An Aimless Condition (Part 2)

Amen and amen. Thank you, choir. Glorious. Fits very well with our subject, the subject of course being redemption and all of what they sang about.

Which, of course, is all found in Psalm 51. All is accomplished through the price paid at Calvary. Our redemption in Jesus Christ.

So I want you to open your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 1 and starting with verse 17. And I'm going to read verses 17 and all the way through to verse 21 again.

And we have looked at this text and I've read it a number of times. And there's still more to be found here. And so starting with verse 17, if you have found it, 1 Peter chapter 1.

And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, 1 Peter chapter 1.

And we're going to say, Tremendous passage.

Now, we have been considering a powerful motivation for obeying the third command that we find in 1 Peter.

Peter gives four commands. We're on the third one. And he gives us two strong motivations. Now, the second one is where we are right now. And again, let me remind you there about the command.

And the command is to conduct yourselves in fear. That's a command. Conduct yourselves in fear. Meaning, to honor God with the whole life.

Or, we might put it this way, to live your lives in awe of His greatness. And His majesty. And His mercy.

And we could go on with the list. To literally live in awe of this. Or, we might put it this way. To literally fear God in this way.

To fear doing anything that would dishonor God the Father in any way. Fear disgracing God the Son in any way.

To fear discrediting the work of God the Holy Spirit in any way. To fear diminishing or destroying even the witness of the church in any way.

To expand upon what it might mean to fear God. Now, actually, Peter gives us two motivations for fearing God. For obeying this command. And, first, because of who God is to us.

And, who is He? According to Peter. He is both loving Father and just Judge. Secondly, the motivation to fear God to obey this command would be this.

Because of what God has done for us. What He has done for us. And, what has He done for us? Well, according to Peter, verses 18 and 19. He has redeemed us with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

You see, our gracious Heavenly Father has redeemed us. Redeemed us. And, in case you've forgotten what that means. That is, the word redeemed. It means that He has bought us.

Purchased us. Out of something. Out of bondage to sin. And, not only bondage to sin. But, also the condemnation of sin. And, He redeemed us by paying the ransom price.

And, in effect, paid it to Himself. And, that ransom price, of course, was the precious blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. And, by the way, the only price that would be acceptable to God the Father.

It's the only price that would satisfy His holiness and His righteousness. Now, that, of course, in a nutshell, is what God has done for us.

For us. And, what a motivation that is to us to honor Him. To live our lives in fear of Him. Now, as we have been working our way through Peter's description of this in this text, in our text.

We have seen one and a half things. Okay? We're going to complete the second one. We have seen, first of all, that the plan of redemption began with a timeless decision.

That's what we find out here in verse 20. Let me read it to you again. Verse 20. You'll notice that. He, indeed, was, that is, Christ, our Redeemer, the precious Lamb, without spot and blemish.

He was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. For your sake. And so, a timeless decision.

And, last Sunday, we started to explore just what God redeemed us from. And, that's a pretty important subject here. And, Peter covers that here. And, I have said that God redeemed us from an aimless condition.

That is a pointless condition. That is a useless condition. A futile condition. That's what we have been redeemed from. That's what we find out here in verse 18.

Let me read that to you again. Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from. There's the key word, operative word.

From. Redeemed from what? Your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers. All right. So, very clearly.

It began with a timeless decision to redeem us from an aimless condition. All right. Now, we're talking about this aimless condition.

We barely got into it last Sunday. And so, in order for us to establish the flow of thought here. To maybe get all of this in our minds. At least all the main points that we might hang everything on as we go along.

I want to tell you where we're going this morning and next Sunday. This aimless condition is described for us by Peter in four ways.

Or, maybe I ought to put it this way. Peter gives us a four-fold description of the unredeemed sinner. This aimless condition from which God redeemed us was, and this is what we saw last Sunday.

A life dominated by godless passions. A life dominated by godless passions. Number two, we have been redeemed from a life darkened by truthless conclusions.

And number three, a life dedicated to fruitless ambitions. And then, fourth and finally, we have been redeemed from a life deceived by hopeless traditions.

Those are the four. And all four of these descriptions are found in our text here in 1 Peter chapter 1. The first one, again, we saw last Sunday. And the next three, the other three, we're going to see this morning.

And then, to give you a heads up about next Sunday. Next Sunday, we shall see that God redeemed us with a priceless provision. That's where we're going. So, a timeless decision to redeem us from an aimless condition with a priceless provision.

And that priceless provision, of course, was what? The precious blood of Christ. The precious blood of Christ. And that will be our subject, our focus next Sunday.

And to give us a further opportunity to worship around this great truth, we're going to memorialize it through the observance of the Lord's Supper. And we'll do that next Sunday.

And so, you're not going to want to miss that. But this morning, dear people, we're considering this aimless condition. This futile condition that Peter describes from which God has so graciously redeemed us.

And not only has God redeemed us from a life dominated by godless passions, but now, secondly, God redeemed us from a life of darkened or life darkened by truthless conclusions.

Now, we need to go back to verse 14 to see that, just like we saw the first one in verse 14. And Paul gives us, or Peter rather, gives us this one there as well. Look at verse 14 again.

Do you see that?

As in your ignorance. Now, Peter does not flesh that out for us here. It just doesn't. I wish that he would. I wish he'd tell us just what that ignorance is.

What does it look like? What is this? Is this a description? Is this, what is this? And Peter just really doesn't flesh that out for us. But he is clearly linking two things here.

And what are those two things? Well, it's very clear from the text. He is linking lust with ignorance. That is, he is linking the godless passions of the unredeemed with the truthless conclusions or ignorance of the unredeemed.

Namely, that the source of lust or the wellspring of this lust is ignorance in some sense. That's what Peter is saying.

That is, godless passions that are super abundant in the life of the unredeemed. That are the controlling factor in the unredeemed.

The godless passions dominate the life of those who are void of any vital, any spiritual knowledge of God. That's a description of the unredeemed.

And that much is clear from what Peter says here in verse 14. And so if we put that together, that is, in this portion of the chapter, God's people, Peter says, are to be holy like God is holy, not conforming themselves, verse 14, to their former lusts, that is, their pre-salvation lusts, Peter says, as in your ignorance.

As in your ignorance. That is, as was true of you in your times of ignorance. That's rather interesting that Peter uses the word ignorance here as simply another word for lostness.

That's why he's not describing it necessarily. It is a synonym in a sense. He's using ignorance as a synonym for lostness. Instead of saying, as was true in your lostness, he says, as was true in your ignorance.

And so it's a synonym of the unsaved, of the unregenerate, of the unredeemed. Very much like Jesus used the opposite idea or reality or designation in John 17, 3, where Jesus says, and this is eternal life.

Now, he's not describing the unredeemed. He's talking about the redeemed. This is eternal life, that they may know you. That they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

And so, in a similar fashion, Jesus is using knowledge as a descriptive word of the saved. The saved are the ones who know God.

Know him in an intimate way. Know him in a relationship way. Know him in a fellowship way. And a lot of other things that are included in that word. And so, Jesus is saying, knowledge is what defines the redeemed.

Just like Peter is saying, ignorance is what defines the unredeemed. And that's as far as we can get with Peter. And so, since Peter does not expand upon this word ignorance, that is, in the sense of a condition of lostness, we need to look somewhere else in Scripture.

And it's alright to do that, because Scripture is unified, and it doesn't contradict itself. And so, we can look at what, say, Paul wrote about this idea of ignorance as a condition of lostness.

And we know he is in complete agreement with Peter, because it's the same Holy Spirit that inspired both writers, right? And so, we'll look at a definitive passage this morning on the subject of ignorance that we find in Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

So, I want you to take your Bibles and turn very quickly to Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 17. As we just kind of let Paul flesh out this concept of ignorance.

It is, while you're turning to it, it is, by the way, a condition of lostness. Ignorance. And so, how does Paul describe it?

Well, I want you to begin there in verse 17. I want to begin reading there. In fact, let me just read the entire text, 17, 18, and 19, and then we'll kind of pick it apart a little bit.

This I say, therefore, this is Paul writing to the Ephesians, this I say, therefore, and testify to the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk.

Now, we need to stop right there, because it is important that we define what group of people he's talking about here. You know, what does this word Gentiles mean?

Well, in the Greek, it's the word ethnos. We get our word ethnic from this word. And so, he's not talking necessarily about a specific nationality. He's talking about the nations, the other nations.

He's not talking about the Jews. He's talking about the other nations. See, in Paul's thinking and in Jewish thinking in that day, there are only two classifications of people.

There were Jews and all the rest. Jews and the pagan nations. All right? Or we might use the word, as one commentator used the word, worldlings.

That's what he's talking about. He's not talking about those in Christ. He's talking about those in the world. He's talking about the unredeemed. And so, we could say, Paul is saying here, therefore, and testifying to the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the worldlings do in this world.

Or, those outside Christ. All right, let's just get to the quick. That's what he means. Those outside Christ. Don't walk like them. And then he describes that. Or he gives the condition.

He says, in the futility of your mind. Do you see that there? The futility of your mind. Now, we saw the word futility over there in 1 Peter chapter 1.

Paul links it to the mind. The futility of the mind. You see, what Paul is doing here is giving us the condition or the description of lostness.

And it's described this way, at least in Paul's words here. Futility of the mind. Is he talking about the intellect here? So, are we saying that all lost people are just dumb people intellectually?

No, that's not the idea. Though the mind to us and in our language and in our usage of the word mind suggests something about the intellect, something about the brain processes in power.

That's not what he's talking about. He's talking, really, about the entire life of the person. Or, we might put it this way, the outlook.

Or, how about this one? We hear this phrase quite often, the worldview. That's the idea here. He's saying, he's speaking to Christians here, the Ephesian believers.

And he's saying, listen, you Christians, you redeemed of the Lord, this I say to you, and I testify before the Lord, don't walk as the other nations do with their worldview.

Their godless worldview. Their outlook on life. Now, that's just a quick statement of the condition of lostness.

And it's the same way that Peter described it, really, in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 14. Ignorance. He uses the word ignorance. And it's the same idea.

Futility of the mind. That is, all of your life is wrapped up. Your thinking, your outlook, your decisions, your motivations, your plans, your goals, everything that guides you, you are completely and totally immersed in a mindset that is minus God, minus biblical, spiritual thing.

And that's a description of the lost world, dear people. That's a description of the worldlings or the other nations. That's the condition. And then he moves from the condition in verse 17 to the cause of it.

This is why I think it's important for us to move to what Paul has to say about this word ignorance, this idea of ignorance as a condition of lostness. Because Peter doesn't give us this kind of description, but Paul does.

And so he gives us the cause of it. Where did this come from? And what's to explain it? Well, he says in verse 18, having their understanding darkened, being alienated alienated from the life of God.

Now just mark it down in your Bibles, the cause of darkness in the mind and life, the cause of a worldview that is minus void of God is alienation from the life of God.

That's lostness. Alienated from the very life of God.

Alienated. Excluded. Some of you might have a translation that uses that word. Totally excluded. Separated from. Alienated from.

The very life of God. And it's the life of God that we need. There is no life apart from God. And there is no life of God in any of those who are lost.

Any of those who are the unredeemed. Life comes only through redemption and regeneration of the Holy Spirit. Through the salvation experience. And so the cause of this condition, the condition being the futility of the mind.

And we're going to talk more about futility as we go along. But the cause of that is alienation from God. From the life of God.

But he adds more to that. He actually doesn't begin with the phrase alienation from the life of God. It's almost a parenthesis there. He really begins with the phrase having their understanding darkened.

Why is the understanding, the comprehension, the ability to put two and two together in the spiritual sense? Why is that so dark in the mind?

Why is there such darkness in the mind? Because they're alienated from God. But he explains it even further. Having their darkness or understanding darkened.

Now follow along here. The word order is difficult, but it's so powerful when you put all this together. Having their understanding darkened.

Why? Being alienated from the life of God. Because of the ignorance that is in them. Ignorance.

Ignorance of what? Of God. The one true God. See, that's why this is not intelligence because you could poll, I would imagine, 99% of the people living in Bartlesville this morning, you could poll them and I would imagine that a large percentage of them would say, I believe in God.

I know who God is. God created all things. Not just an intellectual knowledge that there is a God. We're talking here about knowing Him personally.

Having a vital relationship with Him through Christ. The lost person is ignorant of that and therefore their understanding is darkened. You see, that's what the idea is. Dark mind.

Dark understanding and comprehension of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart.

You put all of that together and that describes the one word Peter uses, the word ignorance. And this is the condition of lostness. And the good news is this is the condition the precious blood of Jesus redeemed us from.

A hopeless ignorance of God. God. And for those who are outside of Christ because they've not put their faith in Christ, those outside of Christ can never put two and two together spiritually.

They can't do it. It's impossible. They are dark in the mind because of the ignorance and blindness of the heart. You see. It's a hopeless condition. And this is what Peter's trying to do and what I hope to do as your pastor as we preach through this text to see the utter futility of lostness on the one hand and then to praise God that He, through the sacrifice of His Son and the precious blood of His perfect Son, He has redeemed us out of that.

He has bought us out of that. Rescued us. Ransomed us from that futile life. Praise God. And therefore, conduct your life in absolute honor of God.

That's the idea of the future. Now Paul goes a step further and really goes back to what Peter said.

In fact, Peter and Paul link the two things, the same two things together. That is, I said a moment ago that Peter links godless passions with ignorance and so does Paul.

And so we have the condition. The condition is the futility of the mind. The whole outlook on life is futile and the cause of that is alienation from the very life of God and the consequence of it is to become so calloused.

Well, look at how Paul describes it. Who being past feeling. Some of you might have the word calloused in your translation. Calloused.

This is the consequence of alienation from God. This is the life of the unredeemed. Calloused.

And they've given themselves over to lewdness. Now that word bears some explanation. You might just write there in the margin of your Bible unbridled lust.

I'm not just talking there and Paul's not just talking about lust in the sense of immoral activities, sexually immoral activities. He's talking about all passions that are godless.

All passions that do not have God as their goal. unbridled. That is, there is no way, no way to control it.

That's the condition of lostness. But he goes on, he says, to work all uncleanness or impurity, and you've got to love this, with greed.

You ever associate greediness with impurity? What's the idea here? What is the idea of greed?

It is the lust for more. Dear people, we are talking about a serious, serious condition. A condition of lostness.

We have family members who are in this category. Maybe even a mate, a spouse that's in this category.

Friends, and it ought to break our heart. Ought to absolutely break our hearts and plant within us such a burden, such an urgency to share with them the life-giving gospel of Jesus Christ.

That God might redeem them from that. Let's break our hearts. This is the consequence of this state of lostness.

And it's an ongoing, ever-increasing, past feeling, a callousness that takes over the life that leads to more and more and more lewdness, lewdness, that is, unbridled lust and impurity and with the lust for more and more and more and more.

Listen, I've got the tack verse 20 on there. But you have not so learned Christ. See, here's the diabolical thing.

Here's the sad thing about it. Certainly, this is a description of lostness. And Peter's describing those in ignorance, those who are unredeemed, unregenerate, who are lost, who, when they die or if they were to die in that ignorance and lostness, they would go to a devil's hell.

He's describing that, but at the same time, Peter and Paul are saying that you too can live this way. Don't return to the ways of your former ignorance.

your former lusts and passions. Paul says, and I like the way he puts it, but you, you, you have not so learned Christ. I tell you, there's a word here for the saved.

It is a word to the saved. Though we, through the redemption of Jesus Christ, through His blood redemption, He's bought us out of that, bought us out of the condemnation of it, we can choose to live there.

We can choose to live there. Peter says, don't return to that. Don't conform yourselves to that.

Paul says, you've not learned Christ that way. You've not learned Christ. So, see, that is, though, however, primarily, the unredeemed condition.

it is darkened, darkened by aimless, pointless, truthless, godless, conclusion.

It is an outlook on life, a worldview completely void of biblical, spiritual truth. And we find it all over the place. We find it in their conclusions about moral rights and wrongs.

I tell you, it has reached a place of such pervasiveness that is immoral activity and desires and immorality in our culture has just reached a place where it is difficult to understand how God could still even possibly bless us as a nation.

And yet, when you analyze those who have come to those kind of conclusions about moral rights and wrongs, about what is right and what is wrong, then you understand that that's just who they are, that's just the nature, that's what it is to be unredeemed.

To come to certain conclusions about homosexuality and premarital relationships with another woman or another man or for young people to sleep around as they say.

Or those kind of conclusions, that comes out of the unredeemed nature. Conclusions about the origin of things as well. I mean, some of those who are propagating such a whacked out idea about the origin of things and the idea of evolution and all of that garbage and we call that intelligence.

We call that education. And those of us who do not embrace the principles of evolution, they call us ignorant.

Ridiculous. And so we're standing back here and looking at that and listening to that on TV and we wonder how did they come to such idiotic conclusions? Well, it doesn't even make sense.

It's not even logical, not even rational to believe in a system that has absolutely no proof whatsoever. And why?

Why do they come to those conclusions? They're alienated from the life of God. And so therefore, the outlook, their outlook on life, their worldview, view, brings them to conclusions that are minus God, alienated from God.

And we could go on with the list, conclusions about the end of things as well. That is what's going to come after this life and all kinds of weird ideas about that. And also conclusions even about spiritual things.

I mean, we have now Oprah's new spirituality. I kind of hang it on her and you know, they just come up with these ideas about spiritualities, not based upon any shred of truth or any authority.

It's just the way I feel. Just the conclusions I've come to. And it's a new spirituality and it's so enjoyable and you need to be a part of that and so forth.

It's idiotic. Idiotic. But they've come to these conclusions because they're alienated from the life of God.

It is that aimless condition, truthless conclusion, even about spiritual things. A couple years ago I was pastoring in Arkansas and we had a member of our church who was the county sheriff.

Although really from all indication his membership there was one of expediency, political expediency. You understand that, don't you? In fact, about the only time I'd ever see him in our church services would be around election time.

You understand what I'm talking about? And not judging his heart but by all indication of his life, nothing about his life or testimony of faith in Christ.

I went to visit the sheriff at the county jail, that's where his office was, and he kind of gave me a little tour of the place. And we went into his office and we sat down and I just barely knew the guy.

And we sat down and he was talking about some of the changes he had made there in the jail system with the officers there, whatever they called them.

Now he had cleaned up their language and I said, well that's great, that's good. And it is good by the way. And some other things that he had changed in their habits and the things that they do and then he did something and said something that I'm sure my mouth just kind of opened, fell to the floor.

I couldn't believe what he told me. Man, he professed to be a Christian and he said and he reached over to his desk and he put his hand on top of a little angel figurine and he said, and pastor, we have put these little angel figurines all over the jail so you see, pastor, we're doing our part here.

I wanted to say, what? What? I don't doubt his genuineness. That is, the genuineness of his mind and his heart that that really was going to make a difference.

That somehow there is inherent power or blessing in having an angel figurine. I know some of you ladies and collect angels and anything wrong with that.

It's just very nice. but I'm talking about a man who thought that was going to help spiritually there. That they had these little angel figurines.

This is a Southern Baptist professing Christian. You see what I'm talking about here? I'm talking about the futility of the mind.

To come to such conclusions about spiritual things that really are certainly not based upon anything biblical and are void of anything spiritual.

Truly biblically spiritual. The understanding darkened. You see that's the idea here. That's the state of the unredeemed. A condition by the way I need to keep coming back to a condition by the way that those who name the name of Christ have been redeemed out of.

So moving along this aimless condition from which God redeemed us was a life dominated by godless passion. A life darkened by truthless conclusions and then third God redeemed us from a life dedicated to fruitless ambition.

Look at verse 18 again. We're redeemed. We're not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers.

aimless conduct. That's where I got my word aimless. One sense it describes the total condition of the unredeemed.

But with the word conduct added to it it describes the works of the life. The endeavors of life.

And Peter calls them aimless. Aimless worthless pointless conduct.

It's interesting isn't it? Paul in Ephesians 5 11 called them unfruitful works of darkness. Although Paul was speaking of a specific aspect of these works specific kind of works because he goes on to say for it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.

But we're talking here about fruitless works. fruitless ambitions that spring from result from darkness spiritual darkness.

But now actually Peter is talking about any and all works any and all works that are done by unbelievers without any qualification as to whether we're talking here about moral or immoral works good or evil works you're not qualifying that it's in all works in fact like it or not Peter is talking about the eternal worth God attaches to all the life endeavors of the unredeemed.

He started talking about this or say this to people and right off they get real mad. He even suggests that the Bible says that all the works of the lost person all the works of the unredeemed are worthless to God.

I tell you you want to get people up in arms and angry with you just suggest that. And yet that's what Peter said.

He said those things are worthless. Worthless. That is where worth really matters. John 15 5 Jesus said apart from me you can do nothing.

Remember that passage? And I say it's an interesting way of putting it that apart from me you can do nothing. I had a preacher point this out to me a number of years ago and he just kind of made this application or the implication.

He said you know Jesus did not say you can't do anything. He said you can do nothing. do you see the difference?

The point is that man can do a lot of things. Really? Do a lot of things. But Jesus' point is apart from him whatever you do equals one big fat zero.

zilch. Zip. Nada. Zero with the edges trimmed off.

Nothing. You can do all kinds of things. All kinds of seemingly good and moral things. And maybe good things that are beneficial for society in this life.

And in that sense I guess there is some value here for a time. But when it comes to any eternal worth God is saying that the redeemed are locked in to a life of activity that will amount to absolutely nothing in the end.

You'll all be gone. See that's the idea here. In the end. In the final analysis.

It leads to utter futility. That's what it means. What the phrase means aimless conduct. That's what that means in the New King James Version.

Being conversation in the KJV. Or if you've got an NIV it says empty way of life. Or futile way of life if you have the New American Standard Bible.

Or if some of you have the ESV. Empty ways. And the point is it means the same no matter how one translates it. It's worthless. It's of no point.

It's of no value. As God estimates value. In the end. In the final analysis. The word conduct as the New King James Version uses or translates means simply manner of life.

Or way of life. And it refers to the activity of life. It refers to the things you do in life. And now the word aimless that's the important word here.

The operative word. Or empty or vain or futile however your Bible translates it. It means literally this. It means that which does not lead to the goal.

Isn't that interesting? That's what the word literally means in the Greek. That which does not lead to the goal. Whose goal? Well God's of course. I mean he's the sovereign creator.

And he created all things to go to the goal. We'll get to what that goal is here in just a minute. But again the idea is in the end in the final analysis is utter futility.

And why is that? Why is it that it does not reach the goal? Does not lead to the goal? Well why is in understanding what the goal is?

The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks this question. What is the chief end of man? What is it by the way? It is man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

That's our chief end. That's what we were created for. Now Adam and Eve messed all that up. And we've been helping them ever since.

man's chief end is glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And dear people no matter how you cut it only the blood redeemed children of God have any power whatsoever to glorify God.

God's God that's what we were redeemed for. We were redeemed from a condition that cannot glorify God to a condition that can glorify God.

only the redeemed have that power that ability that potential. Only the blood ransomed people of God have a sure hope of spending eternity with God and enjoying God forever and ever and ever only the redeemed.

That's what the precious blood of Jesus bought for you. Praise his name because the only valid reason for life is to glorify God.

Now to be sure unbelievers have done some pretty good things haven't they over the years? Unbelievers have done some pretty amazing things.

But Jesus said in Mark 8 36 for what will it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul.

The aimless condition from which God redeemed us a life dominated by godless passions a life darkened by truthless conclusions a life dedicated to fruitless ambitions and then there's one more God redeemed us from a life deceived by hopeless tradition.

That's what Peter said here in verse 18. In fact he links the aimless conduct with these traditions.

Verse 18 received by tradition from your fathers. or we might put it this way the chips off the old block.

There are literally an endless number of applications and implications of what this phrase might mean to us here today the traditions of your father.

As to Peter's initial audience he was speaking primarily to Gentiles but he did have some Jews he was speaking to and so to a Jewish audience what would those traditions received from their fathers be?

It would be what their fathers before them had done with the true Yahweh worship adding layers and layers and layers of tradition and laws and expectations and regulations that God never ever intended so bad that they really turned Yahweh worship into something that was totally devoid of what it was meant to be and Peter's writing to some Jews who at one point were so locked into that that they could not even receive the gospel so locked into it to Peter's Gentile audience which I believe represented the majority of those reading this letter he would be talking about idolatry the traditions of idolatry and immorality and rank paganism makes me remember causes me to think about

Acts 17 Paul visiting Athens and and having a conversation with the really brainy people of the community Stoics and Epicureans and prior to that little visit with them the little audience he had with them Paul had been walking around Athens and he noticed all these gods everywhere and they had a god for everything multiplicity of gods and they even had a god there or an idol there to the unknown god just in case they missed one they were locked in to an idolatrous system that only the blood of Christ and redemption through that blood could ransom them from rescue them from Paul said to them the god who created all things demands that you repent repent and so to a gentile audience it would be that to a modern day american audience it could be a multiple of them the traditions of materialism that that most americans are in bondage to so much so that it is a strong hold against the gospel although it cannot prevail against the gospel it locks men and women locks their minds into a system of materialism like the rich young ruler who had much went away sad

Jesus nearly chased him off loved him and he offered the gospel to him to go and sell everything you have and follow me and he walked off because he had much there's only one one way to be rescued out of that kind of bondage and materialism that every one of us in this room at one point were in bondage to and we got that from the tradition of our fathers that's the American way and there's only one way to be redeemed to be bought out of that and it's through the redemption in Christ Jesus we could talk about not only materialism but we could talk about the bondage of secularism we could talk about the bondage of man centered religion ism in our nation handed down by our fathers we could talk about the bondage

I could go on and on how about applying this to other parts of the world most of us in this room never ventured out of this country though we've watched Fox News and CNN and we know what's going on in other parts of the world but we have no idea really of the bondage men and women are in bondage to religion primarily in our world today it's Islam I'll never forget a testimony that I heard from a missionary to Yemen small little country almost totally Muslim militant Muslim and he gave testimony about reaching how hard it was to reach Muslims for Christ and the resistance and the resistance all of course based upon their religion and fear religion and fear someone asked the question have you seen some come to

Christ and he said yes and what happens then and this missionary said we usually say goodbye to them because most likely they'll be dead traditions of the fathers and the good news is that the blood of Jesus has the power to redeem us from that and has for many of you here this morning to buy you out of that that's the good news God's son Jesus shed his blood upon that cross his precious royal blood and that blood was the price paid to God the holy God to buy you out to purchase you rescue from absolute futile way of life

Thank you.