Our scripture reading this evening comes from the book of 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 1, beginning in verse 13. Hear now the word of the living God. 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 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 yourself with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the feudal 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. 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. May God bless the reading of his word to us. We have something of an unwritten tradition in this country that when you meet someone for the first time, what are the first two questions that you usually ask? What is your name and what do you do for a living? Who are you and what do you do? Now, in the Western world, we probably overemphasize the importance of our occupations. Our whole identity can be wrapped up in what we do for a living. What we do for a living is not the second most important thing about us, but it just so happens that this is usually the second thing that we ask someone. It would be better if we met someone new and we'd say, what is your name? And then secondly, we would ask, what do you think happens when you die? Now, people might think you're a bit odd, but that is certainly more important than your occupation. But for the most part, these are good questions to ask to get to know someone. And Peter, here in our passage this evening, doesn't ask these questions, but he basically gives us the answers. Who are we? And what are we to do? So we see that our identity in Christ drives our obedience to Christ. Because Christ, our mediator, has redeemed us, we must strive for lives of holiness. First, we'll see that we must remember our identity in Christ. Second, we must respond in obedience to Christ. And finally we must acknowledge the identity and obedience of Christ himself. So first we must remember our identity in Christ. Peter begins verse 13 with the word therefore. You probably know when you see therefore in scripture you look up to see what it's there for. You see the importance of the points that come before it. And what we have above this verse here, in verse 13, is all the great teaching of Peter in the opening verses of his letter about our salvation in Christ. He says in verse 1, speaking of our election in Christ, it's according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification by the Holy Spirit. He goes on to say that we are born again to a living hope. We have an inheritance that's kept in heaven. We're guarded by Christ's power. We rejoice in the midst of suffering. We're recipients of the grace that was foretold by the Old Testament prophets. Now it's declared to us through the preaching of the gospel. This opening section of 1 Peter is one of the most marvelous passages in the New Testament of all that we have in Christ. Therefore, he says, based on these blessings that we have in Christ, we must remove all the distractions in our lives and remember our identity in Christ. We are probably the most distracted culture in human history. Microsoft actually conducted a study in 2015 that determined that the average attention span of an adult is eight seconds. Goldfish have the attention span of nine seconds, so we're more distracted than goldfish. And we're all affected by this. We're all distracted by the information that bombards us. We have too many options in our culture. You, in fact, are better off than most in our culture that you are capable of sitting and listening to someone talk for half an hour, not fumbling on your phones during the whole time, not surfing the Internet, But Peter's hearers weren't tempted by too much information or too much entertainment as we are. They were tempted to dwell on their suffering, to focus more on their suffering than on Christ. This is a church, a people. who are in a context of suffering. Many of them have been driven from their homes. Their family members were persecuted, even killed. They, too, are persecuted. They're ostracized for their community. And it would be a natural thing, of course, for them to dwell on this, to be distracted by it. And it's natural for us, as well, for our eyes to shift from things above to things below, when things in our lives are so serious, when our health is at stake, We face financial ruin. Someone is threatening our life. It can be difficult to set our eyes above. We're just trying to survive sometimes. But even in the midst of dreadful circumstances, we can maintain a heavenly perspective. And it's not as if we take our eyes off of our temporal responsibilities and care. We don't just let go and let God and just hope everything works out okay. Of course, we approach our temporal responsibilities with integrity, with hard-working attitude, but we don't shut ourselves off from reality. But there is a way of almost looking through our earthly circumstances and our responsibilities and cares and focusing on God. We still address our temporal concerns, but we don't dwell on them. We don't place all of our hope in a happy resolution of the difficulties that we face in this world. We focus on Christ. We know that one day, for all of us, our temporal matters and concerns will fall away. and we will be left thinking only about Christ, because we will be face-to-face with Him. So Peter tells us here in verse 13, to remove these distractions from our lives, preparing your minds for action, being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Literally, he says here, gird up the loins of your mind, as the King James Version renders it. As you know, in ancient world, they would wear long robes. And if you wanted to walk quickly, or especially if you wanted to fight in battle, you would gather up the long ends of your robe and tuck it into your belt, so you could move your legs freely. You girded up your loins. We see this as Moses commands the people of Israel in Exodus chapter 12, to eat the first Passover with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. Christ himself draws from the Passover account, and he commands his disciples in Luke chapter 12, stay dressed for action, the same word we see here. Stay dressed for action. Keep your lamps burning. Be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Now, girding up the loins of your mind is not so much an action as it is a condition. It's a state of being. We're basically to live like the Minutemen, constantly aware of what's happening. We're ready at any moment, prepared for action. And we are sober-minded, as Peter commands us to be, attentive. He uses the same word in chapter four, verse seven, when he says, the end of all things is at hand, therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. One of the early church fathers, Ignatius of Antioch, wrote a letter in the first century. He encouraged Polycarp, who was actually one of the disciples of John. He said, be sober. As God's athletes, the prize is incorruption and life eternal. concerning which you also are prepared." Of course, as we just saw with the Olympic Games, elite athletes have a single-minded focus. Nothing is going to derail them from their mission. So we must prepare our minds for action, be sober-minded like these athletes, in order to set our hope fully on the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So we must remember our identity in Christ by setting our hope on Him. Hope is a key theme for Peter. In his letter here, he mentions our living hope. Verse three, he commands us to hope here. In verse 13, he speaks of our hope in God. Verse 21, we have to understand that biblical hope is not a wish. It's not crossing your fingers and hoping that everything is going to turn out all right. It is a firm confidence in God's promise. fixing our hope or setting our hope. It's not wishing upon a star. It's focusing on what God has said he would do. And so we must set our gaze with utmost concentration on God's covenant promises in Christ. Notice that he commands us to fix our hope on the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. We set our hope fully to the end. This is not a temporary hope. This is a hope that endures. We are to hope to end or hope perfectly in the grace that will be brought to us at Christ's revelation. This, of course, refers to Christ's triumphant return on the last day. He mentions it earlier in verse 7 of chapter 1. So we have received now grace in our justification, in our adoption, in our sanctification, and we will receive grace when we are resurrected and Christ returns. So we set our hope on something that God does for us. This is our focus, what God gives to us in Christ. We achieve this goal when God brings us grace. It's not when we cross the finish line from our own effort, as if we earned something. We don't reach heaven after we've achieved perfect righteousness through faith and cooperation with faith. We don't reach heaven after we suffer years in purgatory, being purified of our sins, as the Roman Catholic Church teaches. We don't reach heaven because we've done more good things than bad things in this life, have tried to be good people, as most Americans actually believe. You don't kill anybody, you pay your taxes, you earn a spot in heaven. No, our hope is not in the outcome of our own works, but it's on the gift of grace that God delivers to us in Christ. So we set our hope on this grace in Christ because we are God's children. Verse 14. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. We're adopted into the family of God. We've been ransomed by God, as Peter will go on to say here in verse 18. We're brought back out of slavery to sin. And we're believers in God with faith and hope in Him. This is who we are. This is our identity. And we remind ourselves of this identity when our focus begins to slip. And this is the Christian life. We focus on Christ, we focus on that blessed hope, but every day we take our eyes off of Christ and we begin to place it on ourselves. We focus on ourselves when we sin in thought and word and deed. And so every time we sin, we must recalibrate our focus, confessing our sins to God, repenting, of them, turning our back on our sins and turning toward God, and setting our mind anew on Christ and his gospel." Martin Luther, reportedly, when he would face temptation and doubt, he would write with chalk on his table, I am baptized, reminding himself in a tangible way of his identity in Christ. This is who he is. Who am I? What is my identity in this world? I'm baptized. I belong to God. I've been set apart for Him. Christ has died for me. He's adopted me. And He will give me grace on the last day. This is who we are. It's not what someone else says about you. It's not what your bank account says about you. It's not even what your sin says about you. You belong to Christ. So we must remember our identity in Christ so that we can respond in obedience to Christ. This is our second point. Who we are determines what we do, and who we are drives what we do. We are recipients of God's grace, and this grace gives us the power and ability to respond to God's work of salvation with gratitude. That's why Peter says here in verse 14, As obedient children. Again, this is who we are. We are God's children. Therefore, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. Seek to be obedient because you belong to God. We belong to him, and so we follow him. Do you ever go into a store and start ordering around random children, do this, don't do that? Of course not. They don't belong to you. You would expect them to listen to you, to obey your every word. You don't love them, you don't take care of them. Why would they obey you? But with our own children, of course, we expect them to obey us. Why? Because they belong to us. We love them, we care for them, and we expect their obedience. And it's only because we belong to God as his very own children that we are motivated to be obedient to him because of what he has done for us in adopting us as his very own. So as obedient children, Peter says, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. The only other use of this word conformed in the New Testament is Romans chapter 12. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Don't operate according to the pattern of the world or according to your former passions. Now, Peter here is likely addressing a predominantly Gentile audience. There were, of course, probably some Jewish Christians in these congregations that he's writing to, but most of his hearers would have been Gentiles. So it's possible that the passions of their former ignorance that he's referring to is their sinful actions in their pagan days prior to coming to Christ, their former pagan lifestyle. But it's also true that the Jewish believers in the churches here that he's writing to were also saved out of their sinful passions of their former ignorance. So Peter here is addressing their pre-Christian conduct, whether as unbelieving Gentiles or unbelieving Jews. Both of them, of course, have former ignorance before they came to Christ. He's concerned with his hearers that they be not overcome by passions or evil desires, In verse 11 of chapter two, he says, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Chapter four, he says that since Christ has suffered in the flesh for us, we must live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. Now, these passions are of their former ignorance, as he says in verse 14. This isn't merely a lack of knowledge. Their problem was not intellectual. It was moral. They were in rebellion against God, and they were His enemy. And their former passions or evil desires resulted from their internal moral corruption. It's not just from not knowing any better. reminds us of Romans chapter one, verse 21, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. It's not that they lack knowledge of God. They lack a heart that is inclined toward him in love and obedience. Peter's hearers, of course, were surrounded by a culture that hates God. It beckons them daily to return to their former sinful ways. We too are in a similar position in our culture. Our culture seems to grow more and more violent toward the things of God. For those who oppose Christianity, oppose the truth, it's not just that they want to do their own thing and practice their lifestyle. You do your thing, I'll do my thing. Let's all live and let live. That doesn't exist anymore. For the enemies of God, part of practicing their own lifestyle is preventing us from practicing ours. Sometimes it seems as if they spend more time trying to shut us down than they actually do celebrating their own lifestyle. They can't truly revel in their sin if they know that we are out there, the ultimate buzzkill for their pagan lifestyle. We are an incessant reminder that they are suppressing the knowledge of God and unrighteousness, and so they lash out at us as representatives of God. Many who profess Christ and belong to the visible church return to their passions of former ignorance, sadly, almost daily. We read of some Christian celebrity pastor or a para-church leader who has turned away from God's clear teaching in his word to support the religious dogma of today's culture. They embrace the spirit of the age and reject the spirit of the age to come. But Peter calls us to stand out against our former ignorance and to stand against the desire of our former immoral corruption because, verse 15, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. Now, the command here is not to be as holy as God. That, of course, is impossible. He's the creator. We are the creature. It's not a comparison as if our holiness should equal God's level of holiness. But we should be holy because God is holy, as holy as creatures can be. Notice that Peter refers to him as the Holy One. This, of course, was a common name for God in the Old Testament, particularly in the Psalms, in Isaiah. Sometimes he is the Holy One of Israel. Peter's command here is to be holy in all of our conduct. He's very concerned with this concept of conduct throughout his letter. Verse 12 of chapter 2, he tells us here is to keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable. Verse 16 of chapter 3, he encourages them to have a good conscience so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior, same word, good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. And his command to be holy in our conduct is not to become holy through some kind of purification project. He's not saying, be holy once and for all. We are already a holy nation, as he says in verse nine of chapter two. So we must demonstrate in our conduct what we already are. We are holy unto the Lord. When you tell someone to be a man, you're not telling him, do these things that will grant you the status of manhood. If you grow a beard, if you kill an animal by your bare hands, if you grunt a lot, this will grant you the status of manhood. No, you can't complete these steps that will transform you into a man. When you tell someone to be a man, you're telling him to be what he already is. You are a man. Act like it. Be who you are already. This is what Peter is commanding us to do. He is calling us to be holy for we are holy in Christ. Verse 17, he tells us that we must conduct ourselves with fear during our time of exile. 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. So our conduct is to be holy, and we are to conduct ourselves in fear. These two words actually have the same root. Again, our overall pattern of life during our sojourning on earth should be one of holiness and fear of the Lord. So when God tells us to be holy in our conduct and to conduct ourselves in fear, He's telling us, again, to act like what we already are in Christ. And don't think, though, that Peter's commands here are merely for us to be passive. As if I just have to think about who I am in Christ, and then the conduct will come automatically. It will fall into place. No, we must struggle to mortify our sin daily to ensure that our conduct matches our identity. There are those even in reform circles who say that our conduct doesn't even matter that much. Some who say that telling Christians to be holy in their conduct is foolish because it is impossible for us. Some even have written that we can't overcome our sin any more than frogs can fly. This is not Christian teaching, brothers and sisters. Christ has conquered sin, and he enables us more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness. We are holy in Christ, and we must strive to act like it in our conduct. Our conduct, our pattern of life, should demonstrate that we are holy unto the Lord. What we do is driven by who we are. So we must remember our identity in Christ so that we can respond in obedience to Christ. And finally, we must acknowledge the identity and obedience of Christ himself. He is the son, as we see in verse 17, if you call on him as father. Peter likes to use these if statements throughout his letter. Most of the time when he does this, the statement is true. So he's saying, if you call on him as father, and you do, Do this. It's likely here that Peter is alluding to the Lord's Prayer, in which we acknowledge God as our Father. We call on Him. Jesus, the Son of God, taught us to pray to our Father. We call on Him as Father because we are His children. But we have no right to call upon Him as Father if we don't have the Son as our mediator. It's only Because we have kissed the Son, as he says in Psalm 2, we've been united to Christ. Now God is our Father. Calling upon the name of the Lord, calling upon Him as Father, is a demonstration of our faith in God as our Savior. Calling on the name of the Lord is not just asking Him to help you out of a jam. It is confessing our utter dependence upon Him for the forgiveness of sins, but also for our daily sustenance in life. And we can call upon Him, the Father, to save us because Christ is the Son and because He became the Lamb, verse 19. but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb, without blemish or spot. He is the lamb who has ransomed or redeemed us with his blood. We see in verse 18, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold. Paul says in Galatians chapter three, that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. In Ephesians chapter one, he says, in him we have redemption through his blood. the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace. He has paid the price of our redemption with His own blood, and He is the spotless Lamb who was foreknown before the foundation of the world. He's foreordained. in the covenant of redemption, in which the triune God, determined to save a people for himself, the Son is foreordained as the mediator in the covenant between the triune God and man. And he covenants that he would come to earth, that he would take to himself a human nature, that he would live a life of perfect holiness, that he would humble himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross, as Paul tells us in Philippians chapter 2. And the Father then demonstrates that Christ's obedient life and his sacrificial death on the cross are acceptable as a ransom for sin by raising him from the dead and by rewarding him with glory. We see this in verse 21. Who through him, our believers in God, who raised him from the dead, gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. This is the result. The result is that now we can have faith and hope and in God because of all that Christ has done for us and because God has raised him from the dead. We are the trophies of his grace. His reward from the father for fulfilling his role as the covenant mediator. So we must remember our identity in Christ and live in obedience to Christ as we sojourn here on earth. May we be counted among those who stand with Christ in Revelation chapter 14. Then I looked and behold on Mount Zion stood the lamb and with him 144,000 who had his name and his father's name written on their forehead. It is these who follow the lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the lamb. He has purchased us with his blood. He's redeemed us and he's written his name on our foreheads. This is our identity. You belong to Christ. We belong to the lamb. So may we, as those in Revelation chapter 14, follow the lamb wherever he goes. Let's bow together in prayer. Gracious heavenly father, we thank you for the clarity of your word. We thank you for the promises that you speak to us through your word, the promises of salvation, redemption, forgiveness in Christ. We thank you for our covenant mediator, who was perfect in every way, who obeyed the law as Adam failed, fulfilling all righteousness on our behalf. We thank you for his perfect obedience to your will, and we praise you for your reward of him by raising him from the dead. Grant us, we pray now, not to be mere hearers of your word, but doers also. Because of our identity in Christ, because of what you have done for us, we pray that you would give us the grace to strive for holiness, to be obedient to you, all for the glory of your son. In whose name we pray, amen.