1 Peter 1:1 I. Election in its source: "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." II. Election in its means: "elect through sanctification of the Spirit." (1) Election first shows itself in a man's separation from the world, which lieth in wickedness. (2) But more than separation fr... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 1:2 Who would take happy views of religion, whoever would have full assurance of his own salvation, must be accustomed to look for his evidences, not in himself, nor in any abstract truth, but in the character, and the work, and the person of God. In this respect, the doctrine of the blesse... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 1:3 To the question, What has the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead done for us Christians? a great many answers may be given. I. Of these the answer which is, perhaps, of the first importance, the answer which Christ's own Apostles would have given, is this: that by rising from th... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 1:3 The Lively Hope. I. Whence does it spring? Hope is popularly defined to be the expectation of future good; but, to render the definition complete, the good should be an object which the mind affects and which the heart desires. It has been implanted in the breast of universal man, and i... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 1:3 The Heavenly Inheritance. I. The greatness of God's mercy is to be seen in the great number of the saved. II. The greatness of God's mercy is to be seen in the great change which takes place in the great multitude. III. The greatness of God's mercy is to be seen in the greatness of t... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 1:6 The Theology of Suffering. I. Temptations or trials reveal faith. (1) Trials, on the one hand, show us the evil that is in us. (2) Afflictions further serve to evoke our good, to lead forth into visibility the faith, the hope, and the charity God, in His loving-kindness, has infused in... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 1:8 Love a Way to Faith. I. Love to Christ is the usual way to faith, both to belief in His reality and trust in Him. Of course I do not question that men may attain to faith through investigation. Inquiry and search cannot be otherwise than favourable to faith; what I mean is this: that f... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 1:8 Salvation: its Subjective Elements. I. Faith. (1) Faith is the first Christian grace; (2) faith is a personal trust in a personal Saviour; (3) faith is trust in an invisible Saviour. II. Love. (1) Love is one essential element of the Christian religion; (2) Christ claims and gets our... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 1:10 I. The prophets are an example to us in the study of salvation (1) in the intention of their study; (2) in the subject of their study; (3) in the noble spirit of resignation they evinced in presence of intellectual difficulties which they were not able to surmount. II. The Apostles ar... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 1:11 The Suffering which Fruits in Glory. I. The sufferings of Christ. From what source did they spring? What was their deepest and most essential characteristic? There will be many answers. (1) They were vicarious; (2) they were extreme; (3) they were unmerited; (4) they were according to... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 1:12 Advent Tidings. Our text speaks of angel students, and it speaks of them as being engaged in their eager and, if I may use the word of such high, and blessed, and holy intelligences, in their curious, research; for in the original the term which is translated "desire to look into" con... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 1:13 Hope. I. Christian hope, as St. Peter tells us, is seated in God. It is, as it has been called, one of the triad of virtues specifically theological. It takes its stand on Divine revelation; it looks on to the attainment of Divine promises; it draws its life-blood from no mere surmise... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 1:14 Holiness. I. Holiness in the heart, or as it works its way down to the depth of our nature. (1) In their unregenerate state men always fashion themselves after the pattern of their lusts or inward sinful desires; (2) the power of evil, though not expelled, is dethroned in the believer... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 1:16 God's Holiness and Man's. I. The nature of God is the foundation of moral obligation. When we travel in thought to the cause and origin of all things, we perpetually fall back on God as the only solution of the mystery of the universe. In God's nature we find all moral principles, jus... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 1:17 We collect from the language of the New Testament that fear formed a greater part of the state of mind in which the first disciples of Christ lived than it does now. Persons are described as being in a permanent and habitual state of mind which is called fear. It is not, of course, tha... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 1:17 Fear of Judgment to Come and of Redemption Accomplished. Note: I. The sphere and operation of Christian fear. There are some to whom the importance attached to fear in this place and elsewhere seems in contradiction to the teaching of the Apostle John, who speaks of fear as being cast... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 1:18 The Ransom. Note: I. The foreordination of the sacrifice. II. The preciousness of the sacrifice. III. The efficiency of the sacrifice in accomplishing its twofold object (1) in satisfying Divine justice, for "God raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory"; (2) in effecting th... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 1:22 Christian Love. I. Purity: "Love one another with a pure heart fervently." (1) The word for purified in this verse is not that denoting the infusion of virtue, but that which signifies the expulsion from the soul of all defilement, and especially of selfishness. (2) The way to secure... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 1:23 The New Birth. I. Man's inner and nobler life is not like his outer life, a life carried on in many of its most important functions unknown to himself. That lower life has its youth and its age, its vigour and its infirmity, its ruddy cheek and its grey hair, independently of him who l... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Peter 1:24 The Frailty of Man. "For all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass." Disease is a democrat, like death. It makes no distinctions, and equalises all ranks in society, as the grave levels all mankind. For disease is no respecter of persons. It does not mind Cos... [ Continue Reading ]