 Anyway, 1 Peter chapter 1, we're going to look at verses 17 through 21 as we continue our study here in 1 Peter. Let's begin reading at verse 17. I'll read to verse 21 and we'll get into our study. 1 Peter chapter 1 beginning at verse 17. The apostle Peter writes, And if you call on the father who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your sojourning here in fear, knowing that you were 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 foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through him believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. So as we look at this, we know that the apostle Peter has been writing to a church that's undergoing persecution. He wrote to the church of the diaspora to the dispersed and as he was writing to the church, he was making it very clear to them that the things that they were going through were actually going to work out for their good. The trials that they were going through were trials that were intended to refine and purify their faith and he had begun to speak with them concerning what it was to be a child of God. He was actually describing some of the things that make up the Christian. If somebody were to say, What is a Christian like? Well, you can look at some of the things that he's been speaking of and you can see that that's what a Christian is like. That's what we look like and so as we've been looking at this, we're noticing, especially in verses 13 through 16, that first he was saying that Christians were those who gird up their minds. When he had said Christians gird up their minds, that simply means that a Christian is ready for action, that Christians are those who are very serious about their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He repeats that kind of thought in chapter 4 verse 7 when he says the end of all things is at hand therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. So he had said that one of the earmarks of a believer is that their minds are girded, that they have in other words an attitude of readiness for action. He also spoke of Christians being sober. Now obviously the word sober is a word that we use today when it speaks of us not being drunk or inebriated. To be sober is to be not under the influence of any alcoholic brew, whether it be a beer or wine or some stronger thing. And to be sober is to be somebody who's in the right faculties. To be sober speaks of being calm and collected. It speaks of being temperate. So another thing that he spoke is not only do we have our minds girded, not only are we prepared for action but we're also sober-minded. In 1 Peter 5.8 he says be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He also mentioned that believers are to rest their hope in the grace that has been brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So we rest in the grace of God and anticipation of seeing Jesus when he returns for the church. Another thing he said is believers are to live as God's obedient children. We're obedient because obedience is the mark of one of God's children. God's children are obedient even as Jesus said if you love me keep my commandments so we're obedient children and also we're aware of the days that we live in and we resist being conformed to the age. And so we know that the age that we live in has a tendency of squeezing us into its mold. Whatever is acceptable in terms of common culture is something that we have to evaluate in light of Scripture. And I'm quite aware of the fact that some of us may not be quite as aware of the fact that we're being squeezed into the world's mold simply because the culture that we live in is common to us and therefore accepted by us without much argument. I was sharing recently just this morning actually how that if it were possible for somebody who was we'll say 65 years old when they died and we'll say they died in 1955. If it were possible for that person to suddenly make an appearance in the 21st century, if somebody who died at the age of 65 were able to appear in 2012 and you were to speak to them and ask them what do you see here? I find I think it would be a very interesting conversation. I would say that anybody who had died in 1955 and awakened in 2012 the first thing would be shock and horror. They would be horrified at what they see because the entire culture that they were used to is no longer in existence. They would say to themselves and they would say to us that this entire culture is a twisted culture, it's perverse. It's nothing like what it was when I when I used to be alive here on planet earth. But we need to remember that they probably would have had opportunity to see a show like I Love Lucy, right? I Love Lucy is an interesting show. It's almost timeless in some ways but it's got a lot of things in it that people today don't relate to. I mean Lucy and Ricky Ricardo didn't even sleep in the same bed yet they did have little Ricky which is kind of a miraculous thing in and of itself. I mean they didn't even sleep together. They didn't allow those kinds of things in television at that time. They didn't have dirty jokes. They didn't have the the kinds of freedoms that people have today that have that has become very common in the culture. There were no there were no protests like we have with the one percenter kind of thing. There were there were no people marching in the streets for for same-sex marriage. Those kinds of things did not exist and so if they were to be suddenly awakened in 2012 it's not the world that they remembered. It's nothing like it. They didn't have to worry about censorship in terms of having to be censored and you go to the movies because they didn't even use much profanity if any at all in the movies. The actors actually acted and so it was an entirely different thing to turn on the television set and to see a comedy. Well comedy was wholesome. There wasn't any perversion. There wasn't anything twisted but today's people people today have become acclimated to the to the culture. They're conformed to the culture and that's why they argue against those who would say that there are things within our culture that are wrong. That's the reason they'll argue about it and there are a lot of believers who take the same tack. They believe the same thing. They don't see anything wrong with with the thing. They don't see anything wrong with claiming Christ on Sunday and not living for Christ on Monday and so what has happened is we have become asleep. Even as I said recently we have fallen asleep as a church. We have fallen asleep in the light. Romans 12 2 says don't be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Do not be conformed. Do not be squeezed into the world's mold but be transformed by God's word by the renewing of your mind to begin to see and to prove those things that God says all right how do I know what these things are? I know them by by being in the word of God. I know them by reading the scriptures and meditating on them and memorizing them and trying to apply them on a daily basis. I know the things of God by walking in the spirit of God by asking God to fill me with this Holy Spirit and to attempt to practice my faith in a tangible way. You see we've been looking at that and one of the things that that the Apostle Peter made very clear to us was as it relates to God is that that God is holy. He said God is holy and therefore our lives ought to reflect our parentage our heavenly parentage and God by nature is holy. Isaiah chapter 6 verse 3 says it like this and one cried to another and said holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. The Bible teaches very clearly that the God that we serve is holy is separated from sin. God is holy. When the priest had on his vestments would put on his vestments one of the vestments said holiness unto the Lord. So the nation of Israel was aware of the fact that the God they served was a holy God. When Moses was there on the mountain getting the Ten Commandments and all and there was all that noise, that thunder and the lightning and all that commotion going on and Moses came down from that mountain the people of Israel said we're not going up there you go for us for they were greatly afraid because they saw the majesty and power they saw the awesomeness and the holiness of God as that was all being right before their eyes just presented through those things and so they said to Moses you go up there you you address them you represent us because they saw how separated in terms of their sin they were from that holy God and that's what you find in the Old Testament the sense of God being holy and so what you have God declaring here in 1 Peter 1 16 is I'm holy therefore you be holy in all manner of living. God is holy and because God is holy our lives are to be set apart from evil we're to have a quality called holiness God is set apart from evil he doesn't take pleasure in it and neither should his children and because God is a holy God takes no pleasure in evil his children ought to be being more and more conformed into the image of their holy father now because he's holy he is also a judge and he judges in holiness he judges righteously and that's why in verse 17 the apostle writes if you call on the father who without partiality judges according to each one's work conduct yourselves throughout the time of your sojourning here in fear if we come to Christ and our response is to honor God for who he is and when I honor God for who he is it results in me living in a way that reveals that I am separated to him and my true relationship is revealed by the fruit of my life and not just the things that I say now obviously we don't anticipate any perfection that we're going to be in the state of perfection here on the face of the earth we realize that there's only one perfect person and that's me all the rest of you are sinners we know that I teach that faithfully no we we know that only Jesus Christ is holy and all the rest of us fall short of the glory of God we understand that so it's not like the apostle Peter is saying you have to go out and make yourself holy but he is saying that we discipline ourselves to pursue those things that will result in us being separated the true relationship I have with the Lord is always going to be demonstrated not just by what I say but how I live in 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 verse 1 Paul said therefore having these promises beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God for some that's a new concept this idea of actually living separate but it's very important it's important for us to embrace the way that we habitually live reveals the reality of our relationship to the Lord and when Jesus was approached on one occasion I find it interesting how that somebody approached him and asked him what is the great command in the law Jesus's response is something that we as believers embrace he said Israel the Lord your God is one love him with everything that's within you he said but there's a second commandment that is likened to the first you shall love your neighbor as yourself so love loving God is always going to demonstrate be demonstrated by our love for one another and you I have to say something to you I think that sometimes sometimes we don't understand that that love is very easily demonstrated by simple courtesies to one another by simple courtesies my son Joseph graduated from college yesterday I'm very proud of him he spent five years at Biola University and graduated just yesterday thank you for that and I'm blessed and I'm pleased to announce that to you and so we went yesterday to his graduation ceremony we had to get there early because there are so many people who had graduates and we found our place to be seated and we sat and we got there at 8 30 but the event didn't begin until around nine and then it went on for a couple of hours two and a half hours or so and so we got there got our seats sat there and then I had some people who were seated behind me who threw pretty much the entire ceremony from the worship to the the prayers the commencement speech through the addresses made by the professors there at at Biola I had several people a family behind me the whole time talking and I started thinking very biblically I started thinking I'd like to lay hands on you be muzzled you know those kinds of things you know the fool has said no I and I'm I'm getting frustrated because they're just talking and and they're adding to the things that the commencement speaker is saying and or just kind of laughing amongst themselves and they did it the whole time and these were not young people these were adult people at my age that should have known better now there was one younger person there with them but these were older people these were not these were not young 13 or 14 year olds who get kind of like antsy because it's not enough animation up there that's not enough keeping their attention these these were adults my age and they had one who probably was around 22 or 23 and they would interrupt that what the speech was and and the individual was speaking was a was a high caliber individual who was speaking things that you needed to listen carefully to what he's saying in order to be able to hear the point that he's making but how can and how could I hear the point he's making when somebody behind me is making their point and as I was sitting there through this entire time I'm thinking how rude I mean your mama didn't raise you right you know didn't you learn I mean you're my age and and I'm biting my tongue because I don't want to be rude in return and I'm asking the Lord to help me but at the same time Lord you know it's like we're believers this is this is a Christian congregation these are Christian students we ought to know better but apparently we don't you know apparently we we don't we just just talk when we feel like it we do what we want and and yet Jesus says great love has no man than this and a man laid down his life for his friend you are my friends if you do whatsoever I've commanded you and and and if you love me keep my commandments and and I ask myself the simplest things we don't do the courtesies the courtesies that we ought to extend on one another we don't do I mean know this and I know this you come to a stop sign and if there's a car coming on the other way that has a stop sign you you know someone's going to shoot through that stop sign you know that and this touch and go thing like you know try and get across before you get t-boned you know or or you're pulling into a parking stall you know in a in a mall and as you drive in you see somebody come in in your direction and even though you're in front you know this guy's going to lay his foot down on the gas and spin in there and get in front of you and climb out and sadly sometimes they have a little fish on the back of it you know or you go to a gas station and and somebody pulls in front of you rudely or you're walking Marie was saying this to me the other day she said you know as an older woman she's walking in and she doesn't mind me saying that by the way as a woman who's not 18 anymore that's probably better walking in and how people will just young men will swing the door open and just walk in front and let it swing back to hit whoever is behind them that happens all the time you've seen it maybe you've done it and it's so wrong and it's just a basic courtesy that we used to show with another it's just the basic ways that we lived in such a way that we had a decent unified organized society but today it's unfortunate and it's not like an old man railing against the youth and we it's from the old to the young we have forgotten to do the golden rule we are not treating people as we would be treated we just don't even in church even in church those people were conversing behind me because what they had to say was more interesting to them than the man who was given giving the commencement speech a man who was there at 9-1-1 a man who saw what took place and a man who was saying to us God has made us in his image and we've been created with the ability to create and we need to create good and not evil we need to go out and do the things that are right because that's what Christ has created us to do powerful message but you have to listen to him deeply and intently to understand what he wants you to know but you've got somebody talking in between because guess what what they have to say is much more important than what somebody else has to say and yet what we're going to reach the world for Christ when we we haven't even learned the basic things about showing courtesy for one another right well see all of that is very practical all of that is it's all very practical learning to love one another and to live a holy life see and and the apostle Peter is saying listen all of the things that you do eventually amount to what is called a life and this life that you have is ultimately going to be presented before God who's going to be looking at this life and God will be making judgment concerning that so the way that we habitually live reveals the reality of our relationship to the Lord aw tozer said it like this he said we have learned to live with unholiness and have come to look upon it as the natural and expected thing unholiness he wrote that probably around 1959 and even in his day he's saying we have come to see an unholy way of living as natural and normal if tozer saw the 21st century he would be amazed at how this nation has become when we kicked out God from our midst he'd be amazed at it and so the thing that the apostles making clear to us is that we will one day stand before the Lord and I want you to notice he says who without partiality judges according to each one's work God is the judge and he's fair and he's impartial he's not a respecter of persons 2 Chronicles 19 7 says there's no iniquity with the Lord our God no partiality no taken of bribes so he's righteous and because he's righteous he will be fair and being fair he's going to be impartial and I want you to see that he said he judges according to each one's work God has kept a record of our works eventually we stand before him so you're driving and that dreaded red light goes on behind you and you pull over to the curb the officer comes out of his cruiser walks up your windows rolled down may I see your license may I see proof of insurance you hand them your license you hand them the proof of insurance goes back to his car runs a check comes back did you know you have an outstanding warrant no you have an outstanding warrant you were due to appear in court on you know June 2nd last year and you didn't show up and you go oh I I forgot well there's a record and the record is impartial the record demonstrates that you broke the law at this time and therefore you are liable so you stand before a judge and you say to the judge I forgot or guilty with an explanation does it fly no it doesn't because what we're dealing with is did you keep the law or did you break the law I broke the law so the judge has a record before him my record that states that this man here violated and therefore he's guilty well you want to know something the Lord has a record book and I can't stand before God saying guilty with an explanation I can't ask for leniency I can't ask for probation I can't ask for any of those things and that's what he's saying he's saying God is a judge who is righteous God is a righteous judge and so when I stand before God I cannot give him any excuse and so when people stand before God it's going to be two classes of people one is going to be those who are regenerate those who have gotten saved those who are born again and two it's those who are unsaved those who have never given their hearts to Jesus Christ the saved and the unsaved will stand before him the Bible says we will all stand before God's judgment seat now Jesus is the judge the gospel is a standard for judgment and John 5 22 it says the father judges no man but has committed all judgment to the son John 12 48 says there's a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day so there's one who will stand there saying I rejected the offer of life I rejected the gospel I rejected Jesus Christ and ultimately their record is not going to be expunged there's no way it's going to be erased there's no way that they're going to be declared not guilty because they died in their sin and so they stand before God guilty as sinners without redemption but the believer when you heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and received Jesus as Lord and Savior you will stand before the Lord but not for judgment you receive reward when you stand before the Lord in 2 Corinthians 5 9 and 10 it says therefore we also have as our ambition whether at home or absent to be pleasing to him for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done whether good or bad and so we stand before the judgment seat of Christ to receive rewards not judgment and our sins have been cleansed and they've been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ and that's why we receive rewards Ephesians 6 8 says because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does now this knowledge of appearing before Jesus is the motivation of our behavior and Jesus said it's not enough to hear in Matthew 7 21 he said you need to hear and you need to do so it's not enough just to to have recordings in my mind of things that I've heard from the word but rather it's the obedience that demonstrates the genuineness of my faith and what is it that causes me what is it that motivates me to want to live for Jesus Christ not simply the rewards but something that goes deeper that motivates me that will give me the ability to receive rewards well he says knowing in verse 18 that you were 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 foreordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God it's that knowledge that we've been redeemed that word redeemed means to liberate by payment of ransom we've been redeemed we've been saved from empty and aimless lives we've been saved from that and we've been saved from that through Jesus Christ our lives are spoken of prior to salvation as being empty and aimless our way of life includes things like our ethics our values our religious convictions the things that we inherited Paul would say those things were aimless they were worthless and devoid of genuine hope or promise he says so in Ephesians 2 verses 1 through 3 when he says you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath just as others so you were aimless he's saying but now you have purpose your purpose is now designed by God you walk in his spirit and he leads you in the place that he wants you to go your release has been secured the price has been paid by the the blood of Jesus Christ he voluntarily died for you and the price he paid was incredibly high it was beyond what any person could ever pay Psalm 497 and 8 says it like this none of them can by any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him for the redemption of their souls is very costly and so there's no way that I could ever come up with enough money to ransom myself let alone my wife and my children and grandchildren and friends so that price was beyond anything I could pay it was beyond anything you can pay not a single person could ever pay such a price and so God himself took upon himself human flesh that he might pay that price that he would be able to ransom us and that's what the blood of Christ is all about it washes it and cleanses us from all sin and he calls it the precious blood of Christ because it's especially dear it's a great price of great price the blood of Jesus is more valuable than anything we were bought out of slavery to sin by his blood and the one who was giving this his life up the one who poured his blood out for us is described as being without blemish and without spot when it speaks of Jesus as being that lamb without blemish the word blemish means no character defect acquired through life unstained by environment when it speaks of being without spot there's no genetic or innate defect there's no moral corruption nothing outside and nothing inside so when the Lord Jesus died on the cross poured out his blood for us it was because he is the perfect sacrifice now notice in verse 20 how it says he indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last days redemption wasn't an afterthought it was part of God's plan God paid because he intended to deliver us from the captivity of sin and this has occurred here he says in verse 20 in the last times and last days so Jesus was openly revealed as Savior in these last times the last age of the world is already dawned we know that its clothes is imminent he's been revealed for us is what he's saying others hope to see him but we are privileged to see him and through him according to verse 21 we believe in God Jesus is our mediator he's the only one there's no saint who's ever lived on the face of the earth that is our mediator Jesus Christ is the only one according to 1st Timothy chapter 2 verse 5 there is one God and one mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus Jesus said I am the way the truth in the life no man comes to the father but by me and so this one mediator this way that we have faith in God well this one mediator is Jesus Christ we come by Christ through faith into the presence of God himself and as we do so we claim the blood of Christ and we recognize that it was his substitutionary death he died on our behalf by which we can now stand before him clean he says God raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and your hope are in God Jesus's ministry is completely validated by his resurrection and he now stands at the right hand of the Lord as the Prince and as our Savior we have hope and the hope that we have comes through Jesus Christ notice how he said your faith and hope are in God through him we have some dear friends of ours who just this last several days gave us a call and said that my friend called and said my mother-in-law is not well and we're going to bring her to live with us here in our home and his mother-in-law and father-in-law lived in another state and so they were going to this to this other state in order to minister to them and it just would have been better for her to be living here with their daughter with their daughter and so so my friend went and had been going driving you know and spending time there and they got to the point where they said we need to bring her here let's bring mom to our house so they did they brought her and she began to live with them she moved in with them and her husband for on a thursday but within three or four days her health took a turn for the worse she and her husband been married for 60 years she got up and she walked from her room with a little walker came to the kitchen and she sat down and they brought her some breakfast cereal so she could be there with her husband whom she was seated next to and she could eat her breakfast and she ate her cereal and then she leaned her head against her husband's shoulder 60 years of marriage and looked up at him and he smiled at her and she reached out and gave him a kiss and she turned she looked down and she died 60 years 60 years he was there next to her and she leans against him she kisses him goodbye she died a little body slumped against her husband and he left her there for 25 minutes he wouldn't move just let her rest and they called my friend to come and he had to come from work and take his mother-in-law and carry her and put her into another room and she died yesterday i went to two celebrations of graduation i went to my son josephs who graduated from college but i also went to a celebration of another kind of graduation where this dear friend of ours who we've known for over 30 30 years went home to be with jesus graduation and her husband would say to you i didn't lose my wife because when you lose something it means you don't know where it is he doesn't say he lost his wife because he knows where she is she died in faith and she died in hope she died a believer in the lord jesus christ she wasn't lost to us she is wonderfully found she graduated jesus with jesus and to me it's very important to understand what it means that my savior poured out his blood so that he could make me into a new creation so that old things indeed would pass away that all things would become new and that by his blood he would redeem me from this broken world put my feet on solid rock and give me hope in my heart and peace in my life and joy and saturate me with his love and to awaken me to his forgiveness and to lead me into the way everlasting and to be able to see my savior face to face when i close my eyes here and open him up there that all comes because i have been redeemed by the blood of the lamb and that has transformed my life from living for myself to one that is going to be like him we have hope but not as the world we have hope because our hope is in Jesus christ and the faith that we have is in him not in man but in our god and that comes because my god loved us so much he gave his son that he might redeem and ransom us from this present evil age and give to us a hope of eternity with Jesus christ that changes your life