The Root & Result of Holiness

Introduction

Good morning brothers and sisters. I am delighted to bring the word of God before you this morning. We will continue working our way through the book of 1 Peter. I must confess that 1 Peter holds a very near and dear place in my heart. Like all of us who have been redeemed by the Lord Jesus, we certainly live colorful lives. Peter stands as an example of one who could be defined by his past his denial, his pride, and doubtfulness but instead is ultimately defined by the fact that he was born again according to the great mercy of Jesus, and is a partaker of an imperishable inheritance. Peter is an example of a person who botched it so many times and yet the Lord used him and still uses him for the furthering of the Kingdom. I pray that would be encouraging to you as it has been an great encouragement to me.

1 Peter 1:13-2:3 really is a text that should be taken together. Last week Andy looked specifically at 1:13-1:19 which focused on a call to action based the plan that God had to save his people. Peter spoke of this long expected salvation by pointing out that the prophets looked and longed for what has been clearly revealed in the work of Jesus in verses 10-12.

His simple argument is this: The long expected messiah, Jesus Christ has come as He said He would, and He has brought salvation and life with Him for those who believe in Him. Therefore, if you believe and trust in Him, follow Him and walk after Him in holiness and love as you live out the remaining days of this momentary exile.

This theme of exile is so clear in Peters epistle. It was so clear to Peter that if you have been adopted in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you are no longer a citizen of this world. You are a child of the king and you are citizens of His heavenly kingdom. Yet, in His plan he has left us here as exiles in the world to proclaim the good news until he returns.

Last week Andy did a great job calling our attention to the fact that while the Lord would have us here, we are to set our minds on the hope that is coming when the Lord Jesus returns for his people. With our minds set on this hope, we are to be holy not getting mixed up in the devises and affairs of this world but to persevere until the Lord brings us out of this exile to our eternal home.

Today as we pick up the second half of Peters argument he began in 1:13 we are going to break out text down in 2 main ideas.

The Root (1:17-21)

The Result (1:22-2:3)

If you would please stand in honoring the Lord as we read His pure, spotless, infallible, and trustworthy word.

Text 1 Peter 1:17-2:3

1 Peter 1:17–2:3 “And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

Exposition

1. The Root (1 Pet 1:17-21)

If you are a child of God, if you have been adopted and believe upon him who was raised from the dead, then God is your father. As we pick up in verse 17 Peter addresses the Children of God and reminds them that God is our Father. What a blessing it is to be able to call God our Father. Since God is our father and he is a good Father who keeps, watches, disciplines, protects us we are to conduct ourselves with fear before Him.

This fear that we are to have before him is legitimate because though we are judged on the basis of the righteousness of our better brother Jesus Christ we will still be judged by God. Peter tells us that the one who we call Heavenly Father judges impartially according to our deeds. We read elsewhere in the word that we will give an account for every careless word that we speak. Peter in calling attention to this judgement does not to say that our deeds are the basis of our acceptance before God but an indication of our commitment to Him. How we conduct ourselves during our exile is important. How you live your life in light of eternity matters because our heavenly Father cares for His children.

Thus is light of the fact that we will be judged by our deeds impartially by our father, we are conduct ourselves with fear while we wait for His return. I know that our tendency when we speak of this concept to to go to the extreme and to assume that if the Lord judges us according to our deeds that means that we are somehow saved by works righteousness. Brothers and sisters, no list of sins you have not done, no list of virtues you pursue, no list of those you aren’t like can earn your place in the family of God. Rather, as we are called to action and holiness we realize and we fear our Father knowing that if not for Him, His power, the blood of the Son and the work of the Holy Spirit we would want nothing to do with seeking to follow Him. The children of God will be Holy like their Father.

I love how one pastor puts it “Although it may seem odd for Peter to speak of living in “fear” of one’s “Father”, he does not mean by this to be afraid or live in doubt or anxiety about one’s relationship to God. The emphasis is on reverence, awe, and ever-present sense of utter dependency on the Lord’s power and mercy. Thus to “fear” God means to be conscious of his all pervasive presence and of our absolute, moment-by-moment dependence on him for light and life, keenly sensitive to our comprehensive responsibility to do all that he has commanded, fearful of offending him, determined to obey him, and committed to loving him.” - ESV Expository Commentary (Sam Storms)

In his reminder to you who call on God as father he points us to the his work in ransoming us. We conduct ourselves with fear throughout the time of our exile and as Peter reminds us 1 Peter 1:18–19 “knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”

You were ransomed from the ways of the world. You went from being a citizen of the city of destruction to an exile in a foreign land. The incalculable price on your head was paid. This price that was paid was not with gold, silver, dollars, bitcoin, xrp, pesos - you name it. You were ransomed by the precious blood of Christ. Praise be to God.

In 1973 a man named Jan-Erik Olsson, a convict on parole walked into KreditBanken, one of the largest banks in Stockholm and took 4 employees hostage as he attempted to rob the bank. During this hostage situation he was able to hold the hostages captive for 6 days in one of the banks vaults. Through a series of miscalculations by the authorities, the hostages were said to have felt safer in the hands of their captors than in the hand of the police who were trying to rescue them.

A pop psychologist after the hostages were rescued coined a popular term for this strange turn of affection for the captors popularly referred to as stockholm syndrome.

Brothers and sisters you have been ransomed from the futile ways of this world, from captivity to sin and been transferred to the loving arms of our gracious Father. We should joyfully walk after him in fear. To do anything otherwise, to flirt with the ways of this world, and to return to the futile ways of our former life is something like a spiritual stockholm syndrome.

Look with me now as we consider the root of our inheritance,

1 Peter 1:20–25 “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.”

The spotless lamb of Christ the means of our adoption, reconciliation, and ultimate salvation is the very root of our Holiness.

V.20 points us to the amazing fact that our salvation was not an afterthought but a plan from before the foundation of the world.

When Peter says that Jesus was foreknown before the foundation of the world he is not saying that God the father looked down the corridor of time and saw that Jesus was going to to be the means of redemption for - to use Peters term “the elect exiles” of God. The chosen people of God.

brothers and sisters God does not not foreknow things as a fortune teller or a diviner would foreknow things. God knows things as one who has known and knows all things at all times. God does not learn things. There is nothing he does not know. So when Peter tells us that Jesus was foreknown before the foundation of the world - he is saying that is was his sovereign plan for all time that Jesus would be the Redeemer of this people. It was not an afterthought or a reaction but a purposeful intent to send the Son.

To us finite creatures God did not reveal His plan all at once but has chosen now this time out of all times that the plan of redemption that was revealed over time as Peters says in 1 Peter 1:10–12 “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.”

Here he is we know now at this time, what he has done and is doing.

Jesus came for such a time as this to redeem his people.

Look with me now at verse 1 Peter 1:22–23 “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;”

Here we see the instrument by which God accomplishes our purification.

I think it is important to consider vs 23 before verse 22 as Christians we experience what Peter describes in verse 23 before we experience the purification described in verse 22.

Look with me at verse 23 again 1 Peter 1:23 “since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;”

If you are in Christ, you have been born again by the work of Christ. Peter says this in verse 3 of Chapter 1 1 Peter 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”

He has caused us to be be born again and he has brought about our salvation through the living and abiding word of God. I can assure you brothers and sisters that the Lords primary means for bringing sinners to salvation and ransoming them is through the living and abiding word of God. This is why the word of God is the central pillar to our liturgy and worship at Redeemer because we truly believe that the Word of God is powerful and needed for both believers and those who are not.

Peter quotes a passage from Isaiah 40:6 “A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.”

The one thing that will remain is the Word of the Lord. Believer don’t let it be lost on you what John teaches in the first chapter of his gospel.

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Peter and John were both disciples of Jesus’ teaching. Even Jesus said as he prayed for us to God the Father in John 17:17 “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”

So, we see here - That the root of our holiness is the abiding Word of God in our hearts. The instrument of purification for the christian and for leading us in obedience is the both the words of God and the Word of God.

This brings us to our next point:

2. The Result (1 Pet 1:22-2:3)

The result of our having been ransomed, and now sanctified is that we now can sincerely love one another from a pure heart.

You so often may hear those outside and inside the church refer to the bride of Christ as the chief of hypocrites. You have heard it said, “I don’t go to church because all of the people there are hypocrites.” Indeed, if we are honest with ourselves, we are all to some degree hypocrites and we still battle with the former nature. We can have seasons of spiritual stockholm syndrome having our affections tempted by the former manner, and pleasures of this life.

This is why Peter reminds us of these things. We have been purified and are being purified as we come to greater obedience to the truth so in order that we may love God and our neighbors more and more. We are called and commanded to love one another earnestly from a pure heart.

The result of now being ingrafted into the Root of holiness is that now, we love God and we are growing in love of our neighbor.

In light of this, Peter calls us as brothers and sisters, in exile together this way in Chapter 2

1 Peter 2:1–3 “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

Now that we are born again, connected to the root in loving one another we are to put away malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander.

If you really do a study of all of these things that peter mentions you see that all of these things we are to put away are rooted in loving ourselves more than we love God or our neighbor.

In having malice we treat others will ill intent by lying in order to advance ourselves, being hypocrites in order to appear one way while actually loving something else. We want what others have and not trusting God and slandering others in order to see ourselves glorified. This is not the way of those who have been born again, and purified through the work of God.

If we would be connected to the root of holiness and see the sanctification that comes Peter gives us imagery that we have all observed.

Look with me at 1 Peter 2:2–3 “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

We children of God are to long for the food that the Lord provides so that we may grow up more and more into salvation as we live as exiles waiting for our Lord to return.

So as we close, I ask you Christian are you growing in holiness? Are you known by the Love that you have for others? Or maybe you are struggling with a case of spiritual stockholm syndrome. If so, ponder your redemption. Remember that the Lord disciplines the children he loves and you will give an account to him. This is not a call for you to doubt the saviour but to lean into the one who has redeemed you!

If you do not know the Lord today did you know that the Lord is still redeeming a people? Did you know that the Lord has an active plan to save sinners? Will you believe upon him and be adopted? If you want to hear of this amazing salvation come talk to me or one of the elders today.

Lets pray...