Mercy Is Our Motivation
Notes
Transcript
Reminder of Who We Are
Reminder of Who We Are
Let’s remember from last time, what verse 9 tells us about our self, as Christians...
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
And, what Peter is saying to us, this morning, here in verse 10...
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully,
We were living in darkness, happily...
We were not a people…
We were not useful to God for His holy purposes...
We had not received mercy from God’s hand...
Paul says it like this...
we were dead in our trespasses and sins…we were by nature children of wrath…we were living, happily, according to the lusts of our flesh…which were leading us to eternal death.
This was our condition before our new birth brought about by the HS using the gospel of JC.
BUT…such a wonderful word used to change our outcome...
Now, we have been brought out of darkness into His marvelous light...
We now live in the wonderful glorious light of seeing things the way God does...
We now live in the glorious light of loving things that God loves...
We are no longer enslaved to sin and unrighteousness...
We have been freed to love and pursue righteousness.
We have and experience the greatest freedom that could ever be experienced and enjoyed.
All because we have been delivered from darkness into His marvelous light.
We were once not a people...
We were not useful to God in His holy purposes.
We were sheep without a Shepherd like the rest of mankind.
Think about the disunity of the world.
Hate, slander, gossip, injuring one another, killing one another, backbiting, using others for self-advancement...
Everything being done to prop oneself up on the backs of others...
These are the things that define the activity of the unbelieving world...
But we have been delivered from that...
And, have been made sheep of the Good Shepherd.
We are no longer, not a people...
We are the people of God.
Our lives have been redefined with holy purposes.
Before, we were missing out on the purpose...
And the meaning, and the significance of life...
We now know our purpose, love our purpose...
And, can pursue our purpose because of the light of Christ.
Before we spent our life rejecting God...
Convincing ourselves that we did not need the mercy of God...
Either by rejecting that there is a God...
Or by seeking to earn mercy, which is not possible.
Others spend their life accusing one self...
And convincing them self that God’s mercy is not sufficient for their need of mercy.
Both are a rejection of the need & sufficiency of JC.
But, now as born again Christians...
Living in the light of Christ...
We can, actually, have unity...
Because the cause of our unity is greater than anything that could cause disunity...
The cause of our unity is the mercy of God given to us in JC.
We have not only received mercy...
But, we have been utterly convinced of the sufficiency of God’s mercy...
That can only be found in JC.
This is who we are, now, in Jesus.
What a grand privilege we have been given.
What a wonderful life we get to live...
All in the light of Christ...
And under the infinite mercy of Christ...
As the people of God.
Motivation to Live Honorably
Motivation to Live Honorably
So, Peter continues...
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
Peter is urging us to do something...
He urges us to abstain from the passions of the flesh
Now, I want us to see something before we look at the command...
I want us to see the motivation that Peter uses...
Which is our motivation...
Our motivation is not to do to receive...
Our motivation is to do because we have already received.
What have we received?
We’ve received the love of God...
We are beloved by God.
We have received mercy.
We are God’s people...
Which makes us sojourners and exiles in this life.
sojourners and exiles remind us that we are a chosen people of God, His possession, His people.
Peter, in labeling us sojourners and exiles
Gives us the picture of a people who dwell beside the native citizens...
A people who are allowed to live under restricted rights which are less than those granted the citizens.
No matter what our nationality...
No matter what our ethnic background...
No matter what tribe or tongue...
It is all of not…as we are now the people of God.
So, the mercy of God motivates us to love Him...
And, hence, live for Him...
To live out His will for our life...
And, His will for our life is to live an upright moral, controlled life...
That shows the world that our joy is founded in Him...
And not the comforts and fleeting pleasures of this world.
An Expression of Holy Living
An Expression of Holy Living
Peter tells us how we can express holy living...
by abstaining from the passions of the flesh
Passions of the flesh are the governing principles of the unbelieving world...
They do not have the power to resist the passions of the flesh...
Even in the most moral, religious unbeliever...
Is a person who is ruled by the passions of the flesh.
You don’t have to be a prostitute or drunkard to be ruled by the passions of the flesh.
You can be an unbeliever who stands behind a pulpit each week...
Dressed in a suit, living in a nice house, doing all sorts of charities during the week...
Your social media timeline can be filled with virtue-signaling to make others feel better about you...
And still be an unbeliever ruled by the passions of their flesh.
What are these passions of the flesh?
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
When God quickens us to new life...
We are no longer enslaved to such things...
We are no longer in bondage to the flesh to indulge in fleshly things...
We may give in to temptation...
But, we do so because we give in to soon to the temptation...
13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
So, we give in to temptation to soon...
And without consulting God...
And it is due to our weakness and the remaining sin in our bodies.
The flesh still has a powerful pull on us...
But, we are not enslaved to the flesh.
What we have been freed to pursue is something that the unbeliever cannot pursue...
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
An expression of a born again believer is holy living...
And, holy living is abstaining from the passions of the flesh...
And replacing them with fruits of the HS.
Benefits to Holy Living
Benefits to Holy Living
There are two benefits listed here to our living a holy life
#1 – Holy living gives peace to our souls
#1 – Holy living gives peace to our souls
Not abstaining from the passions of the flesh wage war against our souls
So, abstaining from the passions of the flesh brings peace upon our souls.
Later on in this epistle, Peter tells us that the devil prowls around seeking someone to devour...
He seeks to devour us through temptation...
Knowing that our giving into temptation wages war against our soul...
It inhibits our freedom to pursue righteousness...
Because it causes guilt and it distracts us from our freedom to obey the Lord.
I’ve said this before, but it needs to be repeated here...
Obedience to God is the sphere in which we can enjoy God and experience happiness in Him in the greatest way...
And, disobedience to God steals our enjoyment of God and removes the happiness in Christ that God desires us to enjoy.
So, when we give into temptation...
And indulge in the passions of the flesh...
We are inviting the enemy to encamp around us like am enemies army...
And, that encampment inhibits us to exercise our true freedom that we have in JC.
When we resist temptation, by the power of the HS...
And by the means of Scripture...
Motivated by the mercy we have found in JC...
The enemy flees and we are free to enjoy the liberty that we have in JC...
And, ultimately enjoy God fully in the happiness God desires us to know & experience with Him.
The second benefit of holy living is...
#2 – Unbelievers may come to Christ
#2 – Unbelievers may come to Christ
I read verse 12 as the potential of our witness among unbelievers.
12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
The reason that unbelievers love when we fall into sin is because a righteous life is a testimony against their life...
And, when we come to Christ our religion changes...
Our convictions change...
Our pursuits change...
Our allegiances change...
Our past times change...
The way we are entertained changes...
The passions that drive us are different...
They no longer line up with the unbelieving world...
And, so they slander us…And, make up bad things about us...
They look for any way possible to call us hypocrites...
But, if our conduct lines up with our doctrine...
If our testimony lines up with our confession...
God may use it to draw men to Himself.
Because of our relationship with God...
We, now, relate differently to our fellow man...
Because we want them to know & enjoy God...
In the light of Christ.
Jesus said the same thing in...
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
1 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. 2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. 3 And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
The good works of true believers have a strong missionary power.
Deeds that are done by consistent conduct speak louder than words.
Deeds that re-enforce doctrine...
Deeds that re-enforce the gospel in both Word and life draw men to God through Jesus Christ.
Worldly Christians hinder missionary work.
Our Life Has a Goal
Our Life Has a Goal
Both of these benefits point to one main goal...
The glory of God.
The chief end of man: to glorify God by fully enjoying Him, forever.
We do this through our confession, through a holy life.
We do this not to be accepted by God...
But because we have already been accepted by God because of His mercy in JC.
Announcements
Announcements
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer