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unfolded many of those things to us already and yet in the light of this to know that you are God to know that you though we walk in darkness you are our light and so we ask father that you
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would by your Holy Spirit teach us inform us help us to listen and meditate on these things that we might walk in a manner that is worthy of our calling in
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a manner that honors you as we are called to be Christ ones and we ask that in all of these things the glory would not be ours but be yours in
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Christ's name we pray amen we just came from a long sentence in verse three
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verse 3 through 12 a sentence in which we have learned what God has done for us and now we look at a section from 13
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through 21 and perhaps we could continue on into chapter 2 with this thought we learn the proper response of
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response of Life the response of Our Lives having received the Glorious Grace in Christ Living out our new relationship which has been brought for
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us by the blood of Christ but as the commentator Jeff Dryden wrote right from the start the Epistles theology is placed in the context of
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worship that the response of our heart is worship Peter and many call it a doxology what we have just done and read
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in verses 3- 12 it does speak a lot of us but it begins with blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ
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and in and in this Peter helps us see the proper response with his therefore and all that follows
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on and he uses the Old Testament prophets that he has talked about in verses 10 and 11 especially Isaiah in his servant song
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section but he also alludes to The Exodus event the prepar ation of the people of the Israelites for The
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for The Exodus and he brings us if we will listen Echoes from Psalm 34 and Echoes from Leviticus and the
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Holiness code I've shamelessly lifted a phrase as the title of this sermon from one of the commentators be what you are you're a
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new people with a new life under new ownership be what you are could describe perhaps the rest of the
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letter that Peter wrote to these Believers but I have in my notes a little NB beside this comment NB as I
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learned as I began to read uh theological thing is the writers would have little NBS in the margin and I had to understand and you have to pardon my Latin here but I believe it's
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notab note well and so when I want to remember something I'll put it in red NB Peter is entering this section be
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what you are but he does not ever let us forget Who We Are it's almost uh like my parents used to
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say if I was starting to act like some of the the neighbor kids they would say remember who you are and Peter in Chapter 2 this is just chapter 2 Peter
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calls us living stones he calls us a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation people for God's Own possession
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he calls us aliens and strangers again reminding us that we are resident aliens in this world and also in Chapter 2 he calls us bondslaves of God so even as we
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look at be who you are re remember what you are be what you are act in a way that is in comporting with
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who you are in Christ and in this section 13- 21 we get three imper atives and we'll look at
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some of those things but today we'll look at verse 13 set your mind on the grace being brought to you in verse 15 he says be holy in
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all your conduct and in verse 17 he says conduct yourselves in the fear of God your judge three imperatives which kind of maps out and outlines this
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section now what I'm going to say involves some Greek grammar and things called things called participles and as I was trying to put all these things together um one I was
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remembering my experience in school um I probably didn't pay enough attention to the grammar and all of the the things that go into grammar so I had to look up
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some of these things to make sure I remember or remind me what these things are um I I did remember that probably the closest thing in my reading to do
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with grammar is that I read my my reading material all had conjunctions in them Car and Driver Road and track right
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that's what I read they had conjunctions that's probably as close as I got to grammar but I was also thinking of this that in htics class and I remember what
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Martin L join said about homiletics but nonetheless we read about one of the preachers who said I I preach to the milkmaids I preach at that level so that
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all who can begin to understand things would could understand the preaching of the word and it's a privilege to have
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those who can understand and the young people that we have here here so I will look at some of these things but I also remember in homiletics class we learned
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about one milkmaid who was so upset with what the preacher said that she stood up and hurled her milking stool at him I hope that doesn't happen here but what we have here is a strong conjunction the
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therefore in verse 13 and it involves all the conclusions that Peter draws in verses 3-2 and on the basis of that
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evidence and on that he says therefore or it could be translated for this reason it's a Hing verse or a bridge
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from 3 through 12 to what he's going to begin to do in verses 14 and following and it's a participle but what we need to look at
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first is the the indicative he what he's done in 3 through 12 is he's told us what God has done and he begins there before he tells
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us what we ought to do and remember that an indicative sentence is one that states something or points out something or is declarative
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it declares something for example in verse three of chapter 1 God who according to his great Mercy has caused us to be born again that's an
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indicative this is is what God has done and as the Princeton Theologian J Gresham Mas famously wrote Christianity
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begins with a triumphant indicative this is the foundation the indicative must precede the imperative but what is the imperative
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well it's the commands it's a could be a request here we would call them exhortations or directives and that's what we find here in verse 13 fix your
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hope completely on the grace being brought to brought to you as the commentator Thomas Shriner wrote the indicative what God has done
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for us in Christ is always the basis of the imperative how we should live our lives and notice
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again as Edmund Clowney writes in his theology Peter does not begin to exhort Christian pilgrims until he has
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celebrated the wonders of God's salvation in salvation in Christ and again I have my little NB
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here imperatives without the indicatives is indicatives is moralism and many people fall into that or as my professor Dr John Carrick wrote
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in his book on the imperatives of preaching he says moralism ignores the critical indicatives of the Gospel he says moralism is basically a form of
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pelagianism and pelagianism is a belief that everybody has the ability to obey God in all circumstances there is a denial of original
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sin but as Dr car says without the indicatives of the Gospel in Jesus Christ the imperatives are just you're living a moral life but there is no
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change there is no salvation the indicatives lead to the imperatives and they always result in Repentance and
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Repentance and faith and so when we come to verse 13 we we see these imperatives gir your mind keep sober fix your
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hope and not all of the theologians and commentators agree but this is how I think that this participle Arrangement ought to go because there are three of
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them and I did learn from my grammar book that Daniel Wallace says if you have mastered participial
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syntax you've mastered Greek syntax that ain't me but what is a participle it's a word derived from a
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verb that acts as an adjective to describe a noun what does that mean for example this is from Chapter 5 Verse 6
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when Peter says to us humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at the proper time casting all your anxiety upon him
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because he cares for you the participle is by casting humble yourselves by casting yourselves upon him and that's how these participles are
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used here the main participle is fix your hope completely on the grace that is being brought to you that's the main one the the first two yes some people
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say they are prerequisites but I don't think so they're supporting participles here thir verse 13 may be read for this reason set your hope completely on the
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grace that is being brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed by making your mind ready for action by keeping sober and
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self-controlled these are supporting they come first but that's part of the participial syntax that's hard to do the grace is the root of all God God's
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commands hope rests fully on what Christ has done and so Peter is saying fix your hope set your hope fully completely on
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the grace that is being brought to you and hope is a key word in Peter in verse three we've already seen
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that that it's the hope the better hope the Living Hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ Jesus Christ we see here fix your minds on that hope
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but we also see where that hope is in verse 21 that it is God so that your faith and your hope are in
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God hope is not a wish hope is not a desire but it is a well-grounded expectation based on something that has already happened in the past the
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dead I couldn't think of a good illustration of misplaced hope so again I've co-opted an illustration and I have to be careful because it's history that I am not well versed in but in 1588 the
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Spanish Armada Spanish Armada decided they were going to invade England and depose the queen they had a superior Navy they had
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130 ships they were larger ships and had larger guns than the English Navy but they in order to get to the coast of
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England they had to get through the English Navy and the English Navy had Superior officers Superior speed and Superior
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but nevertheless the Spanish hoped that the English ships and their officers would decide to engage in traditional Warfare on the Seas and come
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up close up close perhaps to approach them in hand toand combat boarding the ships and the Spanish would defeat them by their
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Superior numbers and their Superior guns but none of that happened the English stayed just out of range they maneuvered
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much faster than the Spanish ships could and they blew as it's written in the histories they blew the Spanish Navy out of the
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water I thought this phrase would have been coined much earlier than over the last couple of years but apparently one of the television's Talking Heads coined this phrase hope is not a
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societal Norms having more money if I just could get that promotion if I just had the right education but this is misplaced hope
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it's hope in man it's hope in my own abilities but Peter is not telling us to demonstrate hope or to hope
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against hope but he is saying to have hope fix your hope set your hope and as we are reminded in verse
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three it is a Living Hope because Christ lives it is a Living Hope and because Christ lives and he
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gives us a Living Hope we live Believers may be steadfastly confident that they will receive the grace at the revelation of Jesus Christ at his appearing on that
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day and Peter's emphasis is not on time some think set your Hope on the grace that is to be brought to you at the Revelation that if if you just hang on and someday someday someday but that's
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not Peter's emphasis because he's speaking to Christians who are in the midst of Trials now it is not the time when that we are
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to focus on but the grace being brought that is that is important as the commentator Linsky wrote they are to rest their hope for
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the Heavenly inheritance namely on God's grace the grace now being brought to us in connection with Jesus Christ Resurrection at Christ's perusia as his
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appearing it's the same Grace in verses 2 and verse 10 that the prophets sought to understand and inquired about that
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the Angels long to look into these things that Grace is being brought to us now in the word and in the sacraments and the idea is that it's
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being constantly brought not just but now being brought To Us by the grace which we constantly receive and that
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Grace that we constantly re receive points us to the glory and the inheritance of the last day and this Grace this grace is fully present but
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not fully realized in our lives this grace is fully guaranteed by past events because the redeeming work of Christ paid it
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all and this grace is fully displayed and will be fully displayed when the rule and authority of Christ is Manifest in the
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world and so the question is since becoming a Christian how have your hopes changed is there any different in the way that you hope now than before you
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knew Christ has it become based on the finished work and the grace of Christ is it the stuff of
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Faith because as one commentator wrote hope pre presupposes Faith what does the writer of Hebrews say now Faith is the
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Assurance of things hope for the conviction of Things Not Seen hey Hope hope sorry faith is the
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Assurance Faith he says could be interpreted the interpreted the substance Faith substantiates My
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Hope and what is the hope it could be translated what is expected and the conviction or the evidence of Things Not Seen Faith and Hope go
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together hope pre presupposes that I have faith and faith that God will do what he has promised in Christ and
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Christ and so we are to fix our hope completely fully on the grace to be revealed to us but how do we do that well he tells us by ging your minds for Action again we
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have a participle but a participle that's pretending to be an adjective or an adverb it's it's defining our hope and the mode in which
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it acts is a way in which something occurs or is experienced or expressed or done so he's telling us bind up the loins of your
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mind that is the way that you set your hope fully is by preparing your mind for action and how do you bind up the loins of your mind by being self-controlled
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that's where he's headed that's where he's saying this is what will cause these your hope to be fixed but what we have here is another
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grammatical point we have an idiom and it's a Semitic idiom binding up the loins of your mind and what is an
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idiom well it's a group of words that by established usage it has a meaning that's not deducible from the individual words for example we
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say it's raining cats and dogs are there really kittens and puppies coming down out of the heavens no it's when there is
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a downpour that's an idiom or for example we might say and perhaps in some of your workplaces you say this when you
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mean let's just get this over with maybe at the dentist's office you say well let's just bite the bullet but we have an idiom here bind up
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the loins of your mind and Peter combines two things together Paul just sticks with the binding up of the loins and Peter acts tells us trying to play
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soccer in your bathrobe that's essentially what's happening here and the Jews the Workman whether it was a
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Workman or a warrior or someone who was going to run or do an athletic event they would take their robe and they would pull it up under and tuck it under their belt or a
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girdle so that they were free their their legs were free to run and to be
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active and the illusion I believe that Peter is looking at is Exodus 12 when the spirit instructs the people to have their meal of the lamb at
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the first Passover and what does he say now you shall eat it in this manner with your loins girded your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand and you
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shall eat it in haste it is the Lord's Passover they were to be prepared for action and so Peter is saying gir up the loins of your mind be prepared for
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Action ready to run ready to respond ready for the command of God but Jesus says something very similar to us in Luke 12 he tells his
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disciples be dressed in Readiness keep your lamps lit be like men who are waiting for their Master when he returns from the wedding Feast so that they may
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have immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks G up the coins of your mind your
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mind your mind what does the mind have to do with Holiness it's not wishful thinking it's not unwarranted
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optimism but it's a will to live in a manner that manifests Our Living Hope our sure in inheritance while glorifying
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Christ I can't couldn't help that during this Sunday school when Chuck was teaching from 1 Corinthians 14 what we see there the people look at my gifts look at what I'm doing a't
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ain't I great and and Paul says I I may I may pray in a tongue but that doesn't edify anyone if I pray in a tongue that
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that doesn't help he says I want to pray in the spirit yes but I want to pray with my mind he he he says I want to think in the spirit but I want to think with my mind think
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soberly and so the question is am I alert am I alert to the things around me the things in this world Peter mentions the devil he says be alert be on the
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alert for the devil's deceptions and his schemes in chapter 5 but perhaps there's a simpler question that ought to be asked first am I able to
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pray am I able to worship am I able to do that in my mind in my thinking am I tune to be able to pray and worship as I
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ought and so Peter says fix your Hope on the grace coming to you by girting up the loins of your mind and how do you gir up the loins of
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action yes being sober you hear it every time I at least I do when I turn on the radio drive sober or get pulled over it
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over it is what we think of isn't it avoiding drunkenness avoiding any physically intoxicating stimulants but this
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word covers a broad range of sobriety we ought to also and again I think we see that in 1 Corinthians 14
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with the Corinthians we ought to avoid spiritual intoxication there ought to be some restraint and moderation in our thinking so we don't act rationally and with
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uncontrolled passion and what we see in those types of churches is an uncontrolled passion that mentally and emotionally they're out of control because it's not based on
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the word of God it's not based on reality but it's based on something that is pumped up perhaps artificially pushed on
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people and what is this spiritual intoxication when we are emotionally and mentally out of control
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physical intoxication does several things it lowers our inhibitions it ex skewes our judgment it gives us a false sense of security and it slows our
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obedience spiritual intoxication does the same the same thing it lowers our inhibitions to the unorthodox teaching or in the words of Paul perhaps in Ephesians 4 to every wind of
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wind of Doctrine and ex skewes our judgment and it distorts our perception of what is reality and what is
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truth and it gives us a false sense of security because that confidence is not in God but in me and in
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humanity and it does slow us it slows our obedience to the word of God our obedience to what the holy spirit is teaching us and calling us to do it makes us spiritually fuzzy-headed
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it makes us spiritually sleepy and off balance and
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unfocused Highway Patrol officers have a couple of ways to detect intoxication in drivers the two that came to my mind that when they ask someone to step out of their vehicle they're looking for
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balance and they're judging their speech and one author that I read as simply asked this question of
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Believers what do my spiritual walk and my speech tell others about me am I
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sober am I able to think and act on my new nature in Christ in a society that disrespects my
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faith or at worse is trying to make me renounce my faith am I willing to make hard ethical hard ethical choices am I being and this is Paul and
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again in Ephesians 4 am I being renewed in the spirit of my mind or in Romans 12 he uses this word
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am I being transformed by the renewing of my of my mind do you see Faith and Hope are are not some isolated thing from our bodies
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from our minds from who we are in Christ they're supposed to be connected the hope is connected with thinking and the mind but it's keeping sober and what the
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will that we have to ask despite the world's hostility to our
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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ despite the anticip yeah I can't say it hatred of the
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Gospel despite what people might think of me as a Believer have I resolved to fix my hope completely on the ongoing and ultimately the final ending outcome
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the grace of God being brought to me at the revelation of Jesus Christ let us
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father we again do ask that we would one remember who we are that we've been bought with a price that we have been given a new birth a
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new identity a new ownership you are our Lord I pray that we would be what we are that we would be people of the book we
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would be people of a obedience people who walk not by sight but by faith and that you would transform Us in the spirit of our minds and our will to be
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sober and that we would solidly completely fully fix our Hope on the Salvation that is to be brought to us at the revelation of Christ we ask that you would do these
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things build your Church Lord Build It For Your Glory in Christ's name we pray amen would you please rise for the benediction from Romans
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15 Paul 15 Paul writes Isaiah says there shall come the root of Jesse and he who arises to rule over the Gentiles in him shall the
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Gentiles hope now may the god of Hope hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you will abound in Hope by the power of the holy spirit amen
