If you turn with me in God's Word to the epistle of 1 Peter, the epistle of 1 Peter, chapter 2, 1 Peter, chapter 2, and if you've found that, you can turn with me in the back of the Psalter hymnal to page number 44, in the back of the Psalter hymnal to question number 86, question number 86. I'll read the question and the answer, if you can just listen, and then we'll read God's Word together. So I'll first go through the catechism, and then we'll use that as our template for how we should understand what the Apostle Peter is saying to us in God's Word. So let us read from the Heidelberg Catechism, question number 86, which asks this. We have been delivered from our misery by God's grace alone through Christ and not because we have earned it. Why then must we still do good? And the answer is to be sure Christ has redeemed us by his blood, but we do good because Christ by his spirit is also renewing us to be like himself so that in all our living we may show that we are thankful to God for all He has done for us and so that He may be praised through us. And we do good that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits and so that by our godly living our neighbors may be won over to Christ. So that is the topic that we want to consider this evening. Why must we still do good? And for help in answering that question, let us turn to God's Word. 1 Peter chapter 2. We're going to begin at verse 1 and read through verse 12. And let us pay careful attention to this because this is God's own Word. 1 Peter 2, verse 1. Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk so that by it you may grow up in your salvation. Now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to Him, the living stone, rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him, you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says, See, I lay a stone in Zion. a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame. Now to you who believe this stone is precious, but to those who do not believe, the stone the builders rejected has become the capstone and a rock that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. They stumble because they disobey the message, which is also what they were destined for. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us. Thus far the reading of God's Word. May He bless it to us. Well, if you grow up or have studied the Heidelberg Catechism, you know that it's divided into three parts, guilt, grace, and gratitude. And this is, of course, the first question in the section on gratitude in the Catechism. The first section that asks the question, now what about gratitude? We understand grace, now why must we do good works? It's an interesting way to ask the question. The question is not, must we do good works? That's assumed. We must do good works. The catechism is asking the question, why? In another way, it's asking, what is the motivation for doing good works? I imagine we could take a trip back in time to Adam in the garden before the fall, when Adam was still walking with the Lord and had done all things that the Lord had required of him. And we were to ask Adam, Adam, why do you do good works? why do you do what the lord requires of you i think adam's answer would be pretty simple well i know that if i obey the lord i'll be blessed and if i disobey the lord i'll be cursed so i obey the lord so that he will reward me for my obedience and i obey the lord so that he does not punish me for disobedience but of course adam fell into sin he did not pursue righteousness he fell out of favor with the lord and the lord worked by his mighty hand another kind of salvation that relies not on the works of his people but on the work of christ the second adam come into the world who has perfectly obeyed done everything that the law requires has perfectly paid for all of our sins and so you can see the catechism is asking the question that comes up a lot when people are reduced to the reformed faith which is this why must i do good works then if jesus has done everything for me, if he has kept the law perfectly, if I don't have any judgment to fear because Jesus has kept it all, and I know that I can't earn any rewards because the best I can accomplish in this life is a filthy rag, then where's the motivation to do good works? Why must we still do good works? The catechism is seeking to answer that question to say there is a good reason, there are good motivations there's a good reason to understand why god still requires good works of his people that there are motivations for this and i think we see this in what peter writes to those who are scattered throughout the world about holiness that we must do good works before our god for three essential reasons because god is renewing us in christ's image that's why we must still do good works god is renewing us in christ's image and he's calling us to respond with thanks to this renewing work so we are being renewed in the image of christ we are called to respond with thanks to what god is doing and in that we reveal his glory this is why we must do good works and that's what we want to consider this evening that we are being renewed in the image of christ then we are to respond with thanks and that that response of thanks reveals His glory. And that's how we want to consider what we learned from this passage this evening. And so we want to see how are we being renewed in Christ's image. Peter here uses a lot of interesting imagery when he's talking about this and he really gets down to this business in verse 4. How are we being renewed in the image of Christ? Well, he starts by saying who was Christ in verse 4. He says, As you come to Him, the living stone, rejected by men, but chosen by God and precious to Him, you also like living stones. It's interesting there. Jesus is called the living stone. In the NIV, we have a capital S there. He is the living stone and we are being made like living stones. Jesus is a living stone and we are living stones. Peter is seeing that correspondence between who Jesus is and who we are. What God is doing to make us like Him. He was a living stone. We are living stones. Peter goes on to say that we are like living stones being built into a spiritual house. Now, what is a spiritual house? Well, you'd say that's a temple. A temple is a spiritual house. Remember when David is thinking about the fact that David has a palace and all the Lord has is a tent, David expresses a desire to build a house for the Lord. He wants to build a temple. He wants to build a spiritual house for God. That's how a temple is described, a spiritual house. And of course, God grants this request through his son Solomon to build up a spiritual house, To build a house for the Lord. That's what a spiritual house is. It's a temple. And of course, when Jesus came into the world, when Jesus was preaching and teaching, He referred to Himself as a temple. As the temple of God. Remember, He caused a lot of confusion when He was preaching and said, in John chapter 2, destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days. The people said, what are you talking about? That was a 46-year building project. What do you mean you're going to raise it up in three days? That took a long time to build. And John, helping us to understand this, says he was speaking of the temple of his body. That Jesus' body is described as a temple. And so Peter says, you are as living stones being built into a spiritual house. You're being built into a temple. You're being built into this temple as living stones, being built on the living stone. That we're told, again, reminded, we're being built into a spiritual house. He is that chosen and precious cornerstone, we're told in verse 6. He is that chosen and precious cornerstone. He is that living stone. A cornerstone was very important in ancient buildings. The cornerstone is what often bore the weight of the building and it set all the lines. So if you didn't have a good cornerstone, you were going to get crooked walls and you were going to get a building built on a weak foundation. The cornerstone often did two things. It carried the weight of the building and it made sure the lines are set straight. And so Peter is beautifully saying, Jesus is that chief cornerstone, that living stone on which we are being built as living stones. We are, in his image, being built into a spiritual house. Just as Jesus was, a spiritual house, a temple. We are being conformed to his image. And we're told that we are to be a holy priesthood. Again, we're reminded that Jesus was the great high priest. The high priest not in the order of Aaron, but in the order of Melchizedek, who was both a king and a priest. This is not just any old priesthood. This is a royal priesthood. We're told that later. And so here again, we are being conformed to the image of Christ. He is a living stone. We are being built on him as living stones. He was the temple. We are being built into a temple. He was the holy high priest, the royal high priest. We are being built into a holy priesthood and a royal priesthood by him. The Lord is conforming us to the image of Christ. He is renewing us in the image of Christ so that we too may be priests who serve as he served. That we may become a chosen race and a holy nation. Chosen and precious to God. That was the great promise that came to the people of God in Exodus chapter 19, where God said, Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples for all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. They were to be that kingdom of priests and the holy nation on the condition that they would obey his voice and keep his commands. And of course they fell far short but Christ came to fulfill what was lacking in the obedience of God's people to build us into those things and now it's wonderful Peter can say even though we could not live up to the requirements of the law even though we could not conform ourselves into the image of Christ. We do not keep God's law. We do not pursue these things. God in His grace is conforming us. He is renewing us after Christ's image so that we are becoming something we were not before. And then as if to make sure everyone understands that we're not just talking about trying to become something we're not, Peter reminds us that no, that's not how we should think about these things. We're not becoming something we're not. We're not trying to become Christians. We are Christians. And we are trying more and more to be conformed to the image of Christ. He doesn't want us to misunderstand these things. That's why he takes pains in verse 10 to say, Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. We do not try to put these things on in order to become something we're not. We have to start with the understanding that God has already changed us from what we were into what we are in Christ. That he begins that work by fundamentally changing us to make us what we were not before when we were sinners lost in sin and trespass and he has turned us into Christians. His people who had not received mercy at one point but now have received mercy who at one point were not a people. You're now a people. Peter wants to say while this change has happened there is also a progressive element to our sanctification where we are also marching forward. That we are becoming more and more what we are. So that God has changed us. We're not what we were, but we're not yet what we will be. God is still at work in us, sanctifying us by His Spirit, bringing us along, and to that renewing work we're called to respond with thanks and obedience. Peter, having laid the foundation, saying that it is God who is at work renewing you into His image, who has transferred you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, who have turned you into His people, His chosen people, His holy people, live like it. That's the simple message of what he is saying in this passage. You are a holy people, therefore respond by living like a holy people. Again, it's important we understand this passage is not asking us to become something we're not. It's asking us to act like what we are. Peter is saying we are a holy nation. We are a chosen people. We need to live like it. And we respond in thanksgiving to God by doing two things. By putting off the old and by putting on the new. But that's how God wants us to respond. So Peter establishing who we are, who we are in Christ, that we have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, that he has at work in us to conform us more and more to the image of his Son, then calls upon us to respond, to act in certain ways, to put off certain things, and to put on certain things. Oftentimes people who talk about Christianity in negative terms say it's all about not doing things. We gather here every Sunday to hear what you can't do. somehow we take some sick pleasure in that in just not doing things but that's not what Christianity is about it's about reminding us that without God's help we can't be anything but we are sinners lost in sin and trespass that we're doomed not to be free to do whatever we want but doomed to be slaves to sin and that it's only God who can save us from that slavery to sin and actually free us to do the things that pleases Him And so scripture is full of not just sayings that say, put that off, don't do that. But every time it says, put something off, it says, put something else on. And the things it's calling us to put off are always things that are deadly to us. And the things it's calling us to put on are always helpful to us. And so Peter is going to call this people, this people that includes us, to respond with thanks to the word of God. and how are we to respond with thanks? Well, he says there's something we need to put off. And that comes right in verse 1. What is it that God's people are to put off? We're told, therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. These are the things that we are to put off as a covenant community. Now, sometimes we see these lists in Scripture and we think, is this just a list of bad things? I mean, is there any rhyme or reason to it all? Why these things and not other things? Why is Peter hammering on these things here? But think about the kinds of sins he's talking about. Malice, ill-feeling to one another, deceit, deception towards one another, hypocrisy, pretending you're one thing and really being another, Envying, wanting something that someone else is. Slandering, removing someone's good name. I think Peter is highlighting these sins for us because these are all the kinds of sins that kill a community. These are all the kinds of sins that kill a community. I mean, imagine a completely dysfunctional church where the pastor hates the elders, has nothing but malice towards the elders, And the elders do nothing but deceive the deacons. And the deacons are all hypocrites. And the men in the church envy the deacons, and the women in the church slander the men. Now that's not a church you would want to join, and it's a church that would probably be very shortly closing its doors. Because if all of that was going on, you can't have a community where that is going on. You can't have a community that's full of malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all of these other things going on. It kills a community. It does not befit the people of God. And Peter is saying, you're a holy people. You're a chosen race. You need to put off these things that kill community. And we are guilty of these things. All of us. And these calls in Scripture for what we need to put off are calls to us, not calls to the people who sit three rows behind you. Oftentimes we're reminded by preachers that we hear sometimes these things, you need to put off malice. And you think, I know so-and-so who needs to put off malice. Or, yeah, envying, I know exactly who you're talking about. Slandering, it's too bad they're not here tonight. They always skip the second service. That's just the kind of people they are. You know, we think that way. And what are we doing? We're slandering them. And you don't have to go too long before you realize these are all sins that we commit. You sit through a long church service and you're harboring malice towards the pastor who just won't stop. And you walk up the aisle grumbling to yourself about the fact that he's kept you forever and the roast is drying out. And then you see him at the door and thank you, pastor, for bringing the word. That's malice and hypocrisy right there. It's not things that other people are doing. It's the things that we're doing. And while those might seem like small examples that bring smiles to our face, these are little things that continue to grow. These are little things that continue to fester until you get to the point where you don't even want to walk out the door where the pastor is because you don't want to shake his hand. Or you don't want to take communion from that elder because you can't stand them. And if you think I'm making this up or making these things extreme, I've seen both of these happen in churches. And these are things that can creep along and get worse and worse. And Peter says, we need to get rid of this. We need to get rid of these kinds of things that kill community. We need to put this off. We need to get rid of these things that tend to kill a community, and we need to put on the things that foster community, that heal a community, that make a community healthy. It's interesting because we'd expect Peter to say, now you need to put off malice, so what should you put on? Well, love. Put off deceit. And what should you put on? Truth. Put off envy. What should you put on? Contentment. We kind of expect another list like Paul does in Galatians when he tells those things that are of the flesh and those things that are of the spirit. One list opposed to another list. Interestingly, Peter doesn't do that. What is the remedy for these things? What is the thing that's to be put on instead of these wicked things? What are we to put on? Verse 2 says, Like newborn babies crave pure spiritual milk so that by it you may grow up in your salvation now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. Peter says, what is the remedy to this? It's put on a desire for the Word, that pure spiritual milk, and desire it like a newborn baby desires it. Now sometimes milk is used in the Bible to say you're immature, that you need to put off the milk and put on the solid food. You need to grow up. Sometimes the imagery is used there. That's not how Peter is using the imagery here. He's saying you need milk just like a baby needs milk. How much does a baby need milk? They need it to live. It's life-giving. Peter's saying that's what we need to be like. We need to recognize that the Word of God being preached in the community is like milk that feeds your soul. And if you want to grow up to salvation, if you want to be able to do these things that please the Lord, you need to be hearing the Word preached. That that is where God is working by His Spirit to build grace in our lives so that we can put off these things that destroy community and put on a longing for that Word that will cause us to grow up in our salvation. That's the wonderful truth that Peter is asserting and he wants these people to do that. Put off these bad things and put on a longing for that Word. It has a power to nourish your soul. Because if you're missing out on the Word being preached, you are starving your soul. Peter's saying it's like a baby that doesn't get its milk. It's starving. Peter's saying you combat those evil feelings by desiring the Word. That it's the Word that feeds you. It's the Word that nourishes you by the operation of the Spirit so that you grow in salvation. And this is hard work. This is not something that comes easily. Peter is not painting a rosy picture of an easy life for Christians because this is a lifelong struggle. And Peter will point that out in verse 11. That you are to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul. It's important for us to remember that sin is not just out there like a minefield. That if you walk carefully, you won't step on it. That if you're just careless, you'll wander into it. Sometimes that's how we think about sin. Sin is something you wander into carelessly because you didn't see it under your feet. That's not the picture Peter gives. He says sin is warring against you. It's coming for you. It's not like a landmine. It's like an opposing army that's coming for you. It's waging war against your soul, and it will wage war against your soul as long as you live in this world. As long as we are aliens and strangers in this world, sin will war against our souls. And we are called to do what is good so that we might bring glory to God. And we also have to understand that not only is it a lifelong struggle, not only is it a lifelong war, but the world will hate us because of it. When you do the things that please the Lord, people will hate you. People will slander you because of it. That's what Peter says in verse 12. Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. You hear that in the current political climate, right? Evangelical Christians are dangerous. They're dangerous to the country. They don't want to oppose all these kinds of ethics and morals and make people march along. They're dangerous. This is common today. It was common in Peter's time. There are Roman historians who talked about the Christians in no flattering terms. Tacitus said they were hated because of their vices. Christians were accused of murder and cannibalism because people didn't understand what was happening at the Lord's Supper. They heard that someone had been killed and that there was eating of body and blood and they thought some kind of weird cannibalism was going on. They were accused of incest because they called each other brother and sister and it seemed like people were marrying their brothers and sisters. So something nefarious must have been going on. They were accused of treason and atheism because they would not worship the Roman gods. And that was seen as an unpatriotic act. An act that only an unbeliever would engage in. not paying homage to the Roman gods. And one writer said they were a class of people animated by a novel and dangerous superstition. It doesn't matter if it's today in the news or back when Christianity was first started. People were slandering Christians because of what we do, the good things that we do in order to serve God. That's the life of a Christian. That's the life that we are called to. But one of the reasons that we persevere in this calling is because we know that in the end, we will actually serve to show God's glory by our good lives. That our lives will be cause for people to glorify God. Oftentimes when we think about what God has done for us, we recognize the fact that we can't do anything for Him that will come close to paying back what He has done for us. We can't even approach that. We can never live up to that. We can never do it. And even with all our thanksgiving, we realize we still fall far short of what God requires. And there's this wonderful promise here that Peter is giving you. You will seek to live this life that is pleasing to only God and is going to make you a source of hatred in the world. But when His glory is revealed on the day He visits us, Your good lives will be cause for him to receive glory. There are many things we'd like to give to God and can't in thanking him. But we can give him glory. This is something that we can do by our good works. We can give God glory. So that when he comes, people will glorify God because of our lives. Because they will see revealed in the light of his return that these were people who acted as a holy priesthood who offered themselves as holy sacrifices to him. Who in the world proclaimed the praises of him who brought them from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. That God will receive glory because of what we do. And so that should be motivation. There's a lot of things we'd love to give God and can't. We can give Him glory that will be revealed on that last day. So is there motivation to do good work? To think of how much God has done for us and how much we have to be thankful for and how much we can reveal His glory to our neighbor? There's much in the way of motive for us to do good works. God is pleased to reward us for the good we do even though it is Him that works in us. to will and to work he still rewards that work there is now no fear of punishment but there is all the reason in the world to praise our god who has done this marvelous work in us and as we seek to be people who more and more show forth god's glory in the world we should pray to god for grace that he might give us the strength to put off what is evil and to put on Christ. We should aim for perfection and when the struggles of this life get us down, we'd remember that this struggle will one day be over. That this desire to be perfect will be realized when Christ comes again. When that sanctifying work of the Spirit is brought to its completion, either when we go to be with God or when He returns to bring His people to Himself, we will be perfect. We will see Him as He is, God's Word says, and we will be like Him. Perfect, without spot or blemish. Isn't that an amazing promise? And so hold that out before your eyes. Remind yourself of that truth as we struggle in this life to war against sin, to put off the things that displease God and put on the things that make us more and more after the image of Christ. Remember that this struggle is not forever. And that that desire to be perfect will one day be realized in the Lord Jesus Christ. So pursue holiness. Seek to put it on, knowing that one day we will be perfectly clothed in the righteousness of God and take comfort in the fact that surely He is coming soon. Amen. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, we are confronted by difficult things in this Word that a lot is required of us to put off those things that displease You, to put on the things of Christ, to be more and more conformed to His image. We thank You that this work is not ours, that You are doing that work in us, that it is the Spirit who is at work giving us the will to do what is good, That the Spirit is providing the work for us to do what is good. We thank You that He bears the weight of this struggle. For Lord, if we had to do this in our own strength, not only constantly at war with the world, but at war with our own souls, how soon would we collapse under that struggle? We thank You that underneath us are the everlasting arms. Your powerful hand and outstretched arm holding us up, empowering us to do that which is pleasing to you. We pray that more and more we would respond with thanksgiving for what you are doing in our lives and what you have done. We might not despise the day of small things when it seems like yesterday was only slightly worse than today. But to realize that even that small advance in holiness, even that small advance in godliness, is proof that your Spirit is at work in us. For we could make no progress without your help. And we pray that our good works might be cause for you to be glorified, both now and when Christ returns. That our neighbors might see our good deeds and praise you, and maybe even see our good deeds and be won over to Christ. And that the good we do might be a sure testimony in our own hearts that because we could only do this with your power, you are at work within us. that you have made your dwelling with us. We need not doubt that we shall be saved, for the Spirit testifies that he holds us, that Christ holds us in the palm of his hand, that you, Father, hold us and will not let us go. We thank you for this salvation. We pray that we might be a people who respond in gratitude by glorifying you more and more. Help us to do this, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.