This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome back to Day 5, our last day of looking through 1 Peter chapter 1. We're
going to look at verses 18 to 25 today as we continue to look at what it means
to have a different character because of your faith in Jesus Christ. Now, before
he talks more about character, Peter actually sort of takes an aside here for a
moment.

He does it for the second time in this chapter. He talks about salvation. He
returns to this theme of the salvation that we have in Christ because the
differences that he's talking about, they're all based on the salvation that we
have in Christ.

All our differences, all your differences are based on your salvation. And
here's Peter in verses 18 to 21 who had led so many to faith in Jesus telling us
about how you come to faith in Jesus. Here's the preacher that God used to bring
3,000 to faith on the day of Pentecost, the day the church was born, telling us
how to be saved.

Listen to what he says in verses 18 to 21. For you know that it was not with
perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty
way of life handed down to you by your forefathers. But with the precious blood
of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect, he was chosen before the creation
of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.

Through him you believe in God who raised him from the dead and glorified him.
And so your faith and hope are in God. Let's just walk through what Peter
teaches us here about how it is that you were saved, how it is that you can be
saved.

First he says you're redeemed from an empty way of life. Now your life, before
you came to know Christ or if you haven't yet come to know Christ, it might be a
sad life, it might be a happy life. But Peter here says it's an empty life
because it's not leading anywhere.

To be saved you have to admit that there is something huge missing in your life
without him. Pascal called this the God-shaped vacuum in all of our souls, at
the center of our souls. There's this huge empty place in me that can only be
filled by my relationship with God.

He says you're redeemed from this empty life. And then he says you're redeemed
not with perishable things. You can't buy your salvation.

To be saved you have to come to understand that you cannot earn it. This is one
of the biggest barriers to salvation, to relationship with Jesus in most
people's lives. You certainly obviously can't earn it by money.

There's a few people who think you could do that. I could give enough to the
church to somehow earn being saved. But that's a crazy enough thought that
there's very few people who think that.

But there are a lot of people who think that by the currency of their good
works, doing enough good things, having enough good thoughts, balancing the
scales, and maybe doing a little more good than bad in my life, or not being as
bad as this person over there, by the currency of my good works, somehow I can
earn it. If we could earn salvation by what we do, Jesus would not have needed
to come and die on the cross. He died on the cross to pay the price for the
things that I've done wrong.

And he died on the cross to give the gift of salvation in my life, in your life.
So it's not with perishable things, the things you can buy, the things you can
do. To be saved, you have to come to understand you can't earn it.

He says no, it's not with that, but it's with the precious blood of Christ. To
be saved, you trust the gift that was given to you when Jesus died on the cross.
And whether you're an 80-year-old philosopher when you come to Christ who trusts
him when they finally come to the end of themselves, or you're an 8-year-old who
simply sees Jesus loves me this I know.

You are trusting in the blood of Jesus Christ when you're saved. A philosopher
might understand it better than the child, but the truth is it's the blood of
Jesus that saves us. And Peter here says he is a lamb without blemish.

He's reminding us here that the entire Old Testament looked forward to the blood
of Jesus Christ being given for us, shed for us on the cross. The entire Old
Testament looked forward to the blood of Jesus. John the Baptist recognized
Jesus as the Lamb of God.

In the book of Revelation throughout this book we're going to be singing,
"Worthy is the Lamb for all eternity. " That's the significance of the fact that
Jesus gave his life, shed his blood for you, a perfect life given for you so
that in his perfection he could give you the gift of forgiveness. Now notice it
says here, "Chosen before the creation of the world to do this, revealed in
these last times for your sake, through whom you believe in God.

From before creation, God was looking forward to you come into faith, and Jesus
came for your sake so that you can believe in God. " If you've never trusted
him, you're not sure you trusted him for this salvation, trust him right now.
All of history has been looking forward to this moment.

All of eternity is going to be enjoyed by this moment. Pray right now and just
say, "Jesus Christ, I recognize that there is an empty place in my life without
you. And I recognize, I admit humbly, that I can't earn my salvation.

I need the gift that you've given me. So I ask for that gift, the gift you gave
by dying for me on the cross, that you sealed by being resurrected from the
dead. I ask for the gift of forgiveness, of new life, of eternal life.

I ask for that gift right now in Jesus' name, amen. " The moment you pray that
prayer, Jesus gives that gift. There's nothing else you need to do, nothing else
you need to say.

Now, to live out that gift, there are some character qualities that God wants to
be a part of your life. And Peter goes on to talk about those here, but I'd
recommend that if you just prayed that prayer and you think, "That's really the
first time I ever prayed a prayer like that," I'd recommend you tell someone
else about it. We're not meant to live the Christian life alone, we're meant to
live it in relationship and fellowship with other believers.

So find a friend who's a Christian, somebody in your family who's a Christian,
tell them about it. Now, Peter says, "Okay, there's our salvation, that's what
it's all based on. So let's look again at the difference that this makes in your
character, verses 22-25.

He says, "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you
have a sincere love for the brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.
For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable,
through the living and enduring word of God. For all men are like grass, and all
their glory is like the flowers of the field.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.
And this is the word that was preached to you. " So Peter here says, "You have
been purified by obeying the truth," and so live out this new character.

Now, when he talks about obeying the truth here, he's talking about the
obedience of trusting Christ for your salvation. You don't purify yourself by
your good works after being saved any more than you can purify yourself by your
good works before becoming saved. You purify yourself by obeying God and
trusting Jesus instead of yourself for salvation.

And then out of that purity, out of that decision, Peter says, "You love one
another. You love one another because you've been reborn by an enduring word, an
eternal word of God. You trust what's eternal in your life.

" And when you come to Christ, you are trusting what will last. You are trusting
what's eternal. If I go to the store to get some glue, and just a crazy
illustration, let's say there's three types of glue there, and one says
five-minute glue.

This glue will last for five minutes. The other says one-year glue, guaranteed
to last for one year. Another says 100-year glue, guaranteed to last for 100
years.

I'm going to get the 100-year glue. I'm going to get what lasts. And as Peter
quotes Isaiah 46-8 here and talks about the fact that we're like grass.

We wither. We're going to be gone. Our lives on this planet, they're just like a
breath.

They so quickly fade. He's saying don't depend on that which is fading to give
you eternal life or a holy character. Depend on that which will last.

And God's word, God's promises, they will last. So one of the questions I've
been asking myself this week is, am I going to be a man of the world or a man of
the word? One of the questions you need to ask yourself in daily life is, are
you going to be a man of the world or a man of the word?

Are you going to be a woman of the world or a woman of the word? The world
around us, there's some good things in it, and there's some things that God has
for you to do in this world, some wonderful things, but it's not where your hope
is. It's not what's going to endure.

It's the word of God that's going to endure. One of the key questions for your
character is, what are you trusting in? The good in this world or maybe you even
got caught up in the bad of this world to try to make you feel better in some
pain.

Are you trusting in the world around you? You're trusting in the word of God
that was preached to you, the word of salvation, the word of joy, the word of
peace, the word of grace. That's going to last.

That's not just the hundred year glue. That's the eternal life that only God can
give. Let's take a moment to thank him for that and to ask God to strengthen our
character today.

That based on your eternal word, you help us to live with a different character
today. Not one that reflects the world around us, but the kind of character that
reflects the hope that you've given us, the joy that you've given us, the life
that you've given us, the grace that you've given us, the salvation that you've
given us. Let us live with that kind of character today.

We need you to do that. We need your power to do that, and we ask for it right
now. In Jesus' name, Amen.

In Peter chapter 2, we're going to talk in that chapter about how we're a
different people with different relationships.