Even though you have His Word in your hands, even though the Holy Spirit of God lives inside of you, it's hard to keep your values straight. Maybe that's something as small as walking into the bathroom and the person before you has left the bathroom a mess, towels on the floor, and you immediately are filled with anger, and you want to find the person who has committed this great crime. Maybe that's seeing some physical thing. Maybe you're walking down the street, you look into a window, and you see a watch that just, for some reason, captures your heart.
When Wants Become Needs
You know you can't afford it, but you start figuring how. It's not really an important thing, but it becomes important. Or, maybe it's the affection or respect of a certain person, and you find your heart captured by that, and you begin to ride the roller coaster of the way that this person responds to you. And they become all too important and loom all too large in your life. Maybe it's even a willingness to let down your guard to do things that you know you shouldn't do at your university or at your work to gain their acceptance.
Or, maybe it's a moment of lust where sexual craving begins to capture your heart. You know you're about to step over God's boundaries; you know you're about to do something that you shouldn't do, yet it seems so compelling and so important in that moment. Maybe it's the desire just to be right, just to have somebody recognize that you're right. And you're in a conversation, and rather than being motivated by unity and understanding and love, you just want to win, and winning becomes way more important than it should; you're willing to damage a relationship just to be affirmed as right.
I could give example after example after example. And so we are in a passage that is all about values clarification. Look there at verses 17 through 21 of First Peter 1. Remember Peter is writing to people who are suffering; and although there is comfort in this passage of Scripture, it really is, as I've said, marching orders. It's a call to action and particularly a call in these words to understand what's important, to understand what's valuable, to understand what's significant. Let me read these words: "And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the 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." (1 Peter 1:17-21, ESV) Three very, very significant life-shaping values are pointed out to us by Peter. Here's the first one: the value of accountability. One of the most disastrous lies, the delusions of sin, is that there is no accountability - "I can step over this boundary, and it won't make a difference."
I was raised pretty much on the shores of Lake Erie. I can remember as a young boy going out on the lake with my father. Lake Erie was so populated with fish that one hook on your line was not enough. We would use a spreader, and you would catch two fish at a time, an amazing thing. And I remember as I grew up, the process of Lake Erie dying, of being near the lake and seeing just the carcasses of fish washing up on the shore. How did that happen? Denial of consequences. I asked someone once what happened to Lake Erie, and he said, "Hundreds of little companies along the lake dumped waste into the lake, none of them thinking that it would make a difference."
That's the delusion of sin, that I can do this thing, I can go this direction, I can step over this boundary, and it won't make a difference. What were Adam and Eve thinking as they ate that forbidden fruit? What was Cain thinking as he took Abel's life? What was David thinking as he took Bathsheba for his own? What was Nebuchadnezzar thinking as he set himself up as god? What was Peter thinking as he denied any connection to the Messiah? It's shocking to see how we're able to look at sin and think that we can step over God's boundaries, and there won't be any consequences.
The Theology of Accountability
And so the theology of accountability is very, very important for us. Notice the words here: "And you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourself with fear throughout the time of your exile." Now notice the judgment he's talking about here is not heaven and hell. This is family talk. This is already assuming that, by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the imputation of His righteousness, by His satisfaction of the Father's anger, you have been invited into the family of God - something you could've never earned.
But even though you're in the family of God, you must understand that your Father is a judge, and all of us will give an accounting for every word, every thought, every desire, every action. You and I live in a moral universe that is marching toward an accounting! And that is a significant value that all of us must hang on to, because there is an enemy who would whisper in your ear, "This won't make a difference; it's okay. You can be mean to your wife, and it won't make a difference. You can go to that pornographic website, and it won't make a difference.
You can live for physical things, and it won't make a difference. You can gossip about another person, and it won't make a difference." Peter is saying, "That's a cruel lie." We need to live in the reverential awe of the reality that our Father, as gracious and loving and kind as He is, He is also a judge. You live in a moral universe; there is a day of accounting, and you must hang on to that; you must live with a deep respect for, a deep awe for, a deep worship for your Father Judge, not ever wanting to do anything that would displease Him, not ever wanting to step beyond His boundaries, understanding this theology of moral accountability.
Now I would ask you this evening: do you live that way? Do you live with a sense, a holy sense of that kind of accountability? Do you live with a fearsome awe of God? Not afraid of ultimate judgment because you know that if you are His child, every sin past, present, and future has been covered by His blood, but you know that in this world, it's not an open world where you can do whatever you want to do and it's okay. That's not the world in which we live. Is your life shaped by this value? Now there's a second thing: it's the value of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You could argue that the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is the ultimate values clarification event in history, because the cross immediately declares to us what is important. Listen, if you understand the narrative of Scripture, all of human history was marching toward the cross; and all of human history after it has been shaped by the cross. The cross is the epicenter event of the narrative; and because of that, the cross teaches us what's important. Notice the words here, wonderful, wonderful words: "Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot."
The cross clarifies this: the most important thing in all of life is relationship with God. The cross teaches us that. There is nothing in life that rises even close to the level of importance of relationship with God because the narrative of Scripture says, "We were created for God. We were created for His pleasure. We were actually created for His glory. We were created to love and worship Him." That not only defines our spirituality; it defines our humanity. The greatest dilemma in all of life is our sin.
Spiritual Poverty
The biggest problem in all of life is not physical poverty. The greatest problem in all of life is spiritual poverty; it's that sin that separates us from God, that horrible condition of now being separate from the thing for which I was created. The greatest gift in all of life is the gift of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. That grace accomplished on the cross as He came to the cross as the perfect Lamb of God, that sacrificial lamb completely without blemish, because in every situation, every location, in word, thought, and deed, He lived completely without blemish.
And so He is an acceptable sacrifice, satisfying the requirements of God. Now, you hold these two things up: what's more important in your heart? Silver and gold, or the precious blood of Jesus? Silver and gold, or the precious blood of Jesus? Silver and gold, and all it can obtain and acquire, or the precious blood of Jesus, and what it alone is able to purchase? All of the riches that have ever been collected by all the people who have ever collected them could have never purchased your redemption.
The price was paid by the most precious commodity that has ever existed - the precious blood of the Lamb, Jesus. As your pastor, I have to ask you this: do you believe that? No, I don't mean do you intellectually assent to that; I mean, do you live like that? Do you live with the deep sense of gratitude, and privilege, and joy, and celebration, and discipline that comes from recognizing that you've been covered by the blood? You've been covered by the blood. You've been covered by the blood. You've been covered by the blood.
No, everything in your life isn't perfect: and no, you don't have every pleasure that you could experience; and no, your bills aren't all paid; and no, not everybody you would like to have like you likes you; and yes, you face physical sickness and suffering, but you've been covered by the blood of Jesus; you've been covered by the blood of Jesus; you've been covered by the blood of Jesus! Are you still searching for treasure, or have you found your treasure in Jesus, and your heart is at rest, and you're not covetous, and you're not craving, and you're not marching toward some kind of addiction to some kind of thing because your heart is satisfied, because it has found its satisfaction in the precious blood of Jesus which has given you the most valuable gift you could ever get - forgiveness.
That is, brothers and sisters, the core value of our faith. That's what makes us different. And then there's a third value here; it's the value of the unstoppable plan of God. Saying of Christ, he says in verse 20: "He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the 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." Notice this unstoppable chain of God's sovereign plan to make you His child.
First, it starts with Christ who was foreknown before the foundations of the world; this plan was set in place before the world was set in place, and once God sets His purpose on something, once God declares His will, His will will be done. And then this Jesus was made manifest; actually God, at the right moment, sending His Son to earth to take on human form, to live where we live, to face what we face, without sin. All of that was done as a substitution. Listen, every action Jesus took, every conversation He had, every choice He made in every situation and location, was done for your sake, because He was living the life that you and I could not live so that we, through His righteousness, would be declared righteous before God.
How amazing is that! That was God's plan. He was raised from the dead; it was necessary that sin and death would be conquered because sin had brought death into this world, that horrible interruption of the purpose of God. And in order for Christ to give us the gift of eternal life, He had to conquer death - part of God's plan. And God gave Him glory; this Christ who was humiliated here on earth was raised to glory, now sitting on the right hand of the Father, now interceding for you and me so that you would be gifted with faith and find hope in God.
An Unstoppable Set of Steps
There's the plan: an unstoppable set of steps that is the sole reason that you would have hope. I would ask you this evening - where are you looking for hope? What are you grasping after for hope? I love the hymn we sang this morning: "On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand / All other ground is sinking sand." Listen, Scripture would tell us if your hope disappoints you, it's because you have the wrong hope, because hope in Christ will not disappoint you. You can face the unpredictable; you can face the uncomfortable; you can face the unthinkable, and stay sturdy and strong because you have Christ.
And you know one thing for sure; He will complete His work in you, and He will take you to be with Him forever. Nothing will separate you from that unstoppable plan. Maybe you are in a university and it's hard; it's hard to stand alone in that place; it's hard to stand for Christ when it seems that no one stands for Him. And yet you rest, because you don't find hope in the acceptance of your surroundings; you find hope in Christ. Maybe that's what you keep saying to yourself as you've lost your job, and you're going through financial difficulty.
It is uncomfortable and it is hard, and you don't know what the next day is going to bring, but you say, "This one thing I know: I have been accepted in the people of God, and my God will accomplish His purpose, and there's a day when I will experience lavish, spiritual riches forever." Maybe it's the disappointment of marriage. It hasn't all been what you thought it would be. You want to give up; you want to quit; you want to run away. You must remind yourself of God's unstoppable plan. Part of that plan is that He will supply for you everything you need for life and for godliness, words written by this very same apostle.
Maybe it's physical sickness, and you're facing things that are very hard; you don't know what you're going to do. Oh, it is so important to find hope; find rest in the unstoppable plan of God. Would this God, who has harnessed the forces of nature and controlled the events of history to give you faith and hope, abandon you in this hour of your need? We need values clarification. We need the value of accountability. We need the value of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, how it teaches us what's important.
We need to carry with us the value of God's unstoppable plan. I would ask you as your pastor this evening: what rock do you stand on? Is it the rock Christ Jesus or some other stone that will fail you in the end? May these values be our values, and may we celebrate the grace that is ours through the precious blood of the Lamb. Let's Pray: Lord, it is true that this side of eternity, we are yet prone to lose our way. We're prone to forget what is important. We're prone to treat things as being fundamentally more important than they actually are.
And there may be never a day where we don't need our values clarified once again. Thank you for this passage that clarifies for us the values that need to be ours as we live in this time of exile, waiting for home. Lord, may we live as if we believe that we live in a moral world where there is accountability. May we live as if we believe that the most valuable commodity ever is the shed blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus, more valuable than all the gold and silver that could ever be accumulated. And may we believe in the value of Your unstoppable plan, that rest is only found there because Your will will be done; You will complete everything You've begun. Lord, may that result in living that, itself, is a hymn of worship to You. Thank you, in Jesus's name, Amen.
