After declaring the indicatives of what was true of them in Christ, Peter laid out a number of imperatives for the first-century readers of his first letter to take to coronary heart. As Alistair Begg factors out in his sermon “New Life, New Way of life,” his directions—to organize their minds, be sober-minded, set their hope on Jesus, be holy, dwell in reverent worry, love earnestly, and obey the reality—remind us in the present day of our want for grace and of the abiding reality of God’s Phrase:
The Phrase of God is totally reliable. The life that we all know is thru that Phrase. By His Phrase, God is happy to convey Himself close to. “To start with was the Phrase … the Phrase was with God, and the Phrase was God.” God steps down into time. … By God’s Phrase, He makes Himself current in our lives, in order that our studying of Scripture is a direct communication between the residing God and people whom He has adopted into His household …. By His Phrase, he makes His functions identified. By His Phrase, He accomplishes the needs that He has declared.
… The Phrase of God does the work of God by the Spirit of God within the lives of the individuals of God; … no matter vessel God chooses to make use of, it’s His Phrase, it’s the entrance of His Phrase, that brings gentle (Ps. 119:130).
That’s the reason the exhortation of the Scriptures is “Right now, should you hear his voice, do[n’t] harden your hearts.” I imply, you may hear my voice, except you’re deaf. However that’s not the voice. The voice for which we hear is the voice of God via his Phrase by the Holy Spirit. It’s a mysterious factor. … Who’s the preacher? No person is aware of how you can preach. There’s just one: Jesus Himself.
