Coeburn Presbyterian Church Sermons - Pastor James Ensley

[Incomplete sermon outline below. So it is rough in places or misses words spoken in the audio sermon]

Recap…

1 Peter 2:21–25 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you [ya’ll], leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. [22] He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. [23] When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. [24] He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds [stripes] you have been healed. [25] For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.(ESV)

Before going on to 24-25 let us review 21-23 For to this you have been called.

What must we understand about what we are called to?

Simon Kistemaker reminds us in his commentary that Peter “wants the Christian who suffers unjustly to look to Jesus from whom the believer receives new strength for body and soul. Looking to Jesus, the Christian experiences a renewal of attitude and disposition.”

The language says to trace the footsteps of Jesus. Copy your handwriting to match his.

What must you believe for this to be a comfort for you? Believe we were called to suffer after Christ’s example. Believe We are called to take up our cross and follow Christ. So we follow the Savior who loved his enemies, who suffered for righteousness sake, and so as believers we follow the cross to receive the crown. We do not take the crown to avoid the cross.

So what must you know about your savior? Believe He really suffered as an innocent humble man….but not just any man. The God-Man. GOD become man, entered the pit voluntarily So Jesus models suffering not because he was out of control, but because he intentionally submitted himself to death in order to rescue us.

John 10:11–18 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. [12] He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. [13] He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. [14] I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, [15] just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. [16] And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. [17] For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. [18] No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” (ESV)

So you are suffering? Christ, your Shepherd, came to save you. The example is not…oh be like Christ sinless…No it is that once we are rescued. Made alive, now you can reflect on your suffering in two ways

You have been freely given life. So what is our grateful response? That like Christ, you will strive to by the Help of the Holy Spirit to suffer not for sin but as a sanctified sufferer who does not revile and back bite but who suffers, in this sinful world, as redeemed exiles who though not perfect suffer innocently like Christ did.

Peter then says, he is talking about the Christian life, how to live, how to grow in wise, sanctification, being made different from how you were before. As a student traces the letter outline so the Christian traces and follows in the outline of the footsteps of Christ. And as Peter usually does he weaves together a call to belief or action by reminding us of the great redemption of Christ that declares us innocent and righteous in God’s sight. Justified. Everything that follows is only true if we cast ourselves on Christ, hoping only in him for rescue.

Four Truths of our salvation Today (If you are looking to Christ)

#1 The Wages of Sin are Death

#2 In My Place Condemned He Stood

#3 Dead to Sin and Alive in Christ: My Savior Makes me whole.

#4 Returning the Shepherd of your Soul.

#1 (vv. 24a) The wages of sin are death: two things “he bore OUR SINS on his body on the tree. / (vv. 25a) OUR SINS meant - We were straying like sheep (Nature note merely nurture:nthough nurture can be a magnifying glass to our sin nature).

(24a) he bore OUR SINS: Our sins…the sins of those who “Sin because we are sinners.”

What are OUR sins? What is Sin?

Sin is Lawlessness, sin is anything that violates the character and good design of God for how we, his special creation, made in his image in knowledge righteousness, and holiness were made to live.

Sin is any failure to love and obey God and to love and live rightly with others, and to honor our own bodies and soul. Sin Is Lawlessness

The biblical IMAGE: Fall Short / twisting the design / attacking, corrupting, devaluing it in others. Sin is us trying to be god and failing at it miserably. And then being mad at God and others when our failure to make a very good god blows up in our face.

In Gen. 3 – Adam Attempts to wear the crown, Adam represented us, and so we have a inherited guilt, and inherited fallen nature. (Rom. 5:12-21 In Adam all sinned in Christ the many accounted righteous

Gen. 6:5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Result? We are enslaved to sin Eph. 2:1

Therefore we have a Radical Corruption: “root” “entire, whole” / pervasively sinful. Not maximally evil. But not Utter, did not destroy but mar the image. Inability.

ILL: Our Sin: Poison in a refreshing cup of water vs. a Cup of Poison.

That is sin. And our radical corruption.

Good news: he bore our sins. Not a general but specific target. (E.g. Targeted insect bait vs. a general bait.) One is effective. One usually alleviates. Our sins – particular redemption, with the sheep and shepherd language….The good shepherd lays down his life for the Sheep…I know my own and my own know me…and I lay down my life for the sheep. The sheep hear his voice…And are called back from their STRAYING. Wanderings (transition to b.). (John 10:14).

25a describes us as Straying Sheep which is a quote of : “Isa. 53:6 “We all like sheep have gone astray.”

The wages of sin is death…the result of a sheep that wanders is similarly death (5:23). Sins destroys, relationship with God, fellowship with God and Others, and leaves us alone and susceptible to harm. Or Creates a Fellowship of darkness not light. Christ restores the fellowship with God, How? By removing the cause of our enmity and our barrier to a Holy God. Removing our Guilt. Our Sin….And bring stratying sheep back by dealing with the root. (Bringing us into the light).

#2 vv. 24a cont…In my place condemned he stood: CHRIST BORE our sins IN HIS BODY on the tree. (24a. cont…)

He suffered (for; Hyper) US: Substitute / in the place / in our stead. This means he wasn’t just an example, this means he didn’t just open up a shop for sin relief that is vaguely available. No our sin debt. Our File with our name that God as judge would pull on judgement day was taken and placed in Jesus’ court record. And every one of his sheep had their sinful court cases replaced with Jesus court case. He was FOR. IN OUR place.

But this was costly. He Bore our Sins (Once for all action: It is finished). But where did he bare it?; In His Body. Sin was foreign – Jesus had no sin nature – He had not guilt, shame – but the guilt and shame of sin was placed on him

2 Cor. 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (ESV)

“Bore” is the image of WEIGHT on his Head. [Discuss] Sacrificial Animal laying the hand. It is particular. By name. / DO you feel the weight? The burden look to the cross let that burden roll into the tomb (Pilgrim’s progress: Burden and Tomb).

The Incarnation: made Jesus able to take on human sin “that which is assumed is atoned for” – True Humanity…unlike animal sacrifices.

The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin (because unlike Adam they are not a fitting substitute. They were only a symbol pointing forward to the one who could have his own LIFE take the penalty for our forfeited life. (Real Butter vs. Margarine not a true substitute) Need a genuine human correspondence.

WHY? Because 1) His humanity made him a true Second Adam, our representative. Because 2) His deity meant he could make an infinitely valuable sacrifice, so he can represent a new humanity in himself because he wasn’t under Adam (Fallen Humanity). He is before all things and above all things (Renewed, Redeemed Church in Christ).

Jesus further, suffered the curse of sin in our place…He bore our sins in his body ON THE TREE (A Euphemism for the cross but an intentional ECHO, “he who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse (Gal. 3:13 citing Deut. 21:22-23). (Shameful – Anti-blessed)

#3 vv. 24b Because of Jesus’ work on the Cross we are Dead to Sin and Alive in Christ, we can say, My Savior Makes Me Whole

Look in v. 24b again, SO That we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his stripes you have been healed

Dead to sin, death is dead, the penalty paid, (Like paying off a car payment. You get the car title restored in your name.).

The guilt declared removed, innocent (Duplex Gratia)

Alive again to righteousness

Enlightened eyes, soul, mind, truth and goodness possess of you again. (Regenerate. Born Again.).

The sting, the wound, the shame of death in his stripes and the manner of the criminal cross undone.

Us: Shame of a slap? (reverberates). The Shame of wounds? JESUS INNOCENT SHAME PLACED BY SINNERS

Shame of Betrayal – shepherd struck, sheep scattered

Shame of TRIAL – Blasphemer

Shame of Mock, Scourging, stripes of the 9 tails

Spit. Purple cloth. Carrying a criminal cross….[Cross-is an honorable symbol we put in our building, but for Jesus its an ankle-bracelet, orange jumpsuit chained to other prisoners in a court house….we don’t do the shame of sin quite the same way as in older cultures…

Jesus removes our Shame.. Makes us Alive to Righteousness…Upright. Tall.

Sin curved us in on ourselves. Jesus uncurls us to stand tall again as we were designed to be.

To look in the Eye of Man and God right with each other.

Transition…Keep thinking about this Righteous…Alive…Whole…Healed from the effects of Sin. Everything wrong is being undone…

The Image of God restored: The power of sin destroyed

Free to obey God and not Sin. When previously sin was our master and we a slave to sin

Pastor Peter Davids says, “Salvation in Christ is not just a freedom from future judgment or from guilt, but a freedom from the life of sin and a freedom to live as God intends.”

This intended life is no mystery it is revealed by the light of the word, a Christian ethic clearly shown in scripture. This “endeavor after new obedience in Christ, the obedience of faith is not lived IN order to free us from sin. But SINCE we are freed, justified, alive, we shall live HOLY lives putting sin to death and walking wise with the mind of Christ towards sin…We are debtors to sin no more…we are debtors to the grace and mercy of God and submit as living sons and daughters.

Previously We sinned because we are sinners. Now we live like Christ because we are IN Christ.

Sin was a tyrant to our souls. Christ will become the shepherd of our souls.

We are Healed and Alive to Righteousness: Healed but w/ Scars: The wounds and stripes of sin are through this life healed and diminished, because we are forgiven. (Scar Cream, Eliza Jane) ( Forgiveness is the healing of the guilt, penalty, power, and shame of sin. Bringing us into the light where we have fellowship, community, honor, integrity, and the fruit of the healing is a heart overflowing with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. As the Holy Spirit takes and fills in the wounds of sin, restoring what sin has destroyed.

Living to righteousness is living in wisdom, light, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. With God and his ways now ours…But we are not only becoming holy in our sanctification. But We are viewed as already Righteous/Holy by God…

This means two things that are a little different from what Christians sometimes think…

We are saved by grace not to figure out happiness on our own in the sense that right living is a mystery where we follow our hearts: e.g. God wants me to be happy his grace means I will do what remaining sin in my heart enjoys, e.g. the classic, God wants me to be happy so I will leave my spouse…

No we see that Grace transforms us to look to the objective word of God.

So First, restoring what sin destroyed, and restoring freedom from the guilt, penalty, and power of sin means we listen to the wisdom of Scripture as it tells us the Law of God. Happiness is found living as a lawful son and daughter who continues to put sin to death.

Knowing Second, that as we stumble and struggle with remaining sin (and we will fall short).. We are not just becoming holy (subjectively).

We are Objectively viewed as Holy.

We have the Righteousness of Christ

ILL> Romans – Righteous rob exchange. Once again, the Judge pulls the file of our Just trial and what he finds is Christ’s Record.

Only in Heaven when we are glorified will the Holiness of Christ God sees and our Holiness Align, humanly speaking.

Until then there will always be a gap between Christ’s righteousness (ours by grace) and our own earthly lived righteounsness (ours by the work of the Holy Spirit and our own wisely applying the law of God to every decision and area of our life with disciplined grace).

But Lord willing we make progress in holiness. Progressive sanctification as the gap between objective holiness and lived holiness diminishes.

Know Sin is Dead. You are Alive and Holy. If you are trusting in Christ and not yourself.

Now be killing sin and be putting on holiness.

Justification produces sanctification. > You have been Justified. You are BEING sancticied. You will be Glorified….

But will we make it all the way home? It doesn’t always feel that way….

34 Look in verse 25b: For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer [Bishop] of your souls. (ESV)

Life from a Shepherd who watches over your soul: First it is Returned and Second it is Watched over.

First your life is returned, RETURNED – Creation/Fall Exile & Restoration, Garden, East of Eden, enmity, restored, friendship and care, your soul which will last forever now has a secure him. Think of Psalm 23 images.

Second it is Watched Over,

As a Father watches over his children, Christ oversees our very life.

ILL: [4th of July Pool party, Samuel 3 times in the pool] “No my die” – I am not the infallible bishop of Souls. Christ is. Two reasons

There is no paperwork error that will happen where you will be lost and Satan reclaims you if Jesus is your shepherd.

You are truly and mystically united to Christ’s life and nurture by the Holy Spirit (Visibly displayed in the supper.

You are not a stranger in a crowd to god passing him by. You are a son and a daughter overseen with watchful eyes.

IMAGE: Rainy streets…umbrella…Just an image but picture a black and white drab seen, each person wanders in death, cold, dark, sin, hearts hardened,

but in the midst of the Crowd Christ watches over you suddenly blazing with the light of the HOLY spirit.

You are set apart cleansed, alive, his, and you are bright and glorious children of the day.

This is the objective reality for the believer…even as in this life we are chosen exiles. We will be shepherded all the way home.

One way in which we are watched over biblically is by the Church, the family of God watches over us specifically “bishops, overseers” “undershepherds”

Jesus is the chief shepherd (John 5:4, 10:11,14) and he appoints undershepherds

1 Peter 5:1-4 (We will return here).

Acts 20:28-33 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

For now the Church caring for each others souls is God’s plan and place for sheep to be fed by not light shows and entertainment. But the word of his grace. The Whole counsel of God. At home, in the car, alone, together, the Word of God meditated on and given you by faithful shepherds.

Why? We are suffering, following in Christ’s footsteps, imitating him. We are not lone wolves.

We are unlearning the flesh. Unlearning slavery

Illustrations – Learning to be free again (stroke? Prison (walking through doors)?

Which is harder, a stroke, prison, or being spiritually dead and learning to be alive and a son and daughter of the light after death…and bondage to Satan.

This is why we desperately pray “Lord our covenant Children may the never know a day when they did not know and love you.

May the grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ and not wander and stray.

The Good Times. And the Bad times are both Best done with others.

Best done with others who can remind you of the gospel.

Best done with other who can help the word dwell in us richly and we sing these reminders to each other.

More on what Shepherds in particular do in chapter 5. For now remember they Feed, Care, Protect…

But Here they Watch over. They Gaze intently.

The word overseer is “Bishop” which Paul uses interchangeably with Elder. So a bishop is an elder and an elder is a bishop.

But we get the word “microsope” and “telescope” from the word bishop.

I think its like a Sheep dog and a new baby is born into the family…and they just watch over it. Tracking all the time.

So we need Shepherds to guide us and WATCH over us.

But while humans are feeble and frail praise be to God Christ and His Word is neither feeble nor frail. He bore our sin. Made us upright. Placed us in the flock.

Prayer: Ultimately Jesus is risen and reigning in heaven

You have the Holy Spirit in your heart guiding and watching over you

Christ seated in heaven watching over and guiding you through his word

And a church family of older brothers and sisters, and overseers to watch over you who Christ has poured out on the church as a gift.

May that be our experience of Christ and his Church.

As those whose sins are forgiven, born by christ, clothed in his righteousness, made alive, made whole, and brought through suffering all the way home.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com

Audio was lost for 1 Peter 2:13-17 You can find a written version of it on substack.

This link is the cited Ortlund article referenced throughout point #1.

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/is-bible-pro-slavery/

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com

Peter has said “this is who you are in Christ Jesus”

* If you are in Christ it is because you have received mercy, being born again to a living hope. (this makes you an exile)

* Having been born again by the Holy Spirit “be who you are, and you are Holy.”

* Since all of your life is now lived before the face of a holy God – vertically

* Therefore – love your neighbor, put away community destroying sins in 2:1-4; and live as the new living temple of God.

* Today, you are a member of a community that lives and worships in grace and truth. You have received mercy. Now, Consider how living in conformity to who you are in Christ will affect your neighbors. Consider your conduct among unbelievers.

Today we are examining how Honorable living as a follower of Jesus– ought to cause people to seriously consider Jesus and the Gospel because they have seen the transformation that occurs in a Christian community.

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. [12] Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (1 Peter 2:11-12 ESV)

#1 The Reality of “being the bad guys”

#2 The Reality & Goal of the war for your soul

#3 Moving from Defense to Offense: Good Deeds That God May be Glorified

#1 The Reality of “being the bad guys” – v. 12 “when they speak against you as evildoers”

Gollum frames Sam for stealing food and “being a bad fat hobbit.” Frodo, shows love and compassion to Gollum…But actually as much as a love Sam. Sam quite possibly drives Smeagol back into being Gollum by his unkind conduct towards him. But at the end of the Day, Gollum looked for every opportunity to say, look he’s the bad guy, I am the good guy trust me.

That is how the Romans, the Greek Culture often viewed Christians in the 1st century. They did not worship the right gods, they were anti-social, they were subject to willful misinterpretation. And so Peter gives this warning of the uphill climb, When your neighbor speaks against you as an evildoer, are you going to give them any ammunition to think that plausible? Or will you help them to Glorify God by seeing your light.

Peter says in v. 11, “Dear Friends, Beloved in Christ” – You are loved by God. You are secure in Christ…Let us now consider more than ourselves, more than indeed our immediate church Family. Because we live as a Light. A City on a Hill and the world, people enslaved to their flesh and the devil are watching…we are always witnesses and 1 Peter 2;12 says we always stand before “hostile witnesses”

And as those who are Free we now are being empowered by the Holy Spirit to honor Christ and be children of light,

Ed Clowney reminds us that for the believer, “The dark blindness of sinful selfishness is gone; [believers] are free to love. They are also free to honour unbelievers as God's creatures, and to respect the role of authority given to each one.” – Ed Clowney

Love God. Love your Family. Love Church. Love our believing neighbors….even love the neighbor who thinks being a Christian means you are the “bad guys”

Remember, Every generation has areas where they praise Christian virtues but every generation has areas where they strongly reject what is good and true and beautiful. The bible has a challenging all of life encompassing ethic and we must boldly live according to the bible’s definition of “Honor” in both the areas that our culture dislikes and the areas our culture likes.

We should not make the mistake of self-righteous PRIDE that is living as Christians just to stick it to the culture. Or COWARDICE: Where we hide our compromise with the world by only living Christianly in those areas our culture approves.

So Peter Calls us today: Live Honorably in a society that assumes you are a dishonorable exile. Live honorably to those who expect “societally defined evil” as far as you can. Because you are Free in Christ. You have belonging, freedom, and a true heavenly King so you can in matters of general human society honor earthly authorities. So #1 That is the reality of “being the bad guys.”

#2 The Reality & Goal of the war for your soul

The Goal is the salvation of your neighbor. The Goal of our godly living : that they may see your good deeds and so may Glorify God when they stand before the throne on Judgement day.

The Reality is that you must wage war against your own flesh if you are to give Honor to Christ. In order to achieve that Goal.

How do we wage war against the Flesh?

First always remember We are sojourners and exiles

Peter Davids makes that point that

“remembering we are pilgrims, does not mean withdrawing from our culture, but to take our standard of honorable conduct … from [our] "home" culture of heaven, so that our way of life always fits the place we are headed to, rather than our temporary lodging in this world.” (Commentary 1 Peter).

So our standard is always God in his Holiness. Never unthinkingly our culture. But our good and honerable conduct has a kind goal, towards our neighbor.

Therefore, We must, in order to achieve this goal, abstain from the passions of the flesh Recognizing they wage war against our souls

Abstain – it is a stronger idea than just abstaining to vote, but active avoidance. This certainly means Self-control. If we lack self-control in regards to sin, then John Calvin Says, this of our soul:

“Whenever the soul consents to [the desires of the flesh] they lead to perdition. He proves our carelessness in this respect, that while we anxiously shun enemies from whom we apprehend danger to the body, we willingly allow enemies hurtful to the soul to destroy us; nay, we as it were stretch forth our neck to them.” – John Calvin

This morning I want to give one example of an area where Christians are accused of being no different from the culture when it comes to passions of the flesh. But in fact, when we prize it we honor Christ, guard the Christian community, and it draws unbelievers from unstable and chaotic backgrounds to want the community and lifestyle of the Believer.

That is to Call to honor God in our singleness. Integrity in our call when single. Or Integrity in our call and commitment to monogamous healthy marriages. Who has heard this statistic, “50% of marriage end in divorce? And Christians are no different from secular people? Statistician Brad Wilcox would call this the “50% lie.” That Christian marriages are the same as unbelievers divorce rates.

When meaningfully measuring believers as not just in name but as regular church attenders: this is untrue. The 50% lie is based on outdated projections after no fault divorce devastated the country. The media often conflate cultural nominal “Christians” with practicing Christians, leading to distorted statistics.

And Peter says, of course unbelieving reporters will gleefully speaks against you as evildoers. “See being a Christian does nothing.” But what is a meaningful definition of being a follower of Jesus.

Are surveys of Nominal Christians meaningful? Those who claim Christian identity but are not active in faith or church life—often have divorce rates comparable to or higher than the general population.

What is signifance is not claim ot the name but actual life. Therefore, Religious attendance, not just religious affiliation, is the strongest predictor of lower divorce rates. Couples who attend church together regularly report: Greater marital satisfaction, Lower rates of divorce, Higher levels of commitment and stability. – Kinda like how complementarian men do in reality more equal household work than egalitarians…also a fun statistic.

The follower of Jesus, has the great example of Jesus as the husband of the Church and so Cherishes Honorable family life. So We abstain from the sins of the flesh, we guard against destructive sin patterns as we are conformed to the image of Christ as? LIVING STONES.

The Context of 1 Peter would predict what the statistics say, a true living faith, lived out in a community does give us resources to live honorable lives among the wider culture. And Living stones gathered in community will have different outcomes. And greater support and community when we fail and fall short. TO be restored and built back up.

And the same is true for our family outcomes, our individual lives whether married or single. I was blessed with a church family growing up filled with young and old, married and single, and when we went on church retreats we were brothers and sisters in Christ and how blessed we were.

So when I got to college and the invitations were there to pursue a hedonistic life. And Satan wants sin to sound enticing, how much a poorer and poverty stricken…lonely, life was offered by the flesh compared to the united family of God.

I think short term many may enjoy the illusion of the freedom of the flesh when they are young but end up regretting not having lived in the fellowship of a stable community whether single or married over the long run of their lives.

J.C. Ryle warns us: “Habits are like stones rolling down hill — the further they roll, the faster and more ungovernable is their course. Habits, like trees, are strengthened by age. A boy may bend an oak when it is a sapling — a hundred men cannot root it up, when it is a full grown tree. … Custom becomes second nature, and its chains are not easily broken…Oh, dread the hardening effect of constant lingering in sin! Now is the accepted time. See that your decision not be put off until the winter of your days. If you do not seek the Lord when young, the strength of habit is such that you will probably never seek Him at all. … Every fresh act of sin lessens fear and remorse, hardens our hearts, blunts the edge of our conscience, and increases our evil inclination…Young men, you may fancy I am laying too much stress on this point. If you had seen old men, as I have, on the brink of the grave, without any feelings, seared, callous, dead, cold, hard as stone — you would not think so. Believe me, you cannot stand still in your souls. Habits of good or evil are daily strengthening in your hearts. Every day you are either getting nearer to God, or further off.” (Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men).

Peter and Ryle speak with one voice: I urge you abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul and live a life of honor in the family of God.

In a word anything that promises happiness now but makes you pay the price later. The pleasure now but pain to your soul in the long run

I’ve spoken in generalities. I think it is helpful for both Peter and Paul and the whole Counsel of Scripture to remind us from God’s holy inerrant and inspired word what we are abstaining from. (Please note the role of the community to help each other here. Not individuals. It is a War with comrades. Not a 1v1 WWE match with Satan.

Galatians 6:1–2 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. [2] Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. (All references ESV).

Galatians 6:7-8 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. [8] For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Galatians 5:13–14 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. [14] For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Galatians 5:19–24 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, [20] idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, [21] envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Note how many of these are sins of not just the body, but the mind: envy, anger, enmity, strife. Community destroying sins of a fleshly mind. Not just the obvious ones of a degraded culture.

Remember the Goal: Simon Kistemaker says, the believer abstains from these desires. By his conduct and good deeds, he shows unbelievers the way to God.”

My hope and prayer is that we trust Peter’s words that this is keeping our conduct HONORABLE among our unbelieving neighbors. In the short run in modern political terms, the immoral left may call you a bigot or intolerant because we refrain from celebrating so-called pride month, sexual immorality, impurity, and sensuality.

In the short run you may be accused of not being staunchly conservative enough if you don’t employ what are actually Marxist advocacy methods to achieve a conservative end because you refrain from sins of the mind and attitude, from “anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, etc…” e.g. saying We need the good guys to win using the bad guys play book

At the end of the day, these are sins we put off…We are not looking for the middle ground, we are looking for biblical ground to stand on. The mind of Christ.

We are not just putting off sins. Peter would have us put on Honorable fruit of the spirit…honoring practices that win over our neighbors for Christ.

Look in verse 12 again

v. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers,[they what?] they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

#3 Moving from Defense to Offense: Good Deeds That God May be Glorified

We live in a glass house….we not only refrain evil, we put on honorable good works. We Celebrate the good physical gifts of God.

This is not Monasticism. Instead, We build a compelling community, culture, and landing place for people to be brought into. We don’t just live in fear of sin lists…of messing things up. No! We are joyfully building churches, families, and communities.

Christian’s love the joys of marriage, family, food, fellowship, joy, laughter. That is the man or woman being recreated after the image of Christ has such joy and pleasure in the holy and good gifts of God given in creation that satan is jealous of holy goods enjoyed by mankind, Christ’s church going forth with Joy.

Sin hates to see the happy marriage. Satan hates the Hollywood adventure movie that everyone enjoys, but did not need to employ explicit scenes …but rather showed valor. Courage and Honor as the victors. That light wins and darkness loses. Forming an honorable heart not debasing and desensitizing our mind.

This does Not make anxious do-gooders. Busy citizens. Never able to do enough guilt ridden people. No in various seasons and capacity, we do good to others as we are able, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. (1 Tim. 2:2).

But the good is good virtues that even the unbeliever can recognize as VIRTUE. How can the unbeliever answer to the faithful marriage of 50 years? But yet what we have here is also a tension. It seems that Peter has in mind that the accusation of evil is inevitable.

Every generation has some areas of easy agreement with believers and some areas where they call good evil and evil good. We must be consistent from generation to generation. And to do that we must be consistently biblical.

What are the hoped for results of following Christian Ethics in all of Life and putting to death the world, the flesh, and the devil?

“When Peter tells his hearers to live good lives, he uses a word that can also mean 'beautiful' or 'attractive' The high holiness of fellowship with God must also produce observable conduct, admirable in its consistency and integrity. This theme of luminous goodness runs like a thread through all of Peter's exhortations. It reflects the word of Jesus, 'Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven' (Matt. 5:16)” ( Ed Clowney, Emphasis mine).

The hoped for further result is Silencing the accusations, that people would be saved, that God would be Glorified, and that God would be worshipped

So The Accusation: Christians are evildoers

But Our Testimony of Honor: Believers are actually those who work good deeds and its beautiful.

And here’s the kicker. Where is Peter going in Chapter 2. The beautiful community, out of gospel love and gratitude (not legalism and anxious fear) is following the 10 commandments. Specifically, the honorable and good conduct, the beautiful conduct Peter starts to zero in on, I think in the following passage is the 5thcommandment. Honor your father and your mother. Peter gives a call for honoring authority and what Peter is beginning to think about that in regards to how Christians live among unbelievers.

As we continue These 10 good deeds

1. Honoring Public Authorities and Human Institutions

2. Honor Everyone

3. Love the Brotherhood

4. Fear God

5. Honor the Emperoror

6. Be Subject to those over you such as employers

7. Endure suffering well

8. Do not revile (Internet people)

9. Entrust ourselves to God

10. Remember Jesus

Why this list? Peter Knows the likes of Nero and his persecution is coming. The Christians being fed to the lions is coming

Ed Clowney says, “Peter knows that the opposition of the Gentile world will not be limited to gossip, …and fantastic lies. Christians will be accused in the courts; false charges will lead to imprisonment and death. Peter had escaped the sword of Herod, but he would not escape the perverse hatred of Nero. Yet in spite of pagan injustice, the impact of the Christian witness will not be lost, in Peter's day or ours. The surrounding world will see the good deeds of the Christian community (12). They cannot avoid it. For some, unbelief will turn to belief as they behold the obedience of the people of God. Unbelieving husbands will see, and be touched by, the godliness of their wives (3:1-2). On the day of God's 'visitation' (RSV, ASV), even those who misrepresented and hated the good works of Christians will glorify God for them.”

To close, What is the goal? If in any way we can be a light and witness to the fact that there is forgiveness and mercy in Christ Jesus. The Light will show the darkness. And the Christian can show the unbeliever that their darkness can be forgiven and that they can become children of the day. Sons and Daughters of God in Christ Jesus.

The good and honorable conduct of the Christian ought to both provoke a reaction from sin, and hatred of the light that gives way to a longing for forgiveness of the sin and a possession of the light.

May our light win our neighbors for Christ. So therefore put the flesh to death and put on Christ. And may we be a people who are quick to forgive and welcome people out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Next week Peter will continue to hold out a vision of honorable living that will be a light to a world lost in darkness.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com

This passage presents a picture of the various ways people respond to Jesus. Especially given salvation in Christ is brought about by simple, Humble means. Humanly speaking, there is some foolishness to the Cross as the foundation of our salvation. How are we to respond, and what are some implications for us as a Church?

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:4–10 ESV)

We’ll be answering three questions this morning. There are no clean verse divisions because Peter states his points and then supplies his scriptures verses and then restates everything a second time. Basically, we are asking 3 things:

* What does it mean that Christ is our Cornerstone?

* What does it mean to stumble over Jesus?

* We are called living stones, so as living stones who have received mercy, How then do we live as God’s people?

Let’s answer these things in Summary: These verses reference many places in the scriptures where we have the image of Christ as this anchoring cornerstone. A Cornerstone is the first stone that is carefully laid in a building’s foundation. The entirety of its foundations, the stability of its walls all depend on the quality, the strength, and the presence of this stone. The entire building is being entrusted to this precious stone. So it is a wonderful image of Jesus, and it naturally leads to the image that in Christ Jesus, we no longer come to physical stones and temples to worship. But instead, we, in Christ Jesus, are the body of Christ, the living temple of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. So we gather not for sacrifices but for Spiritual Worship, especially our prayer, praise in song, and the Reading and Preaching of the Word. And further, the new testament church is now the true and spiritual fulfillment of all the promises, names, and titles for physical Israel, the physical temple, nation, and priesthood find their fulfillment (continuation) in Christ and the Church, according to this scripture text.

Back to the first question: #1 What does it mean that Christ is our Cornerstone?

Peter is doing good biblical theology here. First, he knows that Jesus’ death and resurrection is the true fulfillment of the entire temple and sacrificial system. And so, both Jesus and his people fulfill these things.

In John 2:19 standing next to the physical temples says,

“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” [20] The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” [21] But he was speaking about the temple of his body. [22] When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Ok, So Jesus says, I am the true temple And Further, eventually Paul and Peter say you are the true Israel, the true temple in Christ Jesus as well. That is God’s presence with his people on earth, for worship, and to proclaim salvation that sin is atoned for. No longer by a physical sacrifice and priesthood but by Jesus and simple spiritual worship (See John 4 and the woman at the well, no longer a physical temple? But what? Worshipping in spirit and in truth.

There are Three References Peter quotes (if you have a reference bible you should be able to spot these), Isaiah 8:14, 28:16, and Psalm 118:22. First the two chapters of Isaiah speak of how the both the houses of Israel the north and the south ignored the word of God, ignored calls to repentance, and specifically mocked the simplicity of the call of the prophets to repent, turn back to God, and to trust in his teaching and protection of them. All these references show how the people and The leaders were believing or trusting in human rescue, trusting in the wisdom of alliances with Egypt, the security of the physical city of Jerusalem.

Ed Clowney says, “God declares that their pride is no refuge…only one [thing] can stand against the storm of destruction: God’s building, established upon one sure foundation stone.” Whom both chapter 8 & 28 follow with wonderful promises of the sure foundation of the Messiah, of Jesus. And then Isaiah and Psalms go on to make messianic promises about Jesus as the cornerstone, the Child born, the son of David, the prince of peace etc…All the Christmas promises that say

Cease trying to save yourself through manmade ways, rest in the rescue of God that is coming by the Christ, the anointed Savior..

In the Psalm reference Psalm 118:22…The Psalmist speaks of the REJECTION of the Cornerstone.

…Despite The LORDS wonderful works to save his people…some still rejected what the Lord was doing and ultimately they would reject God’s people, and God’s salvation.

Jesus quotes from this psalm in Matt. 21:33 in the parable of the vineyard and of the wicked Tenants. (Note: Israel’s leaders historically killing prophets)

Jesus talks about how they beat the servants, and want the vineyard for themselves, and eventually the owner will send his son, and they will in turn kill the Son of the owner of the Vineyard…And the pharisees knew Jesus was talking about them.

All these references are warnings not to trust in ourselves, to not trust in human alliances, human wisdom, human striving, trying to work our own way out of our human messes and sins. Even by external religion.

But it takes us removing our gaze from what we are physically trusting in, to trusting in something that externally appears physically, philosophically, and religiously foolish, but in reality is spiritually certain.

Acts 4:11-12 says that Jesus is a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,

[12] And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

The Pharisees rejected that. He was too humble, he dined with sinners, he didn’t agree with their wisdom and human driven efforts to be saved. If they followed Jesus their reputation would no longer be attached to the glories and splendor of the physical temple, the physical priesthood, the ceremonial laws that externally made them appear holy, separate, and clean. They should’ve been looking for the messiah

And instead, their salvation is shown to have always relied on Christ who came in humility, who died, who humanly appeared weak and defeated.

Jesus being our cornerstone is founded in his death. He left heaven. He humbled himself. Ransomed us with his precious blood by dying on the cross and being laid in the tomb.

The cornerstone image is foundational. It is chosen and precious but at the same time the most humble and lowly of the stones being sunk down into the ground in order for everything else to be built on it.

But if Jesus had to be humbled in his death for us. We also must be humbled and die a kind of death if we are to experience becoming living stones, members of God’s family.

Take encouragement here…Peter is writing to living exiles he is saying, if Jesus can suffer being rejected by men when in fact he is precious to God. Can you not also accept exile and rejection by others if it means your life is founded on Christ Jesus?

But what about Jesus makes some reject him?

Question #2: What does it mean to stumble over Jesus? To be offended by him. (See verse 8 stumble and v. 4 – rejected).

Why do we stumble over Jesus? Remember The Foolishness of the Cross.

The Cross makes us admit that it was our sin that held him that. That the wages of sin are death, and that Christ had to die. (If just for my sin alone).

That is to say, The Cross of Christ means we must admit that we cannot save ourselves, Jesus didn’t come as a self-help coach, he didn’t come so we could, like the Pharisees, live somewhat improved lives. He came to bear our guilt and our shame and the true consequences of our sin: Death on the Cross. The Wrath of God in our place.

So we stumble over admitting the depths of our sin and that our righteousness is actually filthy rags. To come to Jesus we must die to ourselves, admit our sin, and turn from it.

We remember the foolishness of the cross in our Membership Vows here. This is the reason our church membership vows are they way they are.

1. Do you acknowledge yourselves to be sinners in the sight of God, justly deserving His displeasure, and without hope save in His sovereign mercy? – Yes.

2. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and Savior of sinners, and do you receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation as He is offered in the Gospel? – Yes.

3. Do you now resolve and promise, in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit, that you will endeavor to live as becomes the followers of Christ? – Yes.

4. Do you promise to support the Church in its worship and work to the best of your ability? – Yes

5. Do you submit yourselves to the government and discipline of the Church, and promise to study its purity and peace?

This is the earlier implication of Chapter 1 we are rescued so we will be holy. And Peter will begin explaining this and what living in a church family looks like as we move through 1 Peter.

This says that if we are to be living stones founded on Christ the cornerstone, we must humbly admit our sin and need for grace, look in trust and Faith in Christ alone for salvation, and in dependence on the Holy Spirit for Christian living in a community.

Therefore, we recognize that the Church is not a building; we are the living stones. And we need each other to grow.

Dr. Karen Jobes points out that we are not stones scattered around a field that we are not so much individually the temple of God. But that the Christian view is always of us together forming this spiritual house. Every member matters. Paul here would remind us that Christ is our Head and we are his body.” Coming to Christ means coming into relationship with others, not only in one generation but also by being united with believers of every generation.” (Commentary 1 Peter).

#3 This brings us to our final question: Who are we now as living stones and how does that mean we live as God’s people? What are some further implications for us: if we are in Christ look in Verse 5, 9, and 10?

[5] you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ

[9] But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. [10] Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

First, We are God’s People a people for his own possession – because we have received MERCY (when we were once not a people). Partly this means that God has called people from every tribe, tongue, and nation to be his people.

It is what Paul argues in Ephesians 2:14-22

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility [15] by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, [16] and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. [17] And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. [18] For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. [19] So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, [20] built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, [21] in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. [22] In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

God has enfolded everyone who has faith in Jesus as spiritually a part of his people. So no longer a physical temple, priests, and nation. But all who have faith in Christ Jesus have the faith of Abraham. It is all because of the mercy of God.

This means that no longer are we to look for a future physical temple in Israel, but instead for the gospel to go forth to every tribe, tongue, and nation. Now, there is a living Temple of God where people hear the gospel of Jesus. And build their lives on the word of God, proclaiming Christ Jesus as their cornerstone.

This gives a great simplicity to being a follower of Jesus. Everywhere the word of God goes forth and people repent of their sins and follow Jesus. That gathered group of people is gathered by the Holy Spirit, and they don’t need to start building a temple, and following the ceremonial laws, and finding a descendant of the Aaronic Priesthood, no.

The only question is how have they responded to Jesus and his word? Remember, the great commission:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20 ESV)

What Paul and the New Testament show is not priests offering sacrifices. But ministers of the Word. That we all are gathered around the Word, the sacrifice of Prayer, the fragrant offering of our singing, the Table Fellowship of the Lord’s supper.

All you need for a Church is the Word read, prayed, preached, sung, and seen in the Lord’s Supper with some bread & juice from grapes in some form…And Water. This means that while God certainly gives Teachers, Elders, Deacons, various gifts and callings. There is a much greater and active participation of every member of a Church than there was in the Temple.

So how can you apply that? We are God’s Spiritual temple: Living Stones, A Living home built on a living foundation. Therefore, Every member matters. Everyone together forms the living stones of the temple. We serve each other with our gifts and graces.

We are now a spiritual house. You no longer take a back seat to a priest who does it all, giving physical sacrifices. (verse 9). No we believe in the priesthood of believers. That we all offer from the heart, indwelt by the spirit, our prayer, our singing, and our adoration of God in worship and that it is holy and acceptable in Christ Jesus.

We are built on the Cornerstone of Christ. We avoid stumbling by admitting we are sinners of need of Grace. We continue by being joined to our brothers and sisters as fellow living stones, and the kingdom of God goes forth in simplicity as those who have received Mercy

Keep looking in in Verses 5, 9-10 Again there are a few more traits of how we are called to think about the various ways people respond to Jesus.

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. (Verse 9) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Verse 5 and verses 9-10. Have a difficult contrast some stumble and disobey the word as they were destined to do….And some are v. 9 chosen, verse 10, were not a people but now are because they have received Mercy. The reason Peter is saying these things is not because he is overly philosophical and wishes to debate election and predestination.

The reason the bible usually mentions the Election of God is either to defend the Justice and Honor of God or to showcase his mercy. Because Mercy is available in Christ Jesus, and he is freely offered. All people will either accept the mercy found in Christ…and Peter wants the Christian community to call many more to Christ…Or people will stumble over Christ, not admit their sin, not admit their need. They will disobey the word. But Peter says that this stumbling disobedience is destined or appointed.

The reason Paul mentions that some disobey the word as they were destined to do is to give sober warning about the reality of rejecting Christ and to give praise to God for showing undeserved mercy to those in darkness, who are not his people, who indeed are rebel sinners. All of us naturally, apart from the mercy of God would stumble over Christ.

None of us in our pride wish to admit our sin and need of Christ. The seriousness of our sin…As R.C. Sproul says, everyone either receives Justice for rejecting Christ or the Undeserved mercy of the work of the Spirit in our lives, the redemption of Christ, and the Call of our heavenly Father. we received undeserved mercy…because if we are trusting in Christ, Justice has fallen on Christ in our place. Justice always happens with sin. No one receives Injustice, no one receives anything other than how they have responded to the offer of Christ in the gospel….However, in the mystery of the will of God we are also told of the choosing of God in mercy, in sending Christ, and the Holy Spirit to save a specific people for himself. It is a mystery held forth in scripture We could turn to Ephesians 1 or Romans 9 but I think less frequently turned to is Titus 1:1, 3:5-7 states it this way [1] Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect [God’s Chosen.]

Chosen because we had the wisdom to not stumble over Christ? We had the humility on our own to admit our sin? Because we were just the living stone to make the temple look perfect? NO! Titus 3:5..

[5] he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, [6] whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, [7] so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Titus 3, highlights that it is undeserved mercy from God that rescues us from darkness and brings us back into his marvelous life. The Holy Spirit calls us, makes us living stones, he works us into the temple of God. Such that we are now sons and daughters of God who offer back our grateful praise.

Look in Verse 5 again: you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Peter is using an image and metaphor to tell us of spiritual reality. We are a Spiritual House. Well the word house there is also the same word for household. We are a spiritual household. Adopted into the family of God. I think if you translated verse 5 into the also very biblical adoption metaphor it would read, “You yourselves are have been brought together as sons and daughters of your heavenly Father by Jesus your elder brother, you are being built into the family of God, Holy sons, holy daughters.

Two Application questions: First, How do we show God gratitude for this gifts to us?

Offer your love, prayers, service, your singing as a sacrifice of praise with Joy as your elder brother Christ Jesus leads you into everything acceptable to your Father in heaven. Gratefully take your shame to God and trade it for Christ’s Honor. Your guilt for His forgiveness. Gratitude for the gift means clinging to Christ all the more when you don’t feel that gift. This will lead you to offer sacrifices of prayer, and praise, and crave the word.

Second question: How can we practically share the gift of mercy and grace to others? First, humbly tell others that for us to be in Christ is to admit our sin and need. Freely admitting to others that the Church is a hospital for sinners.

Second, we are adopted into a family. When we are seeking to point others to Christ, the cornerstone, they need to be brought to see the fellowship of the family of God, in the church family, and pointed to Christ by the living community. We can do this by having Sunday lunch with the other church families and including guests who are not following Jesus. We can include others on Wednesday nights and at any place where the church family gathers. (whether formally or informally)

Praise God that he mercifully brought us into his family. Let us sing his praise in response.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com

1 Peter 1:22-3:3 Love That Endures, Sin That Withers, New Life That Grows

Introduction Good morning…Peter has for this first chapter been reminding us of our certain living hope in Christ Jesus. They have been chosen, called, made alive again by the Spirit, and enabled to persevere in the suffering that this new life in Christ brings into their lives. They have the assurance of their faith in the Holy scriptures, teaching them about Jesus’ suffering on their behalf and subsequent glory.

The implications of these things is being united to Christ we must renew our minds after the image of Christ and walk in holiness of life. Active, progressive sanctification. The Battle of the Mind: We are either growing in sober Knowledge conformed to Christ or growing in Ignorance conformed to sinful passions. Our motivation is the fear of the Lord and the precious blood of Christ ransoming us back.  In response we meditate on the nature and character of God and his demands on our way of life. To be Holy as He is Holy.

godliness…gratitude to the forgiveness of sins…a life shaped living before the face of a Holy Holy Holy God.

Not only does salvation change our relationship to God. Conforming us to HIM. It also changes our relationships to each other. Peter now tells us of just how our community relationships will be changed by what has happened to us in our salvation.

 

Read 1 Peter 1:22–2:3

[22] Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,  [23] since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;  [24] for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, [25] but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you. (ESV) [1] So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. [2] Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk,  that by it you may grow up into salvation—

[3] if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. (ESV)

 

#1 Love One Another Earnestly…since you have been made new by the gospel (v. 22)

#2 Put Away all relational Sins…since you have the enduring word. (2:1, & 23-25)

#3 Grow up into salvation by daily feeding on the  pure truth and goodness being worked into you.

 

Look in v. 22 again…

#1 Love One Another Earnestly

We are commanded to love. Earnestly. From a sincere heart. What does it mean to be earnest? Our world likes the idea of love a lot. Every Disney movie ever has a love story. As a culture we like the idea of love.

But two things come to mind with our culture and love.

First, when we say love we often mean the feeling of romance and warmth we get from being around people that help us feel good, fulfilled, and better about ourselves. I’ve observed many students through the years who loved having a boyfriend or girlfriend…but they really loved the feeling of having a boyfriend or girlfriend. They weren’t thinking about sacrificially caring for that person, and whether they were someone they wanted to vow: before God and these witnesses, to be your loving and faithful husband, in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, as long as we both shall live.

The bottom line is so much of our love is NOT – seeking the other person’s highest good ultimately. So much of our love does not flow from the love of God filling our hearts, renewing our minds, and giving us wisdom and a moral compass to know what sincerely and earnestly seeking another’s good would even mean.

Instead, our love is seeking a person who does a good job of filling what we lack because we are not secure in Christ, we are lost in sins, and we are a leaky cup (Ed Welch gives this illustration).

Before coming to Christ, we are leaky cups and we are searching God’s creation for other creatures to fill us, but as soon as we get money, a job, respect, reputation, a boyfriend or girlfriend, a spouse, children, honors and accolades they leak out through the brokenness, the sin, the God-shaped holes in our hearts and lives.

Instead, if we have been made alive, born again by the Spirit, our hearts are repaired, washed clean, and made whole… Now we can love others. Why?

We are made upright and pure in heart. We are filled with the Love of God and like a one of those fancy fountains at weddings, the cup pyramids the top cup being filled overflows to others.

Now that you have had your soul, your heart, made pure by believing the truth of the gospel. It is time to fulfill the goal and the purpose of the gospel. First, be Holy like God is Holy. Be right vertically with God. Second, begin responding to the truth of the gospel by acting in a holy, forgiving, and loving way towards others.

This is important. Because if it is the love of God filling our hearts, what overflows, will be authentic biblical love and not the world’s substitute for love, which can false in several ways: by being selfish, immoral, self-indulgent, or distorted against God’s good designs.

Further, A Biblically authentic. Holy. Sacrificial kind of love for others will be earnest.

That word earnest is the idea of: loving Deeply, full-speed ahead, unreservededly, from an undivided heart.

Picture this earnest love this way: Picture a cliff rescue. One in which you can’t reach and sorta go eh I can’t reach you man. Oh no I love you but I can’t reach. It might get a little dangerous for me if I Stretched myself at all to rescue you.

Versus: Maybe Sam grabbing Frodo in the fires of Mount Doom, and he is stretching, he is reaching, he has an undivided heart, that cares more for the rescue than for the danger that his earnest reaching places himself in.

Dan Doriani says it is unfeighned without pretense, brotherly and filial, not calculating.

The calculating kind of love does not stretch out at risk to itself over that cliff to pull the brother back!

Why? Because we have experienced the love and grace of God. Our cups are filled.

The grounds and logic of this love is in response to your obeying the truth. The truth of the gospel .

Since you have been purified by your obedience to the truth. Since you know God’s grace, acceptance, love, and have a regenerate heart, therefore, you can love in this way. We know this phrase “obedience to the truth” means responding in faith to the gospel through 5-6 verses but here are two…

Eph. 1:13: In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

Col. 1:5-6 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.

When we receive, the word of truth, the gospel, we receive it bearing fruit, because we have understood the grace and the love of God shown us in our salvation. Because we are sealed with the holy spirit. We reach forth in love.

 

What is the Chief mark of an authentic Christian?

We cannot read hearts and minds.

We cannot detect regeneration….beep…beep. Yep that’s a spiritually alive heart indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

We can hear people’s words. Yes. To see if they understand the truth of the gospel. We can hear as Peter says early in chapter 1 about their words in regards to the holiness of God, the seriousness of sin and their love for Christ as savior.

But at the end of the day the serious FRUIT we see as Col. 1:5-6 says it is the gospel bears fruit and 1 Peter 1:22 says the obedience to the gospel is the fruit of Earnest, sincere love for the brothers.

The epistle of 1 John says, If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

Biblically authentic Love for one another is a fruit and a Sign of salvation. (Disney love proves nothing.).

But second, notice the brotherhood, the implied church family, the Shape of the love is in community…

And in community we love by seeking their objective chief and highest good. According to the truth of the word of God.

That is the mark of a Christian.

Earnest Love. And Earnest Putting away of Sin.

Repentance. New Obedience.

Mortification of Sin. Vivification of the Gospel and the Gospel fruit of Love for GOD (Worship) and Love for Other (Gospel Community)…

#1 Love One Another Earnestly…since you have been made new by the gospel (v. 22)

#2 Put Away all Relational Sins: Because you have been born by the living and abiding word of God!

[2:1] So/Therefore put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander….Why? verse 23 is the why…

[1:23] since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; [24][And quoting Isaiah 40:8] “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, [25] but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

 

 

 

The Word of God abides forever

because the word of God, reflects his holy Attributes. Consider Psalm 19:7-10 God’s Word isperfect, revives the soul.  the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; thecommandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9  the fear of the LORD is clean,enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.

The seed of what the word of God does in the human heart, in the church, and down through history Endures forever, is true, and righteous altogether.

What you have been born again to Outlasts the world: Empires fade. Ideologies fade. [Turn to Isaiah 40.]

Isaiah chapter 40 begins to make these certain promises to Israel. Every promise to Israel that is about to be unfolded from Isaiah 40-66. The promise of Redemption. Life by a messiah. These things cannot fade and fail.

What God is doing in Salvation to comfort his people cannot fade or fail. Peter is quoting Isaiah 40 verse 8 and its in the context of God beginning to give good news to Isarel after bad news for 39 chapters…

So we arrive in Isaiah 40…with Israel…exiled…lost…all external community in shambles.

Isaiah 40:1–5 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. [2] Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.

ISRAEL has received PARDON. Grace. Double pardon double grace for all her sin. Christ is Promised. God is speaking, comfort, comfort my people…the living and abiding word of God cries. Is. 40:3ff

A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. [4] Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (ESV)

Christ has come. He has established the highway of our salvation by his death on the cross. And his glory has been revealed. And what? The grass withers the flower fades but the word of the Lord remains forever.

Verse 11… God will tend his flock like a shepherd he will gather the lambs in his arms;

Christ has gathered the church in his arms, he has called us his by the good news of the gospel. Life in Christ. Clean. Set apart. Born again. Holy. Indwelt by the Holy Spirit a New Community.

Many things in life fail…

But the church called, born again, and brought together in every generation as brothers and sisters in Christ abides forever. The gospel has gone forth and the Word of the Lord remains forever.

If you grew up under the word you may like Israel wander, go astray, go to Babylon, but remember the word of God always calls you back.

No matter how far you go, the word of the Lord remains forever and will not return void.

This is true not just for individual covenant children but in the broad revival and reformation of the church in history. God’s Church will not fade and fail.

We should therefore have great confidence in the bible as believers.

 It is the seed by which we are born again. It is the living and active word. The sword that pierces hearts.

Consider our great heroes who sparked, reformations, global missionary movements, and church reform in the face of great loss of spiritual truths.

Gideons – thousands brought to a living relationship. Bibles to communist countries

John Wycliffe (late 14th) – The bible in your language not latin…condemned but centuries later William Tyndale (early 16th) building on Wycliffe said, “If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the Scripture than thou dost. “a plough boy knowing more than a priest”

The Reformation with the Gutenburg press and a German bible by Luther. Allowed for the word to go forth like never before.

The Bible in Indian, Chinese, Russian, all these places the Churches has gone in it is a seed planted underground and it has been immense fruit even in communist states…the bible is an unfading treasure.

And the Church has responded with the obedience of faith to the gospel, to the Whole counsel of God, even in dark times.

In Every century, the bible most be re-affirmed: Re-affirmed as sufficient for life, doctrine, godliness, wisdom, decision making, to organize your life around.

 In Every century the bible most be re-affirmed as the powerful tool of the gospel going forth and churches being strengthened and the faith being passed on to the next generation.

Isaiah 40:8 which is now on our bulletin. Reminds us that God’s word is what gathers us in worship. It is unfading in being able to be used of the Holy Spirit as the ordinary instrument that unites us to Christ who is the Word made flesh who has life in himself abundantly.

And this word is the good news that was preached to you. (ESV)

Never forget the good word is preached to you. It is the truth. It endures and you can build your life on it because in it you find Christ and

Pastors may fade and fail. Individual denomination may fade and fail. But The Word remains Forever The gospel anchors everything.

So read verse 22 next to verse 1 with me now.…[22] Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, …Having tasted and seen that God is good!

[1] put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander….

Therefore, put away – take off, put to death everything that no longer fits with a holy child of God. That no longer fits with a heart that has had the love of God fill it. That has had the gospel reshape its loves. A heart that has a sincere and deep love for brothers and sisters in Christ that experienced the forgiveness of the Gospel.

Put away these community sins. Dan Doriani calls this “community destroying sins.” Many of which are “respectable sins.” If its directed against the right people.

Put away all Malice/Evil – You have been saved by God. You have tasted that he is good. Wickedness, Self-serving, evil purposes must be done away with.

chiefly anything that willingly seeks to harm other people. Nursing, ill will, and vindictiveness towards others. Mal – bad – will towards others made in the image of God. Get rid of it! If you find malice in your heart towards another, I want you to flinch away from that sin like you do discovering you have a spider on your shoulder!

Do not keep pet spiders on your shoulders! Especially. Especially towards a brother or sister in Christ covered by the blood of Christ.

Doriani again notes…its interesting that this list is of community sins. Respectable since. Not gross pagan sins. Not perversions of nature. Not idolatry. Not murder and evil governments…

Polite Wickedness needs to be put off. Callous indifference.

Over and over here is the word ALL. You wyould never say, “I’ll brush off some spiders off my shoulders…but I’ll keep some of them as pet sins…No All malice of thought, word, or deed…flee from it. Repent. Ask for the Spirits help.

Put away all Hypocrisy: Do not live two lives. Two standards. Pretending to care about something or someone but only because it helps you. This harms community. “these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Isa 29:13).

Put away all Envy: Wanting what others have. Such that we are mad at God that he gave those looks, that money, that job, that house, those talents or gifts to that person and not you. You neglect to be joyful and count your own blessing and so you envy…and so you will soon hold Malice towards others in the community for what they have..especially if you have envy for the wicked…

Envy of the wicked says, “Man if I just didn’t have moral standards…” I could have what my pagan neighbors have, if I just didn’t tithe, if I just changed my doctrine or ethics to be more acceptable I could be accepted and loved by our culture.

Put away all Deceit and Slander: I think it is obvious on the surface. If we have purified our souls by obedience to the TRUTH. If we believe in Capital T truth that all truth is God’s truth, that there is a universal objective Lord who knows the truth of all matters. We cannot twist facts, shade the truth, tell white lies, and attempt to deceive or slander our brothers and sisters.

Now, “love covers a multitude of sins.” We don’t say, “Well, I’m just telling the truth.” We tell the truth to those who have a real right to certain facts based on proper authority structures and age appropriateness. But in all these things, we honor the Lord with honest integrity.

 

 

 

There was a case recently of a well-known pastor who kept several anonymous twitter accounts in order to attack his personal enemies with slander and lies.

So you can see the sin of ENVY, lead to the sins of deceit and slander.

Sins of the Heart often lead to sins of the tongue…or in these days the sins of the keyboard.

When I think of Deceit, I often think of politics…but more specific than that political PRIMARIES. How often have we been told…slanderously…this person is the worst, they wake up in the morning and kill puppy dogs. Then 3 months later after the primary is done“this candidate is the greatest and I am proud to endorse them.”

In the Christian community let us be slow to give a poor report. Take care that information is going to the correct people. And put away all deceit.

The gospel truth calls for us to do so.

 

Let us close with this…Put Off. Put On verse 2.

[2] Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk,  that by it you may grow up into salvation— [3] if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. (ESV)

#3 Put On:  Grow Up into maturity. Grow up into salvation by following the daily command to long for pure truth and goodness being worked into you.

Long for / Crave ongoing growth in the gospel of truth > That is moral & doctrinal transformation

You don’t once hear the gospel and then move on

You don’t “get saved” have an episode where you felt guilty for wrongdoing and knew you needed some Jesus in your life with not ongoing transformation to be like Christ and growing in godliness.

No, you are born again, are putting off the old life, and daily, hourly, like and infant constantly feeding on the new life you have in Christ, the obedience to the truth has daily implications. And in this context it means daily feeding on the goodness of God, the goodness of the gospel, the abiding life found in the word, the abiding community of brothers and sistsers in fellowship. So worship. Word. Prayer. Fellowship. Godly transformed living. This is the good, true, beautiful, and spiritual good. The pure milk of the transformed Christian.

There is no category in the bible for a believer who is able to be fleshly, perpetually immature, not growing, not feeding, not loving their brothers and sisters, not seeing the gooness of God daily.

Long for continued life / continued moral transformation and to conform yourself to the goodness and grace of God you have experienced.

The idea is that by the Holy Spirit and this new birth by the gospel you will like an infant Long for the holiness of God consistently be going back again and again to the word, the gospel, and your community to experience this new life.

Remember the leaky cup loves sin, seeks to fill itself with worldy love, worldly passions of the flesh, and does so with malice, envy, harm…filling itself with the poisonous fruit of vice.

The believer has been born again by the word and has cast off these things…Because we know the Lord is good in his grace to us.

So daily long for the word, the gospel, nearness to God, and to God’s people. This is offered to you in corporate Worship with the ordinary means of grace, in fellowship when we gather for food and prayer, and privately as you feed on the word.  

Prayer | Benediction: 1 Peter 1:2

According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com

1 Peter 1:13-21 Renewing Your Mind

Introduction: Good morning, we are continuing our study of 1 Peter. So turn in your bible to 1 Peter 1:13-21. Peter has, for 12 verses, been reminding his readers of their living hope in Christ Jesus. They have been chosen, called, made alive again by the Spirit, and enabled to persevere in the suffering that this new life in Christ brings into their lives. They have the assurance of their faith in the Holy scriptures, teaching them about Jesus’ suffering on their behalf and subsequent glory.

This Morning, Peter is going to remind us of the implications of the gospel. The implication of “how we should then live” if this is what we have in Christ Jesus.

Read 1 Peter 1:13-21

[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. [14] As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, [15] but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, [16] since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” [17] And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fearthroughout the time of your exile, [18] knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, [19] but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. [20] He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you [21] 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.

Pray

Illustration: If I told you, I need you to care for my pet. And then just handed you a list of care instructions…without telling you what this pet was, you would be confused…Well it needs straw three times a day…and it needs 3 scoops of special pellets at each meal, and you should avoid chocolate. I can give you instructions. Commands. But you should probably know whether this is a Rabbit or a Horse eating straw and avoiding chocolate. before you get  there.

G.K. Beal points out that “Peter first tells his readers who they are before telling them how to behave.” That is what the therefore is there for of verse 13.

Since you have received the Gospel by the Holy Spirit and are now Chosen and Holy Exiles, Sons and Daughters of God How should you then Live?

 

Three Main Ideas this Morning: #1

#1 The Battle of the Mind: We are either growing in sober Knowledge conformed to Christ or growing in Ignorance conformed to sinful passions. ..vv. 13-14

#2 We are Ransomed from futile former lives to live Holy lives vv. 15-19

#3 Jesus grants us Faith in the Father. v. 20-21

 

#1 vv. 13-14  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,

First, If you have been born again in Christ Jesus, You have a Renewed Mind, and the gospel brings you from Ignorantly being led and controlled and conformed to Sinful desires.  You now have Knowledge and sober-minded self-control in Christ your Hope. Grace creates spiritually sober-people:

V. 13. Says be ready. That is Get Ready. Be battle ready. Be alert. Be on guard. Literally “gird up the loins of your mind if you have the KJV version.

Salvation drives us to be ready for action, to be ready for active sanctification and the renewal of how we think and live..

You were ignorant and unprepared to face sin but now the Holy Spirit give you a  “renewed mind” a sober mind. A prepared mind.

And this is not just the guy who likes to talk about what he THINKS about different things, a philosopher…No, for the believer we are always striving for the movement from Head to Heart. Heart. to Hands. The Christian life Should not remain Head alone or Heart alone or Hands alone.

Jesus in Luke 12:35 Stay dressed for action.

In Exodus before the Lord rescues Israel from Egypt. Their physical readiness is described this way, eat the Passover, “with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover.

God is rescuing you from sin and darkness. Be ready in that rescue to march forward with God’s people. TO where God will lead you.

Do not drift aimlessly through life with no thought of where your actions and where your thinking will lead you. (Ill: Swim across river passively).

The image is that passive minds will always be catechized, trained, and conformed to the sinfully ignorant culture around them. (Swept downstream).

Take every thought captive to Christ.

Our culture often advocates for living by your heart, your feelings, emotional appeal, without consideration to God and the truths of his creation, the realities of the fall, or the grace of salvation.

So how can we be catechized…Trained by God more than fallen thinking: How? By Being Sober Minded. / Self-Controlled. How?

The power of a greater love and affection controls us: The imperative. The  command is this: Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ

Set your mind FULLY on the grace and mercy of Jesus! How? By staying alert and ready, being self-controlled!

By Having are thoughts Filled with the wonders of the Grace of God. Filled with Wonderful and high thoughts about the God of Grace knowing that we will have these truths fully shown to us when Christ returns and we see him face to face.

Until then we are meditating and Reminding ourselves in our hearts and our minds of the truths of these things.

 What we believe and give our full attention to gives us perseverance.

Right belief – Orthodoxy – being reminded of our understanding of God, Jesus, the Bible, and Grace in salvation should always lead to Orthopraxy - holiness of life, love for God, love for neighbor in practical and well-reasoned ways, with habits, disciplines, and as a consistent way of life lived in community.

And get this: it works the other direction as well.

You must be warned. That to embrace secular morality and ways of living, embrace calling sin good and good evil, as post-modernism demands you do, will always and inevitably lead to forgetting the grace of Christ, forgetting who God is, and a rejection of the gospel.

Some false teachers will frame – compromise with sin – as a kindness – that to say, “actually that is an acceptable lifestyle, old-fashioned Christians used to think that was wrong but we know better. It’s the 21st century. I love my neighbor by affirming them in their sin – in their “ignorant passions.”  (Come to your neighbor Full of grace & truth. Speak the truth in love.)

Rejection of a Christian morality  “orthopraxy” – right living - inevitably leads to a loss of orthodoxy – right thinking -  because

Peter continues this line of thinking in V. 14.

V. 14 as obedient children, Do not be conformed [pressed into the mold of] the passions of your former ignorance

This means first that as obedient children “God is your Father”

Before you were saved you had Other Father’s you were obedient to …Satan…Adam…pagan Culture at large. No longer. God is your Father in Christ and as a Son or Daughter of God you are going to be shaped to be like him and are indeed commanded to be like him. You now have a Holy calling as a Child of your heavenly father.

But when we are conformed to our passions…our fallen desires…you are brought back into your former ignorance and all knowledge of God and kn. Of grace in Christ is ultimately lost.

And with it the knowledge and the sober-mindedness to know what Is actually loving, kind, faithful, good and true and beautiful to your neighbors in complex situations.

#1 Application

Therefore – Ask yourself – Am I renewing my mind? Am I sober-minded. Am I setting my hope on the grace of Christ in such a way that I have a disciplined mind and will?

Or Am I out of control, I have addictions, swings of mood, inconsistent thinking, inconsistent hopes so much so that it makes me not fully fixed on the grace and hope I have in Christ.

Are the images, knowledge and beliefs I consume incompatible with the grace of Christ and instead eroding my mind? (Will, conscience).

Trust the Holy Spirit working in Scripture and through wise Christian counsel to help you discern these things.

What is the standard of what you are being conformed to? The Command is to hope fully in the grace of the gospel and not be conformed to your former ignorance. But the standard is in verses 15-19.

#2 vv. 15-19 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, [16] since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” [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, [18] knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, [19] but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

#2 We are Ransomed from futile former lives to live Holy lives as Sons & daughters. 15-19

This is Peter’s second Command Be holy in ALL your conduct

The motivation is a mind set on grace. The standard is a Holy God. How does your mind know how you should live? The law of righteousness, The Character of God. The Law written on our hearts by the spirit revealing the character of a Holy God

We are set apart as Holy. So we will become what we already are.

You are objectively “Holy in Christ” because you have been ransomed by the precious of Christ.

And you will become like who you are united to.

Remember, “The Christian’s standard of and motivation for holiness is the absolute moral perfection of God Himself: We are made in His Image and are to reflect Him.” – Reformation Study Bible.

Therefore, the Christian standard for our thinking, reasoning, reflection, our conscience, is God’s thinking, God’s thoughts, God’s reasoning, and he has declared these things to us in every word of Scripture by his Holy Spirit.

Peter is quoting here from several repeated statements in Leviticus: Since it is written, You shall be holy, for I am Holy. (Lev. 11:44 & 19:2)

So holiness if connected to God’s nature and character.

Leviticus 20:7–8 Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God.(Well How? What does this look like?) Keep my statutes and do them; I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

So holiness is attached to the revealed commandments of God.

Leviticus 20:26 You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.

Holiness is connected to exclusively belonging to God and being separated from the pagan nations.

G.K. Beale explains it this way: The general thrust of the holiness in the Old Testament is the strong conviction that the Israelites must not only be "clean" but progress into a state of utter "holiness," fit for God's presence. "To be holy is to be unblemished or unmarred. It is to experience life in all its fullness as God has originally intended it to be."” (Beale, 412)

The only hope of being a Holy people in Christ Jesus. And it Is not only that we won’t be cast out but that we in Christ will be drawn near and fit for the presence of God.

And as God’s holy people we look to the Holy Spirit to do the work in our hearts and minds to cleanse, to renew us after the image of Christ.

V. 17 – says, we will Call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile

On first read this is terrifying. And in some ways it is we are to conduct ourselves with fearful care in all our deeds….But not because salvation is by works or uncertain.

 Are we saved by grace but kept in by works?, By no means. T wo comforts

Isaiah 53:5 Jesus was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. (ESV)

God’s just judgement has already landed on Christ…That is our Justification.

And Second, in our Sanctification: in the renewing of our minds, the conforming ourselves to Christ Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit the Christian will bear fruit.  And god the Father will judge the fruit of sanctification for what is it. Good works done by the power of the Spirit. And one motivation for holiness is rightly understanding a Sovereign. Holy. Just Judge. Not “hey big fellow in the sky” but Holy God and Judge of the Universe who is my Father in Christ Jesus. So we must strive to understand and live according to the moral character of a Holy. Just. Judge & Father.

Think of the Logic of 2 Peter 1:4–9 …In Christ by the Spirit we…become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. [5] For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, [6] and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, [7] and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. [8] For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. [9] For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. (ESV)

I think we can say it this way – we speak of Total Depravity a lot. In Adam we were ignorantly conformed to our passions and dead in our trespasses and sins.

In our salvation in Christ Jesus you have been regenerated and your mind is being renewed with knowledge and self-control.

Christians are no longer totally depraved that was the old man.

Christians can progress in sanctification. In fact you can do it with self-control and steadfast effort as the Holy Spirit works in you. And God the Father not only sees you Justified in Christ Jesus but also sanctified by the Spirit and says, well done good and faithful servant.

Conduct yourselves with Fear with Humble reverence and awe. Understanding true strength, splendour, glory, and holiness. That all we think, do, believe, and trust in should flow from him and to

So do you see Peter building up a whole lot of motivations here? Gratitude to Grace. Fear of a Holy God. Living as a Child of your Heavenly Father. The motivation of rejecting Ignorance and embracing knowledge.

A Further motivation to Holiness, Look in verse 18: You were ransomed from Futile ways inherited from your forefathers

Ransomed yes,

From what futile ways from your forefathers?: note 1:14; 4:3

Peter will list specifics: Greek and roman base cultural sins. So we can ask, What American base cultural sins do we need to be brought from darkness into light? What as an American if you cease from the futile American sins would surprise your neighbors??? That is the thinking.

So the motivation is to reject former futility in our former lives but even further, This ransom’s preciousness is one of our motivations to holiness.

The Imperishable precious blood of Christ like the spotless lamb without blemish.

Just as God redeemed Israel from Egypt and Babylon - We were ransomed. Bought back from slavery.

The costliness of something makes us literally Value it. Prize it. It does what? Makes our minds alert, sober-minded, and more disciplined. It makes what has been purchased set apart as a special possession.

It is Precious: As a Kid when we went to Six Flags Over I distinctly remember knowing that it Cost Money to be there. Therefore…I wanted to ride as many rides as I could. It was precious. It was a gift. Our entire mind soul and body for 8 Hrs was spent thinking about Rollercoasters…

You have been Redeemed by a far greater cost. Then $20 in 1999...

It is the precious blood of Christ has saved purchased you back.

Peter is arguing that If your salvation was so costly shouldn’t you strive with all your mightto Be Holy like God is Holy. To prepare yourself for action.

How should you then live? – Practically, You should meditate on scriptures and take action in Mind, Affections, and Actions to conform your Ethics, Character, and Habits to be Holy, Godly, Christlike. That is a Christian Ethic, Christian Character, and Christian Habits.

Where should you be meditating (OMG: W.P.S.F.)

The 10 Commandments; WLC

Proverbs – for wisdom

The second half of every NT Epistle

Jesus in the gospels.

Being grounded in the gospel you are a new creation now live as your are called to be. Holy. Godly. Upright. Let the word of God be lamp unto your feet. In real specifics not religious sounding principles such that when you read a command it is a command to be obeyed not an idea to feel proud having thought about.

God does not care if we can define religious terms and remember his commands if we do not do them from the heart.

Satan delights in a believer who knows everything he or she should be doing but never lifts a finger to actually form virtue in their Speech, humility, actions, habits, or daily schedule.

For example there are constant commands in the bible about how Christians should speak, with wisdom, life, and not corrupt talk. If God is Holy our Speech ought to be Holy.

You are bound by the God of the universe to his character to know we can use our tongues wisely or foolishly and there is a moral component to be different and talk different from the world.

 And this is a battle of your mind, your affections (love), and actions. You will either have an ethical position on blasphemy, vulgarity, and slurs or you won’t (if you don’t the default is being swept downstream); you will either have a character commitment and rule or you won’t, you will have habits and sin always wants more.

You will either love your neighbor with your words or you will defame, slur, curse, and debase their mind with the images your words paint.

This does not mean every Christian will have a black and white answer to when different language is appropriate for all time, cultures, languages and situations. But you will have the same Goal and Pattern be Holy like Christ Jesus indwelt with his spirit and in gratitude to your salvation you won’t just skim past commands to holy living without giving it attention and real action in your life: What do the scriptures sa? be holy in all your conduct

Because it is about the joy of conforming yourself to be like Jesus who saved you and made you alive.

That is just one example. But I encourage you once more. Proverbs. The 10 Commandments. Listen and Honor your Father and Mother when they correct you on a behavior. Not because they want “good” “nice” kids, but because they desire godliness…gratitude to the forgiveness of sins…a life shaped living before the face of a Holy Holy Holy God.

There are numerous places for meditation on Holy Living. Sit down as a family and I would suggest starting at #10 and working backwards through those larger catechism questions. Study the Fruit of the Spirit. Study the Sermon on the Mount. Study all these things as those who have Freedom in Christ but who do not use their freedom as a cover for sin.

Having given us the strongest of commands to Holy Lives. Peter gives us this encouragement once more in verses 20-21.

#3: Jesus was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you [21] 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.

Jesus is loved eternally by the Father. In these last days it is through Christ that we know and believe in the Father. Faith in Jesus produces and confirms our Faith in the Father

1 My hope is built on nothing lessthan Jesus' blood and righteousness;I dare not trust the sweetest frame,but wholly lean on Jesus' name.3 His oath, his covenant, his bloodsupport me in the whelming flood;when all around my soul gives way,he then is all my hope and stay.4 When he shall come with trumpet sound,O may I then in him be found;dressed in his righteousness alone,faultless to stand before the throne.

You are Holy. Have Holy Minds. Live Holy Lives. Entrust your sins and doubts to Christ knowing You will be holy in the blood of Christ. Faultless to stand before the throne.

Prayer | Benediction

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com

04 1 Peter 1:10-12 Things into Which Angels Long to Look

 What if I told you I had information that even the Angels longed to hear about it. At one point in time what I know the Cherubim, the Seraphim were talking to each other asking, what’s up with the whole redemption of fallen humans? Remember the demons. They rebelled and they’re don. But mankind, fallen in Adam, dead in their trespasses and sins, God is going to pour out his grace and mercy on them and work a glorious salvation. And he is going to do it by the glorious anointed prophet-priest-king who is a redeemer, born of a woman, born in about a situation of suffering, humility, loss, and only then will he receive the crown of glory….And it seems that this may be the eternal and pre-existent second person of the trinity, God the Son who will take on a weak and finite human nature to do it…Am I hearing this right? It seems impossible but God has spoken by His Prophets it will surely come to pass.

Passage: 1 Peter 1:10-12

[10] Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, [11] inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. [12] It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. (ESV)

 

Introduction:

·      The Bible is not written by men who sat down to think about God and humans and our philosophy, our guesses. Herman Bavinck rightly says, “Holy Scripture is not a book of religion which man has written about God, but a book in which God reveals himself to man.” — Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 1, 441

·      Not only is the Bible God moving towards us through His prophets. We can say the bible is about our salvation in Christ Jesus. The center of the bible is that our salvation by grace alone in Christ Alone. (Now does that mean the bible is not about wisdom, the ethical life, dealing with sorrow, about the creation of the world, the fall, heaven…It is about all those things. Its is a religious book, But the Center is God saves sinners through the Christ Jesus. (It’s the bullseye or like coffee it infuses everything.)

·      Our Salvation in Christ Jesus was prophesied about repeatedly and consistently throughout the entirety of human history.  And we have the word of God given

o   Given for our faith, for our worship, for our assurance and joy.

o   In the highs and lows of life it is good for us to understand that what Peter has written here. V. 1-9 is Good news in suffering. Vv. 10-12 Scriptural foundation

o   Peter has a deep understanding of the nature of the bible, the nature of what the prophets were doing, of our salvation, of who Jesus was and the work he came to earth to do.

o   And it impacts how we read the scriptures and impacts the glory we give to Christ on every page of inspired scripture.

And what did God say? This is a lengthy paragraph by Herman Bavinck about what the message of the bible is that the prophets give us. This is like a pot of bone broth that has been simmering on the stove for the last 10 hrs. Its pure nutrition:

 

“The whole revelation of the Old Testament converges upon Christ … A person is the completed revelation of God; the Son of Man is the own and only-begotten Son of God. The relationship of the Old and New Testament is … of promise and fulfillment (Acts 13:12 and Rom. 1:2), of shadow and body (Col. 2:17), of image and reality (Heb. 10:1), of shaken and unshaken things (Heb. 12:27), of bondage and freedom (Rom. 8:15 and Gal. 4). And since Christ was the real content of the Old Testament revelation (John 5:39; 1 Peter 1:11; and Rev. 19:10), He is in the dispensation of the new covenant also its capstone and crown. He is the fulfillment of the law, of all righteousness (Matt. 3:15 and 5:17), of all promises, which in Him are yea and amen (2 Cor. 1:20), of the new covenant which is now established in His blood (Matt. 26:28). The people of Israel itself, with all its history, its offices and institutions, its temple and its altar, its sacrifices and ceremonies, its prophecy, psalmody, and wisdom teaching, achieves its goal and purpose in Him. Christ is the fulfillment of all that, first of all in His person and appearance, then in His words and works, in His birth and life, in His death and resurrection, in His ascension and sitting at the right hand of God.

That’s that bottom line. But let us glory in this and work this deep into our hearts and our reflexes as we read the bible this morning and as you do a yearly reading plan.

The grace and salvation of God through Christ, an anointed redeemer, was proclaimed by God.

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” – Heb. 1:1-2

God has spoken to us in the bible. And he has spoken to us through Jesus Christ. The good news is “The bible is an open book in which God tells us about the riches of salvation we have in Christ Jesus. Therefore, study the Scriptures to be wise in respect to salvation (2 Tim. 3:15). – Simon Kistemaker

To understand and believe that the bible is about Salvation in Jesus from beginning to end we need to answer three things

1)        V. 10: What is a Prophet? And what this means for reading the bible

2)        V. 11: What their message was? Its content, and

3)        How  did the apostles teach us to read the OT Prophets?

 V. 12 (Much more briefly) What Spirit filled Proclamation accomplishes.

LOOK in verse VERSE 10 – “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully” 

·      What is a Prophet or “who wrote the bible” “Chosen men who were inspired by the Holy Spirit” – The writing prophets, who called by God had a message.

·      This means - God makes the first move by his spirit to call, set apart a spokesman, to speak on his behalf to his people. So Like Moses, like Isaiah, , they are called, in a burning bush, in a heavenly throne room vision, the Holy Spirit fills them to be the voice of God to God’s people.

·      [ILL] But by the work of the Holy Spirit they are not like in Lilo & Stitch where stitch opens his mouth and he is like a radio. It bypasses his mind and will and he just plays the radio song, or placing his finger on the record and out comes the music. No. The bible consistently upholds both every word of Scripture every word of prophesy as from the Lord and also that is comes through the minds, will, and personality of the prophet. Isaiah still sounds like Isaiah and for the Apostles Peter and Paul have different writing styles.

What this means is the prophets filled with the Holy Spirit that both the Spirit & Prophets are authors & active. 2 Peter and 1 Peter are true. Dual authorship:

·       2 Peter 1:20–21 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. [21] For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man (God is active), but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (ESV)

·       And 1 Peter 1:10 “they searched diligently, they enquired concerning this salvation the grace to be yours. (the prophets were thoughtful)

·       The sense is that they spoke by the Spirit far better than they knew and also the truth about Jesus is really there in scripture to be seen and investigated by the prophets as they wrote more and more of scripture.

o   When Eve believed that God would provide an offspring that would crush the serpent, she knew so very little but yet she had faith in a deliverance from sin and suffering…When Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac and Moses recorded these events did he know of the exact nature of the messiah coming as our substitutionary sacrifice in our place? No. But the doctrine of salvation by grace alone by faith alone by God’s appointed substitute is really and truly present.

o   So never let someone say – It can’t mean Jesus is the Ram in Genesis – because Abraham, didn’t know (Joseph Gen. 37-50).

o   Job couldn’t have meant Jesus when he said (Job 19:25) “I know that my redeemer lives and he will stand upon the earth – because Job couldn’t have known that.

§  Two points on this: The main one is the inspiration Holy Spirit means the authors and speakers are being guided by the one who has declared the end from the beginning of history. God. Himself speaks by his prophets not mere man. And so each and every word has the all knowing intention of God behind it Not just what that person could know.

§  Second: Even as we remember what God knows. Don’t underestimate what Abraham, Job, and especially that later prophets knew. This is just my “people who live long ago aren’t dumb or incompetent rule. Do not forget that given the longer life spans, Job’s understanding of Creation and God’s promised grace in Genesis 3:15 is knowledge from Adam and Eve is only about 3-5 Oral traditions steps. It’s a very small game of telephone. Adam – Hey Methuselah God is going to provide a redeemer to save us from this mess. Methuselah – Hey Noah…Noah Hey Job…Job Hey Abraham. Now maybe the Tower of Babel makes this a slightly longer oral tradition chain. So remember think of people as less dumb. With better access to basically Genesis 1-3 then we often think. (All good theology starts in Genesis in seed form).

§  Job and Abraham both have the same access to Genesis 3:15 and the promise of a redeemer. That the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent.

§  And more importantly the Prophets of God such as Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, were called by God instructed by God and their message was given and preserved by God. The spoke far better than they knew. They treasured the revelation they had.

·       ILL: grandmas 1 photo of her husband vs. an iphone of 3,000 photos. = greater reflection on what little you know. Less information on the Messiah means less taken for granted. How much do we take for granted about our knowledge of Jesus. Vs. – Sin has messed up the world. A Human savior will defeat satan. God will do this not me. I trust in that by faith.

·       SO with what little they had “They searched diligiently.”

·       That’s Abraham and Job. Lets proceed from here thinking about Isaiah, Jeremiah, King David. They are searching diligently.

These prophets - They searched diligently – what were they searching? The Book of Romans or Ephesians: Were they memorizing Ephesians 2:8-10 and John 3:16? No. They were searching the Old Testament scriptures and Peter finds these scriptures filled words of salvation and grace to You gentile Christians according to verse 12.

·      They searched the scriptures by the Spirit of Christ, by the Holy Spirit.

o   Which means that. You too can search the bible and know the salvation and grace promised in the bible. You too have the Holy Spirit you are not a prophet, but the Lord has had his prophets write down his great redemptive acts his great glory and character the way he saves his people (Exodus). The way he matures his people. Numbers with the wilderness wanderings they are for you written for our example and written to inspire worship in us of a God who “works wonders” “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, (Ex. 34:6).

·      Wait so 1 Peter is saying – The prophets searched the scriptures diligiently to see of the grace of our salvation.

o   So they certainly understood the bible is about God!

o   The bible is about god’s Grace and Mercy.

o   The bible is about God saving a people “I will be your God and you will be my people” and he shall save us from our sins. And God has brought us into his family.

o   And God will feed, grow, and mature Israel in the wilderness wandering.

·      But 1 Peter 1:11 Says more than this is about the Lord Jesus Christ. …Peter argues w/ Paul in

o   1 Corinthians 10:1–6 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, [2] and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, [3] and all ate the same spiritual food, [4] and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. [5] Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

o   [6] Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did… (ESV)

o   Manna, water from rocks, all were what we call “types and shadows” real history that a sovereign God made happen to show us physically what is the spiritual reality.

§  Now Paul’s point in 1 Cor. 10 is that many did not believe. Many did not have faith but those who did have faith Those who did trust in faith, Paul is saying. Here and in Romans 4 about Abraham. That they were saved by Faith and so are we.

o   Israel was saved by the Covenant of grace in Christ Jesus.

o   That Rock in the wilderness was Christ. He had not been incarnate. He had not suffered. Died. And been glorified but yet there he was spiritually if by faith an Israelite trusted in the promises of God to them. Merely being physically present. Physically eating manna, physically belonging to the covenant people was not sufficient. But Faith in the salvation of God by his provision was sufficient…

o   WCF 11.6 expresses it this way, The justification of believers under the Old Testament was, in all these respects, one and the same with the justification of believers under the New Testament because Jesus - Heb. 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

o   And they were aided with many many promises of just what form this savior would take.

Look in verse 11 & 12 again with me: inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. [12] It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. (ESV)

So many amazing things here. The two truths we need to hammer down how the apostles teach us to read the bible and what this accomplishes in us today when its proclaimed:

Verse 11 says by the power of Christ’s Spirit They were inquiring… into the who, when, and what of Jesus. 

SO lets make sure we touch on the rest of 11 & 12 before we get carried away there.

·        First: twice mentioned The Holy Spirits work in this: isn’t it lovely in the unity of the Trinity that the Father and Son pour out the Holy Spirit?

o   The Holy Spirit who inspires the prophets…His job in writing scripture is so tied to working faith in our Messiah, our Savior who is the Christ into us that he is called the Spirit of Christ “Christ’s Spirit.”  He is Sent by both the Father & Son.

o   The Holy Spirit, the quiet member of the trinity, communicates truth, knowledge of sin, but most importantly as we saw earlier in 1 Peter, trust and faith in Jesus, conviction that Jesus is our God loves us and is our savior.

o   He assures your heart that you are In Christ because he is the one in your heart UNITING YOU TO CHRIST.   

o   The Prophets giving you the Old Testament. The Apostles Showing us by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven served us by giving us the good news of Jesus’ sufferings and glories. SO what follows is by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the power of the Spirit of Christ, things Angels are blown away by. But they were Revealed. Revelationed. Apocalypsed to us. Turn to Luke 24 with me

And if you read the bible by the power of the Spirit what will you find? Christ.

·      Luke 24 [Storytime, Summarize Road to Emmaus with two disciples]

o   Luke 24:25–27 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! [26] Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” [27] And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (ESV)

o   [44] Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” [45] Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, [46] and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, [47] and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. [48] You are witnesses of these things. [49] And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” (ESV)

·      Jesus accomplishing out salvation in his sufferings and glory is the center and focal point of the bible. He is the center of history. And he will be the center of eternity seated on the throne.

·       This is what Peter is saying in that the Holy Spirit was indicating and “signifying” Christ to us. – Breaking news! Salvation will come by suffering and not glory! Except Peter didn’t break that news the entirety of the OT did.

·       Breaking News! Let it be known Isaiah 53: Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. The Messiah is coming but it may be in a manger…to a poor carpenter…not in a palace!

·       So many of the promises in the Old Testament come to us in Humility so Jesus is a Humble – prophet, priest, and king, the humble atoning lamb, he was exiles like Israel, dies is buried like Jonah, offers himself to save his people like Samson and like Joseph a servant in Egypt.

o   The OT Sacrifical system, feasts and festivals are filled with anticipated HUMBLE characteristics of salvation and life from the Lord. Do not read of the humility of David in the psalms, of the suffering servant of Isaiah apart from how these offices, institutions, and people God sovereignly placed teach us about Jesus.

o   Jesus is really there the apostles confirm these things:

o   He is our Prophet:  John 6:14 “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”   (Deut. Prophet like Moses)

o   Hebrews 4:14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

o   King: Romans 1:3 the gospel which he promised…when? Beforehand, through is prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh…That is to say Jesus is great David’s great son. He inherits all the Kingly psalms and all David’s suffering psalms anticipate the messiah.

§  As you understand what the kings, prophets, and priests were called to do and be you understand Jesus better

o   He is our sacrifice: Hebrews 9:11–13 …he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption…as you understand the paschal lamb, Isaac’s near sacrifice as the firstborn son as you understand Leviticus better you understand Jesus better.

o   He is our Temple: Revelation 21:22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.

§  The next time someone is asking when the temple is being rebuilt in Jerusalem point them to Rev. 21:22 sorry its alrighty seated in Heaven and that temple’s name is Jesus and 1 Peter says we are the living stones of that temple. (Destroy and rebuild in 3 days).

o   All the The “I AM” Statements of Jesus (in John’s Gospel) fulfill the OT….Manna in the wilderness “ I am the bread of life,”

o   The people are walking in darkness have seen a great light…I am the Light of the world.

 

 

 

o   The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want…he makes me lie down green pastures… Ez. “I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David…”I am the door of the sheep I am the good shepherd.

·      Until we come to Exodus 3:14 – “God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM.'”

·      Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

·      All the types, shadows, promises ultimately have as their center that they are training us to understand who Jesus is and what he accomplishes.

By faith! If you believe in Christ, what he did in his season of humility and you believe in the glory of the risen son that is the work of the good news preached to you by the power of the Holy Spirit. And it is preached to you from all of Scripture. inquiring what person: what time; predicted sufferings and glories:

 

DO you believe this? The seed of the woman, abaraham’s offspring, a prophet like moses, the sceptre of Judah, the root of Jesse, God’s anointed king, born in Bethlehem lest among the clans of Judah, the one like the son of Man! Offers salvation & grace to you by faith. Trust. Reliance. Turning from evil. To look to him by trust.

 

As we close this morning. You have probably noticed We are singing a Christmas Song. Because this Christmas song is a wonderful look from the perspective of an OT Israelite looking forward to “God with Us” by Faith. So as we close with this Hymn an ancient hymn I want you to have two people in mind. First that Israelite saved by Faith as we are in Christ Jesus. And second the host of Angels from heaven looking at the mystery of salvation for sinners by God’s grace by the son of God our Lord Jesus Christ. As they watch history with the promises, the types, find their fulfillment in a baby born in a manger, who grew in wisdom and stature, died to redeem sinners, and rose again as a glorious conquering King, the Prophet who has revealed fully and finally the Fathre to Us, and out Priest who ever lives to intercede for us from the throne of Grace.

The Gospel which Angels long to look into.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. – 1 Peter 1:6-9

Three Alliterating Points this morning:

#1 The Problem of Suffering

#2 One Purpose for Suffering

#3 The Person in Suffering

#1 The Problem v. 6: We can ask: Really Peter, rejoicing while being grieved in trials?

“in this we rejoice” because we are secure in Christ. “In this,” in what was said in verses 3-5 about our eternal inheritance and our salvation. We rejoice because of our living hope our eternal, imperishable, undefiled, and unfading inheritance we have in Jesus we talked about last week. You can rejoice in various trials because you are Secure in Christ. That is Peter’s statement.

But what is meant by various trials?

v. 6: you have been grieved [heavy laden] by various trials…tested by sufferings

Two Problems – One is suffering specifically for following Jesus. And second more broadly suffering due to this fallen world.

First Peter’s context: Suffering for following Jesus, Dan Doriani helpfully says, “in most places and times, Christian beliefs and practices are exceptional, not normal. If we tell the world that its ideas are false and its practices dangerous, as we must, the world will not be pleased, and that displeasure readily leads to opposition. When worldviews clash, we don't have the right to sit in silence. When we push against a misguided world, the world will push back hard. We should expect it and rejoice in it, as Jesus says: Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Doriani, Reformed Expository Commentary Series).

Or in Jesus’ words: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad..., because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matt. 5:10-12)

In the same way Christ suffered to save us. But we also recognize a the bigger broader problem. There is much suffering due to this fallen world. And we must be able to think about the problem and begin meditating on the many reasons we can have both “joy & sorrow” at the same time as believers and offer that to others.

We need to offer biblical suffering to others because Americans are horribly equipped to deal with the reality of sufferings. We try to solve it and every solution fails. Does American wealth solve suffering? Does health solve? Does stoicism? Does borrowing from Buddhism solve it? Does secular materialism? Does modern science? Does moralistic-therapeutic deism? Do Psychologists and our army of counselors solve it? Does limitless dopamine supplied by your phone or entertainments solve it? No! They all fail.

Tim Keller observes Secularism is unequipped to Suffer “No matter what precautions we take, no matter how well we have put together a good life, no matter how hard we have worked to be healthy, wealthy, comfortable with friends and family, and successful with our career — something will inevitably ruin it.” (Keller Suffering, 3)

How do the secular view suffering? According to Keller and others. They have observed that “in secular materialism suffering is always a meaningless, random interruption of your pursuit of maximizing happiness and pleasure.” All Causes of pain have a material cause that can be fixed. So all suffering is psychologized or assigned to some structure of society.

The Bible never attempts to merely manage the external circumstances of your suffering but…in the suffering…to fill it with meaning and purpose. N ow be careful. Suffering itself is not good. It is just not purposeless, there is a sovereign personal God who has ordained for his purposes. We are not ascetics who view suffering as good. Neither do we not take steps to care for and address suffering and trials when we are in them.

Consider the meme Dog in fire “this is fine.” Not its not “fine” its evil, or a result of the fall, or a severe trial you desire to end as soon as possible. But that doesn’t mean pointless and not used for a good end.

How do different worldviews react to this? Keller on page 30 of his book. (He unpacks this way more than I am going to this morning. “Christianity teaches that, contra fatalism, suffering is overwhelming; contra Buddhism, suffering is real; contra karma, suffering is often unfair; but contra secularism, suffering is meaningful. There is a purpose to it, and if faced rightly, it can drive us like a nail deep into the love of God and into more stability and spiritual power than you can imagine.” (Keller, 30)

So it is Real. Suffering Hurts. But the bible readily offers a variety of real purposes for it. And behind those purposes is Jesus and a loving Father. Michael Kruger lists potential reasons saying, just as a visit to the dentist may hurt it is for our good, suffering can make us more like Christ, it can be a punishment for sin, it can cause salvation to be a glorious light in a dark room.

C.S. Lewis points to suffering as God’s Megaphone: “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” The bible never systematizes a single reason for suffering. And so each of the worldviews I mentioned seem to flatten down the reasons to one or run away from reality. But We serve an all-wise, all-knowing, sovereign God whose ways are not our ways, we should not expect to know his mind on every event in human history. If we could comprehend the what and why of every occurrence then we would be God “the secret things belong to God” (Deut. 29:29).

It is the difference between in your suffering as a Child looking to your mom or your dad to be in control to be there they are there to know what to do and why. Versus growing up and realizing you are the adult and looking over your shoulder for the real adult to come in with understanding, purpose, and a plan for the situation. (If you have a Car Wreck who do you call? First Call is always dad.)

Let God be God. The one who saves. Grows us. Punishes evil. Sometimes we are the Evil. And does not always answer, Why? There is no way to explore everything about grief, and trials, and suffering. 1 Peter has several more particular words on this topic. If you are interested, I have several books on the shelf that go deeper.

This brings us from the Problem. Its real. it hurts. To One Purpose for suffering: Peter here gives just 1 Purpose and two Comforts about suffering. Particularly suffering for following Jesus. The believer suffers trials and grief for a real purpose with real comforts given to them.

#2 They Serve Real Purposes & Comforts

so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation [appearing] of Jesus Christ.

Purpose of Trials #1 Testing & Proving Faith – Trials produce a Genuine growth in Faith.

After losing his wife, in most places and times, Christian beliefs and practices are exceptional, not normal. If we tell the world that its ideas are false and its practices dangerous, as we must, the world will not be pleased, and that displeasure readily leads to opposition. When worldviews clash, we don't have the right to sit in silence. When we push against a misguided world, the world will push back hard. We should expect it and rejoice in it, as Jesus says: Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Doriani, Reformed Expository Commentary Series). He continues… “We were promised sufferings. They were part of the program. We were even told, 'Blessed are they that mourn,' and I accept it. I've got nothing that I hadn't bargained for. Of course, it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not imagination.”

So we can sing, we believe in the goodness of God, that God is a merciful Father… And yet trials Peter says, test that faith, and trials not only test faith but affect and temper faith.

Testing by fire has a very real affect of strengthening faith, and strengthening the resulting praise and glory of Jesus at his coming. The Image of v. 7 is of running gold through a purifying fire. If it is real gold, real faith, it will not burn. The gold will remain, but also the fire will further remove impurities enhancing the real and tested value of the Gold even further. You have faith? You have gold? Well, you won’t mind us setting it on fire…because if its real it won’t harm it. It will only purify what is already there. You have gold? Well compared to faith it will perish and disappear. But the gold of faith is purified by fire and will last forever! We know it will last forever because verses 3-5 say that it is a gift of the regeneration of the Spirit and guarded by God’s divine power. And so suffering will not destroy faith but Mature faith.

The prophet Jeremiah is an example of this. He is the author of the book of Lamentations. Which is a lengthy poem of distress at how the sin of Judah resulted in the horrible destruction of the city and the exile of Judah in 586 BC. There is a lengthy lament and grieving over suffering. And yet…In Chapter 3 Jeremiah lifts up these words that he has struggled in grief towards.

Lamentations 3:22–23: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (ESV)

What is the context of this verse? The destruction of Jerusalem. Just before this his prayer to God is one of wrestling with suffering: Lamentations 3:17 my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD.”

Suffering is too difficult for us to endure. So how did Jeremiah go from No Endurance No Hope! He speaks the truth of God’s Character to himself. Just as David does over and over again in the Psalms. He Has Faith. He has Trust. He has belief, saying “But this I call to Mind…It takes effort he calls to his heart to remember “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

v.24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” [25] The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. V. 27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

We struggle with this. The Author of Lamentations, Jeremiah, struggles to say this. Yet he does. He spirals back in the later verses wrestling with God…Suffering is not an illusion to Jeremiah. Suffering is not a brief interruption to his pursuing self-fulfillment, prosperity, and ease. Suffering in a fallen world purifies faith, leaving only a cry of trust in the midst of anguish to the Lord as the best portion our souls life and salvation, and faithful to us.

How does Jeremiah model praying in suffering? “I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit; you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear to my cry for help!’ You came near when I called on you; you said, ‘Do not fear!’ “You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life. (vv.55-58).

He acknowledges the depths of suffering. He appeals to the Lord in a painful praying. Remembering his Life is in God. The Hymn How Firm a Foundation models this truth for us:

"When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,My grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply;The flame shall not hurt thee; I only designThy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine."The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,I will not, I will not desert to his foes;That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,I'll never, no never, no never forsake!"

Through the fiery trial. Purified. Genuine Trust. Even if it’s a clinging faith, a faith crying out for more faith. Remember this when you are in the valley of the shadow of death. There are rich and abundant resources like Lam. 3, Job, Psalms where you can turn in prayer and cry out to the Lord to strengthen and prove your trust in him. Lord I believe help my unbelief. Lord the night is dark show me your light.

Last Keller quote: “While other worldviews lead us to sit in the midst of life’s joys, foreseeing the coming sorrows, Christianity empowers its people to sit in the midst of this world’s sorrows, tasting the coming joy.” (ibid, 31.)

Faith that is Genuine, proven, and a gift from heaven will not perish, though it may become a flickering and sputtering candle in the night…Sit in the sorrows and Remember you are trusting in a God who is near to the brokenhearted.

Two Comforts go with this purpose of fire-tested faith.

First, notice that phrase “for a little while” “for a season.” There is an end: 2nd Corinthians 4:17 “our light and momentary afflictions are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. We are invited to view our suffering that right now feels likes forever with the reality that it is a fire that is really “a flash in the pan” a bolt of lightning compared to the warmth of an eternal day, where Jesus is the Sun of righteousness and we will live forever in paradise.

In the final analysis, in eternity suffering now is brief. This does not minimize the pain but invites us to maximize the goal and purpose of it, as leading us to Eternity. Now is this the comfort you say in the moment of affliction? (Caution…Decide ahead of time…not in the moment…)

The Second Comfort is Glory: Note that Faith’s end, its purpose is praise and glory…Both praise and glory of and to us by Jesus. But also of Jesus himself as our Commander. At Christ’s final revelation in Judgement Day we will receive glory but it will be an echo of the glory of Jesus himself. Glorifying God in Christ Jesus is sweet to the soul. Christ is the risen and reigning Lord who as we talked about last week suffered and bled in our place. He suffered every misery of this life. Jesus has skin in the game. And so Jesus earns the crown of glory for suffering on our behalf. He is not an distant spectating deity.

The reality of the Christmas and Easter means We can never accuse God of standing on the sidelines disinterested and unfazed by the world. So we are invited in our sufferings to think about the excellencies and beauties of the way Jesus suffered on our behalf. He was a Man of Sorrows, The Spotless Lamb Slain, the Suffering Servant, bearing shame and scoffing rude,– The soldiers beating and mocking him putting a purple robe and crown on him.

And in addition to his Physical & social suffering he had the weight of Spiritual suffering. He suffered uniquely, being a perfectly good and righteous man, grieving at the way sin harms sinners as one not blinded by his own sin to the harm. But his Suffering purchased Glorification for us. And Glorification in us purchases greater Worship.

Revelation 4:9–11 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to [Christ] who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, [11] “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

All our glory and honor is a work of grace in our lives. So yes, we will receive glory and honor for our earthly trials…The Angels are amazed by grace and the life of a Christian…And they will be amazed as we who have experienced grace receive honor to properly lay it at the feet of Jesus.

So we can rejoice in the midst of Trial because our salvation is secure, because it purifies our faith, because it gives opportunity for virtue and value, because we know its just a momentary affliction preparing us for the weight of glory in eternity with Christ our King.

All these things should strengthen our perseverance in Loving and Believing in Jesus by Faith.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

#3 Loving Him We have not Seen: Faith and Love for the Unseen Christ.

v. 8-9 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, [9] obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Loving and believing in him we have not seen. Peter has seen Christ: Peter has seen the glory of Christ at his transfiguration, at his resurrection, Peter saw Jesus’ glorified body, his sufferings on our behalf and the nails in his hands. And his ascension up into heaven.

Peter has seen these things. The Apostle John indicates that blessed are those who have not seen yet believed (John 20:29). I do not know when I went from hearing about Jesus intellectually, knowing a worldview where I was a sinner and needed Jesus to be saved to loving Jesus to trusting my life to Jesus. But I know with Peter that I love him, that I am being saved, that I will be saved, that I will see Jesus face-to-face one day, And until then I rejoice in following him.

There is a joy in reading the gospel and hearing about Peter and the conversations he had with Jesus, and joy in the Word in the Spirit and the Fellowship of God‘s people gathered in worship. God’s Word is sufficient to build up our love and belief in Jesus Christ because the Holy Spirit does a supernatural work in our hearts. …blessed are those who have not seen yet believed.

The Spirit fills us with love for Christ and trust in Christ, even as Christ has a love for you. Do not forget that Christ loves you in the midst of trials and suffering. He may in fact be using those trials to strengthen your faith, your hope, and your love in him. To loosen your clinging to the world and what it offers…to cause you to cling to him for the life found in him.

That is to say cling to Christ and you can be joyful your sins are forgiven. Cling to Christ and you can be joyful that evil and suffering is defeated and every second of the day brings us closer to the day where “there will be no more sorrow and tears” and the murderer, the lyers, the traitor, the manipulator, evil will be judged.”

You can rejoice and say to your soul. “I am safe, he is a shelter in the time of storm” “a cleft for me…let my hide myself in thee.” “blessed assurance, Jesus is mine O what a foretaste of glory divine”

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com

A Friend has asked if I can get my sermons into audio format for easier listening. Here is a beginning. I sadly have no audio of the first sermon in this series. I may record in the future simply for completeness.

02 – 1 Peter 1:3-5 A Living Hope, An Unbreakable Guarantee CPC May 18th, 2025

Preface: Last week as we began 1st Peter, we saw that God in His sovereign grace Knew us and set us apart to be his Holy people. Because of this, this fallen world, in a spiritual sense, is not our Home.

We now belong to a community of faith that has been chosen, set apart as holy, sprinkled clean by the blood of Christ, and forgiven in Christ Jesus. Now, we live a new life of obedience to Jesus. We have grace and peace with God.

We are exiled from a dead and broken world, we have fled the city of Destruction and are now living as the body of Christ, brothers and sisters who are chosen sojourners.

The next three sermons are one very long Greek sentence from verse 3 to verse 12. It is a shout of praise. Praise God! “Blessed be your name!” Peter, having told us of our great Blessing, switches to Blessing, to praising God for the great mercy shown us.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. – 1 Peter 1:3-5

In Other words: Praise God! He has shown mercy to sinners by taking us from being dead and making us alive again because we are united to Jesus Christ. Jesus, our LIVING Hope. And now we have a Guaranteed Inheritance kept by the very power of God who you know and trust, and know that one day…what we know in the church will be fully revealed to the world and finished When Jesus returns.

Let’s unpack these verses first by thinking about how very different things are when they are guaranteed vs. uncertain things that could be spoiled.

Imagine you are going on an international vacation such as the Swiss Alps, Ireland, or Japan. With this you need to ask, “where are we staying?” “What shall we eat?” “Are we welcome?” “Do we have a Visa?” “Do we have the Funds?” “What if we lose our passports?” “What if we lose our plan ticket?” “What if the plane crashes?” “What if one of us gets separated?” “What if that separated person doesn’t speak the language?”

We have a hoped for vacation, but is it guaranteed? We ask the same thing of any future hope…because things we simply hope for can be dashed…The Future is uncertain for us. So you can have an uncertainty about your destination and your getting there alright. This world is not our home but will we make it home?

So too have you ever had an inheritance? Wills, are often tricky things. Funds need to be dispersed. Assets liquidated. You are trusting the personal representative who is the Executor on the will…That is even before, in some instances, you get into past grievances, petty squabbles, and sinful greed coming in to make a mess of that inheritance. …Some families have such a poor relationship or shaky assets the pessimists say, I’ll believe it when I see the money actually in the bank account. I’ll believe it when the promised family heirlooms actually get delivered to my front door. [Note: I am thankful the only experience Anna and I have had was well managed and peaceful] But this is not always the case.

Inheritances can be so messy, unfair, and uncertain that the lack of an inheritance forms the entire PLOT for a very famous Book. This of course, is Pride and Prejudice. Pride and Prejudice’s main driver initially is all because they have no brothers and no direct inheritance. Their financial future depends on marriage to get wealth. Their mother, Mrs. Bennet, is obsessed with marrying them off well to avoid poverty. The girls’ lack of fortune affects how they are viewed in the marriage market. No inheritance. No future. No prospects.

And now for us Peter has just told you, “you are Exiles, without a home here on earth”…We say we are headed to heaven and it’s a wonderful place but we confess its often fuzzy and we can easily ask but is it really? Is it a certain future? Should we as some Christians do be constantly anxious about our future hope? How can being an exile a sojourner be good news? Surely, we’ll just end up in a spiritual ditch somewhere. We need Verses 3-5. We need this big beautiful sentence from verses 3-12. This morning

3 Beautiful Guarantees of security that cause us to Praise God!

#1 – The Unchanging Mercy of our God: A Trinitarian Guarantee V. 3

#2 Our Inheritance Secure in “Our Lord Jesus Christ: A Resurrection Guarantee: v. 3b-4

#3 Our Salvation: A Divinely Guarded Guarantee v. 5.

So First the unchanging Mercy of our God: A trinitarian Guarantee v. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living Hope…

We have a Merciful Heavenly Father. We, as sinners, rebelled. The wages of sin are death. And so we are fallen in Adam. We will die. Death is our enemy. And the only thing we deserve is Justice. What is undeserved is the Mercy of God. What is undeserved is God being our Father who in mercy gave us Hope again when we were in darkness and despair.

And his plan in grace was to send the Holy Spirit into our rebel hearts, into our rocky, hardened, dead hearts and to make us alive again. “He has caused us to be born again.” The bible is quite clear that this is not because we are somehow special. That God did a bunch of spiritual fitness tests and said. Wow have you seen Paul, or James, or John? They have all the spiritual markers for a heart transplant. Bump them to the top of the list, they are Saint Material…No. Instead it was all of the Mercy of God. An excellent example of this is Lydia in the book of Acts. When Paul & Friends preached to the women by the riverside, “The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.” The Lord acted. The Lord caused. Because it depends on the Lord’s Mercy. So the First Guarantee, the Father has acted in mercy and the Lord is not arbitrary he will not change his mind, get distracted, and stop what he has begun.

Our Second trinitarian guarantee is that we have been Born Again to a Living Hope by the Holy Spirit. Titus 3:5 says, "He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit."

Praise God that our being made spiritually alive is not because of works done by us. Not because our hearts had all the markers for a good heart transplant but because God in his OWN mercy sends the spirit to Wash. To cleanse. To regenerate that is to “re-alive” to “re-birth” to “renew.” Your heart, soul, strength, and mind, your whole being made a new creature. What Peter will soon call the Living Temple of the Holy Spirit.

You must be born again. And everyone born of God is kept. Guarded and guaranteed by the Spirit living inside of them.

Does your sin which once held your heart now grieve you? Does the Holy Spirit testify to you of the truth of God’s word? Does the Spirit assure you Of the loveliness of Christ? Of the Mercies of the Father, of his love to you, of the removal of the guilt of your sin, of the assurance of forgiveness, and the assurance of your being a Son and Daughter in Christ Jesus.

Then you have been born again. Being born again does not mean you are perfect, it does not mean you are without doubts, and it does not mean you do not have all the struggles of Paul in Romans 7 – I do not do what I ought and I do what I ought not to do…But it does mean we have the Spirit of Christ in our hearts Crying Abba, Father.

Believer – Take time in prayer in the coming week to ask the Holy Spirit in prayer to comfort and assure your heart of the mercy of the Father to you. Do not let satan accuse of your sin and failures. Ask in prayer for the work of the Spirit to Assure you. You are a beloved Daughter. You are a Beloved Son.

With those assurances said there is a Third, A third guarantee the Holy Spirit assures us of.

We are born again: To A Living Hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

What does it mean to “Hope?” I hope the Atlanta Braves win the world series is a far different statement than saying, Ihave a Living Hope that is Secure Because Jesus is alive and seated at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. And what is more, our inheritance is secured by his Resurrection.

The gospel is not just “Jesus died for my sins” no, we confess our salvation in the full “humiliation and exaltation” of Jesus on our behalf. Most certainly his death was key, even primary but it is not the whole picture.

Peter draws our attention to Christ’s suffering and glory throughout, Christ’s humility and exaltation…To paraphrase WSC Questions 27-29…Jesus came to secure our salvation in humility by being born, not as a king but humbly in a stable. Even though he was sinless, he was made subject to all the laws of God keeping them perfectly on our behalf. Even though Jesus himself was sinless and righteous. He lived in our sinful, fallen, and broken world and suffered all the indignities and humiliations of this world.

Because he chose to represent us in our sin. Because he volunteered to rescue condemned sinners. He suffered the wrath of God, died a cursed death on the cross: was buried. And was dead 3 days. The second person of the trinity dead, buried, and all thought soon to see corruption…But as we read in Psalm 16, Jesus’ prayer “you will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life in your presence there is fullness of Joy at your right hand there are pleasures forevermore!

Jesus Is Alive! Death was conquered. He ascended up into heaven, And sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and will come again to judge the world at the last day! And you are if you are in Christ, united to the resurrected and living savior. It is Finished! He is Alive and Ascended and He is Enthroned on High.

Christ himself as our Resurrected and Living Hope. And HE is our guarantee. We don’t just hope a human could die and be resurrected to heaven. Jesus has already done it and gone ahead of us. Heb. 6:19 Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf… and 9:24 Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands... but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

Or the way Paul says it, in 1 Cor. 15: 17-23 if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

Do you belong to Jesus? Believer in Jesus. God the Father has Set his Mercy on You. The Holy Spirit has made you alive to a Living Hope. And your Living Hope Jesus has already done it. It is not just a future Hope…you have eternal life now!

#2 The Nature of our Living Hope – The Resurrected and Glorified Jesus and our Inheritance (v. 3b-4)

[3b] through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, [4] to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled , and unfading, kept in heaven for you

Remembered how messy I said inheritances can be? Remember in Pride and Prejudice this uncertainty results in some rather silly talk, thinking, and actions throughout (Go watch it! Sunday afternoon homework).

I believe living with security changes us. The security and nature of our inheritance Changes us as believers… Think again of 1 Cor. 15 this time in v. 42. This passage is one I don’t think I ever heard until maybe college…And I blame it on being so far into 1 Corinthians…No one gets to chapter 15…But chapter 15 ties our future Hope to the nature of the Resurrected Jesus’ body.

1. Cor. 15:42-58: So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable [our bodies due to sin die. We perish]; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, [that is to say Adam is dust. If you are still in your sin in Adam death still has power over you] and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. Mystery and Victory 50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Did you catch the hope of the resurrection being secure in Jesus. Jesus’ resurrection makes us now here on earth. Steadfast. Immovable. Always abounding in the work of the Lord. Because if you are in Jesus it is not vain. It is secure. Peter says, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled , and unfading, kept in heaven for you

What Good News. And what a great contrast. Apart from Christ we perish, because the sting of sin is death. Death is real, suffering is real but praise God; by God’s mercy, we have the Spirit In Christ we are ultimately Imperishable (incorruptible) – like Jesus. Because on the last day we will be resurrected. Death is real, suffering, But John 10 “Though we die yet we will live

Second, Peter says our inheritance is Undefiled…Incorruptibly morally pure – like Jesus. We often feel defiled: We sin. We live in a world where we constantly battle the feeling that even just watching a movie can make us feel defiled. But we have a Living Hope. He is Our Spotless lamb. Seated at the right hand of the Father who is Holy, Holy, Holy. He is undefiled, with the Seal of approval of the Father:

Third our inheritance is Unfading – we suffer the years of life, times change, memories fade, human glory fades, but Jesus unlike us is unfading. He is faithful. He is the founder and perfector of our faith, he is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Imperishable, undefiled, unfading inheritance guaranteed by our Living Hope the resurrected Lord Jesus. Therefore Do not Fear. Do not be Anxious about tomorrow. Do not fear whether you will receive the inheritance of Heaven or if even now the Father loves you.

Christians do not fear Death. We grieve Death. We grieve death but we do not grieve as those without hope.

You may feel I know Jesus is all those wonderful things. But I am so weak. I am so prone to wander. Perhaps my inheritance awaits me in heaven but maybe I’ll lose my way. Prone to wander lord I feel it prone to leave the God I love.

#3 Our Salvation is: A Divinely Gifted & Guarded Guarantee v. 5.

who by God’s power are being guarded through faith [Which Eph. 2:8 says is a divine Gift] being guarded through the divine gift of Faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Theologian Dan Doriani in his 1 Peter commentary reminds us that an inheritance is “a gift based on a relationship not a wage for a performance.” (pg xx).

God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit do not promise us an inheritance a home in heaven only to be powerless to guard it and powerless to bring us all the way home. The truth of this and many verses like it is captured well by the Westminster confession of faith in chapter 17 which is called “of the Perseverance of the Saints.” Or what we call God’s powerful Preserving of the believer.

Chapter 15 paraphrased says, Everyone God has accepted because of Jesus His Beloved, is effectually called, and sanctified by His Spirit, and can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but they shall certainly persevere to the end, and be eternally saved. Our perseverance depends not on us, but upon the unchangeable love of God the Father; upon the righteousness and intercession of Jesus Christ, the abiding of the Spirit within them, the certainty of these things arising from the nature of the promises made by God in the Covenant of Grace.

What difference does this make for you this Monday? You are safe and Secure. This means less spiritual desperations during the week and Greater Freedom Now. Stand firm in the faith. We do not under trials and temptations act as if we are spiritually insecure and go to a car title shop and pawn our car title in order to get by for the month… no we are kept and secure.

You are secure: Do not fear naming, confession, and seeing the extent of your ongoing struggle with sin. Christ’s work and your inheritance is undefiled. You are still Gods chosen son and daughter in Christ.

You are secure: Do not turn to a quick spiritual fixes and highs when your reward is in heaven and the ordinary weekly worship and fellowship of believers is enough.

You are secure: Do not bargain with the world to make your moral and spiritual stances acceptable. They flow from Christ and his Spirit powered into your heart and known by his word.

You are secure Go to God in prayer and ask him to reassure your heart that he holds you. He sustains you. He loves you and has a home waiting for you and has now placed you in the family of God.

You are kept by the power of Gods. Praise be to God. Take the time to inventory these things. It is so difficult to remember when we are so very busy and we never stop having data and news inputs from our phones. You are secure praise God for it

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com