Holiness in an unholy world... (2)

So be holy in all you do...

Introduction

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve looked at our thoughts. God’s word says that we have the authority to take every thought captive that raises itself against the knowledge of God.

2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV)

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

It’s God’s will that we prepare our minds for action. It’s God’s will that we consciously put on the armour of God. It is not God’s will for us to be anxious, but it is His will that we have peace of mind. 2 Timothy 1:7

2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV)

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

We had three take aways from our first message:

We need to -

guard our hearts

think Godly thoughts

put our thoughts into action

Last week, we looked at setting our hope on Jesus’ return.

Jesus promised that He would come again and receive us to Himself. We need to live as though we expect Jesus to come back.

Hebrews 9:28 (NIV)

so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

This morning, we’re going to look at holiness and what that means for us today.

1 Peter 1:13–16 (ESV)

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.

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,

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.”

I think that we have a lot to unpack from this passage this morning, so let’s start by looking at verse 14.

As obedient children

We’ve all been here. We’ve all been children. I think that we’ve all been disciplined at one point or another. One of my first memories of being scolded or disciplined.

I was probably 5. Without saying anything, I decided to go for a walk out to the diamond harrows that were about a half mile away from the yard. I’m sure Mom was frantic and Dad was none too happy, but that day I remember the discipline.

Here Peter draws a picture with two words, “obedient children.” Every parent loves it when their children are obedient. It makes parenting a lot easier. Here, Peter emphasizes that those who hope in Jesus’ return are children of God.

1 John 3:1 (NIV)

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

God has lavished His love on us in Jesus. Because Jesus died on the cross, we have been given the right to be called children of God because we believe in His name.

As obedient children, what are we supposed to do?

Every parent has expectations on their children. When we were growing up, our parents had expectations on us, some we would have considered fair and some we would have considered excessive. For those of you who are parents, you have expectations that you place on your children. It could be something as simple as if you drop something, you need to pick it up. As the kids get older, it could be taking out the garbage, cleaning their room, washing dishes, and helping clear the table after supper. It may be something as simple as treating each other with respect.

Nonetheless, we understand what expectations are. God has expectations for His children too.

Do not be conformed

1 Peter 1:14 (ESV)

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,

1 Peter 1:14 (NIV)

As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.

The word in this sentence that really sticks out to me is conform. As some of you may know, I was a leader in a 4H Beef Club for twelve years. During my time in 4H as a member or even as a leader conformation in cattle was very important. What is conformation? I’m glad you asked.

Conformation is the physical structure of the animal. It’s up to the person judging the animals to choose between animals to see which is more desirable in their eyes. If you have ever been to an exhibition where animals are shown, there can be great variety in the animals judged: cattle, sheep, horses, dogs, cats, rabbits, and the list can go on and on.

As somebody who owns animals, I look for certain things in their structure to either keep or cull my animals. For those of you who have dogs, when you went to look for your puppy, there may have been several pups in the litter. There was something that you looked for when you saw the puppy that you took. It may have been colour, sex, temperament. It might have been that your’s didn’t make shy. Your’s might have been a little bigger or a little smaller, but there was just something that you liked more about that one then the others in the litter even though their genetics were identical.

God has a standard that He is looking for in children as well. 1 Peter 1:14

1 Peter 1:14 (NIV)

As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.

1 Peter 1:14 (NLT)

So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then.

When we come to believe in Jesus, things start to change. We aren’t the same as we used to be.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

What this means is that we are no longer bound to the law of sin and death. We have been given a new nature.

When we start to talk about becoming new in Christ, It can bring us to words that can be a little intimidating: justification and sanctification.

I’m going to try to make it as simple as possible. Romans 5:1

Romans 5:1–2 (NIV)

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

Justification

Justification “means that God accepts us just as we are. He has shown him- self willing to forgive by the death of His Son on the Cross. Our part is simply to trust God to keep His word and "accept our acceptance:' This is justification by grace through faith. At the moment God accepts us on the basis of His mercy and love, He begins to transform us into the kind of person He intends us to be. (Laymen’s definition of sanctification)

Because Jesus died on the cross and fulfilled what God’s expectations of us was, we stand righteous, holy, and set apart to do what God wants us to do.

Sanctification

Sanctification is the process of being made holy. When you believe that Jesus died for you, something takes place on the inside of you. God accepts you just as you are and He makes you holy. He sets you apart to fulfill the plan that He has for your life. This is where we dedicate ourselves to live for God. It takes place instantaneously at salvation but it also continues throughout our life until we see Christ. Then we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is.

According to the Laymen’s definition of sanctification, “The bottom line is that we do not have to earn God's favor by what we do. Neither do we have to qualify on the basis of some kind of ethical holiness within. We simply take His gracious gift of forgiveness and acceptance. After having received us "just as we are; God begins the process of trans- forming us into the kind of persons He intended us to be.”

Instead of being conformed to the evil desires God begins to transform us so that we can be like Jesus.

Peter said, 1 Peter 1:14

1 Peter 1:14 (NIV)

As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.

Now that we are children, God calls us to resist our old ways. As we are discipled, we don’t need to keep doing the things we used to. This is where the battle comes in with our sinful nature and living life according to the Holy Spirit. This is where we have to make the choice to listen to the Spirit. Many times the craving to do something we shouldn’t is still strong, but God will give you the strength to overcome temptation.

Romans 12:2 (NIV)

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Just as He who called you is holy...

1 Peter 1:15 (NIV)

But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;

We serve a God who is holy. This “means that he is completely separated from sin and evil.”

Barton, B., Comfort, P., Osborne, G., Taylor, L. K., & Veerman, D. (2001). Life Application New Testament Commentary (p. 1106). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale.

Life Application New Testament Commentary (A Call to Holy Living / 1:13–2:3)

He is the opposite of anything profane. God’s righteousness demanded that there needed to be payment for sin, but His mercy and His love demanded that He needed to make the payment for our sins.

1 Peter 2:24 (NIV)

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

One thing that is not part of God’s nature is to sin. He detests sin so badly that when Jesus was on the cross He cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?”

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NKJV)

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

If we look at Isaiah, who was a prophet some 700+ years before Jesus was born, this is what he saw in a vision.

Isaiah 6:1–8 (NIV)

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.

And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

When Isaiah saw the LORD”s holiness and His majesty, he was in awe. I believe that as we see God’s majesty, we will be in awe.

Because of who He is, He calls us to be set apart too.

Be holy because I am holy

1 Peter 1:16 (NIV)

for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

God calls us to imitate Him. He wants us to be like Him. God wants us to be shaped, moulded, and conformed into the image of Jesus.

Paul gave the Ephesian church a stern admonition in Ephesians 5. We mustn’t take it lightly because even though God is love and He is a God of great mercy, He is righteous and holy.

Ephesians 5:1–16 (NIV)

Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children

and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.

Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.

For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.

Therefore do not be partners with them.

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light

(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)

and find out what pleases the Lord.

Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.

But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.

This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise,

making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

Brothers and sisters, we live in a time of grace, but let’s use this grace and mercy as an opportunity to bring others to Christ. He wants nothing more than to see people living for and loving Him. That’s why He went to the cross. Let’s not get sidetracked with the distractions of this world. but

Philippians 3:14 (NIV)

press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Let’s pray!