Show Some Respect
Not From Around Here: The Complicated Life of a Sojourner • Sermon • Submitted
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In a speech made in 1863, Abraham Lincoln said, "We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us."
Believers today take for granted the Salvation that they enjoy. We often do not take the time to realize how undeserving of grace we are, how much our salvation cost, and how we came to believe in God in the first place. We need to step back and realize the gravity of our former condition and the splendor of our future.
In our passage this evening we read Peter’s words of encouragement to the early sojourners. In order for them to understand their position of love and grace even during difficult times, they needed to see what God did in order to save them. They needed to show some respect.
Show Some Respect = Sojourn in Fear.
Show Some Respect = Sojourn in Fear.
And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:
1
Peter says he is to do this in fear. This fear has been defined as follows: “This fear is self-distrust; it is tenderness of conscience; it is vigilance against temptation; it is the fear which inspiration opposes to highmindedness in the admonition, ‘be not high-minded but fear.’ It is taking heed lest we fall; it is a constant apprehension of the deceitfulness of the heart, and of the insidiousness and power of inward corruption. It is the caution and circumspection which timidly shrinks from whatever would offend and dishonor God and the Saviour” (Vincent, quoting Wardlaw On Proverbs).1
1 Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 41–42.
Show Some Respect Because God Sees All
Show Some Respect Because God Sees All
1 pet 1 17
And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:
Peter describes Him as being One “who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work.” The words “without respect of persons” are the translation of one word in Greek which means literally, “does not receive face.” That is, God does not receive anybody’s face. He is impartial. Outward appearance, wealth, culture, social position, family background, education, beauty, intellect, all things that more or less sway the opinions of man, do not count with God when it comes to appraising a person’s character or worthiness. “The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart”
But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.
1 sa
God, Peter says, judges each man’s work with impartiality. And yet we are not to understand that He is a critical judge trying always to find a defect or flaw in our conduct or service. The Greek word is found oftener in a good than in a bad sense. That is, God’s impartiality is an honest appraisal of things, while His heart is always with His child and goes out to him in a spirit of love. That is beautifully brought out in the use of a particular Greek word in , which verse and its context refer to the judgment of the believer’s works at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1 cor 3
There are two Greek words which mean “to put to the test,” one meaning “to put to the test in order to discover what evil or good there may be in a person,” the other, “to put to the test in order to sanction or approve the good one finds in that person.” The latter is used in our verse. God expects to find in the life of each saint that upon which He can put His approval, for the Holy Spirit produces good works in all the saints, more in those who are definitely subjected to His control.1
1 Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 40–41.
Sojourn in Fear Because Of Your Redemption
Sojourn in Fear Because Of Your Redemption
Not with Idols or Physical Things
Not with Idols or Physical Things
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
A little boy went up to a missionary Sunday School leader in a pagan country. The boy said, "I like what you say about the God of the Bible but I can’t see him. But if I go to the temple I can see my God."
The missionary said to the little boy, "Listen, does your God bleed?"
The boy said, "I don’t know."
The missionary gave him a pin and said, "Next time you go to the temple, when no one else is watching, prick him and see what happens."
The following week the boy returned to his Sunday School class. He said to the missionary, "I did it, I did it, I pricked the idol."
The missionary said, "And what happened?"
The boy replied, "Nothing, my god doesn’t bleed."
Straight away the missionary said, "But my God did! He bled for me and he bled for you!"
Redeemed By the Blood
Redeemed By the Blood
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
"It cost God nothing, as far as we know, to create nice things, but to convert our rebellious wills, it cost Him crucifixion." C.S. Lewis
Show Some Respect Because of Your Belief
Show Some Respect Because of Your Belief
Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
Jesus introduced you to the True God
Jesus introduced you to the True God
Jesus Demonstrated Power in the Resurrection
Jesus Demonstrated Power in the Resurrection
Jesus Gave you hope and assurance of salvation and of Truth.
Jesus Gave you hope and assurance of salvation and of Truth.