Welcome back.
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Dr. Shepherd,
you were saying that
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grace must have a
practical implication
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of a saving
relationship with Christ.
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Right, in other words, our life,
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a saving
relationship with Christ
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must show itself in
actions towards other people.
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People who are saved by
grace need to be really the--
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the most loving,
kind people in the world.
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It starts really
with our families.
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You can think of this,
if--if our children see us
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acting one way in church
and a different way at home,
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that's not gonna
sit well with them.
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They're not gonna understand.
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They're gonna
think we're hypocrites.
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And so our
experience must show itself,
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our love for
Christ must show itself
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and love to other people
and kindness towards others.
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And why the
focus on good behavior?
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This becomes quite a
theme throughout the book.
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He--over and over again he
emphasizes this good behavior
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and staying
away from bad things,
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doing the right things.
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And there are kind
of two prongs to this.
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One prong is that you,
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you know, stay
away from the evil
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that the old
path has taken you--
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would take you down, you know.
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You--you stay away
from those kind of things.
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The other concept
though is actually that
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you attract
people to Christian faith
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by living this
gracious life in front of them.
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You put them to shame.
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You silence the fools who
are trying to make you look bad.
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So this kind of a
two pronged approach
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to this good behavior
kind of emphasis of the book.
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Well, shall we continue?
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Last time we left
up-- we left off on--
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we finished off verse 25.
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Yeah, we still have to talk
some more about verses 22-25
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because this is that
second pair of metaphors, okay?
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So the first pair of metaphors
was the metaphor of redemption.
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The slave market
metaphor combined
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with a sacrificial
metaphor, Christ as the Lamb.
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Now in this passage
he talks about having--
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he says in verse 23,
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"Since you have
been born again."
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That's the whole thing
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that he's been
talking about all along.
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Let me just reemphasize
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that he has been describing
who the Christians are.
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He's been
taking pains to explain
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what it means to be a Christian.
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Recall that this
is because the world
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around them is
pushing in on them,
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trying to destroy their faith,
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draw them back
into paganism or--
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and either to
entice them into paganism
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or to persecute them
back in the paganism.
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So over and over
and over he explains
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what it means to be a Christian.
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He unpacks this Christian box.
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And shows you,
here's the present of grace
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and here's the present of this,
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you know, he-- he
has all these different--
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I mean, I think
in our world today,
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where Christian faith
is under so much attack
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that the Book of 1st Peter
is an incredible mine of truth
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with various
metaphors, various concepts
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that could and should
strengthen our churches
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to understand what it means
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to resist the
world's drag and pull.
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We don't see open
persecutions so much these days.
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But there still is
the kind of verbal abuse
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that happens from time to time,
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but there sure is the big pull
of the culture, isn't there?
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Trying to drag us away
from living a Christian life,
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trying to make it seem as
though it's not appropriate.
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So here he puts
together again two metaphors.
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And they're found
here in verse 23,"
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Since you have been born again,
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not of perishable
seed but of imperishable,
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through the living
and abiding word of God
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for all flesh is like grass,
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and all its glory
like the flower of grass.
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The grass withers, and
all-- and the flower falls.
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But the word of the
Lord remains forever.
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And this is word is the good
news that was preached to you."
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Can you identify what
the two metaphors are here?
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Well, he's using a seed. Yes.
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Using nature, some seen farming.
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Farming? There's certainly a
farming metaphor here. Exactly.
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This idea of the
seed. And what is the seed?
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The word of God.
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The seed is the
word of God, okay?
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And when you plant seeds,
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you know, the seed
is just tiny little,
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you know, if it's an
acorn, if it's a piece of weed,
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if it's a piece
of corn or something,
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it's a dry, little,
withered thing, you know?
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And you're like,
what can that be--
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what can that do?
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But you put it
down on the ground,
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need to get warmed up, you know?
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It gets rain, gets some
fertilizer or something.
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And lo and behold,
this thing sprouts out,
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that just grows right out of it.
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This plant comes up
and bears more seed, okay?
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So you have this
farming metaphor.
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And the seed is the word of God.
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We think of
Jesus' parable. Yeah.
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Of the parable of the
sower, sowing the seed.
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And it grows on the good ground
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and it produces
30, 60, 100 fold.
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See now, again
another one of those ties
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to the teachings
of Jesus, you know.
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Of course, he's quoting
from the Old Testament here,
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from-- from Isaiah.
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But there's another metaphor
that's kind of hidden here
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and if we read just
quickly we might pass over it.
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And that you notice in verse 23.
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The first thing he said was,
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"Since you have been born again,
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not of perishable
seed but of imperishable."
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Now when you speak of being
born and you speak of seed,
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you think of procreation.
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It's a procreation
kind of a metaphor.
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So you're mixing a
procreation metaphor
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with a farming metaphor.
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And in fact, the
word he uses for seed
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in the Greek is "spora."
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And we get the
word spores, you know?
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Spores that go and, you know,
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plant themselves
and things like that.
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There's another Greek word
that also means seed, "sperma,"
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which is in procreation
that we have that term, you see.
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So he uses the word "spora,"
but he speaks of new birth.
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So he's mixing
metaphors again, you know.
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So he has this
idea of new birth,
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rebirth that he talked about
at the beginning of the book.
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So he ties back to that,
but now he ties it into farming
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because he wants
to quote from Isaiah.
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Isaiah 40:6-8--why don't
we go over to Isaiah 40:6-8.
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Isaiah 40:6-8. And why
don't you read that for us?
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"The voice said, 'Cry out.'
And he said, 'What shall I cry?
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All flesh is grass,
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and all its loveliness is
like the flower of the field.
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The grass
withers, the flower fades,
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because the breath of
the Lord blows upon it.
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Surely the people are grass.
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The grass
withers, the flower fades,
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but the word of our
God stands forever.'"
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All right, so here we
have two things facing us.
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One that he emphasizes
over and over and over again
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is this concept of the
perishability of all flesh.
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All flesh is as the grass,
is like the flower that fade--
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I mean, the Book of James says
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the same kind of
a thing, you know?
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Fall-- flower falls off
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and withers away
and that kind of thing.
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But there's something that he
refers to that abides forever.
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What's that? The
word of the Lord.
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The word of God. The
word of God abides forever.
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So the human is perishable,
but that which is divine,
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the word of God, goes on
for ever, abides for ever.
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It cares for us.
It takes care of us.
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It's that which
produces new life in the soul.
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And he says, if just
in case you weren't clear
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what this word is,
he says in verse 25.
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"And this word is the good
news that was preached to you."
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Who preached it?
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It was those
evangelists back there,
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a little earlier
in the chapter, okay?
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So this 1st chapter
of the book puts together
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this incredible message
of all of these metaphors,
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all of these concepts
of this covenant with God,
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its implications,
you know, holy life
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and all these reasons why you're
supposed to live a holy life.
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I mean, if all we
had was 1st Peter 1,
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we would have a treasure,
an incredible treasure.
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But we're only
in the 1st chapter
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and we have four
more to go, you know?
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So now let's read
verses-- chapter 2:1-3
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because this is the
third pair of metaphors.
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"Therefore,
laying aside all malice,
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all deceit, hypocrisy,
envy, and all evil speaking,
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as newborn babes, desire
the pure milk of the word
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that you may grow thereby.
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If indeed you have--
If indeed you have tasted
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that the Lord is gracious."
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Uh-huh, okay.
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Now what kind of metaphor
would you say you have here?
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Babies. Babies.
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So from farming to babies
and-- he's very good at the--
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Yeah, now let's--
let's see the whole chain.
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We started from
the slave market.
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We went to the sacrifice,
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the sacrificial
animals to a temple service.
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Then we came to a
seed which was procreation.
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Then we moved to
a farming metaphor.
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And now you're
talking about babies.
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But there's one more metaphor
before that, before the babies.
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And that's in
the very first verse.
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It's a little hard to see
if you don't read it in Greek.
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But it's the first--mine
says to put away all malice.
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What does your say?
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Laying aside. Laying aside.
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That's a good way to put it.
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So is there
another Greek word here?
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Yeah, it's a terminology
for taking clothes off.
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Laying aside. You take off the--
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you take off the garment
and you lay it aside. Okay.
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So it's a clothing metaphor.
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You remove this
and then he mixes it
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with like new
born babies, you know.
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It's interesting
how his mind moves
00:10:03.37\00:10:05.41
from idea to ideas, isn't it?
00:10:05.44\00:10:07.47
And he goes-- but he has--
00:10:07.50\00:10:09.17
it's almost as though
he really planned this out
00:10:09.20\00:10:11.43
with three pairs of
mixed metaphors that,
00:10:11.46\00:10:15.04
you know, you
could-- you could kind of see
00:10:15.07\00:10:17.90
how each of them had
their particular idea.
00:10:17.93\00:10:20.09
The last one is
very interesting,
00:10:20.12\00:10:21.86
this one about the babies
00:10:21.89\00:10:23.49
because the babies
are supposed to long
00:10:23.52\00:10:25.36
for the pure
spiritual milk, okay?
00:10:25.39\00:10:28.29
And of course, that--but
you can grow up into salvation.
00:10:28.32\00:10:32.25
That's a--that's a metaphor
of the word of God again.
00:10:32.28\00:10:35.73
And then he says,
00:10:35.76\00:10:37.13
"If indeed you have
tasted that the Lord is good."
00:10:37.16\00:10:39.25
Now he's quoting from
Psalm 33 in this case.
00:10:39.28\00:10:42.43
And this metaphor is
interesting in the sense
00:10:42.46\00:10:46.29
that he talks about tasting.
00:10:46.32\00:10:49.48
Well, of course
that's what a baby is doing
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with the
spiritual milk, isn't it?
00:10:51.06\00:10:52.98
He's drinking his mother's milk.
00:10:53.01\00:10:55.32
So this is actually using
00:10:55.35\00:10:57.32
a feminine
metaphor to refer to God.
00:10:57.35\00:11:00.80
You've tasted
that the Lord is good.
00:11:00.83\00:11:03.06
You are feeding at His
breast, so to speak, you know?
00:11:03.09\00:11:06.04
Now God has no gender.
00:11:06.07\00:11:07.51
He's neither male nor female.
00:11:07.54\00:11:09.86
And most of the
metaphors in scripture
00:11:09.89\00:11:11.72
that speak of God
are male in character.
00:11:11.75\00:11:14.42
But we do have a
number that are female
00:11:14.45\00:11:16.20
and this is one of those
times where it describes it.
00:11:16.23\00:11:18.80
Now so we can ask the
question, well, how does--
00:11:18.83\00:11:22.90
how does this all
fit together, you know?
00:11:22.93\00:11:26.85
Well, we may have
to delve into this
00:11:26.88\00:11:28.56
yet a little bit
more in our next time
00:11:28.59\00:11:30.15
'cause we're
running a little short now.
00:11:30.18\00:11:31.65
But let me just
try to put together
00:11:31.68\00:11:33.35
the pairs of this metaphor.
00:11:33.38\00:11:35.07
In the first pair of metaphors,
00:11:35.10\00:11:37.11
the futile way of life
handed down by the Father
00:11:37.14\00:11:39.79
stands in
contrast with redemption
00:11:39.82\00:11:42.93
through the blood of the Lamb.
00:11:42.96\00:11:44.79
In the second pair, human
frailty stands in contrast
00:11:44.82\00:11:49.63
with the eternal word of God.
00:11:49.66\00:11:51.91
In the third
pair, vices of the past
00:11:51.94\00:11:54.66
and in contrast
00:11:54.69\00:11:56.06
with the
dependable word of the Lord
00:11:56.09\00:11:57.66
that nurtures and grows up
00:11:57.69\00:11:59.69
the Christian into salvation.
00:11:59.72\00:12:01.28
Taking these together
along with God's motivations
00:12:01.31\00:12:05.66
and actions we have
discussed in previous chapters,
00:12:05.69\00:12:08.23
we can see a progression
that moves from the past
00:12:08.26\00:12:11.81
to the future in the
following manner. Okay?
00:12:11.84\00:12:16.16
Now we'll look at--I
wonder if we can just put up
00:12:16.19\00:12:19.52
the Circle of Salvation graphic.
00:12:19.55\00:12:22.18
Okay, so you see in this circle,
00:12:22.21\00:12:23.74
it starts with
the idea of witness.
00:12:23.77\00:12:26.43
Here as a believer that
is talking to somebody else
00:12:26.46\00:12:30.49
and they become a believer now
00:12:30.52\00:12:32.83
through the witness of the
evangelist who came to them.
00:12:32.86\00:12:35.53
That leads to this holy life.
00:12:35.56\00:12:37.90
The pagan observes that
00:12:37.93\00:12:40.32
and that witness
now brings them back
00:12:40.35\00:12:42.97
into this circle so that
they also can become believers.
00:12:43.00\00:12:47.44
It's this
wonderful concept of sharing
00:12:47.47\00:12:50.34
and the word of God
going around in a circle
00:12:50.37\00:12:52.31
continuing to
bring people to Christ
00:12:52.34\00:12:54.66
and to grow them as Christians.
00:12:54.69\00:12:56.75
So there really is no
end in growing in Christ.
00:12:56.78\00:12:59.34
Yeah. That's an--
00:12:59.37\00:13:00.74
And sharing with other people,
00:13:00.77\00:13:02.14
you see, so that it
continues as a circle.
00:13:02.17\00:13:03.54
All right, well, Dr. Shepherd,
I want to thank you again
00:13:03.57\00:13:05.48
for joining us in
this study of 1st Peter.
00:13:05.51\00:13:08.78
And we also want to
thank our listening audience
00:13:08.81\00:13:11.15
in joining us in
"Books of the Book."
00:13:11.18\00:13:13.03
We are studying 1st
Peter. We have so much to cover.
00:13:13.06\00:13:15.62
And I hope that you've
been blessed just as I have.
00:13:15.65\00:13:18.88
And we'll see you
next time. God bless.
00:13:18.91\00:13:21.74