Seeking for the help of the Lord I direct your prayer for attention to 1 Peter chapter 1 and reading for our text the verses that we read verse 17 through to 21. Last Thursday we looked at or considered the exhortation to holiness and this evening in our sixth sermon in this series that we're going through the epistles of Peter, we look at five reasons to live in godly fear.

We have noticed at the beginning of this series the commission that the Lord gave to Peter when he denied his Lord three times, when he was restored, The Lord charged him, feed my sheep, feed my lambs. And we're looking through these epistles that Peter will be fulfilling that charge in feeding the people of God. Also the Lord said, when thou art converted or restored, strengthen thy brethren. So we are to expect and look that in these epistles there will be those things set forth that strengthen the brethren. And so we're looking at several verses at a time where they're grouped together in subjects. And then this evening then, five reasons to live in godly fear. We'll read from verse 17 again through to verse 21.

And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained 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 hope might be in God. I want to consider three points.

Firstly, our Father God. Our text begins, if ye call on the Father, and it closes with that your faith and hope might be in God. And then secondly, how we are to pass the time of our sojourning here in fear. And then lastly, five reasons to live in godly fear that Peter sets before us in these verses. But firstly, our Father God. God the Father is set before us here, and there's a couple of things, or three things, that are specifically drawn to our attention.

Firstly, it is regarding the judgment. If ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's word, We stand before God who has made the heavens and the earth, the eternal God. God who has given his commandments, his plan, his purpose, his ordering of all things.

And we are to stand before him and to give an account unto him. Now we need to make it very clear, and we made this clear at the start, that it is not by works that we are justified or saved. Peter is writing to those that are elect. He's writing to those that are the Lord's people. We mentioned, I think it was last time, the differences in holiness. God's people are counted holy in the Lord Jesus Christ. That holiness and that righteousness is perfect. But in their lives they are also called to live godly and upright lives. That is not perfect. Our sanctification is always mixed with sin.

But it's in this way that we have all of the exhortations in the epistles, is that the people of God, through the washing of water by the word, might be made more and more like the Lord. Not thinking that their works are going to merit them heaven, not thinking that it is something that they are adding to their salvation, but right from a desire to love God, to serve God, and in this passage here, because of the fear of the Lord.

But we are to have a right knowledge or an understanding of God. And even before we come to look at the fear of God, to actually know who God is. We cannot comprehend him, we cannot search him out without him being made manifest in the Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot know or see God at all.

The idea of one that has no beginning and no end, the idea of one that is able to create worlds that are so great and yet also create things that are so small that we need a microscope to see them, and not only create them, but cause them all to work together and maintain all of those through all of the years of the creation. A God that actually knows the thoughts of every person, knows their intentions, who declares the end from the beginning who has planned and purposed all that shall happen in this world. We can hardly comprehend, we cannot comprehend the greatness of God.

Many times I've quoted that which Solomon said at the dedication of the temple, when he said, will God in very deed dwell upon earth. The heaven of heavens cannot contain him, how much less this house that I have built there. Of course, our Lord Jesus Christ did come. He said, if you have seen me, you have seen my father also. Emmanuel, God with us, God manifest in the flesh. But as he is introduced here, he is a father, a heavenly father, one that does not take bribes, one that doesn't respect or turn away, one because they are poor or give more to those that are rich.

He doesn't look upon man at all to change how he judges, but we're told here that he judgeth according to every man's work. May we truly realize the word that only has wrought all our works in us. Or in our Lord's parable of the vine, you cannot bear fruit except you abide in me.

From me is thy fruit found. It's a blessed thing where those works reflect what the Lord is. to us. And in the context here, our works will be influenced by the fear of the Lord. It will be the mindset that we have that will regulate everything that we do.

And though we have sin mixed with everything, though we may be like the Apostle Paul, the good that I would I do not, the evil that I would not that I do, Yet the motive, the desire, is right before God. The Lord knows what we are. Now if we had someone with a broken leg that was trying to run and they were doing such a bad job of it compared with someone that did not have a broken leg, you'd commend them for their effort. You wouldn't have a go at them because they weren't as good as the one that had a whole leg. And the Lord knows that we are sinners. Paul says that, if I do that which I would not, is no more I that doeth, that sin that dwelleth in me. But God is the one that sees the intentions of the heart, that sees what we do, and we are told that by their fruit ye shall know them. And it is the works that the Lord has wrought in. He will have respect unto the work of his own hands. And when we show forth the praises of him that has called us out of nature's darkness, that is pleasing and lovely in the sight of the Father.

But we're also told in verse 21 that it is this God that raised Christ from the dead. We know, of course, in the scriptures that each one of the Trinity is ascribed as those that raised the dead. The Father that raiseth the dead, our Lord said, I have power to lay down my life, I have power to take it again, and the Holy Spirit is set forth as quickening the dead. It is the work of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. But here, it is set forth as God that raised him up from the dead, raised up Christ from the dead, and gave him glory.

So when we are looking at the Father, God, the one in whom we are to fear, the one that is spoken of here, we're to have that high view of Him not only as God, but as what He has done in His beloved Son, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. If God could, by His great power, save men from sin, then that would be one thing, but according to His holiness and righteousness, He cannot justly save a sinner except through the Lord Jesus Christ and the assurance that he has given unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead.

The Apostle Paul when he writes to or he speaks of those in at Athens at the end of chapter 17, he speaks about the day of judgment in verse 31. Reading from verse 30, we read, the times of this ignorance, that is those that worship gods of gold and silver, God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, that is, to turn from idols to the true and living God, because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man by whom he hath ordained, that is, Christ, wherefore he hath given assurance unto all men. in that he hath raised him from the dead. Now, our text, the beginning of these verses, verse 17, is speaking of God judging. At the end, it is, in verse 21, it is speaking of raising him from the dead.

The Lord Jesus Christ bore the sin of all of his dear people. And as he bore that sin and bore it away, the proof that it was accepted is the empty tomb, a risen saviour. So in that sense, for God's people, there is the judgement. God has said, there are my people, they are sinners, there's my beloved son. I have suffered for them, I have paid their debt. I have risen from the dead and the Father has said that sacrifice is accepted. It's finished, it's done. That part of the judgment for God's people is done. But there must be a judgment day.

Because of those that Christ did not die for, those that are trusting in their own righteousness, those who do not want the Lord, they must stand before God's judgment throne. It cannot be that Half God's people are judged, but the rest are not. It must be seen that God is a just God. And those that are wanting to be accepted by their works, they shall be judged by their works. And there shall be that judgment. So the apostle brings these two things together, and he gives a reason for there must be a judgment day because Christ has raised from the dead.

And so this is the picture that we have of a God, a just God, a righteous God, a God who shall judge every person, judge as God that has already judged upon his beloved son the sins of his people, accepted that sacrifice, raised him from the dead. It is this God that's set before us here and one to whom we are to fear.

So I want to look secondly at how we are to pass the time of our sojourning here in fear. Sojourning. Temporary. A temporary stay. What a reminder for God's people, isn't it? This time here below, and this is time, not eternity, is a temporary stay. We think of the children of Israel, their sojourning in the wilderness was 40 years. That was not their rest, that was not their home, that was not the land of Canaan. they were passing through. We are passing through. And here Peter is seeking to encourage and to strengthen the brethren in their time of passing through this world. How are we to pass through it?

Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. What kind of Fear is that, certainly not a slavish fear. It's not like the devils that they fear and that they tremble. But it is the fear of God, a godly, filial fear. A fear that might be described by that set before us in Hebrews 12. where we read from verse 28, the last couple of verses.

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. To have a real reverence of the Lord, to stand in awe of him, but to reverence him like we would as a good father that would be severe to chastise incorrect, but at the same time would be loving and caring and would not have his children to be frightened of him. We are not to be frightened of the Lord.

We have throughout scripture Some other places which speak or describe this fear of God. In Proverbs, the first chapter in verse seven, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Beginning of knowledge, the knowledge of the Lord, whom to know is life eternal. We think of the description going back to the law of God in Deuteronomy and chapter 10.

We have several verses there. In verse 12, and now Israel, and we could put that as to the whole church of God, not just Israel. What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God? to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes which I command thee this day for thy good. Then later on in that same chapter, verse 20, 21, thou shalt fear the Lord thy God him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name. For he is thy praise, he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things which thine eyes have seen." Notice the effect of the fear. to walk in his way serving him and loving him. It is realizing that God is a real God, a God that is a living God, a God not far off but is nigh unto us. I remember reading when Mr. Roundswell's little book, Bible doctrine simply explained.

And he speaks of a man, a wicked man, that was in hospital, and he wrote a sign over his bed, God is nowhere. And he had his little granddaughter come in, and he wickedly asked her to read the sign. Well, she was only beginning to read, and so she put the spaces in a different place. And she read, God is now here. And the Lord used it for his conversion. I believe it was put there, he trembled and realized that God was there.

And God is everywhere, but for God's people, his presence is in a special way. He wants to remember that. Though God is everywhere, yet he says, lo, I am with you. all way, even unto the end of the world, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst. Unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

The presence of the Lord by his spirit and by his grace is very precious for his people, his felt presence for them. And the effect of that is a real reverence. Perhaps if we put it in the opposite way. Look at someone like Pharaoh. When the Lord was judging the land of Egypt, who is the Lord that I should serve him? He couldn't care less.

He had no idea of the greatness of the Lord, even though the Lord wrought all of those signs and all of those wonders. We think of the king. that took the word of God and with a penknife cut it up and threw it into the fire and he didn't tremble, he didn't fear. It was just as if God didn't exist or was just like an idol that couldn't see and couldn't hear and couldn't act. You see examples of those throughout the scripture that had no idea of the greatness of God.

You see the contrast with Daniel When God appeared to him, his prostrate on his face had a great effect. Nowadays, there can be great familiarity with the name of God, with worshipping of God, and yet in Psalm 89, God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. If we truly know God, by God being revealed to us, then the effect of that will be to fear Him, to have that filial fear, that reverence, that knowing that He is a just, holy God, is able to show mercy, but also to give judgment.

David knew what this was when he sought to bring up the ark, and did not bring it up on the shoulders of the Levites, but put it on a cart imitating the Philistines. God had not commanded to be worshipped in that way and to carry the ark in that way.

And Uzzah was struck dead. And David said at first, how can I stand before this great God? To the ark turned aside to a house of Obed-Edom. But then the Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom. So then David bought up the ark, but bought it up correctly.

And so it's like the hymn writer, my soul stands trembling while she sings the honors of her God, a balance of judgment and mercy. And we have that with the New Testament, with Ananias and Sapphira as well, struck down Because they had lied to the Holy Ghost and the church there, instead of getting less, it increased. It didn't frighten people off from following the Lord. They might have thought, well, what shall happen to this man, Saul, that's persecuting us? If God has done this to Ananias and Sapphira, what shall happen to him? Well, God converted him, showed mercy upon him. And when we realise that God is such a sovereign, blessing one, destroying another, lifting up one, showing mercy to another, God is a sovereign God. And we are to have that right attitude before Him.

It'll solemnise our thoughts, it'll regulate what we say and what we do and how we live because of the fear of the Lord. The hymns that we're singing tonight speak of the fear of the Lord and may they be as much instruction as well added to what we have through the verses here tonight. May we then have a conscious thought as how we spend our sojourning here. What is the attitude of our minds how our thoughts go, is God a living reality to us?

Well, in this passage, we have five reasons to live in godly fear. And it's not perhaps what we would think that should be so. You'd think, well, it should have those things that would make us really fear and tremble. But I want to look at these five things. Verse 18 first.

For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers. What a path, a path of our life, a vain life, just received by tradition. Men, women that have lived like that, and how are they to change? How are they to Get out of that pattern, out of that way of living. No, traditions and vain traditions are very, very hard to break.

If something has been passed on from generation to generation, often think of that word in the commandments, visiting the iniquity of the children upon the fathers unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him. And you think, how is that?

Well, you have one going in a path of sin, and they teach their children, and their children teach their children, and their children teach their children. But then you get a generation that is brought back like the Josiahs, back to the word of God. And they don't listen to all of the tradition and all of what has gone on through the generations, and they go right back to the word of God again. And again and again through the scriptures, through the history of the children of Israel, we see this pattern where there is a person raised up, the word of God is found, and they walk in that way. But here the first thing is to bring us to fear the Lord.

We weren't redeemed by silver and gold. However much silver, however much gold, however much of this world's goods can never separate us from a false religion, from an empty faith, an empty religion. Not of gold, not of riches, it cannot be bought. We have a most solemn picture of that where we have Simon the sorcerer, which Philip had baptised But when he saw Peter, that by laying on of hands that the Holy Ghost was given, he offered him silver, offered him money. Thy money purchased with thee. Thou'st thought to purchase the gift of God by money. Thy heart is not right in this matter. And so, the first thing that is mentioned here, why we should fear the Lord, he is not redeemed us with these earthly things. These things are upon this earth. Our redemption is not here.

And often it is in what is not that highlights the greatness of what actually is. I often think of John 14. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. The silence in it testifies the reality of it. But here, the fact that it is not gold and silver, it paves the way to show us what actually it was. And so the second reason is that we were redeemed. This is in verse 19. with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. We mentioned of the fear of the Lord, how there is that balance of judgment and mercy.

But here we have a picture of the Father saying I will send my beloved son. I will send him whom I love. And rather than pass by the sin of my people and no payment be made, the payment shall be provided by him. I will lay on him the iniquity of them all. and I will pour out my wrath that was to be poured out upon them upon my son.

You think of the Mount Carmel when God would turn the hearts of the children of Israel back again and they made trial of those two altars, the altar for Baal and altar for the true and living God, 12 stones the sacrifice on the wood, the water poured around, and when no answer came from the false Baal God, then Elijah prays to God, and he says that they may know that Thou hast turned their hearts back again, and he's going to give them a sign, a demonstration which must have been fearful to behold, And when the fire came down from heaven, fire that consumed everything, the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the water, the fire that did not fall on the prophets of Baal, it did not fall on Israel, it fell upon the sacrifice. A picture of the wrath of God to fall upon the great anti-type our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. If we're ever to be taught the fear of God and what the wrath of God is, we see it at Calvary.

We see what God would do rather than just turn a blind eye to sin, rather than just pass by without a payment being made. And this is why it follows first. It wasn't by silver and gold, but it is a payment. It is a redemption, but it's a redemption through blood, through the life of the only begotten Son of God. And this is given as a reason why we should fear God.

What shall fall on those for whom Christ did not suffer? that same wrath of God falling upon man, falling upon sinners. But for God's people, those for whom Peter is writing to here, he's drawing their attention to what Christ has suffered and to what he has endured. As if he would say to them, you have a godly fear of this God. that it would punish for us his dear son. And God commended his love toward us, that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. When we were in our blood, he passed by us and bid us live. Peter was a witness of Christ's death and sufferings and his resurrection. it must have left on him a profound sense of reality, of the justice, mercy of God, the greatness of God. And this he wants to pass on to the people of God, that they might have the same fear of God as he has in looking at the way that we were redeemed.

Then we have in the third place, in verse 20, that Christ was foreordained for us before the foundation of the world, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. The people of God are chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world, And he is a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Our Lord before Pilate, he says, for this cause came I into the world, to bear witness of the truth, to suffer, bleed, and die for his people. For that reason, he came to this world.

For that reason, he has made flesh and dwelt among us. for that reason he was made like unto his brethren, sin accepted, and why he should be of the seed of Abraham. And all these things are set before us as the wonder working of this great God for the benefit of the people of God. This is how Peter is strengthening, strengthening the faith of the people of God. encouraging them, saying, look what the Lord has done for you. Look what this great eternal God has done for you. He's not just taken gold and silver. He's taken his beloved son. He's appointed his beloved son right from eternity past. These things are not just done as a spur of the moment.

This is an eternal plan, David would say. Although my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure, for this is all my salvation and all my desire, although he make it not to grow." That covenant made between the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, of which David was the one who had an interest in it. He was the subject of it, as is all of the people. of God, the foreordained Saviour.

Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, and therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. But then we have a fourth reason. It is by Christ that we believe in God. In verse 21, who by him do believe in God. that raised him from the dead and gave him glory. It is through the Lord Jesus Christ that we are brought to believe in God. Our Lord said, if you believe in God, believe also in me.

But when our Lord was upon earth, all the time he was testifying of his Father, the works that I do, The father gave me a commandment what to do. They bear witness of me. I bear witness of my father. The Jews all the time, they rose up against this. Thou being a man, make us thyself God. They understood very full, completely what he meant when he said that his father was in heaven and that he was equal to the father. They crucified him as one that claimed rightly that he was God.

But it is through the Lord Jesus Christ that every poor believer is brought to believe in God. It is through him life is given, through him the new birth, through him who is the light, that we see the Father, that we see and believe. Without the Lord Jesus Christ, we could not believe, we would not believe. When the Lord worked the works that He did, He said, do ye now believe?

The works that I do, they are they that testify of me. Whoso receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me Receiveth him that sent me. And we are to then fear the Lord for this. If we join together, verse 20 and 21. Who is it that is, that Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the world to die for? and to be manifest. It is manifest in these last times for you who by him do believe in God. A token of being a child of God. Those who are brought to believe by the grace of God. This is the work of God that ye believe in him whom God has sent.

Well, there's one last reason for the fear of God, and that is that our faith and hope might be in God. The end of verse 21. Where we have the fear of God, then our faith and hope will be in God. Without the fear of God, we do not know God. We do not know Him, whom to know is life eternal. We do not fear Him, we do not have any evidence that we even have seen God or know Him at all. But where we do have the fear of the Lord, where we can truly say the Lord has blessed us with that, then we may rightly say, our faith and our hope is in God.

He which hath brought a good work in you. he will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. He that gave a poor sinner to know him and to fear him with the fear that we've had here, it is those that have a living faith and a living hope in God. Thou only has wrought all our works in us, and this work here, the work of faith, the work of the fear of God, the work of the fear of God, because of those things that are set forth here, what Christ has done for us, where that has a profound effect upon our lives, that influences how we speak, how we act, what we do, and our hope beyond the grave. This is a real encouragement, a real token for good, that we truly have the fear of the Lord. Will all bless the word and encourage and strengthen us through it, giving us the fear of the Lord. May we have our eyes fixed upon our Lord Jesus Christ and what the Father has done for us through him. Amen.