New Life, New Lifestyle

• The following message by Aleister Beg is made available by Truth for Life. For more information, visit us online at truthforlife.org. >> Good morning. I just realized listening to the Bible reading that I’m using the ESV and uh the reading I think was in the NIV and uh I so I apologize if I if I got the wrong version here, but I’m stuck with it for now.
• It’s good for us to pray before we turn to the Bible. I use the collet, Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners. Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise, that among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
• Well, Luther on one occasion said of this letter, “This little letter contains virtually everything that a Christian needs to know.” And uh I don’t think we would want to argue against that in any way. And even in talking with a few people in the last day or two, it’s interesting how often uh the letter of First Peter is used in the encouragement of young Christians.
• And as I mentioned last night, that has been part of my background too. In verses 1 to2, which we struggled through last evening, you will have noticed, I hope, that there are no exhortations. Uh there are no commands. There are no imperatives at all. Peter is not calling for his readers to do anything, at least not until he tells them what they need to know.
• We understand from school that an imperative is an exhortation to do a certain thing and the indicatives in New Testament or in biblical context are the reminder to us of what God has done for us in Jesus. So that he has taken the opening part of his letter to remind us all of who we are in the Lord Jesus Christ. uh he doesn’t begin as many a young pastor will often begin.
• I say it to my own uh shame as I think back on the early years of life in pulpit ministry. Uh there was about my approach something that was far more um or hortatory um exhorting like uh come on let’s get going get moving what are you people doing that kind of thing which said it took me a long time and listening to my wife to realize that that’s not that’s not actually the way to see things moving ahead and Peter if I’d learned from him I would have understood this that Peter hasn’t begun his letter by directing the reader’s activity, but
• rather he begins the letter by defining uh the reader’s identity. And that’s why these opening verses are so important that they understand that they’ve been chosen by God the Father, that they’ve been cleansed by the blood of Jesus, and that they are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
• So it is vital for us, vital for them and vital for us to know who we are and to know at the same time who’s we are. The question of identity is a fairly topical subject in sociological terms and in different ways. Uh young people are often wondering what their identity really is, where they fit and so on. And it’s a wonderfully liberating thing when somebody comes to an understanding of the gospel just as we heard earlier from the lady that she went to the church and she heard the truth and she discovered that her identity was not something that