All right, all right. Good morning, good morning. Okay, in a second, Zoe's gonna come up and read God's Word to us.
! I hope you have got yourself some Bibles. There's some in the front. Before we read God's Word, here's a
well, here's a small reminder. Hey, this is God's Word. This is what gives life. This is where we encounter God. This is
the Word of the true and living God. And as Zoe reads, let us open our hearts to receive what he's telling us, what he's
calling us today into. So Zoe, would you like to come and read God's Word to us?
Oh. Today we'll be reading from 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 13 to 21. You can follow along in your own Bible. If you're
following along with the church Bible, this is on page 953. Let's read.
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 will 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 for 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
the lamb, without blemish or spots. 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. This is the Word of God.
Let us pray, and then we can dive into God's Word. Father, we need you. We need you this morning. God, as we
look at your Word, through your Spirit, would you open up these words into our hearts. May my few words and
opinions serve to draw your people to you, God. And may any word that comes out from my lips that's not true,
that's not helpful, fall on deaf ears, but God, may your Word be rooted deep in our hearts so that we
can love you, so that we would behold who you are and your beauty and your greatness of Jesus Christ.
So, God, would you come and do that work this morning, not for our glory, but for your glory.
Father, we praise you and thank you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. So, we're doing a standalone series. So, last week, Oscar did one standalone, today one.
We'll have a retreat next Sunday, and then we'll be diving into the Advent series from December.
So, today we're looking at this passage, 1 Peter. So, let me start off with this. I'm sure most of you
know that the king of UK is King Charles III. He became king around 2022. Now, let us imagine. Let's
imagine this. Imagine is the day of ordination, coronation, whatever. And coronation, right? Yeah,
yeah, yeah. Coronation. And it's the celebration. As people are flocking in, you see King Charles
in all his gold and jewels, dressed up. And there's, as the crown is put on his throne, on his head,
there's a massive celebration across the country. And then, as the king sits on his throne,
people shout and cheer for their king is there. Now, imagine this. The next day, King Charles is seen
in LKF having a drink of a beer with his friends. And he's dead drunk, and his friends has to carry
him home. And the next day, he's seen on the MTR going to work. Even though he has so much money,
he's like, I still need a little bit more. And he's seen going to work. And on the way, he ends up
fighting with someone for a coin that's on the floor. And then he bumps into another person for a cup of
coffee and another brawl starts there. Now, it seems that the whole coronation and the glory and the
gold and jewels did not even happen at all. It seems that his life, him being a king, him being
declared a king, and yet his life seems to be completely unchanged. I mean, his wealth is secured
as a king, and yet he's fighting with people for pennies. It seems that his status has changed.
Who he is has completely changed. And yet his life seems to be unchanged at all. Now, obviously,
that's just an imagination. We're just trying to imagine this. But in reality, that's a lot of how
we Christians tend to live. Very unaware of what God has done, is doing, is doing in Christ,
and who we are in light of that, and live a life that seems to be very unaffected or have
parts of our life that are unaffected by who God is and what he has done. So what today's
passage is seeking to do is, is seeking to call the readers, us, who are Christians that have
been spread around the provinces, to live a life that is different. So if you have a passage,
let's dive straight into it. Let's look at the first verse, verse 13, right? It starts with this.
It starts with, 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 Christ Jesus. Now, what I want us
to do for a few seconds is look at the word, therefore. You see, because every time we see the
word, therefore, in the Bible, we need to question what it is, therefore. In other words, you get it.
Okay, so, and the truth is, there's always a reason why therefore is therefore. So, and here's the thing.
Every time there's a word, therefore, it all, there's something that comes before it. It gives us
the truth and the reality of who God is, and then it calls us into an action. In other words,
which means that every Christian living, everything that we do and don't, every obedience, every
sacrifice that we do always begins with a therefore. Without a therefore in our lives, every Christian
living is just moralistic rules and actions which is put on hopeless sinners.
that are either crushed or are driven into this useless and presumptuous efforts.
We need, therefore, in our Christian life to give us this truth that drives us into a Christian
living. So, what does this, therefore, tell us? So, before verse 13, if you look at their
beautiful 12 verses in 1 Peter, that tells us about this living hope in Christ Jesus, of how we are
in light of our future is secure, it's this great truth of what God has done in Christ Jesus and who
we are in light of that. And now, at the end of that, Peter says, therefore, in light of all of that
truth, all of what Christ has done, therefore, preparing your minds for action. In other words,
it's the equivalent of us saying, rolling up your sleeves, get ready for action, being sober-minded,
set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Christ Jesus. In other
words, live a life that is actively putting our hope in this grace when Jesus will return one day, when all
sins or suffering will be taken away, and when everything will be put right. Now, the question for us this
morning is this, so what does it look like to live a life with such a hope? What does it look like
to live with one eye to the future when Jesus will return? And from verse 14, Peter is going to
unravel that question as we go along. So, if you have your Bible, this is our first thought of the day.
So, first thought is, therefore, pursue holiness. We'll be looking at verses 14 to 16. So, verse 14 to 16,
it says,
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, your God, you shall be
holy, for I am holy. Now, Peter is very clear here. His call is, be holy in all your conduct.
And he gives a reason for that here, right? He says, because your God is holy, and since He has
called you, you to be holy. Now, we need to ask the question, what does holy mean? And I'm sure you
have heard the phrase, holier than thou, which is used to describe people that are something more pure
and more religiously superior than others. And we tend to think of the word holy as to mean something
that is pure and morally perfect or purity. But the fact is, the word holy actually means separate.
When scripture says that God is holy, it is telling us that God is separate from everyone
and everything else. He alone is the creator God. One commentator puts it like this. He says,
when we say God is holy, we're saying He is altogether and wholly other. In both His character and His deeds,
He is transcendently different from and greater than all His creatures in every conceivable respect.
Therefore, holiness is not solely a reference to moral and ethical purity. It also entails with it
a transcendent and unparalleled beauty. You see, sometimes we make the mistake of thinking God is like
one of us. He isn't. He's on a whole different level. He is transcendent. He's conceivably,
unconsumably, way greater than we can ever imagine and even try to imagine. He is holy.
Now, when Peter calls us to be holy here in this passage, is he calling us to be transcendent and
have unparalleled beauty and be on a whole different level? Well, no, not really. And verse 14 and 15
gives us a hint here. Verse 14 says,
Do not be conformed to your passions of your former ignorance, but be holy in all your conduct.
Now, Peter says, don't be conformed here. Now, he's speaking here to Christians. When he talks about
the passions of your former ignorance, he's talking about the life that they had before knowing Christ.
Peter is calling them to not go back into that previous life and the life that they had before
knowing him. Or he's calling them to be holy or to separate yourself from that life that used to be
there. Now, it's almost like this. Imagine an orphan who is adopted, who's given three meals a day.
He's a son. And yet, at the end of the day, he goes out to steal food because he's scared that he's not
going to get food. But the fact that he's adopted and he's a son means that he no longer has to go back
into that way of life. He can separate himself from stealing food because he's the son of the house.
He's adopted. You see, one of the ways we Christians are described as are orphans that have been adopted
as sons and daughters. I mean, look how Peter addresses the readers in verse 14. He calls them
obedient children. And being conformed to the passions of your former ignorance is like us going
out to steal food again when God has provided everything. Now, it is very easy to spot when we do
that. It's very easy to spot when we start conforming ourselves into our former ignorance because,
according to this, the opposite of being conformed here, according to Peter, is to be holy.
So, in other words, we have to ask ourselves a few questions then. Does our life look different
from the way it used to be? Maybe a few habits have changed. Maybe there are still parts of our lives
that are still untouched. But it's not just comparison with our former life, is it? It's
comparison with the world, the people around that has not known Christ yet. If we were to
take our thoughts and our actions and have it scripted and recorded, would it look different
from the people around us? The things that we do in our personal, when we are alone, in our free
times, would it look different? Do the way we handle success and joy look different? Do the way we
steward suffering and loss look different? Or does the thing that give us joy and satisfaction in life
look different from the people around us? You see, in a very similar way that the adopted orphan does not
need to steal in light of who He is. We, too, are called to be holy, to separate our lives from our
previous life in light of what God has done, is doing, and will do. And to do that in all parts of our
lives, in our jobs, in our desires, in our life pursuits, in our education, in our relationships, in our
singleness, to look different from that of other people around us.
Well, Peter does not just stop there, does he? Because he tries to push this. He really challenges
the reader in this section. Because all of these things are not passive. It's not about, okay, I believe
this and I'm going to be this. It's all about Peter saying, be holy. Be actively thinking about this.
Be actively pursuing this. Be actively holy where God has placed you.
Now, that might look very different for each one of us in our lives. And it might look very painful
because we are sinners, longing, still holding on to things like Kevin said, holding on to things
that we hold there while Christ is calling us. So you might want to ask yourself, what does it look
like for you to pursue holiness in where God has placed you? And here Peter goes on to say,
which leads us to our second thought today, therefore pursue holiness with fear. So let's look at verse 17.
Peter says, and if you call him as father who judges impartially according to each one's deed,
conduct yourself with fear throughout the time of your exile. Now, Peter again calls us into something.
And he says to conduct yourself with fear. Now, we have to ask ourselves again, what does fear mean?
Now, we understand it to mean something very terrible, something scary. We don't want our kids
to fear us because it might mean we have done something terrible and they're scared of us.
But this one is a very different kind of fear. It is a reverential awe of the glory and power of God.
Now, imagine King Charles is in the hall here, right at Viva. And I'm pretty sure a lot of you are stronger
than him and taking him on a fight. I mean, he's 77 years old. That sounds sad. But as sad as in,
we don't want to fight him. But you would still show him respect. You'd still show him some kind of fear
because of his authority and who he is, isn't he? And that he is a king. Now, when we talk about God,
he is infinitely higher than any authorities and anything in all creation and in time. He is
unconceivably higher than all glory, power, might, and wisdom, anything and anywhere, everything in all
creation. In other words, fear of God is having this reverent awe, a respect for all that who he is,
is being in awe of all his power, knowing that he's wholly transcendent and sitting all under
that awesomeness of who he is. By the same time, fear of God also means it's to acknowledge
all that who he is. Imagine King Charles was here and you stand up and you shout at him.
What that says is you're not just only disrespecting him and not fearing, but you're also saying
with your actions that I don't acknowledge that you're a king and you have no authority over me.
In other words, to have fear of God is not just being in awe of who he is, but it's also to
acknowledge that he is God. Is to live in fear of God means that you're saying that he is king
and that he is God and that we are not and in all aspects of our life. You know the very famous verse,
the beginning of wisdom, is there? Fear of God. It starts with that. It's not just being in awe,
it's actually submitting ourselves and acknowledging that he is God, that he is king and I'm not.
In my pursuits, in my careers, in my singleness and dating life, he is God, not me. He has the final say,
not me, even when I don't like what God's word says, that he is king and God.
So what Peter is calling here, the readers, is to pursue holiness in all their conducts,
in all parts of their lives, and to do that with this reverent fear.
This amazing, awesome, in light of who awesome God is.
You see, in our Christian journey, we sometimes tend to fall towards being very passive and apathetic,
without being without passions and seriousness.
But this is very serious to what Peter is calling us.
You see, the way we deal with our sin,
our lifestyles, our pursuit of God,
it becomes very stagnant, passive, and passionless.
Peter here is calling us
to pursue holiness
with reverent fear.
This passage is challenging.
It is very,
it is calling us
into something.
But then, at the same time,
Peter also reminds us
of another truth here.
Look at verse 17.
He says,
conduct yourself with fear
throughout your time
of your exile.
And he's telling us
that we are in exile.
He's reminding us
of the exile
that began all the way
in the beginning of time
in Genesis,
when,
because of our sin,
we could no longer be
in our real home,
which is with God.
There was that time
in that fall
where our relationship
with God was broken,
and we were separated
from the source of life
and all things good,
and we were broken,
our relationships were broken,
our life were broken,
and the Word of God says
we were dead in our sins.
We were not struggling
with sins,
we were dead in our sins.
And the great news
is that while we were
still dead sinners,
Christ died for us,
taking our sins upon Himself,
paying the price
of our transgressions.
He died and rose again,
ascended into heaven,
and with the sure promise
that He will come again,
return,
and everything that we lost
in Genesis
in the beginning
will be restored.
Our true home,
our relationship,
our brokenness,
our true home with God
will be restored.
But right now,
at present time,
we are journeying
through time
as sojourners,
still in exiles,
to that time
when Christ will return.
It's verse 13, right?
To put our hope fully,
set our hope fully,
when one day
this grace will be revealed
in Christ Jesus.
So what Peter is saying here
is this,
is to pursue holiness,
to set yourself life apart
from other people,
to have our life
aligned with who God is
and what He has done,
at the same time
doing this
with this reverent awe
of who God is,
acknowledging who He is,
and having Him
as God and King
of our life,
but at the same time
knowing that
we are not there yet,
that we are still exiles,
we are still on our journey
to our real home
and it's not here.
Churches,
let us think about that.
Do we live our lives,
pursue holiness,
deal with sin
with that kind of attitude?
When there are conflicts
within your friend circles,
and I know conflicts
are difficult and complicated,
but do we still pursue
resolution with fear
of who God is
and in awe
of how He
has forgiven us?
How about
ongoing sins
in our lives?
Have we fallen
into a pattern
and have started
taking things
very lightly
and not really
dealing with our sins?
How about
the plans
and pursuit
of our lives
and careers
of our lives?
Do we look at
our jobs
and career pursuits
and education
as exiles
or do we invest
everything
like our time
and resources
here
rather than
keeping one eye
on our real home
and investing there
with the way
we spend our time
and energy?
What's our heart
attitude
towards life?
What's our heart
attitude
in our pursuit
of holiness?
Now,
it feels like
it's all heavy.
The passage
is really
challenging us
and calling us
to pursue holiness.
To think of our life
is challenging
parts of our lives
that we have
kind of
let the ball drop.
So,
we begin with
the word
therefore.
Now,
I want us
to remember that
because all of this,
the pursuit
of holiness
with fear,
it begins
with
therefore.
It begins
with this
incredible truth
of who God is
and what He has done.
Now,
but amazing thing
what Peter does
at the end here
is Peter actually
takes a U-turn
and he goes back
to therefore
and we're going to
look at verses
18 to 21
because Peter again
steps back
and he starts
reminding us
of the great truths
of the good news
of Jesus Christ
which leads us
to our last thought
today.
Therefore,
pursue holiness
with fear
knowing that.
Look at verses
18 to 21
because it seems
that the Christian
living does not
just start
with a therefore.
It also ends
with a knowing
that, right?
God is good
therefore live
a life of holiness
knowing that
another great truths
of God.
It just,
this tells us
that the Christian
living is surrounded
and centered
around God
and His mighty works
and who He is.
So what does Peter
want us to know
here at the end?
Well, there are two things
here.
Look at verse 18
and 19.
Verse 18,
In other words,
Peter here is saying
that you have been
bought out of your
former life.
Remember verse 14
when Peter says,
don't be conformed
to your former ignorance?
Here,
Peter is saying
that because,
don't do that,
because you have been
bought out of it
by the blood of Christ.
Church,
do you see what
Peter is saying here?
The reason Peter
is giving us
not to go back
into your life
but to pursue holiness
is not because
so that being holy
is going to save you
but he's saying
that because
you have been saved,
because you have been
bought out of it
by the precious blood
of Christ,
don't go back there.
Pursue holiness.
You know,
there's a story
of a well-known pastor,
Paul Washer.
I don't know
how many of you know.
Very serious guy.
Yeah,
you know.
He's very serious.
He talks about a story
where one person
asked him,
how is it
that one soul
is able to save
billions and trillions
of souls
in past,
present,
and future?
That doesn't seem
to add up,
you know.
It's like paying
one dollar
and getting
billions and trillions
of dollars in hand.
It doesn't make sense.
How can one soul
of Jesus Christ
save billions
and trillions
of souls
across history?
And this was his answer.
I'm paraphrasing,
by the way.
And he says this,
imagine a scale.
Imagine a scale
and on one side
you put everything
of all creation,
you put all the money,
all the gold,
you put all the mountains
and planets
and animals
and humans
and music
and poetry
and wisdom
and knowledge,
everything there is,
the whole universe
on one side of scale
and you put
one other side,
you put Jesus
and you weigh it
and Jesus
will still be
infinitely more precious
and more worthy
and more valuable
than all of this creation
put together
at the end of it all
because he is
the son of God.
He is the creator,
king of all kings
and he is the one
where everything
and everything
that we see
was where
through him
and for him
created.
And church,
you
were ransomed
by his
precious blood.
Now I can go on
and give an example
of how
a man gives
a billion dollars
and saves you
out of jail
but nothing
in all creation
comes to close
to Christ
pouring out
his precious blood
to save
sinners
like us,
to save
sinners like me.
And Peter,
the reason
he gives us
to pursue holiness
is that you
have been ransomed
not by gold,
not by silver,
not by anything
most precious
and diamonds
and jewels
but by the most
precious thing
in all creation
that is
the precious blood
of Christ Jesus.
And the second
Peter wants us
to know
is this,
verse 20,
he,
Christ Jesus,
was foreknown
before the foundation
of the world
but was made
manifest in 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.
In other words,
because of what
God did in Christ,
his death,
resurrection,
and glory,
now that your faith
and hope
is in God.
That means
that your faith
and hope
is a living hope.
Because of what
Jesus has done,
your faith
and hope
is fully secured.
What Peter
is saying here
is at the end
of this is,
look,
that you have been
ransomed
by the precious
blood of Christ
and because of
God's work
in Christ Jesus,
your faith
and hope
is not in
material things
and works
and salvation
and whatever
there is.
Look at the last sentence,
your faith
and hope
is in God
and is secured
and is guaranteed
in Him.
Isn't that wonderful?
You know,
first,
in verse 14,
he tells us,
hey,
it's God
who judges,
live with fear.
One day he will judge,
but at the end
he tells us,
but because your faith
is in Christ Jesus,
your faith
and hope
is completely
secured.
Lord.
So,
if you are here
for the first time
or if you're exploring
Christian faith,
here's an invitation
for you
to come to this
holy God
who,
when you put your life
in His hand,
He will ransom you
into His family,
securing not only
your future,
but also giving you
life right now,
calling you
to be His sons
and daughters.
And if you do
call yourself
a Christian
this morning,
let these words
abide in your hearts.
To live,
therefore,
to live in light
of what God
has done
in Christ Jesus
and how we've
been ransomed,
to pursue holiness
in all parts
of our life
with reverent fear,
having our eyes
fixed
on the future
when Christ
will return,
will come,
and when there
shall be no more
sin,
no more suffering,
and all the things
that is wrong
will be put right,
when we will be
finally arriving
in our true home.
And I know
we all came
with a very different
state of heart.
I know that some of us
are going through pain
and struggles
and sufferings
and health problems,
while some of us
are maybe just
struggling with sin.
Or maybe we're
just thinking,
my Christian life
has been stagnant
and it just feels
I'm going nowhere.
Or maybe some of us
are doubting our faith.
Or maybe some of us
are just very far away
thinking,
I think Christ
has already
rejected me.
Well, this passage
calls all of us
come to Him,
the Holy God,
with whom you don't
pursue holiness,
you don't be good
to be saved,
but you be good,
you pursue Him
because He has
pursued us first.
He has ransomed you
with the precious
blood of Christ
while we were
still sinners.
What hand do we have
in our salvation?
What do we offer
in our salvation,
in our saving
of our souls?
nothing is Christ
Jesus who puts
down His life.
And we come
with open arms
in faith and
in hope.
And our faith
and hope is not
vain because now
it's placed in God,
the one who has
been faithful
throughout history.
He has been faithful
with this covenant.
He has been faithful
in Christ Jesus
and He will forever
be faithful.
He is our rock.
He is our cornerstone.
He is the unchanging
one.
He is the Alpha,
He is the Omega.
this is our hope.
Our hope is not
in vain.
It's in living God.
So church,
let us keep our eyes
fixed that one day
Christ will come
and we will be home.
So Watermark Church,
friends,
brothers and sisters,
verse 13,
therefore,
in light of all
that truths,
preparing your minds
for actions
and being so reminded,
set your hope
fully on the grace
that will be brought
to you
at the revelation
of Christ Jesus.
Let us pray.
Father,
we,
as we think
of all of this,
we
can't help
but be lost
of word.
God,
when you just
even think of
while we were
still sinners,
you died for us.
God,
Psalms really
captured what are we,
what are men
that you care
so much about us
and yet,
God,
you have sent
your son,
Jesus Christ,
to die
so that we can live,
that he took
upon our sins
and we take
upon his righteousness,
his life.
God,
what a beautiful
exchange that we
can do this.
God,
in light of all
of that,
may our life
not just be
a life that is
passionless
and passive.
Help our hearts
to pursue you,
to pursue holiness
with reverent awe
of who you are
and what you have done.
God,
knowing that you are
faithful,
you have been faithful
and you will always
be faithful,
fixing our eyes
to that day
when you,
Christ,
will come again
and all our
sufferings
and all our
health challenges
and every suffering
in the world
and all evils
will be put right.
God,
help us to
live a life
of holiness
because you,
God,
you are holy.
So,
Father,
come,
have your way
in our lives
and we glorify you.
In Jesus' name
we pray.
Amen.