Woe Is Me: Encountering the Holiness of God
August 26, 2018 · 1 Peter
Scripture referenced 12 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Isaiah 6:1-7 Read in full to illustrate the holiness of God and Isaiah's conviction of sin before the Lord
1 In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.
2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew.
3 One called to another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!”
4 The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 Then I said, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Armies!”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.
7 He touched my mouth with it, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”
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Keep this verse
Luke 5:1-11
Read in full to show Peter's encounter with Jesus and his conviction of sin at the miraculous catch of fish
1 Now while the multitude pressed on him and heard the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret.
2 He saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them, and were washing their nets.
3 He entered into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.
4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch.”
5 Simon answered him, “Master, we worked all night, and took nothing; but at your word I will let down the net.”
6 When they had done this, they caught a great multitude of fish, and their net was breaking.
7 They beckoned to their partners in the other boat, that they should come and help them. They came, and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.
8 But Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord.”
9 For he was amazed, and all who were with him, at the catch of fish which they had caught;
10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid. From now on you will be catching people alive.”
11 When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything, and followed him.
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1 Peter 1:1-2
Read as the introduction and address of the letter, establishing Peter's audience as scattered aliens
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen ones who are living as foreigners in the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
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1 Peter 1:3-5
Read to establish the main theme of praise to God for salvation, living hope, and an imperishable inheritance
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that doesn’t fade away, reserved in Heaven for you,
5 who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
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1 Peter 1:6-7
Read as the first digression on suffering and trials refining faith
6 Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put to grief in various trials,
7 that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ—
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1 Peter 1:8-9
Read as the second digression on love and inexpressible joy in believing without having seen Jesus
8 whom not having known you love; in whom, though now you don’t see him, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory—
9 receiving the result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
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1 Peter 1:10-12
Read as the third digression showing the prophets searched carefully to understand the salvation they foretold
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you,
11 searching for who or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, pointed to, when he predicted the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that would follow them.
12 To them it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to you, they ministered these things, which now have been announced to you through those who preached the Good News to you by the Holy Spirit sent out from heaven; which things angels desire to look into.
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1 Peter 1:13
Read to call believers to gird up their minds, keep sober, and fix hope on coming grace
13 Therefore prepare your minds for action, be sober, and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ—
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1 Peter 1:14-16
Read as the call to holiness, not conforming to former lusts, because God is holy
14 as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance,
15 but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior;
16 because it is written, “You shall be holy; for I am holy.”
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1 Peter 1:17-19
Read on conducting oneself in reverence, redeemed not by silver or gold but by the precious blood of Christ
17 If you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man’s work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear:
18 knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers,
19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ;
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1 Peter 1:20-21
Read on Christ being foreknown before the foundation of the world, appearing in these last times so faith and hope are in God
20 who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in this last age for your sake,
21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God.
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1 Peter 1:22
Read as the charge to believers to love one another fervently from a pure heart, and used as the benediction
22 Seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth through the Spirit in sincere brotherly affection, love one another from the heart fervently:
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Carl opened in 1 Peter 1:10-22, but before getting there he stepped back to show what holiness actually looks like when a person runs into it, and then traced that same moment of recognition through the life of Peter himself. The driving concern of the whole message was salvation: what the prophets were straining to see, what believers already have, and what is still on offer for anyone who has not yet accepted it.
What was said
Before touching the 1 Peter passage, Pastor Carl went to Isaiah 6, where Isaiah sees the Lord enthroned, the Seraphim calling back and forth "Holy, holy, holy," and the very foundation stones of the temple trembling at the sound. His point was that holiness is not an abstraction. When Isaiah stood in the presence of a God who is completely set apart from everything He made, the first thing Isaiah did was confess his sin: "Woe is me, I am undone." The purity of God makes a person see themselves clearly.
He then moved to Luke 5, where Simon Peter is on the boat after a fishless night and Jesus tells him to let the nets down again. The nets fill past breaking. When Peter saw what had happened, he fell at Jesus' feet and said, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." Pastor Carl put those two scenes side by side: Isaiah in the temple, Peter on the water. In both cases, an ordinary man going about his ordinary work encountered the holiness of God and was immediately undone by his own sin.
With that ground laid, the sermon moved into 1 Peter 1. Pastor Carl described the opening of the letter as one long run-on sentence built around a single main point: praise God for salvation. Off that main point, Peter makes three digressions. He had covered the first two in the previous week, suffering and love and joy, and this Sunday picked up the third, which begins at verse 10 with the words "as to this salvation."
The third digression is about the prophets. Peter says they searched carefully trying to understand the grace that was coming, with the Spirit of Christ in them pointing toward the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. They were serving not themselves but the people who would later hear the gospel. Pastor Carl's observation was that the prophets had pieces of the puzzle but not the whole picture, and that people alive now, on the other side of the cross and resurrection, can see what the prophets were only reaching toward.
The passage then turns to what that means for how believers are supposed to live. "Prepare your minds for action, keep sober," is how it reads, and Pastor Carl worked through the Greek word for sober, noting it means unintoxicated, possessing clear judgment and full faculties. He was direct: if someone in the room struggles with alcohol, drugs, or anything else that alters the mind, this is a call to holiness, not just a figure of speech. The goal is to fix hope completely on the grace that is coming.
Verses 15 and 16 quoted Isaiah directly: "You shall be holy, for I am holy." Pastor Carl pressed on this, saying God is not making a polite request. If someone is holding onto a habit and telling themselves God is fine with it, the text disagrees. The promise alongside the command is that God will do the transforming if a person will submit their will to His.
He closed on verse 22, which he also read as the benediction. The verse is addressed to people who have already obeyed the truth, who have already accepted the gospel, and it tells them to love one another earnestly and unselfishly from a pure heart. Pastor Carl said that the way believers love each other is the way the world will see how God loves, and that it either draws people toward the gospel or it does not. For anyone in the room who heard all of that and recognized they had not yet trusted in Christ, he said plainly that the offer stands, that the provision has been made, and that it requires a personal response one way or the other.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Pastor Carl opened with Isaiah's vision of God and Peter's encounter with Jesus on the lake, and both men responded to God's holiness by confessing their sin immediately. When have you been struck by a sense of God's holiness, and what did it reveal to you about yourself?
- The sermon described salvation as the great dividing line of all personal history, and said there is no neutral ground: a person either accepts or rejects the gospel. How do you think about that claim, and how does it shape the way you talk about faith with people who are on the fence?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 8,889 words
0:00
Good morning, everybody. How are you?
0:02
Doing great.
0:02
Doing wonderful. Very good. Good to see you. Would you all stand? Florina's over here on the piano and we're going to start off with hymn number 56, To God Be the Glory.
0:12
Hymn hymn number 56. Scott, would you come on forward?
2:10
Great things he has done
2:17
and we're going to sing a worship the king. Hymn number one zero four if you want to look for your part. Number one zero four. Pick a harmony if you can sing harmony.
3:45
Great conqueror of Amen.
3:57
Y'all can have a seat. I've got a few. Actually, we've got abundant announcements this morning. It is heading towards fall and when you head towards fall in church, all of the fall programs are starting back up. We've got children's church that will be starting up in two weeks and the first service, we have Peak Children's Churches starting.
4:17
There's no slide for that one. The first slide that I have is about Old Bill's Fun Run. So, Old Bill's Fun Run for Charities twenty eighteen is happening September 8. That'll be Town Square. It is a big, big, big deal, but you all know that it's like United Way, kind of.
4:32
If you give $1 to a charity, Old Bill's Fun Run amplifies that donation, and it will be about, usually, it's about $1.5, so a dollar 50. For every dollar you put in, a dollar 50 gets to the charity of your choice. And this charity is here this morning. The director of the Good Samaritan Mission, Chuck Bidroff, is right here. I'm gonna let Chuck tell you about that.
4:55
Yeah. Good Samaritan Mission, I don't know if you know. It's right down the Street. Been there for since 1968. We still have 30 beds for men and five for women.
5:05
We still do meals and dinner and breakfast seven days a week. We got a tote to hope program, 40 bags of food for kids that we do every week with the children learning center. The kids that have been identified as food deprived, we take food over there every week. I don't know. You know, this year, got meniscus, and, you know, the statistics are all good.
5:27
I've got meniscus torn tears in both of my knees, and I'm broken in those places. But, you know, the people that come to us are broken in other places, and they're lost. About three weeks ago, a guy and his girlfriend came in for a food box, and we got him a food box and loaded them all up. But about a week later, this man comes back to me, and he sits down in the chair right across from my desk, and he looks at me and he says, I don't know why, but for some reason, I feel like I can trust you. And he says, I feel like I wanna kill myself.
6:04
And, okay, from now and now what do you do with that? You know? So I gave him the only hope I know about, and that's Jesus Christ him crucified. And we'd had for about a thirty minute conversation. He accepted Jesus as his lord.
6:17
He's doing everything right now. You can kinda see he's, like, thinking about this. He's really mulling it over. But because I'm a mandated reporter, what that means if somebody says they're a threat to themselves, I gotta just take it a little bit to a higher level. So I take him over to the community counseling center.
6:34
They put him in the hospital. The next day, I go to visit him in the hospital. He's got his smile back on. His hope is back. He's got his life back.
6:44
He still has to go to a little bit more therapy for another week. Comes back about ten days later. He's sitting in that same seat, and he looks at me, and he says and you could just see a smile on his face, hope in his life, and ready to go again. That same day, he got a job in Jackson Hole staying at the mission now, has his life back. You know?
7:05
And that's what we do at the mission. We transform lives, help people get their life back. So I just want you to remember this one thing. I'm gonna say it about three times. Good Samaritan mission, old bills, fun run.
7:18
Good Samaritan mission, old bills, fun run. Good Samaritan mission, old bills, fun run. Thank you.
7:23
Thank you very much. Appreciate you, Chuck. And just so you know, there are a bunch of these on the back. I I used this last week as an example, but there are a bunch of these forms out there in the vestibule right there on those two half round tables. If you would like to donate to Good Samaritan or to First Bees Benevolence Fund, Turning Point, Young Life, any of those, you're welcome to do it through Old Bills and it would be, like I said, an amplified donation.
7:53
So, Good Samaritan Mission. Next is Community Bible Study. Anne, would you get up and tell us a bit about that? That is all. Good
8:01
morning, everybody. My name is Anne Stalker and I'm gonna highlight something that's found in this bulletin. And I know they say people don't read their bulletin, so I'm gonna help you guys. So ten days from today on the Wednesday after Labor Day, it will mark the kickoff of the first evening coed community Bible study prayer group class. It's open to husbands and wives, singles, old, young, and there'll be a variety of small group options that we're gonna put together.
8:35
Fifteen days from today is the opening class for the second annual women's daytime CBS class. Last year, we studied five books of the Bible. This fall and winter, we will be taught the book of Hebrews by the more than able team of Ed Alam and Eric Pomquist. Childcare will be offered at both classes and all the details, the times, the places, the locations are all in the bulletin. Please take a look.
9:05
You can also sign up by going to the website, the church website, and you can sign up online. So I want to encourage you to sign up. I want to encourage you to come, and I want to encourage you to bring along your neighbors, your coworkers, your LDS friends, your Catholic friends, your Episcopal friends, etcetera, and especially those who describe themselves as spiritual but not religious. So I had the privilege of doing community Bible study for fifteen years back where I used to live before I moved to Jackson twelve years ago. So here are some of the words that describe this interdenominational international organization for which I have such a passion, transformational, comprehensive, consistent, in-depth, honed for nearly forty five years, caring community, undergirded and surrounded by prayer and support.
10:07
So please join us in Jackson and half a million folks around the globe as we mine the gold nuggets of biblical truth via CBS. Come and catch the fire, and please sign up. Thank you.
10:24
Thank you. Alright. Ants Community Bible Study is just absolutely great. Awana, speaking of great. Dan Toulson, are you around?
10:33
Here you are. Dan Tolson is commander Dan Tolson on Monday evenings.
10:40
Wow. My goodness. There are a lot of places to get involved, a lot of ways to serve. I was just in the foyer talking to Mike Demetrius about about all the needs we have for service in the church and all the places there are for people to plug in. So if you're not serving anywhere, I would encourage you to get plugged in somewhere, but specifically, Iwana would be a great place if you're if you're worried about the next generation of youth and the direction that they're going, this is a tangible easy way to affect the trajectory of of a young person.
11:11
I want as an international ministry that's been around for fifty more years. We're the only I wanna club in Jackson, and it's a community wide ministry. So we have kids coming from every church in the valley. And last year, we had 70 to 80 kids coming on a fairly regular basis. And the more volunteers we have, the more smoothly it runs and the more effective it is to discipling the kids.
11:34
The mission is to reach boys and girls with the gospel of Christ and train them to serve him. We do it through game playing, through scripture memory, and through a large group, Bible teaching time. And the kids have a blast, and it's a really fun thing. And we feel strongly about it, and we would ask for your help if you feel drawn to develop some relationships with kids and disciple them and and chain I like to say change their trajectory because you're gonna there's a point in time where they'll make a decision to follow Christ, and their future will be changed forever. And Chuck's working hard to minister to adults on the back end of life that have had a a tough go, and we're ministering to the kids on the front side that might save them from from a tough go.
12:16
So Amen. Next Monday night at our home in South Park Ranches, the address is there. Also, the address is on our website. We're gonna host a volunteer training night. We're gonna pray for Iwana.
12:29
We're gonna get organized for the year. We're gonna get everybody excited. So if you think that it's something you'd like to partake in, we would invite you there and we'd love to see you.
12:37
Thanks. So that's week from tomorrow, September 3, 05:30 at Dan and Dancy's Place in South Park Ranches. Thank you. All right. Monday nights at First B is happening tomorrow night.
12:47
That is down the hall, Fellowship Hall, meal music and a message. Carl is talking about Luke 22 tomorrow night. That'll be the message part of that. Meal music's always good, always fun. 06:00, 06:15 it's a soft start.
13:00
About 06:00 is when that starts. You can see your bulletin. The bulletin has all kinds of other small group opportunities. And if you are not already in a small group, but you would like to be, if you'll talk to either Nick Stern or Mike Demetrius, they will funnel you towards a group. And if you want to lead a group, they will funnel people towards you.
13:22
Okay? So that's small groups to help us all to grow spiritually in a context where we can not just listen but speak back, question, and sharpen one another's iron. If there's anything else and there he is. There's that guy. Come on over, Matt.
13:38
There's one more thing. Matt is the moderator of this church and he has been for a couple of years and so that means he is an elder and he is a board of trustees member and he's the corporate kind of head of this place, moderator. Whoo.
13:49
Thank you, lord. It's a it's a heavy load. Good morning. I just wanted to take an opportunity to bring you all up to speed on some things that are happening here at the church. Obviously, you've noticed the new concrete sidewalk and some landscaping that we're working on in the front of the church.
14:09
Thank you for your patience as we put that together earlier this year. As I said, we're going to continue to do a little more with landscaping, some trees and boulders and such. Then presently we have designed and are at the permanent stage of adding the deck onto the west side of the fellowship hall. We have a little bit of funds left over from the kitchen campaign, and we're gonna use some volunteer labor and discounted materials and we are going to get that put together this fall is the plan. So that's coming up soon, thirdly is our kitchen, we are tremendously blessed by the new kitchen, it has been a gigantic blessing and ministry for this body.
14:58
However, we are having a little trouble stewarding it, so we are creating a board, a kitchen board, to help implement some basic ways to keep our kitchen clean and to take care of it, stewarded in ways that are just gonna make it last a long time and still be a a blessing to our church. I shared this morning. This is kinda funny. Just to give an example of kitchen stewardship, if in our kitchen, there's a fridge, that fridge gets a lot of stuff put in it. If that stuff doesn't have a date on it, and we happen to show up the next day to clean out the kitchen, and your stuff doesn't have a date on it, it might get discarded.
15:46
So it's just a way, you know, stuff in the fridge too long is not good stuff anymore, so if you can help. We are just asking for your help as we transition, so thank you for that. Lastly, finances are amazing, God's provision for this body is tremendous. We are slightly about a percent and a half behind on our projected budget for this year. Just making you aware.
16:15
And most of all wanna wanna want you to hear me in saying that his provision is well beyond that 1.5%, which is really pretty insignificant. I'd like to pray for us before I sit down. Lord, I am overwhelmed by your grace and your goodness here, And I am so thankful for for this body, for this family of believers. And, Lord, I ask that you would pour out a blessing here, that you would use this church to bring unity to the body of Christ in this city, that you that you would, through this church, impact this community in ways supernaturally, Lord, spreading the gospel here and beyond everywhere that we can possibly imagine. So thank you again.
17:19
Thank you for the opportunity that you've given us right now in this place to be a blessing. In Jesus name, amen.
17:31
Thank you, Matt. That's good. And one more thing, would y'all stand and greet one another And the abundant announcements being whose favorite part of the service is the announcements? Y'all stand and greet one another. We'll bring you back together with a song.
17:48
Hymn number 11, you wanna look for your part.
17:52
Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace, streams of mercy,
19:47
Glory to his name. Hymn number four ninety three. Y'all can have a seat. We, I will invite the frontline team to come forward and if y'all would, pray with me. Frenchie also and Florine are going to come forward and I'll join him on the base after this prayer.
22:54
God, I do pray that you would be glorified in us, lord. Glory to your name. It is about you, Jesus. In Jesus name, lord, we come before you and we.
23:07
Lord,
23:08
we recognize your blessing. We recognize the resources that you've given. We recognize the provision that you've made, lord and we want for those resources to extend to others the message of the cross. That your good gospel would go forward. Your good news would go forward.
23:24
That people would recognize their lost and hopeless estate, and turn to you through the advance of your gospel. Your word, lord, is what endures forever. So, give us ears to hear, eyes to see, and give us the strength, lord to carry out your will and your way in this community but lord reaching to the uttermost parts of this world that you place us in. In Jesus name, we ask for your blessing and for your multiplication on the gift, blessing of the giver. In Jesus name, amen.
23:56
Amen. Of something to be Okay? Amen. Oh, it's so fun. Thank you, Florine and Armin.
28:14
So, I have admitted something this morning. I I don't the takeoffs part of the sermon and the landings part of the sermon are not my favorite part of the sermon. I don't like the takeoffs and I don't really like the landings. I like just being in God's word right in the midst of it. So the takeoff this morning, usually I just go, okay, we're up to first Peter one ten through 22 in our chronological study, and that's my start.
28:36
Then we get right into it. But first, today, I want to go back for a minute and talk about the holiness of God just for a minute about from Isaiah because Peter quotes Isaiah towards the end of this first chapter of Peter, so I'm thinking that direction anyway. All of this first part of first Peter, after the introduction, it's a very, very long run on sentence, and he has a main point and then he digresses several times. But first, I wanna go back to Isaiah six. This is where Isaiah had vision of the Lord, and it's that place where God began to use him as a prophet.
29:16
He's already in the temple as priest, but he began to use him. In the year of the king Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted with the train of his robe filling the temple. Seraphim, those are angels, specific type of angel. But Seraphim stood above him, each of them having six wings. With two, he covered his face, and with two, he covered his feet, and with two, he flew.
29:43
And one called out to another. So it's like antiphonal praise. One is calling out to the other and it's answering back, okay? It's this back and forth of holy, holy, holy is the Lord of host. The whole earth is full of his glory and then the repeat was, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
30:00
The whole earth is full of his glory and so, Isaiah seeing this vision felt this. He felt this. The foundations of the thresholds of the temple. Now, the temple's threshold and the temple's foundation, each one of the stones was about half the size of this room, a little over half the size of this room. Some of them as much as 11 feet thick.
30:21
So think about that foundation. Stone, this big, 11 feet thick, trembling with the sound of his voice. God is holy other. He is completely set apart and completely different from all else that he has made and created. And so when Isaiah saw this and saw the angels, magnificent beings worshiping him and the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke and then I said, this is Isaiah speaking first person and then I said, woe is me for I am ruined.
30:59
That's a new American standard version. I like the good old King James on this one. Woe is me. I am undone. I'm completely ripped apart by this.
31:06
Woe is me. I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips. When you encounter the holiness of God, you see him for who he is, holy and righteous and completely other immediately. You see your sin and that's what Isaiah did. The complete purity and holiness of God, woe is me, I am undone.
31:30
I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips for my eyes have now seen the king, the Lord of hosts. For who he is in his glory, I saw him high and lifted up, lofty, enthroned, and being worshiped by angels. Woe is me, I am undone because I'm a man of unclean lips. Immediately started listing his particular sin and this guy was going about his normal life, right? I mean, his normal life was in the temple he was just doing what he did and then he was confronted with the all consuming holiness of God and that made him recognize his own sin.
32:07
Are you with me? Holiness of God and then one of the Seraphim, that's one of those angels, flew to me and with a burning coal in his hand which he had taken from the altar with tongues. He touched my mouth with it. Now, what did he just said? I'm a man of unclean lips.
32:25
So, he touched my mouth with it and he said, behold, this has touched your lips and your iniquity. That is your sinfulness is taken away and your sin is forgiven because this angelic messenger speaks for God and God can and does forgive sin. That's part of his holiness because we hold on to stuff. Don't we hold on to stuff? God is holy other.
32:44
He is completely loving, but with that complete love also comes complete and total wrath. Okay? God is completely merciful, but it also completely just and his justice comes out. God is completely and perfectly holy and so all of these things, I may say, I just can't see any other way to be except for merciful because that's the way I see things and then there's some other brother in Christ that says, yeah, but justice demands that you do this and we can both be brothers in Christ but be off of the mark just enough because God holds it perfectly because he is holy, holy, holy, alright? So, he has the right to forgive sin.
33:30
The humility when Isaiah dropped his knees and said, woe is me, I am undone. God responds to a humble servant. So, I'm going to go to Luke. This is Luke five. It's going to talk about Peter, the same Peter that we're talking about today.
33:47
I'm going try not to preach it, just pass through it, okay? So, here we go. Just reading scripture five one through 11 says, and now it happened while the crowd was pressing around him and that him is Jesus and listening to the word of God, because that's what was ever on Jesus' lips. The word of God is what he is sharing with him. He was standing by the Lake Of Gennesaret.
34:08
That's also the Sea Of Tiberias or the Sea Of Galilee, same place, all three different name. And he saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake, but the fishermen had gotten out of them and they were washing their nets. And he, Jesus, got into one of the boats which was Simon. Simon is Simon Peter. This is the guy that we're going to be reading the letter from today, which was Simon.
34:31
Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And Jesus, he sat down and began teaching the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking and he was speaking to them the word of God, right? He was sharing with them the news of the kingdom. When he had finished speaking, he sat down he said to Simon, put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.
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Now they were washing their nets, right? When he got on the boat and started, this natural amphitheater on the side of the Sea Of Galilee, put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch. And Simon answered and said, Master, he just heard him. He just heard his sermon. He'd already met him before.
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Andrew, his brother, had introduced him to Jesus before. He knew who he was, and he allowed him in his boat to do his sermon. And he knew, so he signed a respect, master. We worked hard all night, and we caught nothing. Did you know that back in those days they didn't have monofilament line that the sun will shine through?
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They had ropes. And if you're gonna fish, fish can see. They can see the net. So fishermen typically fished all night. And when they're fishing all night, when the fish couldn't see because there was no light, they couldn't see the nets.
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And so he said, we fished all night. We didn't catch anything. But master, because you say so, I will do as you say and let down the nets. So he when they had done this, just like Jesus said, they did what Jesus said, right? They enclosed a great quantity of fish and their nets began to break.
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They fished all night when the fish could not see their nets. And then in the daytime when Jesus said, do this, they did it. When the fish could see their nets and they enclosed a great quantity of fish, Their nets began to break. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them, and they came and filled both of the boats so that they began to sink. Enough fish to sink boats, two of them.
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But when Simon Peter saw that, Peter was just doing what he normally did. He's a fisherman. Isaiah was doing what he normally did in the temple. Peter saw him or who he was. Peter saw him.
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When Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet saying, go away from me, lord, for I am a sinful man. Immediately, when confronted with the holiness and complete otherness of God, he started to confess his own sin away from me because I'm thoroughly sinful and Jesus, what did he do? For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish what they had taken and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, the sons of thunder, who were partners with Simon, and Jesus said to Simon, do not fear. From now on, you'll be catching men. When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and they followed him.
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When when Peter saw who Jesus was, it convicted him of his sin. It convinced him of Jesus's righteousness and Jesus said that you are going to be fishers of men and they followed. So, that little vignette right now comparing Isaiah's meeting God and Peter's meeting God. We'll go to first Peter one ten through 22. But first, we've got one more thing.
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The nine verses that lead up to it, and we're just gonna ramp up to it. I'll read through these. I read them last week. There are a lot people on a camping trip last week, and so I'm just gonna read through them. The way that I'm looking at this now is a little bit, I think, I hope, a little clearer than the way I presented it last week.
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But I wanna say there's a main point, and then there are three digression beyond that. We're gonna hit the third one today. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, the guy we were just talking about, Simon, Cephas, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens, strangers and aliens scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, those were Roman provinces who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the father by the sanctifying work of the spirit to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood. Now, to obey Jesus Christ right there and throughout, to obey the truth or to obey Jesus Christ and this is accepting the gospel, accepting the good provision that God has made. That particular truth is what he's talking about to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood, to accept the provision God has made through Jesus for your sin.
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By the sanctifying work of the spirit. To obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood, may grace. Oh, God's unmerited favor and peace. The absence of warfare but also the absence of calamity and distress. May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure or multiplied to you.
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Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again. Now, this is the beginning of an incredibly long run on sentence. It's really, really long. It's longer probably than the I think it's longer than the one I shared at the end of last week's message. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again.
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To a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. He mentions being born again. He mentions the salvation that's ready to be revealed in the last time and this is his main point. Praise God for salvation. Last week, I said, it was point number two.
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Always start with grace and peace is point number one. Point number two last week was God is to be praised for his great mercy, for new life, for living hope. But if you had to say that in one word, it's about salvation. Our society and the way that our society is taught is completely opposite from what the Bible teaches. Our society says that everybody has intrinsic value and is very good.
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That's that part's true. Sorry. But people are essentially good. And through circumstances of life, sometimes that is hammered out of em and they can turn to the bad but the truth the Bible says is that we are all sinners. We've all fallen short of the glory of God and we are bent towards sin.
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We are incapable of righteous choice outside of the movement of God in our life. So, salvation is important for all of us because we stand from cradle to grave in peril. There's one way, one way only to be saved and that is through the blood of Jesus Christ and so salvation. God is to be pray for salvation that's made available through Jesus blood and resurrection. So then he goes into immediately after praise God for this great salvation he's offered.
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He goes into a digression because he's writing to people under a severe Roman oppression and he's telling them that I understand that you're suffering. In this, you greatly rejoice even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials. So that the proof of your faith, which being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though it's tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. That's the digression on suffering. I recognize, I'm saying that salvation is fantastic, but what you're experiencing in this life is difficulty.
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And there are some of you who are going through it, and I know you're going through it. And it's hard stuff, whether it's dealing with coworkers that are belittling and making fun of you for what you believe, or whether you're just dealing with the pains of growing old. And it happens. The pains of dealing with all of the pressures of wanting to do the right thing by your family and not being equipped to do everything that you can do for your aging parents, for your disabled children. Various trials.
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Second digression is on love and joy. He goes, and though you've not seen him, Jesus, Peter had seen Jesus but he recognized the far flung reaches of the Roman Empire may not have ever seen him before. Most of them would not have but they believed the gospel. They believed in Jesus. So, and though you have not seen him, you love him and though you do not see him now, you but you believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
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Now, without the highlighting even. What is this message about? It's about salvation. Now, I know it was written to Christians and I know it was written to people who had believed it but I have been all week long wrestling with this because the comfort that I take in having accepted the salvation proffered and offered to me. I take great comfort but there are so many who have not and the great dividing line of all human history and all personal history is whether or not you have accepted the message of the cross personally for yourself.
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It's personal, individual. So, we're up to first Peter one ten through 12 now. This is it. This is what this is what we came for today. As to this salvation is continuing on the same thing.
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As to this salvation and salvation for those of you who don't know means welfare or prosperity or deliverance, preservation, salvation, and safety. I'm not talking about the prosperity gospel. I'm saying the difference between eternally being separated from God or eternally living in heaven with him and having an abundant life here while we await our blessed hope. That's the difference. That's the prosperity that this is speaking of.
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Welfare, prosperity, deliverance. If you see the little word up there in Greek, it's soteria. Soteria is where we get our word soteriology. That is the study of salvation. For all you word nerd theologians.
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As to this salvation, this is his third digression, main theme. Thank God for salvation. I know you're going through it. You can still have love and joy and it's because you believe in him and then the third digression, just like a preacher, let's say main point and then have three things off that point, right? As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied.
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That's why I started with Isaiah today. The prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries. These were people that were chosen by God to bear a message for him purged as it were, looking forward to the Messiah and God placed his Holy Spirit on them. It worked differently back then. He didn't give his Holy Spirit holy over to people for the rest of their lives and was with him forever but he lit upon whom he chose and he spoke through the prophets.
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The prophets who prophesied of the grace, the God's unmerited favor that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries seeking to know what person or time the spirit of Christ within them was indicating. He's saying that the Holy Spirit, spirit of Christ here. The Holy Spirit was within these prophets and working through them and inspiring scripture, inspiring their message And they were searching to try to figure out exactly what it is that they were talking about. Have you read Isaiah 53 lately about by his stripes we're healed? Bob did a great study of Isaiah 53 a couple of years ago, three or four years ago now.
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And it's just great. The way that that lines up with the way that Jesus suffered in his passion is amazing. Psalm 22 about Jesus having a dry mouth and thirsting on the cross, dying on the tree. All of these things. They were seeking to know what person or time the spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.
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So, not just the sufferings of Christ, they point towards that. There are lots of messianic prophecies but there's also the glories that would follow that. The heavenly reward for those who put their faith in Christ. Even those who put their faith in Christ before Christ when they were looking forward to the Messiah and those of us who look back. We live in a gracious and good age and we'll talk about that in just a minute.
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It was revealed to them, those prophets from verse 10. It was revealed to them, those prophets that they were not serving themselves but you. You who in these things which have now been announced to you. That's the gospel. What they were announcing, what the prophets were announcing was all pre gospel.
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It was all that you needed to know before it actually came to pass. Paul says, that it's been revealed in these last days. You know, in Ephesians, he says, it's been revealed in these last days. Now the mystery has been made known. It's no longer mystery like the prophets were proclaiming.
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They had some of the pieces, but not all the pieces. Jesus completed the puzzle. In these things which have now been announced to you, you through those who preach the gospel. The gospel is the message of the cross. That Jesus Christ came anointed of God, chosen by him, empowered by his spirit to live a perfect life which he did willingly, willfully, and he walked ever forward.
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Carl's preaching out of Luke 22 tomorrow night. He's walking ever forward towards the cross knowing what's coming. He gave his life on that cross. He was buried. He was dead, and he was resurrected and there's where we find our hope.
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His perfect record can be accessed. His blood, the perfect, perfect blood of Christ can be accessed through faith. It's God's grace to provide him but it requires an exercise of your faith. Now, this passage was written to Christians, people who had already made that but I'm saying that because there may be some in here today who have not yet trusted in him. Through this gospel that was preached, I'm preaching that same gospel today.
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I'm preaching that Christ's blood is available for sinners. All of us start out as sinners. For those of us who have this salvation, it's great and we can praise God for it. Knowing the inexpressible joy and the peace and the grace that comes through it. But I want to let you know too that if you have not done that, you stand in peril.
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You stand in peril. I was raised Southern Baptist. We did an invitation at the end of every single service. It didn't matter whether the service was on tithing. We did an invitation at the end of every one of em and I typically don't do that but this message, I'm going to.
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At the end, I'm going to give an invitation. We're going to sing just as I am when we get there but this gospel to you by the Holy Spirit that was sent from heaven. I I could not get away. Normally, what I do is I just presented. It was presented to Christians.
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I'm going present it just like it's to Christians because that's what the letters do. Today, I couldn't get away from the feeling that there's somebody. There's going to be somebody here who just doesn't know Jesus. They've heard of him but they don't know him. These are things into which angels long to look.
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The choice that God has given us, the responsibility that God has given us to do with his good gospel. We must either accept or reject. There is no neutral. You can't ride the fence on this one. You have to either accept it or reject it out of hand.
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Angels long to look into these things. Therefore, therefore, what's it there for? Because blessing, God came up with this awesome plan. That's the main point from last week's message. He, even in the midst of our earthbound suffering, he gives us joy and love, glorious and inexpressible joy and love.
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And then today's passage, that the prophets forecast but they didn't fully experience it. Community Bible study will be studying in Hebrews and I think of that line in Hebrews that says that the prophets, the world was not worthy of em. They were looking to God for their salvation. They were looking to God but they did not see the promise. You are in a time where you can see the promise of God.
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You can see the promise of God in your life fulfilled. I will not promise you your life will be all easy for accepting Christ. In a lot of cases, it makes it more difficult. It certainly makes it more difficult if you look around and what you see are lost souls that just don't care, right? When Jesus cried outside of Jerusalem, he was crying because he was going in to make provision for these people's salvation and they were going to reject it.
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The prophets forecast it but they didn't fully experience it. Therefore, prepare your minds for action. In fact, literally this says, wherefore, having girded up the loins of your mind. Normally guys at that in that day and age wore like long robes, and it's hard to do battle in a long robe. So they would take that, pull it up, and tie it around, and gird up their loins so that they were not hindered by this garment.
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Wherefore having girded up the loins of your mind, prepare your minds for action, keep sober. Now in the New American Standard Version of Bible, if you see anything in italics, the words were added to help it make sense in English or help it make sense to the most of us in English. But what the what it actually says is keep sober. Doesn't say keep sober in spirit. It says keep sober.
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Sober. Be sober. That is un intoxicated. It refers to having presence of mind, clear judgment. This is just straight out of Thayer's lexicon.
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Enabling some someone to be temperate, that is self controlled, NEFO is uninfluenced by intoxicants, meaning to have one's wits about them, their full faculties, which is the opposite of being irrational. Have you noticed that drunkenness leads to irrational behavior? NEFO. Properly it is to be sober, not drunk, not intoxicated. Figuratively, it's also there, and that would be keep sober in spirit.
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Figuratively, it means to be free from illusion, free from the intoxicating influences of sin of any kind, like the impact of selfish passion, greed, etcetera. The text says, keep sober. Keep sober. Keep sober in spirit. But if you struggle with alcohol or with drugs or with any other any other thing that alters your state of mind, if you struggle with that, this is a call to holiness.
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It's saying, keep sober. Now, he's gonna empower you to do that, but keep sober in spirit or keep sober. Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of God. If you are confessing your sins, he is faithful and just to be forgiven you of your sins and cleansing you from all unrighteousness. It is the grace of God that is at work in you to do that.
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So, at 14 says, as obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lust which were yours in your ignorance. In your ignorance, I've highlighted, I'll come back to tell you why in a minute. But like the holy one who called you, be holy yourselves also in all of your behavior because it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. That you shall be is not just a request for you to be. It's saying, you shall be.
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If you are my disciples, you will be holy. How many preachers have said that you may be the only Bible anyone ever reads? If you are holy, they can see the holiness of God in your life. Does that make sense? You shall be holy for I am holy.
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This is a call to holiness for Christians. If you are a believer here this morning and you are on the line about something saying, I can just keep this little pet saying, God's cool with that. No. He's not. He's saying, you shall be holy.
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I will make you holy if you will let me. Submit your will to me and I will transform you. You can't do it apart for me, so you must submit your will to mine to be transformed. You shall be holy for I am holy. If you address as father, the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, and do you?
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Do you address God as father? If you do, then conduct yourselves with reverence and fear, in fear during the time of your stay here on earth, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers. Now, I say, I highlighted inherited from your forefathers and I highlighted in your ignorance because people assume since Peter is talking about Israel and the chosen people of God and he's sending an exiled diaspora letter to these people. People kind of assume that this is written to Jewish background Christians, but this says he's writing to Gentiles. That's most everybody in this room.
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Not everybody, but almost everybody in this room. So the former lust which were yours and your ignorance is speaking as if the Gentiles and inherited from your forefathers a futile way of life. The ways of God forecast Messiah before Jesus and that was not futile. It was hopeful. It's not as great as the church age, I'll I'll say.
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But those futile ways that you inherited from your forefathers, you were not redeemed with perishable things, but you were redeemed with the precious blood as of a lamb that was unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah. It is the only provision that has ever been made that will atone for sin. When Tyndale was going through and making his version of the first English version of the Bible, He had to come up with a word because there was no word like it. At one meant, atonement is at one to be at one with God, at one meant, atonement is what Christ made on the cross for all who would believe. For he was foreknown before the very foundation of the world, but he has appeared to you in these last times for the sake of you.
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You, you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory. So that your faith and your hope are in God. Now that is a triumphant message for those of you who are believers. But I kept on coming back this week to what if you aren't? What if you aren't?
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That's one of the scariest things ever because the only provision that has been made so far, you've rejected. I'm trying to land this with a very personal appeal. Every single one of us individually in here has to think, have I accepted the gospel for what it is? The good news of salvation to everyone who believes. I pray that you have.
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I'm going give you a chance to come forward like a good old Southern Baptist preacher, right? In just a minute but let's go to the last verse. Carl read this passage this morning or this week and he he framed the song service around this passage right here. For believers, since you have in obedience, see the sense you have, since you have obeyed the truth of the gospel, purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. So, he's saying, love one another just as I've loved you.
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This is your charge if you are a believer. New King James says, since you have purified, it's all in the past tense about what you've done with the gospel of Jesus. Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth. KJV says, seeing that you have purified your souls in obeying the truth. That's the gospel.
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Through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brothers, see that you love one another with a pure heart. Rep fervently. ESV, having purified. That's past tense. Having already purified your souls by the obedience to the truth for a sincere brother to love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.
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I like the New Living. Carl uses the New Living translation on Monday nights. You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth. Salvation happens at the moment where you believe. When you obey the truth, so now, you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters.
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Love each other deeply with all your heart and amplified my last translation here. Since by your obedience in the past, to the truth you have purified yourselves, just like when that angel purified Isaiah's tongue, and then he began to speak the message of the Lord. Since you have, by your obedience to the truth, you have purified yourselves for a sincere love of the believers, see that you love one another from the heart, always unselfishly seeking the best for one another. So for those of you who are believers, love one another, please. The way that you love one another is the way people are gonna know how God loves.
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If you show grace and forgiveness and long suffering, you bear with one another and you carry each other's burdens, then the world will see that and they'll want it, I promise. If you have not trusted in Jesus, then looking at this verse, it was for the benefit of you who through him are believers. What if you just look there and you go, but I'm not. Then, this is your choice today. There's the message of the cross.
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I I don't know how many times I've used this slide, a lot of em. The saying is trustworthy, it's deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, all of us, all of us by nature and by choice, are sinners. Some of us have been redeemed. But the offer stands and the offer is there for you. You have no way of doing this on your own but God wills that whosoever will will be saved, not perish.
1:00:35
Here we go. To those who are being saved, it's the very power of God for transformation to pull you out of whatever pit you're in and whatever your circumstances are and to walk you towards him. In salvation. To those who are being saved, it's the power of God but to the rest, to those who are perishing in his mere foolishness. Just listen to it and go, that don't make any sense.
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I don't know how I got two thousand years ago living a life. Could do anything for me today. I reject it. You do so at your peril. If you reject that, you do so at your eternal peril and that's the whole message of the whole Bible in a nutshell.
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God is gracious and forgiving and wants for you to come and accept it. In Jesus name, lord, I pray that you would convict us of our sin, convince us of your holiness, and illumine your word by your spirit as we sing this last song. Jesus name, amen. We're going to sing just as I am. If you'd stand up, we'll sing what's on the on the wall up there.
1:01:38
Scott. Thank you, Scott. This will be the last verse. If you want to come forward to pray or you want to come forward to talk to me, I'll turn off my microphone and receive you. I will be out of the office for two days this week.
1:03:42
Other than that, I'm always here and when people respond to the message, typically, they do it in the office and not on this aisle. I know this is culturally different than the way it's done in Wyoming. Feels good for a guy from Georgia though. Okay. So, and Louisiana too.
1:03:56
I got an amen right here. How about the last verse of just as I am?
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I come
1:04:38
Amen. Okay, that twenty second verse of first Peter one, I'm gonna read as your benediction. Benediction. Since by your obedience to the truth, you have purified yourselves. For a sincere love of the believers, see that you love one another from the heart and always unselfishly seeking the other, the best for one another.
1:04:57
In Jesus name, lord, I pray that you would that you'd bring that to pass in our lives. I I pray corporately lord for these people that are believers that are understanding my voice that we all would bow the knee, submit ourselves to you, and that you would flow, lord, through us, your grace and your mercy to the lost and dying world. Jesus name, lord, I pray that your gospel would go forth because we have done so. Amen.
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