Sermon on THE CHRISTIAN HOPE



THE CHRISTIAN HOPE.

1 Peter 1: 13

Sermon by:

Rev. P. den Butter

PUBLISHED BY

PUBLICATION COMMITTEE

OF THE

FREE REFORMED CHURCHES OF NORTH AMERICA.

(February 2005)

LITURGY:

Votum

Psalter 365

Law of God

Psalter 336: 1, 2

Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 1: 1 – 12

Text: 1 Peter 1: 13

Congregational Prayer

Offerings

Psalter 384: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Sermon

Psalter 391

Thanksgiving Prayer

Psalter 112: 2, 4

Doxology: Psalter 315

Congregation,

This morning, the Lord speaks to us through Peter, the apostle of Jesus Christ, who has written a letter to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, five Roman provinces in what is today called Turkey.

Whether Peter himself has been there as an apostle to preach the gospel, we do not know. It may also be that Peter was never there and other preachers whose names we do not know went there and proclaimed the gospel in these areas, and that the Holy Spirit did attach His blessing to their preaching, so that scattered throughout these regions Christian churches came into existence.

It is clear from Peter’s epistle that many people in these areas where turned from darkness to light, who by the powerful operation of the Holy Ghost, were enabled to break off from their sinful lives and believed on the Lord Jesus.

Now in the first half of the first chapter of his epistle Peter lays out what great provisions have come to them, what great salvation God has prepared for them in the first place in and through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and what great salvation the Holy Spirit has supplied to their hearts. Peter, and we have read it this morning, speaks about the great inheritance in vs. 4 “an inheritance incorruptible, reserved in heaven for you.” He speaks about God’s keeping grace, by which these people who will inherit this inheritance in the future, will, in the meanwhile be kept by the power of God. Peter speaks and writes about the way they have been made partakers of that great salvation; namely, by the preaching of the gospel applied by the Holy Spirit. In a word, Peter speaks about the great riches of God’s grace which has been imparted to them. He summarizes what the Lord has done for them already, for people who used to live in sin, for people who used to be miserable in sin, for people who lived in ignorance, and in

blindness; for THAT was their natural state. But God has done great things for them, and then, having laid out these things for them, in the vs. 3-12, the apostle is now going to give a series of encouragements or even exhortations based on what the Lord has revealed to them already.

For, let us realize that to be under the grace of God brings with it an obligation, an obligation that we now REALLY understand what grace is and that we now will live in newness of life. That means that when we come to vs. 13 and the following verses in Peter’s letter, we come across a number of inferences, deductions, and therefore vs. 13 starts with the “wherefore.” That marks the transition. The transition of what the believers are in Christ by God’s grace already revealed unto them and what these believers are to be in Christ and are to do to Christ. That transition is marked by the first words in vs. 13 WHEREFORE.

In the passage that now follows beginning with vs. 13, Peter is going to describe the Christian Life, the life of a true Christian: in the first place, in its relationship to God, vs. 13-21. He mentions three things, the first of these he mentions in vs. 13, the second one in the verses 14- 16, the third thing in the verses 17-21. They are all marked by an imperative: in vs. 13 hope, set your hope, in vs. 14-16 be ye holy, in vs. 17-21 the imperative is live in fear. These are the three things that mark the life of a Christian in his relationship to God. Hope, holiness and fear, godly fear! Now this morning we will concentrate on this first aspect, the aspect of the Christian Hope.

When we come to vs. 13, in the English version we are given the impression that Peter is giving us three commandments, three imperatives: gird up, be sober, hope. But in the original, it is evident that there is only one imperative. Only the word hope is put in the imperative mood, and the other two things are put in the form of a participle. Therefore, the literal translation of the words of our text is “wherefore having girded up the loins of your mind, and being sober, hope, set your hope”. That leaves us with no other conclusion than that the first two clauses, having girded up, and being sober, are in a

sense prerequisites. Setting our hope on God’s grace in Christ Jesus is possible only if that activity is supported by these two other words and it is impossible to really hope and

live in hope if there is not first of all “a girding up of the loins of the mind” and “the being sober.”

We will first take up these two prerequisites, or we can call them supporting elements. “Having girded up the loins of your mind” refers to an action that has taken place in the past. You could very well imagine what it meant to the people to whom the apostle Peter is writing. “The girding up of the loins” was a normal activity to those people. People usually wore long garments and these long garments were an impediment for walking or for strenuous labor, and therefore they used the girdle to gird up the loins. You can see why this was necessary. For, in that way, people wearing long garments were enabled to and strengthened to walk or do their work.

Think for a moment of an illustration from God’s own word. We read from 1 Kings 18 about the prophet Elijah. After the Lord has revealed Himself on Mount Carmel, and after the people had been deeply impressed by the fire coming down from heaven and burning up the sacrifice on the altar, all the people cried out, “The Lord is God, the Lord is God”. After this momentous event, Ahab left for his palace in Israel and Elijah was going to accompany him. It says in 1 Kings 18:46 that Elijah “girded up his loins” to be able to walk fast before the king’s chariot. David uses this same imagery in Psalm 18 where he says,” the Lord has girded him with strength for the battle”. The Lord has given him spiritual strength and power to fight the enemy.

Now, Peter applies this figure to our minds. The readers of this letter must do with their minds what man normally does when he girds up his garments. Our minds, our spirits, and our heart: sometimes these words are used synonymously in the bible. Our mind must be prepared! If we are to set our hope on the grace of God, our mind must be

prepared. Our mind must not wander in every direction. We must take care that we are not hindered by various things. Let me quote from Matthew Henry’s commentary. “Gird

up the loins of your mind”, he says,” you have a journey to go, a race to run, a warfare to accomplish and a great work to do. As the traveler, the racer, the warrior and the laborer

gather in and gird up long and loose garments that they may be more ready prompt and expeditious in their business, so do you, by your minds, your inner man, and your affections seated there. Gird them, gather them in, and let them not hang loose and neglected about you, restrain their extravagance, and let the loins or strength or vigor of your minds be exerted in your duty. Disengage yourselves from all who would hinder you and go on resolutely in your obedience.”

I think that is the proper explanation of what Peter has in mind when he says to the readers of his epistle that they have to gird up the loins of their minds. That is then what we can call the first prerequisite.

Then Peter comes to the second: being sober. And the way he puts it points to an abiding attitude. The believers ought to be in a constant state of sobriety. What does Peter mean here? Does he mean a literal sobriety? That could well be possible. There are more places in the New Testament where we come across warnings against being under the influence of alcohol, being in a state of drunkenness, intoxication. For instance, it is a well-known fact that too much alcohol in the blood causes people to be unable to perceive reality; alcohol distorts the vision, and causes slurred speech. It says in the book of Proverbs,” thine eyes shall behold strange women and thine heart shall utter perverse things.”

Now it is also possible that Peter does not refer to a literal sobriety but to a spiritual one. For, remember our body can become intoxicated but our mind can become intoxicated as well, by wrong ideas, by prejudices and preconceived notions, by sinful habits, by worldly occupations and many a time we are in danger in this way to loose our

spiritual sobriety. Well, in whatever sense the apostle Peter has meant it, maybe in both senses, certainly it is of great value that our mind will be able to discern rightly:

between what is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is false, what is from God and what is not from God. Spiritual realities we must be able to evaluate. All what the Lord has been pleased to reveal to us in the Word; His promises, His threatening, His commands, His invitations, all that the Lord has revealed in the Word must be rightly understood.

Well, having done these things: having complied with these two prerequisites, namely, having “girded up the loins” of the mind, and “being sober”, Peter then says we will be able to set our hope. Without, I repeat, without these two supporting elements it is not possible to obey the central command of this text, namely to hope. If it would be possible for us to hope without these two supports, why are they here? Why does Peter mention them? Why did the Holy Spirit lead Peter to write these two things? But the Lord knows too well that when it comes to the life of steadfast hope there are way too many impediments and they must be removed, and we must be engaged in removing these impediments as much as in us lies.

Well congregation, what Peter is referring to in our text was of course very relevant in his own days. But, it certainly is of even greater relevance in our times. The avenues to our minds have been greatly multiplied in our days. In so many ways our minds are being influenced, that was true in those days too. But what were the avenues that came to the mind by which the mind was influenced in those days? Well, for instance what these people heard in the marketplace and what they heard from their neighbors and what they heard from some of their relatives. There was no telephone communication, no mass media. There was certainly some information that came to them and kept their minds busy, but now compare our days with those days. In so many ways, many more ways, our minds are being influenced today. We are almost bombarded with information from every side, from almost everywhere all sorts of impulses are sent to our mind; the printed

press, the radio, the television, the internet, and again and again and almost constantly, our minds are in danger of being taken out of God’s reality.

And, these things do not stop at the door of our churches, or in front of the doors of our houses, don’t think that! And one of the effects of being influenced by so much information is the request that is made by certain church members for shorter sermons, and for lighter messages, for things that can be digested quickly and easily. Our services must be easy! And the sermons preached in those services are meant to entertain, things that are easily swallowed. Give us some pre-cooked meat, quickly digested! Many people are not in a situation that they are willing to think, to use their mind, to gird up the loins of their mind. And when they sit in church they wonder why there are these emphases on the doctrines. Don’t make it so hard! Please don’t make it so complicated! We have so many things to think about already.

But, Peter calls for the girding up the loins of the mind. He knows that according to the Lord’s plan of salvation, in being saved, there has to be the activity of the mind. And even ordinary believers and believers in Peter’s epistle, did just that. Ordinary believers are called to use their minds and gird up the loins, and to constantly keep their minds in a state of being sober.

Here is already something, congregation that should be applied to our own situation. Have you ever seen the great value and the great importance of that gift that the Lord has entrusted to us which we call our mind? There is the danger that our religion can also become merely intellectual, and that our faith is nothing more than an historical faith, seeded only in the mind and not in the heart. There are Christians whom it must be said that that knowledge is a foot to high. That means only in the head, and not in the heart. Historical faith, and of course it is a tremendously dangerous thing, when we consider historical faith to be of the same value as saving faith. That is a big mistake! But, on the other hand, we should not make another mistake, namely, to underestimate the place of

our mind in our religious life. God wants us to think! And to think deeply! Practice tells us that when people no long think, and when they no longer occupy their minds in thinking about God’s word, and revelation and God’s truth, they are soon open to all sort

of errors. Therefore, the question is, what do we do with our minds? And in how far are our minds involved in our religion? Do we read? And what do we read? If we do not read and study the Reformed doctrines, the truth as it displayed and revealed in the word of God, we starve ourselves. What spiritual food do we take in?

Congregation, I think this is an important question, especially in our day. What spiritual food do we take in? Let us heed to what Peter says in the beginning of vs. 13, about the “girding up of the loins of our mind”, and the “being sober”. Be careful what you read, and what you hear, and the things you listen too. Keep your mind sober, watch for the danger of spiritual intoxication.

And now we come to the heart of Peter’s sermon. HOPE, or set your hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you through the revelation of Jesus Christ. A summons to hope! In passing, I make this remark that in our English version, Peter keeps the word hope to the end. If you have a bible with marginal notes with you, you’ll be able to see that there is also the possibility to read hope perfectly, which is of course, another proper translation. So there is the summons to hope. What is hope? Let me first say what hope is not. Hope is not wishful thinking. It is not an expression of some uncertainty, something in the sense of well I’m not completely sure, I hope this or that is going to happen or I really don’t know whether he will be coming but I hope he will be coming. That is how we use the word hope. But that is not the meaning of the biblical word hope. In the bible, in the Word of God, the word hope is the fixing of the soul upon a divinely promised blessing. Therefore, instead of uncertainty, there is in hope the element of certainty, because God has pledged the thing we hoped for. And because we firmly believe the veracity of the promised thing we long for, and we hope for it. And so

in hope, there is the element of certainty, God has said it, God has promised it, and there is the element of expectation that God will fulfill what He has promised

What is according to Peter now the object of hope? In what direction turns the hope? Hope perfectly, hope to the end for the grace. And here we are right at the heart of the gospel. GRACE. What is grace? The free, the unmerited favor that God bestows upon an unworthy, even a hell-deserving sinner! The free, unmerited favor bestowed by God upon a hell-deserving sinner. Grace and that is the only means by which a lost and damnable, unworthy sinner will ever be saved. All our own efforts fail. Our best works, according to God’s Word are but filthy rags. And because our own efforts fail, and because our good works, even our best works are imperfect and stained with sin, we can never be our own saviors. Only grace, that undeserved and unmerited favor of God! It is only grace that is able to restore us into God’s favor, grace and grace alone, therefore, must become the object and the source of our hope. Grace, the indispensable commodity, we must learn to value as the only means by which our shipwrecked lives can be delivered.

The object of hope must be grace. What grace? We must realize that grace is a complex word in the N.T. also in the old. Grace is a multi-faceted thing. Grace is even three-dimensional. There is grace in the past, there is grace in the present, and there is grace in the future. It was grace, and it is grace when the blind eyes of a sinner are being opened. It is pure grace when the Lord begins to have dealings with a lost sinner. It is grace, and only grace, when a dead sinner is quickened and when a man is born again and enters into a new life. It is grace when the Word of God for the first time is applied to the soul. It is grace when our prayers ascend to God, and the Lord gives evidence that He has heard our petition. It is grace when comfort comes to the heart, the sad heart, the disheartened heart of the sinner, and God so comforts him. It is grace, and ALL of grace. And what has happened in the life of God’s children in the past, and what they can refer

to, and what they can cherish and remember what God has done for them and how He has spoken to them, remembering that it was grace and all of grace.

And so, it is also grace in the present. When God’s children are kept by the power of the Holy Spirit, and when they experience that God continues to be mindful of them, when He gives them fresh impressions of His favor, His mercy, this is the second dimension of grace.

But, then, according to the Word of God there is also a third dimension: grace in the future. And it is particularly the grace in the future, grace in its third dimension that Peter is mentioning here: “the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ”.

About that revelation of Jesus Christ Peter has written about already in vs. 7, and it is a theme that frequently occurs in his letters as well as the other letters in the N.T. meaning the revelation that God still has not revealed so far. When the Lord Jesus returns, God’s people will receive the full enjoyment of what he has called “the inheritance”. When the Lord Jesus will appear, and when He is revealed from heaven it will be the day of the resurrection of the dead. It will be the day of the restoration of the world order; it will be the day of the gathering in of all the elect of God. And that will be the day when dimensions not yet revealed so far in the past nor in the present will be revealed. Then the revelation and the manifestation of God’s grace will reach its zenith point. And for that grace Peter says the believers are to hope. And then he qualifies that hope by saying to the end, or that other translation “perfectly”, that means, that it must not come by fits and starts, but that it must be a fixed hope, a complete one, a full one, the whole life should be marked by it.

How will this ever be possible? It can be possible only when these two prerequisites, these two supporting elements are met. Our hope can be set on the grace of God in the

future only, as long as our thinking is not being influenced by the things that the world is being influenced by. And the things that the world is being influenced by are the things of our five senses: what we can see, what we can hear, what we can feel, what we can

taste and what we can handle. As long as we are part of this earth bound society and think along the lines of thinking of this society, we will never be able to hope, for the grace of the future revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, what Peter is doing here, is that he seeks to impress upon the hearts and minds of his readers the necessity of fixing their minds not only on what has happened, and not only upon what is happening, I mean to say, not fixing their hope only on what God has revealed in the first dimension of grace in the past, and not only fixing the mind on grace that God has revealed in the second dimension, grace in the present, but Peter tells the readers to also look to the future. Look to what God still has in store. Look at what God has still revealed as something that will be revealed in due time. Why does Peter do that? Well, now I come back on the first part of the first vs. of this chapter, talking to strangers scattered in the five Roman provinces of Asia Minor. Strangers, pilgrims! They are making their way to some other destination. Pilgrims in the earth, strangers in the earth, they are making a pilgrimage, and are on their way to the celestial city, because that is their ultimate destiny. On their way to their future destiny, they experience hardships, they experience trials, they meet with enmity, they come across hostility, and they are quite often confronted with the devil, which Peter refers to in Chapter 5 as “the roaring lion” who is constantly seeking who he may devour. On the pilgrimage, the pilgrims meet with many a disappointment. And these sufferings during their pilgrimage can be great. But in the midst of all that, in the midst of all these saddening experiences, in the midst of all these confrontations with evil, hardships, and enemies, the devil himself; in the midst of all these, there may be hope. Things will not always remain like this. There is a day coming, that the Lord in whom they have learned to believe, will return. And when He returns, He brings new grace with Him, new manifestations of grace, even richer revelations of grace, and therefore, Peter says to these pilgrims, these strangers,

don’t become disappointed. Don’t become so cast down, but set your hope on things that are yet to be revealed. Live with your eyes cast toward heaven. Remember that you have

been made pilgrims in the earth, and that you are traveling to a celestial city and that the day will certainly arrive that your Savior will come to take you home.

And now, what about us, congregation? How do these words from our text, fall upon our ears? In the words of our text, we are confronted with those things which are related to the second coming of the Lord Jesus. And Peter certainly is not the only one in the new testament who writes about the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Reading through the whole New Testament, we can come to no other conclusion that the Holy Spirit has taken great care that those who read His Word are again and again and again confronted with the truths that are surrounding the coming event of the return of Jesus. And that is a very fitting theme.

A few weeks ago, we remembered how the Lord Jesus came into the world, His first coming. The weeks prior to Christmas Day, the celebration of Jesus’ birth, we usually turn our thoughts to what happens prior to that coming, or if we do it a little differently, we can also concentrate our thoughts on what will happen when He comes again, the second advent. Jesus’ first coming in Bethlehem was a coming in poverty, and in great humiliation ; but the same Lord, when He returns on the clouds of heaven, surrounded by His millions of angels the second time, He will not come like He came the first time. When He returns, He returns with all His heavenly retinue. When He returns He comes with His full glory, and therefore God’s people are many a time summoned to prepare their hearts to expect Him, when He comes on the clouds of heaven. And therefore, let us carefully listen to what Peter and other apostles have written about the revelation of Jesus Christ.

For, in the N.T. the doctrine of the second coming is really a basic element in all of its teaching. It forms a dominant part in the preaching of the Lord Jesus, and in the

instruction of the apostles, and therefore it also ought to have a prominent place in the mind, in the thinking of the life of God’s children. For, from the words of our text, we

can almost deduct that the Christian life must and will be lived in the conscious awareness of the nearness of Christ’s coming. And if that is missing, or if that is a missing element in the life of the Church, something elementary is missing, and we could even begin to question whether the so called Christian life is the Christian life at all. And no wonder that the second coming of the Lord Jesus therefore should have a great impact in the life of faith of God’s children.

Remember to what kind of people the apostle is referring and writing: the strangers, the pilgrims. They are traveling through hostile territory, and again and again they are confronted with the fact that they do not really belong here any more. On their pilgrimage they should continually remember what God’s grace has done for them, how that grace of God did change their lives, and how that grace of God brought them under the rule of that gospel. They should remember how the Lord opened their blind eyes, how He taught them to look unto Jesus, to believe on the Savior, to rely on the promises, to put their hope on the Word of God, to bring the needs before the throne of God, to return with comforting comforts in their hearts. They should continually remember these manifold graces that the Lord has displayed before their eyes, and has applied to their hearts. And they may also remember what the Lord is doing in the time of the present, when He again visits them, when He again opens His Word, when He again, when they sit in church, opens their heart , when they again may confidently lay their needs before God’s throne. Are you able to do that? Let me repeat that question. Are you able to do that, to remember God’s gracious dealings with your soul in the past, and in the present? Can you remember what the Lord has done for you? How He changed your heart? How He changed your life? How He gave you new aspirations, holy aspirations, and how He made His Word a source of wisdom, and of comfort to you; how He taught you how to pray and to cast your burdens upon the Lord. Are these things known in our life? And as long as we can not know and do these things, we must indeed come to the conclusion that all things are not well with us. When the Lord indeed has dealings with a sinner, He is

made aware of it. At first he may be at a loss, he may not be able to discern what is going on in his life, at first he may be completely ignorant that it is Lord who is approaching and speaking to him and influencing him but the Lord gives more light and then we begin to see. Has that happened in your life? If not, don’t you think it is about time to seek the Lord and to beg Him that He will also bestow His grace upon you. For as I said, grace and grace alone is the thing, the ONLY means, the ONLY commodity by which our lost lives can be saved. WE can not entertain any solid hope as far as our eternal well-being is concerned, apart from the experience of the unmerited favor from a holy God bestowed upon an unworthy sinner. I don’t know what you think you all need, but grace is really the only thing we really need, and grace therefore should be the first thing we seek after, we desire, we crave from God. But even if we have experienced grace in the past, even if there are tokens of renewed grace in the present, that does not mean that by that grace our salvation is completed, congregation. For, we are not yet saved!

We are still in this body of death. We are still in a hostile environment and there is still so much sin remaining within, and we are constantly in a mixed state, wherein we are safe only in principle, and therefore the apostle Paul writes in Romans 8, that those that have been given the first fruits of the spirit continually groan within themselves and they continue to long for their full deliverance. When will that be? Well, that will be at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Therefore Peter says to these pilgrims, set your hope on that event. On the grace that is to be brought to you at that moment, the new grace that has been promised by the Lord, when He pledged to return to His people, and that He would bring them home, in the house of His Father, the house with many mansions. Jesus will return, and the Lord reminds His people again and again of that return. And when Peter speaks about it, he is fully in line with what His own Master has taught him to preach.

Think, for instance, what the Lord Jesus has said in one of His parables, when He spoke about the servants that wait for their master, and thereby, the Lord indicated that there ought to be longing for the return of the Savior, as well as a preparing for that event.

Preparation for the coming of the king! That should mark the lives of those that are waiting for the Lord.

Whence comes that longing? According to Peter it is a major fruit of conversion. As Paul writing to the Thessalonians says that they have turned to God from their idols, to serve the living and the true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven. In the past, in their unconverted state, these Thessalonians were wrapped up in the things of the then and the now. But they have learned to wait for the things of the future. When they turned from their idols, they not only learned to serve the true and living God, but they also began to wait, being given the disposition to wait for Jesus’ return.

Furthermore, that longing expectation is also fruit, not only of conversion, but the result of the Holy Spirit’s work of granting grace into their hearts. And when Peter picks up that same theme in the second epistle, he writes about the fruits of practical godliness. For to hope for the return of the revelation of Jesus Christ, is also to hope for the new earth, and the new heaven, for their entrance into the celestial city, and that new earth and that city, the new Jerusalem, the place where anything that is unclean, and that is unrighteous will not be given entrance.

Let me summarize it, congregation. Have we heard enough to prove that that part of the Christian life is given much attention in the Word of God? The hope, does it have enough attention in our lives? If not, how come? You say you cannot really hope for the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ? When I think of that day, when I think of that great event, I am scared. Why are you scared? Are you not ready to stand before your Judge? Are you not ready to meet with the glorious and gracious Savior? Don’t you know Him? Is He still a person, not revealed to you? Have you never learned to flee unto Him? Have you not learned to know Him as the Redeemer, before you have to face Him as a Judge?

But those of you, who have had dealings with Him, rather, with whom He has had dealings, what influence does the thought of the revelation of the second coming of the Lord Jesus exert in you life? You realize that you are still in the body of death, you are not saved yet, there is so much sin still cleaving to you, there are so many things that should not be there, your love to the Lord is not what it should be, is it? Your faith is not what it should be, is it? There are so many things lacking. We come in so many things short of the glory of God. Does that not create in you the sincere desire: O Lord, deliver me, O Lord, when shall I love Thee, as Thou deserveth to be loved. Set your hope on the revelation of Jesus Christ, and the grace, the perfect grace, the climatic grace that is to be revealed and brought unto you at that time.

But, if you don’t know about grace, if you don’t know anything about God’s grace in the past, in the present, and in the future, in other words if you are not ready for the second coming of the Lord, do you know what is going to happen as long as you stay in that condition? Let me refer to a few words of Paul to the Thessalonians, the second epistle, the first chapter. I am only quoting him. You promise me that you will read that passage at home, and contemplate these words, and that you will meditate upon them, and that you will bring them prayerfully before the Lord? I mean, the words of Paul in Thessalonians 1, where Paul is also writing about the return of the Savior, and then he says, “He will come with flaming fire and the sword to take vengeance on them that know not God, and on them that obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ”. AMEN.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download