A New Life Of Reverence - Part 1
1 Peter 1:17-21 · Bob Eckel · Feb 23, 2020
1 & 2 Peter (2020-21), No. 07
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261917526026

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So this is part 1 and part 2 of a section called A New Life of Reverence and Andrew's going to do next week. He's coming I presume, right? Well, the weather is flicking better than it is today. Alright, so let's read from verse 13 down through 21. Who'd like to do that please?

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts as in your ignorance, but as he who called you as holy, and also be holy in all your conduct. Because it is written, Be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's worth, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear, knowing that you are not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. who through him believed in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Okay, good. Thank you, Margaret. Alright, verse 17. And if you call on the Father, we'll come back to that in a minute. who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear."

And here is an italics that could be omitted from most of the translations. So, what's the vote of the class here? Is if conditional, meaning whenever, if possible, or it might happen, or is it since? And I'm giving you several people's opinions about that. The Greek translation would say it's conditional, and we in constable say that it's since meaning it because it's going to occur and I know which one Roger would favor here so we're not even going to ask him for his vote so what do you think and if you call the father does that mean since we're calling on the father or conditionally if we call the father what's the thought here about this well isn't Peter talking about you know who we are I mean he's already talking about that we We already are calling on the Father, because that's who we are in Christ. He's just explaining that, so I think it's sense for sure. Okay, what preceded this?

You know, being holy, right? Right. Okay, so are we holy? So what's the principle of being holy? That we have a relationship with the Father. Yeah, that we're in Christ. But how do we become holy? So it's faith, is it not? And actually we're going to end this passage, Andrew's going to end this next week about faith and the principle of faith. So by faith we're made holy, right? we accept what God has revealed and we're positionally made holy, but is our condition holy?

Well, if you call on the Father, it seems to me to be conditional. What if we don't call on the Father? Well, because we're holy, we call on the Father. So, I'm uncertain as to what the best translation is, but because Roger, our elder, thinks it's sense, it must be sense. No, I think it's a perfect segue to being made holy by faith. So because we're made holy by faith, we call him the Father.

So I'm fine either way with this, but I think that what preceded it makes me think that sense is probably correct. Alright, so since we call him the Father, by the way, who without partiality or other translations without respect to persons, judges according to each one's work. So I have a question though. Well, you always have questions.

What was Thayer's reasoning for saying, I mean, how could he ignore all of the things that came before to come up with that condition? Thayer's like Webster or Merriam-Webster. or Oxford. There is a dictionary of the Greek translation. There's some question whether Thayer knew the Lord.

I mean, I think he probably did, but there's some question because he's very literal in his translation. He says the use of AI, the Greek term here, is best translated conditional in the Greek. Yeah, but we have to realize that this was translated by people and at the time they might have not understood. what came before in order to translate it correctly.

I mean I'm just saying I think theirs all wet. How many would say fair is all wet here? And Margaret, I like her, she always calls a spade a spade. And by the way, being married to her, there's a lot of spades that comes up. It's called marriage for humility's purpose, right? Praise the Lord for this.

Anyway, okay, so since Margaret and Roger say it's since, it doesn't make a difference what Weiss and Constable say. Okay, so without respective persons. Okay, so interestingly enough, that's the only use of without respective persons. Only use in the New Testament, without. But respective persons is used.

So Vincent, Peter, I'm quoting Vincent, Peter however uses this Greek term respect of persons in Acts, we could look at that but we don't need to, and Paul and James also use the kindred words which is related, respect of persons, and that's used in Romans 2.11 and James 2.1. So respect of persons is used but without respect of persons. So we're talking about the father who without partiality, meaning without respect of persons, judges according to each one's work.

So what do you think here, is this the church only? Or does this also include the unsaved? Well we know that God is not, people aren't coming to salvation by their works, they're coming by faith. So we can rule some things out here, and he's addressing believers, so it seems like he's talking about the works they do, that God has created beforehand. But are unsaved also judged based on their works?

I mean are there extents of hell? I mean what did Christ say about someone who in fact would affect children in a negative manner? I don't remember the exact verse just coming up today, I didn't think about this as I prepared the lesson. But anyway, let's look at the scripture in terms of this.

2 Corinthians 5.10 clearly relates to the church, doesn't it? Okay, for we all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he's done, whether good or bad. What's that judgment seat that the body, each one of us, will go through when we appear before the Lord Jesus Christ?

And I really like Hal's view of this. He taught this extremely well. Are we going to be judged for the wood, hay, and stubble? Tom, your thoughts? I'd say you would be able to see the worthlessness of what happened before, not personally, but kind of like separated from you, because you're not going to be in some kind of mini purgatory. You're just going to see with your own two eyes, at the judgment seat of Christ, here's a pile of good works and here's a pile of bad works. Yeah, I think what Hal would teach if he were here, and we could go back to that in much detail, I did not do that, but Hal would say everybody is pleased.

It's only those things that were done to glorify God that ultimately are dealt with at this judgment seat. The things that fell short, we as the body, we're positioned in him already. So when we go, we leave these earthly bodies and we appear before the Lord Jesus Christ, it's only those things to his glory that are recognized and we'll all be pleased. And Mike, I think, has taught that there are probably certain gradations of our relationship to Christ in heavenly places and everyone will be satisfied. So the concept is that if we knew Him better there, we'll know Him better here, we will know Him better there because of our relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's paraphrasing. Some also have said this is not so much a judgment but a rewards ceremony, not so much a judgment. Great White Throne, which is for unbelievers, is definitely a judgment day. Right. Alright, let's look a little bit further then. What about the next phrase? Does it imply to the flesh?

1 Corinthians 3.13. Each one's work will be made clear for the day, meaning the day of judgment, will declare it because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is. What do we do with that?

Well, the day is speaking of that judgment day you did in the previous verse, right? Well, in 2 Corinthians 5, I mean, remember, I think you guys are going to be teaching 1 Corinthians going forward. Yes. So you're going to get much more detail in this.

But when something's revealed by fire, what about what we've done in the flesh? That's the stuff by fire. You know, I always think about this like a security, you know, like when you put your things down, when you go through security at the airport and what comes through.

So what comes through on the other side is all of the works that the Lord has already prepared that we actually did. All the other stuff is just burned up. It doesn't mean anything. And it's not that we're judged on that. It's just that what comes out the other side and what is seen is all of the things that the Lord already prepared for us that we actually participated in. We did. Alright.

Do you think we're talking here about eternal judgment? Or are we talking about our day-to-day walk being judged? Our day-to-day walk. I think that's really where we're going. And so the next verse I've quoted I think relates to that. But why do you judge your brother? Why do you show contempt for your brother? For we all shall stand before the judgment seat. But that relates to our walk here.

Ultimately, God is going to be the judge of all human behavior. And for the unsaved, it's the great white throne. For the church, it's appearing before the Lord Jesus Christ. And again, we're all winners there. We're not going to have our sins really revisited because the cross has already taken care of our sins.

I often thought it would be awful if we had to, in eternity, hash over all the things that we didn't trust the Lord for. It wouldn't happen. It would be awful. It would be a terrible place. I didn't trust the Lord for this. I didn't do this. It has to be done with. It has to be dealt with. It's taken away and burned up. You remember it no more, it seems like, which is mind-boggling. And actually, you know, if you think about it, it's really gracious of the Lord to burn up all that stuff that wasn't of Him. I mean, that's wonderful. Let's come back to the verse.

And if you call on the Father, or since you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, we're talking about the body here. And when he's judging our work, it's the judgment that the Lord puts on us through the power of the Holy Spirit, is it not? For our walk here. So yes, he's going to judge everyone's work, but this is to the body, to the church. And that's judging us day in day out by the power of Spirit in our lives.

And that's because we call on the Father. Actually, if we're living in the flesh, hopefully we're not calling on the Father, we're ignoring Him. But by faith, which was preceding this, being made holy, we call on the Father and He will judge our work and glorify Himself through that work. One more verse that relates this.

For the Father actually judges no one but has committed all judgment to the Son. Is this a contradiction? It said in verse 17, I'll go back again, if you call the Father who without partiality, without respect to persons, judges each one's work. So here it says the Father is judging their work. But in John, Christ said for the Father judges no one but has committed all judgment to the Son.

Are we in conflict there, Margaret? No, because God is the Triune God and so there OK? Other thoughts on that? And remember, it's the Holy Spirit that works in us. I mean, since we call Him the Father, it's the Holy Spirit who allows the Father to glorify Himself through the Son as to whether what we've done, in fact, is to His glory or whether it's to our own glory, which is really what the only thing the flesh is seeking, right? It's self-adoration by the things we've done. Other thoughts on that?

The oneness of the son with the father when he was on the earth says, look, you know, I'm ultimately just his messenger here and ultimately I will be the one to be judging you. But the father ultimately allows me to be put in that position. I think that's an eternal message that the son is actually giving here. for the believer again no partiality since we call the father by faith the Father is going to be through the power of the Spirit, right?

The Lord Jesus Christ just doesn't go, you know, just show up. I mean, it's the Holy Spirit that activates the Son. He's the comforter. He's the one that reveals the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ in us, and that's the basis by which we Well, they're not acting independently.

They're not willy-nilly acting independently. It's all... I mean, I know it's hard for our brain to get around this. That's part of the problem, is we're thinking of it from a human perspective, and it's not a human perspective. It's the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That's why we have a triune God, but they're not acting independently.

Correct. They're all together. Okay, Tom's got some thoughts. Tom? Well, it's kind of like if you look at it a little too No sooner or later, I was going to argue with the science, I was going to argue with the cultural history. It don't work that way.

I think the theme of the try and got really continues in that space. that verse in John, you know, it's something God's committed, the Father's committed to, I mean it's a commission, but they're all one, but that's the part that God gives. You know, I forget, in context, the John passage, isn't that the woman at the well?

Somebody turn to John 5.22 and see where that statement's been made. For not even the Father judges anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son.

So on what preceded that? Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. 23 or 21? 23. 23.

So that with all, so that all with honor, so that all will honor the son, even as they honor the father. He does not honor the son, does not honor the father. But what did this statement, what was preceded by this statement? That's what I'm looking for. Read 21 now. For just as the father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the son gives life to whom he wishes.

This is Lazarus though. This is not being healed on the Sabbath. I think in John 5 is where the woman too, at the well, accused of adultery. Anyway, I think that's all in John 5. In these three verses it talks about the relationship between the Father and the Son. It goes back and forth. It talks about the Son raising the dead. He gives life to them. And the Son also gives life to them. The functionality between the Father and the Son are central in this.

In relationship to 1 Peter 1.17 I think we're talking about the union between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit directing our going to the Lord, who then will judge us with that partiality.

Okay, to continue the verse, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear. Conduct is passive imperative. Why is this in the passive tense? Judges according to each one to our conduct yourselves, doesn't that seem like an active verb? Conduct yourselves, that means I need to conduct myself. But it's in the passive tense and it's imperative. How about be holy as I am holy, right? So our conduct then if it's passive and we're imperative, we're told to conduct and it's passive, who's controlling us? I think this is incredible identification truth because our conduct if it's passive is being controlled by the Holy Spirit and that's an act of faith.

Everybody okay with that? So this verb could not be in the passive tense meaning something's happening in us to do this, it's by our faith, by the way, by our faith we're conducted to ultimately carry out our act here on earth in a way that's glorifying to God. In fear, well, is this in fear meaning like we've shaken our boots? No, I don't think so. In context is the reverence and respect of our position. and spirit led light we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 12.28 Therefore since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. So reverence is distinguished from godly fear here. But in a sense We don't fear God in terms of the punishment that follows, but this respect relates to a fear that when we're walking by the flesh and not the spirit, that we lose that fellowship with the Lord. I don't want to lose fellowship with the Lord, but I frequently do, because I've got an old man in here that the sin nature plays out. And that's the fear we should live in, and losing touch with the Lord is something we should kind of fear, and Hebrews kind of points that out here a little bit, that we have reverence and respect, but there's also a fear, because when we separate ourselves from the love of God, we're really in a position to not feel comfortable, because that's not who we are.

Ephesians 6.5, bond sermons, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling and sincerity of heart as to Christ. So again, this fear and trembling about being obedient to your masters, notice according to your flesh, be obedient to those who are masters according to the flesh, well I don't think it's talking about the fleshly nature, the sinful nature, but according to our earthly existence here is the way that's interpreted. with fear and trembling. His idea of carrying ourselves with fear, I think it begins with the respect for our position and who the Lord Jesus Christ is in relationship to the Triune God and also the fear of separating ourselves by fellowship in Him.

I think Darby says this reasonably well. The thing spoken up here is the daily judgment of God's government in this world exercised with regard to his children And accordingly, it says, the time of your sojourn here, it is a judgment applied to Christian life.

The fear spoken of is not an uncertainty as to salvation or redemption. It's a fear founded on the certainty that one is redeemed. And so that's paraphrasing kind of what we just said, maybe in much clearer terms. The fear is founded on the certainty that one is redeemed.

So when we lose that relationship to God that's spirit-led, that fear is, gosh, I'm not living the life he's called me to by the power of spirit. Remember, be ye holy as I am holy is by faith. Alright, since we've conquered that, we leave that up to you to conclude. Okay, let's move on to verse 18.

Knowing that you or ye, in the plural, were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your father. So, boy, tradition. Tradition is not holy. Tradition, it could be holy, but it mostly is entirely separated from the will of God.

So knowing here is facts. You know that you were redeemed. This is not kind of gnosis, getting to know him, or epignosis. This is factual. And don't we know factually that we're saved? If we don't, we're wallowing on soft sand. No, we all know we have a personal relationship with a God. So knowing that we were not redeemed with corruptible things. And redeemed is bought or set free. And this is Eris passive indicative.

In other words, it's factual and we have been redeemed. Now we could get into discussion at length is where does the faith come to become redeemed? Some people would believe that it's a God-given faith and ultimately I think the human spirit has the capability of responding to the information we're given so that we could carry that conversation on and definitely. But all mankind, men, women are called by faith and that faith becomes a fact of redemption once we believe.

So we'll just leave it at that. What do you think of as corruptible? Do you think of silver and gold as corruptible? Doesn't corruptible mean it's going to tarnish and decay and fade away? I mean, it's... Destroyable, isn't it? It's worthless, right? Well, it's worth something in the present. It's going to dissolve and come back to dust.

Okay, I'm going to build on this concept a little bit further here. You know, I did a little scientific investigation here. Here's a list from the strongest to weakest of metals. I was kind of surprised at this. So this is the strongest to the weakest.

Tungsten is the strongest metal. I mean, you engineers in this room can reflect on this. Iron, tantalum, nickel, copper, chromium, titanium, silver, gold, aluminum, tin, lead. Can you believe that tin is stronger than lead? Now, the strength relates to the tensile strength. In other words, how much pressure you can put on it and how resistant the metal is to the strength. Well, silver and gold are more corruptible than iron and nickel, so whatever that's worth.

That's not worth much here this morning. So let's move on. No, it's our aimless or vain context that's received by tradition from our fathers, according to the verse, literally given from the father. So this is something, you know, law is so simple, you know, you're keeping it or you're not keeping it. But law is holy, as God presented law, but yet it is a tradition.

I mean, Margaret and I were at a memorial service for one of my colleagues, one of my colleagues, but our friends in San Diego. It was at a Lutheran church, and although the gospel was clearly shared there, we were impressed by the ability for a largely, I'm sure, unsaved audience to hear about eternal life and the Lord Jesus Christ well presented. But there was this tradition of major mainline churches of So the preacher says something and we all respond, you know, that kind of liturgy where they say something but praise the Lord and we all agree or something like that. That kind of is this a little bit, but we couldn't question the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ was presented to the audience there. But anyway, tradition. The tradition of the mainline church is often not very important in terms of our personal relationship.

Look what we've inherited. Is it fair what we've inherited? Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your father. So in other words, the skeptic would say, ultimately, is this really fair?

Well, ponder this, vanity. What a waste of our soul and conversation and life. So the things of the flesh really have no eternal value. And we can see this represented in many places. So the elders are going to be covering this next year or later this year in 1 Corinthians. So again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise that they are vain, empty. Let's put this into biblical context.

Romans 1.21 Because though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile or vain in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were delivered.

Romans 1.23 And changed the glory of the incorruptible gods into an image made like corruptible man, and birds and four-footed animals, and creeping things.

And this is very, very nice in 1 Corinthians 15, for this corruptible must put on incorruptible and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall we be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. which is a quote directly from Isaiah. So in any way the corruptible things are corruptible. They have no value and vanity is really emptiness and that's the flesh and everything it represents. So we were not really redeemed for the corruptible things like silver and gold. and the traditions of our father, and the next verse will give us the highlight of it. But let's glory in our great redemption.

First Corinthians 7.23, you were bought by a price or at a price. Do not become slaves of men.

Galatians 1.4, who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present age according to the will of our father.

And then I think Titus 2.13 and 14, that our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people. Again, be holy as I am holy. Zealous for our good works. And again, the works that we're talking about in this section of 1 Peter, the likes of those works that will be judged on a day-to-day basis to grow us in God's great grace.

And back to 1 Peter 1.15, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. So I think again that theme of what's been presented by Roy and I think Roger before really continues here in verse 18. Okay, so the traditions of men that we've learned really are the traditions to a large extent that have been really manifested by our flesh and human nature. but do not reflect the redemption by which a great price has been paid. Other considerations of verse 18.

Don't you think though it's so hard for us to get our brain around that the Lord has all these works, good works, that he's prepared for us and we just have to have faith to do those works and then we're rewarded for doing the works that he prepared for us. I mean, it's like an oxymoron in our brain to understand that. But the road Grace drives on is not one we recognize that we're driving in.

It's another life living out through us. And when we start taking credit for the good things we think we're doing, I think that's really rewarding the flesh. We're not giving glory to God. Let God get the glory by living a life that's been generated by our faith in the power of the Spirit. Our view of a good work is probably totally different than what God's view of it is. If we can get proud of something, we think that's a good work.

But think about things that we've learned from our fathers, meaning not our specific fathers, but the whole tradition of man. And you know, the unsaved world can often seem to be performing better than people who know the Lord. And why is that? Because the flesh is capable of doing good things. In fact, an interesting conversation, my late father-in-law, my first wife's father, always said this, when you begin a conversation with someone, the first thing you need to have them recognize is man, meaning mankind, basically good or basically bad or evil. and if they think basically good you have no conversation to follow. He was very blunt. It's not that the Lord can't reach that person.

I think the world system to a large extent thinks we're basically good and we have a few bad habits that show up. Don't you think that's the way the world system thinks? They personally reward themselves and actually are rewarded by one another. by their good works. And so that builds up the ego, doesn't it? It builds up the flesh.

It's interesting to go back to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What was the tree that God said do not take up part of? The life was the good one, but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil Yeah, I blame Eve for that, not Adam and Eve. Even though we inherit the outer nature.

It's a joint censor. I'm just teasing that. It gets you women excited. Mike says, get out of that tree, get over there in the tree of life. Well, I think the thing we all experience, we're in that tree of life now. And unfortunately, we don't always live there by the power of the Spirit, by faith. But that's what we're being called to here. And that's why we began reading at verse 13 here, because what has preceded this really represents our conduct. Since, right? Not if. Since we've been made holy by faith, this is your behavior.

And you should be recognizing your redemption and how it plays out day in and day out. All right, let's turn to verse 19. as if we needed icing on the cake here, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. So that's really the whole pathway of redemption, is it not? I mean, you know, this is kind of gospel 101, isn't it?

But nevertheless, it's something that Peter feels needs to be reminded. By the way, Peter is going to say more in the chapters that follow about the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Him being nailed to the tree and his blood. Peter doesn't miss that point and he learned that experientially.

So what do you think of when you think of something precious? Extremely valuable. Okay, and on an earthly mindset, what are some precious things? You can think of them in sometimes relationships I find with our grandchildren, this real value in that relationship we have with our grandchildren, which is a special relationship that is different than our own children. You've maybe experienced a little bit of that too. Well, yeah, our grandchildren are too far away. But anyway, we did. But Bob Henry yesterday, it was acknowledged repeatedly, his relationship with his grandkids. He had five grandchildren. So that's a personal, person to person thing. Sure. then obviously the world system, you know, stuff, things and stuff, they become precious.

So what does the world reward? Three kind of basic things, I'll just throw that out. Three, guess what I'm thinking. Knowledge. Okay, intelligence is rewarded. Good looks, I think. Yeah, I think physical appearance is rewarded. physical ability. Yeah, I'm talking about athletes. Are they not rewarded left and right?

Look at Kobe Bryant. He was a great basketball player. But on and on and on and on. We're not going to judge Kobe. But the point is that athletic success is rewarded. So basically looks, intelligence, and athletic capabilities are what the world system rewards.

And maybe riches to some extent. Some people are really considering earthly riches, meaning worth. but in the Greek this can be translated as costly or held in higher honor that's back to your grandchildren we feel the same way about our grandkids I wish they were closer but right now they're not so these are things to be esteemed that we put value on we're not talking about the stock market here of interest most scriptural references to precious relate to stones So if you look at the 13 uses in the Greek New Testament, 7 out of 13, or over half of them, relate to stones. We're going to look at a few of those. Revelation 21, 9, a lot of them are in Revelation.

The foundations of the wall of the city, this is the New Jerusalem, were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation was Jasper. the second was Sapphire, the third Caledoni, the fourth Emerald, and on and on. I don't have them all listed here, but isn't it amazing? I think there are 12 stones that represent all the Israeli tribes. So stones, precious.

This precious blood here is what the verse is contending relates to a lamb without blemish or spot. So precious here, how would you interpret precious in terms of the blood? Costly. Yeah, I think that's the best interpretation of the Greek rather than obviously any monetary value as none.

In fact, you know, Margaret hears me say this a lot. But, you know, if we think of all the diversity of humankind and all the political, you know, gerrymandering out there and all the things that relate to bias in our society. Boy, we hear this all the time, don't we?

You know, there's only one thing that makes everybody equal. It's the cross. That's where everybody's equal. And that's precious blood. Because it counters every ethnicity and every race and every gender or transgender and everything else in the world. Ultimately, the blood is precious and it's the only equalizer of people historically and currently and in the future.

And that's a neat place when you get into a position of having to defend a position that may be very earthly, very political in terms of what makes one another equal. It's that we're all sinners saved by grace, those who have faith in Him. I want to talk about the Lord today, in service.

The offense of the cross, that's a great divider of men, too, because some people don't want to see themselves. They see themselves as good, as you pointed out. So the cross says, no, you're not good, you need a Savior to pay for your sins. Many people That's rejected outline. I can do it myself. I can show that I'm good enough, or whatever it might say. It's just absolutely insane.

Yeah, and I thought it was kind of neat yesterday at the service, the pastor again, Lutheran Church and whatever, but again, the gospel is clearly presented. He said at the very beginning, he said, I know many of you out here are not Christians. and enter into whatever process of this ceremony you want to enter into and feel comfortable doing so. I like singing hymns and things like that. It was kind of a neat thing to say up front because there were, I'm sure, a lot of unsaved people.

This is an academic crowd from local and people came in from elsewhere to be part of the service. Anyway, and this lamb was perfect, faultless and unblameable. So the blood that he would shed would be very precious then. And I think Bonnie said it best, costly. God gave him his son. We all know that. It's Gospel 101, right? Let's look at this in terms of the lamb very quickly, and we'll end here.

Exodus 12.5, your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year, and you may take it from the sheep or from the goat.

So the lamb couldn't have been a goat. It didn't have to be a lamb. but it had to be without blemish. And boy, I'm not sure exactly what the criteria for that were, I think. But anyway, the Jews clearly knew that it was without blemish that they needed to provide the lamb for the sacrifice.

Leviticus 22, 21. And whosoever offers a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord to accomplish his vow, or a free will offering in bees or sheep it should be perfect to be accepted and there shall be no blemish therein. And by the way you could find 20 or 30 verses in the Old Testament that deal with the absence of blemish in the sacrificial lamb. In Israel they are literally still waiting they examine every lamb and every goat every time a birth is made to find out if it is the unblemished Yes, they are still, and to this day, there has never been an unblemished lamb or goat born totally unblemished. the rabbis come over and they examine it, because if someone says we have the unblemished, they are still waiting, literally.

Yes, absolutely, because if they know that there is an unblemished, and we learned this when we were in Israel. So that is why they partially explain the fact that they are not continuing to do the animal sacrifices, they have not found the perfect animal to sacrifice. Isaiah 53-7, that's a section of scripture that all of us need to know and love.

He was oppressed, meaning the Lord Jesus Christ. He was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth, and he was led as a lamb to the slaughter. And as sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. How's that for the perfect lamb without blemish? John 1-29, the next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The last of the prophets, John the Baptist.

Hebrews 5.14, how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

That really applies to the verses we've studied today. The fact that this precious blood through the eternal spirit, purged our conscience and our dead works to serve the living God. Without that, I mean, we're living to the flesh. And the good works we do are all vanity and worthy of only righteousness before the earthly system. And finally, 1 John 1, 7, if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, as he is the light really, we have fellowship with one another And the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sins. So that's precious blood.

So back to 1 Peter 1.17-19 today, we've really seen what our walk should look like based on our position. And that ultimately, next week, Andrew's going to deal who verily was preordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, and who raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. So the question is, do we believe that? And Peter's calling us by faith to believe that. starts with position and then that faith continues in terms of conducting ourselves that brings glory and ultimately it satisfies I think what the call of each and every one of us is in our day to day walk. Any closing thoughts about today's passage? Sometimes I wonder if this life is what tells us that we are sinful.

It seems like there are those who say, I don't need Christ, I need Him. I'm wondering if that is the light that they're talking about that allows us to know our need for Christ. Okay, so I guess you're asking what brings a person to salvation, right? I mean the person who thinks he's doing everything right doesn't need Christ. I mean how do we have those people understand? that they do need Christ.

I don't know, I mean, we each have our own personal salvation experiences. It says in John there that the Holy Spirit is convicting or convincing the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. So the Holy Spirit of God is out there, I kind of feel this, across all mankind and His message to all mankind is that we, you know, that you're a sinner and there's judgment coming at you. The Holy Spirit's at work in our world today and His ministry Besides the believers, we understand that, but also his ministry of the unsaved is convincing of their need for a savior.

So God is not inactive. He's active. He's proactive. That's his omnipresence. Right. I mean, so that's what's been coming to us. Right. The Holy Spirit is omnipresent. trying to enlighten men, all men of their need for a savior. So we can take great comfort in that because it does. Our view of this is that what about the Indians in India? What about the names? And under the Muslim, you know, it would say, how come? How's it possible that will ever become safe or ever know? Is it fair? All these questions come up.

Well, if God said, my spirits active, convicting the world that's in the world of sin and righteousness and judgment, faith and trust that he is. And as as we have opportunity, we we witness that fact. I'm saying I don't say it by saying what I'm saying. I can understand the magnitude.

It seems like it's such a big problem that we can't. It's beyond my my mind to understand how well how that's happening in our whole world system. I think that some aspect is coming to the end of yourself, but yet is that an intellectual process? I don't think so. It's your soul that comes to the end of itself, realizing that you can't please God.

That's if you recognize God. What about the atheists? They have no belief in a heavenly being. Creation is the beginning, conscience is second, but you can be fooled by your conscience depending on where you've grown up. Think about families where they grow up under the Muslim faith. How would they come to understand that this is not what God called them to.

But yeah, there are plenty. I mean, we just got contacted again by Nye Shelom, who actually spoke to our church. We grew up in Egypt, and ultimately he's a believer, and he grew up in a Muslim world, and he came to the Lord, partly through his family. He's really got a message out there for the Islam nation. Good question, Pat. I'll just be personal for a second. I came to the Lord when I saw life changed in my first wife.

We had a marriage that wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. We weren't raising children. We didn't know how to raise kids. Sharon came to the Lord and I saw her grow. Over a year I saw a woman change. I'd known her for a long time. I'd dated her for seven years. We'd been married for seven years. Here was a woman changing before me.

That opened my eyes. there's more to life than simply my trying to be good. So I came to the end. And then I think the growth in terms of the new man in Christ Jesus, the identification truth, is another kind of coming to the end of yourself. So after I got saved I thought the first year I was doing everything wonderfully. But then it became clear that I wasn't doing it. Working to please God is not what believers are called to. They're called to another life.

And so I kind of came to the end of myself for a second time, saying, you know, God, you've got big work to do here. And by faith, I'm going to have to trust you to get this done. He's still working very hard here. There's a lot of work to be done. But anyway, I think there's some concept of coming to the end of yourself, realizing there's a being, the Lord Jesus Christ, who's really our life to be lived. And Pat, that's language only. You've got to put that on. I'm not sure. It happens in the same way for everyone. So Tom, close us in prayer, would you please? Amen, thank you.