called theology, and it informs
how we think about the world. It informs everything. But it in and of itself is not
necessarily informative, is it? We must apply it. We must put
it into practice. So if today is the best day of
my life, then it is also, as some of me and my friends have
often taken up the mantle of saying, it's the blessed day
of my life. For if we're approved by God, then we are indeed in
lacking nothing. Could we be in a bad situation?
Yes. Could we have terrible feelings, emotions, pain, suffering? Could
we be in a situation to where the world around us, we just
don't know how we're going to make it? Absolutely, probably
are. And if we aren't, we probably
will. And if we aren't currently, we probably have. But The scripture
teaches us that there is absolutely one day, and today is that day.
I don't know about you, but I often live in tomorrow. And living
in tomorrow is a very safe place for me, because I get to strategize,
I get to focus, I get to prepare, I get to imagine. I say that
word probably 40 times a day, imagine, to myself. Imagine,
imagine what it'll be like if. Imagine what it's gonna be like
when. And so living in tomorrow is
a really safe place. But the problem is, is when we
live in tomorrow and it's not, we don't look, we don't see,
we don't understand the hope of tomorrow, we end up in a place
where tomorrow is very scary. that uncertainty, the unknown. Matter of fact, the very definition
of anxiety is a fear of the unknown, of the future. It's physiological,
it's psychological, it's emotional, it's spiritual. It affects everything. And some of us like to, and when
we're in not a very good space, or we find ourselves in the present,
in a spot where we're really hitting a wall, or a wall's hitting
us, we fall into this practice, this discipline that comes very
natural for most people, where we think about yesterday. And
we think, well, if I could've just done this, or if this would've
happened, or maybe if this could've been, or if I had never. And
then we begin to resent life, resent ourselves, resent others,
and resent God. I've shared this with some of
you, but there was a time recently, in the last year or so, where
I literally cursed God. And you know what He did? He never changed. His embrace did not loosen, it
tightened. The blood of Christ did not become
less effective for me. The love of God was not less
available for me. But in those moments, the love
of God was more profound for me. I said a couple of weeks
ago in a misspeak, trying to get this idea out of my mouth
in like half a second, I said, the more you sin, the more God
loves you. And it's incorrect, but this is that sentiment that
I'm talking about. The more God's love is present
for you, the more you feel it, the more you understand it. That's
why Paul could proclaim the way he did. In my weakness, I will
boast, therefore, in my weakness, for in my weakness He is strong. I live this life by faith in
the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me." Because,
oh my goodness, did Paul have something to look at for his
future? One day he would have probably
been the teacher of Israel. Paul had something to look at
in his past, and he gave that resume from the tribe of Benjamin.
He was named after the first king, Saul, circumcised on the
eighth day. Hebrew of Hebrews. To the law,
what is his self-proclamation? Impeccable. Yet I count it all
as explicative in the countless gain of knowing Christ and His
resurrection from the dead, His gospel. And see, what I've just
done there is just walked us through a little bit of a exercise
on what mental sobriety looks like in spiritual sense. What mental sobriety looks like,
what focus looks like, what hope does. It's not something I've learned.
There's no book on that. There's no instruction manual.
Back behind the maps, there's not a little framework of being
sober-minded. I wish there were. We could make
it graphical and sell it on the church website. As a matter of
fact, there are probably people out there who have, you know,
done a good job of marketing certain steps in which you could
follow and become more successful in your spiritual life. And the reason that we keep buying
new iterations of those things is because the previous ones
were ineffective. You can't step your way into
sober-mindedness. You can't discipline your way
into hope. You can't practice your way into
righteousness. But those things are important.
We've talked about that. We've talked about the fact that
we are called to a standard of life, a standard of thought,
a standard of love. And so we have to be careful not to throw
the baby out with the bathwater and say, it's okay. It is okay.
God loves us where we are, who we are, when we are every single
moment of this day. And he's done so in Christ and
proven that in Christ. So our sins are far as the East
is from the West. We are not responsible for them
in the court of righteousness, but the consequences of them
in this world are still very active, right? We feel the pain, we feel the
loss, we feel the suffering, we feel the consequences, we
feel justice sometimes. But oh, is it hard to face the
justice of the laws of man and to escape the justice of the
law of God? It feels like it in the moment.
As Paul would say to the Hebrews in chapter four of that letter,
that Punishment, sometimes discipline feels like punishment, but it's
not, it's affection. It's driving us to understand
how we ought to align ourselves with the hope we have. Not to
earn that hope, not to earn that love, but because of that love.
And so I want to revisit before I get into The rest of this,
we're gonna talk all the way through from verse 13 through
verse 21 today, but I've talked for two weeks now on the first
part of these things in preparation for where we're going. And I
just wanna mention some of this stuff. Let's hear the word. Therefore,
preparing your minds for actions, be sober-minded. And being sober-minded, set your
hope fully on the grace that is yours, or be brought to you
at the revelation of Christ. As obedient children, do not
be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But
as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all of your
conduct. Since it is written, you shall
be holy for I am holy. And if you call on him as father,
that intimate relationship who judges impartially according
to one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time
of exile, knowing that you were ransomed, you were purchased,
from your feudal ways inherited from your forefathers, not with
gold and silver that perishes, but you've been purchased with
the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish
or spot. He, Jesus the Christ, was foreknown
before the foundation of the world, but was made known in
these last times for your sake, who through him are believers
in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that
your faith and your hope are in God. So here we have the answer
to the constant dilemma. Because we hear the instruction,
right? We know who we are. We are blessed. Because the Father
loves us. We are foreknown. We are elected.
We are loved. And we've been given a promise
of an inheritance that cannot escape us. But now, preparing
our minds for action. Why should we have to do that?
Because we have things to do. We have things to do. We have
life to live. We have people to engage with. We have problems
to solve. We have children to raise. We
have marriages to grow. We have life. So in this life,
we have to prepare our minds for action. The context of this
command to prepare your mind for action and put your hope
fully on the gospel of grace is remember what? They lost everything
that was foundational in their lives. They were now in the dispersion
all over. All over Asia Minor. Just walking. wondering where they're going
to live, where they're going to eat. Don't lose sight of that. When we get over into some of
the practical things in this text, which we're into now, don't
lose sight of the context. This isn't about how we get up
and drink our coffee in the morning, preparing our minds for actions.
But yet that's a good time to start. The context is, oh, this
coffee's cold. No, that's not a problem. The
context is you have no coffee. You have no cup. You have no
water. You have no home. And I'm not minimalizing our
suffering. I'm just putting it in relationship.
When we read the Bible, even when we're looking for wisdom,
we need to make sure that we apply it in the right way so
that we understand that what is taught there is not about
winning a baseball game. It's not about overcoming a hard
trip to the grocery store. The root of it is a loss of everything
so that the road trip and the grocery store and the ball game
is nothing in comparison. Because it applies to everything
in life. Don't forget, children think there are boogeymen. Even though there aren't, their
fear is as if they are in bed with them. It doesn't make the fear less
real. Be sober-minded. Let's talk about
these things and then we're going to move into the rest of this
text. It's a place of peace. Sober-minded
is a place of being. Being sober-minded is a place
of identity, knowing who we are and moreover, whose we are. Being
sober-minded is a place of focus. Being sober-minded is the starting
point of readiness. Preparing your minds for action,
being sober-minded. Clarity, peace, identity, groundedness. Readiness. Now ask yourself this
question. Do you live in a state of readiness,
a state of clarity, a state of focus, a state of being? Are
you present? Right now, are you present? You're here, but are you present? Is your mind here? Are you focused
on what's happening right now in this room? Are you focused
on where you are physically in your being? Or is your mind somewhere else? Are you thinking about the things
that tomorrow is bringing? Are you ruminating about what
yesterday was like? Are you having conversations
in your mind that you're not even aware of until I brought
them to your attention? Are you present? There's something to be understood
about the cross of Christ. And Jesus was present physically. And he was present emotionally.
And he was present spiritually. He was present divinely. And he was present humanly. These
are things that we'll never be able to encompass in our life.
We'll never be able to experience. We'll never be able to really
grasp. And if I had a Q&A with Jesus,
I would ask Him these things. Describe to me, just poetically,
metaphorically, just paint me a picture. Help me imagine, Jesus,
what it was like to be God and man present on the cross. And I don't think that He could
answer that question in my comprehension. Because as he's suffering, what
is he doing in his presence? He's contemplating his place
before the father in a place of judgment. I want you to hear
these things. And in the same mind, he's contemplating the
ones who are killing him. And says, Father, forgive them. Then they offer him, let's just
call it a strong drink. They offer him a shot of wine
or a shot of vodka or whatever it was that concocted out of
that gross mess. He refused it. He was present. No escape. And crucifixion did not permit
shock. Didn't work like that. That's
why it's so bad. He was present. Nothing to ease any of it. And
not only was he present, but he was mindful. We must be mindful. Aware of our thoughts. I'm of
the firm belief that we can control our minds. As someone recently
has told me, well, in the beginning of that discovery, we might control
the second thought, but we can't always control the first. You're
right. And there are extenuating circumstances and outliers where
some people are not able, nor can they be able to control their
thinking. And so when we hear things like this, for some people
like that, what happens? Well, I'm commanded by the Lord
through Peter to be sober minded. But what is going on? I'm not
able to do this. I'm a pathetic person. I'm a weak person. I'm not able
to live my Christian faith in a way that satisfies God's requirements. And then our minds go and go
and go. The scripture says to renew them. Because when we are focused,
grounded, present, mindful, we have peace. In Philippians chapter
4, we all know that text, right? That's where the baseball reference
comes. Because I used to coach Little League baseball. I used
to play Little League baseball. And it was so fun. But not a
season went by where sometimes at a very important game, because
you know, got to get that trophy. That was when we actually had
to earn the trophy. Nuff said, I'm just being funny. Oh, look
at all these dads like, don't be doing that to my child. No.
No, I mean, there was rankings. Oh, y'all are last place. And
we said loser, and we booed them, and they cried. We were very
mean. Gen X are mean. Don't bother us. Don't wake us
up, and don't ask us questions. we earned all the pain we're
living in right now. But there was never a time when
it was an important game that somebody like the head coach
would say, hey, we got to pray. And they'd always pray the Lord's
prayer, petition the Lord through rote
memory without any understanding or explanation. And then they
would also employ Philippians 4. And that
line that says, I can do all things through Christ who gives
me home run power. For Jesus over the left field,
that's a bunt to first base, you're out. I mean, you know,
but it's the way we do it. But what does Paul say? What's
the context there? What is the context there in
Philippians four? Paul is imprisoned. And he's extremely sick physically,
and he's distraught emotionally. Luke is with him. And the Philippians find out
about this, and they send a care package to Paul via letter. And they're very close to that.
Man, I appreciate your care. I appreciate your concern. I'm
really suffering, but I'm OK. Because I've had a lot, and I've
had nothing. And I've been high, and I've been low. And I've been
esteemed and I've been hated," and all the different things
you can go in the comparison of those illustrations. He said, but I've
learned to deal with and to enjoy and to embrace the nothings,
the lotus. He says, rejoice in the Lord
always, Philippians 4. And again, I'll say rejoice, let your reasonableness
be known to everyone for the Lord is at hand. So do not worry
and be anxious about anything, but in everything by praying
And by praying for others and supplication and being thankful,
let every need you have be known to God. And then, verse 7, the
point of this, this is the sober mindedness. And then the peace
of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and will
guard your minds in Jesus Christ. Finally, my dear siblings, whatever
is true and honorable and just and pure and lovely, whatever
is commendable, if there's any excellence, if there's anything
worthy of praise, I mean, put your mind on these. Think about these. And think
about what you've learned and received and heard through the
teaching of Jesus from me. And what you've seen in my life,
what I'm doing right now, practice these things and the God of peace
will be with you. Paul knew who he was, finally,
in Christ. And he knew what he needed and
his mind was settled, he was sober. I rejoice in the Lord
greatly that now at length you've revived your concern for me.
You are indeed concerned, but you do not have the opportunity
to help me, not that I need anything. For I've learned in whatever
situation I'm to be content. I know how to be brought low
and how to abound in any and every circumstance. I've learned
the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I
can do all these things. I can endure all these things.
I can handle all of these things through Christ who strengthens
me. All of them. But it was so, so kind of you.
Oh, dear Philippians, I love you so much. It was so kind of
you to share in my troubles, to have the burden that I carry
in your hearts and minds. Because you know yourselves that
when in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia,
that nobody else cared for me. Nobody partnered with me. Nobody
supported me. Only you. Even in Thessalonica,
you sent me help for my needs again and again. So I'm not seeking
the gift, but I'm seeking the fruit of this gift that increases
to your credit. I've received full payment. I have everything
that I'd ever need. I am well. Satisfied and supplied. Having received from Epaphroditus
the gifts that you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable
and pleasing to God and my God will supply every need of yours
according to his riches and glory in Christ. To God, our father,
be glory forever and ever, amen. Goodness gracious. That's sober mindedness. That's understanding what Paul
says to the Church of Colossae in our being, you have died. Oh, church, you have died, oh,
beloved one of God, and your life is hidden with Christ in
God. I hate it too, beloved. I hate
it. I hate suffering. I hate troubles. I hate things not going the way
they, I want them to be. I was about to say the way they
need to be. That's not for me to say. I hate
it when things don't go the way they need to be. But that means the way I want
them to be. But they are going the way God
has ordained them to be. And in that I'm well satisfied.
That is the cry of our heart. When we know ourselves in Christ. When we know who we are. As I've
already said, Galatians 2.20, I've been crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but Christ
who lives within me. And now, Paul says, I live in
the flesh by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me. This is who I am. This is who
I am. You know what, beloved? Only
God can give you that hope. Only the Spirit of God can put
you in a place to where you can stand under a fire and know who
you are. But you can't know that until
you've been under the fire. Because that identity is easily
shaken in the early days. That groundedness, that sober
mindedness, it starts with just a realization of the love of
God. It starts with just a realization of the sacrifice of Christ. It
starts just with the realization of the simplicity of the fact
that we are no longer what? Subject to God's wrath. And this
is enough for a while, but then the world just keeps turning
and our lives just keep churning. Oh, sometimes it does feel like
we're in a blender. So that through that suffering,
our faith is made full, our hope is comes. It uses the fear, as
I've said, as fuel to know that there is an encouragement to
come through the trial so that we will be stronger on the other
side, not that we may be seen as this powerful person. Look
what I did. But no, look who I am, because
look who my God is. Look who my Savior is. Look what
Christ has done for me. And I should be broken, and I
should be dead, and I should be dismantled, and I should be
despairing, and I should be hopeless. But I'm not, because there is
something beyond what's logical to so many people in the world,
and that is that a living God, Jesus Christ the Savior, the
King of all kings, has lived for me, and died for me, and
raised for me, and I am found in Him, and no one can snatch
me out of His hand, and no one can take away that promise, and
no one can take away His love. He Himself cannot take His love
from me, because it is a finished work, and it's a paid thing,
and it's not up for sale. And so when Paul tells the Ephesians,
stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, that's
what he means. Having put on the breastplate
of righteousness, there it is. Nothing can hit it. So we put on the mind of hope,
being sober minded, put on, set your hope fully on the grace
that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. These gospel truths. There's
so many. There's so many gospel truths
that just ring in my mind and my ears. Beloved, we'd do well
to read this letter every day. Spiritually speaking, something
would come that we could not plan for. Not that I'm in the business
of testing God, but I'd often say this. Why don't you test
him? Why don't you read Peter every
day and see what happens? Because of this hope, this hope
tells us we are justified, that we are sanctified, and that we
are glorified. And y'all know this stuff. You know this stuff. Since we've been justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Paul tells the Romans. First Corinthians chapter 6,
11. And such were some of you, but
you've been washed, sanctified, justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God. Paul in Romans 8, he gives a past tense of a future hope
because that's what God is. The yes, the amen, the so be
it, it is done, it is finished. And those whom he predestined,
he called. And those whom he called, he justified. And those
whom he justified, he glorified. And there's a reason that he
said that to those Christians in Rome, those non-Jewish people
who felt so insignificant and insecure in their newfound faith.
The fact that all of their Jewish colleagues and peers and siblings
in Christ had come through all of Moses and all of the prophets
and from Abraham and Jacob and Isaac and all of these things
and they knew so much about so much for so long. And then here's
these Romans who had made every God under the sun to establish
some credibility in their own mind for their own justification
of how they explained the world and themselves and how they found
identity. And Paul says you are an elect
people, even though you're not Jews. And you're a called people,
even though you never cried out in worship to God. And you're
a justified people, not because even though you've never sacrificed
a lamb or given a dove or a sack of flour as a picture of atonement,
you didn't know what it meant. You didn't understand it. He's
telling these Romans there, you've been justified. When they think about the regalness
of the king, the throne of David, and everybody subjected that
in a human sense where they're thinking, okay, Messiah's coming,
we're going to have this amazing earthly kingdom and we're going
to be subject to his sovereign rule, but he's all loving, so
nobody will really be taken advantage of, but we'll have our place. Paul says you're glorified. You need to get this in our we
need to get this in our minds, beloved. We're not going to be
on our face before Jesus. We're going to be standing with
him. We'll be like him, not being
God, but being perfect and holy. and worthy to stand and share
His glory. I can't put my mind around that. Remember the Q&A question I said
I would ask Jesus? He just answered it for me, just
now. Because when I'm standing with
Him, like Him, I'll understand. Because of these things, Peter
tells these suffering Jewish saints, be an obedient child. Don't be
conformed. Don't be conformed to your traditions. Walk in a manner worthy. Walk
in a manner worthy. See, obedience is not about following
a lot of rules. But we know what obedience means
in the New Testament. We know the epitome of obedience,
the centrality of obedience, the foundation of obedience,
the hierarchy of obedience is characterized by love and submission
to each other. And we are all called by the
Lord to submit to one another in Christ every day in every
circumstance. He who has called you is holy,
verse 15. 1 Peter 1, you also be holy in all your conduct. I mean, repetition is so funny. In ministry and in the teaching
role, you start out by learning some information and then you
spit it out. You teach what you're taught. And then after you do that wrongly,
and you mess a lot of lives up, and you make a lot of people
angry, and then you answer all of those things incorrectly,
you begin to teach not what you know, but what you've learned, and what you've applied. And
you walk with people rather than standing in front of them. And one of the things that I
used to be frustrated about, not with you, but with the church,
generally speaking, is that the amount of repetition that's required
for people to remember simple things. I mean, how many years
does it take of brushing teeth for you to know that you need
to brush your teeth when you get up in the morning, children? I mean, how many days does it say,
hey, put your dirty clothes in the basket, not beside it? Well,
the basket's full. or the trash can's full, you
know? We all do it. Repetition. And it used to frustrate
me, and what's weird about that is that I needed it as well,
but because I was reading it all along so I could tell everybody
how they ought to be living their lives, I was being reminded,
so I felt sort of superior, didn't know I felt that way. Have you
ever been there? Don't lie, everybody should bobble
head this way, not this way. Yeah, we all feel that way, we
just don't know it, and then when we do know it, We don't
know what to do with it. So we have to be reminded. I'm
going to remind you of something right now. It's not a burden
to love people. But it is a burden to love people. It is a burden to love people
because people, every people, All people at some time in their
life, and sometimes all times, are not worth loving because
of one thing or three things or a hundred things. Some people
in our minds, now I'm speaking tongue in cheek right now, this
is the way we look at it, right? We know what some people have done
to us, for us, or not for us. Some people we just don't like,
we're like, how am I supposed to love these people? And then we
justify it or we become guilt ridden. And being guilty and
doing something out of obligation because if you didn't do it,
you'd feel guilty rather than obligation because you're compelled
because it's something you want to do because you love somebody
is completely different. We don't love people so that
we can control their emotions. We don't love people so that
we can make them happy so they don't bother us. We don't love
people because if we don't, then God may not love us. We love
people because God does love us. It's literally about the
perspective. We have to put our minds on the
gospel in such a way that it's bleeding into every interaction
that we have in life. so that we can hear that walking
in a manner worthy of the calling that God has called us to is
not about the traditions and the culture of Christianity and
the American church, what we watch, listen to, wear, drink,
don't drink, smoke, don't smoke, all this other kind of stuff.
It's about who we are in Christ and how we relate to the world
around us because of the love of God through Christ in us.
Just to be simple, if that was simple. First John chapter five,
verse three, for this is the love of God that we keep his
commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. They're not burdensome when we
remember what we've received in the inheritance of Christ.
Because everybody is equal at the cross of Christ. There is no hierarchy in the
gospel. amongst us, nobody's better than
anybody else. We're all recipients of mercy.
We're all recipients of grace. We're all given gifts according
to God's pleasure that we may minister to each other in those
gifts. And those gifts, I was told this
morning by somebody that everything I say encourages them. Really? I don't see it. I'm like, Incredible. Now go brush your
teeth. It wasn't one of my children. That's crazy. Is that a gift?
Probably. I don't see it. But we are a gift to people.
Some people more than others. And we're not all going to have
the same measure of gifts. And some of us will not keep
the gifts we have today, tomorrow, because God may change them. But none of us will ever lose
the gift of God's mercy and love given to us. All of us have that
gift in us to give to others around us. And it's not about
expositing the gospel narrative and talking about doctrinal precisions
and dealing with all the different things on election and justification
and glorification. This is not how we love. That's not speaking the truth
in love. The context of Ephesians has
nothing to do with theological fervor. has everything to do with listening
through the lens of being a beneficiary of the very thing the person
speaking to us needs and loving them. That's why the
command of God to love is not a burden. When our mind is sober
and we are focused on the hope that is ours, that is the power
of God. Man, you just made a whole bunch
of stuff up. No, I didn't. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel
for it is the power of God unto salvation. Romans 1 16, it's
on this little $20 ring that I bought 20 years ago. That's
my classroom. I'm not ashamed of the gospel,
but yet we live ashamed. I've lived ashamed. I've hidden
the gospel so many times. People find out I'm a pastor
and I almost get sick to my stomach sometimes. How are they going
to look at me? And now, it doesn't matter because
pastor is not my identity. It's just a role I have that
I may not have tomorrow. I may not have 10 years from
now. I won't have it when I die. So who am I then? The same man
that I've always been, the beloved of God, adopted, chosen, loved in Christ. Loving is easy when we are focused
and our mind is ready. Jesus says it, so my yoke is
easy and my burden is light. So we submit to one another out
of reverence to Christ. And that brings us. That brings us to that brings
Peter here in this text to emphasize them for these Jewish people. Something that they were well
versed in because. When they hear this, they think about their
culture and their experience. See, we don't, in America, we
don't have a culture. It's very strange to think, to
hear that. But if you study sociology, anthropology,
we're not old enough. And because we are not indigenous,
we all came and brought more and then allowed more. None of
us are Americans. We all come from someplace else.
And so we bring our ideals, we bring our emotions, we bring
our theologies. We're very young. So we don't have a culture. And
some people impose that idea. Well, yeah, you know, you grew
up in Georgia, so you're probably evangelical. Probably not. Most
people aren't. Well, you're probably Protestant,
not necessarily. Or you live in Maryland, you're
probably Catholic. Nope. That was true in the 18th century. Just because someone is from
some place doesn't mean that they are those people. But it
wasn't true, it wasn't like that here when Peter wrote this letter.
These people all grew up in the same way, learning the same thing,
which was a requirement of their lives. And so when they hear
these things, just like when we hear these commandments and
we hear this teaching, we go to whatever our experience is,
but our experiences are shared in a little bit, in a little
way, they intersect, but they don't overlap. I mean, even my
own siblings, our spiritual experiences do not overlap. I didn't grow
up in the evangelical church that you know today. Did not
grow up in it. Nearly all of my church experience was extremely,
how do we say that? Old. I mean, these and thousand dimes
in the hymn books. They spanked children in church
when I was a kid. I mean, you know what I mean?
On purpose, it's a part of the liturgy. So these people are thinking,
oh, you know, I've got to put my hope on my
heritage. No. Verse 17. And if you call
on him as father who judges impartially according to one's deeds, Conduct
yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing
that you were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your
forefathers. So it's not about heritage. You were ransomed not
with gold and silver that perishes, but with the blood of Jesus Christ.
Something new, a new covenant, a new promise, a new way of love,
a new way of seeing God, a new way of literally calling Him
Father, being bought by the Son. This was foreign to them. And
now they knew it. And Peter's trying to make sure
that they stay focused and sober-minded and set their hope and the sobriety
of their focus and being and their identity on the gospel,
the blood of Jesus, not anything else as it partook in that sense,
but only and always on the gospel. We don't marry religious ideologies
and Judaism and this-ism and all that other stuff with the
work of Christ. Christ explains what all of that
pointed to. The precious blood of Christ,
which was like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was
foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made known
in the last times for your sake, who through him are believers
in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that
your faith and your hope are in God. And when I read this,
this morning, I added this note. You know, I don't do a lot of
notes, but I thought, I want to say this. Consider this for
a minute. When we read things like this
in the Bible, our minds begin to stretch. For example, You
were ransomed from the futile ways you inherited from your
forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,
but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without
blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation
of the world and was made manifest in the last times for your sake,
through whom are now believers in God, through him who raised
him from the dead and gave you glory so that your faith and
hope are in God." Now, there are a lot of things in there
that sort of stimulate the mind. And when we read this stuff,
we begin to stretch our minds. Imagination is good. Adults,
we need to think about things. Wonder. Because when we do that, we begin
to parse out or think about and sort of talk to ourselves in
a way that we find clarity. And the possibilities that make
us say, oh, now I understand God, or wow, I never thought
of it like this. Maybe, or we might even just
assert it, this is who Jesus is, this is what, I finally see
it, this is how the gospel is, this is that, and this is the
other. And we can ruminate on these things, and we can think
about these things, and these things can become very important
to us, and we could be wrong. But we must do this. You must
have liberty. And letting your mind work with
the Bible. And not fear what someone else
who, if they are your sibling in Christ, is going to care about
what you think. We must be a safe people to embrace
the imagination of others who are absolutely wrong. Because you don't get on theology
on call to get your answer there or go to some search or go to
some website or some commentary, you're only seeking a quick fix. And you might say, what are you
talking about? Well, it's important. You think about the blood of
Christ, the lamb without blemish being foreknown before the foundation
of the world, but made manifest. There are people who could think
of that. Oh, well, maybe maybe Jesus wasn't God. Maybe. Maybe
it is about the sacrifices or maybe. It's OK to think those
things, it's OK. How do we judge them? We continue
to read the entire scripture. We continue to go through the
Bible. We go carefully. It's OK. But we know the truth and we're aligned therein as
we work out the truth. But knowing the truth doesn't
happen instantaneously when you're born again. And you might be
thinking, what is this? It's important. There's a world of people out
here that I talk to every week. And I don't blame them for not
being in fellowship with saints. Because we're not safe. Judgment comes in many forms,
beloved. In the world at large, many Christians
who are starving for spiritual growth and intimacy are afraid
to be a part of a local congregation because there is no authenticity
and there is no sincerity and there is no safety. You are safe
with your knuckleheaded beliefs here. You won't stay in them,
but you will not be mocked, ridiculed, blamed or accused or hated for
them because we will work together to grow. Do we get upset when
a child comes and says, you know, I think when I grow up, I'm going
to be God. Well, that's ambitious. We don't
tell that five, six year old, you're such a little dweeb. I'm embarrassed that you carry
my DNA. We don't say that. We just patronize them. And then
we teach them the truth. You know what the Bible says
about that? Let me show you what the Bible, oh man, it's amazing.
We need to treat every human being in the same way. Get this. So in that spirit,
there are a few things in the next hour I want to pull out
of this text. Why y'all laughing? Get the deacon
to lock the door. A few words. Ransom. The precious blood of Christ.
Being foreknown. Believers in God. Raised and
glorified. I want you to see these aren't prescriptions. These aren't things
that we do. How do I put this? This is a
description. your ransom. He was pierced for
our transgressions, says the Lord through Isaiah. He was crushed
for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement
that brought us peace. And with his wounds, we are healed. We have been bought with the
blood of Christ. In other words, where we were
away and apart because of who we were In our sinfulness, we
no longer had the ability to reconcile ourselves to God, but
he ransomed us through the death of Jesus Christ. It is finished. Christ's people. Our ransom. God's people are purchased. And it wasn't through works.
It wasn't through anything that they did. It wasn't through anything
that they could do or could become. But it was through the precious
blood of Christ. It was through the obedience of Christ, the
work of Christ, the faithfulness of Christ, the person of Christ,
everything. He did it all. Your lamb shall
be without blemish, a male lamb, at least a year old. You can
take it from the sheep or from the goats. Exodus, Chapter 12. And you know the story of Abraham
taking his son, the one and only promise of God that through this
son would Abraham be the father of many nations, that the sand
of the seashore, his lineage would be greater than the sand.
And God calls him to take that son and to sacrifice him. To take and sacrifice him. And
several times on that journey, what does Young Isaac saying, where's the lamb? And Abraham would in his infinite
wisdom, his bottled wisdom from the infinite wisdom of God, he
understood this. He says, son, God will provide
for himself a lamb. And as the blade would touch
the throat of this boy, the angel of the Lord stopped him, and
a lamb was in the thicket, and they sacrificed the lamb. That's
a picture of Jesus. We can't be the lamb. Our lives
are not the lamb. Our callings are not the lamb.
We aren't the sacrifice. Christ was. And Christ was foreknown before
the foundation of the world just as we were in the eternal plan
of God. Loved forever. You've heard me
say it this way, that God loved me before I ever was. He didn't choose one day to love
James because of something he saw in me. And because this is true for
us, beloved, then we can set our mind on hope. We can be grounded
in our understanding of who we are and we can love others powerfully. Believers. In God. He came to his own. In his own
did not receive him, but those who did receive him who believed
in his name, he gave the right to become children of God who
were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will
of man. But by God. And then we as Christ was also
raised and glorified. This Jesus God raised up and
of that we are all witnesses and therefore. Exalted at the
right hand of God and having received from the father the
promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves
are seeing and hearing this very day. We need to be grounded in our
understanding of these things, beloved. We need to be grounded
on knowing who we are, having clarity. And we need to produce
the discipline in our lives that comes through two specific things
promised in the New Testament. Between Trey and I, we need a
big drum up here, because we're going to beat it. The entrance point to this grace
is sitting in that seat, being with each other on the Lord's
Day, being together in this teaching. At minimum, when you can't be,
listen, catch up. Because from here, you will be
encouraged and empowered and admonished to be in the Word,
to be reminded through the Lord's table of the gospel, of the intimacy
that's required. That's what we do it for. We take the table every week
because it reminds us that we are the beneficiaries of the
promise of God's love through Christ Jesus. His blood has paid
our ransom. His body has been broken so that
now we are one again with him. Out of man came woman. It was
not good. They put them together. They
became one flesh. Paul says, I say this mystery is profound,
but I'm going to tell you what it means. It's Christ in the
church. It's just a microscopic picture
of the macrocosmic reality of Christ in the church. And we are one with our savior.
We are one body, and so we are not well when we are not together.
And everything that we need, everything that we pray God to
do for us in our life, He will answer through our lives with
each other. Find that. Find that discipline. It's not
easy because we're at war, remember. We're at war. And the gospel
takes away the guilt that some of us might feel. No condemnation, only celebration. Let's pray. I thank you, Father,
for this, for this gospel, for this good report, Amazing power. Father, I could be selfish and
I could just dance and praise you for who you are for me. But I am not alone. And so it's together we can celebrate
who you are for us. As we take this table this morning,
Lord, let us remember that we have been purchased by the blood
of Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.