1. One of the greatest encouragements in tough times is the wonderful truth that Jesus is coming again.
Psalm 30.5 For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.
a. The pains, the problems; the trials, the troubles.
b. They won’t LAST FOREVER!
c. That’s the word Pastor Peter has for the troubled, scattered flock receiving this letter. -- He begins v13…
I. (1:13-16) HIS CALL TO READINESS
1. (13) Get Ready…
• What does GIRD UP mean? We don’t use that phrase much.
• It’s an old phrase that actually means to “get rid of the things that can tangle you up and cause you to fall.”
• Men in those days wore NOT pants, but robes.
• In the hot, dusty, dry desert, having good air flow helped to keep the men cool in all their work.
• When they needed to RUN or DIG IN to get to work, they would take their robes up and tuck it into their belts.
• They would GIRD UP their robes, to help them move better!
PETER says… get rid of the things in your mind that are making the situation worse. Paul would encourage us this way…
2 Cor. 10.4-5 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…
It’s NOT PARTY TIME right now, it’s time to be ready, be sober.
• Be sober… speaking I believe of a soberness apart from any substance that would numb & dumb the mind!
• Literally: “watchful, upright, not intoxicated”
So that we can REST OUR HOPE FULLY UPON THE GRACE that is going to be revealed to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ!
• His appearing will change everything in our lives, wouldn’t you agree! Maranatha, Lord, come quickly!
• But until that time, Peter says REST YOUR HOPE… on His grace.
APP: I wish we would do that, fix & fasten our hope on His grace.
• A lot of us are discouraged because we haven’t fixed on hope on that but we’ve fixed our hope on other things or other people.
• We’ve looked to other institutions, or to our marriages, or our parents, or our kids… but they can & will let you down!
• So he says let the thing that you’re hoping in be the glorious return of your Lord & Savior Jesus Christ!
Titus 2.11-13 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
REMEMBER, Peter’s writing to a struggling group who is about to walk into the biggest trial of their lives!
• When that happens, you begin to appreciate the coming of the Lord more than ever before. You long for it.
• Resting all the more upon the promises of God!
• You see our nation, our city and the state we’re in.
• The perversity of man, the horrible tragedies all around us.
• Our hearts cry out, MARANATHA, Lord coming quickly!
• And that hope doesn’t remove us from the world, it literally moves us to engage this world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Romans 1.16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
• And in it all we know Jesus could come at any moment!
• We expect it. We long for it. We love it…
2 Timothy 4.8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.
NOTE: The only reason I believe there appears from our standpoint to be a delay in His coming is that there are STILL SOME who have not received Jesus Christ yet.
2 Peter 3.9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
SO GIRD UP: your mind… get rid of the baggage holding you back.
BE SOBER: keep ready & alert under the influence of nothing.
REST YOUR HOPE FULLY: upon the grace revealed Jesus returns!
2. (14) As Obedient Children.
• Apart from God, people who don’t know Jesus are ignorant.
• A person who lives apart from Jesus Christ just has no idea whatsoever the kind of life they can have in Him!
• There is a whole beautiful world that you don’t have any idea about until you come to know Jesus Christ!
1 John 3.1-2 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
SO NOW THAT you know of that wonderful love of Jesus, don’t live as if you don’t know!
• Just because times are tough, don’t run back to the world!
• But what does the life of obedience look like?
• Let’s flip back to Ephesians 5:1-10
• It’s a forward walk, not a backward retreat!
NOTE: This is the love of Jesus Christ worked out & walked out among the brothers & sisters in the Lord!
• I would so much rather have a small little church where everyone loves each other and walks in Jesus’ love…
• Than a huge church that is full of fighting, and frustration, with backbiting, gossip, and all that junk! It’s just not pretty.
• So what really marks a great church, what we’re seeing in our fellowship, is a great love, greatly shared!
3. (15-16) Holiness.
a. Don’t let this scare you. “I can never be holy like God!”
b. God’s not asking us to do something we can’t, He’s asking us to walk in something He’s already given us!
NOTE: You know what made things holy in the Bible?
• Things were made holy when the blood of the lamb was sprinkled on them…
• You could be an ordinary pot… until you were set aside by the blood of the lamb for use by God!
• That’s what holiness means, “SEPARATED or DIFFERENT”
Hebrews tells us that we’ve been sprinkled with the blood of Jesus.
Hebrews 12.22-24 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
• It’s Jesus that sets us apart, not our holy behaviors.
• It’s His blood that marks us as His possession…
• And It’s His Spirit that enables to live a life of holiness & righteousness and purity.
SO WHAT CAN WE DO PRACTICALLY?
• Asking a few simple questions and letting God’s Word through His Spirit answer them will help us greatly in understanding the heart of God for our lives and decisions.
#1 – Will this help me honor God?
#2 – Will this sanctify me, set me apart for God?
#3 – Will this help my usefulness for the Master?
#4 – Will this prepare me for every good work?
1 Cor. 6.12 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
1 Cor. 10.23 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify.
AND we can add a few more to that list… READY?
#5 – Does it build you up spiritually?
#6 – Can it bring you under it’s power?
#7 – Does it give you an uneasy conscience?
#8 - Could it cause someone else to stumble?
NOTE: The decisions to these questions will determine how we possess our own vessel in sanctification & honor!
II. (1:17-21) HIS VALUE UPON US
1. (17) One Day we’ll stand before the Father.
a. One of the greatest hindrances to your relationship with the Lord & walking in holiness is a lack of ‘the fear of the Lord’
b. We like the picture of a loving, gentle, caring, personal relationship with God… and we should have that.
c. But remember, a loving father disciplines his kids.
Hebrews 12.5-7 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; 6 For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives." 7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
Combining that with a healthy reverence & awesome fear of Him!
• NOTE: Let’s walk through the Scriptures…
(Psalm 19:9, 34:11, 111:10) (Prov 1:7, 10.27, 14.27, 15.16)
• You see it’s not walking around in fear, cowering & recoiling.
• It’s in wisdom, strength, and healthy understanding of who God is and who we are…
SO in view of the fact that our Father lovingly disciplines His children today, and will judge their works in the future…
• We have great motivation to cultivate an attitude of godly fear.
• It’s not the cringing fear of a slave before his master.
• But rather the loving reverence of a child before his daddy.
2. (18-19) Redeemed with precious blood!
a. Look at how valuable you and I are…
b. It’s good to remember that when times are tough.
c. God places a great value and worth upon your life!
REMEMBER in the Old Testament, when a lamb was being offered to the Lord it wasn’t to be a castoff or a lame animal.
• A worshipper of God was to offer his best.
• God said I want the best because I’m giving you my best!
• That lamb being offered represented the Lamb who was to come, Jesus Christ.
NOW OUR WORLD has a standard for value, for money…
• It’s GOLD, SILVER, PRECIOUS STONES.
• The world has said this is what we will value, this is what we will protect with our lives, this is what we will lock up in vaults deep beneath the earth… gold… silver… diamonds!
• But they aren’t going to last are they? – Matthew 6.19-21
Not only are they not going to last, but the Bible teaches us that there are many things more precious than gold…
Job 28:15 – Wisdom
Psalm 19.7-10 – Law, testimony, precepts, commandments
Psalm 119.127 – your commandments
Proverbs 12.12-14 – Wisdom & knowledge from God.
Proverbs 8.17-19 – Fruit of wisdom.
SO there’s even one more thing more precious than gold, and that’s the precious blood of Jesus that redeemed our lives!
You KNOW there is this big search today for meaning & significance.
• Secular psychologists will tell you that you need to find yourself!
• But the reality is that most people apart from Jesus Christ are already full of themselves, self-centered, self-oriented.
• Over concerned about themselves…
• But still people will say we need to build up their self-esteem!
• But all that does is distance a person from the cross.
• The Bible tells us that self, ourselves, is pretty gross!
• Our hearts… are deceitfully wicked.
Jer. 17.9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
• Our righteousness… like filthy rags.
Isa. 64.6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.
• Our conduct, apart from Jesus… aimless & wandering & stuck!
That’s what you’ll find if you go out to search for yourself.
• Men, there are countless spiritual books out there, some even in the Christian bookstore that tell you to run wild, go into the forest and bang a drum, let your natural you come out!
• Women, there are countless books for you too, telling you to leave your kids behind, go find yourself in the world, independent and free.
But the Bible says I’m to die to myself and live to Christ.
• If I’m to have any esteem, it’s to be Christ-ESTEEM!
• So that through his death & resurrection, my faith & hope are in God not in myself!
Even if my world is spinning out of control… my parents are walking with the Lord, I can’t pay for my school, my bills are stacking up…
• My confidence is in the Lord and not in myself! AMEN!?!
• He is my Rock. He is my hope. He is my strength!
You’re VALUABLE… your value has everything to do with what was paid for you… His own precious blood bought you!
So you need esteem, go to the cross, go to Calvary and look at Jesus and know His love. That’s what we need!
• We don’t need self-help books, or to be hypnotized, or to be rocked to sleep by this world. We need Jesus Christ!
