world that is not our home.

[3:45] Let me pray for us first. Father, we bow our hearts in this moment and we ask that you would speak to us through the preaching of your word.

[3:56] Lord, we pause not out of ritual, but we pause out of a deep awareness that we need you to speak to us.

[4:13] Lord, if you do not help us, the words spoken will be mere words. They will be the words of a man. But I ask that you would draw near, O Lord, and that you, by the power of your Spirit, would proclaim your word through me to these who are gathered this morning.

[4:33] And I pray, Lord, that through the same Holy Spirit that you will bring conviction where conviction needs to come. And indeed, Lord, you would bring new life into the hearts of those who do not know you.

[4:47] Father, would you glorify your name in the preaching of your word, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

[5:00] And these eight verses that we're considering this morning, the Apostle Peter, in three particular ways, three very specific ways, he calls God's people to live out their new life in Christ.

[5:17] And I want to consider each of them in turn this morning. But before I do that, I want to say something that hopefully you would recognize.

[5:34] And it's simply this, that although we have come to verse 13, what Paul is saying, starting in verse 13, is connected to what he has been saying in the preceding verses in verses 1 to 12.

[5:50] As a matter of fact, he signals that to us in verse 13 with this word, therefore. The word therefore connects what Paul is going to say in verses 13 to 21 to what he has said in verses 1 to 12.

[6:06] And what he said in verses 1 to 12 is that we have been born again to a living hope. He tells us that we are God's elect exiles and that God has done a work in our hearts.

[6:19] He has brought us from spiritual death to spiritual life. And it's on that basis that he goes on, starting in verse 13, to call us to live a particular life that is consistent with this work that God has done in our hearts.

[6:38] And this, brothers and sisters, is the pattern of God's word. We see this pattern throughout Scripture, but especially the letters of the New Testament, where we're always told what God has done for us before we are commanded to do anything for God.

[6:56] And really that's because we cannot do anything for God until God has done something for us, and that is to transform our lives and to give us a new heart and to give us new affections and new desires that we might do his will and that we might serve him.

[7:16] And if we miss this, what happens is we fall into legalism. We fall into religion. If we miss this, what we come away thinking is, although we're not transformed, we can go about to do these things that Peter now is going to lay upon us, starting in verse 13.

[7:39] But brothers and sisters, we can only do what is in verses 13 to 21 after God has done what he said he has done in verses 1 to 12. And that is he has transformed our lives and brought us from darkness into light, brought us from death to life.

[8:01] So having laid that foundation, let's consider the three ways that the Apostle Peter calls believers to live out their new life in Christ.

[8:14] First, he calls us to live with a heavenly hope. We see this in verse 13. Look again at how he says it.

[8:25] 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.

[8:39] Peter says we are to set our hope fully, fully on the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

[8:52] And what Peter has in view here, when he talks about the revelation of Jesus Christ, he's talking about the return of Jesus Christ. That Jesus is going to one day return.

[9:02] And Peter says, as you live this life, set your hope fully on that grace. And the grace that he's referring to is the fullness of our salvation.

[9:15] Yes, we have been saved. And yes, we are saved. But on that day, we will be finally saved. We will shed these weak bodies. And we will be separated from sin and all the brokenness of this world.

[9:31] And we will know our salvation in fullness. And what Peter calls those who belong to Christ to do is that they are to live this life with their minds and their hope set on the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[9:51] I think we should recognize that what Peter calls us to do obviously is not automatic. If it were, he would not be calling us to do it.

[10:03] Peter tells us that in order to live this way, in order to live with our hope set fully on this grace that will be revealed when Jesus Christ returns, He says, we must do so by preparing our minds for action.

[10:21] Notice how he says that. He says, prepare your minds for action and being sober-minded. That is how we prepare to live the Christian life.

[10:38] That is how we set our hope on this grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, without this settledness of our minds, without this preparation of our minds, without soberness of our minds, we will not see the beauty and the wisdom of setting our hope on the grace that will be revealed to us when Christ returns in glorious splendor.

[11:11] Without prepared hearts and sober minds, our hopes will be set on all manner of things and not the glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[11:26] I trust this morning that we do not underestimate the importance of bringing our minds to serving the Lord. Bringing prepared and sober minds to living the Christian life.

[11:41] If we are careless, if we are indifferent to how we govern our minds and guard our minds, if we don't exercise godly discernment with the content that we allow to come into our minds, we will not set our hope.

[12:00] We will not set our hope on the grace that will be revealed to us when Christ returns. Instead, we will blindly and foolishly set our hope on the things in this world, like our jobs, like our businesses, like our relationships, like our academic pursuits, like other accomplishments.

[12:28] And the truth is, these things only find their proper place when we are living the way we are called to live in these verses, with prepared and sober minds and our hope fixed on ultimate reality, which is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ on that great day.

[12:54] Brothers and sisters, this is to be the ultimate hope of our hearts. There should be nothing else that our hearts are set upon, that we stake the hope of our hearts upon, than this ultimate hope.

[13:14] Here's why. Peter says, you're to set your hope fully on this. Fully on this. And you know what? This is a protective hope.

[13:26] When we set our hearts fully on this grace that is going to be revealed when Jesus Christ returns, we protect our hearts from having our hope being set on the things of this life that are temporary and uncertain, and they have no guarantee that they will be fulfilled.

[13:53] And we set ourselves up for disappointment because everything in this life, everything that pertains to this life, will fail us. It can be described as the arm of the flesh.

[14:04] The arm of the flesh, brothers and sisters, will always fail us. And I think all of us have lived long enough to experience the many things we have set our hope in, and those hopes have been dashed.

[14:15] But our heavenly hope this hope that we are called to set our hopes upon fully will never be dashed.

[14:33] On that day, on that great day, it will be fulfilled. When the Lord returns in the clouds, or if he were to take us home to glory and death, on that great day, we will find that this is the kind of hope that doesn't make us ashamed.

[14:59] And this is the kind of hope that is worthy of fixing our hearts upon. And so I want to ask this morning, is that true of you?

[15:10] Is that true of you? If you belong to Jesus Christ, are you living this life, in this life, the Christian life, with your hope fully set on this grace that will be ultimately revealed when Jesus Christ returns in glory?

[15:31] See, brothers and sisters, this is to be the centerpiece of our lives. And I can imagine that in the hearing of some of us this morning, this is weird.

[15:43] This is strange that we are called to live this way, but this is the plain words of Scripture. We are to live this life with our hope set fully on this grace that will be revealed when Jesus Christ returns.

[16:07] I pray that for those of us who belong to Jesus Christ, that this is true for us. And when I say true for us, I don't mean perfectly true. We cannot, none of us can perfectly do anything that God has called us to do, but it needs to be sufficiently true, brothers and sisters.

[16:27] Brothers and sisters, we should have no greater hope, no more valuable treasure than knowing that one day Jesus Christ is going to return and we are going to be His forevermore.

[16:43] As we live life, no matter what we're doing in this life, this needs to be to the fore of our hearts. It needs to be the motivation of our lives.

[16:54] And by the grace of God, we need to find a way to be able to live this way in the midst of all the other things that are going on, all the other duties that we have, all the other responsibilities that we have.

[17:11] And so the first way that Peter calls us in these verses to live out our new life that we have in Christ is to live with our hope fully set on that.

[17:35] Fully set on the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. But not only are we to live with this heavenly hope that Peter refers to in verse 13, Peter also says that we are to live a holy life as we live this life.

[17:58] He says as we live life in this world, we are to live a holy life. That's what he says in verses 14 to 17.

[18:08] Look again at how he says it. 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.

[18:29] 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.

[18:50] Peter begins his instructions in verse 14 with a negative command. He says as obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.

[19:07] ignorance. Why does Peter give this instruction? Again, remember, Peter is writing to believers. Peter is writing to those whom God has saved.

[19:22] And the reason he says this to them is it is relevant. If this was irrelevant, there would be no need for Peter to say to these redeemed people, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.

[19:39] If that was a non-issue, there's no need for Peter to waste time and parchment to write to these saints. But it was a real issue. It was a real issue for them, brothers and sisters.

[19:51] It's a real issue for us. It is a real issue for us to hear that although God has saved us, although God has brought us out of darkness, we must not be conformed to the way we used to live.

[20:09] The passions that used to govern our hearts and drive our lives are not to be part of our reality in this new life that we are called to live.

[20:21] What we see in this command that Peter gives is the important truth that must be a reality in all of our lives who belong to Christ.

[20:37] And it is that we are no longer children of disobedience. We are no longer enemies of God. Notice how he says that.

[20:47] He says as obedient children. As obedient children. We're not to be living in disobedience.

[20:58] We're not to be living as enemies of God. We're to be living as God's adopted obedient children who have turned away from a life of sin, who have turned away from sinful passions, who have turned away from the ignorance in which they used to live.

[21:16] Peter simply and directly says to us, don't live that way anymore. And this, brothers and sisters, is evidence evidence of repentance.

[21:32] Evidence of repentance is when we turn away from our formerly sinful lives and we live a new life in Christ that he has given to us. And see, this is why Peter takes the time to say, this is what God has done for you in verses 1 to 12.

[21:46] And then he says, now live this way in light of what God has done for you. again, we cannot do this for God until God has done that for us.

[22:05] It is only on the basis that God has done that for us, that transforming work in our hearts, that we can do this for him, living holy lives. Peter doesn't say it, but scripture bears witness to it, that God doesn't call us to live a holy life and fold his arms.

[22:27] No, God gives us grace to do that. He gives us the ability to do that and the grace that he's given to us.

[22:38] Listen to what it says in Titus chapter 2 verses 11 to 14. We memorize this scripture last year or the year before. I can't remember which one. Titus says it this way.

[22:51] Paul says it this way in Titus 2 11 to 14. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.

[23:12] Notice verse 13. Waiting. Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

[23:41] Brothers and sisters, God provides the grace for us to renounce in godly passions to part ways with the former lives that we used to live.

[23:55] That our lives will no longer be marked by disobedience, but our lives will now be marked by obedience. But the heart of what Peter says in verses 14 to 17 is found in verse 15.

[24:09] And it is this command to be holy in all of our conduct, which is in verse 15.

[24:21] And it's a comprehensive command. We who belong to God are to live holy lives in all of our conduct. Notice how Peter is just economically using words to get the point.

[24:43] He's using these descriptions. First he tells us that our hope is to be fully set on the grace that is to be revealed to us. And now he's telling us that we are to live holy lives in all of our conduct.

[24:56] All of it. Nothing is exempt. conduct. Not in our public conduct. In all of our conduct. Our private conduct. When we are alone, when we are with others, we are to live holy lives in all of our conduct, not just some of it.

[25:18] And again, brothers and sisters, the scripture calls us to do it, God gives us the grace to do it. And our lives can be marked by this reality.

[25:30] Again, not perfectly, but truly. Truly that it can be said of us that we are those who are seeking to live this way.

[25:42] We are those who are living this way, where we are living holy lives in all of our conduct. In scripture, what we find is that as it relates to believers, when we are called to holiness, there are two particular aspects to it, two particular aspects to holiness for the believer.

[26:13] The first is that God, when God saves a people to himself, he sets them apart. He sets them apart, and that's what it means to be holy. He sets us apart.

[26:24] God does that. He says, you are my holy people. He did this with Israel, and he does this with his redeemed people in the New Testament as well.

[26:38] You are my holy people. You're separated from the darkness, you're separated from the world. That's the first aspect of holiness. But there's a second aspect. The second aspect of holiness is what we are called to do for God.

[26:57] The second aspect of holiness is how we are called to live. It's not just a declaration over us that we are God's holy people, but it is how we are called to live.

[27:08] And that is what we see face to face in these verses, in verse 15 in particular. We are called away from a sinful life to live a life of holiness.

[27:24] And here, what is in view is moral holiness. What is in view is moral purity. We are called away from living a sinful life to living a holy life, which is simply obedience to God's word.

[27:43] And brothers and sisters, we really need both. We need what God has declared over us, yes, and that's the reality that never changes. But we also need to be living lives of obedience as well.

[27:58] Again, notice in verse 13 that believers are referred to as God's children. And so we are. God has adopted us into his family.

[28:12] We are his children. He is our father. father. And we are brothers and sisters in Christ. And we are called to be holy as our father is holy.

[28:31] You know, one of the greatest desires of any father father is is that his children resemble him in different ways.

[28:44] Whether it's by looks or mannerisms or whatever, it's one of the greatest desires of fathers. That their children give evidence that they are their children in particular ways.

[28:57] And with God, it is no different. He is our father, and that's what he says. He says, you are to be holy as I am holy. In other words, my holy, my DNA is to be in you as my children.

[29:15] You know, in scripture, God has revealed himself to us and revealed his character to us or his attributes to us throughout the pages of scripture.

[29:28] God. And so attributes like love and wrath and being all powerful, these are attributes that we find in God's word, characteristics of what God is like.

[29:48] But you know, as we study the pages of scripture, there is a particular attribute of God. Although God holds all of his attributes equally the same time, to the same degree, God is not more holy than he is loving, for example.

[30:04] But what we see is that God's attribute of holiness accents all of his other attributes. Let me try to explain the point I'm making.

[30:21] in Isaiah chapter 6. There are two passages I want to direct your attention to.

[30:33] The first one is in Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah has this vision. He has a vision of heaven. And he says it took place in the year that King Uzziah died, that he saw the Lord, and the Lord was high and lifted up, his train, the robe of his train, was filling the temple, and he said above this he saw the seraphim, he saw them with wings, and he says this is what the seraphim that he saw was saying to each other.

[31:10] They were saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. the whole earth is full of his glory.

[31:21] And then the second vision is in Revelation chapter 4 and verse 8, where the apostle John had a vision of heaven, and he saw these living creatures around the throne of God, and John tells us that they, day and night, never cease to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.

[31:52] The common feature between these two visions, the vision of Isaiah, the vision of John, Isaiah in the Old Testament, John in the New Testament, saying the same God, the common feature between these two visions, is that God is declared as the thrice holy God.

[32:14] Not just holy, but holy, holy, holy. None of his other attributes we find in Scripture in that way.

[32:27] We don't see love, love, love, or wrath, wrath, wrath, but God's holiness accents all of his attributes. So his love is a holy love, his wrath is a holy wrath.

[32:39] and if there is an attribute that we are to elevate above the other attributes, based on our revelation of Scripture, it will be that God is a holy God.

[32:53] And brothers and sisters, does it not stand to reason that we who belong to Christ, we who are his children, that our lives should be marked by holiness primarily?

[33:04] as we live in this world, as we live in our homes, as we live in our neighborhoods, as we work on our jobs, brothers and sisters, there should be evidence that we are living separate and apart from the culture around us, from those who do not know Christ.

[33:30] Our lives are to be accented by being a holy people. The Apostle Peter does not elaborate on what he exactly means by be holy as I am holy.

[33:57] But the Apostle Paul does in Ephesians chapter 5 verses 1 to 10, and I want us to hear it, and I am not going to comment on what he says. I think it is plain enough what he says.

[34:10] Paul and Peter are agreeing. Paul is elaborating on what Peter just mentioned. Here's what he says. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

[34:39] But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named or mentioned among you as is proper among saints.

[34:55] let there be no foolishness sorry, let there be no filthiness or foolish talk nor crude joking which are out of place.

[35:06] But instead, let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is, an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

[35:32] Let no one deceive you by empty words. But because of these things, the wrath of God comes on the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not become partners with them.

[35:47] For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light. your light in God, in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.

[36:04] And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Brothers and sisters, this is what we're called to. This is the new life that we're called to live for God in light of what God has done for us in light of what he enables us to do by the power of the Holy Spirit.

[36:28] God is a holy God, and we should strive for nothing less in all of our conduct. So why else should we live this way?

[36:42] Peter tells us in verse 17, he says, 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.

[37:01] Brothers and sisters, we give evidence that we are God's children by living lives of holiness. And when we don't, we undermine the evidence that we belong to Christ.

[37:15] Christ. Let me just make this very, very clear. We are not saved by our works, but by our works we give evidence that we are saved.

[37:32] to Christ. And none of us makes heaven because we have lived a perfect life.

[37:44] We make heaven because Christ has lived a perfect life and he is our only hope to make heaven. but based on the witness of scripture, when, if I do not live a holy life, I undermine my own assurance that I belong to Christ.

[38:02] When you look at the plain words of these scriptures, Paul says don't be deceived. Don't be deceived. We undermine our assurance of faith in Christ when we live lives marked by unholiness rather than holiness.

[38:29] And we strengthen our assurance of faith in Christ. We strengthen our faith that we have salvation, that we have been born again when we live a holy life.

[38:42] Again, our faith is not in the lives we live. Our faith is in Christ. But we are called to live a holy life.

[38:55] And so what Peter says here in verse 17, he says we are to live this way with fear. Not terror, but reverence towards God, an awareness of God.

[39:09] And that's the whole idea that he is importing in verse 17. He's saying that we are to live our lives conscious of the Lord, live our lives in reverence to the Lord.

[39:23] You know, sometimes we just become unmindful of the Lord. We are unmindful that all of life is lived before the eyes of God.

[39:35] All of life. All of life. I'm sure all of us have experienced it one time or another. We are the presence of someone caused us to do something that we otherwise may not have done.

[39:54] Something noble, something good, because somebody was there. Peter is saying that we are to conduct ourselves living holy lives in this world in the fear of the Lord.

[40:09] Living with the awareness that all of life is lived before the gaze of a holy God. Peter says we are to do it during our time of exile.

[40:21] In other words, he is saying to us that for the duration of our days on this earth, until our dying breath, until the Lord returns, this is the way we are supposed to live.

[40:37] And so brothers and sisters, we must take very seriously this call to live a holy life. take it very seriously. And I feel compelled, I feel compelled this morning to underscore this for us because we believe, we believe, as I have already said, but I want to underscore it, we believe that we are saved by grace alone.

[41:07] we believe that it is the works of Christ that we trust and we depend on. But see, if we're not careful, what we can then do is we can live sloppy lives because of that.

[41:22] We can live careless lives because of that. Because we believe that Christ holds on to us and our salvation is secure in him and that we cannot truly lose it, we can, as a result, live careless lives.

[41:40] Brothers and sisters, let us not do that. This was the burden of Paul in Romans chapter 6. He says, shall we go on sinning that grace abounds?

[41:50] God forbid that we would live that way. God forbid that we would engage in sinful conduct because we know that God's grace abounds.

[42:03] That's dangerous grounds to be on, brothers and sisters. because we could find ourselves deceived that we are in Christ when we are not in Christ if we live that way.

[42:22] So let us take this very seriously, brothers and sisters. Let us take it to heart. Notice that in verse 18.

[42:36] Verse 18 is a continuing sentence from verse 17. What Peter is saying is that we should live out our holy lives in gratitude to God for his saving work in our lives.

[42:56] That's what he is saying in verses 18 to 21. 19. And so as believers living in this world, we are to live with gratefulness in our hearts to God as we live the Christian life.

[43:16] This is my third and final point. Look again at how Peter says this in verses 18 and 19. 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.

[43:54] Peter says we are to live holy lives knowing this.

[44:07] We are to live holy lives knowing that we've been ransomed from the futile ways inherited from our forefathers.

[44:18] This word ransomed! is a word that finds its place in the marketplace where slaves were sold.

[44:32] And the ransom was the price that was paid for a slave. And the picture is that is what God has done for us. God has rescued us from the slavery of sin.

[44:50] But he didn't do it by just being wealthy and bringing a lot of money to purchase all of us. No, the way he did it was by sending his son.

[45:01] By sending his son to die. And when Peter refers to the precious blood of Jesus Christ, he's referring to his life.

[45:12] That Christ gave his life to ransom us, to rescue us from a life of sin. And the idea here is that as we bear this in mind, it fills our heart with gratitude and a sense of debt to live for the one who died for us.

[45:35] And see, this is why we sing about our salvation. This is why we sing about the cross of Jesus Christ. This is why we sing about the blood of Jesus Christ. Because this is central to our very existence.

[45:48] Jesus Christ gave his life on behalf of sinners like you and me. His blood has ransomed me and you from our lives of sin.

[46:08] And any proper understanding of this will result in gratitude. And if it doesn't result in gratitude, brothers and sisters, we don't understand it. we are taking it for granted and we think that forgiveness is almost like just giving out candy.

[46:25] But no, forgiveness comes to us through the death of God's Son, who died the death that we deserve to die. and so we have to live in this world with a grateful heart.

[46:43] Not a begrudging heart because we are called to holiness, with a grateful heart for what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. Christ. Peter's addressing Gentiles and he talks about how they were ransomed from the futile ways that they inherited from their forefathers.

[47:08] grace of God, there are those of us who can testify to having godly parents.

[47:21] their godliness positioned us in many wonderful ways, but that was not the lot of these individuals whom Paul and Peter initially wrote.

[47:36] They were ransomed out of unvarnished paganism and idolatry. But the price for them is the price for us as well.

[47:49] Though we may not have known that kind of idolatry and that kind of bondage to sin that they were in, brothers and sisters, it still took the blood of Jesus Christ to ransom us as well and to redeem us from our life of sin.

[48:07] Notice in verses 20 to 21, Paul says, 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.

[48:32] Those of you who were here for the very first sermon in this series would remember that we looked at this word in verse 2, this word foreknowledge. And I was making the point that this is not advanced knowledge.

[48:48] But this word foreknowledge speaks to predestination, it speaks to God's predestining work through which he saved and elected those whom he would save.

[49:05] And one of the helpful ways to see some connection and understanding about verse 2, if you think that means advanced knowledge, the word, the same word in a different format is used in verse 20.

[49:20] He was foreknown. Jesus was foreknown before the foundation of the world. What is God saying? That I knew Jesus in advance? That's not what he's saying. He's saying that Jesus was predestined before the foundation of the world to die on behalf of elected sinners.

[49:38] to die on behalf of God's people. And again, I make the point that I repeat again and again, those for whom Christ died had the benefit of his death.

[49:55] He didn't die a potential death. He didn't die a death that was up in the sky for whosoever will. But he died for a particular people. And it is only when we take this to heart.

[50:09] See, when you read that, I referred to this earlier in Galatians 2 verse 20. Paul says, Christ died for me.

[50:29] He died for me. And the life, I'm crucified with Christ. He has died for me and the life I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

[50:50] Look at what Peter says again in verse 20. He was foreknown from the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last time for the sake of you.

[51:02] He's talking to believers. believers. He's not giving some universal declaration. He's talking to believers who through him, you who through him are believers in God.

[51:14] He was made manifest for you. He was made manifest for the elect, for those who are the people of God. God. And it's through him that we are believers in God who raised them from the dead and gave him glory so that our faith and our hope would be in God.

[51:39] Notice how in this section of his letter, Peter brings this idea of living with this eternal hope in full circle. He talks about how we are to live with this hope fully set on the grace that is going to be revealed to us.

[51:56] And now he reminds us in verse 21 that God raised Jesus from the dead and gave him glory so that our faith and our hope would be in God.

[52:10] Brothers and sisters, this is the life that we are called to live out in light of what God, through Christ, has done for us by saving us, by bringing us to himself and saying, you are my new people.

[52:28] Now go and live a life that gives evidence that you belong to me. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for your mercy that has come to us in Jesus Christ.

[52:52] Thank you, Lord, for saving us. Thank you for calling us to live holy lives, to give evidence that we belong to you.

[53:06] And I pray this morning, Lord, all over this room, that our lives would be marked in these particular ways, that we would live with a heavenly hope, that we would live holy lives, that we would live with grateful hearts.

[53:32] I said you would do this, Lord, in all of our lives. In Jesus' name, amen.