Shalom, everyone. Could you please open your Bibles to the first epistle of Peter, first letter that Peter wrote in chapter 1. And the reading for this ministry meeting will be from verse 13 to the end of the chapter. 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 13 to verse 25. And I'm reading: "Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Yeshua the Messiah, as obedient children, not fashioning yourself according to the former lusts in your ignorance. But as he which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.

Because it is written: Be ye holy, for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of person, judges according to every man's work, pass the time of your third journeying here in fear, for as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Mashiach, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last time for you, who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.

See ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently, being born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof fadeth away, by the word of the Lord and doeth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." This is the conclusion of the first chapter in the epistle of 1 Peter.

In the previous ministry meeting, we have dealt with verses 3 to 12, and we have been speaking about God's great salvation. Peter, of course, writing to first century Jewish believers who were persecuted, and there were suffering trials, not only by their nation historically, but later on by the Roman Empire who persecuted believers. He wrote to them about this great salvation. And we looked at this beautiful great salvation in three aspects. In verses 3, 4, and 5, this great salvation is looked to the future. There is an eternal salvation that has been given to the believer, and its future fulfillment will come to pass as we are eternally going to be with our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

In verses 6, 7, 8, and 9, he is looking at this great salvation from a present aspect of the salvation. Even though we suffer as believers, and they did suffer as believers, they have joy, unspeakable joy, because in spite of persecutions and suffering, they have this joy of this great salvation. They had it, they have enjoyed it, they were already redeemed. And he said to them, for the trial of your faith is much more precious than of gold. Through trials and persecutions and tribulation, the salvation that they had presently, those believers, they could enjoy it. They had hope and joy in our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. And then from verses 10 to 12, we looked in the great salvation from its past aspect.

The Hebrew prophets of old spoke about this great salvation which should come. And you remember what we read, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and such diligently. The Hebrew Israeli Jewish prophets of old prophesied about this salvation. They said they prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. So this great salvation, look from these three aspects, future, present, and past, is the salvation that they had. And it is the very salvation that you and I have today. And now the apostle Shimon Petos is now in these verses, the remaining of the first chapter, chapter one, he's really saying, since we are saved, since we have been redeemed by the precious blood of the Messiah, what kind of life are we to have as believers?

Should we carry on the way we used to live before we have been redeemed and forgiven? Should we, as we read in Romans 6, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Paul, Shaul said this to the Romans, well, Peter is now telling to these believers and to you and I that they must be a difference in our lives since we became believers in Yeshua the Messiah. So in these verses 13 to 25, we have three points that Shimon Petos present to these first century believers as well as to you and I. The first thing you notice as brothers and sisters, verse 13 to 16, he is telling those believers that they ought to be more like God in their lives.

They ought to be godly in their character because of what they just learned from the previous verses. Because of this great salvation, they ought to be more like God. You and I also ought to realize in our lives that we ought to be more characterized in our behavior like God, like our Lord Jesus the Messiah. The first thing he says, of course, here in verse 13, to think properly and discipline your mind. Notice that he says, verse 13. Wherefore, gird up the loyens of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah.

Notice he used this expression, gird up your loyens. Now remember, he is talking to Jewish believers. And because he is talking to Jewish believers, he reminded them of historically when Israel, our people of old, were in Egypt. And when Israel were in the land of Egypt and God was ready to deliver Israel out of bondage into liberty, from slavery into freedom. He told them, if you remember, he told them, if you remember, in Exodus chapter 12, and verse 11, it says: And thus shall ye eat it your loyens girded, your shoes on your feet, your staff in your hand. Ye shall eat it in haste. You have to have your loyens girded.

You know, in biblical time, the men of Israel and the Middle Eastern men used to wear these long gowns. It's like a dress for a lady, a woman today. In a long dress, all the way to their shoes, to their feet. And in order for them to move out of Egypt, all the way to the promised land, they had to lift up the garment that they had and to tie it, to gird it. In order that it would be easier for them to walk out of Egypt and to have this long journey in the wilderness on the way to the promised land. Peter, knowing that he's speaking to Hebrew believers, they know their history from the Pesach, from the Passover.

And he's telling them, you know, brethren, since this great salvation that Yeshua had provided for us, you now have to have your mind. And notice that verse 13, gird up the loyens of your mind, not the loyens of your skirts or your dresses or your garments, but the loyens of your mind. In other words, a believer has to have his mind focused on the Lord. You know, the mind is the avenue whereby all sorts of things creep into our lives. You see, why the devil is so much successful in defeating us practically on our day-by-day life is because he fills our mind with garbage. He fills our mind with things that are unclean and not healthy for us.

And we oftentimes, in our weakness, allow him to do so. And so what the apostle Peter is saying to them, you know what, you really need to gird up the loyens of your mind. To have your mind ready to be used by the Lord. To feed your mind with that which is healthy and good for you as you walk with the Lord. Notice he's telling them in verse 13 also to be sober. What is the opposite of being sober is being drunk. That is the opposite of being sober. That's why Ephesians, we read, be not drunk with wine where there is excess, but be filled with the Ruach HaKodesh, with the Holy Spirit of God.

And brothers and sisters, this is exactly what you and I, just like our older brethren in history, we need it as well to fill our mind, to make it ready, always to be occupied with that which is healthy, that which is spiritual, that which is of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. And to be sober. You know, when you see a person who is drunk on the streets and who is unsober, when you see those that are not able to control themselves, it looks terrible. Their behavior, we look at it and we say, oh, get up, you're drunk, don't talk to me right now, and so on.

They cannot make right decisions. They cannot make sound decisions. And so he's saying to them, you know what, verse 13, think properly, discipline your mind. Because of this great salvation that we have, discipline your mind, gird up the loins of your mind. And then he said, and be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus, the Messiah. Do you know, this revelation of Jesus, the Messiah, does not speak about the rapture of the church. It speaks about the second coming of the Mashiach, of the Messiah. He's going to be revealed one day. He's coming.

He came once to suffer. He's coming again to reign. And he's going to be revealed to this world one day. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess. But you, believers, he's saying to them, until he's coming, and he's coming soon, you make sure that your mind is girded. You are ready in your mind. Right thoughts. Right attitude. And that you are sober and not drunk or not clear. In other words, you be sober, thinking through in the light of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, and hope to the end for the grace that should be brought unto you, even the revelation of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, Yeshua HaMashiach.

So, he's coming, and when he's going to come, you see, these believers have anticipated the coming of the Messiah at their time. We are already 2,000 years later, and he's coming even sooner than what it was for them 2,000 years ago. So, he's telling them, you be more like God, therefore, gird up your mind, be sober, think right, because the Messiah is coming very, very soon. It's so nice to see a believer that is sound, that is sober, that has a head on his shoulder, thinking things through, occupied with the person of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah. Gracious, gentle, meek, humble, looking at the person of the Lord, learning from him, being sober, and his mind is sound in teaching.

They read the scripture, they're occupied with the person of the Lord, and you don't want to see Christians who are unsober, who are not girded up, their mind is not thinking through. Every wind of doctrine, they're running right and left and left and right, and they're not steady, continuing, pacing, a step at a time as they are walking with the Lord. When a believer is not sound in teaching, and is not clear on the things of the Lord, he or she will always wonder, never be steady in their progress in the things of the Lord. That's why he's encouraging those believers, that they will gird up the loins of your mind.

Whatever you think, think through, in the person of the Lord, through the Word of God. And be sober as you're moving along in your life of faith, because the Lord is coming very soon. The revelation of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. In verse 14, he's telling, not only be sober, not only make sure that you are properly having discipline of your mind. In verse 14, he says also, be obedient. You know, this is a struggle of our lives, is obedience. In fact, obedience have been the challenge that Adam and Eve had to face right there in the Gan Eden, in the Garden of Eden. It was there that sin entered in by disobedience.

Notice that in verse 14, as obedient children, not fashioning yourself according to the former lusts in your ignorance. You see, obedience is the key. Obedience is essential. Obedience where we have to our own shame to say, Lord, how many a time I disobeyed you in my life as a believer now. We are not talking about unbelievers. As believers, obedience is very important. And you notice he's saying there in that verse 14, as obedient children. Now we are part of a family, you see. We have entered into the family of God, a composition of all true believers in our Lord Jesus, the Messiah. We have a family now.

And in a family, what a joy a child gives their mom and dad when the girl or the boy are obeying their parents. And what a trial to the heart it gives the parents when the children are disobedient. Obedience is something that gives joy to God. It gives joy to parents. And it gives blessing to the children. You remember what we read in Scripture, in the law, in the Ten Commandments. The only commandment with a promise is, Children, obey your parents. Because this is the first commandment with a promise, that you may have a long life. Obedience is a delight of God to see in the life of each and every one of us.

And you know, there is one that gave God joy every day of his life in obedience to the Father. That was our blessed Lord, Yeshua, the Messiah. Think about that. From the time that he was born as a babe in a manger in Bethlehem, until the time that he cried that cry on the cross, My God, my God, why have thou forsaken me? You look at the history of this man, Yeshua, the Messiah, and you will see a history of obedience. We read in the Bible that he was obedient even unto death. And that is the death of the cross. One man, only one man, have totally obeyed the Father, fully obeyed God the Father.

The rest of us, we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But obedience gives pleasure to the Father, to God. And that's the area that we fail so much in our lives as believers. So, he's saying, and you notice that he's calling them obedient children. You see, they now became part of the assembly. Now, they are Jewish believers. There are other gentle believers who became part of the family of God. But now, they are to be obedient, because obedience brings pleasure to the Lord. You know, it says in Ephesians, chapter 2, speaking about the world and its ways where we came from.

It says, And ye have quickened us, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time passed. That's before we became believers. Ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the children of disobedience. Ephesians, chapter 2, and verse 2. See, the spirit, the demonic, satanic, worldly spirit that's working in unbelievers today. He's calling them children of disobedience. That's where we all came from, before we became believers in Yeshua, the Messiah. But now, he's saying to them, Be obedient. Do not be like the way you used to be, before you became a believer in Yeshua, the Messiah.

Don't fashion yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance. I think of some verses, Romans, chapter 12. The Apostle Paul said to the believers there at Rome, he said, I beseech you therefore, brethren, verse 1, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is good and acceptable, and the perfect will of God. You notice the mind is where all our thoughts, and that which creeps into our mind, which oftentimes causes us to dishonor the Lord.

So, obedience, not only to be more like God, well, think in your mind properly, be obedient to the Lord in your life, then, thirdly, in the passage in which we read, 1 Peter, chapter 1, in verse 15 and 16, recognize that God called you to be a separated person unto Him. I'm reading verse 15 and 16. But as He which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, be ye holy for I am holy. Remember, brothers and sisters, again, it is important to understand the scripture from its immediate context. The context is Shimon Petros, a Hebrew believer writing to his own Hebrew brethren, who were Jewish believers, who became believers in Yeshua, and they knew the Tanakh, the Old Testament.

And in the Tanakh, in the Torah, the first five books of Moses, God said to them in Leviticus chapter 11 and verse 44, Be ye holy for I am holy. Now, He said it to Israel. Now, Shimon Petros saying as to the believers of this present-day dispensation. There is no difference in every dispensation. God's people are called to be separated unto Him. God's people are to be devoted to the Lord, to serve Him and to live for Him. So, notice it says, But as He which hath called you is holy, so be holy in all manner of conversation. The Hebrew word for holy is the word kadosh.

Kadosh simply means to be set apart to God. God has been set apart. He is separated from sinners. Well, you and I also are to be set apart to God. When a Jewish marriage is occurring in Israel, when the man will take the ring and he is ready to place it on his wife's finger, he is saying to her, Betabat zu at mekudeshet li. He is saying, With this ring you are sanctified or set apart for me. That is what he is saying in the wedding itself. So, really what happened is when we became believers, God set us apart for Himself. He doesn't want us to be occupied with the world and its system.

He doesn't want us to be taken up by all that's going on here in this world, which unfortunately many times we find ourselves taken up by the world and its system. God says, Listen, I have called you to be my people. You are to be different than the rest of the nations of the world. He said to Israel and to us, He is saying the same thing to the believers in the church age. He says, I am holy. I have called you now to be set apart for me as the scripture saith, Be ye holy for I am holy. And the word holy does not mean that you are supposed to have a halo over the top of your head.

It is not so. You know, when a believer is walking with Yeshua the Messiah, you can see a brother or a sister who is set apart for God. You can see there is a difference. This brother, this sister are devoting themselves to the person of the Lord Jesus the Messiah. And there is a certain beauty in this. It is so attractive to see a brother or a sister devoting themselves to the Messiah. Now, I want to highlight that the word here in verse 15. Notice that it says the word called. The word called has to do with time. The word for knowledge had to do with eternity past.

For knowledge is God have elected us and he has chosen us in eternity past. But he called us in time. That word called, Peter used many times in his epistle. If you go to chapter 2, the second chapter, he is saying to them, He called them out of darkness in time, while he chosen them in eternity past. You notice that? Very interesting, that word called. Again, he is using the word called in time. In their lifetime, God called them unto salvation. But he has already chosen them in eternity past. These words are very interesting that he mentioned again and again in this epistle. Turn to chapter 3 for a moment in verse 9.

You notice there as well. Chapter 3 in verse 9. Not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing, but countrywise blessing. Knowing that ye are there unto called that ye should inherit blessing. Again, he used the word called in this epistle. There is one more time in chapter 5 of 1 Peter and verse 10. He is using again this expression called. But the God of all grace who has called us unto his eternal glory by Jesus the Messiah. Notice he uses at least 4 or 5 times this word called. And called here has to do in time. He has elected us in eternity past and he has called us here in time unto salvation.

So, now notice that in verse, and I'm back in our chapter, 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 15 and 16. He is using this expression, One more point I want to mention here before I'm going to move on. You notice he used that word, It is written. Now, if there would be Gentiles, non-Jewish people, They would say to him, Where, Peter, Shimon, where is it written? Because they wouldn't have the scripture. The scripture were given to the nation of Israel. And so, you could see that he's speaking to Jewish believers And he always makes reference to the Hebrew scripture, to the Tanakh. It is written. And reading this reminded me of what Yeshua did when Yeshua was tempted by Satan.

You remember he went to the wilderness? And Satan took Yeshua, our Messiah, to the desert. And in Matthew chapter 4, every time that Satan attacked the Messiah, Jesus, Yeshua came with a scripture. He always went back to the Hebrew word of God. He said when Satan tempted him, And he's coming and he says, Take these stones and make bread out of these stones. What Yeshua said to him in verse 4 of Matthew 4, It is written, Men shall not live by bread alone, But by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. In verse 7 again, Satan came and he told him to cast himself down.

And Yeshua answered him again on the basis of the word of God. It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. He used the scripture every time. In the next verses, A little later I should say, He said, Then Jesus said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan, For it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, And him only shalt thou sow. It is written. It is in the word of God. Do we believe the word of God? And if we believe the word of God, Do we appropriate it to our own hearts and our lives? To say the truth, We fail in that so much, We often time can appropriate it to somebody else, But not to ourselves.

And this is the area that he is telling those believers, Listen, You be more like God, Your mind should be thinking properly, Obedience is important in your life, And God called you to be set apart for the Lord. Back to 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 13 to 16, Be more like God, Peter say to those believers in light of this great salvation. Now secondly, In verse 17 to 21, He is bringing them to realize afresh That there was a price That one had to pay In order to redeem them, To bring them unto salvation. There was a price. See, This great salvation That God had provided Did not come just out of nothing.

There was a price that had to be paid. And so in those verses, 17, 18, 19, 20, And 21, Shimon Petro is telling them, And he is telling you and I, To be aware of the cost of our redemption. Let's follow these verses one by one. The first thing, He is saying here in verse 17, God the Father will examine our works And he will examine our lives. How do we live our life? He will discipline us now as his children, And he will also evaluate our works later on In the judgment seat of Christ, The judgment seat of the Messiah. Let me read this verse 17, And if ye call on the Father, Who without respect of person, Judge according to every man's work, Pass the time of your surjoining here with fear.

Notice he is calling them, If ye call on the Father, You know, When we became believers, We have now our God and our Father, The Father of our Lord Jesus, The Messiah become our Father. And we are like children of the Father. So as a Father view the life of his children, God as well views the life of every believer, Because we are the children of God, The children of the Father. So he is saying, Since ye call on the Father, Who without respect of person, Judges according to every man's work. You know what God the Father does? He reviews our life. He looks at us and he says, Well, here is where he failed, And here is where he or she have done the right thing.

He reviews our life here in this world. And as a father does so, Notice, Without respect of persons, There is no favoritism here. Because everyone is a child of the Father. A man, a woman, boy, girl, All of us who became believers in Yeshua the Messiah, We are children of the Father. So what does he do? He reviews it. And you notice he used the word in verse 17, Judges. The Greek here is K-R-I-N-O, Krino, Which has to do that God will have an opinion about our works. He knows everything that we do. And he looks at us and he asks, He challenges us. He says, That's the way, The right way that you have done things?

Is that the right way to speak? Is that the right way to manage your affairs? Is that the right way that you have behaved towards this brother or this sister? He's evaluating. He's judging. It's not judging in a sense of condemning us, But it is evaluating our lives. Because the father wants to have fruit in the life of his children. So he's saying, You know, Since you are calling on the father, He is going to evaluate your life. He says, Listen, Live your life, Pass the time here of your soul journey, With reverence, With fear. The fear here is not to be scared of God, But to have reverence and the fear of God.

The fear, The honor, The respect that God deserves in the life of the believer. Many verses come to my mind about the training. You know, A father that wants to see some fruit from the life of his children, He's not always successful, But the time of discipline sometimes comes. And sometimes he has to give them a discipline. And a discipline is not in order for them to feel bad, But it's because he wants to train them. He wants to discipline them. Sometimes the Lord brings into our life discipline. Not only the problem that we have because we have sinned. Not only the problem that we have because the world and Satan attack us.

But the problems that come into our lives Because the father disciplined us. And he trained us. You remember the writer to the Hebrews Who said in chapter 12, He's talking to the early Jewish believers, And he said to them, You know, Listen, Don't be discouraged because of the training of the father. You know, It says here in chapter 12, Verse 5 of Hebrews, Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as children. My son despise not the chastening of the Lord, Nor faint when you are rebuked of him, For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, And he scourges every son whom he received. You know, When God received us, He received us as children.

And as children, Sometimes he needs to discipline us when we are disobedient. So, He's evaluating our life. And when we are going wrong, He says, Eh, eh, eh, Watch it, Come this way, Because I will have to discipline you. And sometimes, Because we resist him, He disciplines us in view of restoration. So, Peter, In his passage, Reminding those believers, They have to realize that God, Whom we call him Father, He doesn't have any respect of persons. He evaluates our life, And he judges, And sometimes, He needs to correct us. And when he corrects, He's always in view of restoration. But there is another thing we have to realize, Brothers and sisters, That there is a coming a day, In which we are all going to have to appear before the judgment seat of the Messiah.

2 Corinthians 5. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. What's going to happen at the judgment seat of the Messiah? At the judgment seat of the Messiah, All what we have done in our lives, Going to be viewed before God, Before our Lord. And you're going to look at our history. And you're going to say, Well, How did we behave from the day that we have become believers, Until the day that the Lord took us to heaven? And everything that was done for the flesh, Will have to be burned and set aside. God will never enter anything to his presence, That which was dishonoring to him.

But you know what the beautiful thing about the judgment seat of Christ, Of the Messiah, That everything that we have done for Yeshua, For the Lord Jesus, Is going to be preserved, And we're going to be rewarded, For everything that we have done, For the pleasure of God. All that which we have done, That was not pleasing to him, Going to be burned and set aside. But whatever we have done for Yeshua, For Christ, For the Messiah, Going to remain. And God is going to reward us, For whatever we have done, For the pleasure of his son. And here, He is telling them, In verse 17, God will examine us now, But he will examine us later.

Now he will discipline us, Later on in the judgment seat of the Messiah, He will remove all the dross. And only that which will remain, Will be that which was done, For our Lord Jesus, The Messiah. Now he continues in verse 18, And he is saying to them, Look, Beloved brothers and sisters, Be aware, Of the cost of your redemption. Your behavior is very important, Because God will discipline you, And he will deal with you, But I want you, He is saying to them, To remember, That your redemption, Is not based upon any human merit, But there was a price, That had to be paid, In order to save you, To redeem you.

And one of the most precious verses, In the Bible, Is the verses that are ahead of us here, Verse 18 and 19, Look at this, Verse 18 says, For as much as ye know, That ye were not redeemed, That ye were not redeemed, With corruptible things, As silver and gold, From your vain conversations, Received by tradition, From your fathers, But with the precious, Blood of the Mashiach, As of a lamb, Without blemish, And without spot.

He is now, In those two verses, Reminding them, That the redemption, Was not based upon human merit, They did not gain, The redemption, They didn't buy it, They didn't earn it, They didn't pay for that, It was totally provided for them, The salvation that you and I have today, We didn't earn it, We didn't pay for that, And you notice that he says, Yes, You know, We ought to know that, That you were not redeemed, The word redeem here, Is the Hebrew word, Lifdot, Lifdot, To buy it back, Or it's liberated by payment, Or by ransom, In the Greek, It's called, Lutro'o, In Hebrew, It's pidayon, You haven't been redeemed, With corruptible things, As silver,

And gold, From your vain conversation, In other words, You didn't buy it with silver, You didn't buy it with gold, With money, Or your vain conversation, You know the word conversation, In the King James, Simply, Your vain manner of life, You haven't been so good, That God save you, On a basis of your goodness, It's not so, And you notice he adding, From your vain conversation, Received, Remember, There are Jewish people, Who are believers, Received by tradition, From your fathers, You see, These Jewish brethren, Have already experienced, So many traditions, Of our own fathers, And we, Who are Jewish, Know that very well, There are so many traditions, That we have grown up upon, My

father, And my grandfather, And our great grandfather, The traditions, That we have, Developed, Over the generation, Among our own people, Israel, Many traditions, You even probably, Watched the movie, Fiddler on the roof, You remember Fiddler, Tradition, He said, There's tradition, That's the way it is, There are traditions, Among our people, But we were not saved, Because of our tradition, You know, By the way, I am a believer, For enough years, To notice, That it's not only, Our Jewish people, Who have tradition, There are so many traditions, In a professing church today, That it is unbelievable, And all the human tradition, Whether it is, By the Gentile world, Or the Jewish world, Did not save us,

Couldn't save us, Not silver, Not gold, We were not redeemed, By all sort of human merit, A wealth, And power, And tradition, Not at all, We have been, And noticed that, And now he's moving, To this very precious verse, In verse 19, But with, The precious blood, Of Messiah, Of Mashiach, As of a lamb, Without blemish, And without spot, He's reminding, He's reminding those believers, That the price, Had to be paid, To save you, To forgive your sin, And your sins, Was not money, It was not power, It was not tradition, But somebody had to pay for that, And that payment, Only one could pay, And that is our blessed Lord, Yeshua, Jesus, The Messiah,

And the Bible say, The precious, Precious blood, Of the Messiah, You know, He is so precious, And his blood, Is precious, To God, Why, It's so precious, Because the only man, As I mentioned earlier, The only man, That lived a way, That is pleasing to God, From his birth, To his death, Was that man, Yeshua from Natseret, And his blood, He speaks of life, You remember Leviticus 17, 11, The life of the flesh, Is in the blood, So when Yeshua, Had shed, His blood on the altar, On the cross, His blood was precious, To the holy, And righteous God, And God found, Delight, In his willingness, To give his life, A ransom, For many, And

the Bible say, That he was a lamb, That was without blemish, And without spot, No one could find fault, In Jesus, There was no blemish, In him, And again, Brothers and sisters, It is important, To see the text, In light of its context, The context, Is Jewish believers, Reading that passage, From Shimon Petos, And they looking back, At their history, And they are remembering, Again, When their forefathers, Left Egypt, That the people of Israel, In the land of Mitzrayim, Egypt, Had to take a lamb, And the lamb, Had to be without blemish, Without spot, Because that lamb, Was a picture of this lamb, In the name of God, In the name of God, Our Lord

Jesus, The Messiah, And I want you to turn, For a moment, To Isaiah, With me, Isaiah, The 53rd chapter, Of Isaiah, We read, Prophetically, The prophets of old, Yeshaya, Yeshaya, Yeshaya, Yeshaya wrote, 700 years, Approximately, Before the Messiah came, And he spoke, About the Messiah, At his coming, And look what he says, Remember, He was a lamb, Without blemish, Without spot, He says, Who has believed our report, Chapter 53, And verse 1, And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

For he was growing up before him as a tender plant, And as a root out of a dry ground, He has no form, No comeliness, And when we see him, There is no beauty that we should desire him, And then he says, But he is despised and rejected of men, A man of sorrow, And acquainted with grief, And we hid as it were our faces from him, He was despised and we esteemed him not, But then he continued, Surely he has borne our griefs, And carried our sorrows, Yet we did esteem him stricken and smitten of God and afflicted, But he was wounded for our transgression, He was bruised for our iniquities, The chastisement of

our peace was upon him, And with his stripes we are healed, All we like sheep have gone astray, We have turned everyone to his own way, And the Lord laid upon him the iniquities of us all, He was oppressed, Listen to verse 7, Talking about the lamb, He was oppressed, And he was afflicted, Yet he opened not his mouth, He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before her shearer is dumb, So he opened not his mouth, He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who shall declare his generation, For he was cut off out of the land of the living, For the transgression of my people, Isaiah's people

are Israel, For the transgression of Israel, He was stricken, And he made his grave with the wicked, And with the rich in his death, Because he has done no violence, Neither was any deceit found in his mouth, Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise him, He has put him to grief, When you shall make his soul an offering for sin, He shall see his seed, And he shall prolong his day, Speak about his resurrection, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his head.

What a chapter, The 53rd chapter of the Yeshayahu, the Israel's prophet who spoke about the Messiah, Verse 19 here is taking us back to Isaiah 53, To Exodus chapter 12, Where it says, You were redeemed with the precious blood of the Messiah, As of a lamb without blemish and without spot. It was John the baptizer who said in John 1 29, Behold the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of this world. So, beloved brothers and sisters, In verses 18 and 19, We are to remember that our redemption had a price, Not silver and gold, Not tradition, Not human merit, But only on the basis of the precious blood of the Messiah.

And today, When we preach the message of the gospel, Can we say anything otherwise? What shall wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Yeshua. There is nothing that can save a person, Except through the precious, precious blood of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. And we have to be faithful in presenting this message today, To the world around us. Nothing can bring us to God, Except the life that was taken away from Yeshua, And his death and resurrection, The precious blood of the Messiah. Now notice in the next verses here, Verse 20, The believers to realize that the Messiah Was foreordained before the foundation of the world.

I love that passage here, Because it says in verse 20, After he spoke about the precious blood of the Messiah, He said, Who verily, This is the Lamb, Yeshua, Jesus, God's Son, The Messiah, He was verily foreordained, Before the foundation of the world, But was manifest in this time for you. Do you know, Brothers and sisters, That in the plan of God, We don't grasp it sufficiently, I must admit, And you must admit as well, That in the plan of God, Not only that we were chosen Before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1, Verses 3 and 4, But the Messiah, Jesus, Yeshua, The Son of God, When long before creation had been, God already in his plan, He foreknew, That in the fullness of time, The Messiah will have to come.

That God, The Son, Will take union humanity, And will ultimately go to the cross, To the tree, And he will die on the cross, And be a suitable way, Whereby a sinner can be saved. That's why he said, It was verily foreordained, Or foreknown, Before the foundation of the world, Underline the word before. Now remember, When you read Genesis 1 verse 1, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, That was long after, The Messiah, Jesus, Was already in the plan of God, To come to this world.

When you and I, As believers, Were already in the plan of God, He knew your name, He knew my name, He knew, Where are you going to be born to, Whose family are you going to be born, What age are you going to come to know, Yeshua the Messiah, Where are you going to be saved, And what message are you going to hear, In order to bring you into the person of the Lord Jesus, That everything was in the plan of God, Before the foundation of the world, And by the way, If you don't understand it, Or grasp it, Go check it with God, Don't argue with me, Or with anybody else, Go check it

with God, Tell God, I don't grasp it, I don't grasp it either, It is in the plan of God, And it's written in the word of God, It says here, In other words, God knew when the Messiah will be born, God knew when the Messiah will die, In the fullness of time, You notice that the Messiah didn't die, 6,000 years ago, Or 5,000 years ago, Or 4,000, Or 3,000 years ago, From our point of time, He died about 2,000 years ago, Like Paul said in Galatians 4, In verse 4, When the fullness of time come, God sent forth His Son, Made of the woman, Made under the law, Verse 5, To redeem them that were

under the law, That we might receive the adoptions of Son, God knew when, The Messiah will enter into humanity, And will go to the cross, And pay for the sin of this world, Realize, Verse 20, That the Messiah was foreordained, Before the foundation of the world, You read in Matthew chapter 25, When God speaks about Israel, In the future day, In verse 34, He is saying to them, The king said to them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my father, Inherit the kingdom prepared for you, From the foundation of the world, When it's come to the nation of Israel, The kingdom promised to Israel, Was prepared for Israel, From the foundation of the

world, When it's come to the church age, To the saints in the church age, They have been elected from before the foundation of the world, But in both cases, God, The father knew from eternity past, That he going to send him down to this world, From before the foundation of the world, He planned the death, Burial, And resurrection of the Messiah, Now quickly, Verse 21, He says, Realize that your faith and hope, Is based upon the resurrection of the Messiah, Notice, Who by him, This is by Jesus the Messiah, Do believe in God, That raised him up from the dead, And gave him glory, That your faith and hope, Might be in God, In verse

21, He is saying, Listen, Realize that the very fact, That you believe in God, Is based upon the finished work, Of the Messiah, You got saved, And you became redeemed, Because of the finished work of the Messiah, And now, As he says here, Your faith and hope in God, Based upon the resurrection, Of the Messiah, Notice how many times, The Bible teaching us, About the resurrection of the Messiah, You see, If the Lord Jesus, If the Son of God, Became a man, Yeshua HaMashiach, And went to the cross, And died, And remained in the grave, What hope we would have, We would be hopeless, Because he is in the grave, He is dead, But God

had been satisfied, With the work of Yeshua, And he had raised him, And that's why the Bible, Many times speaks about, The resurrection of the Messiah, You know right now, There is a man in the glory, His name is Yeshua, A man, Spirit, Soul, And body, A man, Is risen, Ascended, And seated, At the right hand of God the Father, And because this man, His name is Yeshua, You and I, As human race, Who are believers in him, We have a ground upon, Where God can say, Now I can give you, The same promise, That I, Am going to give you, Eternal life, And one day, I'm going to raise you, From the grave, And

I'm going to, Give you a glorified body, And I'm going to take you, To be with me, In glory, It is on the basis, Of the resurrection, First of all, Of our Lord Jesus, The Messiah, By him you believe in God, That he raised him from, Among the dead, And he gave, Him glory, God gave his son glory, The Messiah glory, That your faith and hope, Might be, In God, And that's our hope, Everything here, In this world, Ends, As for us, This world is only, We are passing through, Our hope, Is in the presence, Of the Lord, We are going to be, One day with him, Never anymore, To suffer, Never anymore, To dishonor

God, Never anymore, To live sinful way, In this world, Never anymore, To do so, To please God, And to be eternally, Blessed in his presence, He is right there, In glory, Awaiting the day, When all those, That trusted in him, Will be, With him, Now, Let's talk about, The remaining verses, Of the first chapter, Verses 22, 23, 24, And 25, This is the third thing, That Peter, Is pointing out, By way of presenting, The conduct, Of the believers, Here, Because of God's, Great salvation, Look, What he is saying now, Not only be, More like God, Not only be aware, Of the cost, Of the redemption, In verse 22, To 25, Be sensitive, In love, Towards

your brothers, And sisters, In verse 22, He says, Seeing, Ye have, Purified your souls, In obeying the truth, Through the spirit, Unto the unfeigned love, Of the brethren, See, That ye love one another, With a pure heart, Fervently, Now again, Those Jewish believers, Must, Just like you and I, Have the same problems, That you and I, Facing today, They were all saved, They all have the assurance, That they are going to heaven, They know that positionally, They are saints, But here and now, The problem is, How do we deal with each other, As one said, Or to dwell, With saints above, That will be glory, But how to dwell, With saints below, That's another story,

And the problem with us, Is how do we treat each other, It's another story, In heaven, There will not be one person, That will hate another, In heaven, There will be not one, Wrong, That we are going to do, To our brothers, Or our sisters, But here and now, It's totally another story, And you notice, In verse 22, He used the two Greek words, For love, He says, Seeing ye have purified, Your souls, In obeying the truth, Through the spirit, This is the Holy Spirit, And to unfeigned, Love of the brethren, That first word for love, Is the Greek word, Phileo, Come from the word, Philadelphia, That's where we get, The Philadelphia, The love of

the brethren, It is a family love, There is various, Greek word, That has to do, With the word love, In this case, In verse 22, It is, Brotherly love, The love of a relationship, After all, We are brethren, And we have a father in heaven, We have a head, The Lord, At the right hand of God, The father, And the body is here, We are all believers, And we are part of this company, That belong to the Lord, We are family, We might not look like a family, Some of us are tall, Other ones short, Some of us are white, Some of us are skinny, Some of us are light colored, Darker color, We are

all sort of backgrounds, And nations of this world, And yet we are brethren, We are Achim, We are brothers and sisters, In our Lord Yeshua, The Messiah, But important it is, That the spirit of God, Will stir us, To have unfeigned love, Of the Achim, Of the brethren, Unfeigned love, Of the brethren, He used the word, Phileo there, But then he continued, And he used the second word, For love, In the Greek, And he said, That ye love, Agapeo, Agapao, That ye love one another, With pure heart, Fervently, He used the second, Or another word for love, This is not a love, Of a relationship, This is an unconditional love, This is God's love, You

may call it, Unconditional, You know, When God, Had saved us, And set his love upon us, It was not because, There was something attractive, About you and I, In fact, We have been so unattractive, To God, We are far, From being attractive, Sin, Has separated us, From God, But God, Set his love upon us, Unconditional, Did not depend upon our, Look, And our performance, And our background, He loved us, And you notice this, Make sure he says, See, That ye love one another, With a pure heart, Fervently, Unconditionally, That's very hard, Brothers and sisters, This is really, What you call, God's love, The divine, Unconditional love, That we need, To practice, That's why he says,

See, That you do it, Practice this, See that you be successful, In treating each other, It's not a matter of like, Only hugs and kisses, Though I love to do so myself, But it's not this, It is, Simply giving in, Don't take the number one, All the time, Don't think you're always right, Years ago, One asked the question, What do I do, If I go to a church meeting, Or to a congregational meeting, And there is a person there, That I cannot stand, You find this kind of situation, Sometimes exists, I cannot stand one, And the other cannot stand me, So what do you do, You stop going to the meeting, You stop going to

the meeting, That's not right, What do you do, You hate the brother, Or the sister, That's wrong, So the answer is, Don't take number one, Make sure, That you give room, For that particular brother, Or sister, Give in, Don't have your own way, Don't force your own will, Be willing to say, I'm going to give in, By doing that, You are not seeking your own will, And your own ways, And you are willing to give a person, His own, Let him or her be the first one, I don't have to be the first one, That is how he answered, This question was asked, So again, In this verse 22, The agapeo, Or agapao, It has

to do with, Unconditional love, The phileo, It's a brotherly love, In which we are, To love one another, Now, Please turn with me, To the epistle of John, 1st John chapter 4, In verse 7, Beloved, Let us love one another, For love is of God, And every one that loveth, Is born of God, And he knoweth God, He that loveth not, Knoweth not God, For God is love, In this verse manifested, The love of God towards us, Because that God sent, His only begotten Son, Into the world, That we might live through him, Here in his love, Not that we loved God, But that he loved us, And he sent his Son, To be the

propitiation, For our sins, Verse 11, Beloved, If God loved us, We ought to love, One another, Notice verse 20 and 21, Of the very same chapter, If a man say, I love God, And he hates his brother, And I say, Or his sister, He is a liar, For he that loveth not, For he that loveth not, His brother or sister, Whom he has seen, How can he love God, Whom he has not seen?

And this commandment, We have from him, That he who loveth God, Love his brother, Or his sister also. This is amazing. How can we say, That we love God, And hate a brother, Or a sister?

That is a challenging thing, For us, On a practical way, Beloved brothers and sisters, So back to 1 Peter, Chapter 1, Verse 22, See that you have love, One towards another, And then he says, In verse 23, Remember that you were born again, Not of corruptible seed, But of incorruptible seed, By the word of God, Being born again, Verse 23, Not of corruptible seed, But of incorruptible, This is the seed, By the word of God, Which liveth and abideth forever, In other words, The seed, That had been placed, In our conscience, The seed, It is the word of God, That had been placed, By the power, Of the Holy Spirit of God, Matured, If you

will, Grew, And gave us new life, We became born, From above, Born again, New life, New birth, That which is born, Of the flesh, Is flesh, Yeshua said to Nicodemus, That which is born, Of the spirit, Is spirit, You know, You and I, Have new life now, And we ought to, Seek, With the help of the Lord, To live, In the power, The spirit of God, This new life, Not in the old way, Not in the flesh, Because eventually, It's not going to be honoring, To the Lord, The closing remarks, Of this chapter, Is found in verse 24, And 25, The flesh ultimately, Will be withered, But the word of God, Will endure forever, For

all flesh, Is as grass, And all the glory of man, Is as the flower of grass, The grass withereth, And the flower, The wrath, Fadeth away, But the word of the Lord, Endueth forever, And this is the word, Which by the gospel, Is preached, Unto you, See, All flesh, All the glory, You know, When we sometimes, Not behaving right, And we exalt our flesh, We have to realize, As it says here, All the flesh is like grass, Like weeds, And all the glory of man, Is like the flower of grass, In other words, All what we gain in glory, And power, And so on, Ultimately, Going to have its end here, In this world, And

the apostle Peter, Said to them, The grass withering, And the flower thereof, Is going to fade away, But the word of the Lord, That which is done, Through the word of God, Through the power of the spirit of God, Is going to endure, And remain forever, He is by the way, Again, Just like in the past, He is quoting, The prophet Isaiah, He is quoting Isaiah chapter, And verse 6, 7, 8, Which was, Speaking about the fact, That the Messiah will come one day, And all, The glory of the human race, Of the flesh, Going to have to be, Fading away, But, The word of the Lord, Endueth forever, And by this word, The gospel,

He has been preached, Unto us, You know, You and I heard the gospel message, Somebody came to us, He opened the Bible, He gave us a text from the Bible, And he trusted, That the spirit of God, Will appropriate it to our hearts, And that's how we came to faith, In the Lord Jesus the Messiah, And that's what happened, And that's why he's saying, This is the gospel, This is how the gospel, Has been preached unto you, Faith comes by him, Romans 10, 17, Hearing by the word of God, And so, Brothers and sisters, These verses, In verses 13 to 25, Believers conduct, Are to be different, In the light of this great salvation, That

had been provided, For us, Through our Lord, Jesus the Messiah,