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  1 PETER 1 EXPOSITIONAL
  by Chuck Smith
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Summary: This sermon by Peter emphasizes the importance of being chosen
and sanctified by God, highlighting the Trinity, predestination, and the
need for faith in God's sovereignty and human responsibility. It delves
into the concept of being born again through the incorruptible seed of
God's Word, leading to unfeigned love and a transformed life. The
message encourages believers to pass their time on Earth in reverence of
God, living holy lives and loving one another fervently.

Topics: "Chosen by God", "Living a Transformed Life"
Scripture References: 1 Peter 1:2, Romans 8:29, 1 Peter 1:23, 1 Peter 1:22, 1 Peter 1:3, 1 Peter 1:4, 1 Peter 1:7, 1 Peter 1:18, 1 Peter 1:23

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon by Peter emphasizes the importance of being chosen and
sanctified by God, highlighting the Trinity, predestination, and the
need for faith in God's sovereignty and human responsibility. It delves
into the concept of being born again through the incorruptible seed of
God's Word, leading to unfeigned love and a transformed life. The
message encourages believers to pass their time on Earth in reverence of
God, living holy lives and loving one another fervently.

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CONTENT
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First, Peter, as we pick up now our journey through the Bible, chapter
one, he introduces himself as Peter and an apostle of Jesus Christ.
Peter is one of those who was called of Christ from being a disciple to
being an apostle. You remember he chose 12 that he called as apostles.

And Peter was one of the 12 called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. He
is writing to the strangers, that is, they are strangers in the land
where they are living. They are Jews, but they've been scattered abroad
for different reasons, persecutions and other things.

And they are in the area that he is listing here of what is the present
day Turkey. And so they are scattered through Pontus, Galatia,
Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. But he calls them elect according to the
foreknowledge of God, the Father, and through the sanctification of the
Spirit, under the obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus
Christ.

So there you have, again, one of the places in the New Testament where
the Trinity is mentioned. Now the word Trinity is not in the Bible, and
there are many people that make a big deal over the fact that the word
Trinity doesn't exist in the Bible. In reality, the word Millennium is
not in the Bible, but that is in our English Bible.

It is in the Latin Bible. Millennium is in Latin, millianum, and it is a
thousand years. And so we do read in our English Bible, you know, the
thousand-year reign of Christ.

But the Trinity is spoken of and mentioned throughout the Bible. And so
here you have, you're elect according to the foreknowledge of God, the
Father, sanctified by the Spirit, and then the sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Elect according
to the foreknowledge of God, whom he did foreknow.

He does also predestinate. One of the attributes of God is that he is
omniscient. By omniscient, we mean that God knows everything that is to
be known or can be known.

Knowing everything, he can't learn anything. If he could learn
something, then he is not omniscient. As James said, known unto him are
all things from the beginning.

He's God, knows all things. So if God will ever know who is going to be
saved, God has always known who is going to be saved. And so we're elect
according to the foreknowledge of God.

Now, that doesn't take away from the fact that we have a responsibility
to accept Jesus Christ. The Bible says there are many called, few are
chosen. God has called all to repentance.

Not all do repent. God does know those who will repent. God knows those
that won't repent.

And no man can say, well, God has ordained that I should be lost.
Because all you have to do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you
will be saved. So you can't throw it off on God and try and blame God
for your condition.

We are each one responsible to respond to God as that is our
responsibility. And God just knows those that are going to respond to
him. You get into something like this and it just, you know, you have a
brain that weighs about eight ounces.

And there are limitations. Trying to understand an infinite God with an
eight ounce brain is just an impossibility. And to understand all of the
nuances and all, it just, it's not within our capacity or ability.

And so in this business between the sovereignty of God and the
responsibility of man, and I wrestled with that when I was in Bible
college and I was reading a book on the sovereignty of God. And I became
so confused and upset, I actually threw the book across the room. Sort
of like when Martin Luther threw the inkwell across the room, I threw
the book across the room.

I was frustrated. I said, I can't understand it. And because I believed
in human responsibility, but here I was reading about the sovereignty of
God and it just was so confusing.

I was frustrated through the book and with, I just can't understand it.
And I felt that God spoke to me and said, I didn't ask you to understand
it. I only asked you to believe it.

I said, well, I can do that. So I believe in the sovereignty of God. I
do believe also in the responsibility of man.

You say, how do you reconcile that? I can't, but I believe it. So
believing what you can't reconcile or understand is the place of faith.
You only need faith where you don't understand.

If you understand it, you've got logic, reason. And isn't it interesting
how we hate faith? I want to understand it. I want to be able to
logically figure it out in my mind.

But to me, I can't figure it out. So I just believe it. And you say,
well, you've got a mixed kind of emotion.

Well, yeah, all right. Say what you want. But I believe them both,
though I can't reconcile them in my mind.

But we are elect according to his foreknowledge. Now, this
predestination and foreknowledge and election and chosen and all are all
tied with the foreknowledge of God and sanctified by the Spirit. That
is, the word sanctified means to be set apart.

And here, God has set us apart for his purposes. That's what
sanctification is all about. The Holy Spirit has sanctified us, set us
apart for his purposes unto the obedience and the sprinkling of the
blood of Jesus Christ.

So grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. Grace and peace, they're a
part of Paul's salutation in most of his epistles. They are referred to
sometimes as the Siamese twins of the New Testament because they are
always coupled together, grace and peace, coupled together.

They're always coupled together in that order. You never read peace and
grace be multiplied. But it is always grace and peace.

Grace always precedes peace. And that's because grace precedes peace.
Until you understand the grace of God, you can never know the peace of
God.

Until you understand the grace of God, you're always going to be
struggling. You're always going to be trying to do a little better, to
do a little harder, and you won't have peace because you'll always be
sort of dissatisfied with your present development. Until you realize
that God accepts you as you are, and his grace has been manifested unto
us, and the blessings of God are predicated not on my worth, my
deserving, because I don't deserve it, but they're predicated upon his
grace.

For years, I sought to earn the blessings of God. I sought to sort of
obligate God to bless me. In fastings and in many different ways, I was
trying to sort of obligate God to bless me.

And when I was trying to earn the blessings of God, they were few and
far between, because I was always conscious of my own weakness and
failure. When I discovered the grace of God, that God will bless me and
does bless me, though I am not deserving, though I am not worthy, but he
just loves to bless me because he loves me. When I discovered the grace
of God, the blessings have never stopped.

They are constantly coming my way because I am just believing God to
bless me because of his grace toward me. And now I have wonderful peace.
I'm not struggling and trying to please God by my efforts.

I'm just enjoying the grace of God, and thus I have that peace of God.
Grace and peace be multiplied. Now he gets sort of into the letter
itself.

That's the opening salutation. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again
unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Paul here is, I mean, Peter here is talking about this abundant mercy of
God.

Now, we had in the previous verse the grace of God. Now we have the
mercy of God. Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
according to his abundant mercy.

How great is God's mercy? In Psalm we read, as high as the heavens are
above the earth, so high is his mercy over us. How high are the heavens
above the earth? We really don't know, do we? 15 billion light years.
That's what some of them are estimating.

Pretty high. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high is
mercy. That sort of amuses me because sometimes people feel that they
have exhausted the mercies of God.

Sometimes I see people that I think surely they must have. But as high
as the heavens are above the earth, oh, the mercy of God, so great.
According to his abundant mercy, he has begotten us again.

This is talking about being born again. As Jesus said to Nicodemus,
you've got to be born again if you want to see the kingdom of God. And
this new birth, the birth of the spirit.

As Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, he said that which is born of the
flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. You've got
to have a spiritual birth.

And thus, blessed be God, who by him, we have been begotten. We have
this spiritual birth. And it brings to us a living hope by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

When Jesus was ministering with his disciples, a hope had developed
within them for the kingdom of God. They had become convinced that Jesus
was the Messiah. They were looking forward to him establishing the
kingdom of God.

They were looking forward to the fulfillment of those Old Testament
scriptures that spoke of the glorious kingdom of God. When they would
beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks
and they would study war no more. Where the lion and the lamb would lie
down together and a little child would lead them.

And the kingdom of God would be established here upon the earth. And
Jesus would reign in righteousness and in peace. And that is the
Messiah.

And they thought that this is it. Jesus is the Messiah. He's going to
bring peace and he's going to establish God's kingdom here on the earth.

And they were excited. But then when Jesus was crucified, suddenly that
hope that they had died. They were discouraged.

They were confused. As the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, as Jesus
joined with them incognito, and they began to talk to him about how that
Jesus of Nazareth, he went around doing good. He was healing people and
we had hoped in him for the salvation of Israel.

But they crucified him. The hope was gone. They were discouraged.

They didn't know what they were going to do. And so Jesus said, oh
foolish, slow of heart to believe all of the things that the prophets
have spoken. And he began with Moses and he went through the prophets
and gave to them all of the scriptures that dealt with the suffering of
the Messiah, the death of the Messiah.

He opened up the scriptures to them. I only wish that God would have
inspired Cleopas, one of those who was on the way to Emmaus. If the Lord
would only have inspired him to write a book in the Bible, the book of
Cleopas, where Cleopas would give to us that discourse of Jesus, where
Jesus opened up the scriptures and showed them all of the scriptures
that related to his suffering and his death and all.

Oh, would I love to have had that. But that's because I'm lazy and I
don't want to just search them all out for myself. But the hope that was
dead is now alive.

When Jesus rose from the dead, it brought new life to the hope that they
had for the establishing of the kingdom of God here on earth. We still
tonight have that hope, that blessed hope of the glorious appearing of
our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who is coming to establish the kingdom
of God. The idea of a new earth in which righteousness reigns in which
the beauties that are described of the new earth will be realized, where
sin will be banished and we will live in harmony and in love without
wars and strivings and all.

That hope is still alive and we are waiting for the fulfillment of that
hope. And the darker the conditions of the world become and I don't know
how they can become much darker, the brighter is that hope that we have
of the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, to
establish God's kingdom here on the earth. So the resurrection from the
dead.

As Paul said to the Corinthians, you know, if Christ isn't risen, then
we are of all men most miserable. Those who have died in faith in Christ
have perished. And if our hope is in this world only, it's just sad.

We have a hope of a future world in which Jesus will reign as King of
Kings and Lord of Lords. He has also given to us an inheritance that is
incorruptible, undefiled, and fades not away and is reserved in heaven
for you who are being kept by the power of God through faith. This
glorious inheritance, if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint
heirs with Jesus Christ.

Jesus said in that day, he will say to those on his right hand, come ye
blessed of the Father, inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you
from the foundation of the earth. When Jesus comes to establish his
kingdom, he will be coming with the saints to establish the kingdom.
We'll be coming with him to establish God's kingdom upon the earth.

And so we will inherit this glorious kingdom of God that is
incorruptible, undefiled, and is not going to fade away, reserved in
heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. As we mentioned this
morning, relationship is twofold. There is a responsibility in a
relationship towards each other in the relationship.

In developing a relationship with God, there is God's part and there is
our part. Peter here tells us God's part. He has begotten us again.

We are born again by the Spirit of God. I can't create a spiritual
birth. I can't produce a spiritual birth.

I'm born again by the Spirit of God. And so we have been begotten, God's
work, to this living hope by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
God did that.

I had nothing to do with raising Jesus from the dead or his being risen
from the dead. That's God's work. The inheritance, that's God's work
again.

And I am an heir because I am now a child because I've been born again.
But that's all God's work. It fades not away.

It's reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God. I
can't keep myself. God keeps me.

Now unto him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you
faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. And so we
are kept by the power of God. That's God's part.

Now he gets to our part through faith. That's all God requires for that
relationship. It's a relationship of faith.

I believe what God has said. I believe that God is who he says he is. I
believe that God will do what he said he will do.

And that's my part, just believing. No works that I can do to be
accepted. Jesus Christ has done the work.

It's a finished work. God has kept his part. I must keep my part.

I must just simply believe what God has done. Through faith, revealed,
ready to be revealed in the last times. We're in the last times, won't
be long.

We're gonna see this glorious kingdom of God. We're in, we greatly
rejoice. Though now for a season, if need be, you're in heaviness
because of the many trials or tribulations that you're going through.

We rejoice in the hope of the future. We look at the world today and the
conditions in the world today and the problems of the world today, and
it causes a heavy heart. It causes heaviness.

But this is only for a time. The glorious day of the Lord is coming and
we're going to enjoy this wonderful inheritance of the saints in light.
So the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that
perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and
honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

We are told not to despise the fiery trials that are to try us or not to
look at them as though some strange thing has happened to us. And we as
Christians do experience testings fiery trials. You remember when John
the Baptist was baptizing and many came and they were wondering who John
was.

Is he the Messiah? And he said, no, I'm not. I'm just the voice of one
crying in the wilderness. I'm here to prepare the way of the Lord or the
way for the Lord.

But John, the Bible said, did baptize, but John said, there is one who
is coming after me. He is mightier than I am. And he's going to baptize
you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Now, there have been people that have misinterpreted that fire as a
great emotional experience. And they talk about, well, I have the fire
of the Holy Spirit what's God, hallelujah and all that. And they
interpret that as the fire that is being referred to of the baptism of
Jesus with the Holy Spirit.

The fire is a purifying fire. It doesn't make you want to stand up and
shout and raise your hands. It really just burns out the dross.

And it's the testings that God has designed for purification, burning
out the dross in our lives. And it's an important for us. And so here he
talks about gold purified by the fire, heating the gold until the dross
is burned out and the gold then is pure.

And so the trial of our faith is that of purifying us. And so if God has
you going through a hard experience, a testing, we're told that we're to
rejoice in it because it has its effect of purifying our lives for the
Lord and for service. Throughout the New Testament, there's a lot that
has been written concerning the purifying effect of the testings that we
go through.

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are they which are
persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men revile you, persecute you, say all manner of
evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice, he said, and be exceeding
glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the
prophets that were before you.

So trials, tribulation, persecutions, God is using them in our lives to
purify. Jesus in Luke said, blessed are you when men shall hate you.
They'll separate you from their company.

They will reproach you. They will cast out your name as evil for the son
of man's sake, but rejoice in that day. In fact, leap for joy, for
behold, your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner did their
fathers to the prophets.

In Acts 5.41, after the disciples were beaten and commanded not to speak
anymore the name of Jesus, it said they departed from the council
rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.
That's what Jesus told them to do, rejoice in that day, leap for joy.
And you know, you're in good company.

That's the prophets of God in the Old Testament went through those same
experiences. Paul tells us in Romans 8.17, if we are children, then we
are heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we
suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to
be compared with the glory that's going to be revealed in us. Our
present trials, which are for a moment, he said, works in exceeding
eternal weight of glory. They used to sing, I'm so glad that trouble
don't last always.

There was this lady who was in the church where they had opportunity to
stand up and testify. And she was testifying of going through this real
heavy trial. And she just said, Lord, I need a scripture to help me.

And she said, I just opened up my Bible and it opened up to Luke chapter
two. And I read the first verse. And she said, I was just so blessed.

I'm just thanking the Lord. He gave me such comfort and hope from Luke
2.1. Well, the pastor, knowing that Luke 2.1 said, and it came to pass
in those days that there went on to decree from Caesar Augustus that the
whole world should be taxed. He thought, how in the world can this
scripture bring a blessing to this lady? I mean, she's so excited and so
happy.

And so he said, sister, set up a moment again. He said, you said that it
was through Luke 2.1 that the Lord spoke to you and you're so blessed
and all because you were going through all of these heavy things and
that gave you hope and excitement. How does that happen? She said, well,
I opened it up and I just read and it came to pass.

She said, that's all I needed. It didn't come to stay, it came to pass.
The Lord said, it's just come to pass, you know.

It is true. Our present trials, which are but for a moment, they've come
to pass. They work an eternal weight of glory.

So Paul said that the Lord said to him and through all of his trials, my
grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness. So
Paul responded most gladly, therefore will I rather glory in my
infirmities that the power of Christ might rest upon me.

Therefore I take pleasure in my infirmities and reproaches in the
necessities, in the persecutions, in the distresses for Christ's sake.
For when I am weak, then am I strong. Back in James, our last book that
we just went through, chapter one, James said, my brethren, count it all
joy when you fall into diverse temptations.

Here in first Peter, when we get to chapter four, we'll read, if you are
reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye for the spirit of the
glory of God rests upon you and on their part he is evil spoken of, but
on your part, he is glorified. So here, the trial of your faith, being
much more precious than gold that perishes though it's tried with the
fire might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of
Christ. When we get down to verse 19 tonight, but with the precious
blood of Christ as a lamb without spot and blemish.

We, why did I put that in? I don't, what was my thought when I jotted
down that one? Well, maybe when we get there, I'll remember. Okay, whom
having not seen, you love. I love this one.

We've come to love Jesus Christ, though we haven't seen him. Having not
seen him, we love him. And though we do not see him now, yet believing,
we rejoice with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory.

Loving him, haven't seen him, but I love him. And I rejoice in the hope
of the kingdom of God, a joy that is unspeakable or indescribable, and
it's full of glory. It's interesting that the emotions that we
experience as Christians are so intense that they have to be described
with superlatives.

It just doesn't talk about joy. Oh, he gives you such joy. No, he gives
you joy that is indescribable.

It's full of glory. He doesn't just give you love, but he gives you
overflowing love. He doesn't just give you peace.

He gives you peace that passes human understanding. And so the rejoicing
with joy that's indescribable and full of glory, receiving the end, the
end result of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Of which
salvation? The prophets have inquired and searched diligently who
prophesied of the grace that should come unto you.

They were searching what or what manner of time the spirit of Christ
which was in them did signify when he testified beforehand of the
sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. The prophets in
the Old Testament, they were writing by the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit. All scripture is given by inspiration of God.

And thus inspired by God, they were writing these things. But as they
were writing these things, they wondered, what does that mean? Because
they were writing of the death of Jesus, the Messiah. They were writing
of the suffering of the Messiah.

And yet they were writing of his glorious rule and reign. And they
couldn't put it together in their mind concerning the Messiah. How is it
that they are writing of his suffering, his death as Psalm 22, Isaiah 53
and other passages, being despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrow
acquainted with grief, submitting his back to the smiters and they're
plucking out his beard, pulling out his beard and so forth, the abuse of
the Messiah.

But yet talking about that he's going to sit on the throne of David, he
will order it and establish it in righteousness and in judgment from
henceforth even forever. And how do you put these things together? They
wrote them because God was inspiring them to write, but they were
writing things that they didn't understand themselves. They were trying
to figure it out.

How can this be? Of course, we have the advantage of looking back. We
can now see how it all fits together. We can see how that Jesus did
suffer death, that by his suffering death, he might bring life to all of
us.

We do see that there are two comings of the Lord. His first coming to
give himself as a sacrifice for our sins. The second coming to reign in
glory over the kingdom of God that he will establish upon the earth.

So now from our standpoint, we understand it, they didn't. And thus they
were just writing and not understanding the things that they were
writing about, trying to figure it all out. So they inquired and they
were searching diligently as they prophesied of the grace that should
come to you.

As they were searching, what manner of time the spirit of Christ, which
was in them, did signify when it testified beforehand of the sufferings
of Christ and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed
that not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minister the things
which are now reported unto you by them which have preached the gospel
unto you with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, which things the
angels desired to look into. The Bible tells us concerning angels that
they are ministering spirits.

They've been sent forth to minister to those who are heirs of salvation.
Creation of God, when God made man, he made us a little lower than the
angels, but they are servants of God. And we know very little about
them, but we know that he has given his angels charge over us to keep us
in all of our ways, to bear us up lest at any time we should dash our
foot against a stone.

But they can't quite understand the grace that God has bestowed unto us.
The Old Testament writers, when they wrote of it, they didn't understand
it. But the angels desire to look into it.

I've often wondered about these angels as they are observing us, what
they must think as they see us fretting and worried and filled with
anxiety and all over our conditions. And they, I think, are just sort of
saying to themselves, what's wrong with them? Don't they have the
scriptures? Don't they know what God is going to be doing? And why are
they so upset? Why are they so worried? And I'm sure that we are a real
enigma to the angels. Now, I don't know why God placed the
responsibility of preaching the gospel to man.

I think that angels could have done a much better job. And I think that
Gabriel would probably say, okay, Chuck, just step aside, let me explain
it. But yet God has chosen that, you know, through human instruments,
his love be brought to man, his word be brought to man.

And so we do our best to share the truths of God, but yet so limited.
And angels desiring to look into it. Now, we have a great advantage over
the Old Testament prophets and the men of the Old Testament.

They couldn't see what we see today. As the revelation of God has been a
progressive revelation, and as Jesus did come according to the
scriptures, died according to the scriptures, rose again according to
the scriptures, ascended into heaven according to the scriptures, and is
going to be coming again. Now, we're in this sort of valley between the
two peaks, the peaks of the first coming of Christ and the peak of the
second coming.

We're in the valley in between the two peaks right now, but, you know,
it's going to happen and it's going to be glorious when it does happen.
So, wherefore, and wherefore always leads you back to what he's just
been telling you about, this message that God revealed to the prophets
they couldn't understand it, angels desire to look into it, but
wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind. In other words, get serious
about your study of the word.

Gird up the loins of your mind. Be sober and hope to the end for the
grace that is to be brought unto you by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Looking ahead, looking forward to what the Bible promises God is going
to do and the revelation of Jesus Christ, that is, when he comes again
and is revealed, that we need to be looking forward to this, this
glorious hope at the end when Jesus comes again and establishes his
kingdom.

As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former
lust in your ignorance. Before the birth of the spirit, because of the
fact that the spirit of man died when Adam sinned, by one man sin
entered the world and death by sin so that death passed unto all men for
all sin. And because of Adam's sin, the spiritual death and Jesus saying
to Nicodemus, if you wanna enter the kingdom of heaven, you gotta have a
spiritual birth.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the
spirit is spirit. Don't marvel that I say you've got to be born again.
So until we are born again, the spirit is dead, we are just a twofold
being, body and mind.

And our mind is occupied with our body needs. Our physical bodies have
certain needs. They call them drives.

And the natural man, unregenerate man, does not understand the things of
the spirit, neither can he know them, they are spiritually deserved. But
he is living according to the needs of his flesh or the desires of his
flesh. And that is just the way he is and he can't be any other way
because the spirit is dead.

And so that frustration of trying to satisfy the lust of the flesh. The
worst thing you can do for lust is to feed it because as you feed it, it
only grows. You don't satisfy, but it only creates a greater lust.

If you have a lust for wealth, and that is what you are pursuing and
seeking after, the more you get, the more you'll want. You'll never
satisfy that lust, it will only grow. And so with any lust of our flesh,
if you feed it, it will grow.

Paul said, if we by the spirit do mortify the lust of the flesh, then
we'll live. Or put it to death, deny it. But here he talks about as
obedient children, not fashioning ourselves according to the former
lust, not living after these former lusts, as we once did in ignorance,
thinking that we could satisfy, thinking if I can just have a little
more, I'll be satisfied.

But as he which has called you is holy, you be holy in all manner of
conversation. Now, this word conversation will be used a lot here in
Peter's writing, and it is a word that doesn't mean let's have a
conversation, let's sit down and have a, it means the total manner of
living. It's sort of a description of the way you live, your manner of
life.

And thus, he is telling us that we need to be holy in our whole manner
of living, living in holiness, because it is written, be ye holy, for I
am holy. Now, if you call on the Father, who without respect to persons,
judges according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning
here on earth, while you're here, pass it in fear, or in reverence of
God, awe of God. God, when he judges, is going to judge without
partiality.

Man's judgment is fallible. There are certain people who because of
their fame or whatever, those that are in judgment are fallible in their
judging because they have respect to persons. I think a classic example
was O.J. Simpson.

And I don't think that there's any doubt in people's mind concerning his
guilt, and yet we know that he got off free from the murder of his wife
and the fellow she was with. But I think that most of us would agree
that he was guilty, but yet respect of persons. And of course, she had
said, he's gonna kill me and he's gonna get by with it because he's O.J.
Simpson.

And so hard for us to have impartial judgment, not for God. No one's
going to fool God. No one's going to impress God with who they were
while they were here on Earth and what they may have accomplished while
they were here on Earth.

That won't impress God one bit. He will judge and will be holy in
judgment. There's no respect of persons.

He judges everyone according to truth, according to our work. And thus,
while we're here on Earth, pass the time in reverence of God, in awe of
God, knowing that one day we will be judged by God. For as much as you
know that you were redeemed not with corruptible things like silver or
gold from the vain conversation or the vain manner of living received by
tradition from your fathers.

And so he's again writing to the Jews and of course their religion was
full of traditions. Jesus rebuked them because they were teaching for
doctrine just the traditions of man. And they've been redeemed, Peter
said, not with corruptible things.

Silver and gold are corruptible things from this vain life, empty life
that they were living. But they were redeemed with the precious blood of
Jesus as a lamb without blemish and without spot. So this vain manner of
living, very descriptive.

Solomon was a man who sought answers by feeding the lust of his flesh.
Solomon amassed more wealth than any man before him. And Solomon sought
by many different means to satisfy this emptiness that he felt inside,
trying to fill the lust of his flesh.

And he talks about the various things that he did, the various things
that he acquired in order to satisfy his life, this manner of living.
And when he had done it all, he said, there wasn't a single thing that I
withheld from myself of all that I desired, didn't hold back. He had the
money, he had all that was necessary to fulfill every possible kind of
dream.

Having done it, what was his conclusion? Vanity, vanity, or emptiness,
emptiness. Everything is empty and frustrating. He did it all and ended
up totally empty.

Vain manner of living. If you live after the flesh, it's a vain manner
of living. But we've been redeemed from that, not with corruptible
things, such like silver and gold.

You know, it would not be a meaningful thing if God redeemed you with
silver or gold. Because God can create all of the silver and gold he
desires, he's God. All of the silver and gold that does exist, he
created.

What is so precious here, the silver and gold, is asphalt in heaven.
They paved the streets with it up there. So what is so valuable and all
here, you know, has no value up there.

And thus, because he can create all of the gold he wants to redeem you
with gold would be meaningless. I believe that when we get to heaven,
and we have the opportunity to take the universal tour, and we travel
around through the galaxies, that I believe that as we are traveling
through the galaxies, we'll come to a galaxy and the angel will say, the
next galaxy that we're approaching with its hundred million stars and
planets and all, is all pure gold. It's called the golden galaxy.

And we'll see that God created a whole galaxy of gold. I think there'll
be another one of diamonds. And they'll say, you know, this next galaxy
is the diamond galaxy.

And those things that are so valuable or precious to us here are just
things. God couldn't redeem us with those because he created them all
and he can create all he wants. He created or he redeemed us with
something far more valuable.

There's only one. He is the only begotten son of God. And he gave him to
redeem us.

The most precious thing because of the rarity. There is only one, no
more created, just one existing with the father and the father
sacrificed him in order to redeem us from our sin. And so we know that
we were not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold
from that empty life that we were living, but with the precious blood of
Christ as a lamb without blemish or without spot.

In the Old Testament, where God had set up the law and the sacrifices
for sin, if you sinned, you would have to bring a lamb for a sin
offering. The priest would inspect the lamb. It had to be without
blemish or without spot.

Blemish was an acquired impurity. Maybe the lamb had been attacked by
the wolf and there were scars. You couldn't use it as a sacrifice for a
sin offering.

Maybe it had a birth defect. You couldn't use it because the spot was a
birth defect. Had to be without blemish and without spot to be the
sacrifice.

Jesus was born without sin. He did not acquire any sin. He lived a
sinless life.

He was without blemish. He was without spot, a perfect life. And thus he
was sacrificed for us as the perfect sacrifice without blemish or
without spot.

Who verily was foreordained when? Before the foundation of the world,
but was manifest in these last times for you. The Bible speaks of Christ
being crucified from the foundations of the earth. It was God's plan
from the beginning to send his son to be the sacrifice for our sins.

He knew that Adam was going to fail. God wasn't taken by surprise, but
God wanted to manifest how much he loves us though we failed and though
we were in sin. He wanted to manifest to us the depth and the immensity
of his love.

And thus he allowed Adam to sin. He allowed sin to have its devastating
effect in the world in which we live. So that when he sent his only
begotten son to die for our sins, we would realize the depth of God's
love for us.

Never question God's love. If ever there is the question and you might
say, God, do you really love me? And sometimes when things are going
bad, we have that question, God, do you really love me? All God does is
just point to the cross. There's the proof of his love for you, allowing
his only begotten son to suffer for you, to die for you, to take your
sin upon himself and die in your place.

So we've been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot because he was foreordained before the
foundation of the world, but was manifest in, as Peter said, these last
times for you, as Peter was, of course, writing of the death of Christ
during their lifetime. Who by him do believe in God that raised him from
the dead and gave him glory that your faith and your hope might be in
God. So God's eternal purposes, God's eternal plans, that you might have
your faith and your hope in God.

Seeing that you've purified your souls in obeying the truth through the
spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. Unfeigned love. There's a
lot of feigned love today.

God wants us to have unfeigned love, true love, Valentine's Day, true
love. There's a lot of feigned love on Valentine's Day. Things that are
said on the Valentine's and so forth is often not really sincere.

It's not true love, but it's sort of a faked love. We're to have
unfeigned love for each other. And seeing that you've purified your
souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the
brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently.

Now, it's interesting to me that when Jesus was questioning Peter there
at the Sea of Galilee after his resurrection, his question to Peter was,
Peter, lovest thou me more than these? Whatever the these were, the
other disciples or the 153 fish that were flopping in the net. Do you
love me more than these? Jesus used this word agape, which is a divine
fervent love, a supreme love, ultimate love. Do you love me ultimately
above everything else? Peter in his answer said, yea, Lord, I love you.

But Peter used a different word for love, phileo, which is a love in a
lesser degree. It is a love of fondness and it could be translated, you
know I am fond of you. Jesus asked the second time, Peter, do you love
me? Again, using the word agapas or agape.

And again, Peter said, yea, Lord, you know that I phileo you, I am fond
of you. The third time Jesus said, Peter, lovest thou me? And he used
Peter's word. He said, are you fond of me? And Peter was grieved because
the third time, Jesus said, are you fond of me? And he said, Lord, you
know that I am fond of you.

You know all things, you know I'm fond of you. It's interesting that as
Peter is telling us to love, he's using the word agape. He couldn't use
it when he was with Jesus there at the Sea of Galilee.

But throughout his epistle, he doesn't use this fond phileo word, but he
uses the agape word as he tells us of the love that we're to have, that
unfeigned love for the brethren, love one another with a pure heart,
fervently. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible by the word of God, which lives and abides forever. We are
born again by this incorruptible seed, which is the word of God.

Now, a seed is very interesting because a seed is encapsulated DNA,
which has the pattern, the design, to reproduce, to bring forth after
its kind. It's a very complex thing, but the potential to reproduce the
peach is in the peach seed. Plant it, you get a peach tree, and it
produces peaches.

All of the information for the tree, for the fruit and all, is all
encoded in the DNA in the peach seed, or whatever seed you might be
having, the encoded information to reproduce itself. The word of God,
incorruptible seed, has in it the encoded information to reproduce
Christ in you. And that, to me, is exciting.

As you plant the seed in your fertile soil of your heart, God's word in
you will reproduce the likeness of Christ through you. And that, to me,
is just an exciting, exciting thing. The incorruptible by the word of
God, which lives and abides forever.

For all flesh is as grass, and as the glory of man, and as the flower of
the grass, the grass will wither, the flower will fall away, but the
word of the Lord endures forever, and this is the word by which the
gospel is preached unto you. So the power of God's word. Jesus said, now
you are clean through the word that I have spoken unto you.

David said, thy word will I hide in my heart, that I might not sin
against you. The power of God's word in us is just an exciting,
wonderful thing. It's come to me, the scripture that I was reading
earlier out of place.

First Peter 1.7, the trial of your faith being much more precious. Verse
19, with the precious blood of Christ. Now precious is really, to me, a
feminine word.

I mean, you can understand women talking about, oh, isn't that precious?
It's not really a word in my vocabulary. I have other words I would use
to describe things, but women, they seem to like that word precious. Oh,
that's so precious.

Peter is a big, rough, rugged fisherman, fisherman, and yet he seems to
like this word precious, and he uses it seven times in his epistles.
Big, old, tough Peter talking about, isn't that precious? That's great,
only the Lord can do that. I'd like to read a poem.

I needed the quiet, so he drew me aside into the shadows where we could
confide. Away from the bustle where all the day long I hurried and
worried when active and strong. I needed the quiet, though at first I
rebelled, but gently, so gently, my cross he upheld.

And he whispered so sweetly of spiritual things, though weakened in
body, my spirit took wings. To heights never dreamed of when active and
gay, he loved me so greatly, he drew me away. I needed the quiet, no
prison my bed, but a beautiful valley of blessings instead, a place to
grow richer in Jesus to hide.

I needed the quiet, so he drew me aside. Sometimes the Lord has a
purpose in just sort of drawing us aside, weaknesses that we might feel
in order that we might just become more intimate in our fellowship and
in our relationship with him. Father, we thank you for, again, the
opportunity of reading and studying the word tonight.

And we thank you for the word that it is like a seed planted in our
hearts. Let it bring forth fruit in our lives, Lord, the precious fruit
that will be pleasing, Lord, to you. And so, Father, guide us,
strengthen us, use us this week in a special way.

Manifest to us your presence, your love, and your power in our lives.
And Lord, when we are weak, may we learn to rely upon your strength.
Guide us, Lord, in your wisdom.

Let us become instruments, Lord, through which you can accomplish your
purposes in this sinful world. May our lives shine with the light of
Jesus Christ, illuminating the darkness of the world around us. In his
name we pray, amen.

Shall we stand? May the Lord be with you. Watch over and keep you in his
love. Cause you to abound in all things in Christ Jesus.

Pastors are down here to pray for you if there are any needs in your
life. We invite you to come on down and let them pray with you, pray for
you. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, and
God can meet your needs tonight.

Just give him that opportunity to do so. May the Lord go with you, keep
his hand upon you, cause you to abound in all things in Christ Jesus,
our Lord. I love you, Lord, and I lift my voice to worship you.

Oh, my soul, rejoice. Take joy, my King, in what you hear. May it be a
sweet, sweet sound in your ear.

God bless you.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/AuDdvviK1ms.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/chuck-smith/1-peter-1-expositional/
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