Series: 1 Peter
Title: The Revelation of Jesus Christ
Text: 1 Peter 1: 13
Date: February 13, 2011
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
The truth that sinners are unholy in ourselves apart from Christ Jesus our Holiness is the gospel through which the Lord draws his redeemed making us partakers of his holiness. Believers will never be made holy by turning from the grace of God in Christ to the law, but by his great love he shall through the gospel that shuts our mouths and declares Christ to be the perfection of his people. Standing in this hope will result in the believer suffering in this world. So be it. This is how it pleases God to save sinners.
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;
Gird up the loins of your mind
Ephesians 6:14: Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
Notice how much emphasis Peter puts on the truth of the gospel in this epistle:
1 Peter 1:12--{The Spirit of Christ revealed to the prophets}--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; which things the angels desire to look into….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:
Before we go further, see how Paul says some turn from loving the brethren:
1 Timothy 1: 5: Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and [of] a good conscience, and [of] faith unfeigned: 6: From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; 7: Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. 8: But we know that the law [is] good, if a man use it lawfully; 9: Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10: For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine; 11: According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.
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: 2: As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:…
Christ suffered for this and so did Noah.
1 Peter 3: 19 : By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 20: Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
1 Peter 4:11: If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 4:17: For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
Be sober--Be ready. Quit you like men.
1 Peter 3: 15: But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
Jeremiah 1: 6: Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. 7: But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. 8: Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD….17: Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. 18 For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. 19 And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I [am] with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee.
And hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
This includes salvation when Christ returns, yes! But also the grace brought to sinners in your midst by the regenerating, sanctifying grace of God through the word of your gospel.
Romans 1: 16: For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
Life and immortality are brought to light by Christ through the Word. The way to eternal life, glory, and salvation by Christ alone, is made known by divine revelation, not by the flesh. This how Christ makes sinners partaker of his holiness-through the truth of his propitiatory--work whereby he perfected forever them are sanctified.
1 Peter 2:12: Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by [your] good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
The day when he converts them in mercy, revealing Christ Jesus in them even as he did you. You were called with a holy calling and made a partaker of Christ's holiness, now turn not away out of this way but continue.
1 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;{conduct} 16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
Paul describes his former conduct, his former way of life, the former lusts of his flesh:
Galatians 1:13: For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: 14: And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. 15: But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, 16: To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:
The heart of the believer is purified by faith in Christ through the word which declares Christ is the Sanctifier and our Sanctification. Do not fashion yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance
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; 19: But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 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; that your faith and hope might be in God.
AMEN!