Latest / Teachings On This Day On FerventWord / On Aug 09, 2009: 1 Peter 1:13-25
Transcript
- You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2009. But two weeks ago, we began the book of 1 Peter. And we started out here in 1 Peter 1, verses 1-12, and we talked about the awesome salvation that God has offered to us. The salvation that you and I have, the salvation that is available to us, Well, it's really indescribable. Awesome really isn't sufficient enough word to describe the salvation that God has offered to us. Incredible doesn't really cover it as well. It's so much more beyond those words and any other word we could try to use to describe the salvation because it's unbelievable what God has done for us in offering to us forgiveness from sin and eternal life with Him. As we looked at this subject of salvation, the awesome salvation that God has given to us, we saw that there was kind of two parts. There was the part that God has done, His responsibility, and then there was our part. Now, God's part was much more significant. God's part, well, He had the heavy lifting, He did the heavy hitting, He accomplished something We saw as we studied through the first part of 1 Peter 1 that it was God who chose us. He singled us out. We didn't choose him, but he chose us. He did that on our behalf. Not only did he choose us, but Peter tells us in verse 3 that he begot us again, or we've been born again by God. We were dead in trespasses and sins. We are hopeless and helpless unless God intervenes. And he brought new life. We've been born again for those who have received Jesus Christ. We've been regenerated and given spiritual life so that there's new life. All things have become new and the old things, well, they've passed away. That's what God did. He made us born again. Not only that, but verse 4, we saw that God made a reservation for us in heaven. He reserved and secured our spots in eternity. We didn't do that. It wasn't us that made the reservation. It's not our reservation and that's something that we accomplish, but it's something that God has secured for those who believe in Jesus Christ and those who receive His Son as their Savior. We also saw in verse 5, another thing that's God's part of this awesome salvation is that God keeps us by His power. He keeps us. He has us there in the palm of His hand and no one can snatch us out of His hand. He keeps us. He protects us. He preserves us there in the center of His will and the salvation that He has offered to us. And so as we see the subject of salvation, what God's part is, what God's responsibility is, we see that salvation really is all about God and what He has done. As Peter goes on to explain our part in 1 Peter 1, we saw in verse 5, really that our part is faith. Our part is to believe. Our part, well, Peter goes on to say that it's to receive what God has done for us in verse 9. That's our part of salvation. We get to rejoice greatly in it. Peter told us, tells us, whatever. We get to rejoice greatly. We get to enjoy the salvation God's given to us. We get to love Jesus and have that loving relationship with Him. The thing that's required of us is simply that we believe, that we put our faith in Jesus Christ and that we receive the awesome salvation that He offers to us, the work that He accomplished for us upon the cross. We also saw as we looked at the first part of chapter 1, That this was a salvation that was foretold of old. The prophets of old wrote down and prophesied about the coming of Jesus Christ and the grace that would be extended, the salvation that would be offered. And Peter explains that the prophets really desired, they wanted to know, when is this going to happen? How is this going to happen? They were intrigued by and amazed by this salvation that they were prophesying about, not fully understanding it, but knowing that, Peter says, they were ministering to us. They were writing to us who would be on the other side of the cross, who would be able to receive the salvation that they were writing about. In fact, this salvation is so awesome, Peter explains in verse 12, that angels desire to look into these things. Angels desire to look into these things. It even blows the minds of the angels. They just, they cannot understand, they desire to look into and to understand this salvation that has been offered to us. What an incredible salvation God extends. What an incredible salvation we have in Jesus Christ. Well, as we continue on now in chapter 1 of 1 Peter, we find that not only is there this awesome salvation that has been given to us and it's accomplished really by God and our part is simply to receive it, enjoy it and to walk in that loving relationship. Well, now as we go on, we begin to see and to learn and understand our response to to this awesome salvation. These are not the things that earn us salvation, but this is the appropriate response for this awesome salvation that God has offered to us. And there's three things I want to share with you that is the appropriate response to this awesome salvation. The first thing that is appropriate for us, the response that is appropriate for our hearts is that we would hope fully. Look at verse 13. He says, We are to hope fully. Now that is not hopefully. That is to hope fully. Not hopefully in the sense of perhaps or maybe there's a chance maybe it'll happen, maybe it won't. But hopefully is a confident expectation. Hope throughout the scriptures is used in a way that it's not something that is a maybe, but it's something that is guaranteed, that's expected. It's just not happened yet. It's yet future. And so he says, rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you. We are to rest our confident expectation upon the grace that is going to be revealed at the revelation of Jesus Christ. He says to rest our hope fully. But he begins the verse saying, therefore. And as we look at these things, this is very important. Again, this is our response. He says, therefore, Peter here is talking about salvation. In verse 10 of chapter 1, he says, Of this salvation, the prophets have inquired and searched carefully concerning the grace that would come to you. Verse 11, searching what or what manner of time? They're searching. The prophets, they're writing about this salvation. They're seeking. They're seeking. Verse 12, to them it was revealed that not to themselves, but to us they were ministering. And then at the end of verse 12, these are the things which angels desire to look into. 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. See, this is the response. This is the awesome salvation we have, Peter says. Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind. What does it mean to gird up the loins of your mind? For those that Peter was writing to, they would have a very vivid picture, a good understanding of what Peter was trying to say to them. But for us, it's a little bit obscure. What does it mean to gird up the loins of your mind? Well, in those days, in that culture, the men would wear cloaks and tunics and For our sakes, if you don't know what a tunic is, well, just picture in your mind a dress. These guys ran around wearing dresses. Now, it's not because they were, you know, girly men, but it was because that's the garments of the day. That's what they wore. Now, if you've ever tried to run in a dress, I never have, but if you ever have, you would find that it's pretty difficult. If you were ever going to try to do some work or accomplish something that required some physical capabilities, you would find that it would be somewhat restrictive and that the extra garments and the extra clothing all around it would get in the way, it would slow you down, it would hold you up. And so the idea here is they would gird up their loins whenever they wanted to get into action, when they had to get to work, when there was something that needed to be done, when they were heading into battle or there was some type of physical activity that would need to take place. And the way that they would do this is they would take the back of their cloak, they would bring it through their legs and then tuck it into their belt. And And so if you need the visual picture, it'd probably look a little bit like a big diaper. And so they'd have this big diaper on, it'd be tucked in, but it would remove all the excess garment, it would remove all the flowing clothing, and then it would all be kind of cinched in together, and then it'd kind of be like they had some shorts on, and they'd be able to go and do whatever it was that they needed to do. But they would do this in preparation for some action, some activity, some work that needed to be accomplished. Maybe you could relate it to, we have a saying, sometimes we use it, the idea of rolling up your sleeves. You ever hear that expression, you know? When you need to kind of dig in and get to work, you roll up your sleeves so that you can be free, so that you're not inhibited and you don't have to worry about getting stains or anything like that on your clothing. You roll up your sleeves so that you're free, you can get to work, you can dig in and do what needs to be done. Or another expression that we often use, kind of more in a financial arena, is the tighten your belt. You ever hear that expression, to tighten your belt? And what that means is, well, you need to kind of cut off those extra expenses and Cut off and get rid of those things that are really unnecessary so that you can focus on and you can continue on with that which is necessary. It's removing those excess expenses. This is the idea that Peter is dealing with when he says, gird up the loins of your mind. It's what you do when you do not want stuff to get in your way anymore. It's to eliminate the excess waste. Get everything unnecessary out of your way. And that is what we're to do with our minds. We're to gird up the loins of our minds. You know, there's a lot of junk that we can fill our minds with. There's a lot of junk in this world. There's a lot of things visually, audibly, socially, physically, They're somewhat addicting by nature. They're kind of intended to be so. They're entertaining. They're captivating. They begin to suck us in very quickly and we will become very involved in them very easily. And yet, it can be just complete junk. Some of it's just extra stuff. Not necessarily sinful, but then some of it is just awful. The things that we can fill our minds with. Peter says, look, our response to the salvation that God has offered is to gird up the loins of our mind, to clean up all of the excess, to get rid of the extra stuff, the unnecessary things. I wonder sometimes, what is it that we are filling our minds with? And earlier in the week, I was sitting down at a restaurant for breakfast and kind of preparing for the day. And as I was doing it, they had this radio station on. And it was kind of a love song radio. Something like that radio station. Anyway, so the DJ comes on and he's talking and he's talking with the other host and they're talking about some of the other songs that the younger people are listening to and how much cleaner, you know, the songs that they're playing are. And so they begin to read off the lyrics of this newer popular song that's going around that all the young people love. And as he's reading through some of the lyrics, man, it was just awful. It was absolutely terrible. And I wish I hadn't been sitting there to hear it because it's just, it's junk. And yet, well, it's very popular. And I would imagine that most of the young people, uh, that we know that are around here, if we went over to the youth service over there in the house, they would probably know the song because it's pervasive. It's everywhere. Everybody knows these things. Why? Well, because these things are all around. This world is all around us and it offers things that we can watch and things that we can be involved in and things that we can listen to that will fill our minds with joy. Just extra junk. Some of it sinful, some of it just extra unnecessary stuff that we don't need to be thinking about or be concerned about or to be meditating on. Peter here says, look, we need to clean up our minds. We need to clean up and be careful what comes in through the eye gates and the ear gate. What comes in, what we allow to just clutter up our minds. He says, gird up the loins of your minds. He goes on to say, be sober. which means to be alert, serious or watchful. We need to be alert. We need to be watchful. Now is not the time to be asleep, off guard, lazy. Just fill in our minds and our lives with junk. Now is the time to prepare ourselves for action. There's some work that needs to be done. There's action that needs to be taken. We need to be alert. We need to be watchful. We need to gird up the loins of our minds. And then he goes on to say, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. We're to clean up our minds, be alert and watchful, and hope fully. To rest our hope fully on that which is to come. The grace that is going to be revealed or brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. This is really the second part of the message of grace. The first part in the gospel message, the message of grace is, look, you can have forgiveness of sin by the grace of God through Jesus Christ. By believing in Him, you can have life in His name. You can be born again. That is all part of the message of grace. It's all by the grace of God. But the second part of the message of grace, God doesn't just save us and forgive our sins, but He also promises us this incredible hope of eternity. This promise of being with Him, the promise of a new body, the promise of eternity with Him, where He completes or has completed the work that He began in us. We are to rest our hope fully upon the grace that is going to be brought to us. At the revelation of Jesus Christ. The completion of His work in us. That's where our hope is to be. Where is your hope? What is it that you are looking for, looking towards? You know, for those who walk with Jesus, this future grace is guaranteed. So we can rest our hope there. We can pick it up. We can set it there. It's secure. It's not going to move. We can rest it. You don't have to work it there. You can rest it there. Rest your hope. Just let it be fully, completely upon the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Rest your hope fully. Sometimes our hope is not fully at that grace that is going to be brought to us. But the appropriate response to this awesome salvation that God has given to us should be to fully, completely, wholeheartedly be looking forward to what God is going to do when He returns. We're to be consumed by it, captivated by it, or maybe personalize it a little bit. We're to hope fully in Jesus Christ and be consumed and captivated by Him. We can experience some very difficult days in life. But you know, when we get disappointed, we need to remind ourselves, where is my hope? My hope is not in this life. My hope is not in that job. My hope is not in that person. My hope is not in that thing. My hope is in the grace that will be brought to me at the revelation of Jesus Christ. You know, when you're discouraged, remind yourself, where is my hope? When you're distraught, when you're down, when you're depressed, remind yourself, where is my hope? My hope is not in this life. My hope is in that completed work. The grace that will be brought to me when Jesus Christ returns. God wants us. We've seen it over and over again. He wants us to be looking towards eternity and preparing ourselves for forever. Look at verse 14. He says, As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts as in your ignorance. Verse 15, But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct because it is written, Be holy, for I am holy. Hoping fully in the grace that is to be revealed is the rightful response, the appropriate response. It's what we're to do as obedient children, as children of God. He calls us, He commands us to gird up the loins of our minds, to clean up up there. Be careful what you allow in there. Prepare yourself for action. Be alert, be sober, and put your hope on the grace that will be brought to you. That's what we're called to do as obedient children. This is the appropriate response to the awesome salvation that God has given to us. Now some people, when we talk about the subject of grace... They have the attitude, they have the heart. Well, hey, there's grace. And so I can live however I want and I can do whatever I want. I can keep on practicing this sin because of this grace and God forgives and hallelujah, great, that's awesome. I'm going to continue my sinful lifestyle. Pastor Tim was talking about that last week as well. Understand, that's not the right response to grace. And if that's the response that you have, you better watch out because that is not the grace of God and it's not the appropriate response to the grace that God offers. The appropriate response to the grace that God offers is as obedient children to clean up, to gird up the loins of your mind, to be sober and alert, and to place your hope fully on the grace that is going to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. He says, look, not conforming yourselves to the former lust as in your ignorance. There was a time in which you were living sinfully in ignorance. We didn't know any better. It's all that we knew. It was our sinful nature. And even if we had known better, well, we couldn't have done anything about it because we were slaves to sin. But that's the past for those who are in Christ Jesus. That was a bondage that was broken by believing in Jesus Christ, by being born again. Now that we have this awesome salvation, our response ought to be obedience. It actually ought to be holiness. Again in verse 15, "...as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct." You're not to be conforming yourself to the former lusts any longer. You're not to be living in those sinful cravings and desires as you did when you were ignorant, when you didn't know the gospel message, when you had not received the work that Jesus did for you upon the cross. But now that you have, now that you know what God has done, now that you know about this awesome salvation that God has given to you, as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conducts. We are to be holy. Just as God is holy, we are to be holy. The word holy, it means to be set apart. It's a word we frequent as we study the Bible because it's used very often to describe God. It's also used to describe the way that he calls us to be. He calls us to be set apart. It has two ideas or two parts of this idea of being set apart. To be set apart from God. to be set apart from defilements, to be set apart from this world. We're to take a step back. We're to distance ourselves, to set ourselves apart from the sinful condition of this world and the sinful practices of this world and our former lives. But we're also to set ourselves apart toward. We set ourselves apart from and we set ourselves apart toward God. I learned recently, it was only a few months ago, about decorative towels. And wives are good at teaching us these things. You guys know about decorative towels? Did you know that if you go to someone's house and you're using their restroom, make sure you wash your hands, and then after you wash your hands, you turn around and you see that towel right there on the rack and it's got ruffles and frills and embroidery and that stuff. You're not supposed to use that towel. I just learned that pretty recently. I didn't know. And so if I went to your house, please forgive me. I did wash my hands before I wiped my hands on the towel, but I probably used your towel. No, instead there's this other towel that's regular, that's normal, it doesn't have the ruffles or the frills or the embroidery, and that's the towel you're supposed to use to wash your hands. You see, I didn't know, but that towel is, well, it's set apart. Not set apart from sin necessarily, but set apart from From the garage, right? You wouldn't take that towel off the rack and, okay, I've got to do an oil change and there's some excess here, let me just wipe it off. It's set apart from the garage. You wouldn't take the towel off the bathroom rack and go dry the dishes, right? I hope you don't do that. That's not a good... No, no, it's set apart from the kitchen. It's set apart from the garage. It's set apart from these other rooms. And it's set apart towards the bathroom. That's where it's meant to be used. It's set apart from my hands. It's set apart towards my eyes for decoration. It's there for visual whatever. I don't know, but... You ladies can explain it to me later. But you get the point. You get the picture. That towel is meant for something specific. It's not supposed to be used in certain ways. And it's only meant to be used for the things that it's meant to be used for. In the same way, you and I are to be set apart. We're to be set apart from God. The world from sin, from the flesh, we're not to be used. Our bodies, our lives are not to be filled with those things. Instead, we're to be set apart towards what we're created for and what we're meant to be. And that is we're to be devoted to God. And so he says, as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. God is holy. He is set apart from sin. He's set apart from the world. He's set apart from the flesh. He has no relationship with those things. He's disconnected from those things. Those things do not defile him. He's also set apart towards something. What is God set apart towards? Well, as crazy as it may sound, God has set himself apart towards you and towards me. So much so that he sent his only begotten son. to die on the cross for us. He has devoted himself to us. He set himself apart. He set himself towards. He calls us to do the same thing. He says, as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Are you holy in all your conduct? It doesn't say, as he who called you is holy, so you also be holy at church. Well, that's pretty easy. Well, maybe not. Sometimes it's difficult. But it's easier here than the rest of the world. God doesn't just call us to be holy at church or around Christians. God says, be holy in all your conduct. As it is written, be holy for I am holy. It's written several times throughout the Old Testament. Leviticus 11.44, Leviticus 19.2, a few other references. God says, be holy because I am holy. Notice the reason and the basis for this call to holiness. The basis for this call to holiness is that God is holy. So as soon as God stops being holy, then you can stop being holy. God says, be holy for I am holy. The reason and the basis for our call to holiness is the fact that He is holy and that doesn't change. So this command is still for you and I today. We are to be holy. We cannot cop out of this command, blaming our weaknesses, blaming our flesh. It doesn't say, be holy if you are holy. Sometimes we'd like it to say that, wouldn't we? We just kind of say, well, I'm just not that. I mean, maybe you're that kind of holy person. And so great, you be holy. I'm not that kind of person. So I just can't be holy. That's not how it works. God didn't say be holy if you're holy. No, he says you be holy because I am holy. It's not that some people have the capacity for holiness and others do not. This command is to be holy because God is holy and it applies to every one of us. The command is, be holy. Now, this is not holiness in order to be saved. This is holiness because of this awesome salvation that we have received from God. There's a big difference. This is not earning our way to heaven. But this is in response to what God has done for us. Because of the grace that is going to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ, the appropriate response to knowing what God has in store for us is for us to be holy. It starts by us cleaning up our minds, girding up the loins of our minds, being sober, and putting our hope fully on the grace that is to be brought to us. Clean up your mind. Get rid of the junk. You know, if you put garbage in, don't be surprised when your life is full of garbage. If you sow to the flesh, don't be surprised if you reap destruction. Paul says in Galatians 6, 7, and 8. But if you... fill your mind, fill your heart, fill your life with the things of God, then it will be no shock when your life is filled with the things of God. Rest your hope fully upon the future grace, the grace that God will bring to you. And the result will be obedience, holiness. It's time, guys. It's time for us to gird up the loins of our minds. It's time for us to remove the junk, to get rid of the excess, to tighten the belts, to roll up the sleeves and stop filling our lives, stop filling our minds with all the junk that is available, all of the distractions that keep us from where we need to be with God. In 2 Corinthians 7, verse 1, Paul says it this way, Therefore, having these promises, what promises? The promises of what He has in store for us. He says, Having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. That's what we need to do. This is the appropriate response, to cleanse ourselves from the filthiness of the flesh, to get rid of of all of the stuff that is not of God, to get rid of the junk that holds us back, to lay aside the weights that so easily ensnare us, the weights and the sin that so easily ensnare us, and to run with endurance the race that is set before us, to perfect holiness in the fear of God, Paul says, to be holy because God is holy. So number one, we're to hope fully. Number two, conduct yourself in fear. Look at verse 17. He says, And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear. Here we have a similar command, really, to the first point that we've been looking at. The first point was looking forward to the grace that is to be brought to us. This point, he begins now to look backwards at the grace that that was given, the grace that has been given. He says, if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work. Let me ask you, do you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work? Well, if you call upon the Lord, if you call upon the God of the Bible, if you call upon our Heavenly Father, you are calling upon God, The one who without partiality judges according to each one's work. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 13 says that there's no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. There's nothing hidden from God. There's no creature hidden from his sight. Everything is naked and open, just laid out bare. And one day, we will stand before God to give account of our lives, what we did with our lives, what He did with what He's given to us. We will stand before Him to give account for how we lived, and we will be laid bare before Him, because there's nothing hidden. We can't pretend to have good motives, because God sees right through it. We can't pretend to be right with Him if we're not because, well, everything is laid open and bare. We can't pretend that there's nothing wrong or no sin in our life because everything is laid bare before God. Even if nobody else knows, God knows. We will stand before Him to give accounts. And He judges without partiality. No favoritism. He doesn't play favorites. He doesn't say, oh... Because I like you, I'm going to kind of change the standard a little. You know, you're one of my favorites. And so I'm not going to deal with you in the same way that I deal with everyone else. No, God doesn't show partiality. He loves us all. He loves us all equally. The same. The same standard is used for every one of us. And so Peter says, look, if you call on the Father, here's your appropriate response. Conduct yourself throughout the time of your stay here in fear. I like how Peter throws in here a reminder of how we're only here temporarily. He says throughout the time of your stay here, kind of like we're on vacation. As long as you're on the vacation of this world, as long as you're here in this planet, throughout your time of stay here, you're kind of camping right now. You're roughing it. You're going home, back to your mansion in the near future. But as long as you're out here roughing it in the wilderness, you're out here camping. conduct yourselves in fear, Peter says. Conduct yourself in fear. I don't know about you, but I really enjoy driving fast. I don't necessarily have the mechanical equipment required to drive as fast as I would like to drive, but I really enjoy driving fast. And you know, it's a really great experience. It's a really great feeling to... weave in and out of traffic on the freeway. I mean, there's nothing, it's just, it's hard to explain the exhilaration that happens when you just barely make that gap, but you make it. I mean, it's just like, right there, it's perfect. There's such an exhilarating feeling to race, to hit it, to make it a little bit faster. But as much as I enjoy that, I don't drive that way any longer. I've learned instead to conduct myself in fear. When I was in my younger years, I had to stand before a judge to give account for my driving. And I learned that I don't really want to do that again. And as a result, I now conduct myself in fear, understanding that, hey, I may very well have to stand before a judge to give account. I'm also these days more aware of the danger and harm it could bring to others. And so I modify my conducts. I don't drive as if I was in a video game any longer. I drive very, very differently now because I know, well, I may have to stand before a judge. This is what Peter's talking about. He says, look, you're going to stand before God. Everything is naked and open to Him. We're going to stand before Him to give account. He's going to judge without partiality. Modify your conduct. Conduct yourself in fear, knowing that you will stand before God. Paul talked about this in 2 Corinthians 5. He says, look, I know I'm going to stand before God and so I make it my aim, whether I'm absent from the body or in the body, wherever I'm at, to be well-pleasing to God. That's what Peter is saying. Make it your aim. Make it your goal to be well-pleasing to God. Conduct yourself in fear. Know that you will stand before God to give an account and He judges without partiality. So modify your conduct. Conduct yourself well. So not only do we know that we will stand before the judge who judges without partiality, but we also know that with which we were redeemed. Peter says, you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things. The word redeemed, it means to be bought back or to be released on the payment of a ransom. You and I, we were held captive by sin, by our sinful nature. We were in bondage to sin and death. We were all slaves of sin. We were destined for hell and it was just and it was right. It was the judgment that we deserved. But God sent His only begotten Son to suffer death To die on the cross in our place, receiving the judgment that we deserved to redeem us, to purchase us back, to set us free. We were redeemed not with money. God didn't send down dollars and cents. He didn't send down gold and silver or diamonds or jewels or anything like that. God didn't send anything like that. We were not redeemed with corruptible things. We were redeemed... with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He redeemed us with His own blood. He became a sacrifice for us in our place and on our behalf. As we understand, I would challenge you, I think this is something worthy of some good meditation time for all of us to consider the fact that we were redeemed not with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. To just continue on living in sin like we always have, not conducting ourselves in the fear of God, knowing what was required for us to be redeemed. It's in a way saying, thanks God, and then spitting in His face, knowing what it took for Him to redeem us, and then just to continue on in our former lusts. continue on in our sinful condition and lifestyle. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 20, For you were bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. You were bought at a price and it was not inexpensive. It wasn't a great deal. It wasn't on sale. You were bought at a very expensive price. You were bought with the precious blood of Christ. A lamb without blemish and without spot. The appropriate response for us to this is to modify our conduct, to conduct ourselves in fear. Verse 20. 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. Here's the amazing part about all this. It costs... The shedding of blood of the Son of God. And yet, that was no surprise to God. You ever start out something and you kind of think you have a good idea of what it's going to take and you get halfway into it and you realize, wow, this is going to take a lot more than I thought. And so then you kind of have to make it work anyways. Well, I'm already this far. I've got to cut some expenses here and do this over there. And I'm going to have to come up with more than I expected, but we've got to do it. That's not what happened with God. God didn't create the universe and create mankind and then man sinned. Oh, man, I didn't know it was going to be this tough. I didn't know it was going to cost this much. Okay, well, here's what I'll do. I guess I'll just send my son in heaven. shed his blood didn't want to do that it's a lot more than i was willing to pay but i'm already this far i might as well no that's not how listen he indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world when did all this happen when did this plan take place god wasn't surprised he knew it from the beginning adam blew it in the garden and god knew it before he created the universe Jesus was foreordained before the foundation of the world, before God even began to create anything. He said, look, this is what's going to happen. This is what it's going to require. And he still did it. He knew what you were going to be like. And he still brought you into existence. He knew what it was going to cost. But he did it anyway. You know why? Because he loves you. Because he loves you. He says, He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you. He did this for you. He knew what it was going to cost Him, but He did it for you. He revealed Jesus Christ. This plan came to unfold. Jesus Christ died upon the cross that you and I might have life in His name. And it was according to His plan, which He started before He even began the foundation of the world, because He loves you. He accomplished it. It's through Him that you believe in God. God raised Him from the dead, gave Him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. He did it so that you and I can have our faith and hope in God, that we can have a relationship with God and that we can spend eternity with God. He did it all. He accomplished it so that our faith and hope would be in Him. He knew what it was going to require, but He did it anyway because He loves you. Again, the appropriate response to this to understanding what God has done, is to modify our conduct. To not just keep living just like the rest of the world, to not just keep living like we've always lived, but to conduct ourselves in fear, to fear God, to honor Him, to give Him priority in our life, to be obedient to Him, to be holy as He is holy. Well, the third thing we find is the appropriate response. Here as we finish up chapter 1, is that you and I are to love fervently. Look at verse 22. He says, Verse 24. Verse 24. Because all flesh is as grass. And the glory of man is the flower of the grass. The grass withers and its flower falls away. But the word of the Lord endures forever. Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. Here Peter concludes chapter 1 encouraging us to love fervently. Love fervently. He says, look, since... You have purified your souls in obeying the truth. Again, this is the appropriate response. Since you've responded to the gospel, since you've received this awesome salvation, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again. You've been born again, he says. And the evidence of being born again is love. Jesus said in John chapter 13, He says, look, the world is going to know that you're my disciples by your love for one another. It's going to be different. It's going to be apparent. The world is going to take notice. These people must be followers of Jesus Christ because look at the way that they love one another. Peter says, look, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again. Why is that important? Well, again, the evidence of being born again is love, just as the fruit of the Spirit is love. But there's another element to this. He says, look, you've not been born again with corruptible seed, but incorruptible. This new work that God has begun in you, it wasn't with something like the flowers or the grass, Peter says. He gives us this picture of flowers and grass. And why does he give us this picture of flowers and grass? Well, because... He says, that's what man is, apart from God. All flesh is as grass. Mankind is like grass. How so? Well, it doesn't last. It doesn't last. It fades. It withers. It dies. It doesn't last. Even flowers. Yeah, they're beautiful. They smell good. But they fade away. In the same way, mankind, well, humanity... You and me as an individual apart from God, we're like grass. And even the best that we can do, the glory of man, our flowers, it's going to fade. It's not going to last. But we've been born again. And not with a corruptible seed that like grass will fade or like flowers will fall away. We've been born again by the word of God, which is eternal. It lives and abides forever, Peter says in verse 23. Verse 25, he says, but the word of the Lord endures forever. The word of God endures forever. We've been born again by the word of God. We have eternal life because we've been born again, not by a corruptible seed, but an incorruptible seed, the word of God, which lives and abides forever. And this is the gospel that was preached to us. We have this word, the word of God, preached to us by the gospel message. It's incorruptible. It doesn't fade. It doesn't wither. It's by that word that we've been born again. Why is that so important? Well, backing it up a little bit, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again. The love that we're called to have for one another is a result of our being born again. And being born again of something that's incorruptible, that doesn't fade away, also means that the love that we're called to have for one another is is to have the same characteristic, the same properties, and that it does not fade away, it does not wither. He says, love one another fervently. This is not ordinary, normal, human love. This is a love that can only come from being born again, from the power of God. To love one another in a way that does not wither, that does not fade, and to love one another fervently. The word fervently, it means intensely or earnestly. There's this passion to it. Love one another fervently, intensely. Does this describe your love for other believers? This is the appropriate response to the grace of God that has been given to us, to the awesome salvation that God has extended towards us. The appropriate response is to love other believers intensely, fervently, earnestly. What does this love look like? What does fervent love look like? Well, we could describe it as selfless. We could describe it as giving, caring for the well-being of others. I think if you want to know what this kind of love looks like, look at Jesus Christ. Because Jesus said, as I have loved you, so you ought to love one another. He commanded several times, love one another as I have loved you, Jesus said. With intense, fervent love. He gave of Himself. He met our needs. He ministered to us. We're to love one another fervently, intensely. That's the appropriate response. 1 John tells us that we love because He first loved us. Our response to His love towards us. As we see that from the beginning, before He even laid the foundations of the earth, He knew what was going to happen. He knew what it would take, but He did it anyways because He loved us. As we see and understand and learn about His love for us, the appropriate response is for us to love one another fervently. 1 Corinthians chapter 13 kind of love. Following the example of Jesus Christ kind of love. A love that endures all things, that believes all things, that bears all things. A love that suffers long and yet is kind. A love that is patient. A love that keeps no record of wrongs. Is that how you love other believers? It's the appropriate response. Sometimes Christians, they come to church because it's part of what you're supposed to do as a Christian. But they miss out on fellowship. Connecting with the body of Christ. Love fervently one another. Connect with other Christians. Connect with other believers and love them intensely and earnestly. Give of yourself to meet their needs. Go out of your comfort zone to pray for them, to share with them, to encourage them. Maybe it's buying them lunch or dinner or giving them some money for groceries. Give of yourself. Love intensely, fervently one another. It's the appropriate response as we see and understand the love that God has given towards us. Again, these things are not things that earn us salvation. This is not required in order to be saved. This is not, you must do these things so that God will save you. This is simply the appropriate response to the awesome salvation that God has extended to us. He calls us to clean up our minds. Don't fill your mind with the junk, with the things that are not of Him, with the excess. Gird up the loins of your mind. Be sober and watchful. The time is short. We need to be alert. Place your hope fully. It's easy to get caught up. It's easy to get distracted. There's so many things that are entertaining and they're designed to suck us in, to wrap us up. That's their purpose. That's why they exist. To distract us. To tie us down. The enemy is no fool. This world is under the sway of the devil. We need to be careful. We need to be very careful. We need to gird up the loins of our minds. and set our hope fully on the grace that is going to be revealed. Our hope is not in that person, our hope is not in that thing. Our hope is in the grace that God will give to us at the return of Jesus Christ. The appropriate response for the salvation that we have is to hope fully in that grace, to look forward to and hold fast to those promises that He's given to us. The appropriate response to the awesome salvation God has offered to us is to conduct ourselves in fear, to modify our conduct, to not live the same way that we always did or the same as the rest of the world, but to conduct ourselves in fear, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God, knowing what it cost Him, knowing that we'll stand before Him. And the appropriate response to our salvation that God has given to us is to love one another fervently. intensely, to have an earnest care for one another, to meet one another's needs as God allows. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this incredible salvation that you've offered to us. And God, I pray that you would help us to respond appropriately. Lord, that we would receive it. Lord, that we would walk in holiness, conducting ourselves in fear, resting our hope fully on all that you've promised. Looking forward to your return. And God, in the meantime, would you teach us, would you help us to love those believers that you've placed around us in our lives with an intense and fervent love in the same way that you have loved us. God, I pray for those who do not know you, who have never received your offer of salvation, or for those who have walked away God, I pray that you would help them as they see and learn about this awesome salvation that you've offered to us. I pray, God, that you would break down the barriers, remove whatever blocks, and help them to receive. That's our part, God. You call us by faith to believe, to receive what you've done for us, to rejoice in your work, and to walk in a loving relationship with you. And so, God, I pray if there's any that do not know you, Lord, that you would do that work in them today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.