In Trent Moody's sermon titled 'Victorious Christians Living in the Fear of God,' the central theme revolves around living a holy life motivated by the fear of God. Moody draws from 1 Peter, emphasizing that believers are encouraged to endure persecution and live victorious Christian lives by not losing hope, avoiding bitterness, trusting in the Lord, and anticipating His return. The sermon identifies three major motivations for living a holy life: recognizing God as both Father and impartial Judge, understanding the precious blood of Christ as the means of redemption, and acknowledging God's foreordained mercy. Moody stresses that God, as both Father and Judge, requires believers to conduct themselves with reverence and fear, understanding that God judges the heart and motivations behind actions. The sermon underscores the significance of Christ's precious blood, which is more valuable than earthly riches, as the ultimate sacrifice for sin. Additionally, it highlights the belief that God's plan for redemption was foreordained before the foundation of the world. The sermon calls believers to live as sojourners, recognizing that this world is not their home, and urges them to examine their motivations and actions in light of God's holiness and mercy.

Thus says the word of the Lord, and if you call on the Father who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ. As of a lamb without spot or without blemish and without spot, he indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. Let's pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for the Word of God. We Thank you for the Spirit of God.

We thank you for the Son of God. And we thank you, O God, that you have called us to this place to open the Word, Lord, to be fed by the living Word of God. I pray, O God, this morning that our hearts would be ready, would be attentive to receive the Word and to obey the Word. And Lord I pray that you would give great joy and great assurance to your people. We ask this in Christ's name.

Amen. You may be seated. So as we pick up in the book of 1st Peter and in this passage of Scripture, one of the challenges of preaching through such a doctrinally rich book is that it is easy to forget or to miss the big picture because there is so much to say in so few verses and I am the world's worst at that, wanting to focus in on just a couple of things. But I don't want us to miss the big picture of what the entire epistle is saying to us. So this message today is taking from just a few short five verses, but these five verses are surrounded and are embedded in a context that we do not need to neglect.

We need to remember that this epistle was written to encourage the believers to endure the intense persecution that was prevalent in the area, and it prepares the reader for the difficult times ahead of them. As one commentator noted that the purpose of the book of 1st Peter is to teach us how to live victorious Christian lives for four reasons without losing hope, without becoming bitter, while trusting in our Lord and while looking for His return. So keep that this morning as the big picture of how are we to live victorious Christian lives in a crooked and perverse generation that is bringing persecution upon the church. Now we know that in our situation we are very blessed. God has been very gracious to us.

The very light persecution that we experience today is almost nothing compared to brothers and sisters around this world who are experiencing grave difficulties, persecutions, and tribulations. But this morning, God wants to prepare our hearts to see and he wants to give us some great motivations and really this is the title of the message and what I want to focus on is some great motivations to live holy lives in the fear of God. Some great motivations to live holy lives in the fear of God. Some great motivations to live holy lives in the fear of God. So I want to encourage you in this message to keep the overall context of Peter and we turn now to this text before us praying that it will motivate each of us because these are great motivations.

They're glorious motivations and I hope that we can all see that clearly. So the first motivation to live holy lives in the fear of God is this, God is your Father and your Judge. God is your Father and your Judge. So remember where we left off last time and I'm going to back up just for a moment and read verses 13 through 16 where Peter says this, therefore, now he's basing this therefore, remember as we spoke last time, upon this glorious salvation that he has given us in Christ Jesus. A glorious salvation that he has poured out on us that we are so undeserving And it was through an abundance of mercy that he did this, not because of anything that we had done or anything that we had deserved.

And based upon that, he brings us to verse 13 and he says, Therefore, gird up the loins of your minds, be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lust as in your ignorance or before you came to Christ. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Because it is written, be holy for I am holy. And Peter brings us to this point. And if you call on the Father who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear.

So this first great motivation for us to live godly or holy lives in the fear of God is because God is our Father. Now we say that very easily, we say that all the time, we hear that throughout the scriptures and we think of God as our Father but I don't know if we understand and think clearly about God is your Father. Some of you may have had poor experiences with a Father. You may have a negligent Father. You may have a father that you don't even know.

But pushing all of that aside, you need to understand that God is a father in such a sense that he has called you, who were not a people, to be his people. He has adopted you into his family and Jesus Christ is our elder brother and God is our father. We see God as our father throughout the scriptures and it is really one of the most clearly seen titles of God that God is father of his people and he shows us himself as being a holy God and therefore if God is our father we are to be a holy people That's what he says, be holy for I am holy. This is our God and this is your father. And if you call on the father, He is holy.

He calls us to be holy. And now Peter shows us what that looks like. You see I want you to note that Peter's assumption towards those to whom he is writing, he is assuming here that these people are calling upon the Father, that they are God's children. He uses the word if here but don't let that throw uncertainty upon what he is saying. The uncertainty, it is not uncertainty like I'm not sure if you're a believer, I'm not sure if you're calling on the Father, God as Father, maybe He's your Father, maybe He's not your Father.

That's not really what he's saying here. The idea behind this word is more closely related to what we would say, since God is your Father. He's speaking with some confidence, He's speaking with an attitude as, since you are counted as God's children, this is it. And then he lays this thing out for you. Something that you need to know.

A motivation for you to live a holy life. Since you are his children, and God is your father, as Matthew says in chapter 5 verse 16, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven. Or as Paul says in Romans 8 15, for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry Abba, Father. I want you to understand that God is your Father in that most intimate sense of the word. That He is for you, not against you.

Just like a godly earthly Father is and should be, He is for your good. The fatherhood of God is a clear picture of who he is. However, like many attributes of God, it's not his only attribute. We know the chief attribute of God is his holiness and that all of the other attributes flow out of his holiness, but he is also here spoken of as judge. And if you call on the Father who without partiality judges according to each one's work, now think of this just for a moment, Peter here is showing you who God is.

He's giving you a great motivator to live a holy life and he begins by saying he's your father, but don't neglect he is your judge. He's both. He is your father and your judge. Matthew Henry notes this, the consideration of God as a judge is not improper for those who can truly call him father. Holy confidence in God as father and awful fear of him as a judge are very consistent.

To regard God as a judge is a singular means to endear him to us as a father. So when we think of God as the judge of all the earth and everyone will stand before him on that day and yet then God says, I am your father and you are my children. We see this because of the work of Christ. But notice what he says regarding this judge, this attribute of God as judge, who without partiality judges according to each one's work. Now we know that God is no respecter of persons.

Throughout the scripture he mentions this, that God, he does not look as man looks, he does not see as man sees, he does not regard man's status, he doesn't regard whether you're slave or free, whether you're Jew or Gentile, whether you're male or female, whether you're rich or poor. God does not show partiality based upon these outward things like we do. We look at those things, we look at the outward appearance of man. That's what we see. That's not how God is.

He does not judge on the outward appearance, but he looks at something much more important and much more significant. God looks on your heart. All men judge with partiality but not so with God. Psalm 9, 7 through 8 says, but the Lord shall endure forever. He has prepared his throne for judgment.

He shall judge the world in righteousness and he shall administer his judgment with the peoples in uprightness. One thing that we greatly lack in our nation and around the world is righteousness in judgment. We see judges today who hand down sentences and we all in our hearts and in our spirits cry out, that is not right. Not so with God. Every judgment is right.

You see the weakness of earthly judges is that they look upon men, they hear the case, they hear arguments from both sides and they do the best they can to look down and also hopefully trying to strip away their own partiality whether they're conservative or liberal or whatever their circumstances may be, whether they're male or female, all of these things bear upon their judgments and they try to make a decision based on what they see and understand. But God doesn't see like that. You are laid bare before him. Everything is stripped away. And the part that really has impacted me in my studies on this is God strips away all of these things and he looks at your heart and the motivations of why you do what you do.

Calvin really shines a light on this impartiality of God in his judgments. He says he judges without looking on the person. That is, no outward mask is of any account with him as is with the case with men." Think about this just for a moment. The word hypocrite there, we know that in the ancient use of that word was what we would call an actor today. They're behind the mask.

No outward mask that you put on, that you put on this morning, is of any account with God. But he sees the heart, he says. He goes on and says this, and his eyes look on faithfulness. This is what Paul means when he says that God's judgment is according to truth in Romans chapter 2 verse 2, for he there denounces hypocrites who think that they deceive God by vain pretense. Think about that, we think we deceive God.

The meaning, he continues, the meaning is that we by no means discharge our duties towards God when we obey him in appearance. How often have we obeyed God in appearance? Others would look at us and say, man, I want to be like that. Look at this man's devotion to the Lord. Look at this woman's devotion to the Lord.

Look at this young person. They love the Lord. But none of those things matter. Maybe it's true, but God knows it's true or he knows it's false. He goes on and says, for he is not a mortal man, whom the outward appearance pleases, but he reads what we are inwardly on our hearts.

He not only prescribes laws for our feet and for our hands, but he also requires what is just and right as to the mind and to the spirit according he says to each one's works." Now here just for a moment let's think about this. He says that he judges without partiality judges according to each one's works and so we almost give this sense here that God and he is he's looking at what we do with our lives, what we say with our mouths, what we do with our hands. He does judge according to our works, but I believe according to the context here he's not really focused on just these works, but because he's impartial, he is judging based upon the motivation of our works. He's seeing why you do this work, and he judges your works based upon why you do them. That's where it's hard.

He not only sees what you do but he knows why you do it. Perhaps just be noticed. Perhaps just to feel good about yourself. Perhaps for self-righteous reasons that we do certain things. We may act in such a way that we serve this body and so that, hey somebody can see me.

God help us. God help me. 1st Corinthians 3 12 through 15 says, now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay, and straw, each one's work will become clear for the day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test each one's work and notice this of what sort it is. What sort of work do you have? If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.

If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet as through fire." I tell you, to be honest with you, this week, thinking through these things and asking myself these questions and how much of what I do is wood, hay, and stubble? How much of what I do is going to be burned up to have nothing to show for it? The point of this verse is to show that what Peter is talking about is not the act of works themselves as the determining factor but rather what kind of work. What are we doing for the Lord? I believe the heart of the matter is this, were they works of faith or works of self-righteousness?

Think about Hebrews 11, he goes through and he says they believe God and they did this, they believe God and they did this, and they believe God and they by faith, by faith, by faith, they did, they did, they did. So he's showing them, showing us what type of works they were. And so if God was to do that with us, what would he say? By faith they did this, by faith they did this, or would he say by self-righteousness they did this, by hypocrisy they did this. What type of works is he going to judge?

And the reason I say this, this is a motivator. There's a motivation of God being our Father because we desire to please Him as our Father. There is a motivation as God is our judge. He knows your works. You can't hide a thing from Him.

Fear is a motivation. It speaks about fearing the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. It's not the end. But note Peter's reference here to the temporary nature of this world.

He goes on and he says conduct because of these things. God is your Father and as an impartial judge, He knows you because of these things. Here's the motivational. Conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear. Here's that word fear.

Conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear. We don't see it as much in the New King James with the word stay, but in the King James and in the ESV we see it a little bit differently. He uses the word sojourning. So he would say conduct yourselves throughout your sojourning or ESV would say the time of your exile. Now I believe he's playing on this.

They were physically exiled because remember who he is writing to in 1st Peter chapter 1 verses 1 he says to the pilgrims of the dispersion they're dispersed throughout and because of persecution and I believe he's pulling from this idea here that they are physically this way but I believe here he's speaking more about their spiritual state in this world. Conduct yourselves throughout the time of your exile here in fear. We're strangers. The whole idea here is that we are foreign residents. The believer should always keep in mind that this world, it's not our home.

It is, you've heard that a thousand times, it's so easy though, isn't it so easy? We get so comfortable. We want something that gives us security. We like our homes. We like our cars.

We like where we live. And we find security in these things because they're something that we enjoy on a consistent basis. We find a sense of rest. Peter says, don't rest here. You're exiles.

But while you're here as exiles, conduct yourselves in fear. Fear of what? Well, I believe he plays back on this idea of the fear of God. You see, our hearts should always be longing for our heavenly home. Hebrews 11, 9, and 10.

By faith, Abraham dwelled in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob and heirs with him of the same promise, for he waited for the city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God. Hebrews 11-13, these all died in faith not having received the promise but having seen them before often were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Strangers and pilgrims. That's how you are to view yourself. And I want you to note the attribute that characterizes the Christian life.

Conduct yourself in fear. Vine's dictionary here says this, it is a reverential fear of God as a controlling motive of your life. It's not a terror running away from God. It is a fear of reverence and a reverential fear of God that is a controlling motive of your life in matters of spiritual and moral. Not a mere fear of his power and righteous retribution, but a wholesome dread of displeasing your father.

A fear which banishes the terror that shrinks from his presence. So does that make sense? It's not a fear that makes you shrink in his presence, but it is a fear that banishes that. When we come to God, we come boldly to the throne of grace, but not proudly. He goes on and he says, in the attitude of one whose circumstances are guided by trust in God through the indwelling of the Spirit of God.

So I believe that fear at this point points us back again like what I said to what Peter was saying regarding God as being impartial and seeing us and that we hide nothing from him. We are totally exposed in the sight of God. As one commentator noted, the fear that is mentioned stands opposed to heedless security such that we won't creep in when there is a hope of deceiving someone. For as God's eyes are such that they penetrate into the hidden recesses of the heart, we ought to walk with him carefully, not negligently. Don't think that you can walk into the presence of God like you walk in here.

Secondly, that thing that motivates us to live holy lives in the fear of God is this, God has redeemed you by the blood of his Son. This is a great and tremendous motivation that God has laid out. Peter, through the Holy Spirit inspiration, has laid out for us. It's a great motivation thinking about what God has done for us. It's really fascinating when we really get our minds around what he's saying here.

So one of the greatest motivations of living a holy life is to consider the price of your redemption. Look at what he says, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without spot or without blemish and without spot. So consider what God planned and accomplished apart from you ever thinking of it or asking for it. Turn your attention to the price of your redemption. Matthew Henry says, the consideration of our redemption ought to be a constant and powerful inducement to holiness and the fear of God.

May that be true. May that be true in your hearts this morning. It is often our state of mind to minimize our sin. We take light of it. We think lying is but a trifle.

Disobedience to parents, practically nothing at all. Adultery of heart, no harm, no foul. And righteous anger as a justified response to the other person's action. But if you want to know just how horrific your sin is, look at the price of what it took to atone for your sin. You will never call those things trifles if you consider what it calls to redeem you.

God determined the punishment of sin, the soul that sins must die. For the wages of sin is death. God does not play with sin. Think of Aaron's sons. They offered a strange fire and he killed them.

We think of Uzzah who reached to steady the ark and struck him dead. God determined the punishment of sin and God Himself willingly paid that sin. So think of this great motivation. All the silver and all the gold in all the world would not satisfy the holy justice of God, only the blood of his sinless son, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold. He does not appeal here at first to their ignorance, He appeals to their knowledge.

They know this. I believe that is another proof that these are believers that he's speaking to. Not if you are a believer but since you are, since you call on the Father, I'm speaking to your knowledge. That's what I'm doing to you this morning. You heard a thousand times that you're redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.

You know the purchase price of your redemption, the blood of Jesus Christ. So I'm appealing to you to motivate you in your knowledge not your ignorance. There is hardly a child here unless they are incapable of comprehending because of their young age that could not tell you that Jesus died for my sins. So this motivation is pulling out of you this desire to live a holy life in the fear of God. And so he says, he says knowing this, and I like to term Peter the apostle of remembrance, he's always calling us to remember, to remember, Remember because this remembrance is a great motivation for us to live for his glory.

He is always reminding us of truths that we know. He is always telling us not to forget and it's no secret to them regarding their Redeemer and what he has done. He is calling them to remember who they are. You are a child of God. You were bought with a price.

Live a holy life in the fear of God knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things. He reminds them from what they were redeemed from your aimless conduct received by tradition of your fathers. I find it interesting here he does not say you're redeemed from hell. That's what we often think about. Jesus saved me from my sin, he saves me from hell.

Yes, but look at what Peter's motivation is. He says that you were, in a sense, you were redeemed from the aimless conduct received by tradition of your fathers. I find this so important. In Matthew, I believe it's 1.21 when they're naming, the angel is telling Mary and Joseph what his name will be, and you shall call him Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. It is so important to understand that Jesus did not only come to save you from the penalty of your sin, but he came to save you from the power of sin in your life.

And one day he will save you from the very presence of it. Praise be to God. But he's come to save you from this aimless conduct received by tradition of your fathers." Here again, it really focuses back and shows us that his audience, at least partly if not mostly, are Jewish believers. This aimless conduct, but the fact is even Gentiles had aimless conduct received by tradition from their fathers as well. Again it is noted that this aimless conduct, this walk or manner of life or behavior that we have, Peter goes on and describes these aimless conducts as being at least in part traditions received from your parents or your fathers.

Always think about Gideon. Before God used him what did he do? He had to go and destroy his father's idols. Brothers and sisters, how many idols are you needing to destroy that we have brought down with us from generation to generation? One commentator notes, that conversation is vain, which is empty, frivolous, trifling, and unserviceable to the honor of God.

The credit of religion, the conviction of unbelievers, and the comfort and satisfaction of a man's own conscience. What is it that comforts your conscience that is not godly? He goes on and he says not only the open wickedness but the vanity and unprofitableness of our conversation, our behavior, are highly dangerous. Think about that. Read it again.

Not only the open wickedness, but the vanity and unprofitableness of our behavior. I believe it's beneficial. Let's just pause here just for a moment and let's ask ourselves a few questions. What are the aimless conducts, behaviors, or traditions that I'm passing down to my children. What unprofitable behavior do I need to stop?

What traditions do I need to put to death? They're unprofitable. So remember that it is not only about what you stop doing that is important, but it's about those things that you put in its place, that you feel. You take off the old man, as Ephesians says, that you put off concerning the former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness." So think about these things that Christ saved us from. And then consider the price of our redemption.

Verse 19, he says, but with the precious blood of Christ. This preciousness of the blood of Christ is something that we sang about this morning. This idea of something being precious here means to be held in honor, to be highly esteemed, to be very dear to us, accounted as a great price to be precious and to be costly. What is it that you deem more precious than silver and gold? More precious than anything in this world is the preciousness, the costliness, the held in high honor is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ because it is only through the blood of the cross that you have redemption, that you've been redeemed from your former man and that you are now a child of God and he is your father.

The life is in the blood and the blood represents the very life of Christ. Christ gave his life for you, his own dear beloved son. What is it that is so precious to you? Perhaps you need to do an appraisal of your treasured possessions. And see what is most precious.

He was as a lamb without without blemish and without spot. This points us back really to the shadow of the Old Testament and God's required sacrifices of a lamb that was to be perfect without no blemishes. It couldn't be blind, it couldn't have a broken bone, it had to be perfect. There was no defect in these sacrifices and it's pointing to Christ and sometimes it helps us to look at the actual and look back at the type to help us understand the actual. Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot, Christ was that perfect spotless lamb that satisfied the wrath of God.

So the third motivator in this passage to live holy lives in the fear of God is seen in verses 20 and 21. And I find them fascinating because of what they tell us about God and about our salvation. He says, this is the point, the foreordained mercy of God. Great motivator. The foreordained mercy of God.

Now, I want us to think about this just for a second. Note what he says, was the sure plan of the Father. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world. Folks, this is not plan B. This is plan A and there's no other plan.

Seeing that we are sinful by nature and hopeless to redeem ourselves, then how can we live in the fear of God and understand God as being holy because he is holy. It is only through a redeemer that we can approach him. A redeemer who, verse 20 says, he was foreordained before the foundation of the world. We need to understand that Christ, his life, his death, his resurrection was all a part of God's plan from eternity past. He wasn't just foreknown because I know people love to play with the foreknowledge of God.

This he clearly says was he was foreordained before the foundation of the world. It was determined beforehand. It was determined before the world was crucified. It was determined before he was buried. It was determined before he rose from the grave and ascended into heaven.

God had a preordained plan to save you through a Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who shed his blood upon that cross. And this is a great motivator to cause you to live a holy life in the fear of him. Before you were created, he knew you and loved you. And he wants you to live for him. God determined how and by whom we would be redeemed before any act of creation.

So God is not trying to play catch-up. He's not concerned that man fell in the garden. What am I gonna do? God's eternal plan was to redeem a people to display the riches of his glory. So it is the mercy of God that should motivate us and the glory of his grace that should motivate us to live for his glory.

Romans 9 22 says, what if God, wanting to show his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had prepared beforehand for glory even us whom he called not of the Jews only but also of the Gentiles. This should be a great motivator because you have been recipients of the mercy and the love of God even before the foundation of the world. He loved you and he called you by name. That is a glorious thought. If the love of God and the mercy of God doesn't motivate you to live for your Father, what will, what more should God have done to motivate you to live for his glory.

Please somebody tell me what else could he do? He gave you his only begotten Son. He punished him as you should have been punished and he poured his grace on us as Christ should have received. Not only did Christ receive our sin, but we received his righteousness. What a glorious thought.

You may not realize, But the fact of foreordination of the death of Christ deals also with the assurance of your salvation. Your salvation is not based on how you feel this morning or tomorrow morning. Your salvation is not dependent upon your emotional or hormonal state of being high or being low. Your salvation and your redemption are based upon the sure Word of God that before the foundation of the world he predestined you to adoption as sons. That is an assurance of salvation.

You may feel this or that and back and forth and be like a wave of the sea tossed. Throw it aside and hold on to the Word of God because he tells you it is a sure and steady anchor. It is the one, It is the very thing that we are to hold on to, to know, I am God's and He is mine. Christ loved you before the foundation of the world and called you to be His own. Your salvation is based upon Him and His unchangeableness, not the frivolity of your emotions.

You may feel assured of your salvation, but you may need to examine yourself. So again, I'm saying it's not based on your high or your low. You may feel fine. Usually, those who feel fine are the ones I'm worried about. Those who feel low, I feel pretty good about.

They're at least concerned. I'm just not living for the Lord the way I should. They're concerned with their sin. But those who are always up here like, hey man, all's well, God's good, everything's perfect. I'm a little bit concerned about.

You grieve over your sin. One of the sureties of your salvation is that you're doing battle with sin. That's what Romans 8 13 tells us. So we need to examine ourselves to know if we are in the faith. And you also may have great doubts about salvation but remind yourself what does God say about those who trust in him.

The foreordination of Christ gives us great hope but also want you to note the revelation of God's Redeemer. Look at what he says here, he indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you. This idea here is to uncover, to lay bare, to reveal. We are now, Scott's taking us through the book of Revelation and it's the revelation of Jesus Christ and that's what Peter was saying was being done is that he was being revealed he was foreordained but he was manifest in these last times for you he was made known And so really we have such a better standing now than they did then. We are looking back on this manifestation of God and what he did in salvation.

And he is a precious Savior. He spilled his precious blood. And we look back on the work of Christ on the cross and we have great assurance and great gladness in our Redeemer. Notice what Galatians says in 4-4, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. In the perfect time, he sent his son.

And I want you to note the result, these two last things, the result of his revealing of God's plan. What's the result of it? When God revealed it, what did it do? It produced something. It resulted in something.

Notice what he says, verse 21, who through him, through Christ being manifest, who through him believe in God. Your faith is based upon what God did in manifesting his son before the world and demonstrating his plan of redemption. Because of Christ's death and resurrection, my friend, you believe. That's the basis of this manifestation of God's Son why do some of you then remain in unbelief It's not because God did not do enough. It's not because he has not shown you enough.

If only there was a 67th book that made it a little more clear. No, God has clearly made it known. Let me tell you why you still refuse God. It is because of the hardness of your heart. You have refused the Lord of glory because sin and the pleasures of it are more precious to you than the blood of Christ.

You hope to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin just one more day. Dear friends, children, adults, do not linger in sin any longer. Today is the day of salvation. Today. So now up to this point the resurrection that I've been talking about has not been mentioned.

I talked about the resurrection here but now it has been mentioned. Notice what he says, who through him believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. So note the purpose. I spoke just a moment ago about the result of this revealing, but now I want you to notice the purpose of it. There's a difference there.

The purpose of the revealing of God's plan through Christ's death and resurrection. What are you trusting in? What is the basis of your hope? God ordained and revealed his Son so that your faith and hope would be in him. He is your only hope and apart from Christ you have no hope.

But with Christ you will be full of hope. I couldn't get this song off my mind this morning. I'm not going to sing it to your great delight but I will read it to you. And you know it well my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest rain but wholly lean on Jesus name.

On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand all other ground is sinking sand when darkness veils his lovely face I rest on his unchanging grace In every high and stormy gale my anchor holds within the veil. His oath, his covenant, his blood support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay. When he shall come with trumpet sound, oh may I then in him be found. In him my righteousness alone faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. So what motivates you to live a godly and holy life in the fear of him? I pray that what Peter has written will encourage your hearts to live for your Lord, to delight and to consider precious his blood, and to find great motivation in what he has done for you before the foundation of the world. As we find ourselves in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation, as all other believers before us have endured the same, there are plenty of things to tempt you to live worldly and ungodly lives in the lust of your flesh, but I want to exhort you and to encourage you that your best life is now if you live a holy life in the fear of God.

I pray that this will strengthen you and help you to live victorious Christian life in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for the power of your word. Lord, what great motivations you have given us to love you and live for you. And Lord, just to think, you poured out on us such great grace and such a great redemption, we didn't even have the sense to ask for.

We didn't even know we needed it, Lord. You showed us our need, you met our need, and now you call us sons and daughters of God. What a great and holy God you are. We worship you and adore your holy name. Amen.