Genesis 22 – The lamb is to take Isaac’s place, it is a:
Lamb for an Individual
Exodus 12 – The Lamb is cover a household or family, it is a:
Lamb for a Household
Numbers 28 – The nation of Israel is to offer up the sacrifice of a lamb every morning and every evening; it is a Lamb for a Nation
Isaiah 52&53 – “So shall He sprinkle many nations.” (Isa52:15)
Lamb for many Nations
John1:29 – “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”
Lamb for a whole World
1Peter1:19,20 – “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world”
Lamb for all of Time
Revelation5:6 – A lamb enthroned in heaven
Lamb for a whole Universe
Revelation Chps 21&22 – the last 2 chapters of the Bible, have much to say about the lamb:
- The Bride is the wife of the lamb (Rev21:9)
- The foundations of the city are the apostles of the lamb (Rev21:14)
- The temple is the presence of the lamb (Rev21:23)
- The Light is the Glory of the lamb (Rev21:23)
- The Gate is the Book of the Lamb (Rev21:27)
- Life comes from the river from the Lamb (Rev22:1)
- Government is from the throne of the Lamb (Rev22:3)
Lamb for all eternity
In 1 Peter chapter 1 amongst many other truths we are presented with the Power of the Passover Lamb!
It is first and foremost the power to purify.
Don’t miss the power and the practical reality of this section:
- Our section begins with tragedy (v14) and ends with triumph (v22)
- Our section begins with what we were and ends with what Christ has made us.
- Our section begins with lust (v14) and ends with love (v22)
- Our section begins with a soul fashioned to the lusts of this world and ends with a soul marked by the character of Christ (v22)
- It begins with the corruptible (v14) and ends with the eternal and the incorruptible (v23).
It changes a man moulded by lust (v14) unto a man motivated by love (v22).
There were 2 feasts that ran very closely together, you couldn’t have one without the other:
1.The feast of Passover: the 14th day of the 1st month (Exodus 12)
2.The feast of Unleavened Bread: from 14th day to the 21st day of the first month (Exodus 12:18), the leaven was yeast, and yeast in the bible is a picture of sin, the corrupting and infiltrating effect of sin cf. 1Co5:6-8.
The nation was taught this that you could not have the Passover lamb and the old life, that with the Passover lamb came the power to put away sin and corruption from the lives of Gods people.
When the lamb came in, the leaven went out!
A Redeemed people were a Holy people (1Peter1:16).
The power comes from the Passover lamb, the power comes form Christ.
When the believer comes into contact with the lamb he comes into contact with a lamb marked by: utter sinlessness, moral perfection, without blemish and without spot.
The believer takes on the moral character of the lamb who saved him; “without spot and without blemish” (v19).
Faith in Christ, contact with the Passover lamb brings that transformation of character from ‘lust’ to ‘love’ - “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit.” (v22).
After the parenthesis of 1:23-25 we see that the power to “lay aside” (2:1) comes from the blood of the lamb.
See the change that an encounter with the Passover lamb brings:
1.‘Gird up’ (v13)
2.‘Sober up’ (v13)
3.‘Look up’ (v13)
1.‘Gird up’ (v13)
This was practically true of the nation, they were leaving Egypt behind (Ex12:11), they were to have their loins girded, shoes on their feet and their staff in their hand.
We can see what it meant practically for the nation but what does it mean figuratively for me?
Gather up any loose clothing that would hinder you.
Gather up any loose thoughts, focus your mind.
Our mind can be hijacked by the world: “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.” (1John2:16).
Recall it is the mind Satan attacks (2Co4:4), it is the “god of this age” he “blinds the minds”. Why the title, “god of this age” here? Why not Satan, the Devil or the deceiver? Because he uses this age as the means by which he attacks the mind, infiltrates the values, twists the thinking, dictates the agenda, introduces permissive morals, promotes the material and the temporal and draws men away from Christ. Most are not deceived by the supernatural but rather are deceived by the natural world controlled by Satan!
The Devil controls the world and the world controls the man!
Most seem to have no seriously thought out objection to Christ and the gospel but rather are distracted by this world on their way to hell.
His is the method of psychological warfare, an attack on the believers mind.
This interpretation is confirmed in 5:8, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” It is those believers possessing an unguarded mind who will be most open to Satanic attack.
Certain mindsets lead inevitably to problems, the hypersensitive mind caught up with taking offence and looking to take offence, dwelling upon the acts and omissions of others, and the undisciplined or distracted mind; here, there and everywhere, not focused. One of the great NT exhortations is to be focused, (Phil3:13-15; 1Pet1:13; Heb12:1-2; 1Co9:24-25).
As believers we must gird up the thoughts, protect and focus our minds.
It is so often the: wandering thought, the stray word, the distracted attention that causes us the problem.
2.‘Sober up’ (v13)
Focused on the matter at hand.
From this word for sober comes the word for self control, ‘the state of mind that is free from the excessive influence of passion, lust or emotion.’ (zodhiates)
Applicable to alcohol in particular but to the influence of all lusts and passions on the person, this individual is not at the mercy of his lusts, he by the Spirit of God is in control of himself. Note the context of verse 14.
3.‘Look up’ (v13)
“hope to the end” – the Glory
“not fashioning yourselves…” (v14)
The man who fails to ‘gird up’ ‘sober up’ and ‘look up’ is a man who gets ‘caught up’ with the lusts and values of the world!
“not fashioning yourselves…” (v14) – not only that but those lusts he thought he controlled, they now control him! Do you get it? A man molded by his lusts.
Well he is doing the fashioning isn’t he? He is in control? Maybe but the lusts set the mold, and perhaps a better translation renders the verb in the passive rather than the middle voice: “do not be conformed to the fashions of your former ignorance” (RSV)
We can see it in the extreme; the drug addict who has sold everything for his drugs, even his self respect, his lusts have shaped him, the alcoholic controlled by his lusts, sexual lusts controlling and bringing the downfall of a man caught in a web of adultery or immorality.
What we see in the disaster God is able to see in the details of our ordinary lives, as lusts and passions are left uncontrolled or without mortification and shape and mold our character: sexual desires, self promotion, material desires:
i.Temper left untamed
ii.Appetite left uncontrolled
iii.Thought left unguarded
iv.Impulses followed without question
v.Indulgences constantly indulged.
These lusts shape your character, exert their influence upon us.
Note the same truth is presented here as in Rom12:1-2: “Be not conformed” (Rom12:2) is the same word as “not fashioning yourselves”
Here shaped by our lusts, in Rom 12:2 shaped by the world, they are of course the same thing! “for all that is in the world…” (1Jo2:16).
As we leave the world behind us we press towards the Glory! (v15-16).
Conformed to the character of God (1:15) cf. Rom12:2.
A truth we have already learned (1:4) that our destiny and our inheritance lies in a Relationship (Eph1:4) – adoption by God and in a Resemblance (Rom8:29) – Conformed to the image of Christ.
What is a lust? There are at least 4 types of lusts spoken of in the scriptures.
The word for lust refers to any strong desire, not necessarily to a sinful desire:
1.Sanctified Passions
2.Selfish Passions
3.Sinful Passions
4.Satanic Passions
1.Sanctified Passions
Strong spiritual passions, these are morally good (Lk22:15) spoken of Christ
All God given passions ought to be sanctified passions, powerful motives for our good and for Gods Glory.
- Consider “natural affection” (2Tim3:3), between a mother and a child for example
- the desire to be with Christ – “having a desire to depart” – “having a passion to depart” – (Phil1:23)
- the passion for the gospel, “which things angels desire to look into” – “desire” = “passion” (1Peter1:12). The angels have a passion for the gospel, a passion for Christ and a passion for the book, we ought to have a passion for the gospel, a passion for Christ and a passion for the book.
2.Selfish Passions
These are undoubtedly God given desires, given for our good and for His Glory but they have run amok, are out of control and have taken over.
One of the consequences of the fall was that God given passions lost their control mechanism.
Man separated from God with a fallen human nature has lost the pure sphere of an atmosphere of love in which God intended him to exist.
Pure love applied to human passions would always bring perfect control: (1Co13:4-7). At the fall this was lost.
We now have natural desires which exert such a power over the person that the true motive for those passions has been lost and they now exist with the motive of simply fulfilling and gratifying themselves: “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts” (James4:3).
Examples of this we find with:
i.The God given appetite for food running uncontrolled becomes gluttony (1Peter4:3) – the lusts of excess.
ii.The God given sexual desires uncontrolled, crossing moral boundaries and becomes adultery and fornication (Matt5:28).
Biblical illustrations of this:
i.Solomon and his 700 wives and 300 concubines (1Kings1:3,4).
ii.Lots wife and her uncontrolled passion for her family and her home back in Sodom (Gen19:26).
3.Sinful Passions
Not just uncontrolled natural desires running amok but these are corrupted natural desires.
They obviously find their basis in some desire or appetite originally given of God but this desire is not only out of control it is corrupted and perverted in some way, usually with what it focuses upon, or with what satisfies it.
Examples of these:
i.Idolatry – God always intended us to worship, but never did He intend us to worship idols (Rom1:25). “Who changed the truth of God into a lie” – a corruption of the passion originally given by God.
ii.Homosexuality (Rom1:26-28) “And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another” – a corruption of sexual desire as originally intended by God.
Biblical illustrations of this consider:
i.The children of Israel and idolatry (1Co10:6ff)
ii.Lots daughters and their sexual immorality (Gen19:30ff)
iii.Reuben and his sin (Gen49:4).
4.Satanic Passions
These are a set of desires and passions that have absolutely no basis in anything that God has ever given man. This is not simply a God given passion out of control, nor is it a passion corrupted but these desires have no origin in that which God originally created.
These are totally ‘unnatural’ desires.
Why satanic passions? Strong language! I would find basis for this in (John8:44):
i.“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning.” - murder
ii.“Ye are of your father the devil…for he is a liar, and the father of it.” – lies
iii.“sorcerers” (Rev21:8) – “pharmakeus” from “pharmakon” – a drug, drug addiction.
Biblical illustrations of Satanic Passions:
i.Cain and his murder of Abel.
ii.Judas Iscariot into whom Satan entered into to betray Christ.
All lust has the idea of desire.
A natural desire becomes a lust when that desire ceases to be used for the God given purpose it was created for and the lust itself becomes the focus of our adoration, attention and service:
Appetite becomes gluttony
Sexual desire becomes immorality
Desire for God degenerates into self-indulgent religion and idolatry.
It is a desire usually for the natural and at times for the grossly sinful
Natural desires will at best distract us from Christ and at worst separate us by sin from Christ.
If we follow lusts they will:
1.Take charge (James 1:14)
2.Our life becomes motivated purely with the desire to fulfill and gratify those desires (James4:1-3; 1Peter4:2; 2Peter3:3).
3.These lusts will then mold us (1Peter1:14)
4.They will war against the soul (1Peter2:11)
5.They will oppose the progress of the Spirit (Gal5:17)
6.The pursuit of such lusts will take us away from Christ (1Peter4:2; 1Jo2:16-17).
“12So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.” (Psalm81:12) – lust is desire abstract from God, it is human desire turned in on itself and caught up with itself, it lacks any absolute value or worth, any absolute meaning. The man or woman who is caught up with their lusts has been spiritually neutralised, spiritually disabled and are going around in circles.
God given desires need the controlling ministry of the Holy Spirit and must be guided by love: “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.” (1Co13:4-7).
Sinful and Satanic desires need to mortified, put to death, not simply controlled but cut off (Col3:5).
The desire of man ought to be for the presence of God, “My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.” (Ps84:2).
When a desire has become uncoupled from the steering wheel of love and has lost track of the destination of God it has become caught up with itself and has become lost.
“unfeigned love of the brethren”
We note however the tremendous power of the Passover Lamb: He is able to transform the human soul from “lust” to “love” (1Peter1:22).
It is this that God desires to mark me, that I might be marked by love:
1.It is the fulfillment of the law, the first and greatest commandment (Matt22:36).
2.It is the fruit of the Spirit (Gal5:22)
3.It is the final and supreme virtue to be added to faith (2Peter1)
4.It is the focus of the Spirits work in my life, “And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.” (2Thess3:5)
5.It is the foremost of all virtues (1Co13:13)
6.It is the fullness of God, “And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” (Eph3:19)
What does God desire from us? Worship? There is no shortage of those in heaven who worship Him? What is unique about redeemed man? Surely this that we alone in the universe have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without spot and without blemish.
Alone in the universe we appreciate personally, as its recipients the vastness of the love of God.
From us there comes not only worship by obligation but worship flowing from a deep gratitude and devotion to Christ.
Our love for Him comes from His love for us, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1John4:10). “We love him, because he first loved us.” (1Jo4:19)
What does God desire from us? Peter learned what the Lord desired, devotion that flows from love for Him: “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?” (1John21:15)
From that love for Christ flows our love to the brethren.
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