All right, please turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter 1, verse 13. 1 Peter 1, verse 13. If you're using the black Bibles, that's page 1014. Our study through this first epistle from Peter has brought us to verse 14 this morning. And just to remind us of what we've seen so far, The Apostle Peter is writing to believers who are scattered throughout Asia Minor, and he's been reminding these Christians of God's gracious salvation, specifically the wondrous inheritance that will be given to believers when Christ returns. Then we saw last week that in verse 13, a shift takes place. Peter now is focusing on our response, our response to the to the gospel that's been given to us, our response to this wonderful inheritance that is waiting for us. And so the shift now is to the Christians' behavior, how we are to live this out. Peter, having laid the foundation of the gospel, now exhorts Christians to live out that gospel in holy living, we'll see today. And we considered verse 13 last week, but I want to go ahead and begin our reading there, because that's where the paragraph starts. We'll read verses 13 through 21 today. And if you're able, I'd ask you to please stand in honor of God's word and follow along in your copy of the scriptures. Let's hear the word of the Lord together, beginning in 1 Peter 1.13. 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. Amen. May God add his blessing to the reading of his holy word. Please be seated. The Bible teaches that we are saved by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Right? Amen. Those are the solos that we'll be certainly thinking about this time of year as we approach Reformation Sunday. But I have a question for you. The fact that we are saved by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, does that mean that our conduct is unimportant? I mean, if we're saved by grace and not by works, then does it really matter how we live? Obviously, it does matter, doesn't it? Scripture has a lot to say about how we live. The Bible teaches that the conduct of Christians is very important because our lives are meant to bless others and bring glory to God. Our lives are to increasingly reflect the character of Christ to the watching world around us. And so the title of the sermon today is Saved to be Set Apart. As Christians, God has rescued us from the domain of darkness and he has set us apart for himself. God has already done that positionally and he's already blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. And now we are to bring glory to God by enjoying him and living in obedience to Him. That's what it means to be a disciple of Christ, right? We are following Him, to learn from Him, to obey Him, to become like Him. So you see, positionally, we've already been set apart, and now we are to be who we are. We're to live that out. We're to live lives that are set apart from sin, set apart from this fallen world, and are set apart for God. And that's what Peter's talking about today in our passage. In this section of God's Word, Peter is exhorting believers to holy living. But please understand, and whenever I approach the commands of Scripture, I always have this fear that we might fall into thinking this is moralism. This is self-improvement. You need to do better, do better, do better. in your own strength, and that's not the way Scripture teaches, because that doesn't work. Again, this is grounded in the gospel. Peter's been talking about the gospel up to this point, and even in the commands, he's pointing us back to the gospel. And so it's based in the gospel, and we depend on God's strength to pursue holiness. We depend on the Holy Spirit to pursue holiness. We are to walk in the Spirit. He leads us. He empowers us. It's the life of Christ that is to be lived through us. And we are to live that out. And our obedience is to be an outflow of what God has already done in us through Christ. Okay? So those are important foundations or caveats to lay, right? Our obedience is to be done as an outflow of what God has already done in us through Christ. So today from the text, I want to highlight from our passage here, three gospel-based reasons for holy living. Because again, Peter's exhorting us to holy living, and I feel like he's giving us some reasons or maybe even some motivations, if you would want to use that word, for holy living. So here's number one. Your new birth into the family of God. The first gospel reason for holy living is to remember and recognize your new birth. into the family of God. You've been born again, you are now a child of God. And that's where Peter goes here in verse 14. As obedient children. So he's emphasizing you are a child of God by God's grace. 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. So our new birth into the family of God is a gospel reason for holy living. Christian, understand and just be reminded that God in his grace has caused you to be born again by the spirit. And our new birth has changed our identity. Almighty God is now our father. We were kind of talking about that briefly in Sunday school as well. Wow, what an amazing thing. to know that our creator, the sovereign of the universe, is our father, he loves us. We are his children, we are in his family. And now as sons and daughters, we are to bear the likeness of our father. All right, that's what children are to do. Like father, like son, the expression goes. And that's what Peter's saying in verses 14 through 16. Since God our father is holy, we are to be holy. And that is one of the most fundamental truths about God revealed to us in scripture. We talked about it recently in 318. That God is holy. That he is holy, holy, holy. The word holy means to be separate. God's holiness means he is separate from all creation. He is absolutely unique. He is in a class by himself. And it also means then that he is separate from sin and evil. Nothing evil is allowed in his presence. And so that's what these verses are talking about. Since we are God's children through the new birth, Peter then says, since he who called you is holy, you are to be holy in all your conduct. And then he quotes in verse 16 from Leviticus 19.2. Since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. So we're gonna see Peter do this quite a bit, by the way, in his letter. He's drawing parallels between Old Testament Israel and us as believers in the New Covenant. And he's doing that here. Like Christians today, like us today as Christians, Old Testament Israel was called to be set apart for the Lord. God had chosen them. In His grace, He had chosen them to be His people. He had chosen Israel as a special treasure out of all the peoples of the earth, Exodus 19 verse 5 says. And God had separated Israel from the nations to serve him only. God had made a covenant with them and given them a law that would distinguish them from the other nations. So through their obedience to God's law, they were to live lives that were separate from the nations. They were to live lives that showed that they were dedicated to God alone. And that covenant, by the way, was ratified with the sprinkling of blood, right? That's how covenants are made. And so by obeying God's laws, Old Testament Israel would be distinct from the surrounding nations. They would be showing and reflecting the glory of God. They would show that they're dedicated to to Almighty God, that He is their God, they are His people. And so, again, that was to be reflected in all aspects of their life. That's why the Old Testament law was so meticulous that way. Their diet, their clothing, their ethics, their worship was all to be different from the surrounding nations. Okay, so what does that have to do with us? Well, now Jesus Christ has established the new covenant by shedding His blood on the cross. So we're not under the old covenant. Right, we are under the new covenant. And now as Christians, we are the new covenant people of God. And we too have been set apart by the Holy Spirit. Notice Peter used that language right in his intro. By the Holy Spirit for sprinkling with Jesus's blood and for obedience to all his commands, he said in verse two. So we have been already set apart positionally. We have already been cleansed by Christ's blood. We've been set apart to serve God alone. Okay, so what does that look like? How are we to look different from the nations? Well, now in the new covenant, it's not about, you know, all these details about what we wear and what we eat, right? No, what distinguishes us is, for one, our faith in Christ. For the fact that we identify with Christ, that we're following Christ, and then what distinguishes us further is that we are obeying Christ's commands. And we know that foundationally is his command to love, right? And then what Jesus told his disciples in the upper room, they will know you are Christians by your love. That's how we're to be set apart. Not, you know, do I eat pork? Do I not eat pork? No, we're to be set apart by our love. smash him off, right? That would be a good timing, right? And interestingly, by the way, that's where Peter's gonna go. We're not gonna get there today. That's where he's gonna go in the very next paragraph, is love one another. So, at the point that I think Peter's wanting us to see is, excuse me, as Christians, we have the same calling as Old Testament Israel, to be set apart, to be holy as God is holy, to show His worth, to show His glory through our dedication and obedience to Him and our delight in Him. Ah, but here's an important contrast that we need to understand. Again, praise God, like we talked about a few weeks ago, we are blessed to live in the time when we do. Old Testament Israel, they were given these commands, they were given these laws to follow, but those commands were written on tablets of stone and not on their hearts. But now the distinction of the new covenant is the Holy Spirit has given us the new birth. And now His commands are no longer just written on outside things, but they are written on our hearts. We've been given new hearts. In other words, we have been given the ability to follow His commands and the desire to follow His commands. Everyone who's in the new covenant is already saved and knows the Lord. And that wasn't the case for those who were under the old covenant. Many of them were not truly saved. And so we are blessed indeed. So again, we have the calling to be holy as God is holy, to be set apart to show His worth, to show His glory. And the point I want us to see from verses 14 through 16 is by God's grace we can do that because we've been born again. We have the Spirit of God in us. Christian, you are a new creation. Again, God has given you a new heart that loves Him. God has indwelt you with the Holy Spirit to empower you to live a holy life. And because you have been born again by the Spirit of God, not only are you a new creation, but you have a new relationship to God. You used to be dead in your sins. You used to be dead to the things of God. You used to be lost and separated from Him, actually at enmity with Him. But that is no longer the case. By God's grace, through the work of Christ and through the new birth of the Spirit, you have been reconciled to God. Now you love Him and know Him and want to please Him. Now you know He's your Father and He loves you. Now you know God personally. You've been indwelt by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of adoption. You've been adopted into His family. And so you know something of the beauty and the character of your God, of your Father, of your Savior. You know the righteousness of His ways. And you want to please Him. And so again, so many of the commands, probably all of them we could say, are calling us to be who we are in Christ. And that's what Peter is saying here. Live as children of God. Live as new creations in Christ. Don't be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance when you didn't know God. Now you know God. You know He's good. You know He's holy. You know He's faithful. You know He's trustworthy. So obey Him with all your hearts. So believer, ask yourself today. We need to ask ourselves questions like this. Do I look just like this world? Or do I somewhat look like my Father in heaven? Or maybe another way of asking that that would be more helpful is, Am I becoming more like Christ and less like this world? By God's grace, am I becoming more like Christ and less like this world? We have ups and downs, and again, like we prayed, God's grace is sufficient. He covers all of our sins, praise God. We have ups and downs, but we are to be growing. We are to becoming less like this world and more like Jesus. And again, 2 Corinthians says we do that as we behold Him, as we fix our eyes on Him, as we set our hope on the gospel and on what Christ has done and who He is. We are to pursue holiness because of our new birth into the family of God. That's the first reason given today. Secondly then, we see in the beginning of verse 17, or really actually in verse 17, the second gospel-based reason for holy living is this. The amazement of being saved from the punishment you deserve. You want a gospel-based reason for holy living? The amazement of being saved from the punishment you deserve. Look at verse 17. 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. Notice what he's saying about God there. If you call on him, or that clause could be since you call on him as father, who judges impartially according to each one's deeds. So he's saying God, remember Christian, God who is our father, he's also the one who judges impartially according to each one's deeds. And so Peter reminds us there is a coming future judgment. There is a day when we will all stand before God to be judged according to our conduct. Well, what will that judgment be like? The average unbeliever, if they believe in God and believe in standing before Him, what would they think that judgment is like? Or what are they hoping it's like? Well, many want to, again, create God according to their own understanding, create an idol in their mind of who God is and how He's going to be. And so they would assume that God's going to judge us on a curve. Right, when I stand before him, as long as I've been as good or maybe a little better than the average person, then maybe I'll be okay. I mean, nobody's perfect after all, right? So surely God's gonna cut me some slack. But again, that's creating God the way we might want him to be or think he should be or whatever. But how does, what does God reveal about himself in his word? Well, he shows that he is holy, that he will judge sin, that no unclean thing or person will be welcomed into his presence, that his standard is perfection, and that sin against the infinitely holy God requires an everlasting punishment. That's what he reveals about the judgment. So how does that prospect sound? Would you like to stand before a holy God with your eternal destiny resting on the basis of your own works? We're undone if that's what is going to happen to us, aren't we? Like the psalmist said, Lord, if you would keep track or count iniquities against us, who could stand? But yet that's the future for every person without Christ. They will stand before God and be judged according to their deeds and punished accordingly and separated from God forever. But the good news of the gospel is for the believer, We will be clothed and are already clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Jesus lived a perfect life as a man and he credits us with his righteousness through faith. Our sins were punished in Christ so that God is just in forgiving us and declaring us righteous in Christ. So on that future day of judgment, we will be welcomed into God's presence, even though we all deserve to be thrown into hell. Praise God, right? We can be happy about that. On that future day of judgment, we will be welcomed into God's presence, rather than given the punishment that we deserve, and it's all because of God's grace shown to us through Christ. And what I believe verse 17 is saying is such amazing grace should cause us to fear God. Kind of ironic that this came up in the passage today because we're just starting a study on fearing God and what we've already seen even in the first lesson and we'll be learning more about it is fear of the Lord does not mean dread or being afraid of Him for God's people. Rather, for the child of God, it often means things like wonder and awe and delight and amazement. So when Peter says, in light of the coming judgment to conduct ourselves with fear, I think he is saying, wonder at the mercy of God. Stand in awe of God's grace in forgiving you and declaring you righteous. Be amazed at the work of Christ on your behalf. Because who would want to stand before God only bearing our works? Oh, such beauty of the gospel should cause us to live with awe and wonder and amazement at God's grace. And if we are not sober-minded, remember last verse, verse 13, if we are not sober-minded, we will take, or can take salvation for granted. Right, oh, we hear it all the time. Maybe you've grown up with it, or you know, just hear about the gospel all the time, and Jesus, what he's done, and God's grace, and it is, you know, familiarity can breed contempt sometimes. May that never be though. What Peter is pointing us to is to keep our wonder at the amazement of God's grace. Here's something I read in a commentary this week. Salvation is only rightly understood and appreciated when it is viewed against the reality of God's just judgment. I'll say that again. Salvation is only rightly understood appreciated when it is viewed against the reality of God's just judgment. And so Peter says here, remember there is a coming day of judgment based on a person's deeds. and God is holy and he will not compromise his standards. So conduct yourselves with fear, conduct yourselves with wonder and awe, knowing that there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Be amazed that you will not receive the punishment you deserve. Keep being in wonder and awe at God's grace for crediting you with the righteousness of Christ. And this is the kind of fear. And again, I invite you to the Sunday school class to learn more about this. But this is the kind of fear that doesn't keep us away from God, it actually draws us to God. We're so in awe and wonder of His love and His mercy and His grace. He's so beautiful to us that the things of this world just look so pitiful. And you see how that helps us in our holiness. Why would I spend time looking after the filth of this world when I have this beautiful God who has forgiven me so much and he has credited me with the righteousness of his son? He sent his own son to die for me and now he lets me share in his son's inheritance. How can I not live in awe and wonder of that and want to know him more and want to obey him, want to bring glory to him? This is the kind of fear that draws us to God. God, you are so merciful to forgive me. God, you are so gracious to count me righteous in Christ. Oh God, you are so loving to give up your own son so that I could spend eternity with you. And that kind of amazement over our salvation, over God's grace, should motivate us to holy living. How could I sin against a God who has been so gracious to me? How could I not trust and obey a God who is so kind and merciful? How could I not find enjoyment in a God who loves like this? Now to be sure, I think in this verse also is a warning. I think the reality of God's coming judgment also serves as a warning to us if our conduct If our lives are characterized by our former passions, if we are living a life of unrepentant sin with no concern for God's glory, then our conduct suggests strongly that we are likely not even a Christian. Right, and the Bible is very clear about that. In 1 John, one of the marks of a Christian is that we do not live in unrepentant sin, because living in unrepentant sin means we're looking like our father, the devil. And in 1 Corinthians 6, 9, and 10, Paul writes, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. So yes, we need to remember there's a future Judgment Day coming. And may it sober our minds up to evaluate our lives. Have I deceived myself? Did I walk an aisle at some point in life and I just assume I'm a Christian? But my life is just characterized, again, Christians struggle with sin, we're gonna struggle every day until Christ returns, so I'm not talking about that. But what Christians do by God's grace is we're fighting sin with the power of the Spirit. When we sin, we're confessing and repenting, we're using the means of grace, we're seeking to grow, we're getting accountability or whatever we need. Because we don't want to stay stuck in this sin. But if my life is characterized by unrepentant sin, then it should be a major red flag to me. And there's a judgment day coming. So this is the second gospel-based reason. being amazed of not receiving the punishment that we deserve. May we continue to be amazed at God's grace in saving us from hell. And may that amazement spur us on to holiness. I see a third and final gospel-based reason for holy living in verses 18 through 21. The third and final gospel-based reason is the high price of your redemption. The high price of your redemption. Let me pick it up at the end of verse 17. Conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. Verse 18, 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. We should not only conduct ourselves with fear, but we should live in gratitude for what God has done. Peter reminds us of the cost of our salvation. Like the nation of Israel, again, here's kind of another one of those parallels, right? Just like the nation of Israel were physical slaves in Egypt in the Old Testament, we were in spiritual bondage. apart from Christ, right? We were dead in our sins, but we were slaves to sins and slaves to the prince of the power of the air. And so redemption from slavery requires a ransom price. How are you freed from slavery? Well, someone needs to pay your ransom price. That's the cost to purchase your freedom. And what Peter is saying is the price for our salvation was not cheap. The price for our salvation was not with perishable things such as gold or silver, right? He chooses like the most valuable earthly things and says, those are too cheap. Those would never have bought our salvation. Because our sin is against an infinitely holy God. No, our salvation was far more costly. Our redemption required the precious blood of Christ. The Son of God made flesh. His suffering, His death, was the price for our redemption. And again, Peter, using those parallels, describes Christ as a lamb without blemish, comparing Him to the Passover lamb in Exodus 12. God redeemed Israel from their physical slavery through the plagues, and the plague of the firstborn was the culmination, through the Israelite families coming under the shed blood of the Passover lamb. Well, likewise, our redemption from sin is accomplished through the sacrifice on the cross of our sinless substitute, Jesus Christ. And the New Testament makes it clear that the Passover lamb and all of the Old Testament animal sacrifices were pointing forward to the one sacrifice that could actually save, the one sacrifice that actually pays for sins. the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Again, this points us to the holiness of God and the sinfulness and severity of sin. God is holy. Sin must be punished. And the only appropriate price is the sinless sacrifice of the God-man. Only he could pay for our sins. And the good news of the gospel then is everyone who turns from their sin And trust in Christ alone. Trust in His work as your substitute. Trust in what He has done to pay for your sins. Everyone who does that, the Bible says, is forgiven, is declared righteous, is saved, is redeemed from slavery to sin. You're saved from the penalty of sin. You're saved from the ruling power of sin. And one day at His return, you'll be saved from the very presence of sin. Everyone who turns from their sins and trusts in Christ alone for their salvation is saved. Have you done that today? Have you done that personally? Not, does your family believe that? Not, do I go to church a lot? Have you done that? Have you personally forsaken your sin, saying, I don't want to sin against you. I don't want to live a life of rebellion against you. I am a sinner and I need forgiven. And Jesus, I believe that you died on the cross to pay for my sins. Everyone who declares that Everyone who recognizes there's a coming judgment and I don't want to be standing before God in my sins. And so everyone who cries out to the Lord will be saved. And again, if you are in Christ through faith and the punishment you deserve was given to Christ on the cross, you are reconciled to God. You know that you will never face His wrath because Christ has borne His wrath in your place, and what Peter's reminding us of at the end of this passage is, our salvation came at a great cost. Our sin cost Jesus his life, therefore, like how does this relate to holiness? Our sin cost Jesus his life, therefore we should not treat sin lightly. Right? We should hate sin. We still battle remaining sin. But what kind of attitude are we to have towards our sin? Are we to have an attitude of, well, it's no big deal, or everybody struggles with this, and what can you expect, and blah, blah, blah, and just kind of a lackadaisical staying in that sin? No. Colossians 3 says, by the Spirit, we are to put it to death. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, what remains in you, your remaining sin. and pursue holiness. When we become lax with sin, and we're all tempted to do this from time to time, maybe because we struggle with it so much, maybe because we're bombarded with it so much, I don't know. Maybe because there's still a remaining part of us that does love it and crave it. But when we become lax with sin, we are losing sight of the great price that was paid for our salvation. Right? God the father gave up his own son that we might be saved. Jesus, the eternal son of God, suffered and was forsaken by his father, breaking that eternal bond of love and intimacy that they had enjoyed forever so that we could be forgiven. And so God forbid that we would ever cherish sin knowing it cost Jesus his life. God forbid that we would ever act like sin is no big deal when God had to forsake his own son in order to forgive us our sin. And so when you're tempted by those sinful desires that once ruled you, remember the high price of your redemption. And what he's saying in these last couple of verses too, kind of similar to this, dovetails with it. Not only did our salvation come at a great cost, but it was also planned from before the creation of the world. Verse 20, talking about Christ. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you. Talking about his incarnation. 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. Our salvation came at a great cost and our salvation was not just something that was kinda whipped together last minute, scribbled on a napkin, hey, let's just do this and kinda be done with it. No, it was planned from before the foundation of the world. Amazing, right? We saw back in verse two the word foreknown has covenant implications. We who are in Christ were foreknown. Now Christ, it says, was foreknown. God not only foreknew the people he would elect, but he also foreknew how he would save them. He would save them through the life, death, and resurrection of his son, Jesus Christ. So before the world was ever created, right, if we can somehow in our minds go back to before Genesis 1.1, God knew. and planned how he would save his people. Indeed, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit all willingly agreed to this plan. This plan that would cost the Son his life and separate him from the Father for a time. And then in God's sovereign timing, Jesus was made manifest. When it was time for God the Son to leave heaven and enter into this world to live and die and rise again in the place of his people, he did it. He did it willingly, not begrudgingly. He did it out of giving glory to the Father and out of love for you and me. Our salvation was not an afterthought from God. Our salvation was not plan B. Our salvation was not a knee-jerk reaction to the world being plunged into sin. No, our salvation was lovingly planned before creation, before the fall. And then as those things happened, that's why our salvation was promised and pointed to by all the Old Testament prophets and then willingly carried out at God's appointed time. What a gracious plan of salvation. Our salvation is nothing to be treated lightly. It has been planned out before creation and it was accomplished at a great cost. And so let us not despise our salvation by taking it for granted or living according to our former sinful passions. I want to give an illustration. I think we have time for it. I was trying to think what's a way to illustrate this. I mean, they all would fall short, right, of the preciousness of Christ and the eternal plan of God. But imagine that you're a teenage boy who grew up in a very poor family, let's just say, in 19th century America. Very poor family. Your family's so poor that you all barely had enough food and you only had meager clothes and meager housing. But yet, unbeknownst to you, your mom wanted to bless you with something nice. So years ahead of time, she began planning and secretly working side jobs. She went without food and other necessities in order to save up enough money. She scrimped and saved in order to build up enough money. to buy you a nice suit so that you would have something good to wear for your high school graduation, for the other functions that come at that time, interviews, et cetera. She planned and sacrificed to give you that suit. And when she did, you were happy to receive it. You were thankful for it. But rather than caring for that suit properly, you just threw it in the corner. And then you wore it when you went out to go play football. And then you wore it when you were mucking the stalls. And then you kept throwing it into the corner and you just, you didn't care. Your suit was soon soiled and ripped and ruined. What would that behavior communicate to your mom? Doing that would show contempt for her gift, wouldn't it? By treating her gift that way, you're belittling her costly sacrifice that purchased that gift. Likewise, Peter reminds us of the great price, the high price that Christ paid for our forgiveness, and may we not treat his sacrifice, His plan with contempt by continuing in sin. Sin is ever present. It's gonna be a struggle until Christ returns, but may we never treat it lightly because our salvation was planned before creation and our forgiveness came at a great cost. And I was reminded of this hymn that we sing from time to time. If you'll humor me, I'd like to read the verses to you. and think about how they apply to what we've just been hearing from Peter. Stricken, smitten, and afflicted, see him dying on the tree. Tis the Christ by man rejected, yes my soul, tis he, tis he. Tis the long expected prophet, David's son, yet David's Lord. By his son God now has spoken, tis the true and faithful word. Tell me, ye who hear him groaning, was there ever grief like his? Friends through fear, his cause disowning, foes insulting his distress. Many hands were raised to wound him, none would interpose to save, but the deepest stroke that pierced him was the stroke that justice gave. And here's the verse that really made me think of this psalm. Ye who think of sin but lightly, nor suppose the evil great. Here, talking about looking at the cross, here may view its nature rightly. Here, its guilt may estimate. Mark the sacrifice appointed, see who bears the awful load. Tis the word, the Lord's anointed, Son of man and Son of God. And then the last verses is a hopeful and joyful one, talking about the gospel. Here we have a firm foundation, here the refuge of the lost. Christ the rock of our salvation, his the name of which we boast. Lamb of God, for sinners wounded, sacrifice to cancel guilt. None shall ever be confounded, who on him their hope have built. I pray that each one of you has your hope built on the finished work of Christ, that you know that your sins are forgiven, and then may all of us, by God's grace, not treat sin lightly, but may we meditate on the gospel, meditate on His grace to us, that we would keep in step with the Spirit and live lives of obedience. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much. Father, Son, Spirit, we thank all of you for saving us. Again, thank you feels like pretty inadequate, but we do say thank you. Thank you for paying the high price of our redemption. Thank you for adopting us into your family. What manner of love is this that we should be called the children of God? Please help us as your children to live holy lives set apart for your glory. We want others to see something of how beautiful you are. Thank you for your spirit. Help us keep in step with him. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand together and sing a final song of praise.