Title: Be Ye Holy
Text: 1 Peter 1: 6-25; 2: 1-3
Date: December 5, 2010
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
1 Peter 1: 6: Wherein ye greatly rejoice,
We rejoice in our God--He is My God, My Savior, My All
· V2-3: Chosen by God the Father, born of the Spirit of God, Redeemed by the blood of Christ
· V4--Inheritance reserved
· V5--Kept
1 Peter 1: 6: Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: {trials}
Different trials:
· Trails in serving God and his people
· Sickness or health
· Riches or poverty
· Reproach and calm
All these things are at times trials used of God to teach us to trust Christ alone.
1 Peter 1: 7: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
Faith--trusting all into the hands of the Lord--is the most precious, valuable, thing we possess.
1. Faith is much more precious than gold that perisheth--we have to be reminded of that.
2. God sends the trial to purge his children of dross--of everything which is not faith--to turn us from all else but Christ--that our faith might be in Jesus Christ alone.
3. When we see how utterly weak we are, that is when we believe more and more how great our Savior is.
1 Peter 1: 8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see [him] not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 9: Receiving the end of your faith, [even] the Salvation of [your] souls.
God gives faith and tries it to this end, that EVEN NOW--we may rejoice, with joy unspeakable and full of glory--receiving from the Spirit of God--EVEN NOW--a foretaste of that end--Jesus Christ, even the Salvation of our souls.
If you are a child of God, you can be sure that the trial, is to save you from that which is not faith, not lasting--TO Christ Jesus the End of our Faith, ready to be revealed (read v5 again).
When we are found praising, honoring and glorifying our Lord and Savior, that is the faith which our Lord shall praise and honor and glorify when he appears.
1 Peter 1: 10: Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace [that should come] unto you:
This is an encouragement for us to enquire search diligently this Salvation.
Salvation with a capital S.
Luke 2: 25: And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name [was] Simeon; and the same man [was] just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. 26 And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, 28 Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, 29 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: 30 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, 31 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
1 Peter 1: 11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
· The Spirit of Christ was in them
· The Spirit of Christ testified beforehand--to them in their day
· The things concerning the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow
· They enquired and searched diligently
· His prophets spoke of Christ, of his sufferings, and of his glory
1 Peter 1: 12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven;
· The Spirit of God revealed to them that Christ was not coming in their day
· It was revealed in them that the things they wrote was so that saints in our day would have witness of Christ--we see him in the types and shadows and prophecies the Spirit of Christ ministered through them.
· By the same Holy Ghost--you have been given this good news through the gospel--Which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven;
· THE POINT IS, THEY ENQUIRED, SEARCHED DILIGENTLY, BELIEVED, LONGED TO SEE CHRIST.
And not only the prophets…1 Peter 1: 12:…which things the angels desire to look into.
1 Peter 1: 13: Wherefore…
· Seeing Christ has come…
· Seeing he has suffered…
· Seeing he has risen to the right hand of the Father…
· Seeing how the prophets longed to see what we have seen and enquired and searched and endured so many trials to minister to us…
· Since we have mysteries revealed in our hearts which angels desire to LOOK into…
1 Peter 1: 13: Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
· Apply our hearts--the loins of your mind--to enquire and search to know more of Christ
· Be Sober--take these great gifts with the utmost diligence--hear this gospel, search the scriptures, seek with the whole heart to know more of this GREAT SALVATION!
· And hope to the end--even as they endured and continued-- hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
I Peter 1: 14: As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: 15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
As obedient children--Before grace came, before we were born of God, we were ignorant, living for only the world.
· But now--knowing God elected us unto salvation
· Knowing we are bought with the precious blood of Christ
· Born of the Spirit of God, called OUT OF THE WORLD by sanctification of the Spirit, separated from our ignorance into Christ the Light
· As he which hath called you is holy--not of this world--so be ye holy in all manner of conversation--not of this world--Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
Application: I am so thankful for your diligence in being here when the gospel is preached. I am thankful for your sacrifice, for your example to your children and to mine. I am thankful to God for that! Aren't you thankful that he has given you a heart which longs to be with him! Aren't you thankful that he has given you a heart which longs to be with brethren! How I desire more and more to honor him. I want to be conformed to my Lord more and more and less and less to this world--don't you! I Peter 3: 13--how simple and true this is.
1 Peter 1: 16: And if ye call on the Father,
· This may mean as we are in prayer, but I think it also means--if we truly profess to be children of our Father
who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work,
· HE looks on the heart, knows the true reason motive of every man's work--
· whether it be our calling on him in prayer
· whether it be our calling him our Father and we his children
pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:
We are "sojourners". We are IN this world, but not OF this world--strangers, pilgrims.
1 Peter 1: 16: And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:
· In reverence to our heavenly Father
· Our God is not mocked
· Oh, Father, mulitiple grace and peace to me
· I don't want to be attached to this world--I want to be a sojourner, I want to serve my heavenly Father
This is not a legal fear, but the desire of a little, dependant, thankful child desiring to please our Father we love. Our reward is the Father. I want to be a faithful, obedient child of my God and my Father!
HERE IS ONE AND ONLY MOTIVE
1 Peter 1: 18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, [as] silver and gold, from your vain conversation [received] by tradition from your fathers;
· Why would I ever want to go after corruptible things?
· Why would I ever want to fashion myself after this world?
· Why would I ever want to live as anything but a sojourner in this world!
· It was not redeemed with corruptible things!
1 Peter 1: 19 But with the precious blood of Christ,…
We can't put enough emphasis on this word "precious".
· Most precious, costly, unspeakably precious
· The blood of God the Father's only begotten Son.
· Blood which satisfied God on my behalf
· Blood which purged me of my sin
· Blood which reconciled this worm to holy God
· Blood which made it so God is not ashamed to call me his son!
· OH, PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST!
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
· Perfect spotless Lamb of God--one who was never under the curse of the law that I was under
· God made him to be a curse--to come under the curse of the law--to lie under Divine Vengence--to purchase me from the curse of the law.
· What was the price? What were the wages of sin? Death, separation from God--HE DIED!
1 Peter 1: 20: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21: Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory;
Note: foreordained--same word in v2--according to the forearrangement of God the Father and God the Son--as he purposed in himself, predestinated in himself--before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times…
It was not any fore seeing that I would believe--read it again--was manifest in these last times for you, 21: Who by him do believe in God
How precious is this Lamb of God?
None of us who believe would even believe in God were it not BY HIM!
How precious is this blood of Christ?
God…raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory;--
God is satisfied with Him and with all those who died in him.
By HIM--by the sprinking of his blood that the Spirit purged our conscious from dead works to serve as obedient children the true and living God--21:…that your faith and hope might be in God.
So what do we say to all these spiritual blessings so freely given us in Christ?
1 Peter 1: 22: Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, [see that ye] love one another with a pure heart fervently: 23: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 24: For all flesh [is] as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: 25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. 1 Peter 2: 1: Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, 2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: 3 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord [is] gracious.
This love, this not fashioning ourselves to our former lusts as the children of wrath, the end purpose of every trial is all to bring us to this end--that we be as children--as dependent upon this Word as a newborn babe is to its mother's milk.
Everything begins with the Word, continues with the Word, is grown by the Word and so it is that we more and more become dependent upon our God, and more and more weaned from the fleshly lusts which war against the soul! UNTO WHOM COMING,…
1 Peter 2: 25: For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls!
Amen!