There’s nothing like hearing you worship. Does my heart good. Missed it.

Open Bibles to 1 Peter… weird that first time in person, when we’re already finishing chapter 1.

• DVDs are available of all the services

Since we haven’t read it at all together, I’m going to read the whole chapter.

Listen for patterns, something there I haven’t talked about, saving for today.

Read 1 Peter 1

Did you catch it?

I think he may be trying to tell us something.

Who is Peter writing to? (test to see who’s been paying attention!) Suffering believers in modern day Turkey who are living as exiles, as we all are.

Woven through his greeting, reminder of the Gospel (2-12), and instructions on how we should live in light of that Gospel (13 onward) is this reminder to people going through hard times… this is only temporary!

We need that reminder, in the good times and the bad. In the good, because we get too enamored and comfortable in this life, and in the bad because we’re overwhelmed and depressed by this life. Either way, the focus is in the wrong place, in the wrong time period.

If there is one thing to take away from these days: life is fragile. I’m sure God is trying to teach us a lot, but one thing for sure he’s saying to the masses right now: what you’re doing isn’t working. Repent, or you will all likewise perish.

He’s destroying our comfort for our own good. You realize that it’s for your good, don’t you? God has no wrath toward you, Christian. Jesus took every last ounce of that on the cross. Now there is only grace, like we just sang.

One last time—in this chapter at least—Peter gets the message across, the contrast between our infinitesimal life and His infinite Word.

You were born by the book.

That’s not language we’re used to hearing. We’re used to hearing about mercy of God, Jesus dying on the cross, etc etc. “by grace are you saved through faith…” Even at the beginning of this chapter, in verse 2, he talks about the Father choosing us, the Spirit sanctifying us, and the Son sprinkling us with His blood.

And of course that’s all true, but how do you know all those things ? Because of this book. “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

There should be a genuine, natural gratefulness in us for God’s Word. Think about what I just said. God’s Word. You don’t have to wonder what He’s like. You don’t have to come up with your own theories—although heaven knows that’s a popular thing to do. No, you can open your Bible and know that you are hearing from God.

Remember who Peter’s writing to now. Elect exiles. Do you know what exiles need? A firm foundation to stand on when it feels like you’re all alone. Anyone?

When everything seems up in the air, there is one thing that will keep you grounded.

Two verses go hand in hand here:

All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16–17

His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.

2 Peter 1:3–4

Everything required for life and godliness, complete and equipped for every good work. That sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Sign me up for that! He did sign you up for that!

Do you believe that’s true, that with the Scripture in your hand and the Spirit in your heart, you have everything you need for life and godliness, that you’re equipped for every good work?

Doesn’t always feel like that, does it? Those two verse are about God’s word, and about its promises. Our default reaction when we feel ill-equipped should be to run to His word.

So let’s do it right now. Let’s take the current crisis we’re facing as a nation, and see what Scripture might have to say about it. “Oh, he’s going there again, two weeks in a row?” Yep.

First, James 1:19:

My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,

James 1:19

And there, in one verse, is exactly what both sides need to hear right now.

1. “Quick to listen, slow to speak”

That would solve a lot of our problems, wouldn’t it. Follower of Christ, trying to faithfully obey his word: not listening is not an option. Not an obedient one, anyway.

Quick to listen, slow to speak means listening to another persons story without an external or internal “Yeah, but what about…” Especially when we’re talking about brothers and sisters in Christ, pastors, leaders, church planters, missionaries. To just dismiss them is the height of arrogance.

2. “Slow to get angry”

I needed to hear that this week. Maybe you saw the video of the old man getting shoved. It’s not every day that I see blood pooling out of a 75 year old’s… but there was another video shot from across the street at the same time, and you can hear the sound of his skull hitting the concrete echoing through the street. And it wasn’t even the blood, it was that sound that made me mad. I’m talking ungodly, have a conversation about it with the Holy Spirit later kind of anger.

So in that one verse in James, we have the solving of 80% of our problems. Does the Scripture say anything about the actual issues? Yep, sure does.

Remind them to submit to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work

Titus 3:1

So Paul, writing this to Titus, a son in the ministry: remind them to submit to rulers and authorities. And there are other passages, like Romans 13 and 1 Timothy 2, but a major one is in the middle of 1 Peter 2, so I’m not going to belabor the point this morning it’s coming soon to a Sunday near you.

And what about the other side of the issue? Uh-huh. A lot. Like in Isaiah 1, where God is talking to His people, and he says (1) he hates their worship, (2) that it’s become a burden to him, (3) that he’s weary of hearing it, (some people probably feel that way when I sing, too), and (4) that he’s not going to listen to them when they pray. That’s pretty serious stuff from God.

And then as always, he starts telling them what they need to do to repent and get back to a right relationship with him:

Wash yourselves. Cleanse yourselves.
Remove your evil deeds from my sight.
Stop doing evil.
Learn to do what is good.
Pursue justice.
Correct the oppressor.
Defend the rights of the fatherless.
Plead the widow’s cause.

Isaiah 1:16–17

So back to 1 Peter, do you see what he means when he says it’s a “living word”? Here we are, in the year we’ll all be talking about the rest of our lives, 2020. Halfway around the world from when this was written. And yet it applies like is was written directly for us. Why? How? Because this book is alive.

One more verse, can’t help it, from Proverbs 18:2:

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.

Proverbs 18:2

Just gonna let that sit there for a minute. God’s knows humankind, and knows exactly what we need to have told to us. And that’s what He did.

And then Peter quotes from Isaiah 40, painting this picture for us, this illustration of the difference between this temporary life and his eternal Word.

For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like a flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, And this word is the gospel that was proclaimed to you.

1 Peter 1:24–25

A few weeks ago I got a (cheap) camera from eBay. Using the phone for the services just wasn’t cutting it. It has a nice prime lens that has a macro mode, which means it can focus really close to the camera and take those shots you see on screensavers where it looks like you’re in the flower.

We have this bush next to our house, and it’s had the most beautiful flowers on it this spring. I don’t know if they were as bright last year, but for whatever reason I noticed it more this year. And every day I’d think, “I’m going to get by new camera and take some macro shots of those flowers.”

I was out there with my camera a few days ago… and the flowers are gone. There’s just some nasty looking brown things hanging off a regular old bush now. Nobody wants that as their screensaver.

That, Peter says, Isaiah says, God says, is what life is like. Grass that withers, just let us have a few more hot days like this and you’ll see. Flowers fade. And so does life. It goes by quickly.

We’ve lost 111,000 people to covid-19 since we last met. And that is something to be mourned. But reality of a fallen world is that life has a 100% death rate. You may even evade your taxes for a while. You won’t evade death for much more than a hundred years, some of us a lot less than that.

When you realize that all the other ground around is sinking sand, and you feel like you’re being pulled under, there is…

• one you can always count on, one who is closer than brother,
• one who promised to be your refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble,
• one who said he would never leave you, never forsake you,
• one who knew you in your mother’s womb
• one who says things like, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine.”
• or like “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand.”

Someone else besides me, what’s a promise of God you hold on to?

All of those things are so wonderful. So great. And you know them because you have the Word.

For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished.

Matthew 5:18

The word of the Lord stands forever.

Application

1. Straight up… how are you doing with this?

There is dust enough of some of your Bibles that you could write the word “damnation” with your finger.

Charles Spurgeon