Glory of Redeemer/Goal of Redemption

Introduction: 1 Peter as a Traveler's Guide for Christian Pilgrims

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, July 5th, 1998, at the Trinity Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us turn together to 1 Peter chapter 1, 1 Peter chapter 1.

0:38 Because we do have visitors among us who have not been here for the consecutive expositions, I will read the paragraph that we will conclude in our studies of that paragraph this morning. I refer to verses, not the full paragraph, but verses 13 through 21.

1:00 1 Peter 1 and verse 13.

1:03 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 to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, as 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 ignorance, but, like as he who called you is holy, be yourselves also 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, 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 and 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. Who was manifested at the end of the times for your sake. Who through him are believers in God, that raised him from the dead and gave him glory,

2:29 so that your faith and hope might be in God, or perhaps better rendered, so that your faith and hope are in God. Now on this 4th of July holiday weekend, I'm sure most of you are aware that millions of Americans, have left their homes to travel to other places. Some to places near to home, some to places far from home, some familiar, some not so familiar. And for the non-familiar traveler, a road map is almost an essential companion.

3:11 Especially if going to an unfamiliar place means that you're going to enter into an unfamiliar world. Culture, with unfamiliar circumstances, you will not only desire to have a road map to tell you how to get there, but some kind of a traveler's guide to acquaint you with the rules and with what is expected of you in such a setting at which you hope to arrive in your journey. Well, one servant of God has called the book of 1st Peter, a traveler's guide for Christian pilgrims. Peter described, Peter describes those believers in Asia Minor and those five Roman provinces as elect sojourners. That is, this world is not their home. They are resident aliens whose citizenship is in a better place. And in the language of that old gospel hymn, this world is not their home, they're just a passing.

4:20 Their treasures are lost. They are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. Though that may be a kind of homespun way of expressing it, there's a lot of good sound biblical truth in it. As Peter, there in Rome, fulfilling his commission from the Lord Jesus to feed and shepherd his lambs and his sheep, is burdened for these saints who have already experienced no little measure of opposition and distress from those among whom they once dwelt with heart and soul.

4:54 But when God in grace saved them and wrenched them out of this idolatrous attachment to the world and made them true pilgrims with their hearts set upon another place, living by the standards of the place to which they were going, no longer the standards of the place of their original dwelling, Peter is concerned that he will give them guidance as to how they are to live in their pilgrim journey. And he begins this pilgrim's guide, this traveler's guide, as people make their way to the celestial city. He begins not by telling them what to do, but he begins by telling them what they have because of the great salvation of the living God. And so in verses 3 to 12, no duties are laid upon the believers. Peter is at work. Peter, as it were, catches up these believers with him in this tremendous burst of praise to God for his great salvation.

The Pilgrim's Exhortations: Hope, Holiness, and Fear

6:02 Then in verse 13, he begins his first cycle of pastoral exhortations, telling these pilgrims endowed with such a glorious salvation how they are to conduct themselves on their pilgrimage. And he calls them, first of all in verse 13, to a life of steadfast hope. They are to keep the place to which they are going dead center in the crosshairs of the eyes of the soul. They are to set their hope completely in a fixed way upon the grace that is to be brought to them at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

6:45 But not only are they to be marked by a steadfast hope, according to verses 14 to 16, by the pursuit of a life of universal holiness. As the one who called them is holy, so they are to be holy in all manner of living. And then in verses 17 to 21, he tells them that their pilgrimage is to be marked not only by a steadfast hope and the pursuit of universal holiness, but by an appropriate fear. And if you call on Him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man's work, here's the central directive, pass the time of your sojourning in fear. And as we've studied these verses on two previous Lord's Days, we've noticed that this fear to which Peter calls these believers is flanked on the one side by the knowledge that God is an accessible or an approachable Father and a righteous judge, and on the other hand by a knowledge that they are a redeemed people. Do you see how he sandwiches this imperative to pass the time of their sojourning in fear with this reference to them calling upon God as Father,

8:11 the same God who is Father is impartial judge. And verse 18, knowing that you were redeemed. And in our last study two Lord's Days ago, we looked at verses 18 and 19, in which the apostle sets before us this biblical concept of redemption. Can you remember those who were here what the heart of it is?

The Context and Cost of Redemption

8:37 Whenever your salvation is set forth as redemption, you ought to think in these terms. Redemption is to be released from bondage by the payment of God. By the payment of a price. Now not every use of the word redeem or redemption has that more limited focus significance.

8:58 But when the scripture says our salvation has come to us as a redemption and that Christ is our redeemer, that is the heart of the biblical concept. To be released from bondage by the payment of a price. And then we looked at the context of our redemption. What was the bondage that these people were in?

9:21 From which they were released by the payment of a price. Peter describes it as their vain, their futile manner of life handed down from their fathers. A life that goes nowhere of any significance. A life that comes from nothing of any significance.

9:43 It comes from nothing and it amounts to nothing. That's Peter's description of the wretched, miserable bondage out of which they were redeemed. And then he highlights the cost of that redemption negatively. Not with silver or gold.

10:02 No amount of the most precious metals that are hidden in the bowels of the earth. If every last gram of it could be released and piled in one place, it could not release one soul from the bondage of sin. We are redeemed by the payment of a price, not silver or gold, but with precious blood. Even the blood of Christ, blood shed by Christ, as God's ultimate and true lamb, utterly without moral defect or blemish, as of a lamb without blemish, and without spot.

10:45 Well, that's a brief overview of where we've been in the study of the passage. Now, having told his readers of the great redemption and the knowledge of that redemption being an incentive to this, you are to pass the time of your sojourning in fear knowing that you were redeemed. Knowing that you've been delivered from bondage by the payment of a price. That that price was not silver or gold, but the precious blood of Christ shed as God's ultimate and true lamb without blemish and without spot.

11:25 This is to fill you with a holy dread that you would displease so gracious a God who purchased you at so great. But having mentioned Christ, and in the original, the word Christ comes at the end of verse 19. And the old American standard, seeking to reflect that, translates it this way. You are redeemed with precious blood as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

The Glory of the Redeemer: Eternally Appointed

11:56 And then they put in the words in italics that are not in the original, even the blood, because the word of Christ comes at the end of Peter's statement. And it's as though having mentioned Christ, it's like a beautiful rose a day or two from its full opening he says it is precious blood, even the blood of Christ. And he no sooner mentions the name of Christ in connection with our redemption, but that by the guidance of the Spirit he launches into a statement of the glory of the Redeemer Himself and the goal of our redemption. And time permitting, I want you to note with me these four things that Peter sets before us. With respect to the glory of the Redeemer and the goal of our redemption. And the first thing he tells us that constitutes the glory of the Redeemer in verse 20 is that He is the eternally appointed Redeemer. Having mentioned Christ, he goes on to say who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world.

13:17 Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world. What is Peter doing? He is telling us that part of the glory of the Redeemer is that He is the eternally appointed Redeemer. The word foreknow is the verb form of the word we encountered back in chapter 1 and verse 2.

13:41 When Peter, having described these Christians as elect soldiers, the sojourners of the dispersion, says that what they are is in perfect accord with, it follows the contours of the plan of the God who according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit and unto obedience and sprinkling has made them what they are. And I hope some of you will at least have a faint remembrance when we looked at that word in its noun form. Foreknowledge sometimes simply means to know beforehand. But when it is used as is used here in chapter 1 and verse 2, it means far more than that God sees something ahead of time and knows something ahead of time. It means that God regards people with distinguishing love and purpose. And in that sense it is, as we heard in the previous hour, in the same family of biblical concepts as foreordination and predestination, election, God's sovereign choice. And here we have the verb form in verse 20 that Christ was foreknown.

14:58 It cannot mean that God simply saw that He would be the Redeemer. That tells us nothing significant about His glory. For in that sense God foreknows everything that transpires in His universe, good and evil beings. But here it is Christ who is foreknown.

15:19 That is Christ who is appointed. Christ who is marked out and given to be our Redeemer. He is foreknown. And when did this foreknowing take place?

15:35 The text says before the foundation of the world. This is terminology that means before time as we know it. We would say in eternity. According to the Bible, time begins in Genesis 1-1.

15:51 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And time as we know it, structured in days and years and months and cycles of morning and evening are introduced with creation. Before that there is God. God in the mystery of His own self-contained glory as Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

16:19 No beginning. Self-sustaining. Self-fulfilling. No lack in His being.

16:27 No thought that God is lonely and therefore must drum His fingers and figure out how to do something to compensate for His loneliness and create a world and universe and stars and men and women and boys and girls. That borders on blasphemy. God is all God needs to be fully satisfied. Father, Son and Holy Spirit in blissful, self-fulfilling communion within the life of the Triune God.

16:58 And back in that bowel of mystery we are told that Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world. In Ephesians 1 the same terminology is used when Paul says Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. Our being marked out and having God's love set upon us predates time. But here Peter says it is not the people of God who are foreknown but it is their Redeemer who is foreknown. He is marked out and He is designated to be the Redeemer before the foundation of the world. This is why he can be called in another passage that uses that same phrase Revelation 13.8 He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

18:08 Here Peter says you have been redeemed not with corruptible things but with precious blood even the blood of Christ as of a Lamb He has been the Lamb in the reckoning of God from eternity. He is the eternally appointed Redeemer. Now you say well that is an interesting bit of information. What in the world does that have to do with the imperative pass the time of your sojourning in fear knowing that you were redeemed by a Redeemer who was eternally appointed to that task.

18:52 How are these first century Christians how are they being regarded by their fellow citizens as an irritant? Chapter 4 says they think it is strange that you don't live the way you once lived and your lifestyle irritates and exposes them and under that exposure they turn and they attack you and you seek to do good and they oppose you they treat you as an irritant they regard you as a bunch of nobodies they regard you as having something to load upstairs you gather and you worship a God you cannot see and cannot touch in the sea of idolatry here are people worshipping a God that cannot be seen with their eyes staking all of their hopes upon a Christ who lived and died and rose again and according to chapter 1 in verse 8 they've never seen Him yet they love Him. Now they hear this letter read you've been redeemed by a Redeemer who has been appointed to that blessed town from the foundation your standing in Christ is such that there never was a time when God did not have you

20:20 upon His heart with respect to sending Christ to be your Redeemer that's your worth that's your standing that's your status in the presence of the living God you see how that would produce this appropriate fear why would I ever want to grieve and displease so gracious a God who has had me upon His heart in Christ before the world began He sees my fall in Adam He sees my own personal life history when I would be conceived as a sinful son or daughter of Adam He sees all of my infantile sins and my juvenile sins and my prepubescent sins and my sins of puberty and my sins of young adulthood and my sins of adulthood and yet He marks out His own well beloved Son to be the Redeemer before the foundation of the world surely I do not want to displease so gracious a God of the glory of the Redeemer and the impress it is to have to intensify and feed this appropriate fear

The Glory of the Redeemer: Historically Manifested

21:48 but then notice the second thing that Peter tells us that relates to the glory of the Redeemer He is the historically manifested Redeemer He is the historically manifested Redeemer yes He was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world but was manifested at the end of the times for your sake now what's this word manifested mean to manifest means to make fully known to openly disclose something that is previously hidden it's there but it is not made fully known and trying to illustrate it this is the only illustration that came up to me that would be visual this hand with the particular shape of every finger in the wrist and all of the rest and the way the veins are there in the hand if hidden beneath my handkerchief you know that's a hand I'm not a magician I haven't replaced it with a softball or a baseball I'm not going to bring out a dove or a bird or anything else I'm not playing magician that's my hand but if I were to have come out this morning with that handkerchief wrapped around it in an elastic band you would know that was my fist because I couldn't talk without using it somehow someone said

23:16 off my hands would be like cutting off half my tongue so there's my hand but you would not know whether or not it had distinguishing scars the peculiar direction of the various veins it's there you know it's there but it's not what it's not manifested it's not fully disclosed but when I unwrap the hand hold it up for you to see turn it over I have now manifested my hand to you that's the word that is used here Peter's opening up of the glory of the redeemer to these saints in Asia Minor is concerned that they not only understand that they are redeemed by an eternally appointed redeemer but the historically manifested redeemer he was always the redeemer he's the land slain from the foundation of the world otherwise God could not have justified Abel and Noah and David and Solomon could he justify those sinners in the Old Testament declare them righteous and forgive their sins if there were no redeemer in the mind and purpose of God he's the land slain from the foundation of the world so he can justify Old Testament saints because in his own mind and purpose Christ the lamb has been slain but that all presupposes a point would come in

24:44 real space time history when the lamb would be slain when the very events we read of this morning would transpire when the creatures of Jesus Christ would dare to take him like a common criminal did you feel shocked at the brutality when I read the passage today imagine getting a mouth full of spit and unloading it on the face of any fellow creature let alone incarnate they take rods and strike him and beat him when the lamb would be manifested and Peter says here is the glory of your redeemer that he was manifested and when was he manifested look at the text manifested at the end of the time now what in the world does that strange phrase mean time ain't ended we're still here we're still breathing the day of judgment has not come but Peter says he was manifested at the end of the times and here again taking some of the lessons from the

26:06 previous hour if you took your concordance and looked up these words and found parallel phrases you would see that while the world sets off human history in epochs determined by the emergence of great nations by the movements of society by the developments the stone age and then they talk about the industrial age and by great political economic movements that's not the way God measures time God measures epochs in terms of his purpose and plan and execution of redemption so that according to the scriptures the end of the times begins in Bethlehem when the angels cry glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men of good will from the time the word was made flesh and dwelt among us lived labored died was buried and rose again and sent the spirit God calls that period of time from Bethlehem until the heavens are parted and the voice of the archangel sounds and the trumpet blasts and the heavens roll back as a scroll and we see the son of man coming upon clouds in power and glory God calls

27:33 that the last days the end of the times and Christ has been manifested at the end of the times and for what purpose did he become the historically manifested redeemer look at the text for your sake for your sake now again think of these people in the world's eyes a bunch of nobodies a group who become an irritant to society who are looked upon as having a few bricks less than a full load live by strange standards have their hopes set on unseen dreams and things that they call substantial realities grasped by faith and now they hear read in their ears when the copies of this are made they read with their own eyes that the whole sweep of human history is marked out by something God did put there and the mayor in the town won't even look at them twice their sake a bunch of nobodies their neighbors take no consideration of them Peter wants them to know that all of human history has been marked out in terms of God's great

29:02 purposes for them manifested at the end of the times for your sakes for yours what was in the heart and mind of God from eternity namely that he would send a redeemer he is the redeemer foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world these people were privileged to live at that epoch in the sovereignly guided sweep of human history when Bethlehem and Golgotha and the empty garden tomb and the Mount of Olives and the upper room would be historical realities behind them Peter wants them to know this because this will contribute to that appropriate fear past the time of your sojourning in fear knowing that you were redeemed knowing not only the awesome price at which you were redeemed not only knowing by a redeemer eternally appointed to his place as redeemer but knowing that he was the historically manifested redeemer manifested for your

30:28 sake you see godly fear in all of its dimensions is most powerfully sustained by a present grasp upon the magnitude of redemptive privilege that's why the devil will do his best to confuse your mind concerning what you are and have in Christ and yet what awaits you because of Christ because these things are the most powerful feeders to a sense of obligation to please Christ now if you were the devil and you don't want people to be driven by a godly fear of displeasing their savior what would you do if you knew that what feeds this holy fear most powerfully is an intelligent grasp upon the privileges of redemption if you were the devil what would you do you don't want people powerfully motivated with this holy fear you want them to be fearful of reputation fearful of economic matters personal health matters you want them to be afraid of anything and everything but a holy dread of displeasing god and so you would seek to cripple people get them to think in fuzzy indistinct ways about their salvation take from their hearts and minds the present remembrance of their awesome privileges

The Glory of the Redeemer: Resurrected and Glorified

31:57 in Christ and so Peter is laboring that these dear people of God in Asia Minor might know the glory of their redeemer in order to feed and to fuel and to stoke with large logs the fire of their devotion to God in Christ that they might walk in this godly fear but then there's a third strand of the glory of the redeemer he not only sets before them the fact that he is the eternally appointed redeemer the historically manifested redeemer but thirdly he is the resurrected and glorified redeemer look at the passage who through him are believers in God that raised him from the dead and gave him glory he said your faith in God is a faith that in a special way focuses upon the fact that this God in whom you believe is the God who raised the redeemer and glorified him now he's already affirmed that the redemption price the ransom to secure release from bondage was nothing less than the blood of Christ verse 19

33:24 blood that he shed in his identity as God's true lamb the substantial real lamb every lamb on Jewish altars every lamb picked out from the flock and marked to be the Passover lamb was but a faint shadow of this substantial real lamb the lamb without blemish and without spot but now let me ask you this question when the sacrificial lamb had its blood shed in violent death and that's what it means that we are redeemed by the blood of Christ his life poured out in a violent sacrificial death let me ask you children if you had been asked by your dad to go out and pick out that lamb look it over very carefully to make sure there were no spots no blemishes no broken bones no skin diseases would you ever expect to see that lamb back in the flock once it had been offered up as the Passover lamb hmm once its throat was cut and its blood captured and then roasted and eaten would you ever expect suppose you had given a name to that lamb that was little Charlie alright do you expect to see little Charlie alive and back in the flock once he'd been offered up never

34:54 didn't happen once he was picked out and marked for sacrifice once the lamb underwent the violent death of a sacrifice that was the end of it and that's where the shadows can never do full justice to the son because the lamb whose blood was shed Peter tells us is the resurrected and the glorified redeemer unlike the shadows once he shed his blood once he underwent that violent death and by that ransom price secured the release of his people we are told that God raised him from the dead and gave him glory now what's the significance of this for the whole setting of Peter's instruction will you remember that the last second to the last words Jesus said on the cross were these after the three hours of darkness in which he cried out my God my God why have you forsaken the hours in which in a heightened way he was experiencing nothing of bearing the hell of separation from God deserved by every sinner that's what he was

36:22 bearing and you remember the last words he uttered prior to into your hands I commend my spirit the second to the last words were these it is finished one word in the original it stands accomplished somehow the father conveyed to the heart of his son that the cup he was drinking had utterly drained of every last drop of the wrath of God against the sins of his people and when our Lord perceived the cup was empty he threw it down at the foot of his cross and cried it is finished the scripture tells us that rocks rent the finger of God was pierced pierced the top of the veil in the temple and split it from top to bottom God as it were answered in the shaking of the rocks and in the rending of the veil but God's great response to the cry of Jesus it is finished had to wait for three days and when they came early that first Easter morning and found the stone rolled away as one of the old writers said the angel didn't roll away the stone to let Jesus out he was already out of there the stone was rolled away to let the disciples in come and see the place where the Lord lay remember the doors are shut and bolted for fear of the Jews after his resurrection

37:50 Jesus didn't need to go get a locksmith or come with a hammer and knock the locks off it says Jesus appeared in the midst of the doors being shut that resurrection body that had substance he could say Lord touch me heal me a ghost the spirit hath not flesh and bones if you see me have and yet with real substance it could be touched and felt and weighed and pressed it could pass through what we think are solid substances I don't understand the mystery of it so the open tomb on that morning that others could come in and what does the open tomb become it become God's vast in which God says my son cried it is finished I declare it is finished and the declaration is that I raise him from the dead he has exhausted all of the righteous claims of my law against the sins of his people hence in Romans 4 25 we read he was delivered up for our offenses raised again for or on account of our justification and having raised him from the dead forty days later he took him to his own right hand and endowed him with glory look at chapter 3 in Peter's epistle

39:18 the end of verse 21 it says a good conscience toward God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ who is on the right hand of God having gone into heaven angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him this is what Peter means when he says who through him are believers in God that raised him from the dead and gave him glory Peter says to these scattered Christians in Asia Minor this is the glory of your Redeemer he is not only the eternally appointed Redeemer the one manifested in history he is the resurrected and glorified Redeemer as I exhort you Peter says to pass the time of your sojourning in fear think of the glory that has been given to your Savior he has such honor now in the presence of all of those pure beings in heaven cherubim and seraphim and the host of angels and the spirits of just men made perfect read those chapters in the book of the Revelation and chapter 5 to which I alluded earlier in which everything that has consciousness in heaven says

40:45 worthy he has received glory surely if he has such a place in those who know him best for who he is and see him most clearly for what he is then I ought to be more tenderly desiring that in nothing I displease him dishonor him and in that sense rob him of that which he died to purchase from me even my whole souled unrivaled affection and allegiance surely if I have a God who not only sends me a Savior who sheds his blood as of a lamb without blemish and spot but raises him from the dead to validate this idea that my sins are fully forgiven that I can face the day of judgment without crippling carking fear I can anticipate it as my vindication based on the vindication of Jesus surely I will be fearful lest I displease and dishonor so gracious a God past the time of your sojourning in fear knowing that you were redeemed by this gracious resurrected and glorified redeemer but then the fourth thing he says that sets forth

The Glory of the Redeemer: Exclusive Mediatorial

42:10 the glory of the redeemer Peter in this passage makes it plain that he is now kids don't turn me off I'm going to use a couple of big words but I'll explain alright he is the exclusive mediatorial redeemer exclusive he's the only one mediatorial he's the redeemer who goes between God and man look at the language of verse 21 who through him are believers in God that raised him from the dead what's Peter saying he's saying to these people most of them former pagans some of them former Jews you are now true believers in God only through this redeemer whatever you think you knew about God and believed about God until the gospel of the grace of God came to you the gospel Peter describes earlier in the chapter has been announced to them through those that preached unto them with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven a gospel that focuses upon the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow Peter says that whatever you think you knew about God and whatever you believed about God Jew or Gentile you did not become true believers in God until Christ was set before you in the gospel because he is the

43:39 exclusive mediatorial redeemer chapter 3 and verse 18 Christ suffered for sins once the righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God Christ is the exclusive mediatorial redeemer he said I am the way the truth the life no man comes to the father except by there is no saving approach to the father except through the redeemer the Lord Jesus again first Timothy 2 5 one God one mediator between God and man himself man one God one mediator between God and man Peter desires to remind these elect sojourners that as God called them as he calls them to a life of appropriate fear that no little part of that fear is that they live in the constant knowledge that all that they know of the true and living God in a saving way they know because of Jesus Christ the redeemer I believe it was Luther who said I want no dealings with God

45:05 outside of Christ what did he mean by that to think of God in the awesomeness of his omniscience of his omnipotence his unsullied holiness creatures that have never sinned veiling their faces and their feet and with holy restlessness flying about his throne crying holy holy holy is the Lord God the almighty to sinful poor weak creatures of the dust God in the nakedness of his majesty and holiness and justice and immensity is terrifying now the little God you may play with in your head is not terrifying but the God who is God is a consuming now that God has opened his heart of love and manifested that love in the giving of his only begotten son as the only mediator between God and man and so now Peter can write and say through him you are not those living in terror of God running from God cowering before God

46:30 you've become delightful believers in God the very God whom he described earlier he said if you call on him since you call on him as father no longer were they driven back in abject terror but they now know him to be an accessible and an approachable father why because someone has convinced them he's not infinitely holy he's not infinitely just and pure no but because God has found a way in which he can be everything he has always been from eternity in the integrity of his being as a holy just and righteous God and yet show mercy to sinners that ought to be consumed with just a glance of his eye and how has he done it in the sending of this redeemer through him he said you are believers in God and what is the great result of all of this look at the last phrase of verse 21 so that here is the purpose of it all so that your faith and hope might be in God God has done all of this in the redeemer this redeemer who is surrounded and

The Goal of Redemption: Faith and Hope in God

47:56 exudes all of this glory glory as the eternally appointed redeemer the historically manifested redeemer glory as the resurrected and glorified redeemer the exclusive mediatorial redeemer and all of this to this end that your faith and your hope your confident expectation of future blessing not might be but are in God now for some of you Greek students I know the issue is not as clear cut as you'd like some things to be but having studied the various options I cast in my lot with the majority of my own commentators that the proper rendering is so that your faith and hope not might be in God or that your faith is hope in God but that your faith and hope are in God now think again what that meant for these despised nobodies in Asia Minor called upon to live a life of steadfast hope set your hope perfectly under grace to be brought to you at the coming of the Lord Jesus give yourself to the pursuit of a life of universal holiness walk in fear a fear bounded by the knowledge that God is accessible and yet he is an impartial judge

49:24 and on the other by the knowledge that you were redeemed not with corruptible things such as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ and without blemish and without spot all of this is to the end that you might be now in your present circumstances marked out as those whose faith and hope is in God you see the God before whom we are to walk in fear is the God in whom we trust and the God in whom we hope you see in Peter's mind there is absolutely no contradiction between calling upon God as Father walking before Him in the pursuit of universal holiness walking before Him in fear passing the time of your sojourning in fear and having a deep settled satisfying knowledge that this God is my God forever and ever and my faith and my hope are in this now I was sharing with one of the brethren that among the many blessings of this past week in the conference down in Dayton sitting under the ministry of my brethren was that I was tremendously challenged not only by the content of the messages but as my fellow pastors preach and one of the things that I was greatly challenged with with Pastor Hughes

Application: To the Unconverted and to God's People

50:52 was that instead of expounding and then saving to the end his application he'd expound a line apply a line expound and apply expound and apply and I told him I was convicted that I've gotten into a predictable rut of expounding and then saving applications I hope maybe you've noticed I've been applying all along I'm trying to learn I hope before I die I'll preach a sermon that at least approaches what a sermon ought to be and that's not mock humility I mean that what a mysterious thing it is to try to preach the word of God often very elusive but here we've looked at what Peter sets before us but I do want to close by making two very simple words of application to you who are not converted let me ask you a very personal question you believe in God you say well I believe there is a God I didn't ask you that this text says who through him are believers in God and that your faith and hope are in God do you believe in God

52:02 I believe about God I believe there is a God now that's not my question do you believe in God you say what's the difference you say I believe about God you're here and God's out there somewhere and you're pointing your finger I believe in that do I believe there are laminated beams holding up the roof yeah look at it point it I believe in the laminated beams but you see you've not cast yourself upon those beams you're not hanging yourself upon those beams to believe in God who through him are believers in God means that you have thrown yourself upon this God and the revelation of his mercy in Jesus Christ you can't believe in God savingly except in the way of verse 21 through Christ you can't have saving dealings with God out of Christ and I plead with you this morning to be done with mere notions about God to which you point and say I ascribe to that notion that's part of my creed but as Christ stands before you in the gospel bidding you come to him own your sin acknowledge that you are one described in this passage living a vain futile purposeless life framed by nothing more than human standards passed on generation by generation what a horrible thing to live a futile life that comes from nothing and goes to nothing

53:32 and ends up in the horrible abyss of outer darkness my unconverted friend may God persuade you this morning that what you need is to know this God who in Christ is a gracious redeemer and go to him in the way of his appointment pleading nothing but the merit and righteousness of his own dear son and to you the people of God may I urge you as I've urged myself to seek to learn the disciplines of the mind and the heart essential to bringing our understanding near to these rich concepts of the word of God if Peter by the spirit says look this is what struggling saints in the first century need living in a pagan society many of the perspectives from the past still plaguing them and pressing upon them Peter wants them to be good sojourners he wants them to make their way steadily through this strange territory and he's given them this travelers guide and he says fill your soul with the wonder of the great salvation that is yours blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

54:59 unto an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that pays not away reserved in the heaven pray over and pray these things in until they become the stuff of the molding influence of your life living in the glow and present warmth of these realities then you remember I'm calling all to a life of steadfast hope and when circumstances and people begin to batter my soul and get my sights earthbound I say no I've just set my hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought to me at the coming of the Lord Jesus a few more sighs a few more groans a few more tears and the heavens will part and my savior will burst through the sky and I'll see him face to face set my hope upon him and while setting my hope upon him determined that I will no longer be fashioned by the former lust of my ignorance before I do anything I'll ask why am I doing this is it fashioning myself after the pattern of the holy God who has called me then oh God give me grace to pass the time of my sojourning in fear while calling upon you as an accessible father knowing you are a righteous judge and oh God help me to make my pilgrimage knowing that I've been redeemed what it is to be redeemed delivered from

56:27 bondage by the payment of a price what the price was not no earthly commodity it was the heavenly commodity of the blood of incarnate deity blood shed by a redeemer who's suffused with glory his glory seen in that he is the eternally appointed redeemer he is the historically manifested redeemer he is the resurrected and glorified redeemer he is the appointed exclusive mediatorial redeemer this is the stuff of which that godly fear is comprised and fed and nurtured it is to mark me in all of my Torah I close by reading a brief quote from old Bishop Layton I read it a couple of weeks ago so if any of you oh you already read that you're getting forgetful no I'm not forgetful I pulled it out from the last week's notes because I didn't know a better note on which to close than this if you would increase much in holiness is that your desire every true Christian can say it is no Christian is ever satisfied with any level of holiness short of total conformity to God himself that's why we're never satisfied we get to heaven and get a resurrected body Layton says if you would increase much in holiness

57:54 and be strong against temptations to sin wouldn't you like to be stronger in resisting sin this is the only art of it view much and seek to know much of the death of Jesus Christ consider often at how high a rate you were redeemed provide this answer for every enticement to sin and from the world and then he puts it in quotation marks this is what we're to say to sin when it entices us to the world when it would seduce us except you can offer my soul something beyond that price that was given for it on the cross I cannot hearken to you far be it from me will a Christian say who considers this redemption that I should ever prefer a base lust or anything in this world or all of it to him who gave himself to death for me and paid my ransom with his blood his matchless love has freed me from the miserable captivity of sin and have forever fastened me to the sweet yoke of his obedience as his precious blood as a redemption price from you to the sweet yoke of his obedience that's a lovely human description of a Christian fastened to the yoke of obedience not to try to

59:23 earn life but because life has been freely given by so great a redeemer let us pray oh our father what can we say when for just a few moments we have been privileged to look upon the great salvation that is ours in Christ oh forgive us for our mundane thoughts forgive us we pray for our earth bound thoughts may your word do its work in each of our heart have mercy upon those who like the muck rakers see nothing but the muck of this world at their feet oh God lift their eyes upward and outward and heavenward to behold your glory in the face of Christ and may they find themselves giving themselves over to the yoke of Christ bound by the drawing power of his own precious blood help your people help us all we pray our father that we may pass the time of our sojourning in fear knowing that we were redeemed at so great a price and by so glorious a redeemer we ask in his

60:51 worthy name amen