Alright, in 1 Peter 1, verse
13, Peter tells us to gird up the loins of our minds and be
sober. What is it that we gird up the
loins of our mind with? What does he mean by that? In
Ephesians 6, Paul said, Stand therefore, having your loins
girt about with truth." With truth. I want to point out something
to you here in this first epistle of Peter. And I want you to see
how much emphasis Peter puts on the Word, the truth, the gospel
of Christ. How much emphasis he puts on
this. It's very important to understand, to get this in the
beginning of the epistle. The glory in bringing the gospel to those
God the Father gave to Christ belongs to Christ. He has suffered. He has laid down His life. He
has redeemed His people. purged His people from their
sins, satisfied God the Father, declared Him holy and just and
good in everything He does. Wherefore, the Father has highly
exalted Him, and He has given Him a name. He is the Prophet
the priest and the king of his people. He is the head of the
church. He filleth all in all. He sends forth his messengers. He sends forth his gospel. He sends forth the word of truth. On the day of Pentecost, we saw
this Thursday night, Peter said, He hath sent forth this which
you now see and hear. He received the promise of the
Holy Ghost from the Father and He hath sent forth this. Everything is in His hand. All
power in heaven and earth is in His hand. Everything is at
His disposal. The evil and the things that
we call good, the wicked and the just, all are in His hand.
And He will move and work and do with them as He pleases. And
what He does when He chastens those that He has redeemed is
He turns them to Himself to behold He is all our holiness. You have a way over here that's
the broad way. It takes in everything that men
can conjure up and imagine, whether they're using this book or some
other book. Whatever it is. And then you
have the narrow way. Isaiah 35 said that narrow way
is the way of holiness. The unclean won't enter into
it. Before we're going to ever enter into this way, we have
to be washed, we have to be purified, we have to be sanctified, we
have to be made holy to enter into this way. Now He's the way. And He does the purging, He purifies,
He sanctifies through the washing of the Word, He regenerates through
the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit of God. and washes his
people. And when he brings us, when he
does that, we behold Christ is the holiness. He is our holiness.
He is our holiness. And he brings us into obedience
to him so that we behold this work is performed through the
truth that declares, in us dwells nothing good. The law was given
to shut our mouths, that all the world would become guilty
before God. That's what the law was given
for. And through the gospel that declares Christ is the perfect
fulfillment of the law and the prophets, that He has fulfilled
all that is written, that He has magnified the law and made
it honorable. Through the gospel, He shuts
us up in our sin and our death in the dust, And He lifts up
our eyes to Him, and we behold the perfection of holiness. And by faith in Him, we enter
in, and we stand in this grace, having our loins girded about
with truth, and He brings us into obedience to Him. Somebody
asked recently, why do we suffer? Well, I'll tell you why the believer
suffers. We're brought to suffer because
He suffered. We're brought to see that we're
gonna suffer because He suffered. And when we talk about suffering,
we're not just talking about, we're talking about suffering
for the gospel of Christ, for the righteousness of Christ,
for the truth of Christ. That's the suffering Peter's
dealing with in this book. And the whole purpose of what
Peter's talking about here is, we're given one thing to do when
we're brought into obedience to Christ. When we're brought
into this holy way, we're given one thing to do. And that one
thing that we do is hold forth the Word of Life. And we do nothing
of our own power and of our own hand to try to bring anybody
into this holiness, because if we do that, it's not holy. You put your hand to it and you
defile it. This thing's done through the
Spirit, not by our power, not by our might. It's done through
the Spirit. Well, I want you to see here
how much he emphasizes the gospel in this epistle. He said there
in verse 12, the Spirit of Christ revealed to the prophets that
not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things
which are now reported unto you. That's all Peter did and that's
all we do is report. Just report the things that's
been delivered to us. Report them. By them that have
preached the gospel unto you. preach the gospel unto you with
the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels
desire to look into. Look over then at verse 22. He says, Seeing ye have purified
your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned
love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure
heart fervently. How did that come about? It came
about through the truth. What happened? When He brought
us to obey the truth, what happened? The soul was purified. You know
what holiness is? It's having our souls purified. That's what it is. And He says,
now therefore that you have had your souls purified through the
Gospel, now He says you love one another with a pure heart
fervently. Paul, hold your place there and
look over to 1 Timothy, chapter 1. Paul tells us something about
that love. 1 Timothy 1.5. Now, the end of the commandment
is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and
of faith unfeigned. from which some, having swerved,
have turned aside unto vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the
law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. But we know that the law is good
if a man use it lawfully. How is it supposed to be used?
It's supposed to be used not for a righteous man. What are you in Christ? You're
righteous. If you're in Christ, you're righteous.
If you're in Christ, who can lay anything to the charge of
God's elect? It's God that justifies. It's
Christ that's laid down His life and risen again. But who was
the law made for? The law was made for the lawless
and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and
profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for
manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves
with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons,
And if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine,
according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was
committed to my trust. The gospel is given to shut our
mouth. Or the law is given to shut our
mouth. The gospel is given to declare the righteousness of
God. Now the love, he said, pure heart,
with a pure heart fervently, of a good conscience and a faith
unfamed. I know this, it doesn't involve
swerving aside to vain jangling and being teachers of the law.
That's not how a man is going to be made holy, to tell him
it's by his obedience to the law. It's not going to happen
that way. Look now back at 1 Peter 1, look at verse 22. He says, seeing ye have purified
your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit and the unfeigned
love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure
heart fervently. Because you're born again. How?
So, not of incorruptible seed. You see, if we turn aside to
vain jangling, that's incorruptible seed, or corruptible seed. This is incorruptible seed by
the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. Why don't
we start jangling about the law? For all flesh is grass and all
the glory of man is the flower of the grass. The best you can
come up with is a little flower that's going to bloom and just
appear lovely for just a minute and go right back to the dust.
The grass witherth, the flower thereof falleth away, but the
word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word by which
the gospel is preached unto you. Alright, now look at 1 Peter
2, verse 2. It tells us to lay aside malice
and guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings. We're
going to look at that a little later in another lesson. That's what law preaching is. It's teaching you that holiness
is by your obedience to the law, rather than bringing you in to
see that you're partakers of Christ's holiness. It's malice,
it's guile, it's hypocrisy, it's envy, it's evil speaking. as newborn babes desire the sincere
milk of the word." In other words, we're not being malicious. We're
not being deceitful. That's what guile means. We're
not being hypocrites. We're not being envious of men,
not looking to uncover their sins so we can speak evil of
somebody. We're declaring all flesh is
grass. Everybody is dust. You can't
please God by your doing. This is the doing that pleases
God. This is the well-doing that pleases God. Speak of His marvelous
work. Speak of what Christ has accomplished. Not what we accomplish. Well, look over at chapter 3,
verse 15. There's going to be some suffering when
this is done. But this is what he says, sanctify
the Lord God in your hearts. Do you remember what Isaiah said?
Say not a confederacy with everybody to whom this people says a confederacy,
but sanctify the Lord God and let Him be your fear and let
Him be your dread and He'll be a sanctuary for you. Sanctify
the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer
to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that's in
you with meekness and fear. Christ suffered for doing that.
Christ is the Gospel. He is the Word. And when He came,
that's what Peter tells us here, He suffered. Why was He crucified? He said, if I hadn't have come
and declared the Gospel, they wouldn't have had sin. Now they
have no covering for their sin. Because He said, no man will
be justified by the deeds of the law. He said, you can't be
perfected by the law. He said, I didn't come to destroy
it. I came because except your righteousness exceeds that of
the scribes and the Pharisees, you can't enter into the kingdom
of God. Without the holiness, absolute perfection, you can't
see God. You can't enter in. And Christ suffered because of
that. And in the Spirit, He went and He preached through Noah
while Noah was preparing the ark. And you know what happened
to Noah? He suffered because of it. By which also, verse 19,
he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, those that
are in the grave now, that are dead now, which sometime were
disobedient, when once the long-suffering God waited in the days of Noah
while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls,
were saved by water. Do you think Noah endured some
suffering when he stood there in the midst of that generation
and was the only preacher of righteousness there? Imagine. Imagine that. Well, look at chapter 4, verse
11. He says, If any man speak, let
him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him
do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things
may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and
dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Look at verse 17 of that
same chapter. For the time has come that judgment
must begin at the house of God. True judgment. True judgment. Not this hypocritical thing of
trying to trying to uncover a man's outward sin. And say, now you
need to repent, and you need to reform that, and you need
to straighten up and fly right. And then when a man's done that,
then start acting like he's holy because of something he's done.
You know that's what... Turn with me. We'll have to look
at this anyway. Talk about this malice in this
guy. I'll turn over here to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. Look at verse 29. We're speaking
of this awful, reprobate generation. He says, being filled with all
unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness. See that word? Malice. Full of
envy, murder, debate, deceit. That means guile. Malignity,
whisperers, back biters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters,
inventors of evil things. You think of, there's no end
to the invention of evil things that ungodly men come up with.
No end to it. disobedient to parents, without
understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable,
unmerciful, who knowing the judgment of God, if they which commit
such things are worthy of death, they not only do those things,
but they have pleasure in them that do them. They consent to
others that do those. This is some ungodly, wicked
people we're talking about. But now look what Paul says,
verse 2. Now he turns this thing to the
Pharisees and the scribes, the most pious, outwardly religious
folks. And he says, Therefore thou art
inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein
thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest
doest the same thing. And you couldn't have convinced
the Pharisee and can't convince the Pharisee in our day that
he does the same thing as those men. Outwardly, not at all. But that's not what he's talking
about. But we're sure of this, the judgment of God is according
to truth. He's a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. Peter says, if you call on the
Father, who without respect of person judges according to every
man's work, He knows what the heart is. He knows what the real
motive is. He says, We know it's of truth against
them that commit such things. Thinkest thou this, O man, that
judgest them which do such thing, and doest the same, that thou
shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches
of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? What's going
to make a man repent? Well, now I have to tell him
he can keep the law, but I have to tell him he can't, and he
never has, and he's a hell-deserving vile wretch, and then tell him
about what Christ has done and how Christ is the righteousness
and the holiness of everyone that believes. That's what's
going to lead a man to repentance. Look at verse 29. This is what
he said. He's a Jew which is one inwardly.
Circumcision's that of the heart and the spirit, not in the letter,
whose praise is not of men but of God. It's of God. Peter said back in 4.17, he says,
The time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God.
True discernment. A true setting forth of that
which is right. If it first began at us, what
shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? You
see how many times he talks about the gospel of God, the word of
God, the sincere milk of the word, the incorruptible word,
by which the gospel is preached. This is what the prophets preach,
it's what the apostles preach, it's what the angels desire to
look into. That which declares by what offering,
by the witch will, by the will of Christ, He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. He is the purification of His
people. He is the perfection of His people. Not we ourselves. Not we ourselves. And He says back there in our
text now, He says, Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind.
Have your inner man girded about with truth. Girded about, lest
at any time we let these things slip. If we neglect so great
salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord,
in these last days God has come and spoken to us in His Son and
confirmed to us by them that heard Him. They heard him preach,
and through this gospel, they fell in line and followed him.
And then they came and preached to others, and he saved them
through this gospel, and they believed. No, don't neglect this
salvation. Be sober. Be sober. What's he
saying to us? Turn over to Jeremiah 1 verse
6. You're going to receive some
opposition if you start telling sinners that they're sinners.
Because religion's not telling sinners they're sinners. Jeremiah
1.6. Here's what he's saying. The
Lord came to Jeremiah. And Jeremiah said, chapter 1,
verse 6, Then said I, Ah, Lord God, behold, I can't speak. I'm
a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say
not, I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee,
and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid
of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the
Lord. Look down at verse 17. Thou therefore
gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that
I command thee. Be not dismayed at their faces,
lest I confound thee before them. For behold, I have made thee
this day a defense city, an iron pillar, and brazen walls against
the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes
thereof, against the priests thereof, against the people of
the land. And they shall fight against
thee, but they shall not prevail against thee. For I am with thee,
saith the Lord, to deliver thee. This is what we're talking about.
Gird up the loins of your mind and be sober. Be sober. And look
back there now at 1 Peter 1.13, and hope to the end for the grace
that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Salvation when Christ returns? Yes. The grace when Christ returns,
the complete fullness of everything that Christ has accomplished
and promised us shall be brought to us when He comes again and
saves the souls of those who are trusting in Him. That's not
all Peter is talking about here. The grace brought to sinners.
To you. To me. In our midst. by the regenerating, sanctifying
grace of God through the Word of this Gospel. Through the Word
of this Gospel. This revelation is divine. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the Gospel of God, for it's the power of God unto salvation. How's a sinner going to be saved?
By God's power only. How's a sinner going to be saved?
By the truth that tells him No power is in you to save yourself. No power is in you to keep yourself. We must be kept by the power
of God through faith under salvation, which has been made ready by
God the Father, by His electing grace, by His redeeming grace
of the Son, by the Spirit's sanctifying grace and keeping grace. This
is what's got to be declared. This is what's got to be set
forth. And he said, I'm not ashamed
of it because it's the power of God to salvation to everyone
that believes. To the Jew first and also to the Gentile because
there's no difference. We've all come short of the glory
of God. But through the Gospel, therein
is the revelation of the righteousness of God. When are you going to
see the revelation of the righteousness of God? By the revelation of
Jesus Christ. When we behold Jesus Christ,
not just the name, not just a historical Jesus, not just a bunch of doctrine,
not just a bunch of... When we meet this person by divine
revelation, we're going to behold the holiness of God, the goodness
of God, the mercy of God, the righteousness of God, the justice
of God, the longsuffering of God. Everything God is, we're
going to meet face to face when we behold God in the face of
Christ Jesus. And it's going to come through
the Gospel. And he said it's revealed from faith to faith. It's revealed from Him who is
the faithful one into those He gives faith. And He uses these
empty, useless vessels of us and puts light within us. But if we're not broken, so as
to merely set forth this light and we think that we somehow
can affect something by conniving and twisting and misusing and
misrepresenting who our God is, nobody will be saved that way.
Nobody will be saved that way. Life and immortality are brought
to light by Christ through the word of this gospel. Eternal life and glory and salvation
by Christ alone is made known by divine revelation. Christ makes His people partakers
of His holiness. 1 Peter 2. He says, having your
conversation honest among the Gentiles. That's your conduct,
your deportment, your speech, everything, everything. That
whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your
good works which they shall behold. When are they going to behold
those? They didn't see any good works in Christ. When are they
going to behold those? They will glorify God in the
day of visitation. in the day when He comes in the
power of His grace and mercy, and He divinely reveals Christ
Jesus, His well-beloved Son. That's when they'll see it. So
it says back there in chapter 1, verse 14, we do this as obedient
children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts
in your ignorance, But as He which hath called you
is holy, and called you with a holy calling, and made you
partakers of His holiness, don't turn aside out of this way. So
be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it's written, be ye holy
for I'm holy. You know where the first use
of that word is? I'm working on something on that
phrase right there, but the first use of it is when God gave the
law of clean and unclean. And you know why God gave the
law of clean and unclean? He gave the law of clean and
unclean to keep the children of Israel from partaking with
the Gentiles in idolatrous worship. Because they sacrificed these
beasts that He forbid them to partake of. And they ate of those
beasts He forbid them to partake of. What does he do when he reveals
Christ in us? And he writes the law of God
in our hearts. He makes us to behold what Peter
beheld when he saw that sheep let down out of heaven from the
four corners, like it was knit together at the four corners.
A vessel with all manner of animals in it, clean and unclean. Those
that Peter recognized as being those forbidden. That vessel
is Christ who came down, who had in Him all the elect children
of God given Him before the foundation of the world. And the Lord said,
Peter, arise, kill and eat. And Peter was hungry. But he
said, not so, Lord. I've never eaten anything unclean.
And the Lord said, Peter, here's what that law means. What I have
cleansed, don't you call unclean. You get down there to a Gentile
that I put in Christ by my electing grace, that I've redeemed by
the blood of my Son, and you get down there now and preach
this gospel of Christ to him because he's purified, he's cleansed,
and he's perfect. And when he reveals this in us
and he gives us a taste for that which is clean, for that which
is clean, and we don't want... I can't I can't eat a gospel
that tells me that I can do something by my hand to sanctify myself. Well, the Scripture says, sanctify
yourself. The Scripture says, this is our
sanctification that you abstain from fornication. It is. It is. Physical fornication and
spiritual fornication. Either one of them are just as
bad. If we, as bad as physical fornication is, learn from this,
and if we turn from this one way of holiness, Christ Jesus
the righteous, and turn back to try to perfect ourselves by
something we've done in our flesh, we have taken up with the harlot
of Babylon, and we've committed fornication. We've left our husband. And we've committed adultery
against Him and committed fornication with the harlot. And this is
our sanctification. That we stay in Christ. Stay in Christ. And not be turned
aside. He says, not fashioning yourself
according to the former lust in your ignorance. Let's see.
Look at Galatians real quick. Let's look and see what Paul
said about his former conversation. Galatians 1.13. You've heard of my conversation
in time past, my former conduct, my former manner. Paul said,
as touching the law, I was blameless. Outwardly, I was blameless. But
the commandment came. Christ came and He made the law
alive to me. And I beheld it spiritual, and
I'm carnal soul under sin, and I died. All my righteousness
became filthy rag. But up until then, He said, in
time past in the Jews' religion, beyond measure, I persecuted
the church of God and wasted it. Profited in the Jews' religion
above many of my equals, in mine own nation, being more exceedingly
zealous of the traditions of my fathers, but when it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
His grace to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among
the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. I met
the Savior then, and I left it behind." The heart of the believer
is purified by faith in Christ. His purification is wrought through
the preaching of the Gospel of Christ in Him crucified. He says
here verse 14, As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according
to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as He which hath called you
is holy, be ye holy in all manner of conversation. Because it is
written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. And if you call on the
Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to
every man's work past the time of his sojourning here in fear."
Paul said his judgments according to righteousness. We know that
he's going to judge according to righteousness. Are we treasuring
up wrath against the day of wrath? Are we the law worketh wrath?
We're going to use the law and treasure wrath against the day
of wrath thinking we've got something now that God's going to be pleased
with because we've done so many wonderful works and got so many
people to be outwardly conformed? Or are we going to rest in Christ
and wait on Christ to work the work through the gospel? He says,
for as much as you know, you were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers. Paul could just as well have
been preaching this. That's what he said. I thought it was by
that way. I thought that's how it was done,
that I got letters from the chief in religion and I went and found
everybody in this way and if they wouldn't conform, we'd kill
them. That's murder. That's what it
is when we unlawfully yoke men and try to get some kind of outward
performance of obedience without God doing it in the heart. God
does it in the heart, there'll be some outwardly. We're going
to see that as we go through this letter. But how were we
redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot, who verily was full ordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you, who by Him do believe in God, that raised Him
up from the dead and gave Him glory, that your faith and your
hope might be in God. Now, we've got a faith and a
hope that will carry us by God's grace, kept by the power of God
till the day Christ returns and it appears in all His glory. We've got a hope right now too,
though, right here where we stand, that He's going to bring grace
to His people through His gospel and call them out. Is that how
He called you out? If He did, you know what I'm
talking about. If He called you out by this grace, you know what
I'm talking about. If somebody finagled you into it, you don't
have a clue what I'm talking about. And if you ain't repented
from that, The Lord said to those that said, we've never been in
bondage. He said, he that commits sin
is in bondage. He's in bondage, never left it,
never left it. But if God saved you, if He's
called you, you've been made free indeed, haven't you? Free
indeed. Follow after the truth and free
indeed. All right, let's trust Him.