Living Out Your Salvation: Action Motivated by Fear - 1 Peter 1:17-21

1:301 Peter verse 17. If you address the Father, who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your feudal way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with perishable, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. The only imperative command in this section is given in verse 17. Conduct yourselves in fear during your time of stay on earth. God gives us time on this earth. This is not our permanent home. He gives you days to live. He gives you years to live. What are you going to do with them?

2:37If God were to extend your days long into the future, what are you going to do with them? The issue is not so much how long you live, but what do you do with the days that God gives you? And what Peter is saying is, conduct yourselves in fear during whatever time that he gives you. And the duration of this fear is to involve your entire life. The scope of this fear involves every aspect of your life. And the degree of this fear is to the minutiae details of your life. So, summed up in this statement, during the time of your stay on earth involves your whole pattern of life.

3:24What are you going to do with the days that God gives you? And it's a good question to ask: what kind of fear is involved here? What is he talking about? Well, one thing it's very clear that he's not talking about is the fear of condemnation. He's already made it very clear that the chosen in verse 1 will be the glorified ones in verse 7, and that the salvation that is brought is brought to you, and it is an inheritance which is imperishable in verse 4, undefiled, will not fade away. It's reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God through faith.

4:07In other words, the fear that Peter is talking about here is not the fear of being cut off, abandoned by your father. No, there's a couple of fears, really, one fear with maybe a couple of angles to look at it, but it is the fear of God's discipline. And that'll be more evident as. We walk through this passage, but it is the fear of discipline. That is what Peter is saying. Conduct your time on earth. If you are a believer in Christ, if you are a follower of him, conduct your life in fear. Fear of God's discipline.

4:53And there are two angles here, and they're really cousins to each other. The first is that fear of discipline. The Lord's discipline is something to be feared, and that is evident throughout Scripture. A good father does what? Disciplines his children, does he not? And this is why in Deuteronomy 4, God allowed the people to hear his voice, see the great fire, so that he said, so to discipline you, to discipline you. In Hebrews 12:5, the author says, You have forgotten, do not forget the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, my son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him. The discipline of God is a reality. And some of you live your whole lives under that discipline because you do not respond to him as you should. And so, what Peter gives us here in these few verses is three reasons. Three reasons he gives us why you should conduct yourselves in fear during your time on earth. So we're going to look at those this morning.

6:12The first reason you should conduct yourself in fear is because your heavenly Father is an impartial judge. He is an impartial judge. Look at verse 17. If you address as Father, the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, stop there. Two things to observe about God. First of all, God is Father. Now that's the comforting thought, right? That is the comforting thought of Christianity that when Christ revealed God to us, He reveals Him as a Father, as a loving Father.

6:46In fact, we are told in Matthew 6:9, pray in this way, Our Father who is in heaven. We have this relationship with God. He is our Father, a loving Father. There can be nothing more beautiful and nothing more approachable than a loving Father. And what Peter's audience is doing, they're certainly scattered, going through a number of issues because of their faith in Christ. They were calling upon their heavenly Father in time of need. God, help us. Father, help us. And we are to call upon him as such. But sometimes we get a little comfortable with this. In fact, we get too comfortable. With this, and we fail to remember that he is also judge. So God is father, but God is also the judge. Literally, the word is the one currently judging, the one currently making distinctions about your life. And notice, not only is he father, but he is judge, and he is an impartial judge. God is no respecter of persons, he does not hold unequal balances in his hands. He has one standard, one standard of righteousness to which he judges fairly and accurately and without respecters of persons. It's interesting that God reveals himself as this throughout Scripture. In Numbers 15:15, He says, This, as for the assembly, there shall be one statue for you and for the alien who sojourns with you. In other words, I don't want differing scales. And he goes on to say, It's a perpetual statute through your generations. As you are, so shall the alien be before the Lord. There is to be one law and one ordinance for you and for the alien who sojourns among you. God is very emphatic that He is a God who holds equal scales.

8:59In Luke. 2021, the religious leaders come to Jesus and they say, Teacher, we know that you speak the truth correctly and that you are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. We know you have a standard that is outside of man, and by that you judge. You remember in Acts chapter 10, Peter learned this lesson about impartiality of God. He goes to Cornelius' house and he sees how the Spirit of God descended upon them and came upon them in the very same way that he had experienced in Acts chapter 2. And he says, Peter comes into the door and he says, I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation, the man who fears him and does what is right is welcome to him. God shows no partiality. He is impartial. He has one standard. And many think that because God is father, they have a different standard. They were going to be judged by a different standard because he is our father.

10:08Listen, the same standard of righteousness applies to everybody. There isn't a different one. Just because he is your father does not give you the license to think that he is going to judge you differently. He is a good judge. Don't expect your father to be less than a just and honest. Judge just because he's father doesn't mean he's going to pervert justice for his children. And Peter says, Do not think of him as such. He's not going to have a different standard.

10:48A good work is a good work. A bad work is a bad work. He's not going to look at your work and say, He's not going to look at our foul and stinky, lame sacrifice and say, Oh, by the way, that's excellent, son, and then hold that different, hold that standard differently to somebody else. No, a good work is a good work. A bad work is a bad work. And he will call it as such because he is an impartial judge. And he scrutinizes and he looks closely.

11:27And he will punish the sins of his children by disciplining them. So live in fear. He sees all to a minute degree. And he is an impartial judge. But notice, look back. He is impartially judging each person's work. Singular, look at the end of verse 17. According to each one's work, does not say works, but work. And listen, even though we as Those who affirm salvation is by grace alone, sometimes we get in a works mentality and we think of our whole life as a big pile of works and that there are some good works and some bad works and that somehow God's going to separate the two. These are good, these are bad, and this was excellent, this is poor, separate them all.

12:24But the reality is it's work, one work. The implication is that God sees your whole life work, the whole collective whole, all the works, all the actions coming out of one heart, one disposition, and they characterize the whole work of your life. See, a lot of times we think that if we do lots of good, then we're entitled to a bad day. But what God is judging is the character of your whole life and what comes out of them.

13:00Your life work. I remember we had a friend that came up to my wife and told her, You've been serving well, now why don't you go treat yourself to a trashy novel? And what kind of thinking is that? Right? Treat yourself to a trashy novel. That's like saying, okay, you've been doing all these good works. Now it's time to cut loose, take a little time, go indulge yourself in whatever vice, whatever you want. Just take some time off, whether it's a bad movie or a bad novel or bad conversation or whatever it is. Just indulge yourself. You deserve it. You have it coming. I'm going to tell you something. That is horrific thinking. When indulgence becomes a treat to you, what does that say about you? When a trashy novel is a treat, you're worse than you think.

14:01That thinking is profoundly wicked, profoundly off the mark. To think you could treat yourself to sin. But it goes back to this. We don't think of our life as one life's work. We think of it a bunch. We like to partition it up into little segments, a little pile. Okay, I've got some good works over here, some bad works over here. No, he looks at the quality of your life and he looks deeply. All of it emanates from one heart, one disposition. He looks at the whole, he looks at the trend and the disposition of your life, not just isolated actions. He sees more coming out of you than just one isolated work or many isolated works. He knows your thoughts. He knows your intentions. He knows the motives behind each action. And he knows how to connect these to your whole overall person. And so he is looking at your work, your life's work. Quality is at issue.

15:01And it's important to note that you can't rest on your past relationship with God. Your present work is judged not by how well you used to walk with God, but it's judged on its own merits in the present, on its quality alone. So, just because you were close to God in the past and did great things in the past has no bearing on what you're doing right now in the present. He is the one currently judging, making distinctions. So, there is no resting on past accomplishments. Your present sacrifice isn't judged by last year's sacrifice.

15:43And each of your works is connected to one overall work. That's something I want you to picture. In verse 17, he is the one who is impartially judging. It's a present participle, the one currently making distinctions. We're not talking about the great white throne judgment here, that somehow we get to thinking that this judgment is somehow in the future, that God is going to take the whole of our life somewhere down the road and just look at it and make a judgment on it. Yeah, that day is coming. But what is being talked about here and what Peter is impressing is that God is looking right now. We're not talking about judgment in the future, we're talking about. Judgment in the present as a loving father who disciplines his children.

16:39And one thing about the moon, if you look up at night, there's some really neat craters you can see from the earth. Well, there's one crater called the South Pole Adkin, which is the largest crater in the solar system. And it is about eight miles deep. And to give you an idea, Mount Everest is about five miles high. So you can, it's just, it's deep. A lot of topography up there. But you know what? If you're standing on the earth and you're looking at it, there doesn't seem to be, it all looks flat, doesn't it? Well, similar, think about God looking down upon us in our station of life. We're all on one dead level before him.

17:23We're the ones that make distinctions about who's great and who's little and who's rich, who's poor, who's popular, who's obscure, who's educated, who's illiterate. We make those distinctions. But in God's economy, we're all judged on one straight level. And he doesn't look at the station of your life, but he looks about the quality of your deeds. You know, why was the tax collector of Luke 18 justified before God and the Pharisee was not? You're familiar with the story, right? Two men in Luke. 18, 10, went up before the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself, God, I thank you that I am not like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all I get. But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted. What was the difference? The quality of their prayers. God was looking, wasn't looking at their station in life, but the quality of their prayers and the humility that was exhibited in this tax collector. Good prayer. He is justified.

19:05You see, each individual action is being judged in the present and on its own merit. Each word you say, each compliment you pay to somebody else, each gift, each offering, each prayer, each song. Do we not just sing? Do we know we come into the presence of a God who is scrutinizing, making distinctions? Is that prayer really from your heart? Is that song really? From your heart. Is that confession really real? Is that profession true? Kind of scares you, doesn't it? Well, it should. That's what Peter is saying. You see, being in the family of God should not lead us to a presumption that our disobedience is going to go unnoticed. The opposite is true. He is a good Father, and He is an impartial judge. You see, the comfort of Christianity is also the concern of Christianity. The comfort is, My Father is the judge. My Father is the judge.

20:11But then the concern is, oh, my Father is the judge. Whoa. And he isn't going to let me get away with anything. You see, the comfort of Christianity is the concern of Christianity. And oftentimes in the history of the church, these things get out of tension, don't they? On one extremes, there's this slavish fear of God, the judge, and on the other end of the spectrum is the disrespect of his holy standards because he is father. And somehow we think we're going to scourge here. Well, Peter wants us to make sure that you need to live your days in fear upon this earth because your heavenly Father is also an impartial judge. But there's a second reason, and that is that your former way of life was feudal. Feudal. The word for feudal means empty, useless, or even foolish. In Jeremiah 2, 5, the Lord says, What injustice did your fathers find in me? That the people went far from me and walked after emptiness and became empty. That's that word. They became empty. They went after emptiness and they themselves became empty. Useless. It's another way that word is translated. As the psalmist is crying out in Psalm 60, 11, give us help from the adversary, for deliverance by man is vain. In other words, man's help is not a real help at all.

21:50But it also implies a foolishness. In Jonah 2:8, those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. You see, a feudal life is empty. It's useless, and it's even foolish to trade the hope of steadfast love for a vain and empty way of life is pitiful. And this feudal way of life, Peter has already addressed in verse 14, that it was characterized by your former desires, former desires, which were yours. In your ignorance. As he says, do not be conformed to the former desires which were yours in ignorance. How many of you know what a expression, carrot on a stick? You know, something that you would tie to a donkey, right? And that he would see the carrot out there, and he would walk after the carrot. Meanwhile, he would pull the wagon or he would grind the wheat. You've heard that, right? And the idea is that there's the carrot out there. The donkey sees the carrot and says, ah, carrot, I'm going to get that carrot. I'm going to go after that carrot. I want that carrot. And he just starts walking towards it because he wants it. Never realizing he gets close. So you guys heard that? Well, just a second.

23:19Just in case that didn't hit you, here is a carrot on a stick, or carrots on a stick, right? And what we do is we want to lead somebody around that wants that carrot, and he just gets up and he follows it. But this is what you do. You put it on a donkey's back, put it right here. The donkey says, ah, carrot. I want that carrot. And he walks to it. Right? That's the idea of a carrot on a stick. And this is the way many of you live. These carrots representing your fleshly desires, the pursuits, whether they are overtly sinful or just after the pattern. Of the world. You look and you say, I want that, and this is what's going to drive my life. And the problem is that your life is futile. Such a course of life is futile. You go after emptiness, and you become empty yourself.

24:18But your feudal way of life was inherited from your forefathers. And this is the plight of man. This is the plight of fallen man. And the Bible speaks often about this chain of sin and futility that is passed on, original sin, that we are a people, have a disposition to follow after our fleshly desires rather than divine commandment. And this is the fundamental problem with man. This is the fundamental problem in your life, and this is exactly what Peter is warning against.

24:53Your life was futile. Solomon had a lot to say about this in chapter 1 and chapter 2. In fact, the whole book of Ecclesiastes. I won't turn there. But the whole conclusion of the book is fear God and keep his commandments. Everything else is futile. And he uses this word over and over. It's vain. Vain. So, what is the solution to Solomon's quandary? What is good to go after? Well, the bottom line is: the solution is. Is redemption. You need to be redeemed. How is this chain in your life broken? How is this chain of futility going after the fleshly desires? What comes natural? What breaks this chain? Your redemption. And this is the road that many of you were on. A road that was headed for destruction, vain, empty, futile. And some of you are on that right now this morning. You impulsively follow your desires, empty desires which cannot satisfy. And you yourself will not only have lived a life of emptiness, but you will become empty yourself.

26:20So there's reasons to conduct yourself in fear. I put the little mule up there just so you won't forget it. Your former life was futile. But the first, your Heavenly Father is an impartial judge. Second, your former way of life was futile. And third, your redemption was costly. Your redemption is costly. And here is a good reason why you should conduct yourself in fear, however many days that God gives you. Look back. It's important that you go through life knowing that you had to be redeemed. You had to be, you were on this track, following your desires. Going off a cliff, and you had to be redeemed. Look at verse 18. Knowing. Go through life knowing. It's a present participle. Knowing. Always go through life knowing this fact that you were redeemed. That you had to be redeemed. That is, you had to be redeemed from your feudal destiny in order to have a glorious destiny. You were dead to God without faith and without hope.

27:29And you needed to be redeemed so that you would be awakened to a living hope and a vibrant faith. In verse 13, what does he say there? Keep sober in spirit. Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. A glorious destiny awaits God's people. Verse 4, an imperishable inheritance, undefiled, never grows old, always new, never fades away. What a glorious destiny. So you have been redeemed. You had to be redeemed in order to go from a feudal destiny to a glorious destiny, but you also had to be redeemed in order to go from a feudal way of life to a glorious way of life. Your life was futile, useless, wasteless, vain, ineffective, unproductive, fruitless, hopeless. Go on. Your life was a faithless life, and it was unprepared for eternity.

28:37But those who have been redeemed no longer have to live this way. But your life can be useful, beneficial, worthwhile, satisfying, valuable to man, and valuable to God. That is, that God appreciates, respects, and cherishes a life that follows his Son. And he redeemed you from a life that wasn't worth living to a life that was worth living. And to this end, you were saved. And notice you were redeemed from your feudal way of life. The emphasis in this passage is the futility of life. Yes, you're saved from your sins. Yes, you're saved from a future and horrific judgment. But here, the implication and the intention is here. You were saved from your feudal way of life that ends in judgment, but also has a present impact as well.

29:42I remember a client of mine, he was trying to catch a plane, got stuck in traffic, very frustrated, only to find out, and he missed the plane, only to find out later that the plane went down, and I think everybody was killed on board. That is. Is you and I without Christ. Rushing futility, rushing to a destination of judgment, a worthless life. So it's important to go through life knowing that you had to be redeemed. But it is also important that you need to know how much it costs to redeem you. Notice in verse 18, you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold. You were redeemed with things with something very precious, the precious blood as a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. You were redeemed with blood. We're not talking about literal liquid from his body. That some teach that all of his blood was put into buckets and taken to heaven. And when somebody's saved, it gets splattered on him in a very literal sense, or that his wine is translated into blood so that his blood can literally be put upon you. No, it's a metaphoric language here, referring to the whole of Christ's redemptive death, his life poured out.

31:11And the blood, it's the chief term in the New Testament that refers to atonement. That God, that the blood of Christ stands between you and the wrath of a holy God. And why? Why did Christ go crucify? Well, the crucifixion was the most graphic and the most visible display of the life of Christ being poured out for his people for the price of their sins. His blood is spoken of as precious, that it is costly, it has a high value, it's rare, it's unique, there's none other like it. It's a most precious resource, it's the one resource that God gave Himself. Everything else is in the realm of creation. He's unblemished, spotless, that is, without moral corruption and without moral defect. Speaks of His total perfection. This is what you were redeemed with. Total perfection. But notice something else about Him in verse 20. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you. He was foreknown. That is, this whole event of Christ coming and walking among us and being crucified was no accident, it was planned.

32:38And only through this could God really make Himself known to you. Who is the you at the end of verse 20? The redeemed, who has appeared in these last times for the sake of you. He's talking to His redeemed people here. You. This is why. He appeared. This is why he went to the cross. This is why God glorified him for the sake of you. Verse 21. Why? In what way do we, for the sake of you? What does that mean? Well, more specifically, verse 21, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Why did he appear? So that he would be crucified, so that he would be resurrected, so that he would be glorified and now seated at the right hand of God. That is why he appeared. So that, keep looking, that through him or because of him, we would become believers in God. This is why I believe.

33:53It's because through him I understand. Through him and because of him I was made to understand. But look again. Why did he appear? So that your faith and hope would be in God. And this is why we can trust God in our present circumstances. This is why Peter's audience could not only trust God as the Savior of their sins, but could also trust God in their present circumstances. He showed up to bring us to him. So that he would reveal the Father to us, so that our faith and trust could be placed in our heavenly Father, so that our trust and faith are in God. They see a tremendous price was paid for us, and this should invoke fear. Just having somebody pay that much for you should invoke fear. Look at 1 Peter 1:17 again. God, He is the impartial judge. He impartially judges according to each one's work. Conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth, knowing, verse 18, that you were redeemed, verse 19, with the blood of Christ. You were brought, bought with a great price. And nothing will bring swifter judgment or swifter discipline from your heavenly Father than treating lightly the blood of Christ.

35:30So, Peter gives us three reasons why you should conduct your life in fear, why I should conduct my life in fear. You see, your heavenly Father is an impartial judge. Your former way of life was futile, and your redemption was costly. And as I said earlier, there are two kinds of fear or two perspectives which we can view this fear. And they are cousins to each other. They're related. The first, we need to figure out the fear. God's discipline against us.

36:04Life is too short to go through life under the discipline of God, and you, many of you, live under the discipline of God because you simply do not fear Him enough to walk in His ways. And you go through life, not being cut off, but just always under that discipline. And friends, you don't have to live that way. So fear God's discipline, but the second fear of this is fear yourself. Fear yourself. Know what you are capable of doing and be fearful of that.

36:49I think Peter learned this lesson. I think what he's saying here is: look, just listen to me. Here's the sage Peter looking back over his life, and he's exhorting these people and saying, learn from me. I mean, this was Peter who said, Even though all may fall away because of you, I will never fall away. Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you. And then you remember when they came and rested Jesus, it was Peter that drew out his sword, cut off the high priest's slave's ear.

37:24And it was Peter who took Jesus aside and said, God forbid, this will never happen. To you. I think what Peter is saying as his life begins to sunset is: look, conduct yourself in fear. Fear of yourself. Do not overestimate yourself. You see, there's safety in a healthy mistrust of yourself, there's safety there. You remember that Italian cruise ship at Costa Concordia? It wrecked because the captain deviated from the ship's computer-programmed route because he thought he was familiar with the local seabed. Too familiar, overconfident. You see, look, even the strongest among us needs to fear. There's safety there. And if you are weak, know this: there is safety in fearing.

38:23Right? It's the ones who are afraid of the class in college that usually do well. If you're afraid of the test, if you're afraid of getting caught behind, you're usually the ones who do well. But there's a question in this passage: How does this reconcile? In verse 8, he's talking about joy unspeakable. Listen to this. You love him, though you do not see him, but you rejoicing with joy inexpressible and full of glory. How does this mountain top of joy unspeakable relate?

39:02To living life in the shadow of fearing God's discipline. Has Peter given us something that's at odds with each other? Are these two principles contradictory? No. They are actually a very blessed combination. In fact, you know what the parents of courage are? You know what the offspring of joy unspeakable and fearing God's discipline is? A robust courage that can stand up against anything. This is where courage comes from. Let me read to you a statement from a Baptist nonconformist a century ago. The man that is afraid that he will do wrong and so hurt himself and grieve his Savior is the man that will never be afraid of anything else. Martyrs have gone to the stake, fearing not them that kill the body, and after that have no more they can do, because they were so afraid to sin against God that they were not afraid to die. And that is the temper that you and I should have. Let that one fear, like Moses' rod, swallow up all the other serpents and make our hearts impervious to any other dread.

40:25You see, brothers and sisters, there is a safety in fearing yourself. And fearing God's discipline. And this is how Peter sought to encourage his audience and encourage us as well. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for this reminder that though you are our Father, you are also the judge, Father, and that it is your good desire, Lord, that we be conformed into the image of your Son. And Father, we also see the wisdom in this.

41:01Father, knowing that we are prone to wonder, and we look forward to the day, Father, that we adhere to you so closely as to never be separated again. But, Father, as we sojourn upon this earth, Father, let us be ever remembering, Father, that we are easily led astray, and that there is safety in fearing you, but we can do so with a joy, Father, knowing that therein is our safety and joy and great delight. Father, truly help us to be a people who delight in your law and delight in your ways, rejoicing in the safe harbor that they provide. For it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.