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Let me ask you a question. What makes you afraid? What gives you fear? I was, as always, randomly going through the internet looking for a good illustration. I found one, and I think I've heard this before, but it just struck me as quirky enough to use.
A freshman in high school 10 years ago was doing a science project, and so he went around and he got people in his community to sign a petition. And on this petition, people agreed, they demanded, as a matter of fact, strict control or even the total elimination of a dangerous chemical known as dihydrogen monoxide.
There were many good reasons cited in this petition. It can cause excessive sweating and vomiting. It is a major component in acid rain. It can cause severe burns in its gaseous state. Accidental inhalation, in other words, breathing it, can kill you.
And it decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes. It has been found in tumors of terminal cancer patients. So he asked 50 people if they supported a ban of this chemical. 43 said yes, absolutely. Six were undecided.
We always have those folks in the polls. And only one knew that this chemical was, of course, water. All those people, one person out of 50, 2%, knew that dihydrogen monoxide was H2O or water. Ill-informed fear, that is, being afraid for no apparent reason, is foolish.
But in our text this morning, Peter gives his readers a command to fear. Here, while we've been going through 1 Peter, I've been talking about how it's an encouragement to people who are in suffering and whose suffering is going to get worse, and this morning, Peter tells his readers that they should live in fear.
Why would he do that? Let's go to the text, 1 Peter, chapter 1, verses 17 to 21. Open your Bibles, please, to 1 Peter, chapter 1, verses 17 to 21. If you address as father the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
For he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Now, if Peter wrote this letter, this epistle, to strengthen those who, as I said, were going to be undergoing great persecution, in fact, the Neronian persecution, the persecution of the emperor Nero, who lit Christians on fire as torches was coming, why would he tell them to live in fear?
Well, this morning, I will show you four reasons why you must live in fear, so that your lives will be conducted in accordance with the commands of God. Put simply, if you belong to God, if you were a Christian, you will see four demands that he places on you, so that your lives will be pleasing to him.
Now, just as an aside, note this well, there is a lot of theology in this morning's text. And as I've been going through 1 Peter, I've been so encouraged, just to see how much theology is in here. And when you think about it, if Peter's purpose was to encourage people, and he's loading them up with theology, he must think theology, that is the study of God, the understanding of God, is an encouraging and practical thing to have in our lives.
It's been said many times from this pulpit, but how we view God changes how we live. If we really believe what the Bible says, it changes how we live. The first demand, you must live in fear, because you have God as your father.
Look at verse 17, if you address as father, Peter has just given them this command back in verses 14 to 16, as obedient children, of whom? Of God, of course. Do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the holy one who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior.
Because it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. He's just given them this commandment that says, look, if you are a child of God, live a holy life. And following that call to a changed life and a holy living, he begins our verse 17 here with the word if, translated into English, if.
And you might sit there, why would he say that? If you call, why would he say that? Is it some kind of 50 -50 proposition? Maybe you do, maybe you don't. If you address him as father, then you should do this, but if you don't, then do this.
No, that's not the point at all. The easiest way to understand this would be to translate it this way. Since you address as father. In other words, it is a condition, this if in the Greek, is a condition that is certainly met, absolutely without question met.
So it's better understood as since you address as father. The King James and the ESV capture this well, and also they use the verb address, or they use colon. So the idea of calling on God, since you address him, or since you call on him, and the picture is of this if statement, if you call on, or if you address him as God, it is actually the idea of prayer.
So the picture is of the children of God calling on him in prayer, relying upon him. Those whom God has called to himself, as we saw in verse 15, are indeed his children, back in verse 14, children who pray to him.
They bring their praises to him. They bring their needs, their concerns, their desires to him. Is that what your prayer lives look like? Isn't that what they should look like? We have concerns. We bring them to God.
What did Jesus say? We should do that because he cares for us. God cares for us. So back to our verses here. Why should we fear God? After all, he's our loving father, right? So why should we fear him?
And may I say simply that this is one of the great downfalls in the church today. God has been demoted in many pulpits to our friend, maybe our savior, but only our savior. In some cases, often in the media, we see him portrayed as the man upstairs, the great Yankee in the sky.
But he's not just our father. Look again at verse 17. He is also our judge. If you address, if you call on, or since you call on as father, moving on, the one who impartially judges according to each one's work.
But you say, wait a second. I'm a Christian. I'm not going to be judged. Kings X, this doesn't apply to me. Well, let's read it again. If you address as father, the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, each one's work, each one, everyone.
Is there an exception clause there? Wait, an escape clause. No, not for Christians. Each one's work, everyone will be judged. Again, note what it says here. God impartially judges. In fact, that whole idea of judging, it is actually a participle, which means it is an inherent, ongoing part of his nature.
He is a judge by nature. But it also tells us, which could be bad, if God was just the judge. But note it says here, he impartially judges. And that adverb indicates that he is going to discover the true nature of the person or thing judged.
He's going to so focus on you that he's going to know exactly what you are about. That could be scary. But it also tells us that God does so impartially. And the picture here is that he is blind in terms of his judgment.
We see those statues where the Statue of Justice holding the scales has a blindfold on. And the verb here that says he judges, or impartially the adverb, literally means that he doesn't see the face of.
In other words, he is blindfolded. He doesn't care who you are, how much money you have. He looks on what? On the heart. He knows what you've done. He knows who you are. And you say, well, how are Christians going to be judged?
2 Corinthians 5 .10, Paul writes this. For we must all appear. For we must all appear. Paul includes himself. No one is exempt from this. Before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
This is a judgment of rewards for believers, a determination whether what you have done in your life is well done, and you will hear that, well done, thou good and faithful servant, or not. Every single person will be judged.
Of course, for unbelievers, it's different. They will appear before Christ, and they will not hear, well done, thou good and faithful servant. They will hear, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. And many on that day will appear before Christ, believing they are going to hear, well done, thou good and faithful servant, but will not.
He is absolutely no respecter of persons. His judgment is perfect. His judgment does not take into account, as I said, social status, not wealth, not even if you're a pastor. God's justice is perfect, without prejudice.
Lenski says this, God sees and knows both the faith and its work, as also the unbelief and its work. In other words, he's able to determine whether those outward things that you've done were actually done in faith or not.
You can't fool God. He is an absolutely perfect judge who judges impartially and will judge every single person. Back to our text in 17. If you address as father the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, here comes the command, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth.
So if you pray to the father, to the impartial judging one, and that is one of his characteristics, that he is a judge. And he's going to evaluate your life's work. Note, it's not every single little thing you've done.
It's the totality of your life. He is going to judge your life. And when he looks at you, he's going to say, either that person was in Christ, and it's on the basis of Christ's work that I'm going to let him go into heaven, or he will not say that.
And if you are in Christ and he is going to let you go into heaven, then he will reward you on the basis of whether what you have done was in accordance with his commands. But if you do that, Peter says that you should live in fear.
If you call on the father, if you understand that he's the judge, you will live in fear. Why? Shaking, trembling, worrying about a capricious God, one that is like the God of Islam. You know, in Islam, and I probably said this before, but it drives me crazy, you can do every single thing right according to the law of Islam and still not go to paradise.
Every single thing. Why? Because Allah, the God of Islam, small g, never says, never says, if you do this, if you believe this, you absolutely, positively will get into heaven. No assurance of salvation ever.
The whole idea of there being great religions in the world just drives me nuts. If you want to say there are great religions, meaning all the great religions send you straight to hell, and then there's Christianity, which saves, I'll go for that.
But don't lump Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and all these different religions together and call them great religions. They are not. So are we shaking? Are we trembling? Are we worried about the capriciousness, the arbitrary nature of God?
No. No, not at all. You are to conduct your lives with proper awe and respect for the God that you claim to love, and who will one day judge every aspect of your life. It is this fear of disappointing God, of disappointing a loving father, of disappointing a very carefully scrutinizing judge, of sinning against the love that he has lavished upon us that should motivate us.
Warren Wiersbe rightly notes, years of obedience cannot purchase an hour of disobedience. You can't say to yourself, you know, I've been pretty good. I deserve this. We need to act as though God is constantly observing us and constantly knows what we're thinking.
Why? Because he is observing us, and he does know what we're thinking all the time. He is not simply concerned with sin. He's not just walking around keeping a record. He is concerned with our heart attitude.
When we do things, my wife has a little joke. You know, she'll do something. And then maybe I'll upset her or something like that. And, you know, she'll say, well, that one just burned up. In other words, her good action, because now an attitude has changed, is all burned up.
Or I'll say something, you know, and she'll say the same thing. Well, it's that idea that we do things with the wrong motivation. We ought to be motivated out of love and a heart that wants to obey God.
What happens when we don't obey God? As Christians, as his children? If we went to Hebrews 12, we would certainly see that God does what? He chastens those. He chastens his children who are disobedient.
This verse also tells us that believers are aliens, strangers in this world, here but for a short time. And the New American Standard really smooths this out. It says, during the time of your stay on earth.
The Greek doesn't really say that precisely. The word would just be, it is a period in a foreign land, a stay, a temporary residence. So the idea is, the words on earth are probably in italics in your thing, in your Bible, because it's not there.
The idea is, again, he goes back to this idea that we are sojourners, we are strangers traveling in a strange land. This is temporarily our home, but not our ultimate residence. We're here for a short period of time.
And when you think about it that way, we are here for a short period of time. We have been set upon with great love and affection. And what does God ask us to do? To love him, to fear him, to look at him rightly, and honor him for what he has done in our lives.
To honor him for what he has done in our lives. John Calvin, talking about this fear, he says, this fear is not cowardice. We're not afraid in the sense that we're going to get squashed. It doth not debase, but elevates the mind.
For it drowns all lower fears and begets true fortitude, true courage to encounter all dangers for the sake of a good conscience and the obeying of God. Now think about, again, what Peter's trying to do here.
He's trying to instill in people hope, confidence in the face of adverse conditions. So he says, listen, fear God, because if you fear God, you will not do what? Fear man. What can man do to you? You are here for a short period of time.
What is it, what affliction can man visit upon you that is so great that it's more important to you than honoring God? What is there? The answer is nothing. The answer is nothing. No effort must be spared to obey our father, to please our judge.
No stray thought even ought to be allowed to defile our consciences. What did Paul write? Take every thought captive. Holiness is serious business. Pleasing God is serious business. And again, talking about theology, this verse alone rules out the idea of taking Christ as savior and refusing him as Lord, saying, I want to be saved.
I don't want the punishment of eternal hell, but I don't want to obey. It's not it's not in the Bible. Certainly not here. So. First demand. You must live in fear because you have God as your father. Second demand, you must live in fear because of the price paid for you.
You must live in fear because of the price paid for you. Look again at our text, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold. Peter gives us a reason for the command to live in fear because believers were redeemed, that is, bought back.
And this was a tremendous thing in the ancient world. Millions and millions of people lived in slavery. And the idea of being redeemed out of slavery was an incredible act of kindness. And this word redeemed is well chosen when it applies to us.
Why? Because before salvation, we were slaves of sin. Also notice here, it says that you were not redeemed. Well, first thing we notice about that verb redeemed is that it is past tense. It's already happened.
We were redeemed. It happened. It has occurred. We have been bought with a price. So I would ask this question, can a slave, in this case, a slave of sin, arrange his or her redemption? Do you have any claim on anything?
God did this for us. It was passive. It was done for us on our behalf. We had no part in it. Notice also that the price of our redemption was incalculable. It was not paid by silver or gold. I mean, how much gold or silver would it take to redeem a soul?
How much gold or silver would it take to pay for one sin? If we could somehow usher forth all the gold, silver, platinum, every precious metal in the whole world, could we save even one soul? No. Now again, who was this debt paid to?
Who was it owed to? Some would teach that it was Satan that this debt was owed to. But that is not what the Bible never says that. The Bible does say this, the wages of sin is death. And what's the point of that in Romans?
The point is, you've broken the law, Paul tells us. Says what you owe for breaking the law is a debt that can never be paid, but you will suffer eternally for it in hell. That's the debt that was owed.
But who was it owed to? It could only be God. It's his law that was broken. We broke the law of God, every single one of us. And so we were bound to pay that penalty for doing so until and unless the penalty was paid on our behalf.
The justice of God demanded payment, and the love of God provided that payment. So it was not things typically thought of as having great value that redeemed us. How much stock do we put in the stock market, in money, in gold, in silver, all these things?
Peter says in so many words, those things are rubbish. They're perishable. They're not going to last. Verse 19, not with those things, but with precious blood, as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
That was impossible for me to even read, verse 19, and to not think about the Passover. If you want to, you can turn to Exodus 12. I'm going to read a few verses there. But when we see this picture, precious blood, as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
John the Baptist said that Jesus was the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, and so he was. Exodus 12, I'm going to read a few verses, starting in verse 5. God instructing the Jews on what they should do upon this occasion, when he was going to send yet another plague into Egypt to kill the firstborn.
Your lamb shall be an unblemished male, a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the 14th day of the same month. Now, what did it mean? You shall keep it. Well, they brought it into their homes.
You've probably heard this before. By the time they slaughtered that lamb, that lamb meant something to them. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.
Going down to verse 12, for I will go through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. Notice it doesn't say Egyptians, all the firstborn Egyptians.
It says, firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. The blood shall be assigned for you on the houses where you live.
And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. Well, what would happen if you weren't obedient? If you didn't bring that lamb into your house, if you didn't slaughter the lamb, if you didn't put the blood of the lamb over your doorposts, you wouldn't be passed over.
You would not be passed over. That Passover lamb, that picture, well, it's exactly what it is. It's a picture that points to what Christ would accomplish on behalf of those who call God their father. You can go back to 1 Peter.
When we think about the similarities between the Passover lamb and our Passover lamb, had to suffer a death, had to be killed, had to suffer. God passed over the punishment that the Jews would have suffered as well as the Egyptians did.
But the difference, the difference is, that little animal brought into the house became, I'm sure, beloved by the children and others. What do we know about the lamb of God? It was despised, forsaken.
That little lamb knew nothing of what was coming. Jesus Christ, the lamb of God, knew everything that was going to happen. That lamb was symbolic. The Passover lamb was symbolic. No sins were forgiven because of the shedding of blood.
But death was not visited upon them because they were obedient. It was their faith in what God had promised. And yet, when God's lamb, when Jesus Christ died, every sin ever committed by everyone who would ever believe was forgiven.
When Jesus Christ died, that was the greatest sacrifice ever could ever be imagined. It was an incalculable price that had to be paid, and it was met with an incalculable cost, the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
Back to verse 19. Notice that it starts with the word, but, and this is a strong adversative, stressing a contrast, stressing the difference between mere gold and silver and the blood of Jesus Christ.
He doesn't just merely indicate the blood of Christ is valuable. He says that it's honored as well, meaning that it had a high value in every sense. John Phillips said this, the cost of Calvary is beyond all human computation.
The value of the shed blood of Jesus is beyond all comprehension. Again, how do we know this? What is the cost of one sin? James tells us that one sin is enough to send a person to hell forever. And Christ redeemed millions, billions, an incalculable number of people.
We don't even know how many people. Each individual has their own uncountable sins. What's infinity times infinity? Who can calculate that? Who can calculate that cost? God and God alone. So Peter tells us that the redemption of those who were saved was costly.
And he tells us from what they were saved, from what they were delivered. Look at verse 18. Second part of it, from your futile way of life inherited from your fathers. Let me see a show of hands. How many of you are former Catholics?
A good number. How many of you are former Hindus? How many of you are former Mormons? I don't see that hand. Thank you. Some other religion. No religion at all. It doesn't matter. They are all equally futile.
That word means of no use, idle, empty, fruitless, useless, powerless, lacking truth. Solomon said what? That life apart from God was vanity. And yet, folks who live that way don't think of it as empty, they don't think of it as futile.
What do they think? I'll never forget a message that MacArthur preached years ago. Let me just read Matthew 7, verses 13 and 14. Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.
For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. MacArthur said, in essence, and I'll just paraphrase this, he says, listen, there is a broad road with a big sign over the top of it that leads to hell, but you know what that sign says?
This way to heaven. People are not walking toward hell thinking, I am going to hell, woo hoo. They think they're going to heaven, they think they've got it right, they don't know that their way of life is futile.
You know, Cindy saying, people need the Lord, they're living an empty life, but they don't know it. So many people think that this life is where it's at, or they think they're all set for the next life, or they think they're going to come back as a grasshopper, whatever they think.
The Bible says, and I don't know if that would be such a great thing, but the Bible says that all of these thoughts, life itself, apart from God, is futile, it's empty, it's meaningless. No one, though, in this empty, futile, meaningless life, although this is becoming a bit of a thing with younger people today to celebrate the emptiness of life, but very few people, and certainly my parents didn't, probably your parents, my grandparents, whatever, never said to themselves, hey, now, this is a waste of time that will lead to eternal punishment, let's do it.
People don't think like that, but that's what they were doing. It doesn't matter if you're Bill and Melinda Gates, it doesn't matter if you're some sort of spiritual guru, apart from Christ, the Bible describes your life as futile, a waste of time.
It's also interesting here that while the new American standard renders this from your futile way of life, but that the Greek preposition there is really out of. So you were in a futile way of life, you were in whatever way seemed right to you, maybe it was the way your parents led their lives, maybe it wasn't, but whatever way of life it was, it was absolutely futile, but you were taken out of that life, and you're in a way that is not futile now.
You have a life of hope. God delivers you through Christ from this life that led straight to hell and puts you on a life of hope, a path to heaven, as it were, shows you the narrow gate. So we've seen the first demand, you must live in fear because you have God as your father.
The second demand, you must live in fear because of the price paid for you. And thirdly, you must live in fear because of the plans made for you. Look at verse 20. For he, talking about Jesus, was foreknown before the foundation of the world.
This unblemished and spotless perfect lamb, this substitute for sinners, was foreknown. Wayne Grudem says, when God knows something beforehand, it is certain that the even will occur, that the event, I should say, the event will occur.
This is what happens when you type really fast. That the event will occur, and assuming the event to be therefore ordained by God seems to be the only alternative to the non-Christian idea of a certainty of events brought about by impersonal mechanistic fate.
In other words, the idea that anything or any purpose of God is said to be foreknown, and that it is somehow only a possibility, or somehow only an event that he knew would come to place, or just a person that he was familiar with, is not known anywhere in the Bible.
Let's think about this foreknown notion by looking at this term or this phrase here, before the foundation of the world. Jesus was chosen to be the Redeemer of the elect before the foundation of the world.
I'm going to read several verses here. You don't have to turn to them, but they all have this phrase before the foundation of the world, or some similar phrase. John 17, 5. Dan's probably getting nervous since he's preaching John 17.
Don't worry. John 17, 5. Now Father, Jesus speaking. Actually, he's praying to the Father. Now Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was. 17, 24 and 25.
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, talking about the disciples, be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father, although the world has not known you, yet I have known you, and these have known that you sent me. Ephesians 1, 4. He, talking about the Father, chose us, those who believe, in him, Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him.
So here's the picture, all this before the foundation of the world stuff. Before time existed, before anything created, before anything was, Jesus existed. Jesus was loved of the Father before anything existed.
He was not a created being. I just can't say that enough, because that just throws out the theology of the people who show up at your door, the Mormons, the Jehovah Witnesses. False. They don't understand what the Bible says.
But before the world was created, he was the glorified second person of the Trinity. He always existed. He was always loved of the Father. And that truth runs consistently through scripture. John 8, 58, he said that.
Before Abraham was, I am. Jesus was loved by the Father and was sent by the Father. In John 17, we read that. Sent by the Father to redeem for the Father a people the Father had chosen, we read in Ephesians 1.
A people who would be plunged into sin by the four ordained choices of Adam and Eve. Listen. God, before the foundation of the world, loved Jesus Christ and sent him, before Adam and Eve fell, sent him, ordained him, chose him, sent him to be our redeemer.
There's no accident. It wasn't plan B. He didn't watch Adam and Eve fall and go, OK, Jesus, now we've got to fix this. Before the foundation of the world, before anything existed, these things were true.
Before the foundation of the world, God chose those whom he would save, and he sent the Son to redeem them. Fourthly, you must live in fear because of the divine work for you. Look again at verse 20. Talking about Jesus, it says, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you.
Notice the contrast in verse 20. As we said, Jesus always existed before the foundation of the world, but now has appeared when? In these last times. What are the last times? It's simply from his birth until his second coming, from the incarnation until he returns.
And we are in those last times, and we will be there until he returns for us. The phrase also stands in direct contrast to before the foundation of the world so that when we think about Jesus, we can literally see him existing from all time, coming back at the end.
He is literally the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega, the one who was and is and is to come. Now, why should you live with an appropriate fear for God? Because he sent, the verse tells us, he sent his son for the sake of you, for your sake, for your sake.
He did not need to. He wasn't required to. He did it for your sake, because apart from this, you were doomed. Again, another theological point here. This passage teaches salvation in Christ alone. Look at verse 21, but has appeared, well, I'll go back to verse 20, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God.
Well, wait a second. Shouldn't it say who through your choice are believers in God? No, it's through Jesus Christ, through his work. The point of this is that believing in Christ, in believing in Christ, we believe in the God who is the one who exists, the one who sent Jesus to be our Redeemer.
The Christian faith is one of inclusion, inclusion in the sense that elect from every nation will be saved. But it is also one of exclusion. No one comes to the Father but by me. No one goes to heaven but through Christ.
And no one can say that they are born of God, but by the Spirit. Finally, the hope and faith are fruits of the resurrection. Look at 21 again. Who raised him, talking about God raising Christ, from the dead and gave him glory so that your hope and faith are in God.
The Father raised Jesus from the dead and restored him to what? To the glory that he had before he came to earth, as we read in John 17. The resurrection is central to the Christian faith. Without it, no hope, so said Paul in 1 Corinthians 15.
And Peter proclaims the resurrection, right here, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory. Proclaims it to a people in need of hope. Now what does the resurrection prove? Paul wrote in Romans 1 .4 that Jesus was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.
In Colossians 1 .18, we read, he is also the head of the body, the church. And he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, the first to be raised from the dead, the first to be resurrected so that he himself will come to have first place in everything.
Revelation 1 .5 and 6, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Listen, if Jesus Christ was not raised from the dead, there are a lot of problems with the Bible.
And that is just not, it is an unbiblical, ungodly, sinful notion to even consider. A liberal theologian who raises that issue is certainly no Christian whatsoever. Peter himself preached in Acts 2, this Jesus, God raised up again to which we are all witnesses, makes Peter out a liar if he wasn't raised from the dead.
He goes on in verse 33, therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this which you both see and hear.
Jesus Christ raised from the dead, seated at the right hand, interceding on behalf of his people. That is hope. One writer says, we err in making the cross the symbol of Christianity, he says it should be an empty tomb.
Of course, I don't think that would look really good on gold necklaces, might not show too well on MTV. Talking about the glory given to Jesus, many scriptures talk about it, Philippians 2, 9 and 10, for this reason also, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth.
First Peter 3, 22, Peter writes, Jesus who is at the right hand of God, having gone to heaven after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to him, what kind of glory does he have? He has the ultimate glory.
And again, look at the result, so that, all this, so that, your faith and hope are in God. What is faith? It is simply the God-given ability, God-given ability to trust him in this life without regard to our immediate circumstances.
Hope is that forward-looking capacity to look beyond this life, to eagerly anticipate what the Lord has promised. It is to look, as Peter said in 1 Peter 1, 4, for an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled, not thinking about the things of this earth, but looking forward to what is reserved in heaven for every believer.
Now, again, think about the doctrine that's been in this passage, lordship salvation, meaning that if you're a Christian, you obey God, you want to obey him. Redemption, that you were bought back, bought back with a price of incalculable value, that of the death of Jesus Christ, that blood represents the death of Christ, the eternality of Christ, that he was not created, that he always existed, that before the foundation of the world, before time began, before anything existed, Jesus Christ existed as God.
The nature of Jesus as both God and man, he was resurrected, came back to life, could only do that as a man. Salvation is through Christ alone, one of the solas of the Reformation, solus Christus. You can't be saved any other way but by Jesus Christ.
And the centrality of the resurrection, all of this and more in just five verses. Now, when we think of fear, if I just said, what do you think of when you think of fear? You'd probably say terror, dread, being afraid.
But the word of God does not call upon the children of God to be terrorized by their father. Doesn't call on us to dread him. It does call the children of God to a life of holiness. It does call the children of God, does call you to live with a heart that longs to honor God, to put him in his proper place, to think of him as being with you, observing you, being able to understand what you're thinking.
You will stand before him even as believers someday, and what do you want to hear? Well done, thou good and faithful servant, or what were you thinking? This God who prepared your salvation from before the foundation of the world, who accomplished that salvation for you in time, this same God calls you to live in appropriate reverence and awe of him.
And those who love God, those who call upon him as father, those who have been adopted by him want to honor him with their lives. I pray that that is true of you, that you will live in fear of God. Let's pray.
Father, what great truths you have presented for us in your word, simply the idea that an eternal, self-existent God would condescend, would redeem us out of a self-chosen life that leads to destruction, that would take us out of the miry clay and would set us on a rock, would lavish his grace and love and mercy upon us.
Father, it is too great a thing to even imagine. It is small wonder that so many miss it, because it is so simple. Father, would you so work in our lives that we fear you as one who knows our heart, who knows our motives, who will evaluate each of us on the basis of how we look, how we dress, what we say, but by our hearts.
Father, would you conform us, shape us, into the image of your dear son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.