God's People Live With Hope and Obedience

Now, let's read in our Bibles together.

Firstly, from the Old Testament, our Old Testament reading is the first 19 verses of Deuteronomy 6,

and then we'll be again in 1 Peter.

So let's read Deuteronomy 6.

These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you,

to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,

so that you, your children and their children after them,

may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you,

and so that you may enjoy long life.

Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you,

and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey,

just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.

Impress them on your children.

Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road,

when you lie down and when you get up.

Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.

When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers,

to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you,

a land with large flourishing cities you did not build,

houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide,

wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant,

then, when you eat and are satisfied,

be careful that you do not forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt,

out of the land of slavery.

Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.

Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you,

for the Lord your God who is among you is a jealous God,

and his anger will burn against you and he will destroy you from the face of the land.

Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massa.

Be sure to keep the commands of the Lord your God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you.

Do what is right and good in the Lord's sight so that it may go well with you,

and you may go in and take over the good land that the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors,

thrusting out all your enemies before you, as the Lord said.

And then over in 1 Peter, to continue our studies there, verse 13.

Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober,

set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.

As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.

But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.

For it is written, be holy, because I am holy.

Since you call on a father who judges each person's work impartially,

live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.

For you know that it was not with perishable things,

such as silver or gold, that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors,

but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.

Through him, you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him.

And so your faith and hope are in God.

So if you have your Bibles, maybe have them open at the book of 1 Peter.

As we continue to think about this letter with its message to a suffering church,

to stand firm and to stay joyful in the Lord Jesus.

Today, we move to a section about commands.

And we see three commands and three priorities for God's family.

I use the word family because I want us to think about the theme of home

and home as a shaping influence in our lives.

It has an impact on our heart and our will and our actions.

Like me, you may have grown somewhat weary of lockdown icebreakers,

but one helpful icebreaker question from last week was this one.

When restrictions end, what's the first thing you want to do?

Maybe you have an answer to that.

The top answer in the group that I was in was the person, in my opinion.

Anyway, the person who said, I want to go home.

Because I feel that, I'm sure perhaps many of us feel that.

I want to go home to Sky and to see home and see family.

Home has a pull on our heart, doesn't it?

And that shapes our priorities at the same time.

And to think a little further about that,

I was thinking too about those popular signs that you find in people's houses.

And maybe you have one of these,

in this house or in this family we do.

And then there's a list of qualities or values.

Because home, it serves that purpose.

It provides a set of values, beliefs, rules that we seek to live by.

Now, if we take that into our letter here,

Peter in the first 12 verses has been saying to them,

remember, heaven is your true home.

He said to them, you've been saved by God's grace.

So you're able to suffer with joy because you have this spiritual inheritance.

You have a treasure in heaven that God is keeping for his people.

And heaven is to have a pull on our heart because it's our true home.

And now in verse 13 to 21, we see a change.

He says,

And I think, again, Peter's message is so relevant for us today.

Perhaps, like the church in that day, we find ourselves suffering.

We find ourselves discouraged.

Perhaps we find ourselves stressed.

So if you're a Christian today and that's your situation,

Peter wants to, the Spirit using this word,

wants to remind you of your certain future when you're in Jesus.

He wants to bring to our minds again,

our relationship to God through the Lord Jesus,

to give us reasons to persevere with hope and with joy because of the gospel.

And again, if you're not a Christian,

but you feel that you're suffering and struggling,

this is a chance again to see what hope Jesus offers

and how that's greater than any other hope.

To hear a message of love that is bigger than any trial that we will go through,

pandemic or anything else,

so that you might taste for yourself God's grace in your own life.

So what family values can we expect to see in these verses?

We see Peter talk about hope.

We see Peter talk about obedience.

And we also see him talk about reverent fear.

So those are the values, those are the priorities,

and all the while motivated by the reality that heaven is our true home.

So let's begin in verse 13,

recognising that in God's family, we do hope.

So the command is to build our hope on a solid foundation,

which is, according to our text,

future grace,

grace that will come when Jesus is revealed.

And this is a reminder that the return of Jesus,

the second coming of Jesus,

when Jesus is revealed in his glory,

that's key to our good news.

Now, why is that so important?

Well, for us as Christians,

that means it's going to be the end of our suffering.

It's the end of facing opposition.

It's the end of misery and sin and loss.

It's going to be the entry into true life

and love and joy that never ends.

And all of that is going to centre around the Lord Jesus.

So he's really important to our future and to our message.

So that's the command,

build your hope on future grace.

And to help with the command,

he gives us a picture of how to be obedient to that.

And that's there at the beginning of verse 13,

with minds that are alert and fully sober.

To be alert, to be sober-minded.

Imagine a soldier on high alert.

We can perhaps think of the security personnel

at the Capitol building for the inauguration.

You can be sure that there would be no dozing off,

no dulled thinking because of drink or anything else.

Conscious of the danger of attack,

they were to be fully alert.

And Peter says that's to be true of us

in our minds as Christians.

So where's the danger likely to come from?

Well, remember, this church is facing suffering and opposition.

And those two things can steal away our hope, can't they?

And then there's the devil who knows us well

and he wants to tempt us,

perhaps by our circumstances,

to lose hope.

There's that constant temptation to swap

our ultimate hope in Jesus,

which is eternal,

for something else that is smaller

and doesn't last,

but we can see it and we can feel it.

So Peter says we must be on our guard

to guard our hope,

to make sure our hope is always in the Lord Jesus.

Now, how does the gospel help us to hope?

Peter has shown us the wonder of all that God has done for us.

He says, because of that, you obey.

Because of the gospel, you can hope.

So how does the gospel help us hope?

Well, verse 3, if you go back to verse 3,

he's already told us that in God's mercy,

he has given us new birth into a living hope.

Because Jesus has been raised in victory,

our salvation is secure in him,

we have a living hope.

And we have that promise of an eternal inheritance

that cannot be taken from us.

And of course, verse 13 says,

our ultimate hope is Jesus Christ himself.

When he is revealed,

our hope is from Jesus,

it's in Jesus.

And one day,

as the people of God,

our hope will become glorious reality.

We will stand in the presence of Jesus,

our saviour,

and we can worship him

and enjoy him for all eternity.

So in God's family,

we do hope.

Now let's think about this for ourselves.

Two questions.

One, what's the focus of your hope?

Perhaps like many,

we're discovering if our hope is focused on now,

that there's a tendency towards sadness and bitterness

because what's happening is our idols,

our dreams are crashing around us.

All those things that we placed our hope in,

they seem to be disappearing.

Perhaps in those losses,

God is reminding you

that we were always made for more,

that we were made for him.

By contrast,

if our hope is focused on Jesus,

he is our treasure in heaven.

That is something that is unshakable.

That's a future-proof hope.

So perhaps today is a time to reset,

to readjust our lenses

so our hope is in the Lord Jesus.

Another question,

what's the foundation of our hope?

It's very similar.

And we need to recognise,

and the Bible teaches us,

if the foundation that we build our life on

is anything other than Jesus,

we will be disappointed.

We will come up empty.

So whether our hope is in a vaccine,

or in a politician,

or in a particular relationship,

none of those are big enough

to hold all our hopes and dreams and longings,

because they are temporary,

and we are made for eternity.

Only Jesus can fully satisfy.

In him there is the guarantee of the world we all want,

a world free of pandemic and pain and suffering

and loss and grief and injustice and racism,

that we don't want those things.

And Jesus guarantees when he returns

that those things will be no more,

and all that will be left for the people of God

is love and joy.

And so there is an invitation to us

to build our life on him.

So Peter reminds the church,

he reminds us that hope is vital

to our Christian life to keep us going,

and it's vital to our witness

that people should see

there's something different about us,

because we're not consumed by now

and all that's wrong.

We're consumed by hope in eternity

and by our Lord Jesus.

But that's not the only priority

that he presents to us,

the only family value.

The next one we find in verses 14 to 16.

And it's this.

In God's family, we do obedience.

The command is there,

as obedient children,

do not conform to the evil desires you had

when you lived in ignorance,

but just as he who called you is holy,

so be holy in all you do.

We are commanded to be obedient to our holy God.

And Peter's readers are being told,

look, don't conform.

Don't go back to those old evil desires

that you had while you were ignorant of God

and of God's salvation and God's goodness.

Don't go back to those days.

Rather, be transformed

by the holiness of God

to want to live and to be like him.

And that's a reminder

that the people of God in every generation,

those who love God,

we are also to love God's law

because we recognise the law of God

is a reflection of God's perfect character.

Therefore, it comes to us as a good gift,

showing us how we might live,

setting safe limits for our lives,

that life goes well when we live within

those boundaries that our creator sets for us.

And Peter says to his readers,

remember, you are called by a holy God,

a God who is without sin,

a God who is perfectly pure,

a God who is in a different moral category to us.

And you've been called by a holy God to be holy,

that we have been set apart

so that we might live for him.

So that's the command.

And then again, he gives us a picture

to help us to think about what that looks like.

And the picture in verse 14

is of children in a family.

It's as obedient children that we are to do this.

So think with me of adoption.

What happens in the adoption process to a child?

Well, a child,

there's that legal transfer of status.

So they are now in a new family.

They have a new surname

and that new surname also brings a new home

and that home brings a new set of values and beliefs.

Now they have a new sign in their kitchen

in this family, we do.

And Peter says the same thing is true for a Christian.

We have a new family.

God has adopted us through the work of Jesus.

And now we have this lifetime,

a lifelong process of living out our new identity,

which involves us learning what is God's will.

What does the Bible teach for how to live?

And that we'd be growing in our obedience.

And again, bear in mind how much he said

about the gospel previously.

How does the gospel help us to obey?

Well, first of all,

it is a reminder to us

that our obedience must be fuelled and empowered

by the grace of God,

not by our own efforts.

We can go right back to the beginning of the letter.

Peter in verse one calls them elect exiles,

those who've been chosen.

And then in verse two,

we're reminded that we're saved by the Trinity,

chosen by the Father,

sanctified by the Spirit,

sprinkled by the blood of Jesus,

all of those gracious acts of God

in order to be obedient to Jesus Christ,

saved by grace for obedience.

Not the case that we're saved by grace

and then the rest of our life,

we have to roll up our own sleeves

and work really hard to try and please God.

No, there's grace from God to save us

and to help us in our day-to-day obedience.

So the gospel promises grace to help us to obey.

But also at the heart of the gospel,

who do we have?

We have Jesus.

And who is Jesus?

Jesus is the holy God.

So Jesus, therefore,

is for us the perfect model

of what a holy life looks like.

So you might think instinctively holiness,

it seems dull perhaps,

sounds outdated,

sounds like for another generation,

until we recognise Jesus was holy.

And we would never surely call Jesus

like dull and unattractive.

Rather, everybody was attracted to Jesus,

barring the sort of legalistic people

who thought they were already right with God.

People throughout history attracted to Jesus.

His is the pattern of what a beautiful

and good life looks like.

So he is the model of holiness for us to follow.

And also he is the one who dies to make sinners holy.

So he is our model,

but he's also the foundation for our holiness.

So in thinking then about obedience in our own lives,

a couple of things to say.

First of all, if you're not a Christian,

it's really of critical importance

that we understand the order that the Bible teaches,

that we are saved by God's grace

and only then are we able to obey.

Christianity is unique in this.

It is a rescue religion.

It's a religion rooted in God's grace.

It doesn't say be a good person.

And if you're good enough, God will accept you.

No, it says you're a sinner.

We're all sinners.

And God, by his love and his grace,

rescues sinners.

And if we get that order wrong,

you will find yourself on an exhausting treadmill.

I want to know God.

I want to be close to God.

I need to keep doing and doing and doing.

And you're working, but you're getting nowhere.

Oh, it's like to use another one.

It's like you're climbing a ladder.

I want to reach up to God.

And so I'm going to do all kinds of good

and religious things.

But it's like you're leaning on a ladder,

but the ladder is not leaning on a wall.

And so eventually you will crash.

Because by ourselves,

we can never be good enough for God.

So it's so important for us to realise that.

So we would trust in the only one who is perfect.

We trust in Jesus to be our saviour.

But then if we're Christians,

to think about our own obedience,

let me borrow from the title of a Kevin DeYoung book,

which we're going to study

as some of our younger guys in Bucleu,

to ask the question,

is there a hole in our holiness?

DeYoung in his book argues that

there is a danger in the modern church

of being light on sin,

that we want to blend in rather than stand out.

And so we don't talk about obedience.

And there is a danger in that.

There's a danger of presuming on God's grace

and of forgetting that the pattern has always been

saved by grace in order to obey.

We've been called to put on the family likeness.

We've been called to holiness.

And so we need to examine ourselves

and to ask that God, by his grace,

would encourage us towards willing and glad obedience.

And before we move on,

to see for all of us that our hope lies in Jesus.

Think with me for a moment of the Grand Canyon.

This is the biggest chasm or gulf, I guess,

that we can think of easily.

Whoever we are, we've probably heard of the Grand Canyon.

And imagine that as a picture of the huge gulf

that there is between the perfectly holy God

and us as sinful people.

Now, if we want to get to God,

there is no way that we can jump that gap.

There's no way by our effort we're getting there.

The gospel, the good news at the heart of the Bible

is that God, through Jesus, has bridged that gap.

Jesus has become one of us,

lived the perfect life we couldn't.

He has then died on the cross for sin

so that through faith in him,

we have access to God.

We are brought into the family of God.

And so for each of us,

we need our trust to be in our perfectly obedient,

sacrificial saviour.

And that as we are saved by him,

we would turn from our sin

and day by day seek with his help

to be walking in obedience.

Now, there's one last priority,

one last family value.

Perhaps it's a surprising one.

Verse 17,

in God's family,

we do reverent fear.

Since you call on a father

who judges each person's work impartially,

live out your time as foreigners here

in reverent fear.

Christians are commanded to fear God.

The fear of the Lord, we're told,

is the beginning of wisdom.

What does that mean?

What does that not mean?

And how can our fear,

having a right fear,

how can that fuel our obedience?

Michael Reeves,

a theologian,

has written a new book

on the fear of the Lord.

And to borrow from that,

by way of definition,

he says something along these lines,

that the fear of the Lord,

the fear of God,

is a positive wondering,

a sense of amazement,

at who God is

in all of his perfections.

That's the fear

that's the beginning of wisdom.

It's not,

there's a wrong way to fear,

and there's a fear that's dread.

Think of Adam and Eve in the garden,

they sinned,

and so they're hiding from God,

they fear God as judge.

That's not the fear that's in mind here.

The fear that's in mind here

is an awe,

a sense of wonder at God's goodness.

It's like we read in Deuteronomy 6,

the people of God are called

at one and the same time

to fear God

and to love God.

To recognise his goodness

is to have a sense of wonder,

but also a sense of love

and gratitude at the same time.

So Peter's message

to a suffering church

is that they will stand firm

and live with hope and joy

as they have a high view

of the glory of God,

as they seek to honour him

above all.

The picture of obedience

is the idea of living out our time

as foreigners.

It's the exile theme again.

To live with a distinct set of values

and beliefs and practices

that mark out a person as different,

that in a sense create a barrier.

And those values don't shift.

For a Christian,

those values come from God,

come from heaven being our home

and we want to make him number one

in our life.

Perhaps,

maybe some of us,

maybe we have this

by personal experience,

but for me,

it might be helpful

to think of Scottish communities

in Canada or Australia

who,

despite having been away

from their homeland

for generations,

still keep up

the Gaelic language,

still have

Highland Games

and still celebrate

Scottish culture

because their heart

is fixed on home.

For Christians,

our heart should be fixed

on heaven

where Jesus is

and we should then live

with the culture of heaven.

Surrounded by different beliefs

and values,

we are,

the Church of Peter's Day was,

with a world trying to squeeze us

into its moulds,

the Roman Empire was doing that

just as much as secular culture

is doing that to us today.

We are called to stand firm,

recognising our home,

our passport,

our identity

is in heaven.

Two motivations

are provided

to help us.

The first,

as we already mentioned,

was that of fear.

Peter reminds them,

God is your Father

and your Judge.

There is,

in our relationship with God,

both intimacy

and awe.

That sense that,

I want to please

my Father,

I want to honour Him,

I want to recognise

I am accountable to God,

I stand under His authority

and that He will judge

all of us

on the basis

of our works

and so we want to live

to honour Him.

Now the Gospel says,

in Christ,

if we're trusting in Jesus,

our verdict is secure.

We can have a sense of fear

as wonder

when we think about

the Judgment Day

because we know

Jesus obeyed the law

on our behalf,

Jesus satisfied

the justice of God

at the cross

on our behalf

and so we know

that our verdict

is that we will receive

eternal life

as a gift from God.

But fear is still

that motivation.

I don't want to despise

the work of Jesus.

I don't want to dishonour

my Father

by failing to live for Him

and failing to represent Him.

But there's a second motivation,

there's fear,

but there's also love.

love because God

is our Redeemer.

all we have,

all we are

as Christians,

we owe to our God.

He has sent Jesus

to redeem us

at the cost of His own blood.

The people in Peter's day,

they hear redemption language,

they might think of a slave

and the price paid

to release them

or a prisoner of war

and the price paid

to release them

or Old Testament Israel

and the Passover lamb,

that sacrifice

that ultimately

that saw them released

to become the people of God.

Peter is saying,

remember,

God in His love

gave His Son

as a sacrifice.

God raised

and glorified Jesus

for you

is the message

that Peter brings

to the church.

And when we think about that,

in light of the Father's love

in sending Jesus,

in light of Jesus' love

in becoming our Redeemer,

how could we not love

and honour God above all?

How can the values

of the world

dominate

rather than

loving and honouring God?

We need to ask ourselves,

do we have a sense of wonder

at God's perfections,

at the gospel?

This is how,

as a church,

we will stand out

and we will stand firm

in our hope.

So to sum this all up,

Peter's message,

in a sense,

is this,

let home

shape your hope

and your holiness.

Be so sure

of your identity

in Christ

and your future

in heaven

that you live

as people

who hope

in the Lord Jesus

and who want to be

holy

and obedient

to the Lord Jesus.

I was listening

to

a short

message

from Rico Tice

who's based

down in All Souls

in London.

He organised

the Christianity

Explored courses

and he said

something like this.

He said,

before the pandemic,

London had its back

to our church

but now

it is looking

to our church

for answers

and hope.

What have we got

as the Christian church?

Peter says,

remember you have

a living hope,

a hope that will be

fully realised

when the risen

and glorified

Jesus returns.

So all our hope

is not in the here

and the now

so we live

with meaning

and purpose

and value

that goes beyond

whatever's going

on right now

and

we have

a true fear,

the right fear

that eclipses

all other fears

because we have

that sense of fear

as wonder

of who God is

and what God has done

for us in Jesus

and that's a message

of hope

to an anxious,

hurting,

stressed out

and confused world

that to know

and enjoy

the glory of God,

the goodness of God,

the gift of God

in sending Jesus

to be the saviour

of the world

in knowing that

there is deep security,

there is deep joy,

there is deep peace

that no circumstance

can remove.

It gives us joy

to live as God's children

in the world,

to live as hopeful,

obedient children

honouring our Father

who has done so much

for us

in giving us Jesus.

Those are the family

priorities

that Peter reminds us of.

from the world

in all

as little residents

who have been

out of reuse

with our number

of sealed

and PLUS

indad

through