1 Peter 1:13-25

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 96:7-10
• Hymn — Brethren, We Have Met to Worship (#381)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Hymn — (#629)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Sermon
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: Conducting Ourselves as Children of God and Redeemed Believers

Scripture: 1 Peter 1:13-21

I. The Indicative-Imperative Pattern in the New Testament Epistles

A. The indicative mood states facts; the imperative mood states commands

• Peter establishes who believers are in Christ in 1 Peter 1:1-12 (indicatives), then moves to commands for living (imperatives) beginning in verse 13

B. The word therefore in verse 13 ties the commands back to the facts of who we are in Christ

• Without the indicatives, the imperatives crush the sinner or drive him to vain and presumptuous efforts

II. How We Are to Conduct Ourselves as Children of the Father

(1 Peter 1:14-17)

A. We are to be obedient children

1. "Children of obedience" is a Hebrew idiom — obedience is not optional but defines what it means to be a child of God
2. To live disobediently is to forfeit the right to call God "Father"
3. We are not to conform to the passions of our former ignorance

B. We are called to holiness because God is holy

1. Peter quotes Leviticus 11:44: You shall be holy, for I am holy
2. The word "call" in verse 15 is a summons — effectual calling — by which God draws his elect to himself
3. Holiness is to cover all conduct, not merely certain parts of life
4. As total depravity corrupts every faculty of man, so redemption is meant to cover every faculty — God seeks to redeem the whole man

C. We are to conduct ourselves with fear before the impartially judging Father (1 Peter 1:17)

1. We must never presume on the grace of God or assume God will overlook secret sin
2. God has no favorites in the household of faith; he judges each one's deeds impartially
3. Presumption on grace has been the downfall of many prominent pastors — the belief that service to the kingdom earns a blind eye toward private sin

III. How We Are to Conduct Ourselves as Redeemed Believers

(1 Peter 1:18-21)

A. We have been ransomed by the precious blood of Christ, not by silver or gold

1. Ransom carries the idea of a payment to redeem someone from bondage
2. The language of a spotless, unblemished lamb echoes the Old Covenant sacrificial system — we are ransomed from the wrath of God himself
3. God is both the one who receives the payment and the one who gives the payment through his only begotten Son
4. Therefore our obedience, giving, and offerings are never to win God's favor but are always thanksgiving offerings — his favor has already been won through Christ
5. Cf. Peter's rebuke of Simon in Acts 8:20: May your silver perish with you

B. Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world and manifested in the last times for our sake (1 Peter 1:20)

1. "Foreknown" carries the sense of foreordination (cf. 1 Peter 1:2; Ephesians 1:3-14)
2. God never foreknows Christ apart from the body — when the Father sees the Son he sees all those the Son came to die for
3. Assurance: God the Father will never stop loving his Son, and because we are united to the Son from before the foundation of the world, our standing in his love is eternally secure

C. Faith itself is the gift of God given through Christ (1 Peter 1:21)

1. Ephesians 2:8: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God
2. Hebrews 12:2: Christ is the founder and perfecter of our faith — God does not give us the Son and then ask us to supply our own faith; he gives faith through the Son

D. The hope of the believer is living and eternal, not futile and vain

1. The word futile in verse 18 was commonly used of pagan idols — dead hope in dead things
2. The world can only offer hope that is here today and gone tomorrow
3. The hope that is in Christ — whom God raised from the dead — is a living, meaningful, eternal hope anchored in a person seated at the right hand of the Father
4. The governing question behind obedience: Where do you place your happiness? — whatever fills that blank determines where your hope, obedience, and submission lie
5. Hope in the things of this world produces submission to vain and fleeting things; hope in Christ produces obedience to God and an eternal, living hope