Living before God Our Father

Coming up next on Renewing Your Mind. Christians are called over and over again in sacred Scripture not to park their minds in the parking lot when they enter into church but to awaken their minds that they may think clearly and think deeply about the things of God are those of the church to say that to Christianity is a religion of the heart of the modern see if we emphasize the mind too much. We get a cold, rational religion instead of a warm faith today on Renewing Your Mind, Dr. RC Sproul takes us to first Peter chapter 1 shows that we can't really love something we don't understand sure that by now. Those of you who have been regularly attending the Sunday evening service are tired of hearing me labor the point of the importance of noting the presence of the word therefore whenever we made it in the biblical text. It's important because the word therefore signals a conclusion that is about to be reached based upon the previous premises or argument that has been set forth so that tonight when we look at the. Therefore we understand where Peter was coming from, directing us to this conclusion and we remember that last week we were looking at the exposition of our salvation that includes a precious inheritance that has been laid up for us in heaven as the adopted children of God, and in light of this marvelous salvation that is been prepared for us. Now we come to the conclusion that is to be drawn from that. So Peter says therefore gird up the loins of your minds, which is somewhat strange because usually when the people of the first century heard a call to gird up their loins. They were not thinking in terms of a mental activity or a mental process. The whole metaphor is based upon the customary garments of first century people who tended to wear long flowing robes, both men and women and even soldiers commonly would be adorned with these long, flowing robes, but when it came time to go into battle they would not be able to move with any agility if the ropes remained long and flowing.

They couldn't run very well dressed like that without tripping all over themselves and so before they went into battle they girded up there robes. It's them up and then put a belt around them.

After the flowing robe was it stop above the knee and the reason for that.

Obviously it is that they could now have their legs free to run to enter into battle to be involved in action so that simple metaphor drawn from the common experience of men who had to hike up there robes in order to enter into action is now directed not for the speed or action of our legs, but in this case, Peter says, gird up the loins of your mind, that is to say, prepare your minds for deep thinking.

I pause at this point because we are living in a period of church history, which may be the period of the most mindless variety of Christianity ever. I've said before that I believe were living in the most anti-intellectual.

Of Christian history. I don't mean the most anti-scientific or anti-technological or even anti-educational, but rather anti-mind. I had to correct my students and in the seminary classroom and I would ask them a question, I'd say Mr. Johnson what you think about this proposition and Mr. Johnson would respondent say will I feel that that statement to this is incorrect when have to stop them and say Mr. Johnson I didn't ask you how you felt. I wasn't inquiring into your emotional response.

I was asking you what you think about it because thinking is something that is done by the mind and Christians are called over and over again in sacred Scripture not to park their minds in the parking lot when they enter into church but to awaken their minds that they may think clearly and think deeply about the things of God and I can sense that some people when I save that which they will.

God doesn't care about the mind what God cares about is the heart Christianity is a religion of the heart, not of the mind emphasis on the mind leads us into rationalism, and from there in the Modernism and the postmodernism and all the other isms that stand in antithesis to biblical Christianity. It is true, dear friends, that what you think in your minds, in and of itself will never get you into the kingdom of God until what you think about and what you understand reaches the heart by way of been so built by God in our constituent nature as human beings that the pathway to the heart is through the mind. You really can't love with passion that which you know nothing about and the book that contains the sacred revelation of Almighty God. His word is addressed in the first instance to your mind to your understanding so that the more you understand the truth of God, the more you will be gripped by it in your hearts and changed by and so the admonition here's is very clear. Isn't gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, that is to say, do not be intoxicated with mind numbing drugs but rather for the mind to function with clarity. This must function in a state of sobriety. So we are called to be sober. And Peter says, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Again, I told you before that the biblical word for hope is different from our normal English usage of the term in English.

When we say that we hope something will happen. We are expressing our desires for particular outcome of things in this world, but in the biblical usage of it. Hope is not an uncertainty but it is a certainty. That's why it's called the anchor of the soul. That which brings stability to us. It is faith looking to the future with the full assurance that God will do what he promises he will do so. Peter reminds us of that.

And he tells us where we are to put our hope.

We are to rest. Our hope fully. He says upon the grace of God because that's where our hope really finds its anchor that shipper is more by grace and in grace and to grace we can be confident of our future with God because our future even as our present condition rests fully, not on our righteousness, not on God's justice, but on his grace, which by definition is something that we do not and cannot deserve and so we need to think about these things soberly that her mind might come into action and realize that are resting places on the grace that is being brought to you and will in its final manifestation be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, which is Peter's way of directing our thought to what the church calls her blessed hope, the final appearance of Jesus in his return at the end of the age when he comes in glory manifests his Majesty for every eye to see. And so Peter says, think about that think clearly about that.

Let your minds activity rest upon the confidence of that future promise; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance, not already in just the first few passages of the first letter of Peter, I have indicated passages that have great similarity to themes that are expounded by Paul in his epistles, and even in the epistle that we just spent so many months studying mainly the epistle of Romans here Peter talks about not being conformed. We remember that when Paul finished his exposition of the doctrines of grace and of those things that attend the gospel. His conclusion in Romans 12 was therefore, my beloved brethren present yourselves as a living sacrifice, which is holy and acceptable to God which is your reasonable service.

And then he added to that, the admonition be not conformed to this world but be transformed and how that he indicate that transformation would be accomplished by the renewing of your feelings by the renewing of your mind. And so the apostle saw our sanctification as taking place. Once we achieved a new mind, a mind whose mindset was different from the mindset of this world.

It was a mindset of non-conformity, and Peter is really saying the same thing that Paul said in Romans 12 here in the first chapter of Peter.

I may just direct you to another passage in the teaching of the apostle Paul over this same idea is in view. In chapter 2 of Paul's letter to the Ephesians. The first verse he reads this and you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the year, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others here when the apostle speaks of our resurrection from spiritual death whereby we are born again by the power of the Holy Ghost. The apostle says that that resurrection from spiritual death happened while we were dead in trespasses and sins. Listen again in which you once walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the year, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once conducted ourselves fulfilling the desires of the flesh because we were at that time.

By nature children of wrath, just like everybody else who see the famous common here in Romans 12 Ephesians 2 in first Peter is the theme of nonconformity to the patterns and the customs of fallen humanity.

We are to be non-conformists know that nonconformity can be sought and achieved in a very super official way the nonconformity that we are called to practice is an ethical nonconformity that we are to practice and ethic that is the ethic of God rather than the ethic of this world that used to teach ethics in the seminarian. One of the lectures that I would given every course of that was the problem that we face now and what I call statistical morality where the distinction between ethics and morals has been obscured and blurred in our day, so that people use the term morals and ethics interchangeably, as if they were synonyms. Historically, those two words were not understood to be synonyms, but had a vastly different meaning. The term morals comes from the concept of morays which is a descriptive term were sociologists and historians may examine the behavioral patterns of a given culture and describe how people actually act that is the mores of a given society. The study of ethics.

However, is the study of normative principles of behavior which tells us how people should be a but you know and I know and certainly the Bible knows that there is a great chasm between how we ought to behave and how we in fact do BA but here's what happens.

The psychologists observe human behavior and they see what people are doing and they say that 90% of young people are involved in premarital sexual action, and since such a high percentage of them do this we say that it's therefore normal human behavior, and if it's normal. It is a short step from that the saying it's normative because it's good to be normal and to deviate from the normal is to fall into the ditch of abnormality and God forbid that we should be considered abnormal. On the one hand you have the sociologists and the psychologist telling you that it is perfectly normal and common for people in their teenage years.

Under the pressures of erotic propaganda for them to fall into these patterns of behavior and that's fine because it's normal the other hand, you hear the Bible say don't let fornication even once be named among you, as befitting sex. The oldest argument in the world for defending behavior is the argument everybody else is doing God is a Carrabelle system. God knows where that also is the he's concerned about where doing and so he tells us not to be conformed to those patterns to resist conformity to those patterns that before God has raised us from the dead spiritually just like everybody else. We walked according to the course of this world.

We walked according to the prince of the power of the year, the spirit who even now works in the sons of disobedience. But here Peter is making a sharp contrast between the sons of disobedience and the children of God, my beloved, if it is that you are in Christ.

The only way you can be in Christ is if God the Holy Spirit has regenerated you again.

I've said many many times that the term born-again Christian is a red redundancy. You can't be a Christian without being reborn and if you are reborn by God the Holy Spirit. You can't be anything else but a Christian, so that it's a redundancy and if you are a Christian. That means that you have been born anew by the power of the Holy Spirit and what does that mean that means that your constituent nature as a human being is been changed by God and having been changed by God. He expects our behavior to manifest. That change the way ought no longer be conformed to this world but rather we are called from the day of our rebirth to the end of our pilgrimage in this world to go through this process of constant sanctification where we are gaining the mind of Christ and showing our love for him by keeping his commandments, prepare your minds for action miracle to reject any conformity to this world centric straightforward message but it can be a challenge to live it out faithfully. That's why studying God's word is so important, and that's been our emphasis all week here on Renewing Your Mind. Each day we been sharing sermons from Dr. RC scroll out today from a series that he preach from first and second Peter and we encourage you to keep studying.

We like for you to have the hardbound addition of Dr. scroll's commentary on Peter's letters just provide a donation of any amount to leader ministries and we will send it to you.

You can reach us by phone at 800-435-4343 could also give your gift online@renewingyourmind.org but what you will be able to request this book for a donation of any amount after today, so I hope you'll contact us soon. The Bible informs us as Christians that we had been crucified with Christ and baptized into Christ. What does that mean what does it look like will find out next week as we feature Dr. Sinclair Ferguson's teaching series union with Christ is beginning Monday here on Renewing Your Mind