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1 Peter chapter number 2 and
verse number 17. A couple of days after Steve met
with Sam, I didn't know he had met with him. Sam met with me
on Friday morning. We were going over some deacon
issues, things relating to their ministry. And before we got into our conversation,
I mentioned to him that a few weeks ago, I had asked God to
do a special thing in my life to warm my inner man to a greater
degree than where I had been. And I told him I was surprised
that it was this subject of the fear of God that did it. Sam broke out in tears. He just
wept at the table. He said, that's exactly what
God has done for me. Philip mentioned that blending
of something there between the fear of God and the peace and
the comfort and the joy that the fear of God brings. That's
why it's so often mentioned. that God has made so many promises
to those who fear him. And without jumping ahead, that'll
be part three next Sunday, but there's something about this
subject of fearing God that has just been great for my soul. And I hope it has been beneficial
for you as well. I've been emotional all week,
two weeks. So I'm hopeful I can maintain myself through this.
Verse number 17, in 1 Peter 2, honor all, all men, love the
brotherhood, fear God, and honor the king. In this verse,
as we have mentioned For a few sermons now, Peter gives us a
summary statement of his instructions up to verse number 16. Verse
17 is this summary. These statements, we've noticed,
they are imperatives and they capsulize our duty or what we
are to give to the four mentioned groups that are mentioned here
or people. what we are to give to them. And it's interesting that, after
all that Peter has said up to this point, that this is the
summation. This is his gathering up of thoughts
and stating them for us here very clearly in these four statements. The first one, we noticed honor
all or all mankind. We are to give honor to all,
meaning, We are to show respect to all the people that are in
our small corner of the world. Wherever we live, we are to honor
all that are connected to our life. We are to value others
because they are made in the image of God and they possess
a soul that is priceless. And we must guard our words and
our conduct as Peter has taught us so that we don't hinder our
witness to them. And we know that God uses his
own people to draw his elect to himself. And Peter has said
much about our interaction and influence on the world. And this
statement summarizes our responsibilities. We are to give to all honor. knowing the possibility that
our life may be the witness that God uses to draw them to salvation. The second statement he gives, the second
imperative statement is directed to our relationship with our
spiritual family. Again, Peter has said much about
how we are to care for one another during our pilgrimage and shared
time together in worship as we travel together. And at the center
of our relationship with all members of our spiritual family
is love. We are to give love to the brotherhood,
to everyone in the brotherhood, all the time. We are to give
what we've received from God, a similar kind of love, and without
which we cannot preserve our unity. The third imperative, and the
one we're focused on at this time, is fear God. And we've compacted our thoughts
into three different sermons. We began last week, we'll do
it today, and one more, and we're only scratching the surface of
what this means to fear God. This focuses on our primary duty
that all believers are to give to God. He summarizes everything he's
taught us about our relationship with God in one word, fear God. We owe to our God, fear. Last Sunday, we focused
our attention on this action of fear and considered some things
about it. Why this action? Peter gives
us his own response after he has said many things about the
person and work of God. He's not just writing this for
his hearers. He's writing this out of his
own experience. And Peter gives us his own response
here. He's been teaching and kind of
opening up ideas and concepts about God. And it's as if he's
assuming that we're all following him together in this response
to God. We've heard his instruction,
and the commandment doesn't take us by surprise when we hear this
commandment, fear God. As if it's out of sync with all
that he has said about God, but it's not, nor do we find this
commandment to fear God to be grievous or burdensome to our
life. As we gather up all that Peter
has taught us about God, this duty to fear God makes perfect
sense to us. This response is the accumulative
effect of Peter's teaching. This is his own personal response
from his instructions about God. And this is where we ought to
be in our mind and affections. We like Peter come to the same
conclusion and we stand in awe of our God that Peter has presented
to us in these short 41 verses from the beginning of the letter
to verse 17 of chapter two. We have been given glimpses of
God's nature in these 41 verses. We have been given glimpses of
his redemptive work and the glory we see of his resplendent majesty
leads us to say with Peter, amen, amen. He alone is worthy of our worship
and our reverence for him inspires our prayers and our thanksgiving
and our obedience to him. Peter has given us his systematic
theology, 12 layers, 12 times he mentions God in these 41 verses. And from it, we've gathered his
theology of the person and work of God. And with Peter, we too
give the same response, let us fear God. a deep reverence as
we are filled with awe because of the glory of God that has
been shown to us through Peter's instructions. Peter has taken
us with him on a journey of contemplating what God has done for his people
through the sacrificial offering of his own son for us. My goal this morning is to give
special attention to the person to whom we are to give fear.
We've considered the fear last week, and to the person we are
to give fear, we have God. We're told in many portions of
the Bible, we are not to fear man, we are not to fear any other
creature. Only one deserves our fear, and
that is God. We can honor the king, but we
fear God. Only He deserves that kind of
reverence and awe from us. And so I pray that when we've
finished some of our thoughts this morning, we will join in
with Peter, and we will too, like him, stand in awe with the
utmost reverence for the only infinite, eternal, and majestic
God, and give Him the fear that he is worthy of receiving
from us today. Before we go back, however, and
gather these 12 statements up and look at them again about
God, I want to note a few things about this word, God, that we
find in our text, in our English text. Without much effort, we can research
the Greek word here. The theos is this Greek word
for God, was a very common word in the Greek culture. They called all of their gods
theos. There were many of them. They
had a lot of them. They were all given the same
name. All of their gods were recognized
as being superior beings, possessing particular qualities that made
them gods who deserved to be worshiped. There was one god who was seen
as the father of all gods and was superior to all the gods,
and his name was Zeus. While greater than all the other
gods, He didn't possess all of their individual qualities of
all the other gods, but he was just much greater and superior
to all of them, and therefore given the title, the father of
the gods. When the Greeks heard this word,
theos, used by the Hebrews, they used this term, and later the
Christians, as well as the Greek converts, to them the name theos
was given to just another god. All gods were referred to as
theos. But as we read in the New Testament,
we hear angels using this term. Not just men. We hear Jesus Christ
using this term. We hear the apostles using this
term. They all call the one true God,
Theos, who is the supreme being, the only one who possesses all
the qualities of a divine being. And for the Greek, this was impossible.
That's why they had to have many gods. No one being could possess
all those qualities, but we know there is one being
who does. It's interesting when we follow
Paul's ministry in the book of Acts in chapter 17. Paul was
invited to meet with the Greek philosophers, remember, and discuss
with them the Christian theos, the Christian God that they heard
him talk about in the marketplace, and they wanted to know more
about it, and so they invited him to Mars Hill, and there asked
him to address this matter. And remember, Paul points to
the statue, the image, that was there made to the unknown Theos,
the unknown God. The Greeks figured they probably
left someone out, and so they had one more to the unknown God. And Paul preached to them about
that God who was the true supreme God, who was the creator, and
he alone who had the power to judge all people. And as he went
on, it was a very short sermon and a great stir occurred, if
you remember. He didn't get a chance to go
into many points before there was a lot of confusion taking
place. But God was good in that from
that event, some believed and followed Paul and listened to
his teachings. It's interesting that 200 years
before Christ the Messiah came into the world, there were 70
or so Hebrew scribes or scholars who took the Old Testament Hebrew
and they translated it into the Greek language 200 years before
Christ came. It's called the Septuagint, which
just refers to the 70 scholars who who made this translation. And why do I mention this? Because
they, these Hebrew scholars, found the meaning of the Greek
word, Theos, to be the closest in meaning to their Hebrew word,
Elohim. Over 4,400 times in the Old Testament,
Elohim was translated Theos. In fact, over 300 times they
translated the name Jehovah into Theos. They capitalized those letters
when they did it. Our English Bible, our English
word God, is the only word in the English language that is
equivalent to this Greek word Theos, which is equivalent to
alien. And so when we read or speak
the name God, we are referring to the one creator
in the beginning, God, Elohim, the Theos, the author of our salvation. We call him God. And Peter mentions him by this
name. And we have it translated here
for us, God, into our English Bible. Twelve times, Chaos is
mentioned in his instructions, initial teachings. Then he concludes
and summarizes all of this instruction and calls us all, all believers,
to give this God your utmost reverence. Your utmost awe. Fear God. Fear him because of who he is
and what he has done for his people. Revere him with the utmost
reverence. Peter has intentionally placed
the name of Theos, God, 12 times throughout his instructions up
to this point of our text in chapter 2 in verse 17. And inspired by what we've heard
about God, we are moved to give him what he deserves, and that
is fear. And so this morning what I want
to do quickly, I'll have to be brief about it, but I don't know
any other way than to build Peter's systematic theology of God that
brings us to this point where he says, fear God, unless we
go back and look quickly at the times that he mentions God. I don't want to re-preach it. We've
spent a couple of years getting this far. It was hard for me
just how do I summarize these statements, but I'm going to
make attempt of it. And trust if some of these are
not clear that I believe most of these sermons on these texts
are available. The first reference that Peter
gives, so let's look at Peter's development of this concept of
God as he's given it to us and builds it for us. in his teaching. We go back to chapter number
one and verse number two, and here we read about elect according
to the foreknowledge of God, the first reference we have to
him. What a statement. He is the God of our election. That in and of itself deserves
reverence from us. We didn't elect ourselves. God
chose us and he chose us and placed us in Christ because we
were in his mind, foreknown of him. I can't comprehend that,
but I'm humbled by it. And it should lead us toward
that statement of Peter, fear God. In verse number three, we have
a second reference to God made here, blessed be the God. We spent a lot of time on that,
I remember, and I know it's had an impact on all of us. Here
we are led by Peter. He is leading us into this eulogy
of praise of God, and we are joining in with him. He can't
contain himself. He bursts into adoration. as he begins to tell us about
this great God. Blessed be God. Take his words
and speak to him with great gratitude for all that he has done for
you through our Lord Jesus Christ. Bless God. Bless God. Sing his praises. Tell about
his greatness. Bless God. The third reference he gives
is in verse 5. And he's taking us on this journey,
what God the Father has done for us in verses 3 and 4, through
Christ and all that he has achieved for us through him. And then
in verse 5, he's working his way back to the pilgrim's life
in the journey in the world. And we have to go out from our
worship into the world. And he says to us, who are kept
by the power of God, preserved. We will go out, yes, but we have
been kept by the power of God. We are being kept. He preserves
us. We stand in awe that God has
made his own power available to us, kept by the power of God. And we can overcome. We can defeat
the world system and its attacks against us. We can defeat the
flesh and all of its lusts. We can defeat the devil who seeks
our ruin by what means? The power of God. This God keeps us. This God preserves
us. but we stand amazed at his wisdom. He freely dispenses his power
to us, how? Through our faith. All of the
power of God dispensed and channeled to his people who live in this
world, who face all kinds of challenges, but he gives it through
faith. Our faith. Faith that he gave to us. We
didn't even generate our own faith. He gave us the gift of
faith. And through that faith, he enables us to lay hold of
the things that pertain to his own power to keep us through
the journey of our life. And so, how well do we know and
understand who God is? How well do we know and understand
what he's done and continues to do for us? I believe it is
Peter's own style and Paul's and the whole purpose of the
Bible, the way it's laid out for us. It is designed that as
we grow in the knowledge and understanding of the things of
who God is and what he's done, our reverence and all for God
increases. It should. It should have an impact on our
affections. It's not just information for
the mind. It takes hold of our affections
for God and toward God. Fear is an emotion. Reverence is a feeling. And it's the knowledge of God
that produces that in us. Otherwise we're just cold intellectuals. So we're humbled by the things
that we learn about God. The fourth and fifth reference
that he makes concerning God is found in verse 21. Another
wonderful portion here from verses 18 through 21, where he's describing
what he has done through his son, Jesus Christ. It describes him from before
the foundation of the world. God has had this plan concerning
you. You were not purchased with gold
and silver, friend. You were purchased by the blood of God's son. It's
a humbling reality, but it's also empowering. Verse 21, he says, who by him,
speaking of Christ and what God has done through
him, we believe in God. Why is it important that you
believe in God? Because it is God who has told
you his plans concerning you. If you don't believe in God,
your faith is weak and not able to lay hold of what God has provided
for you. And so as you contemplate Christ,
your belief in God is strengthened to lay hold of these things. And so he says, who by him do
believe in God that raised him from the dead and gave him glory
so that your faith and hope might be in God. And it's a part of
what Romans 15's about, what Paul is talking about. So our hope and faith might be in
God who has done all of this for us The sixth reference is
found in verse 23, another wonderful portion here. We're told here
being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of an incorruptible
by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Our obedience
at verse 22, Peter tells us is the evidence that God's life
is alive in you. Your obedience to God. God has planted the seed of his
own word, life-giving word, into your soul. And the fruit and
the evidence that that word has taken root and alive in you is
that it bears fruit. As Jesus taught in the Gospels,
our obedience to a particular thing, especially Peter, is focused
on here. And it is the love that we are
commanded to have for one another. Our teachings in John's Gospel
right now on the upper room discourse focus on that very thing in our
Sunday school. The greatest obedience, Peter
is saying, that God's life is in you, is you love your brethren.
How's that possible? God, God put his
word in you. He birthed you by his word, and
from that word, he empowers you to obey him. So Peter's just layering these
concepts about God and what he's done. The seventh reference is
in chapter 2, verse number 4. He says, to whom coming as unto
a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God. And here it's a reference to
Christ. Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone
that was chosen by God for the church. He is the living stone,
that cornerstone that gives life to all those who are lively stones
built upon Christ and the foundation of the apostles and prophets
that make us the spiritual house of God where we gather to worship
God. God did this. unusual thing that
when we gather and assemble together a spiritual house is built and
he dwells among us by his own spirit and ministers to us as
we give to him our worship, our praise and thanksgiving. God
did this. This is a phenomenal thing. He
is the architect of this. And his son was chosen to be
the cornerstone of his church. The eighth reference here is
in verse number five of chapter two. He says, you also, speaking
to believers, as lively stones, living stones, are built upon,
built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God. That is remarkable as well to
me. acceptable to God. How is it possible for us to
provide gifts to God? Human beings giving gifts to
God and God in heaven finds them acceptable. How remarkable is
that? He takes pleasure in your gifts
to him. your songs of praises and thanksgiving. He finds them to be agreeable
to him because of his son by Jesus Christ who has made that
possible for us. The ninth reference here is in
verse number 10, where we read some remarkable things here again
in verses 9 and 10. So look at verse 9 as well. But you, brethren, are a chosen
generation of people, a related kindred of people, a royal priesthood,
and a holy nation, a peculiar people. that you would show forth
the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light. God has done this, which in time
past, you were not a people. Steve spoke of that just a moment
ago as Gentiles. In time past, you were not a
people, but you are now the people of God. Remember, Hosea said
the same words that are being stated here by Peter, and it
related to the Jews who had been discarded, the rejection of them. But now, in time past, not a
people, now they are a people. They've obtained mercy. The people of God, we are now
the people of God. What a world of information that
contains. We are now the people of God.
On this earth, we are those whom God has chosen to be his people. How is it possible for the Christian
life to be static? It can't be. How is it possible
to be static, not move to action? How can we hear these truths
and not respond with at least, at the very least, with reverence
and fear of God, but to obedience as well? Can a Christian really be disinterested
in spiritual things? Is that possible? Sadly, yes. Christians can decline. They
can grow cold. They can grow indifferent to
these glorious truths. They can have a cold heart. And some of the things we've
heard about those we believe to be the people of God in years
past and saw their growth and development and then to hear
they've turned their back on God. These cause us to go to God with
great reverence and fear and cry out to him, don't let that
be me. Don't let that be me. Keep me,
preserve me, renew me, strengthen me that I might continue on this
path. The 10th reference he gives in
verse number 12 where he mentions God. And here he says we are
to use our life to glorify God through our good works. Therefore, we must live, Peter
says honestly, before the Gentiles, before the world, that is, we
are to live with beautiful symmetry, a balanced life, a lifestyle
that honors our God. So when we think of God, Peter
attaches how we should respond to knowing him and to be personally
engaged in our relationship with him. What does that mean? It
means that we ought to demonstrate that we are gods by our lifestyle
before the world, that our influence matters. And then the 11th reference
is here in chapter 2, verse 15, where he says, for so is the
will of God. Our God has left all of his children
specific information about his will concerning many things. God's children consider their
father's will to be of interest to him, to them. Can't imagine that we would not
be interested in the will of our God if we are his children. And what is his will, Peter says,
is with well-doing. You silence the critics who speak
against the ways of God by the way that you live. Shut their
mouths by good works, doing well. who want to criticize the ways
of God. And then the 12th one before
he hits verse 17 is found in verse 16, where he says that
we are to live as free people, not using our liberty, our Christian
liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, not covering up evil within us,
using our liberty, but rather using our liberty to be the servants
of God. the servants of God. We are free people, free from
the bondage of sin. Though we continue to struggle
with sin that remains, we're free from the bondage. We don't
have to live under its bondage. We are free from the judgment
for our sin because Christ bore it for us. But free to do what? Free to do what? We're free to
be the servants of God. bond slaves who've dedicated
their life to him and his ways. This is where Peter pauses. His instruction about God summarizes
his subjects for us and states our duty to God in one word,
fear. Fear God. Have a utmost reverence
for him, who is this person that I've been describing to you,
who has done all of this for you through his only begotten
son. Stand in awe of him. Regard him highly. And so let
us with Peter Stand in awe and give the utmost reference to
this God today, the great Theos that has been presented to us
in this letter. Peter is very specific about
the God that we give fear to. This is not some human imagination
of God. This is not a version of God
that you're comfortable with. It is this God, that Peter has
described for us, whom we are to give the utmost reverence
to. This presentation of God has
been layered for us by Peter, line upon line, one upon the
other, one idea, one thought, and the weight of the glory of
God who's been revealed to us brings us to a humble position
of adoration. That's what Peter felt. That's what we are to feel as
well. We are overwhelmed with the reverence
that is due to him. I'm grateful that Peter was himself
so overwhelmed with his contemplation of the person and work of God
that he paused and directed our response to what we've learned
about him. And what will you say? How will we summarize his instruction? Fear God? I'm glad he paused
one third of the way through this letter and caused us to
respond to what we've already learned. 13 references. Why is that important? He's going
to mention God 26 more times to help us continue our development
of thought about who God is, what he has done and why he deserves
to be feared. And why it's so often mentioned
throughout his word. Why the promises of God to those
who fear him, which we will look at next week, God willing, why
they're so important for us to be familiar with. And I trust that what Peter has
done here is just simply going to make us more attentive moving
forward. We are among other things, but
maybe the most important thing, hearing Peter's systematic theology
of God. And I pray, may this truth about
the person and work of God that he has presented to us, and everything
he's going to say from this point forward, may we understand why Moses and
Solomon and others have simply said, hear the conclusion to
the whole matter. Let's boil it down to its basic
elements of the life you are to live. Fear God and keep his
commandments. These go together. We cannot
say we fear God and choose to live a disobedient life. We struggle
with obedience, but we don't consent to it as being right. We acknowledge it's wrong. And
it's what leads us to our confession and our desire to live more wholly
for him. Fear God, brethren. For those
of you who know him and understand what he has done, May this be
your response of great reverence and awe before him today. Father,
we thank you for your word. We thank you for its clarity.
We thank you how it has living power to influence our mind and
our affections for you. We thank you for the truth concerning
how we ought to respond to you as we grow in our knowledge and
understanding of you. May we be improved in this area
of our life today. May we be more committed to it
as we move forward through Peter's letter, that every time we see
the great Theos, the God, the supreme and sovereign being,
that we take note of what is being said about you. Help us,
we pray, by thy Spirit, in Christ's name.
Fear God Pt 2
Series Exposition of 1 Peter
1 Peter 2:17;
| Sermon ID | 326251352561307 |
| Duration | 43:09 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | 1 Peter 2:17 |
| Language | English |
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