A Life of Steadfast Hope, Part 1

Introduction: Apology and Call to Humility

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, May 31, 1998, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now before we turn to the reading of God's word, I do want to say that I apologize for any who have, in the last few weeks, found it difficult to hear the first few paragraphs I've uttered. I don't know that I'm often accused of preaching or speaking too softly, but one of the brethren very kindly pointed out that apparently in the last few weeks I've drifted into a pattern of starting out

0:44 in such a tone and limited volume that some of you have found it difficult to hear. And I want you to know that that was not done deliberately to irritate you, and I acknowledge it and I am determined that it should...

1:01 The reading of God's word shall cease as of this morning, but it underscores a very vital principle. I was not at all conscious that I was doing that. And when a brother called me, I didn't hand his head to him. I didn't say, I've been preaching for 45 years, who are you to criticize me?

1:19 I said, thank you, brother, I'll repent and do better Sunday morning. You know the great lesson in that, don't you? James, an instrument of divine inspiration to give us a book. In holy scripture said, in many things we all offend.

1:36 And dear people, when we do anything that irritates you, makes life difficult for you, we're not omniscient. Please, please come and help us to know where we can do better. And you'll find us very willing to be cooperative. All right?

1:55 So for any of you who have found it difficult, some of you sit there and say, I don't know what they're talking about, but apparently there were several. And I hope...

2:03 I hope you realize I've got my act together. And for whatever reasons that I had drifted into that pattern, if I need to for a few weeks till I break it thoroughly, I'll write a little note on my notes. Speak up, Buster, or else. And that way talk to myself and remind myself.

Reading of Scripture and Prayer

2:21 Now then, let us turn to 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1.

2:28 And I shall read in your hearing the next major unit of thought in this portion of the Word of God. Beginning with verse 13 and concluding the reading with verse 21 of this chapter.

2:43 Wherefore, girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your life, but like as he who called you is holy, you yourselves be holy in all manner of living, because it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on him as father,

3:25 who without respect of persons judges according to each man's work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear, knowing that, you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ, who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of the times for your sake, who through him are believed,

4:06 and who through him are the believers in God that raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope might be in God. Now let us again seek God's face in prayer for the aid of the Spirit of God as we come to this portion of the Word. Let us pray.

4:31 Our Father, we do again delight to draw near to you in the felt consciousness that it is not in man that walks to direct us, that it is not in man that walks to direct us, that it is not in man that walks to direct us, but that it is not in man that walks to direct us, but that it is not in man that walks to direct us, but that it is not in man that walks to direct us, but that it is not in man that walks to direct us, and with the psalmist we plead, open our eyes that we may behold wondrous things out of your law. We pray that the same Holy Spirit who superintended Peter's mind and Peter's pen as he wrote this letter may be present to give us understanding in his own word. Come, O blessed Spirit, gift of the ascended Christ, and do your work of illuminating our natively darkened minds

5:15 and inclining our wills to embrace your truth for our good and for your glory. Amen.

Addressing the 'Pie in the Sky' Criticism

5:29 Now one of the recurring criticisms of the Christian faith, and some of you may have heard this in one form or another, is that the Christian faith is too much a religion of pie in the sky, by and by.

5:48 In other words, the criticism is made that there are too many strands of emphasis in the Christian faith that are otherworldly in their orientation. They point the child of God to the future. They remind him that the clue to the present is not the present. But it is indeed the future.

6:11 And that the best is yet to come for the child of God. And while this has been a constant criticism of the Christian faith, it has been intensified in our day by many who say, look, if you want me to get interested in your Christ, in your Bible, in your salvation, then you must give me pie on the table now. And furthermore, it's got to be pie made with fresh fruit. And unless your gospel presents to me things that are primarily oriented to the now, I'm not at all interested.

6:52 We're part of the now generation. We're not concerned about things that are off there somewhere in the remote and unseen future. Well, what do you and what do I say to this objection? Well, I say, I'm not interested in the future.

Context and Structure of 1 Peter 1:13-21

7:09 Well, Peter addresses the issue head on in verse 13 of 1 Peter chapter 1, where he writes, Wherefore, girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And in this verse, Peter sets before us a life of steadfast hope, as the very heart of Christian experience. Before I attempt to open up the text in your hearing, let me say just a few things about the place of this text

7:54 in the overall structure of this wonderful letter of pastoral wisdom that we call 1 Peter. You will remember, I trust, those who have been with us for the expositions, that after his general greeting, using the form that was, as common in the first century Greco-Roman world, Peter then launched in, from verses 3 to 12, to this marvelous statement of the great salvation that is the possession of all of these elect sojourners of the dispersion there in Asia Minor. This salvation that is rooted in the great mercy of God

8:36 that has begotten us again unto a living hope, secured by the resurrection of Christ, that has, as its certain prospect, this wonderful inheritance, that brings within its scope God's commitment not only to keep the inheritance as reserved, but to guard us until we are brought to that inheritance. A salvation so glorious that in the midst of trials we can rejoice knowing that those very trials are calculated both by the resurrection of Christ, to validate and purify the very faith by which we lay hold of that salvation.

9:16 It's a salvation in which, though we have not seen the one who procured it, we love Him, and though we see Him not, we trust in Him. A salvation that Peter says was the object of the ancient prophet's inquiry, was the subject of this gospel preaching, and is the constant concern of the inquiry of the angels themselves. And in those verses 3 through 12, there is not one exhortation, there is not one imperative, he is not telling these believers what they are to be or what they are to do. It is a pure and glorious comprehensive statement

10:00 of what they possess in Christ and what they are, because of christ but now at verse 13 you note that he begins with the word wherefore it is the word of transition it is the word often used in the new testament to show that in the light of what has already been said now we're going to enter into inferences and deductions in the light of this this and this therefore this ought to follow so there is an obvious transition as peter

10:39 moves from a pure statement of what we possess and are in christ to begin to lay out what we ought to be and to do out of gratitude to christ and if you were to study the many commentaries on first peter that i have studied sitting on my shelf around 18 to 20 of them and i consult almost every one of them in preparation for each message you would soon find that you can't get any two commentators to agree on a detailed outline of first peter as you read through the proposed outlines each one has his own peculiar

11:21 emphasis but most of the commentators are agreed that beginning with verse 13 through to chapter 5 and Qu ayudado s ô l o t u g v f s e e n

12:00 Now in this first segment of pastoral exhortation, 1.13-2.10, Peter sets before us the Christian life, first of all, in relationship to God, verses 13-21. Then the Christian life in relationship to the brethren, verses 21-25.

12:24 Then the Christian life in relationship to personal growth, chapter 2, verses 1-3. And then the Christian life in relationship to the corporate identity of the people of God, chapter 2, verses 4-10. Now we'll be repeating that broad outline as we work our way through, but I felt it vital as we begin this new section that you get some idea, so that as you read ahead...

12:54 and think and meditate and pray and raise the questions that come in your own reading and bring them under the ministry of the Word, hopefully to see them answered as the passage is expounded, I trust that will be helpful to you as you try to hang the various categories of truth on the pegs that Peter has set before us. Now within this first section of the first cycle of exhortation, the Christian life in relationship to God, Peter describes it under three major categories. It is a life of steadfast hope, verse 13.

13:34 It is a life of universal holiness, verses 14-16. And then it is a life of motivated fear, verses 17-21. So the Christian life in relationship to God, according to Peter, is a life of steadfast hope, a life of universal holiness, and a life of motivated fear. Hope, holiness, fear.

The Central Imperative and its Supports

14:03 Those are the key words. I think you can see that just letting your eye glance down through the passage. Now with this overview of the structure behind us or before us, let us now focus our attention on verse 13. Wherefore, girding up the...

14:21 ...loins of your mind, be sober, and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

14:36 Here we have a life of steadfast hope set before us by the Apostle Peter. Now as you look at the text in your English Bibles, you would get the impression that it was mainly made up of two or three, parallel imperatives. If you have a New King James, that's the decided impression you would get, that there are three duties that Peter sets before these believers. Gird up the loins of the mind, whatever that means, to be sober, whatever that means, and to set your hope perfectly on the grace to be brought to you.

15:15 But in the original, that's not the way Peter wrote under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Rather, what we have is one...

15:24 ...central imperative preceded by two participles that in a very real sense are the preparation and the accompaniments of compliance with that imperative.

15:37 Now lest you get discouraged, I want to use an illustration of how we can do this in our ordinary speaking. And you kids listen carefully and see if you can tell the difference between the two ways that I have a mother give some commands to her son John. It's a Monday morning. It's a Monday morning, coming up on close to time to leave for school, and mama cries upstairs to John and says, Johnny, make your bed, grab your book bag, and get out to the car in ten minutes.

16:12 Now if you heard mom speak to John that way, you would rightly derive from her words that she was giving three parallel commands to John. John, make your bed. Command number two, grab your book bag. Command number three, get into the car in ten minutes.

16:31 But suppose you heard her say this, John, having made your bed, and grabbed your book bag, get into the car in ten minutes. Do you see the difference? Having made your bed, and having grabbed your book bag, get into the car. What has she done?

16:59 Now there's a little bit of mama's authority going out in the second way, but what she is doing is saying, John, the preparation for getting in the car is making your bed, grabbing your book bag, but the central issue that I really want you to lay hold of, John, is get into the car in ten minutes. Now that's what Peter does here. He doesn't say to the saints scattered abroad there in Asia Minor, in these Roman cities, in these ancient provinces, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, set your hope. Rather what he says is, having girded up the loins of your mind,

17:43 being sober, set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you. And so what we have then in Peter's statement of this life of steadfast hope, is what I am calling, the two supports to steadfast hope, and then the summons to steadfast hope. And that's the way I propose to expound the text in your hearing this morning. First of all, the supports, or you might rather use the word, the prerequisites, or the accompaniments, the supports to steadfast hope.

18:23 And there are two of them. One of them is a decisive action, and the other is an abiding attitude. In other words, if we are to do what the central command in this verse mandates of us, namely, to set our hope perfectly on the grace to be brought us at the revelation of Jesus Christ, we can only do so if supported by these two activities. These are the supports to steadfast hope.

Support 1: Girding Up the Loins of Your Mind (Decisive Action)

18:58 And the first, a decisive action. Wherefore, having girded up the loins of your mind. Now, what in the world is Peter talking about? Well, if you lived in the Middle East in the first century, as these believers did, to whom that letter came, you would immediately understand what Peter was saying.

19:23 For the girding up of the loins was a part of your everyday experience. You have seen pictures of the long flowing robe-like garments worn by Middle Easterners in that day, and worn by many even in this day. And while that garment was fine for non-strenuous activity, when it came to activities such as strenuous physical labor, running or brisk walking, those robes were an impediment. And few things could be more embarrassing and more negating of the effort you were putting into a given activity

20:05 than to be tangled up in the flowing garments that you were dressed with. And so what you would do whenever you were seeking to make yourself ready for strenuous physical activity, you would take those flowing parts of the garment, either bring them through the legs and up around the waist and tie them with a sash, or belt them around your midsection. And that was a girding of the loins. And this was very familiar to those to whom Peter wrote.

20:38 So he tells them there is to be a decisive action as a support to this dead fast hope under this figure of girding up the loins. But it not only was a vital activity to prepare the person for strenuous activity, it was also, and we find this in the scriptures, it was also a means of strengthening one for that activity. And as I tried to think of a modern parallel, the girding up of the loins would be like someone saying, now roll up your sleeves and get with it. In other words, we're really going to do some hard work here.

21:16 Roll up your sleeves. It's a figure of speech. Get ready to throw yourself into it. Most of you have been to Home Depot at one time or another.

21:25 They just about own the building supplies. They own the building supply business. And you notice that all the Home Depot employees have those black, elastic, wide belts that support their loins. That's there for support so when they lift heavy objects and bend over, they don't end up with back problems and have to give business to chiropractors and orthopods.

21:49 Well, that would be the picture also of girding up the loins. David could say, you have girded my loins with strength in Psalm 18 and verse 39. And likewise, when Elijah the prophet is about to run before the chariot, God says in 1 Kings 18.46, he is to gird up his loins.

22:11 And perhaps both concepts are present in that reference. Now, to what does Peter apply the figure? Look at the text. This first support to steadfast hope is a decisive action of girding up the loins of your mind.

22:31 I didn't know that the mind had loins. Well, it doesn't. It's all part of this figure. But he is saying that if we are to obey the summons to steadfast hope, we must first of all do with our minds what a man would do when he would gird up his loins with the long flowing parts of his own garment.

22:57 We've got to do with our minds what this man does when he is literally girding up his loins. And I think once you grasp that, you see the heart of what Peter is saying. If we are to obey the central imperative, if we are to set our hope perfectly on the grace to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ, we cannot do it if we are spiritually scatterbrained. If our minds just flow out in any direction, there are serious issues involved

23:41 in this central imperative. As Matthew Henry so perceptibly wrote, you have a journey to make. You have a race to run. You have a warfare to fight.

23:55 You have a great work to do. And as the traveler and the racer and the warrior and the laborer gather in and tie up all the loose ends of unfolded garment, so if we are to fasten our hope on that marvelous grace to be brought at the coming of Christ, there has got to be, first of all, as a prerequisite and as a support to that activity an engagement of all of our mental faculties. And he uses the word for mind

24:36 that is not the standard baseline word for mind, but one that means the mind in its actual thinking and reasoning through an issue. It is the mind thinking through and perceiving and drawing conclusions. And Peter says, as a decisive action, and the form of the participle underscores this, that we must gird up the loins of our minds. That's the first place Peter starts when he begins to open up the implications of this great salvation for these,

Support 2: Being Sober (Abiding Attitude)

25:18 for these elect sojourners of the dispersion, knowing their circumstances, filled in that day with apprehension about coming trials, pressured by a godless society, he tells them, first of all, this support to steadfast hope is this decisive action of girding up the loins of the mind. But now there is a second support, and it is set before us as an abiding attitude, a present participle. We could translate it this way, wherefore, having girded up the loins of your mind,

26:00 being sober. The girding up of the loins of the mind is to be a decisive action, and it is to be accompanied by a constant state of sobriety. Now the word used here for sober is the word used to describe literal sobriety with reference to the influence of alcohol or too much alcohol in the brain. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, or chapter 5, it is used this way.

26:34 Look at the contrast between sobriety and drunkenness in this passage. 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 6. Let us not sleep as do the rest, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night, and they that are drunken are drunken in the night.

26:55 But let us, since we are of the day, be sober. You see how he is using the figure of the one physical drunkenness and contrasting it with spiritual non-drunkenness. It is called sobriety. You see when too much alcohol is in the blood and goes to the brain, what happens to the brain?

27:19 What happens to the person's ability to perceive reality? They are put out of whack, and the person who is inebriated is in the midst of reality that he does not perceive as reality. He doesn't see things as they really are. There are no pink elephants, but he sees them.

27:43 Or in the language of Proverbs 23 and verse 33, in one of those very pointed warnings about the abuse of alcohol, this is what Solomon says, Your eyes shall behold strange things, and your heart shall utter perverse things. Your eyes shall behold strange things. What has happened? The non-absorption of the alcohol, the build-up of the alcohol in the blood system and there in the brain, it neuters the ability to relate to reality realistically.

28:24 And so when Peter is underscoring what these Christians are to do in the light of all that they have and possess and are in Christ, he sets before them as the second support to steadfast hope this abiding attitude of being sober, a condition in which the mind evaluates things correctly. Now put the two things together and what do you have? Wherefore, having girded up the loins of your mind, prepared yourself by a determination that you're not going to let your mind

29:09 run out willy-nilly in all directions about all things at all times with no focused concentration, and being in a state of constant sobriety, viewing things as they really are through the eyes of God's word, then, he says, you're going to be prepared to set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, if it were possible to obey that central command, without these two supports, would God have put them there? God is not indulging

29:52 in extras and in excesses. Just as with Hebrews 12, 1, we are told, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and run with patience the race set before us. Clearly, we cannot run with patience or endurance the race set before us without laying aside the weights and the sins. Well, in the same way, Peter says, wherefore, having girded up the loins of your mind and being sober, set your hope.

30:26 You cannot set your hope perfectly on the grace to be brought to you. If your mind is like a loose flowing garment, you're going to get tangled up in your garment. You're going to be impeded in your journey. You're going to be hindered in your labor.

30:43 You're going to be neutralized in your effectiveness. As a warrior and a worker. Now, in a day when modern technology has multiplied the avenues to the mind, there is, this is no small issue for you and for me living at this point in human history. The printed page, personal computers with the plethora of websites and internet, goodies, TV, radio, Walkman stereos, CDs, telephone, etc., etc.

31:15 All of which are doing what? Sending impulses to your brain, to your mind. All of which are calculated to make you a spiritual scatterbrain and to take you out of the realm of reality as God defines it. If there's one thing one can write, over 99% of the drivel that comes over the TV is fantasy world.

31:40 It's not the real world as defined by God. And what is the pull for so many of you young people with, quote, your music? It's that it takes you away from God's world and God's realm of reality. It's escape from those things that in your heart of heart you know are the real issues.

32:05 God and you and His law and your accountability and your relationship to Him. And surely if there's to be any progress in Christian experience and grace, there must be a determination to take seriously these two supports that Peter, by the Spirit of God, sets before us. And I want to underscore the implication of that for something very practical in this place. Listen to Mr. Cranfield,

32:35 the very astute commentator who, commenting and applying these very words, writes, Such strenuous thinking can seldom have been more urgently needed than today. It is a pathetic feature of contemporary church life that there is still plenty in the pews who clamor for shorter and lighter sermons and bright and easy services, and not a few in the pulpits are prepared to pander to popular taste. Peter's slogan is a call for sermons that teach, not merely entertain, and for church members who will not shirk the discipline of intellectual effort, a call to the strenuous

33:19 but exhilarating adventure of trying to understand ever more and more deeply the truth of the gospel. What is Peter's prescription for these ordinary, not a think tank of great intellectuals there in Asia Minor, but ordinary believers, wives with unconverted husbands, servants with wretchedly unfair masters, people feeling all the pressures of a godless society, his first word to them, after their spirits as it were have returned a little bit from being in the heavenlies as he describes their glorious salvation,

The Summons to Steadfast Hope: Heart, Object, and Qualification

34:03 he says, wherefore, girding up the loins of your mind and being sober. Whatever I'm going to tell you saints of the dispersion there in Asia Minor, whatever instruction I'm going to give you, whatever duties and responsibilities I'm going to lay upon you, here are the supports to everything that follows, girding up the loins of the mind, being sober. But then we move from the supports to steadfast hope, to the summons to steadfast hope, and the summons comes in these words, be sober,

34:47 and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Consider with me the heart of the summons, the object of the summons, and the qualification of the summons. First of all the heart of the summons is in this verb, set your hope, set your hope. Now as you've been told many times the word hope in the noun form and in the verb form in the New Testament does not refer to wishful thinking, or I hope my friend will come by five o'clock today, or I hope to get a raise

35:31 at the next time my job is reviewed and evaluated by my superiors. No, in the New Testament hope is far beyond wishing for something or wishful thinking about something. Hope is the fixing of the soul upon a divinely promised blessing of God. Hope is the fixing of the soul in faith upon a divinely promised blessing.

35:58 And in that fixation there are the elements of desire, expectation, and joyful anticipation. Now again let me illustrate. This family is blessed with a father who keeps his word. Though he's not God, and omnipotent, and can't control all events, so much as lies within his power, he is a punctual man.

36:25 His wife and his kids know him to be such. He's been that for years. I just read a mini biography of an English Christian surgeon who had a tremendous influence in the generation past. And his son writing that biography said he was utterly amazed at the impeccable punctuality of his father.

36:45 When he at times, the son would be leading a meeting in brethren circles for the father. And the meeting began at 6 and the preaching would begin at 6.30. He would lead the service and he said never once, never once did his father fail to come by the time it was time to have someone preach.

37:04 Sometimes it was while they were singing the last hymn before the sermon. And he could see one of the other men in the brethren assembly, almost any one of the male members can give a word, coming through their Bibles wondering who was going to have to give a word if this particular brother didn't show up. But he said never once in all the years of my father living that way, very punctual, very busy man, demanding schedule, never once he said did he ever fail to keep an appointment on time. Well here's a man that earned a reputation for punctuality.

37:36 Now such a man has said to his wife and to his kids, I'm away on a three day business trip. But at five o'clock on Friday, I will come through that door and when I do, I'm going to have a special gift for every one of you. Now if he's a loved and esteemed and respected father, if these kids and if that wife believe him, they will be in a posture of hope with respect to his return. And that hope is not just wishful thinking, but it is based upon his promise and his track record is such that his promise is almost as good not quite because he doesn't control his own life, God does,

38:18 but almost as good as the promises of God. Now if that were the framework, do you see what their expect or their hope would be, what it would involve? Certainly it would involve desire for dad's return. He's a loving father.

38:35 He's a loving, caring, sensitive husband. There would not only be desire but expectation that dad will return. And there would be holy excitement with positive emotions, joyful anticipation. Desire, expectation, and joyful anticipation.

38:57 Well here Peter, in writing to these first century Christians, summons them to this steadfast hope and the heart of that summons is that they set their hope, their expectation and desire and joyful anticipation upon a specific reality. Now he had already said in verse 3 of this chapter that God has begotten us unto a living hope. That's something God has given. He has given the hope.

39:34 Now he says set your mind upon that hope. It is given. Now let what is given be the focus of your conscious spiritual concentration and expectation. That's the heart of the summons.

39:52 Now what's the object of the summons? Look again at the text. Set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. The object of the summons is grace to be brought to you.

40:12 It is grace that is the object of the summons. The free unmerited favor of God to hell deserving sinners and all the blessings which that grace confers. You remember in verse 10 he described their salvation in this very terminology concerning which salvation the prophets sought and searched diligently who prophesied of the grace towards you. The whole of their salvation is called grace towards you.

40:47 Now he says in this summons to set your hope the object of that hope is the grace that is to be brought to you. That is the free unmerited favor of God and all of the blessings that that favor is determined to confer upon the people of God. And so certain is that grace that Peter does not use a standard future tense the grace that shall be brought but he uses a present. One could literally render the text the grace that is being brought

41:28 or carried or borne to you. It is grace already being carried to you. It is grace already moving towards you. Or as Dean Alford the great Greek scholar said it is grace bearing down upon you.

41:49 It is grace in its future dimensions but so certain is its conferral that Peter describes it is already being carried towards you. Already being borne towards you. Already bearing down upon you. And it is grace being carried to you that will come to its climactic conferral in conjunction with what?

42:18 Look at the text. At the revelation of Jesus Christ. We have already encountered that phrase revelation of Jesus Christ in verse 7b found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is the grace coming to you that grace that you will enter into in the possession of all that it brings in conjunction with the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

42:54 It is that grace that will actually bring to you the full enjoyment of that inheritance mentioned in verse 4. You have been begotten unto a living hope unto an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, fades not away. At His coming the inheritance will be ours. The inheritance of a resurrection body conferred, a body transformed like unto His own glorious body.

43:26 Philippians chapter 3 He will come in grace to renovate the existing order according to 2 Peter 3 and usher in the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwells nothing but righteousness. He will gather to Himself the whole new humanity in Christ saints from the old and saints from the new covenant all under the one salvation in Christ when that multitude whom no man can number from every kindred, tribe and tongue and nation is gathered to Himself and He says to these believers the heart of the summons is this set your hope upon this object

44:10 the grace that is already being brought to you and will come to you in your experience in its fullness at the revelation of Jesus Christ. But then there is the qualification of this summons. Notice the word perfectly. He doesn't say simply set your hope but set it perfectly.

44:33 Now perhaps the word perfectly is not the best rendering of this word found only here in the New Testament but its kindred words the words in the same family point to something that has been brought to completion something that has been brought to its end. Perhaps we could better translate set your hope completely fully in other words the setting of our hope on this coming grace is not to be by fits and starts it's to be a settled, fixed, steady state disposition of the mind and of the heart.

45:12 Now you see why He spoke of those prerequisites those supports before He focused on this central imperative. How in the world can our hope be fixed steadfastly and completely upon a coming reality that is in no way fair led by our five senses and is certainly never suggested to us by an earth-bound society and by a sense-bound climate that pervades all that is around us. How in the world can we set our hope

45:57 with any degree of fixation and steady state perspective upon that unseen reality that is on its way it is grace that is bearing down upon us and will come to its glorious climactic expression at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is telling these believers that this perspective is not to be something that they take up occasionally when there is a passage that points to the second coming when there is a hymn that celebrates the second coming when there is some sobering events that rattle our cage and say wait a minute there is something more to this life

46:40 than what I see and touch and feel and smell oh yes there is something that is coming at the return of the Lord Jesus no this setting of the hope upon the grace to be brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ is to be a setting of the hope completely with finality and a non-negotiable quality of the fixation of the soul well basically that is Peter's summons to this steadfast hope the very first thing that he sets before these believers as he begins to unfold cycle after cycle

Observation 1: Doctrine and Practice in Biblical Revelation

47:23 of practical pastoral exhortation now having sought to unpack the text at least in its leading lines of truth let me now make with you two very basic and I trust what will be helpful observations number one this text underscores two central issues of biblical revelation and then secondly this text highlights a dominant reality of healthy Christian experience but first of all the text underscores two central issues of biblical revelation I have emphasized that as Peter moves from the majestic statement

48:08 of our glorious salvation that salvation that is the possession of all the sojourners of Asia Minor no two-tiered experience they all have it all or they have none of it the therefore is a summons to steadfast hope of all the things Peter could have underscored he underscores this very practical reality and begins with the words wherefore girding up the loins of your mind he moves from this statement of the lofty doctrinal concepts of our salvation to this practical issue

48:52 of what we do with our minds and in so doing Peter is underscoring the first of these two central issues of biblical revelation and what is it it is this that the lofty doctrines taught in the Bible are never presented as subjects of academic discussion mere admiration or abstract speculation never the doctrines of the Bible are either brought forward to form the basis of particular duties or upon articulating a duty the doctrines are brought in to buttress by way of

49:35 motivation and direction the very duty that has been enjoined always for example in this very passage Peter begins in verse 3 blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and ends with this salvation being so glorious that even angels are constantly longing to look into it and then he says therefore girding up the loins of your mind being sober set your hope as children of obedience all of the exhortations flow out from and rest down upon the doctrinal foundation of verses 3 to 12 and so the practical flows

50:19 out of the doctrinal but later on in his epistle he will mention at times the practical and then bring in the doctrinal to buttress it that is what he does in chapter 2 beginning in verse 18 the subject is servants being in subjection to their masters even with nasty masters even with masters who punish them when they do good and then he brings in the doctrine of Christ's sufferings to buttress the exhortation verse 21 for here unto we are called because Christ also suffered for you and then we have a marvelous doctrinal statement concerning not only the exemplary but the vicarious sufferings of the Lord Jesus

51:02 so this is the way biblical revelation is set before us the doctrines are never set out here in isolation for academic discussion mere admiration or abstract speculation they form either the basis for subsequent exhortation or when exhortation has been given they are brought into as it were gospelize those exhortations the doctrines of the bible must find their fruit in practice and the practical mandated by the bible must have its roots in doctrine if we strip the practice from doctrine

51:47 we are left with a sterile cerebral intellectualism that is no more the Christian faith than is Buddhism strip away the practice from the doctrine and we are left with a sterile intellectualism if we strip the doctrine from the practice we are left with a vapid moralism a religion of do's and don'ts a religion of mere activity the great motif of scripture is that the doctrines must find expression in the practice and the practice must have its tap roots in doctrine

52:31 now brethren you say well that's a simple thing that's obvious we've heard it many times but I want to tell you I'm convinced not just my conviction that clinging to that reality and living in the light of it will be the life and death of churches in the next thirty to forty years David Wells has written two masterful treatises one called No Place for Truth and the other God in the Waste Land and the whole burden of those two books is that American evangelicalism has jettisoned its lifeblood in jettison its grasp upon historic Christian doctrine and in circles that some of us have been privileged to move

53:15 for the last thirty years our danger is that we will grow weary of having the doctrine applied closely and powerfully to the conscience making its legitimate demands upon thought and motive and time and life and energy and want a quote a Calvinism and a respectable reformed theology that floats by faith and no burrs in it may God spare us from ever drifting into a form of the Christian faith that will ultimately deny its power if doctrine is not the soil out of which our life grows or

Observation 2: Only Christians Can Live the Christian Life

53:59 if we have doctrine isolated from life that's the first central issue of biblical revelation that is underscored by Peter but there's a second that is underscored is this that the Christian life can only be lived by Christians simple but oh how basic you see the therefore comes after Peter has described what God in grace has already done for these people he has begotten them again to a living hope he has brought them to the place where they love supremely an unseen Christ they trust in a Christ whom they've never seen

54:42 contrary to the world there are worldlings about them whose joy is predicated upon favorable circumstances they're able to rejoice in the midst of their trials they're able to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory not because they won the lottery last week but because their greatest treasures unseen to them and to the world wait for them at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ you see when Peter says therefore girding up the loins of the mind he's assuming that those to whom he writes are Christians they are no strangers to the power of the divine begetting

55:25 they are no strangers to supreme attachment to Christ they are not strangers to a vigorous active faith that is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen and that underscores a basic issue of biblical revelation that only Christians can act like Christians it's because they are the kind of people they have already become in grace that Peter expects them to be the kind of people that grace will further fashion and make them and use his own epistle as an instrument in the hands of the Holy Spirit now you need to know that my unconverted friend as we move into this section of first Peter and you hear such

56:10 things as a child of obedience not fashioning yourself according to former lusts being holy as God is holy you'll hear those things and say that stuff is absolutely beyond me well it is it is until you are begotten again until Christ becomes to you the pearl of great price the things that are set forth as normative for Christians they are utterly impossible for you and they simply underscore why you need the grace of God and parents you need to understand this in your parenting you must never compromise biblical standards in ordering your home but you must

56:54 remember until Christ is the pearl of great price to your children they are going to act like unconverted sons and daughters of Adam and don't be shocked when Adam lacks like Adam and Eve like Eve and don't be shocked Jesus said you make the tree good and its fruit good or the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt and while we must press the claims of the gospel and our children and we must maintain biblical standards in the ordering our family life I wonder parents at times when I listen to some of you if you're really coming to grips with this principle only Christians act like Christians and until Christ is revealed savingly to the hearts of

57:38 your children they are not going to delight in devotions they are not going to delight in reading their Bibles you may exercise parental rights in structuring into their lives a time when they must read their Bibles and they must at least say their prayers I'm not negating that but what I'm saying is grasp this principle until God is pleased savingly to work in their hearts let your expectations be framed by this reality that Christians alone can conduct themselves as Christians and it's only when God makes the tree good that the fruit will be good so the text underscores those two central issues of biblical revelation but then secondly the text highlights a dominant reality of healthy

The Second Coming as a Central Fixation

58:22 Christian experience and what is that healthy Christian experience it is the truth that the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is to be a central fixation in the mind and heart of the people of God the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is to be a central fixation in the heart and mind of the people of God as Peter is about to unfold many avenues of pastoral concern he starts with this in the cross hairs of

59:07 his perspective wherefore girding up the loins of your mind being sober set your hope perfectly or completely fixedly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ I don't have time to enlarge upon this I've wrestled I'm prepared to start another series tonight but I've wrestled with whether or not this would warrant a bible study on just how central this is and given the fact that my hour has gone I believe I'm going to break off here but I do want to simply press this thing home and hopefully wet your appetite

59:50 and open up this head in the ministry of the word tonight that this text underscores that the coming of the Lord Jesus is a subject of debate as to the surrounding events as to its relationship to other prophetic events I'm not talking about that Peter doesn't in any way introduce one gram of such a concern he says to these people set your hope completely upon the grace that is already being carried to you and will come in its consummate blessing and conferral upon the revelation of Jesus Christ this that is called in scripture

60:35 the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus this that is set forth in the scriptures not as a secondary issue but as a central foundational issue and Peter is so convinced that these elect sojourners are to live as they ought to live they must be flanked on the one hand with the constant reflection upon what they are in Christ and the blessing God that he has begotten them again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead they are to rejoice in their identity as he gave it in the opening verses that they have been foreknown

61:19 by God the Father they have been sanctified by the Spirit they are sprinkled by the blood of Jesus Christ they are to be flanked on the one hand by what they have in Christ and on the other hand by a fixed perspective of what they will receive from Christ at his revelation and only then are they prepared to be the kind of elect sojourners in a hostile environment in an unfriendly world that will carry themselves in such a way in using the language of chapter 2 in verse 9 that will show forth the virtues of him and into his marvelous light

62:02 may God grant that to the extent that this dominant reality has been something less than dominant in our thinking God will help us even today to meditate upon this passage and say Lord whatever it means for me as a mother with my little ones clamoring for my attention as a father trying responsibly to govern the home and provide for the family as a single man a single woman with my peculiar pressures and Lord what does it mean for me for me to set my hope completely on the grace that is being brought to me at the revelation of Jesus Christ

62:46 God teach me what that means for me teach me what it means for me to gird up the loins of my mind where and in what way is my mind impeding me as the ungathered strapped flowing parts of the garment of a runner and a worker and a soldier would impede them in the task Lord where am I not girding up the loins of my mind Lord what kind of spiritual inebriation am I indulging what am I doing what am I not doing that is somehow keeping my spiritual brain from being in reality in touch with reality of the things that are and I see them as they are

Closing Prayer

63:30 Lord help me help me to know and have dealings with me that I may in my pilgrimage be one who has his hope set perfectly on the grace that is to be brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ let's pray together our Father we do thank you for your word and we pray that you by the Holy Spirit would write it upon each of our hearts we do thank you for the glory and glorious prospect that our Lord Jesus will indeed return that there is a moment coming in human history

64:14 when the heavens shall part the voice of the archangel will speak the trump will sound the dead in Christ shall be raised we who are alive and remain to his coming shall be caught up together with them and oh Father how we pray that this foundational and central reality may make its proper place in our hearts in our thinking in all of our relating to life and to people oh God help us forgive us when we have been earth bound and sense bound forgive us when we have not had the mind of one focused upon these great realities

64:58 use your word to help us to correct us to bring us into that place where we will be enabled by your grace to be those who as sojourners in pilgrims conduct ourselves in such a way as reflects the power of the gospel have mercy upon those who do not know you whose hearts and thinking are bound by this present world the world of sense and time and touch and smell oh God have mercy upon them and be pleased so to work in them that they too would count it a joy to become a pilgrim looking forward to the best that is yet to come for those

65:42 who are in Christ seal your word we pray and be with us through the remainder of this day Amen