8-19-2018 Holy, Holy, Holy! 1 Peter 1:13-17

Introduction:

There are godly people here that even if just for brief periods of time, had an impact on my life and your life. I fear many of us don’t say thank you enough to those that have invested themselves in me, in you, and in others---that come along side for a period of time and encourage you in the things of the Lord and I see a number of you that I honestly thank God for in helping to shape my life, to direct my steps. And there's a reminder constant reminder to me is the cloud of witnesses as we are in the arena running the race. The faithful ones that have gone before us and still encourages on.

As we open YHWH's Word, it's is exciting to see what YHWH is doing in our church. I do see that we still have a problem, and I consider it a potentially exciting problem. I see many empty seats in this building. Do you notice them? I think I know what we can do to help remedy some of this problem. It is an exciting kind of problem because it forces us to share our hope in a specific way to entice others to come and take part in this hope we have. Also, we then can praise God alongside the people that you're reaching and for the ministry of our local church.

As you might recall years ago at Grace you can look back and see many things that YHWH has done with the many people that have been through these very doors. And then, at least, I start to really consider the future as to how am I going to spend these days today and coming ahead, and what investments can I make now to reach my goal of the future personally as well as for the church. I come to the conclusion that the greatest investments that I can make is in the next generation. That includes the kids here today and the kids that are in our neighborhoods. And so I do spend some time with the young kids in our neighborhood as I get the chance in order to give the Gospel and model the Gospel’s power.

I'm very excited about the future. I am excited to see what us here at Grace today that a heart to serve the Lord will do and be called to do. But there are some things that concern me. And there are issues that we have to deal with not only as a pastor that I would see but also as we have a new fresh season coming in as we endeavor to serve the Lord. I fear we have been like the rest of the world caught up in the American dream. And whether we would identify ourselves completely with the world, the world still has an affect on the way we think. We're still soiled every day as we walk through a polluted society. And many of the themes that we find on billboards and radio stations and on television begin to shape our thinking. And so the average young person today even though they say I'm saved, I love the lord, I want to serve the lord” have been caught up with that type of philosophy. And so what do they pursue water they passionate about what they desire what is the direction they are heading. Well we have that saying to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And I start to think about that and I wonder where in the Bible does it talk about pursuing happiness. But I haven't found it yet. What YHWH calls us to in His Word is to pursue is holiness.

Transition:

Last week we looked at 1 Peter 4 and 5, but there is more to this letter, so 1 Peter chapter one, has this challenge is given to us —but not a new challenge, just as we can read all the way back into the Old Testament books because it is an overarching eternal theme that YHWH calls us to holiness.

Scripture Reading:

1 Peter 1:13–17 ESV

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 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,

Holiness meaning perfection, completion, full maturity, and the absence of sin. And what to me is a great paradox is that when we pursue holiness and come into the presence of an Almighty and a completely holy God, there is fullness of joy. But if we get caught up even as believers in pursuing the pleasures of this life and pursuing happiness and desiring to be a happy person we never ever find it. But here is a challenge: tell the average American to pursue holiness. What does that mean? What is that going to do for me? How do you know if this thing is holy or not holy? How dare you tell me that my habits are unholy. And when I said, “ tell the average American” I’m referring to unbelievers AS WELL AS believers. And I think we have to be honest a lot of abuses today.

When you drive down the road there's a ditch on either side. I see one of those ditches as externalism/pharisee-ism as in its focus on everything spiritual is on the outside— an almost legalism. Now don't misunderstand me, I believe YHWH cares about what's on the outside. YHWH cares about everything. But it's very easy to try to clean up everything that is external in your life and still be dead on the inside.

And the problem is in a lot of our conservative churches and I would see this in the past years is that when a new Christian comes in and they are just saved and they want to grow, our immediate concern--and I am guilty of this too-- the first thing I want to do a clean up all of the outside ugliness, all the bad habits of where they go, and what they do, and how they look. The problem is that they start to feel like, “Well I must be doing okay right now, because I look like everyone else in the church.” But in their hearts, then, they don't understand the idea of holiness.

I see that as one ditch, but then the other ditch is perhaps more pervasive today: is a looseness toward God. A carelessness toward the holiness of God. And a horrific abuse of the concept of grace.

Many young “believers” today say that they are just living the way they want to live, doing what they want to do, acting the way they want to act, because “well, I'm under grace.” You know the apostle Paul addresses that over and over and over again. Grace is not given for me to live the way I want to live. Grace is not this new concept for the New Testament meaning that those OT Israelites were under the law, but “now we're under grace so we are lawless, we just do what we want and God really doesn't care.” No, the God of the New Testament is just as holy as the God of the Old Testament. And we have this sloppiness in living out Christianity. A carelessness about the things of the Lord. I am reminded of a believer who had told me in response to a confrontation of sin, this believer had said, “Josh let’s stop playing church here for a moment and move to reality.” I was dumbfounded when I heard that! Out of shock, I had no idea what to say. However what I did ask this person was, “Is there really a difference between the two?” is church just an act we put on?”

Transition:

And so this morning, what I would like to do is to bring out from 1 Peter chapter one, a challenge to be holy to us--to this church, and to you as an individual to respond in a biblical way to the call of God for your life to be holy as He is holy. And I l find in this text four aspects to holiness. The first of these:

I. Holiness is the Exaltation of a Person

Look at verse 15

1 Peter 1:15–16 ESV

but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

So what is the basis of holiness? what is the premise of holiness that our God is holy? God is holy. And that holiness has been perfectly expressed in the person and the work of Jesus Christ. We cannot be again to understand the concept of holiness or the practical application of living a holy life until we began to see and to embrace a person. It is what we were drawn to. The scripture says, “for I am holy.” But I think that it is much easier for us to define our holy lives by telling people what we don't do.

In fact one time a while back a guy called the church and he said, “My name is so-and-so and our family is new to the area. We're looking for a church and understand your church is a Baptist church. I replied, “yes sir! We are a Baptist church!” and he said, “So if I come here, what are the things I cannot do?” Now think about that for a minute.

It is possible and we can identify holiness in a healthier way. We just naturally identify holiness by what we don't do. Now you can not do a lot of bad things and not be holy.

You can visit Salt Lake City and look around and see a lot of so-called Christians in the city. They all got nice haircuts, they have good outfits, and nice families walking together and just very clean cut, but these people are Mormons. The vast majority do not believe the Gospel--they are not saved. You might say, “Well, you know what? They don't do a lot of bad things.” So is that really how we identify holiness?

Holiness is beginning the exaltation of a person. I think sometimes when we begin to identify ourselves or shape our lives but what we don't do and we raise our kids in the concept of holiness of the things that you don't do. We keep from doing a lot of bad things and never embracing the Lord Jesus Christ as a person and we missed all, we've missed all.

I remember reading an amusing article. Dudley Hall wrote several years ago and he describes this as giving birthday party for his kids. I want you listen to this with the of focusing on the negative. He said, “As a father of 2 children, I have a lot of experience in attempting to remain sane at birthday parties for 5 year olds. I have learned to amuse myself without diminishing the kids enjoyment by suggesting a few new games. One of these is grossly named the spit game. Here's how it works. First I gather the kids together and welcome them to the party. And I say, ‘Kids, you are so welcome to be here. Thank you for accepting our invitation to celebrate David’s 5th birthday and I want you to have a good time so here are some suggestions. There is a big yard to play in and is full of great toys. You can climb the trees you can jump on the trampoline you can romp with the dog-- we really do want you to have fun. In just a little while we'll have some cake and ice cream. David will open his presents, there will be a party favor for everyone to take home. But there is just one thing. Do you see that flower bed right over there. No one is to spit in that flower bed. You understand that, don't you. Absolutely no one is to spit under any conditions in the flower bed. Now go and have a good time.’ You know exactly what will happen. Little kids that have never spat in their lives now have a desperate need to spit. Saliva begins to flow at an unprecedented rate. These kids are going to drown if they can’t spit. And sure enough one of them will finally succumbed to the overwhelming temptation and the flower bed will get watered.”

What is our focus? Our focus is the Lord Jesus Christ.

On Mary’s and my wedding day, it felt like the longest day of my life all before the wedding even began. We got married in a small city Wheat Ridge CO. Does anybody here know where Wheat Ridge is? It seemed like the preparations were going to last forever, the fine details were way too long to remember. The vows were all read by the pastor so that we didn’t have to worry ourselves about memorizing anything except “I do” I cannot even recall without looking at photos exactly who was there. Why? because the only thing I was interested in was Mary. My focus was completely on Mary.

I remember one of the the sayings in there that said “forsaking all others.” “To keep myself only unto you so long as we both shall live.” What I was saying was I was saying yes to Mary. at the same time when I said “I do” to forsaking all others, I was saying no to every other woman in the world. Yeah, you say “well the rest of the women really don't care.” Yes, I know that is true. I didn't care that the rest of the women in the world didn't care at all--I only cared about one woman. But It wasn't that I was just saying no to every other woman in the world, I was saying yes to only one. It was a positive beginning, it was a positive embrace with no attention given to the negative even though there were natural negative implications. That is the way YHWH has designed holiness to be.

It is the exaltation of a Person, it is embracing the Lord Jesus Christ-- holding on to Him. It is a separation unto Him as a Person. And the natural result is the saying no to all the wrong things. But I think we get ourselves in trouble when we focus on all of what we don't do rather than exalting the Person of Christ. It is the great identification.

Transition:

There is a second aspect that I want you to see in verses 15 and 16. Not only is holiness the exaltation of a personal holiness is the establishment of a position.

II. Holiness is the Establishment of a Position

If you note what he says in verse 15,

1 Peter 1:15 ESV

but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,

“he who called you is holy”

Think of this: In all that YHWH is, He is holy. And in all the things He does, He never ceases to be holy. So now we are challenged to be holy. Now when we consider what we are, what we have been, how we stand as a believer, and we see this expanded on in chapter 2 verse 9, look at what Peter calls us through the Holy Spirit as we saw last week:

1 Peter 2:9 ESV

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

How is YHWH describing you here? Holy. How can that be? How can YHWH say that I am holy? I know myself. I know the way I think, I know the way I act--especially behind closed doors. God describes Himself as holy and He describe us as a holy nation. And God’s standard for perfection is far beyond our comprehension.

So how could YHWH in his description be saying I am holy. I think probably the greatest text in the Bible to describe what takes place for Christ to make us holy, is found in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

When I consider my life--and I don't have the sensitivity about sin that God has, but you know and I know that I'm a sinner. From the crown of my head to the sole of my foot there is nothing good in me. I am totally absolutely corrupt and so were you. I am a sinner in 2 ways. The Bible teaches first, I was born in sin—original sin. Romans 5:12 tells me that I inherited sin-- I was born a sinner so before I made even one choice to do wrong, before I decided anything, I was born 100 percent corrupt.

The second way that I'm a sinner is I am a sinner by my choice. I have chosen to disobey YHWH, and all through my life--you've done the same--I've had wrong thoughts, I've committed wrong actions, and with wrong attitudes. And so when I start to consider my life, I am totally and absolutely corrupt--there is nothing good in me--nothing at all. That's me and that's you.

And so when I sin, it’s not only that I committed that sin, James 2:10 says I have broken the whole law. We are violators of the entire law. We are corrupt to the core. Now contrast that with Jesus, the Christ who came into this world on at least 2 counts. Number one he was born from perfect. From the seed of the Holy Spirit, not from the seed of Adam. From the seed of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was perfect and holy before The Father.

Then Second, when He was born, He lived a perfectly obedient life. He fulfilled all of the righteous demands of the Almighty Father. So here you have the perfect, spotless Lamb of God. And why did He come perfect? for what purpose? To save you and me and others. And that salvation, there is a great transaction. What took place was when the Christ fulfilled all of the righteous demands of YHWH in holiness, He lays down His life as a substitute for me, He took upon Himself all of my sins--all of my sin. So all my sin I described myself to be, my sinful thoughts and actions and everything about my life, has been put upon Jesus as He bore my sin on the cross. And he died. Do you think sin is a big deal, or should we just sweep it under the rug? The Father became satisfied in that death. Jesus rose and He conquered sin and death. But here's what happened to me and is so exciting. Not only did He take upon Himself all of my sin, He also credited to my account His righteousness. This is what we have to see. It's called imputation. He credited to my account so now I never have to pay the wages of sin. So when God looks down and sees me, no matter how I feel, He sees me clothed in the righteousness of the Son, and that's why He can say you are a holy nation. If you have had that salvation take place in your life, you are holy before YHWH. So here's a challenge: live what you are. God made you holy. Live what you are. For many that have put their faith and trust in Christ they do not understand who they are so share with them the Good News.

Transition:

There is a third aspect. Not only do we see the exaltation of a person, the establishment of a position, the next aspect of holiness is the engagement of a process.

III. Holiness is the Engagement of a Process

What is taking place now in your life as a believer? Thank God He is fashioning us and conforming us to the image of His Son. It is a lifelong process starting the day you get saved. The work of transformation is not just an external pressure. It is an internal transformation with external evidences. And all life long, YHWH is busy making you holy--it is the work of sanctification. It is a living out of what The Holy Spirit is doing in your heart.

This is one of the greatest concepts of the Christian life. If we look in second Corinthians again chapter 3. There is a verse that describes the work in such a magnificent way.

2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

If we were to diagram out verse 18, we can reduce it down to its most simple form of Subject, Verb, Object then it is that “we are being transformed”— We are changed. That is a passive verb! In other words, YHWH does the changing. God changes your life. He wants to be changing your life from the day that you have been saved all along conforming you, molding you, fashioning you.

So What?

So, sin is a big deal! It destroys holiness! Even the little white lies costs Jesus’ death to be forgiven!

Isaiah 5:20 ESV

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

Allow others to confront you in sin

Proverbs 27:6 ESV

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

Conclusion:

Instead of minimizing sin and making excuses for sin, confess, repent, and move on with the trust of forgiveness. That is how we can remain holy in the flesh.