The blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

from Bagster's Daily Light for the Daily Path

EHOLD the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.--The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.--It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me.--By which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Abel . . . brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. . . . The LORD had respect to Abel and to his offering.-- Christ . . . hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.--Having...boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.

HEB. 12. 24. John 1. 29.--Re 13. 8.-- He. 10. 4, 5, 10. Ge. 4. 4.--Ep. 5. 2. He. 10. 22.--He. 10. 19.

I am the LORD who sanctify you.

AM the LORD your God, who have separated you from other people. And ye shall be holy to me: for I the LORD am holy, and have separated you from other people, that ye should be mine.

Sanctified by God the Father.--Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.--The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus . . . that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.--Our Saviour Jesus Christ . . . gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.--Both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.--For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified through the truth . . . Through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

LEV. 20. 8. Le. 20. 24, 26. Jude 1.-- John 17. 17.--1 Th. 5. 23. He. 13. 12.-- Tit. 2. 13, 14.--He. 2. 11.--John 17. 19.--
1 Pe. 1. 2.

Sara...1 Peter 3:6

Peter writes, “Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord”

Sarah an older woman…and is proposed as an example, a template, a pattern, a mentor for the attitude and action Peter proposes for the winning of an unconverted husband.

One complaint from our older women is that the younger women ask them for counsel and then do the opposite of the advice given.

Choose right mentors, not Hollywood ‘babes’, nor Oprah nor The View!!!

You have worthy examples in your own congregation, even as Paul proposed: Titus 2:3-5

* The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; (Titus 2:3)
* That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, (Titus 2:4)
* To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. (Titus 2:5)

Sara obeyed Abraham, 1 Peter 3:6

Obeyed: Going along with him wherever he went, as from Chaldea to Canaan, and into Egypt, and the land of the Philistines, saying the words he put into her mouth, Gen.12:5 and doing the things he bid her do, as in last minute guests; Gen.18:6 "calling him lord"
Abraham: the father of faith
There are consequences to disobedience in the home…little eyes, and older eyes, are watching. Expect your behavior to be imitated!

1 Peter 3:1, Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands...

Wives of the ancient past were “in subjection unto their own husbands.” When Peter exhorts the female readers of this epistle to submit to their husbands, he bases his advice on a long-standing tradition. He knows that the women in ancient times demonstrated their submission with inner qualities that are highly favored in the sight of God.

We that are in this tabernacle do groan,being burdened.

LORD, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee...My iniquities have gone over my head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.--O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves, . . . which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, . . . groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.--Now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.

Shortly I must put off this my tabernacle.--For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

2 COR. 5. 4. Ps. 38. 9, 4.--Ro. 7. 24.Ro. 8. 22, 23.--1 Pe. 1. 6. 2 Pe. 1. 14.--1 Co. 15. 53, 54.

be in subjection to your own husbands...

Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; 1 Peter 3:1

Old Francis Quarles, in his homely rhymes, alluding to the superstitious notion, that the crowing of a hen bodes ill luck to the family, has said: -

“Ill thrives the hapless family that shows
A cock that’s silent, and a hen that crows:
I know not which live most unnatural lives,
Obeying husbands or commanding wives.”

...have mercy upon me: LORD, be thou my helper...

¹ I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me.
extol: to praise; to exalt in commendation; to magnify
² O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. ³ O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. ⁴ Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. ⁵ For his anger^a endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

^a his anger...: Heb. there is but a moment in his anger Ps 30:1-5

¹⁰ Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me: LORD, be thou my helper. ¹¹ Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; ¹² To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever. Ps 30:10-12

Beauty-model?

Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; (1 Peter 3:1)
When you are in subjection, in order, you model peace and order in your relationship at home, including your children; just as your husband must be subject at work & to gov’t.
When you are in subjection to your husband, you are modeling Christ-likeness, as Christ was subject to the Father and lovingly did all the Father’s will.
And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him. (John 8:29)

Is your imagination of God starved?

from: Chambers, Oswald: My Utmost for His Highest : Selections for the Year. Grand Rapids, MI : Discovery House Publishers, 1993, c1935, S. February 10

Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things. Isaiah 40:26.

The people of God in Isaiah’s day had starved their imagination by looking on the face of idols, and Isaiah made them look up at the heavens; that is, he made them begin to use their imagination aright. Nature to a saint is sacramental. If we are children of God, we have a tremendous treasure in Nature. In every wind that blows, in every night and day of the year, in every sign of the sky, in every blossoming and in every withering of the earth, there is a real coming of God to us if we will simply use our starved imagination to realize it.
The test of spiritual concentration is bringing the imagination into captivity. Is your imagination looking on the face of an idol? Is the idol yourself? Your work? Your conception of what a worker should be? Your experience of salvation and sanctification? Then your imagination of God is starved, and when you are up against difficulties you have no power, you can only endure in darkness. If your imagination is starved, do not look back to your own experience; it is God Whom you need. Go right out of yourself, away from the face of your idols, away from everything that has been starving your imagination. Rouse yourself, take the gibe that Isaiah gave the people, and deliberately turn your imagination to God.
One of the reasons of stultification in prayer is that there is no imagination, no power of putting ourselves deliberately before God. We have to learn how to be broken bread and poured-out wine on the line of intercession more than on the line of personal contact. Imagination is the power God gives a saint to posit himself out of himself into relationships he never was in.

Ye were as sheep gone astray…

Ye were as sheep gone astray…

Gill’s commentary: Here the prophet represents all the elect of God, whether Jews or Gentiles; whom he compares to "sheep", not for their good qualities, but for their foolishness and stupidity; and particularly for their being subject to go astray from the shepherd, and the fold, and from their good pastures, and who never return of themselves, until they are looked up, and brought back by the shepherd, or owner of them; so the people of God, in a state of nature, are like the silly sheep, they go astray from God, are alienated from the life of him, deviate from the rule of his word, err from the right way, and go into crooked paths, which lead to destruction; and never return of themselves, of their own will, and by their own power, until they are returned, by powerful and efficacious grace.

The discipline of dejection

from: Chambers, Oswald: My Utmost for His Highest : Selections for the Year. Grand Rapids, MI : Discovery House Publishers, 1993, c1935, S. February 7

But we trusted . . . and beside all this, to-day is the third day--Luke 24:21.

Every fact that the disciples stated was right; but the inferences they drew from those facts were wrong. Anything that savours of dejection spiritually is always wrong. If depression and oppression visit me, I am to blame; God is not, nor is anyone else. Dejection springs from one of two sources—I have either satisfied a lust or I have not. Lust means—I must have it at once. Spiritual lust makes me demand an answer from God, instead of seeking God Who gives the answer. What have I been trusting God would do? And to-day—the immediate present—is the third day, and He has not done it, therefore I imagine I am justified in being dejected and in blaming God. Whenever the insistence is on the point that God answers prayer, we are off the track. The meaning of prayer is that we get hold of God, not of the answer. It is impossible to be well physically and to be dejected. Dejection is a sign of sickness, and the same thing is true spiritually. Dejection spiritually is wrong, and we are always to blame for it.
We look for visions from heaven, for earthquakes and thunders of God’s power (the fact that we are dejected proves that we do), and we never dream that all the time God is in the commonplace things and people around us. If we will do the duty that lies nearest, we shall see Him. One of the most amazing revelations of God comes when we learn that it is in the commonplace things that the Deity of Jesus Christ is realized.

ye were as sheep going astray

1Pe 2:25 ...ye were as sheep going astray;
Before we delve into the pictures Peter uses, notice his phrase,
…ye were as sheep…we were before Christ found us wandering, lost sheep…
Adam Clarke: Formerly ye were not in a better moral condition than your oppressors; ye were like stray sheep, in the wilderness of ignorance and sin, till Christ, the true and merciful Shepherd, called you back from your wanderings, by sending you the Gospel of his grace.

Peter gleans this picture from his knowledge of the OT, and this is one of several quotations from Isaiah 53 on which he draws rich insight: All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)

Sheep! God chose, of all the animals in creation, to call human beings ‘sheep’. He could’ve compared us to cattle or horses or pigs or rhinoceroses, or kittens; be he preferred to call us sheep. Sheep have a strong and consistent tendency to stray off and become lost; a remarkable capacity for going wrong. They are very dumb animals. They are completely defenseless. They are unable to care for themselves. They have to be cared for and led.

One man writes, I heard of an incident where there was a huge flock of sheep walking along a trail. One of the sheep jumped over an imaginary obstacle. All the sheep following did the same.

For ye were as sheep going astray

1Pe 2:25 For ye were as sheep going astray;

Nieboer: A teacher asked Johnny, “John, if your father had ten sheep and one of them crawled through a hole in the fence and got lost, how many would he have left?” Johnny answered, “None.” “Well, John, you don’t seem to know your arithmetic.” “Well, ma’am,” said John, “Maybe I don’t know my arithmetic, but I do know sheep. If my father had ten sheep and one crawled through a hold in the fence, and got lost, the other nine would follow him.”

This is just what happened with the human race. Adam and Eve sinned and went astray, and all humanity strayed after them. So all are lost by nature, and their tendency is to wander farther and farther and farther away from God. Only as the good shepherd goes out after them will they be returned to their proper fold.

Action and Attitude from 1 Peter 2

Peter is making important statements in the preceding verses regarding suffering not due to our wrong attitudes and actions, but to urge us on to right attitudes and actions:

* Attitude: v. 1 Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, (1 Peter 2:1)

* Action: v. 12 Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. (1 Peter 2:12)

* Attitude: v. 16 As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. (1 Peter 2:16)

* Action & attitude: v.17 Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king. (1 Peter 2:17)

Be strong, and work: for I am with you, saith the LORD of hosts.

AM the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.--I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.--Strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.--The joy of the LORD is your strength.

Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets.--Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not.--The LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might.

If God be for us, who can be against us?--Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not.

Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.--Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

HAG. 2. 4. John 15. 5. Phi. 4. 13.-- Ep. 6. 10.--Ne. 8. 10. Zec. 8. 9.-- Is. 35. 3, 4.--Ju. 6. 14. Ro. 8. 31.-- 2 Co. 4. 1 Ga. 6. 9.--1 Co. 15. 57.

Oh that thou wouldest keep me from evil.

Oh that thou wouldest keep me from evil.

HY sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.--The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.

The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.--I will deliver thee from the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.--He that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.

Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.--The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations.

1 CHR. 4. 10. Lu. 22. 46.--Mat. 26. 41.
Pr. 30. 7-9. Ps. 121. 7.--Je. 15. 21.--
1 John 5. 18. Re. 3. 10.--2 Pe. 2. 9.