Our sermon text for today is 1 Peter 1, verses 13-21. We are picking up again in the series through Peter's first epistle, and in this passage we'll see the Apostle moving from praising God and commending the saints to exhorting them. And of course, as we also are elect sojourners, those in Christ, those who are saints like those of old, can take this to heart as an exhortation for us as well. So, let us listen then to 1 Peter chapter 1 starting in verse 13. 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 yourselves with 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 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. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let us pray for God's blessing. Oh Lord, our God, we give thanks to you for your word to direct us, to comfort us, to build us up. We ask that you would work in us to give our, to direct our minds, to pay full attention to these truths, that we might lay them up in our hearts and practice them in our lives. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Like I said, in this passage, Peter moves to exhort the saints whom he has been writing to. He has praised God for causing them to be born again and has extolled the blessings that they have commended the saints for their faith and love and hope-filled joy. But now, having been born again to a living hope by God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, now set your hope on Christ, he is teaching. Set your hope on Christ, be holy as God is holy, conduct yourself in the fear of God, and live in the knowledge that you are ransomed by the precious blood of Christ. So with these things being true, therefore live in hope, in holiness, and in the fear of God, in the remembrance of your ransom by the precious blood of Christ. This exhortation is not an idle word. He's not just filling up space. He didn't have a word count that he had to meet, and so I had to fill it up. This is a very practical exhortation because there is a danger of drifting back into old ways, into the passions of your former ignorance, the futile ways from which you were ransomed. He warns them, don't drift back, don't be conformed to those ways, for God has delivered you from them. And they were vain, they were to no effect. God delivered you from them and has made you his children now. And so walk as his children, live as his children. And may we do so as well. First then, let's look at verse 13, his first exhortation, which is to set your hope on the grace that is coming with Christ. Hope is like an anchor. It is important to anchor yourself to the right ground. Hope is what you are longing for and expecting, and it is important to have a mind well-grounded, to keep the right perspective. What is it that you're waiting for? What is it that you're hoping for? And that will direct, to some degree, your actions, how you live in the present. But even before he says, set your hope on the grace, he has two other related phrases. Preparing your minds for action. Literally, gird up the loins of your mind. That's kind of an interesting way to express it. To gird up your loins was to kind of collect your robes that they might have been wearing, could have gotten in your way if you were going to do some work or if you were going to run. Tuck them in, gird them up, and prepare for action. Prepare for action is kind of how we would explain the metaphor. Get ready. But here it's not your physical body that's getting ready, it's your mind. Gird up the loins of your mind. Make your minds ready for action. In other words, wake up. Be alert. Wake up and prepare for action. You have a race to run. You have a life to live in days of sojourning in which you are going to have to deal with trials and temptations. So prepare your minds for action and be sober-minded. Being sober-minded set your hopes. So this is another phrase, being sober-minded. The word can refer literally to being sober, not drunk, but just as drunkenness refers to being overwhelmed, not being in control. Sober can also refer more broadly to being that state of mind that is not drunk, being sober-minded, being sensible, being in self-control, being sober-minded. Not be sleepy, not be drunk, Be sober-minded. Again, prepare your minds. And what is it you're supposed to do with your mind here? Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Do this with your mind. Set your hope. Anchor yourself on that point. To set your hope on something is to desire it, to expect it, to have this be the thing that you are waiting for and eager for. Set your hope fully on it. That is your confidence. That is your ground of expectation. The revelation of Jesus Christ here refers to his second coming, when he will be visibly revealed in glory. It's already been an event that's been referred to back in verse 5, that salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, or verse 7, may be found to result in praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Jesus, you can't see Jesus right now, he's at the Father's right hand, but one day he will be revealed and you shall see him as he descends, as he comes. And not only comes, but revealed for who he is, revealed in his glory and majesty. But when he comes in glory and majesty to judge the world, he also is bringing with him grace for his people. you're hopefully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. This grace that will be brought to you is another way to refer to the imperishable inheritance mentioned in verse 4, and that salvation ready to be revealed in verse 5. Here it's referred to as that grace that will be brought to you. Certainly we already stand in God's grace, under His favor, but then especially this gift of God's favor, this blessing from God through Christ will be bestowed upon His people, free from death and corruption and misery and sin. and everlasting inheritance with God in full communion and enjoyment in Him for all eternity in the new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwells. Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you then. And if this is your hope, it will change your life. You will be ready to forego momentary pleasures of sin and account the reproach of Christ more valuable than any earthly treasure. If you're simply living for the day, simply for, what is your hope set on? It's on dinner. Or, what is my hope set on? It's for not dying tomorrow. If your hopes are short-sighted, then your actions will become short-sighted as well. Well, this will feel good, I'll go ahead and do that. But if our hopes are set on the grace that will be revealed, we learn what we have in Christ, what we have been given in Christ, We will count even the reproach of Christ more valuable than any earthly treasure ready to forego the momentary pleasures of sin, ready to not be caught off guard by temptations that threaten you or that allure you. So set your hope. The second thing he exhorts them is to be holy as obedient children, as obedient children, to be holy like your father. He calls them obedient children, as obedient children you are indeed children of God, have been adopted by God and born again by him. If indeed you be part of, if you are in Christ, if you have believed in Christ, you are co-heirs with Christ. Peter has already addressed them as those who have been born again to a living hope, born again by God, right? Both being given the status of children and heirs through adoption and be given the spirit of a child of God, the inward likeness of God by that new birth within you by His grace. And so, as obedient children, therefore honor and obey your heavenly Father. Ought we not to honor and obey our earthly parents? How much more the Father of us all, of our Heavenly Father, live as obedient children of the best of fathers, who will not lead us astray, who is compassionate and wise So as obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. You should be conformed to your father, not to the passions of your former ignorance. passions here refers to those sinful desires, those passions that overwhelm and destroy the soul. Later he'll describe them as those passions that wage war against your soul. Not using the analogy of the flesh and the spirit that Paul uses, but the soul being you and the passions are at war with you to corrupt you, to destroy you, right? Those passions put everything into disorder and they corrupt and they are to be warned against. Those passions do not be conformed to them. And you should not be conformed to them, especially because those belong to that state of ignorance that you once were in. that belong to your former ignorance. These passions belong to a state of not knowing God, of spiritual blindness and folly. Once, especially the Gentiles, were without God in the world, right? Those who do not know God is how we were described. And in that state of ignorance, passions run wild. But you are no longer ignorant, if you know God, right, through Christ. If you have come to the Father through Him, you are not ignorant. You do know God. Therefore, do not walk and be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. And note the word former. They belong to your former condition. By God's grace, you are no longer there. You now know the Creator, and you have been delivered from that past condition. So be sober-minded and do not be conformed to those passions that drove you in your former ignorance, in that pagan past that we have been delivered from by God's grace. So do not be conformed to that. Instead, as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all your conduct. Be conformed to the holiness of the one who has called you. God has called you to Himself. God has called you out of ignorance to Him. He has called you as His people. He calls you His children. He has called you to His household, to dwell with Him. He has called you powerfully, causing you to be born again, bringing you to new life. So as he who called you is holy, therefore be holy in all your conduct. It's but fitting, it's but right, right? Doesn't that make sense? If he is holy, then his children should be holy. If God is holy, so should we. Holiness refers to consecration, to purity, refers to being pure and not defiled, refers to being set apart unto God, consecrated, devoted to Him, not common or profane. Thomas Vincent, the Puritan, describes the holiness of God, the holiness of God that we are to resemble, right? The holiness of God in this way. The holiness of God is his essential property whereby he is infinitely pure, loves and delights in his own purity, and in all the resemblances of it which any of his creatures have, and is perfectly free from all impurity, and hates it where he sees it. It's similar to how John says that God is light and in him is no darkness. God is holy. He is pure and he loves this purity and he hates sin and is adverse to it. For you to be holy is for you to be set apart unto God, to be devoted to Him, to reflect His moral character, and to delight in His purity and in God, and to be repulsed by sin, to be grieved by sin, to hate sin, right, as God does. So be holy, and it says be holy in your conduct. True holiness is expressed in your conduct. It, of course, ought to dwell in our hearts. Our hearts ought to be pure and holy, single-minded, not hypocritical, devoted to God, but also in your conduct, in your behavior, in your way of life. This word conduct shows up three times in this passage. Here's the first time. Be holy in your conduct. It's expressed in your words and actions, not only in the worship of God, although it's expressed there as well, but also how you treat others, how you how you walk, your way of life. Be holy in it, and be holy in all of it. Be holy in all your conduct. God sanctifies his people more and more, but you ought to aim at holiness in everything. You are fully gods, and he claims all of you and all of your life. So cast out all unholiness that you find, all sin in your hearts and minds and ways. be holy in all your conduct. It is but fitting and right, but not only that, Peter goes on to say, since it is written, he also backs it up by quoting scripture, Leviticus in particular, you shall be holy for I am holy. Peter not only appeals to the rightness of the principle, but also to the authority of scripture. This quote comes from Leviticus. Peter quotes Leviticus as authoritative scripture for the church in the New Covenant. Now, some of Leviticus obviously is applied differently in light of Christ's coming. Peter would know this, of course, very well, being the one who saw the vision of the unclean foods, right, and told to rise, kill, and eat, who went unto the Gentiles knowing he would not be defiled by that contact. Some of it is applied differently in light of Christ, but all of scripture, even Leviticus, remains authoritative and ought to be interpreted by scripture. The church's relation to God now is basically the same as in ancient Israel. The same general principles apply, that God has called us to himself, he has saved us, therefore we ought to be holy. It is the same way of salvation, the same dynamics at work, the same fundamental covenant of grace, even if some of the outward forms are different. The church is the continuation of the covenant people of God. And so Peter can quote what was directed to Israel. Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. And quote that to the church in the New Testament. Now there's actually several verses that say something like this in Leviticus. In chapter 11, where it talks about the food laws, it says, for I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground, for I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. We already read in chapter 19, you shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. And then in chapter 20, it says, consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. Keep my statutes and do them. I am the Lord who sanctifies you. So you get the theme. This is found several places in Leviticus. Now in Leviticus, Israel was given some laws that we would call, in our confession, typical ordinances. We might say that more understandably as symbolic ordinances, ordinances that typified something, that was to teach them. They were symbols that were to teach them about not only redemption through Christ and His blood, but also to teach them about holiness, to teach them about the concept of being set apart from the nations unto God. Laws such as those about the clean and unclean foods. But in Leviticus, Israel was also given laws regarding moral offenses, such as those abominations that had caused the Canaanites to be worthy of judgment, that they were being cast out because these moral offenses, these moral laws apply to men as men, as humans as humans, that they had caused the Canaanites to be worthy of judgment and the Israelites were told not to fall into the same ways. We in the New Covenant are freed from the observance of the symbolic and ritual ordinances but are all the more bound to the practice of holiness by turning from evil and doing good. Some of those laws were to teach them about the concept of holiness, while the other laws directed them in holiness itself. And those are the ones which we also ought to keep. So just some examples of what does holiness look like from Leviticus 18 through 20. It means turning from idols, turning from witchcraft and fortune tellers, and serving the Lord your God alone, fearing him. It means don't swear by God's name falsely and otherwise profane it. It means to keep the Sabbath day, which now in the new covenant is the first day of the week, the Lord's day. It means revere your father and mother and do not curse them and show similar honor to other superiors in age and gifts and authority. Do not hate your brothers, your literal brothers in your family, but then also the brothers in a broader sense. Do not bear a grudge, but love your neighbor as yourself, both your brothers of your own people and outsiders too. Avoid sexual immorality of all kinds. including adultery, incest, homosexuality, bestiality, and fornication, but instead keep yourself chaste, reserving sex for marriage, for lawful marriage. And do not oppress or defraud or rob your neighbor. Do not unduly delay giving wages to the worker. Not only pay what is due, but in fact be generous with what you have. And do not slander other people. Be careful not to spread a false report about others. Take steps to prevent yourself from doing that, even accidentally. And do not lie to one another. Now hopefully these things sound a little familiar because it's the principles of the Ten Commandments further explained, right, in Leviticus 18, 19, 20, other parts of the Bible as well. But these are ways that God wants his people to walk in as a holy people that resembles the moral character of our God himself and his intention for his creation. So be holy as the Lord your God is holy. This is what you are to now do, how you should then live as those who have been brought out of the passions of your former ignorance. The next point is in verse 17. Conduct yourself in the fear of God during your sojourn. Remember, the one you call as father, he is also impartial judge. He is no slouch. He is not a contemptible person. He is the Lord God Almighty, and he is the judge of heaven and earth. This idea of him being impartial is something that Peter emphasized also when he visited Cornelius in Acts 10. So Peter opened his mouth and said, truly, I understand that God shows no impartiality. But in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. It's interesting to have that same connection of not partial and fear him as also here in his epistle. But it doesn't matter if you're Jew or Gentile or if you're rich or poor or whether you are visibly in the covenant people of God or out of it, you still need to come to the Lord in the same way. He still looks for faith in Jesus Christ and a faith that produces good works, right? You still ought to fear the Lord. There were those who expected God to show them partiality. Oh, like the Pharisees says, we were sons of Abraham, right? Or those who in the Old Testament said, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. God will never destroy this. And then God destroyed it because they had abandoned their Lord. So, remember, the one you call as father is the one who is the impartial judge. Therefore, conduct yourself with fear. In other words, do not walk in presumption or casual hypocrisy, thinking that God just cares about appearances. God knows the true character of every man's work and is not deceived. He looks both for outward conformity with his word and sincerity and right motive of heart. So do not expect Him to show you partiality just because you outwardly call Him as Father. You must repent and believe in Jesus Christ with a true and living faith, having His righteousness imputed to you as your only hope in the day of judgment. The good deeds that a lively faith produces will be graciously praised and rewarded by God. as they show believers to be true disciples of Christ, while the evil deeds of hypocrites and unbelievers will justly lead to their condemnation. You could read Romans 2, 6 through 11 for a similar application of judgment and no partiality, and also Romans 11, where Paul exhorts the Gentiles, you know how the Jews were cut off from the olive tree, or some of them were due to unbelief? Well, That could happen to you too if you don't believe in Christ, right? Do not be proud, but fear, right? It's a type of fear that drives you to avoid the wrong way. Also, it's not the case that God overlooks whatever his children do and only deals with outsiders. He does judge his children and their deeds in this life. Although, in their case, it is not condemnation, but it is fatherly discipline. He gives special attention, in fact, to His children, and He disciplines them for their own good. As 1 Corinthians 11.32 says, when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So remember that He is not impartial, that He judges each one's deeds, and though we have no condemnation if we are in the Lord Jesus Christ, He still watches us, and He still loves us, and therefore will not just let us go our own way, not care about what we do. And so we ought to conduct ourselves, second time that word is used, conduct ourselves in fear, with fear. The fear of God is important. The fear of God that Christians are to exercise fundamentally is that reverent fear, a humble awe, a worshipful attitude toward God. The saint does not fear God because he expects judgment. We have been delivered from that fear, but he fears God because he has a true sense of God's majesty, holiness, and sovereignty. Now the opposite of fearing God is to ignore God, to despise God, to think little of Him, to think lightly of Him. Do not do that. Now the fear of God does, like I say, include a fear of His wrath. But it means that you take it seriously and avoid it. Not necessarily that you expect it. If you do not believe and repent in Christ, you should expect it and therefore turn. But as a believer, like Noah, in reverent fear he constructed the ark, right? In reverent fear we cling to Christ, for we know that is the way of salvation. It also includes a fear of fatherly discipline because that is unpleasant and because we love him and we instead want to please him. And we know that discipline is meant to turn us away from those evil things and to walk in his ways, avoiding such discipline by turning from evil. The fear of God keeps God's majesty and holiness in our thoughts and calculations. And it is good for you and me that we fear God and conduct ourselves in fear. It keeps us from hypocrisy, keeps us from mere eye service. It keeps us before the face of God in our minds and hearts. And so conduct yourselves with fear during the time of your sojourn. I've mentioned before sojourn here, I think is the right word instead of exile. But during this, as he's already called them, those elect sojourners, elect strangers in among the unbelievers as well, you're going to be dwelling in this condition where you're subject to the need for endurance, where you're going to be confronted by temptation, where you're going to go through trials. And one thing that you should be equipped with is the fear of God. to keep you steady and sober and steadfast during your sojourn. Fear the Lord your God as you are surrounded by temptations. Hold fast by faith and godly fear to the ways of your heavenly Father. The last note here in this passage is also the one he spends probably the most verses on. is to remind them that they ought to live as those ransomed by the precious blood of Christ. A familiar theme from the Old Testament, you have been redeemed, you have been ransomed, you have been delivered, therefore walk gratefully in God's ways as his own. You have been ransomed by Christ, the spotless lamb, foreknown and now made manifest, dead and raised by God, through whom you believe and hope in God. So you are ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers. So you are ransomed. What were you ransomed from? The futile ways, or use the British pronunciation, the futile ways, right, not talking about feudalism, the futile ways inherited from your forefathers. From God we inherit a precious, everlasting inheritance from your forefathers, speaking of their pagan past here, from the traditions, mere traditions of men Those ways, this is the third use of the word conduct, here is translated ways, that way of life, it was to no effect. It was vain. It wasn't going anywhere. Those were futile ways. And you are ransomed from that pointless way of life. And with what? Not perishable things, such as silver or gold. Usually you don't talk about silver and gold as perishable things, right? In an earthly sense, that would be the non-perishable things, right? Bananas are perishable, not gold, right? But here he makes his point even stronger. Even gold and silver are perishable compared to what you have been ransomed by, the precious blood of Christ. The precious blood of who? Jesus Christ, who was foreknown before the foundation of the world and then later made manifest. He already existed as God forever, but he was made manifest to you the first time when he came in the flesh, born of the Virgin Mary. even foreknown before the foundation of the world, God in His eternal purpose chose and ordained His only begotten Son to be the mediator between God and man, and from all eternity gave Him a people to be saved by Him. And so, this arrangement has been in place from eternity, although it was only applied after man fell, and it's on the basis of what Christ would accomplish in the flesh. And so, He was made manifest in these last times for you believers, you who believe in God through Him. He was made manifest that he might lay down his life as a sacrificial lamb without blemish or spot, ransoming us from our lost condition of sin and misery, our defilement that separated us from God, and to be raised from the dead and glorified by God. we believe in God when we believe in the Savior whom he has appointed and raised from the dead, and when we receive and embrace the way of salvation that he has provided. It is not everyone who says, I believe in God that believes in God. It is the one who through Christ believes in God that believes in God. This is the way to the Father. This is the way that we have salvation. And those who believe in Christ are believing in God. Your faith and hope is in God. It's a secure place to rest. And so live as those who have been ransomed at such a great cost, that God himself dwelling in eternal bliss and glory, needing nothing, decided to take on finite and mortal human nature to suffer agony in his soul and suffer and die and shed his blood that is dying for your sins, that you might be ransomed from those ways that you are now tempted to go back and live in. You've been pulled out from that mire, so live in that remembrance to not turn back to those useless ways, but conduct yourself in holiness and the fear of God as obedient children of our loving Father. having been born again to a living hope by God through the resurrection of Christ. Now set your hope on Christ. Be holy as God is holy. Conduct yourself in the fear of God and live in the knowledge that you are ransomed with the precious blood of Christ. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we give you thanks and praise, for we are not even aware as we ought to be of this great wonder of our salvation, that though we had turned everyone his own way, walking in ways that were in darkness leading to destruction, that you brought us out that we might now live with you and live in your ways, ways that are good, ways that please you, ways that we were intended to walk in. We ask that you would strengthen our hearts and minds to cast out every evil thought, that we might walk in your ways and glorify your name. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.