Mark Dever - How Are Christian's Special - 1 Peter 1:14-22

friends one of the things I'm convinced of and concerned of is that the people in our churches don't know their Bibles very well and I really think who is at fault in that are the pastor's let me just blame the pastor's I generally feel that's the the most constructive thing I can do at many conferences I speak at just load guilt on the pastor's they put instruction in it with it which can motivate them in certain directions but I think it's it's fine if you read books by Chuck Swindoll or Danny akin but the people in your pews know what Nehemiah is about would they know when to turn to the book of James when they see a challenge going on in their church do they reach for a book by Mark TEVAR or do they reach for first Corinthians I mean dude I'm fine I wouldn't write books if I didn't think you should read modern books but I would really like for people in our pews to know God's Word not just know God's Word and since they've memorized a lot of verses that's a good thing to do but understand what the books of the Bible are about so here's here's just a question to you and I want you particularly to answer if you are the main preacher or you're planning to be the main preacher at a church because I want to make sure you know this so that you can teach others if you wanted to talk to somebody about how strange Christians are what book would you go to in the Bible you've got to put up your hand somebody put up here put up your hand pastors can play any pastors here or if you're training to be a pastor yes what's your name say again okay what book yes excellent answer first Peter that's where I would go to let's open our Bibles to first Peter and let's think about that question how are Christians special I think in Peters first letter we see three answers to this question Christians have a special identity a special perspective and a special characteristic a special identity a special perspective and a special characteristic and I think we see all those mentioned in the space of just a few verses in Chapter 1 so let's just look at chapter 1 in fact let's just go we started verse 14 look at first Peter chapter 1 beginning at verse 14 as obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorant but as he who called you is holy you also be holy in all your conduct since it is written you shall be holy for I am holy and if you call on him as father who judges him partially according to each one's deeds conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile knowing that you were ransomed redeemed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers not with perishable things such as silver or gold but ransomed with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish or spot he was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love love one another earnestly from a pure heart friends I think a good summary of this teaching for us as Christians is that we are different we see things differently we live differently let me just say that again we are different we see things differently we live differently Christians Peter says here first have a special identity we are different we're not conformed to the world look at verse 14 do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorant Swee if we're really Christians we are non conformists that is we don't accept the unbelieving worlds reading of things they're schema their framework Peter here saying do not accept the way of looking at things that is suggested by the passions of your former ignorant your ignorant desires and that ignorant is probably a reference to their being Gentiles so ignorant of God and his law is to be a Gentile was to be Bible less promise less God less so he's saying saying don't be forced back into that mold that used to have you when you didn't know about God and his promises because you didn't have his word don't don't go back into those desires well why shouldn't Christians conform to those desires well Peter says in verse 15 look at university but as he who called you is holy so you also be holy in all your conduct since it is written you shall be holy for I am holy Peter quotes here of course the Book of Leviticus where God spoke to his Old Testament people and told them that they were to reflect his character that is as they were coming out of Egypt physically so they were to separate from everything else that was false and wrong spiritually as well that Hebrew root Kadesh comes from a root which means to divide well what God does he he divides or separates himself from all that is unclean well the separation of his people from the world and to God is called in the Bible holiness and so he says here be holy in all your conduct so it's God who has called us it's God who has given us new life a new birth to you ceases language so it's not surprising that we should be like him that we should we shouldn't look like him that there should be a family resemblance because as he says here in verse 14 we're obedient children now certainly all of the Christians that Peter was writing this letter to were not underaged when he calls them children he doesn't mean that they were like literally physical minors scattered across Asia Minor he's not saying that at all no Peter's calling them children here why well because they are all children of God it really matters who your parents are I mean just think about yourself most of us can think of ways in which God bless us richly by giving us the parents that he did some of us can also think of some ways that our parents have had a less positive affect on us but there is no denying that we parents reproduce ourselves sometimes uncannily in our children much often to our children's chagrin the apple doesn't really fall far from the tree well listen if that's true of human parents how much more is that true of God with us who literally remakes our spirits by his spirit verse 14 as obedient children do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance so God is our Father as Christians God is our Father as Christians in a special way not simply by creation and that's the sense in which there is a fatherhood of god of a whole world he's the creator of the whole world but by redemption because he didn't just sovereignly generate us through Adam and Eve but he has regenerated us he has given us new birth by his Spirit and therefore his character his traits quite naturally then begin to appear in us so what we Christians needs to do is sort of come out of hiding we should we should come out of the closet to our friends we should show by our words and by our action whose children we really are born of his spirits it's not surprising that we are - and that we will resemble our Heavenly Father so if God is our Father we are his children and we must be like him we have this special identity now I'm going to get on to imperative verbs where we're told we should do stuff but just particularly those you're going to be preachers be real careful with imperative verbs before you give the indicative and Peter here is giving us the indicative he's letting us know that if we're really Christians we are different now he's about to go ahead and say so be different but until you can act but but until you are different all you can do is pretend to be different in your actions but what he's trying to do is first help Christians better understand who we really are our identities are given to us by God and all the diversity we can we can find you know minute male and female slave and free Jew and Gentile all the different languages and tribes of the world they are as nothing compared to the unity we have with God as our Father and his spirit indwelling us a diversity is very very common in hell diversity is not a uniquely Christian characteristic unity in diversity now that's uniquely Christian having one spirit which is more important than all of the things that separate us well that's not like the world that's because we have the same Heavenly Father so we have to begin any ethics we have to begin any personal spirituality by understanding our identity who are we well we have this special identity but Peter says here we we have also a special perspective that is we're not just that we are different but we see things differently we have a special perspective on life look at verse 17 you know we we know a judgment is coming that we will be judged for 17 and if you call on him as father who judges him partially according to each one's deeds conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile this is one of the basic arguments in in Peters first letter if you'll turn over to to chapter 4 you look at verse 5 and he talks about those people who are your old friends they're trying to get you go those godless parties again and he says in verse 5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead Peter keeps in our view the judgment that's coming and that actually has a practical effect on what we do Peter makes this argument saying that we should live as strangers here in reverent fear in reverent fear so having discussed their special identity who they are children of the heavenly father Peter now asks the question and answers the question how how are we different like this I mean thinking for these people that Peter is describing our holy to God and strange to the world but how did this happen well Peter answers that here that we have been made holy and strange by the redemption of Christ we have he has not merely been enlightened and educated by being no longer in darkness like being let out of Plato's cave and we now see the light it's not only that it's not merely that we've been internally elected though we we have been that also we have been purchased he says at great cost Christians have a special perspective on life because we have been ransomed look at verse 18 that word ransom means to buy something back or like we would redeem a previously pawned item or like at the time of a soldier had been captured in battle he could literally be redeemed or more commonly even like a slave was ransomed from slavery for a certain amount of money and set free that's the image that Peter is using here look look at verse 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers okayhow ransoming is usually very expensive it's the obtaining of a human in this case how on earth was something as expensive as you obtain well he says not with perishable things and then he doesn't say you know like wood or used books no he says things are just silver or gold the greatest things of this world they're just perishable compared to what he said those things are powerless to redeem anybody you can be given a billion dollars today and you will have zero ability by virtue that money alone to redeem anybody not with perishable things such as silver or gold but here's how you were ransom here's how you redeemed with the precious blood of Christ verse 19 like that of a lamb without blemish or spot he was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you so Peter tells these Christians that they owe their special States to no action of the world no sacrifice of passing worldly wealth but rather to the gift of the precious blood of Christ they were not purchased he says in verse 18 with with silver and gold you learn up in verse 7 he says that Paris is even though refined by fire they have been redeemed by nothing of this world's goods but by the blood of the one who was chosen before the creation of the world and who will outlast this world and they were not purchased with anything that has impurities or defects such as even the finest metals have but rather with the precious blood of Christ a lamb without blemish or defect and his blood is special to us and precious not because of any kind of superstitious regard we have for its unique chemical composition or because of some magical physical force no Christ's blood is precious to us because of who he is eternally foreknown before the foundation of the world verse 20 predestined made manifest in these last times for your sake verse 20 verse 19 without blemish or spot perfect verse 18 our ransom a redeemer verse 21 he's the ground of our faith and our hope he is the one who has purchased us we are his so bought by this one we know that it is to him that we will be accountable so we Christians we have a special perspective we know that we have been bought and we know that we will be judged so we know we have been bought we know that we will be judged and so faith and hope in God are to bring about our actions in Christ look at verse 21 who through him are believers in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God so God's action in Jesus is the focus of our faith in Christ and our hope for the future even as we believe that Christ was crucified and raised again by God so we Christians know the reality of the coming vindication of that faith in the final judgement so this is our our special perspective our special outlook on life we don't look around in the world in the same way everybody else does because of what we know about the past how he's redeemed us and the future the judgment and therefore what we are right now now friends it's only when you get those two things in line our identity and our outlook the then we begin to think correctly about our living what we do our conduct we see how Christians have a special character we live differently so you see in our churches I'm here for 9 marks comets in our churches when we practice church discipline we have to communicate someone we're not so much acting as the moral police going no no you may not do that we're saying oh you're doing that you're doing that unrepentantly like we've been really clear with you what that what that that's wrong that God says that's wrong that how that's not loving to god it's not loving to others and and yet you are deciding to persist oh well then that makes us really wait your identity who you are and because we love you we want to speak the truth you about who you are your actions are beginning to convince us that you aren't who you said you were maybe you're not even who you genuinely think you are we've got to tell you that your actions are showing us your heart and your heart has not been one to God it's not been born again because you clearly love your sin more than the Savior and because we love you we'll tell you that so Peter does get to behavior to action here in the letter because Christians do live differently and look how we mainly live differently it's that we love love characterizes these Christians you see what he says there in verse 22 having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love now what's Peter referring to when he says here having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth that could sound kind of ungracious kind of self salvation like what does Peter mean well I'll admit I'm not entirely sure I think we can understand it well enough if we take the most clear stuff first and then work from the most clear stuff to the less clear stuff so generally if there's something you're reading and God's word that you don't understand if you'll just take it and lay it down on a piece of paper pray and then divide it into parts take those parts that are really clear - well I really don't have a question about that well I understand what what's meant here it's this phrase right here that I'm not sure about well that's fine make those parts clear in your own mind that are clear and then in the light of those turn and look at what is less clear so just doing that here with us having purified your souls by your obedience of the truth in verse 22 I think we take that second phrase first obedience to the truth well look up at verse two in Chapter one look up at verse two according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ that's interesting we're sprinkling with his blood so Christians were elected for obedience to Jesus Christ and were sprinkling with his blood this seems to clearly be a reference to salvation so becoming obedient to the truth would mean accepting the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ as Jesus put it repenting and believing not as two steps but it's one whole action which lacking either part liking either the repenting or the believing neither one is real so you repent and believe that's how you respond saving me to Christ you repent and believe so Peter is saying that these Christians had obeyed the truth okay so now we turn to that first phrase having purified your souls well as a Jewish Christian Peter was very used to that kind of language that's a ritual language from Judaism so it purifying yourself when you were going to make a sacrifice and Christians picked up on that and use it to refer to the true cleansing that comes at conversion you'll find other letters of the New Testament using that James and John will use that kind of language Peter sees here a different more true way that these Christians had purified themselves by being washed not with ceremonially clean water or with animal blood but washed washed spiritually verse 19 by the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish or spot now if you're here today and you're not a Christian I just want to make sure you understand this this is what we Christians think is the tipping point you know your life if you are not a Christian is absolutely unalterably miserable and it is going to get worse and you may or may not perceive that you may painfully perceive that and I don't say that with any glee or joy I've got non-christian relatives I love dearly but the Bible teaches us that we were made to know God and when we don't know God we just use a bunch of other stuff to try to fill ourselves up and none of it works and time shows that so your lot is to have a very frustrated life that's about to get unruly worse when you die because you don't stop existing you continue to exist under God's very good wrath his very appropriate justice against you for the way you've taken the gift of this life and misused it so badly God in his amazing love sent His only Son who as we read earlier from Philippians became a man and he lived a life of perfect trust in his Heavenly Father loving us by living in reliance on his Heavenly Father showing us how we should all live and how we've all failed to live and then also dying on the cross like those animal sacrifices had died but they never saved anyone they just were teaching lessons they were all pointing to him the one true sacrifice that truly is effective Christ's death is effective for your sins against God if you will turn from your sins and trust in Christ God raised him from the dead to show that he had accepted the sacrifice he ascended to heaven where he presented to his heavenly Father and he calls every personnel to turn from their sins and trust in him if you want to know more about what that would mean in your own life you're in a really good room and wait for us to do that right now there are lots of Christians here they're Christians we've been paying money to be taught as Christians so these are some very dedicated Christians here so you're in a very good room so please before you worry about we're gonna have for lunch or dinner today try to figure out what your relation with God is talk to someone about that come to find this tipping point in your own life where you see what it means to be purchased with a lamb with his blood without blemish or spot to be converted Paul saw Peter says here it's because of their conversion of God's working in their hearts as he had that they could now have a sincere brotherly love because of God's working purifying them they could now have unfeigned that is literally unhip a critical unmasked sincere love in their hearts for their brothers indeed this love is what particularly marks out the change in their lives given the fact that we read up in verse 14 of the evil desires they had before they were Christians it seems that this unhip a critical love is the very proof of their conversion do you care about other people do you care about them not supremely for how they think about you or relate to you but for how they think about God and how they relate to God will the so brother sister that's the nub of Christian love Augustine is in his great little work on morals of the Catholic Church by which he means the universal the church the Christian Church talks about how to truly love anyone we have to desire that which is best for them that which is best is to love God supremely if that's what you're trying to do yourself then for you to love someone else means you want to help bring them to love God supremely that's how we love as Christians it's interesting though that Peter here also commands them to love one another in verse 22 verse 22 love one another earnestly from a pure heart doesn't that seem strange I mean if they're already doing it why command it as if they weren't doing it but you know this can be a characteristic of us and also command to us that's very common in the Bible if you think of hope to choose this is another example look up in verse 13 therefore preparing your minds for action and being sober minded set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ but then look down to verse 21 who through him are believers in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God he describes Christians as having hope and yet he exhorted him of adversity 13 to set their hope well that's what we find in the Bible our our identity is what we are and yet our identity is also what we're commanded to be Paul commands these Christians to love each other they are to be brothers in the best sense of the word and this is what it looks like when it's all put together it's interesting since so much goes into something that looks so simple imagine that just a simplest act of love between two Christians you know a kindness that wouldn't happen in the world and you see all that Peter says has gone into that the change in perspective the change in the person loving and being loved all of this tremendous cosmological stuff has gone into just creating the simple reflection of God's own love of his own care much of this letter of first Peter is concerned with shoring up the morale of the Christians over against the opposition they were facing in the world very little has to do with internal church matters so back to my first concern I mentioned about us not knowing our Bibles well enough so particularly you preacher types if you want to tell your people where to go to in the New Testament to talk about internal church stuff where would you tell them to look give me give me a hand I got to have a hand and my guys better not answer anything yes grant so what first corinthians there is a most obvious answer okay can anybody give us more than just that answer the obvious answer it's a great answer but what out where else yup named Luke first really great answer yeah because Paul's running to a pastor okay where else internal church matter it's where else would you go to the New Testament where Corinthians first Timothy these are good answers I want more now I got to have a name put up your hand hello David Matthew's Gospel you think it's because of verses 16 at our chapter 16 and 18 okay true deeply theological excellent sermon on that yeah there's a lot of good ethics in there yeah that's a good answer that's an unusually mature answer yeah I want a simpler answer that's a good one I'd like to go to the epistles alright let's stick in the epistles for answering this yes what's your name say again Louise seasons yes yeah the second half especially yeah yeah the first half he'll give you a wonderful theology in the second half some very practical stuff the local church internal matters where else yep 1st John a yes excellent ethical love morality yeah yeah excellent somebody else where else in the New Testament for internal church matters yeah 2nd Peter what do you thinking of in 2nd Peter false eg that's true that's a great answer yeah of course Galatians would fit in with that also yeah okay so it's the teachings of Galatians 2nd Peter Jew Jude great answers all right what where else anything else for internal church matters no yes say again Hiram Philippians okay you audience in Turkey that's true all right somebody else yeah Griffin Philemon I mean there's certainly implications there I think of that especially in terms of personal relationship but that's I could be pushed on that anything else yeah Enrique revelation two or three superb answer yep yes Jake the end of Romans definitely super practical twelve fourteen yeah okay anything else there's one obvious one I think that nobody said yeah the entire book of Acts that's a really good answer the question it gets really complicated is what in there is unique because of the Apostles and what are we meant to reproduce you're right that's a really important answer it can some of you a little wears with the epistles it's just kind of boxed and ready to go so yeah yeah it's again Galatians yeah I mentioned earlier when the brother said second Peter when we gets a false teaching Galatians is super helpful and works the flesh works of the Spirit a fruit of the Spirit though the one I'm thinking about that nobody said is James I think James is one of those practical books for internal church stuff because there's so much about selfishness and conflict and how you you know to how you regard rich people at church you know there in James chapter two anyway I've used up all my time doing Q&A but it's such good stuff to think about you know the Bible okay Peter is more in this first letter he's more talking about who we Christians are but he does touch on those internal church matters about how they should live together just look over in chapter 3 verse 8 finally all of you have unity of mind sympathy brotherly love a tender heart a humble mind do not repay evil for evil revealing for a vile but on the contrary bless for to this you were called that you may obtain the blessing or then look over to chapter 4 verse 8 above all keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins show hospitality to one another without grumbling as each has received a gift use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's various grace whoever speaks is one who speaks to oral school Oracles of God whoever serves as one who serves by the strength God supplies in order that everything and everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ anyway Peter clearly presents that we Christians are to live in love so if if you're here and you're wanting a summary of moral teaching this is really a summary of Jesus's moral teaching love one another when the lawyer asked Jesus for the summary he says two commands love the Lord your God with all your heart mind soul and strength love your neighbors or self love is a summary of the Christians commands and for how we're to treat each other it's love one another and that's what Christians do and it's interesting it all seems to be a package deal so it's not like you have these unloving Christians over here and these loving Christians over here now all of us who are truly our Christians are imperfectly loving and so that's where some very interesting questions come but if you see people sort of committed to unloving actions well that begins to raise questions about the validity of their Christianity and I think we have to take that very seriously from first Peter because Christians love Peter assumes that if you are not being conformed to your previous evil desires but if you are holy and purchased and living as strangers in reverent fear and prepared self-controlled and hoping then you will love deeply and that a lack of such sincere love calls a lot of other things into question as well so I can think you're not loving just cuz you're young and you're not taught well but that's the best diagnosis I could give the most hopeful a serious lack of love on your part regardless of how many Bible verses you know or how much money you give to the church suggests that you don't know God that in fact you're his enemy because you're just using an appearance of religion in some way to serve yourself and not to love God and others I'm not saying that it's not difficult to love deeply and sincerely every spouse here knows how hard that can be any parent or child any good Christian friend I'm sure I've failed effectively in loving so many folks but friends the continuing attempt even with failure rather than a cool indifference must be closer to what Peter is writing about here of that sincere love of the brothers from the heart that's what characterizes Christians so Christians have a special character now I wonder when it comes to you from day to day do you feel much like a stranger do you seem to live differently Peter's not advocating society's here for the Reformation of morals as if Christians were to do nothing but try to prepare a better legalism for people to live in it's interesting and our intern papers and the brothers who would happily talk to you about our internship program if you want to be a pastor of a church and you're thinking I wonder if that internship program be useful they're gonna hang around here for a few minutes afterwards and talk to people but to the brothers Christian and John are from Kenya and sitting their papers we're gonna be discussing this afternoon and if you're really curious about our internship program you want to be a pastor you're willing to talk to me or one of them about sitting in our intern discussion this afternoon here on campus where we're just gonna have one of our real discussions that we normally have Thursday morning but I'm here with you guys right now so we couldn't do it like we normally do so we're gonna do it this afternoon but in to their papers they talked about problems in churches in Kenya just wanting to make people good Kenyans to make them better citizens of Kenya and how that's insufficient for the gospel and I think that's true we'll talk about that more this afternoon brothers but I thought you were both insightful and making those comments and as I read first Peter I just thought Peter is concerned that their lives display this whole new kind of life that's oriented to God and in love of others and there are all kinds of political and national questions that are important but it's not the same thing the Christians can actually disagree on how to best structure the government in Kenya but they can't be unloving toward each other they must love so if living a different life a holy life was difficult in Peter's time it's no less so today and yet if holiness of life seems difficult we have to realize that it means that's it's a striking witness as Spurgeon once observed it's only things that are alive that go against the current the dead things always flow downstream friends the stream is running strongly against Christian faith and morals being faithful to your husband or wife may have been normal yesterday is increasingly a witness today waiting to experience sexual intimacy first with your spouse may have been normal yesterday it's increasingly a witness today filling out tax reforms honestly may have been normal yesterday it's increasingly a witness today answering your teeth your teacher truthfully may have been normal yesterday it's increasingly a witness today I'm not saying we should relish growing darkness in our culture but we shouldn't be slow to grasp the opportunities that God gives us for glorifying him whatever situation he puts us in history will show our our generation of Christians distinguishes itself from the world or fails to do that but if God calls you and me if he calls our churches to live in stormy times when the poor florists in Washington state is again being taken to court and the Supreme Court of the state of Washington has upheld her being held in to have done something wrong when the Supreme Court of United States already said she's okay in it but times are that hard for trying to be faithful to Christ you can be certain that the God who is sovereign over the times will give us the legs and the stomach for the task all of us who are Christians know the pressure from the world to blend in in what we do in who we think of ourselves as a being and how we feel and think and especially loved born of God Christians bend our wills to his bought and love by his blood Christians similarly give ourselves for each other even as Christ gave himself for us soldiers prepared children of God strangers to the world slaves redeemed deeply loving Christians are all of these who trusts like this who believes in the unseen who gives themselves so fully for others where do we see such faith in such hope and such love friends Christians are special and we live like it imperfectly yes haltingly certainly but consistently so much so as to be characteristically because it is God who is doing this work and he will not fail in it fathered by the Holy Spirit redeemed by Christ's mindful of the coming judgement of God Christians are special we have a special identity and a special perspective and special characteristics we are different we see things differently we live differently because we see things differently because we just are different let's bright Lord God we thank you for your comprehensive love for us in Christ we pray that you would make us more of what you've bought us to be we ask it in Jesus name

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Length: 43min 33sec (2613 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 26 2019