1 Peter 1:13-16 Time to Get Serious

Introduction:

What would you do if you had to go to Pittsburgh tonight around 11:30pm?  A trusted friend calls and says she is in trouble and needs help. There were demonstrations throughout the day that turned violent, the city is under curfew and your car has been acting funny lately. Would you go? How do you prepare for such a trip?  What do you do before you go? What do you take with you?

Time to Get Serious:

Please begin this morning by reading 1 Peter 1:1-16. We cannot just jump right into our text without having the opening verses fresh in our minds. Today we are going to consider some implications of our salvation. Up to this point the Holy Spirit, through Peter, has been giving us some doctrine, in today’s passage He makes application, telling us what we must do as a result of the teaching just given in 1:1-12.

This starts off with a rather strange statement… “Gird up the loins of your mind.” This figure of speech is a phrase that has shifted out of our normal use. Today we might say, “get your head together,” “get focused,” or “stop messing around, its time to get serious.” Then 1 Peter 1:13 goes on to say, “be sober.” There is no time to be drunk or under the control of anything that hinders or alters your thoughts and emotions. Also, “be serious” because there is no time for goofing off. That should be very easy to understand these days with things coming unglued. Set your hope fully upon the grace to come, here pertaining to the future and complete realization of our salvation at Jesus’ return.

So, what would you do about helping that friend stranded in Pittsburgh? You prepare yourself to go help, you get serious and you stay alert the entire time. This would be no joy ride or sight seeing tour, this would be an intervention. The idea of 1 Peter 1:13 is that we stop wasting our time, and get serious about how we are living and spending our time. In our culture, we spend to much time living for ourselves, forgetting or neglecting the awe of our salvation and the reason we remain here in this life. We too often neglect our duty as disciples of Christ who have been given a mission. Maybe you don’t think this describes you; maybe you believe you’ve got it all together as Christ’s ambassador. Let me ask you this, “How does your salvation affect your daily life?” Now don’t just throw out the good Christian answer that you know you should give. You need the real truth in this answer. The self-justifying delusion our minds tend to dream up will not suffice. The reality of how your salvation through Christ impacts the way you live and think on a daily basis is what you need to consider. I suggest you pray for the Spirit’s revelation of truth as you search the Scriptures to find this answer. You cannot reliably answer this question without time (like several days) of prayer and searching the Scriptures.

Notice that the statement begun in 1 Peter 1:13 continues into 1:14, “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; ¹⁴as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance.” As a disciple of Christ, you don’t live like you did before committing your life and will to Him. As a Holy Spirit indwelt believer in Jesus Christ, you have to think, speak and act differently; it’s the difference between dark and light, death and life.

The sharp contrast in how we live now verses how we used to live is even commanded in 1 Peter 1:15-16. Basically, it says to stop giving yourself to your old sins, and be holy. The reason is that we’ve been called by God who is Holy. We talked about being called several weeks ago with 1:2 and 1:3. By God’s grace He called you, you didn’t deserve it, nobody does. But God lavished His grace on us. I love Ephesians 1:7-8, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence.” How can you and I be united with God if we don’t keep ourselves from sin and be holy? From Leviticus through Revelation God tells His children to be holy. “Holy” means to be dedicated to, or reserved to God, set apart. God is Holy in that there is nothing and no one like Him; He is unique, different than everything else. Our holiness comes from separation from sin and self and dedication to God. In Leviticus 17-25 God spelled out in no uncertain detail what holy living meant to Israel in the OT. We aren’t under the Law anymore, but we are still commanded to live a holy life. Israel was surrounded by immoral and demonic cultures and so are we. Immorality is everywhere, demonic forces are at work all around us the Bible warns. Division, fighting, disunity and chaos are the work of spiritual forces of evil and they are hard at work right now. God required repentant hearts and sacrifices in the OT; He still demands repentant hearts, but He supplied the sacrifice in sending His Son Jesus to the Cross. As indwelt believers united to Him, we are to be dedicated to and engaged in God’s will, God’s service, and honoring Him all day every day.

How you and I are doing with that is the question we will ask over the next several weeks.

Conclusion:

We need to be ready. Ready to do His will in any and every moment as He directs and leads us. We need to be holy. Putting away the former sins and meaningless endeavors. What on Earth could be more important?

Over the coming weeks and months we will be doing a spiritual inventory at First Baptist. On Tuesdays at Celebrate Recovery this spiritual inventory is at the individual level, while on Sundays it is on a group level. We will be seeking the Spirit’s leading as we do this. As Psalm 26:2 says, “Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my mind and my heart.” Then again in Lamentations 3:40 we read, “Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.” Hope to see you on Sunday and Tuesday because you can’t get the real truth about yourself unless your spiritual inventory includes both the individual and group aspects.