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 time 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 your hope are in God. Our Father, we long to know You more. Our Father, we long to honor You as You ought to be honored. Father, we ought to live as Your people. And so, would You help us now as we come to Your word? Father, instruct us, encourage us, spur us on that we might live as Your people. We pray it for Jesus' sake, in Whose name we pray. Amen. Well, I wonder, what it is that you fear most in this life? Perhaps something trivial, like clowns, like the dark, maybe a fear of heights, spiders and cockroaches. Or maybe you fear something more profound, like rejection, like failure, financial insecurity, losing control, maybe the fear of death itself. You see, the reality is that we are all influenced by fear in one way or another. And what we fear has an incredible ability to motivate us and to shape the way that we live. It influences our decisions, our priorities, our relationships. Fear has a way of influencing the things that we commit ourselves to for fear of consequence. We pursue things because we fear missing out. We remain silent because we so often fear the opinions of people. Fear is a powerful motivator. And so the question is not if we fear, but what it is that you fear most? Because whatever you fear most will inevitably influence and govern and impact how you live. Last time we looked at the book of 1 Peter together, we considered this call to prepare our minds for action in the pursuit of holiness. And so as we continue in this realm of considering what it looks like to live the Christian life as a pilgrim, as a refugee, as a someone who is passing through this world, we come to verse 17. And the central point that Peter is exhorting his readers to is this: that you and I live our lives in the fear of the Lord. That we might conduct ourselves in the fear of the Lord, knowing that what we fear most inevitably influences how we live. And so Peter gives us in this passage two motivations, two compelling reasons to fear God. The first reason is this: He calls us to fear God because of who He is. And the second is this: He calls us to fear God because of what He has done. Let's consider the first together this morning. Would you look there again with me? Keep your Bibles open. We'll look at verse 17. He says, "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." See, the first motivating reason Peter gives to conduct ourselves in the fear of the Lord is based upon who God is toward us. And He highlights that God relates to us as both a loving Father and a Judge. This is, there is so much loaded into the fact. We've sung of all of these reasons actually this morning. There is so much loaded into the fact that we call upon God as our Father. As we partake of the Lord's supper together, it is our Father Who calls us as an orphan, as a child who has nothing, Who invites us in to His glory. This mighty, holy, majestic, powerful being, the One who has spoke the world into existence and upholds it by the word of His power, the rock of ages, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the God of all history. This One has brought you in to a personal relationship with Himself. He has brought you in as a child into His family. He has called you His own. He has brought you in as a son, as a daughter. And we have the privilege of addressing the author of life itself as our Father. This is exactly what Jesus, what we see in the Lord's Prayer, isn't it? Jesus teaches His disciples to pray. He teaches them to come to the all-powerful God of the universe and address Him, calling upon Him, our Father in heaven. Now, depending on your experience with your earthly father, this idea of God as Father can be something hard for us to grasp given the brokenness of our worldly and earthly relationships. But the fact is that the fact that we call upon God as Father is one of the most sweet and the most comforting realities in the Christian life. He is a perfect loving Father Who tenderly cares for us as His children. Remember that He caused you to be born again. Do you remember that He has caused you to be born again to a living hope? And He has promised us an eternal inheritance that will not perish, spoil, or fade. He teaches us, He trains us, He disciplines us, all for our good and for His glory. And all of this is true. And yet, and yet, in the same breath, Peter reminds us that He is also our judge. We must hold God's fatherly disposition toward us with the fact, in tension with the fact that He is also our impartial judge. There is coming a day when our Father will hold everyone to account. Impartially, that is, He will, He will not give any special treatment. He will not give you any leniency dependent on your gender, on your ethnicity, on your country of origin or your family history or your financial status. There is no favoritism with God. There is no leniency with regard to His judgment. There is coming a day when all men and women, believers and unbelievers, will stand before their maker and face judgment. We should ask the question, judgment of what? As the passage says, judgment according to each one's deeds. Do you see it there in verse 17? Speaking to his disciples in Matthew 16, Jesus says, "For the Son of Man is going to come with His angels in the glory of His Father, and then He will repay each person according to what he has done." Paul echoes the same in 2 Corinthians 5 saying, "So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil." Each one of us will soon stand before the righteous judge and need to give an account for the actions, the decisions, the choices that we have made in this life. And our deeds, whether good or evil, will be laid bare. They will be tested, they will be tried and shown for what they are. And whatever was done in secret will be brought into the light. Whatever was done behind closed doors will be brought into the open. Nothing will remain hidden or concealed. All will be exposed. And of course, we are not saved or justified on the basis of our deeds, but nevertheless, we will stand before Christ and need to give an account. An account of how we lived and spoke and conducted ourselves in this life. And this is cause for reverent fear. A reverent fear. You see, there is a kind of fear that doesn't contradict confidence. Perhaps you can think about it like this: a confident driver has a healthy fear of having an accident that stops him from driving in a reckless kind of way. Do you see that? And in the same way, a genuine fear of judgment protects the believer from living as if our conduct and the way that we live doesn't matter. Yes, God is our Father, and as we've heard and sung about this morning, we experience all of the joys and blessings of His fatherly care toward us. But remember and be motivated by this, believer, His character is also that of an impartial judge. And the point is this: if you know that judgment is coming, if you know that your Father will soon pronounce judgment according to each one's deeds, ought we not conduct ourselves in a way in fear during this fleeting time as a pilgrim and a sojourner on this earth? If you lived in a surveillance state, perhaps somewhere like Singapore, where there are cameras and sensors that are watching your every public move, and if you knew that an impartial judge would soon review and take all of your public deeds into account, would you not walk in a way and conduct yourself in a way as the most upright of citizens in fear of the judgment that was coming? How much more, how much more ought we to have a right and reverent fear of our God Who judges impartially? And unlike an oppressive surveillance state who watches for its own ideas of justice, how much more ought we to live in reverent fear of the Father Who is the author of all justice and righteousness? If you're a believer here this morning and call upon God as Father, you have great cause to fear Him. But not a fear that leads to despair. No, it's a, it's a fear that leads to reverence. It's a kind of fear that a child has towards a loving father who desires what is good and best for his children. We ought to fear and respect our Father Who has called us to live His way for our good. And as children, we, we will grow, and as we live the Christian life, we see that our Father's discipline and His, His calling us to live His ways was never to harm us. It was never to, to hurt us, but it's that we might live our lives in a way that lead to life. Church, knowing God as both Father and Judge should foster a right, a right heart posture within us. One of reverence, one of humility, one of submission to the Lord. This is exactly what we see in the, in the wisdom literature, isn't it? As we read Proverbs, and it speaks in this way, it speaks of the fear of the Lord as the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is, is the beginning of all wisdom on how to live. Proverbs 9. And by the fear of the Lord, one turns away from evil. Proverbs 16. So the fear of the Lord is ultimately, it's a heart posture that is willing to submit to God's ways above our own ways. To walk in the fear of the Lord is to walk wisely, to walk humbly, submitting to God in all things. A true fear of the Lord is always demonstrated through obedience. And this only happens as we begin to appreciate who God is as both our Father and our Judge. Do you know something of His fatherly care towards you in your Christian experience? Do you know something of, of this awareness of Him as your judge, who will weigh all of your deeds, who you will need to give an account to? Does this cause you a reverent fear and does it motivate you to live in a way that is honoring and pleasing to Him? We ought to conduct ourselves with fear because of who God is as our Father and as our Judge. And the second reason Peter gives is because of what God has done. Do you look with me at verse 18? Verse 18, Peter says also, conduct yourselves with fear. Why? Verse 18, "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 time 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 your hope are in God." After witnessing plague after plague after plague, nine in total, the Israelites are instructed by the Lord. After seeing these plagues batter down the Egyptians, God tells the people of Israel to take a lamb, one for each household. And what they are to do, they are to take it, and at the designated and the appointed time, they are to kill the lamb at twilight. And each household would take some of the blood that was spilt from this lamb and paint it on the doorposts of each home. And as the wrath of God would come, it was promised that the wrath of God would pass over each of these houses because blood had already been shed. And in the morning, they are set free from Egypt. And after they cross through the Red Sea on dry ground, witnessing God's miraculous dividing of the Red Sea and the Red Sea comes crashing back over the Egyptians in judgment, standing there on the bank of the shore having witnessed all of these things, Exodus 14 tells us, "Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord. And they believed in the Lord and in His servant Moses." Psalm 76, likely meditating on this story, says, "At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both rider and horse lay stunned. But you, you are to be feared." See, it's as Israel see and observe the Lord's mighty act of salvation, it produces something in them. It drives them to a reverent fear of their God. It moves them and it not only drives them to the fear of the Lord, but this fear cultivates within them a heart posture and a motivation that they might walk in His ways. That's what we had read for us this morning in Deuteronomy 10, isn't it? Deuteronomy 10, Moses, having received the law and instruction from the Lord, says to the people of Israel, "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve Him, to serve your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and the statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good." Church, is this, is this true of us this morning? Having witnessed not only Israel's experience of God's mighty acts, but as you meditate on God's mighty acts in your own life, have you been driven to fear Him? Has it driven you to reverence? And has it, has that reverence driven you to live a life of obedience to Him in all wisdom for His glory and for our good? See, the particular aspect of God's mighty act that we should be focusing on and that Peter focuses our attention on in this passage is the ransom. The ransom, which simply is the price, the price that is paid to set a slave free. Therefore, to ransom someone is the act of a third party intervening. It's the act of a, of a rescuer coming to the aid of a slave, of all people. And this rescuer paying a price to purchase the slave's freedom. To pay a price to set the slave free. This is God's mighty act toward us, is it not? But if we have been set free, this really does beg the question for us, doesn't it? If the ransom is the price, then what is the price that was paid? How much? How much did it cost to pay for this ransom? What was the price of this ransom that Peter speaks of? Well, take the most precious and valuable and sought after materials of the ancient world: silver and gold, used for commerce, used for trade, the most highly esteemed and desired materials, refined by fire, they are rare and valuable and enduring, they are precious and treasured by all who might obtain them. And Peter says silver and gold, these are nothing. They are worthless. They are fleeting. They are of no consequence. They are of no value when compared to what God has paid to ransom you. Do you know what He paid for your freedom? You see it there in verse 19. It's the blood. It's the precious blood of Christ. A price of infinite value was paid to set us free from slavery. Jesus Christ, a sacrificial lamb without blemish or spot, having deserving nothing but honor and praise and worship at the appointed time, went willingly to the cross to lay down His life, to spill His blood for your freedom, to purchase us from slavery. The precious blood of Christ. The old 18th-century hymn places its finger on this truth as he wrote, "O precious, O precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus." And the preciousness and the value of this ransom only increases as we consider what it was that we have been ransomed from. What exactly were we set free from? What precisely had us enslaved in the first place? Peter tells us there in verse 18, he says, "You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers." Peter is writing predominantly to a, to a Gentile audience. And he would be very aware of the, of the secular Greco-Roman ways these believers would have learnt and would have grown up being taught, the ways of their forefathers that they would have inherited. The values and morals of the culture around them that they would have been taught. They would have been taught what success looks like, what family relationships were to look like, what happiness looked like, what they should desire, what they should celebrate, how they should spend their time and their money and their energy in the pursuit of their lives, enslaved, whether they realized it or not, to the governing ideologies inherited from their forefathers. Self-idolatrous, self-indulgent, comfort-seeking cultures, slaves to the passions and the lusts of their own hearts, spending their days seeking after the things of this world which could never satisfy them. Sounds a little bit like our culture today, doesn't it? But our Father, you see, our Father ransomed us. Ultimately setting us free from living in the fear of man and has liberated us to live in the fear of God. See, living in the fear of God looks like someone who conducts themselves as if God were the most important thing in their life, as preeminent, what God says, what God loves. A life dictated and shaped by His desires, His priorities, His concerns. A God-fearing man or woman lives their life controlled and governed by these things. And the opposite is true of those who live according to the fear of man, is it not? Those who live according to the ways inherited from their forefathers. A life governed and shaped by what man thinks, what man says, what man believes, what culture would say is acceptable and right, listening even to our own sinful hearts and desires. Friends, these are all aspects of the fear of man. In Galatians 1, Paul defends his God-fearing posture, and he says, "For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ." See, there is no middle ground here. We cannot serve and fear two masters, so to speak. We will either live in the fear of the Lord or we will live our days in the fear of man. And you can know which it is you live by if you ask yourself the question, "What are you more focused on pleasing?" Are you more focused on pleasing people? Conducting yourselves in a way that wins people's approval? In a way that is most influenced by the opinions of people? Or are you ultimately focused on living in a way that pleases your Heavenly Father? The One who redeemed you. The One who has purchased your salvation with the precious blood of His Son. As we live in a world filled with voices and opinions, do you feel flooded daily with competing ideas and views of how we ought to live? This is a real temptation for us to revert back to living in the fear of man rather than the fear of God. To concern ourselves more with what people think rather than what God thinks. To allow the opinions of our friends or our family, the opinions of authority figures on our phones, to speak louder and have more influence over our lives rather than what God has said. If you can imagine for a moment, if you can picture that your life were a performance being played out on a theater stage, and as you act out all the days of your life here on this earth, ask yourself the question, "Who do you picture sitting in the theater?" Do you see your friends? Your family? Your work colleagues? Perhaps your fiancé? How full is that theater? Or is it a theater of empty seats, bar one, your Heavenly Father? To conduct ourselves with reverent fear is to live for an audience of one. To live a life seeking to please Him alone. So as you stand on the other side of the Red Sea, having been set free from slavery in Egypt, having just witnessed the mighty saving acts of God, ransoming you to Himself, will you fear Him? As you remember Christ, the lamb of God without blemish or spot, whose blood was poured out for you, will you fear Him? And will you live and walk in His ways? As you remember the blood that caused you to become a believer in God, verse 20, placing your faith and your hope in Him alone, 21, will you fear Him? And will you live a life controlled by the love of Christ? This love so amazing, so divine, church, does it not demand our soul, our life, and our all? Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, "For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died. And He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who for their sake died and was raised." It's only as we begin to contemplate something of the price that was paid. It's only as we recognize and appreciate something of God's saving act of redemption in our lives that we begin to be motivated, that we begin to be spurred on to walk in reverent fear, knowing that God is both our, our loving Father, He's also our judge. And knowing something of the value that was paid to ransom us, to ransom us to Himself. If you're here this morning and you, you don't yet call upon God as your Father, if you have not yet submitted your life to Christ, this passage is a cause for great fear as well. However, it's not the fear that results in joy and worship. It's the terrifying fear of those under God's judgment. You must realize that God is an impartial judge. He will not sweep things under the carpet. He will not turn a blind eye. He will hold all to account on that final day for every deed done in the body, both good and evil. And what could be more evil than living for ourselves when He has paid the ultimate price to set us free? It's the picture that Tom described of a, of an orphan child being invited into the palace of the king, and yet they choose to live on the streets for themselves. And so if you do not call upon Him as Father, what hope do you have? Friend, how will you stand on that final day when you need to give an account? There is great cause for you to be filled with the terrifying fear of the Lord in His judgment. But my prayer this morning is, is that you would let that fear drive you to call upon Him as Father. That you would let that fear drive you to call out to Him. Call upon Him as Father Who has already paid your ransom and who invites you to come. Call upon Him as Father who became to become a son, to become a daughter of the King. You will still have cause for fear, but you will see that fear of terror and dread of His judgment turn to joyful obedience. He's invited you to live a life for His glory and for your good. Will you call upon Him this morning? Let me pray. Our Father, we, we long to, to know You more. Father, we long to fear You more. Father, we thank You that You have paid the ultimate price in Your Son. You did not spare His blood, but gave Him up that we might have life. Father, as we consider You as our Father and as our Judge, as we consider together Your mighty act of redemption, Father, cause us to walk in all Your ways, in all wisdom for Your glory and for our good. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Church, I'd love to invite you to stand, and we'll sing together, "I Will Glory in My Redeemer." As we do, I like to encourage you to meditate upon verses one and two that say, "I will glory in my Redeemer, Who crushed the power of sin and death, my only Savior from the holy judge, the lamb Who is my righteousness. I will glory in my Redeemer, my life He bought, my love He owns. I have no longing for another. I'm satisfied in Him alone." Let's sing together.