The Calling to Purity: Be Holy, for I Am Holy: Part 1

Holiness, the Second Coming, and Peter’s Call to a Holy Life

Notice all the songs that have been selected as the theme is holiness. Holiness, and this is exactly where Peter is taking us in this wonderful chapter, 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. This has been a wonderful study as we return back to this as we took a small little break.

We looked at the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and we'll show you in these verses today that the Apostle Peter is talking about living holy before the Lord, before God our Father in the light of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is exactly where he points us to. 1 Peter chapter 1, beginning with verse 13. I'd like everybody to stand in honor of God's word please. Just three verses of scripture, these three verses of scripture are loaded up.

They are loaded. Word of the living God, hear God's living word. Therefore gird up the loins of your mind. Be sober, rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lust as in your ignorance. But as he who has called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Because it is written, be holy for I am holy.

Let us pray and seek the Lord's help this morning through his Holy Spirit. Our Father we thank you this morning for your holy word. Everything about you Lord is holy. Your name is holy. And actually we are to pray, hallowed be thy name.

For your name is most holy. You are the most holy God. The city in which you dwell and you are made is holy.

A holy city.

And you will have a holy bride. A holy people unto yourself. Through the holy Son, through the holy blood of Jesus. By the Holy Spirit. Father we thank you again for your holy word. A means, a holy agent in which we can keep ourselves pure and holy from sin and defilement.

And Father for it is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Showing us O Lord by the light in which it gives. The light our way in which we should walk in this dark and sin sick and troubled world.

Father I pray this morning that you alone would give us the hearts to obey you. And to be a holy people unto yourself. A peculiar people called out of darkness unto your marvelous light. A distinct people.

Father set apart from this world is light shining in darkness. To live those lives which are being shipwrecked Lord that we would set an example. Because of such or disregarding the heavenly wisdom through the word.

And Father we pray that we would ask you now to teach us by your blessed Holy Spirit. The spirit of truth our teacher be. Showing us the things of Christ to be. By your word and by your spirit to teach us and give us a heart again to love you.

And to live a holy life unto you. That would be pleasing in your sight by your grace. And Father we would ask these things in Jesus name. Amen and Amen. Thank you so much. This particular section of scripture deals with the believer's response to God's great salvation.

In our Lord Jesus' parable in Luke chapter 12 verse 48. The Lord says this and this is speaking of the parable of the steward.

The faithful steward.

And then Jesus says this. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required. This principle surely also relates to the Christian's response to salvation. Everything we've seen up until this point is the greatness of God's salvation.

You can read that all the way through the doxology in which he begins. And after the introduction. In verse 1 and 2. The doxology he speaks of is from verse 3 actually all the way to verse 12. A wonderful doxology of the greatness of God and the greatness of His salvation.

And speaking of our Lord's words. Much that has been given, much will be required. This principle surely relates to the Christian's response to our salvation. I'd like for you to keep that before you as we look at this.

Because this is so gravely important. I tremble before you as I bring this word because of the great importance. That is required of each Christian and believer to live a holy life. And to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

And let me begin by saying this. That since no gift is greater than God's great gift of salvation. Forgiveness and salvation in Jesus Christ through the blood. Nothing could demand a greater response.

In other words, the greatest gift that carries with it is the greatest obligation. Salvation by grace alone that brings us to the greatest responsibility. By grace daily we owe much. And we owe our lives as believers to the Lord Jesus Christ.

We owe our all to Him and nothing less. And this is how we should live our lives before God and before others. And if you notice I said before others. Ultimately before God. But it is also before others.

There's a vertical and there's a horizontal. You have a cross. That is the cross life. In which we should take up daily. How should we then live? Peter gives us the instructions. From verse 13 to verse 16.

Writing to many Christians who had come from pagan backgrounds. Living in a pagan society where there were great pressure upon them to conform to the world. And by worldly ways of practice. The Apostle Peter calls his readers to holiness.

In light of the second coming of Jesus Christ. And by the way the second coming of Jesus Christ is the blessed hope. That is the blessed hope. And he speaks of this hope. And the holy character of God who calls us to that salvation.

Now this is what we are going to look at. Peter summarizes three very important points. The first being. To be holy people we must be focused on Christ's second coming. The blessed hope.

Second.

Is to be obedient children to God in all life.

And third.

Is an ever growing knowledge of God's holiness.

In which we believers.

In which we walk and live. Before God and before others. We should be growing in maturity. Growing in holiness. If you are not growing in holiness there is something wrong. That is where we need to examine our hearts before God.

And see if we are in the faith. Because holiness always follows sanctification. Another word for holiness. Always follows regeneration. Always follows justification. And J .C. Riles says actually a sanctified life is really the only outward evidence that we have.

The knowing that we are justified. We are justified by faith. But that justification works its way out. And which is an instant once and for all act that has already been done for eternity.

It has happened.

God has declared us justified.

Righteous.

Before Him. In Jesus Christ. His imputed righteousness to us by faith. But what follows that is sanctification. Not the other way around.

Right?

A lot of people believe that the other way around. Actually our Roman Catholic friends believe that. Unfortunately in other words you got to be somehow holy enough and good enough to get your way to heaven.

Like holiness is the way to God. But no it is the other way around. Christ is the way to holiness. So sanctification always follows out from justification. I think it was a great commentator years ago that said where justification ends, sanctification begins.

That is so true. So we need not to forget these three points of great truth to help us to remind us on our journey to the celestial holy city. Where a holy God lives. And if we do not have a desire to be holy, then there is no reason for people to live there in that holy city.

And unfortunately to say, hell is full of people that knew about holiness folks. And they are in hell forever right now because they were not made holy. They did not desire holiness. They did not love holiness.

They did not hate their sin. And now because they love their sin, they are being burned and purified. Their souls will be purified from the horrors of hell forever and ever. Because they were never made holy.

Now our God is a consuming fire. Keep that in mind. And by the way, for the purification effect to take place, it takes fire. God is a consuming fire. And the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.

But the fire purges us. The purging and the purification. And this may be some hard words for all of us this morning. It is hard words for myself. Because we live in a dirty world. And our hearts are dirty.

And the world is dirty because of sin. And rebellion. And hatred toward God. And God's holiness comes on the scene. And it is traumatic.

Isn't it?

And people want to back away from it. Because they are terrified of it. I don't know about you, but when I first heard the law of God, there was a terror that came to my heart. It revealed my sin. It revealed for who I really was.

And I looked in the mirror of the perfect law of liberty. And I saw myself. And if you really want to see a sinner, just look in the mirror every morning. We have all fallen short and come short of the glory of God.

I was witnessing to someone yesterday. And Brother Keith was speaking. And this particular man, an older fellow, was agreeing with us. Everything Brother Keith was saying about the gospel. And then he said, but you can't overlook the goodness of man.

And I love what Brother Keith did. And he thought the same thing I did. I was over there praying while he was speaking. And he took him right to the gospel about the rich young ruler that came to Jesus.

And said, good teacher.

And even the Lord Jesus Christ himself says, there is no one good but God. Our goodness and our righteousness is filthy rags before God. Amen.

People say, what about the good deeds people do?

But you know, if there is anything good out of it, it is because of God. Every good and every perfect gift, every one comes from God, the Father of lights. Which is no variable and is a shadow of turning.

And that is what we do. Amen. We appoint people to the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, people say, well you can't overlook the goodness of man. What are you talking about? Look at this world. People devouring one another, killing one another.

Violence fills the earth. Hatred every place you can see. And yet he talks about the goodness of man? Really? Well, we need to appoint people to Jesus. Amen. Jesus said that in the sense that he was the perfectly holy God.

The Son of God in flesh. And he didn't stand and say before this religious band that was seeking eternal life. He didn't say, well I am holy. Well, absolutely, he would have been right. But what Jesus did in a winsome way was appoint him to the holiness and goodness of God.

Well, Peter does this. Let's look at our first point. To be holy people, we must be focused on Christ's second coming. Christ's second coming. And the first thing Peter says is, Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Look at this first word he begins. The transitional word, the conjunction, therefore. He moves the reader from the statement to application. He moves them from truth to application. Now this is application.

From fact to interference. It directs the believers to the main emphasis of this verse, which is to gird up the loins of your mind. Another translation says to fix their hope. Peter exhorts believers in a military fashion, in a military style, battle language.

This is battle language. Have you noticed it's a battle? We just sung every thought, every motive, to be pure and holy before God. It's a battle to keep your mind holy. And thoughts, and by the way, the thought life, that's where he begins.

It's a decisive kind of action to a hope, that is to act of the will. It's an act of the will and it is a command to live expectantly, anticipating the living hope, Christ coming back, the inheritance that is reserved in heaven, that is to be revealed at the last time.

Beloved, this is a call to live holy. It's a battle call. It's a battle call to holiness. Have you found out in this world yet that it's a battle to live holy? It is a constant battle to live holy. But God is here to help us, beloved.

To help us every step of the way.

Holy living.

The first thing is, holy living in the light of Christ's coming begins in the mind. The mind. Do not forget this. There is an order that the Spirit of God gives Peter, the Apostle Peter. Therefore, in the light of the great salvation that he speaks of the past, he directs to live in the light of the future salvation to come.

Notice this. God has been merciful to you. He's given you his salvation, but it's something that has happened in the past, but it's also something that's going to happen in the future. There's going to be a fulfillment.

That's the blessed hope when Jesus returns. And he says, therefore, gird up the loins of your mind. Let's look at this. Just as people in biblical times would gather up their long robes in that culture, they would tie their robes up around them and around their waist so that they could be more quick and more free to do and whatever it takes for them to run and to focus their way through.

They couldn't run in robes.

They would trip up back then in that culture. Yes, the men wore robes. But he would say, gird up the loins. Gird up the loins of your mind. That's interesting, isn't it?

The way he puts this.

And what he's saying is, he's saying to focus our thoughts and minds on those things that would allow us to serve God more and more, all the while eliminating the thoughts that would trip us up. There's a verse, chapter and verse for this.

Hebrews 12, 1 and 2. You can turn there if you like to. It's one of my favorite verses. I've preached on it several times. I know it's Miss Lillian's favorite verse. And he says this, therefore, and he speaks that therefore of all those saints that lived by faith, by the way.

And then all these saints that lived by faith, and he says now he's going to point them to the ultimate one in which they kept their faith and their eyes of their faith upon. And anticipated for him to come.

Now we look back to the one who has come. He says, therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin,.

Which so easily, you hear that?

Easily ensnares us. In other words, it would trip you up. And let us run with patience, with endurance, the race. It's a race that is set before us. Verse 2, looking unto Jesus. There's three words you need not forget.

Looking unto Jesus. Looking unto Jesus. The author and the finisher of our faith. He started us off. He's going to finish us. Who for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

In other words, the writer of Hebrews says, he has made it into glory. He's at the right hand of God. And you're going to make it to glory. He's going to keep you. He's going to hold you fast. But you've got to live holy.

Now, holiness is not going to get us into heaven, but the scripture says, without holiness, no one shall see the Lord. What does that mean? Basically, it means you're justified, but you need to continue to be sanctified.

There's times the scripture does say, if you continue, in these words, if you continue, Jesus says, he that endures to the end shall be saved. We're saved to the uttermost, but we shall be saved when we ultimately arrive to the end.

And we're going to talk about this in a minute, but there are many people in the Christian faith that has been shipwrecked and a castaway. That means disqualified in the race. They're in the race, and then all of a sudden, they're tripped up,.

They're ensnared,.

They're in a pit of sin, and they become disqualified. They can be forgiven, they can recover, but there's grave discipline to be taking place in the process of that. But God keeps His people to the end, but there's something at the same time.

We need to do.

We need to continue in the faith.

And all along,.

When we see that the continuing is not our power, it's God's power. Even though there's a responsibility for us to do, it's God and His sovereignty that keeps us and keeps us and preserves us, and God's a keeping God, right?

But is it because He's a keeping God that I back off and do nothing and sit down and do nothing? Well, actually, if I do nothing, something's wrong. What is Peter saying? Gird up the loins of your minds.

Battle spiritually against the world, the flesh, the devil, to gird up the loins of your mind. You know what he's saying? Prepare your mind for action. This is action. The meaning here is metaphorically.

He's speaking metaphorically, and it's applied to one's thought process, one's thought life. I don't know about you. This is where sin begins. Read it in the Scriptures. The seeds of sin are in our minds, beloved.

And because what comes from the mind is an overflow from the heart. What he's saying is pull up, pull in all the loose ends of one's thinking by rejecting the hindrances of the world and focusing on the future blessed hope of the grace that is to come.

Ephesians 6 .14. Stand therefore having girded your waist with truth. That's what you gird up with is truth.

How do you do that?

Colossians 3 .2.

Set.

Don't miss these small words. That means lock in. Set your mind on things above. If you've been born from above, you're going to think about the things above. You're going to think about the heavenly city.

You're going to think about Christ above. God above. All that's above. Not on the earth. Not on the things of the earth. The point is this. Holiness begins in the thought life. Holiness begins in the thought life.

What you think is who you are. What you think determines how you live. How you live out your life is what you think. You've heard the saying, garbage in, garbage out.

Right?

What people put in their minds is the way they live out. Before a person commits adultery, an act of sin, an act of adultery, an act of fornication, they have already went through the thought process, beloved.

It has entered their thought life right here. Because it's a cesspool of sin within the hearts of man. And within that heart, it goes to the mind. When God redeems us, we have to continually renew our mind.

I think of it like a computer. You get on the computer, you want to delete the trash. You get trash on your computer. Delete it.

Erase it.

Well, you erase these things, these bad thoughts. And how do you fill it? You fill it with good things. And we're going to look at that in a few minutes. So your thought processes determine how you live.

One of the most practical things I can tell you this morning is that the Christian life is this. You have to deal with the sin on your thought level. You've got to judge yourselves, beloved. You must examine yourselves in the faith.

I cannot do this for you.

But you can do this.

By the Word of God, you must judge yourself. And this is the standard in which you judge yourself. The Word of God. You know, people in the world today, who are you, my judge? And you know, all you've got to do is just read Scripture and automatically you've got people.

Judge, not least you be judged.

They use that word.

It's about the only Scripture they know, by the way. That's the truth, isn't it? You give them the Word of God. And I'm telling you, this Word will cut you up. And if you haven't already noticed it, as Brother Key says, it cuts yourself up too.

It's so pure. It's razor sharp. It cuts in, it cuts out, and it heals. And not only cuts, there's a healing process. But the instant you have to judge your thoughts and you have that instant, you have to bring them before God and confess them to God and agree with God and replace those thoughts with Him and His Word.

Renew your mind day by day. That's what the Scripture says. Renew your mind with the Word of God. Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. That makes me think of 2 Corinthians 10. Go with me there, please.

2 Corinthians 10. And you talk about real spiritual warfare. This is real spiritual warfare right here. It's not just battling devils. It's battling the fleshly thoughts. You've got to fortify the walls, the fortresses of your mind.

This is a battle of the mind, beloved. There are strongholds. And those strongholds must be taken down. Verse 3. 2 Corinthians 10. 2 Corinthians 10. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.

Listen to the Word of God here. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They're not fleshly, in other words. They're not worldly. But it's mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds. God wants to help you pull these strongholds down.

The weapons of our warfare. See, they're weapons. What's the weapon? The truth. And Paul goes through that list as well in Ephesians 6. But look at what he says here. Verse 5. Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought...

Notice there. Every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Verse 6. And being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. It's interesting he brought this out about every high thing.

The strongholds. Overlooking the ancient city of Corinth. Corinth can relate to the high places. There was a hill that was 1 ,857 feet high. And on top of it was a fortress. They understood what Paul was talking about.

So he uses this illustration. And Paul used that imagery as an illustration of the spiritual warfare he waged. You've got to destroy strongholds. Cast down the towers. You've got to take them captive.

You've got to take them captive and bring them down. The fortress towers. Captives represent the arguments, the thoughts, the plans that Paul was opposing. And Paul said cast down all rationalizations, philosophies, anything that would be against the knowledge of God.

Take it captive to the obedience of Christ. Every perception, every intention of the heart that's against God.

That's a battle. That's a battle.

That's why Peter says gird up the loins of your mind. In other words, roll up your sleeves. This is a battle, friend. You're going to have to battle. You've got to fight the good fight of faith. Our actions reveal our thoughts, beloved.

So we should not cling to thoughts that do not conform to the life and the teachings. We should not cling to the thoughts that do not conform to the life and teachings of Christ. Paul did not walk according to the flesh and his worldly desires, but instead he conquered the flesh.

He had to mortify it.

He had to put it.

He says I die daily.

I mortify it. I put it to death.

I beat it.

I like what MacArthur says. Brother Keith and myself use this all the time. You don't buffet the body. You beat it under subjection. You discipline it. It explains the strategy. I discipline my body and I bring it into subjection.

Well, that says a lot. This is a real spiritual warfare, beloved. It's the battle for the mind. That's where the real battle is. Believers need to cultivate holy thoughts into the mind and to be holy, and we must reprogram our minds with the Word of God.

Not with good stories, but with the Word. Master this Word and it will master you. Master the Word of God. Know this book. Meditate on this book. Eat this book like it's your necessary food, folks. You know, doesn't our physical body starve for food?

Go without food for a couple of days and see what happens. Your stomach begins to growl. Say, I got to have food.

Doesn't it?

Try to go. I don't know. A lot of people can't go without one meal. But go several days without food. Have you neglected God's Word?

How many days?

If you neglect God's Word a whole week, you have starved your spiritual man to skin and bones. You must feed that spiritual man just like you feed your body. We need to guard what enters our mind, by the way, too.

As carefully as we guard is what we eat. You know, we live in a world today, everybody's guarding what we eat. I need to guard what I eat. All this fattening stuff. I need to eat healthy. Here's the healthiest thing you can feed your spiritual man.

It's the Word of God.

Feed it.

Holiness begins in our mind as we think often of our Savior and our Lord and the gracious salvation we will fully experience when our Lord comes. And we will be changed into His likeness. The next point is, holy living in the light of Christ's second coming requires spiritual alertness.

Spiritual alertness.

Let's see what he says here. Back to 1 Peter. He says, be sober. Verse 13, be sober. Gird up the loins of your mind and be sober. This is an important word. This is a favorite word for Peter, by the way.

He uses it three of the six uses in the New Testament. Verse 13, which is here. Verse 7 of chapter 4. And verse 8 of 5. In 1 Peter 4, 7. But the end of all things is at hand, therefore be serious. In other words, be sober and watchful in your prayers.

1 Peter 5, 8. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, roams about, he walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. We have an enemy. We have an adversary. Folks, he does not play by the rules.

And Peter says by the Holy Spirit, you've got to be sober. You've got to be self-disciplined. And the NASB says, be sober spirited. Be on the alert. Disciplined spirit. You must be disciplined of mind, on alert.

Strong confidence, by the way, in the sovereign care of God, does not, as I've already mentioned, does not mean that the believer may live carelessly. On the contrary, the believer should live more self-disciplined and more alert.

Can I give an illustration here? If a literal lion was walking out there right this moment, on the loose, and you know that lion could tear you to pieces, wouldn't you be careful and on the alert and sober not to go out these doors?

Wouldn't it be wise to control and not to go for a stroll here and to warn your children, let the little ones go out there and roam about when there's a lion on the loose? We wouldn't be goofing off, would we?

We would be on the lookout for any sign of it. We would be on the alert for the enemy, for the creature out there that could literally tear you to shreds. And the lion can do it, couldn't it? We would take every precaution so that we would not allow that lion to be our next victim.

He's on the prowl. He sees you and he sees a big piece of steak like we see steak. But the point is this, in that illustration. We live in enemy territory. Don't we? We do.

It's a battle.

And you and I need to feed our minds on the good things of the Word of God and not feed our minds on the garbage of the world. If we feed our minds on the garbage of the world and don't feed our minds on the Holy Word of God, it's like getting drunk and losing your senses and going out there staggering if there's a lion ready on the prowl and to eat you up.

I mean, that's a crude, simple illustration, but you're dead meat. You're not going to be a holy person. I'm not going to be a holy person. Some would think that this is sounding very legalistic, but notice the next point.

By the way, what I was about to say is the only way you can be holy is first of all you've got to be born again. You've got to have a holy desire to be holy. You think these people out here that are walking zombies and dead in their sins and trespassers and has a desire to be holy?

Not on your life. You mentioned holiness. It's a get away from me. I don't want to hear it. And a lot of people in the church automatically start preaching about holiness.

They say, you're legalistic.

Ask them what they think about the Puritans.

They're legalistic. Really?

They had a loving desire. They had a longing to love God and a desire to be holy. Oh my, that we need so desperately today. Well, my next point is this. Holy living in the light of the second coming of Jesus Christ is also motivated by grace.

And that's where I want to take you here. It's not legalistic here. Peter says, rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. In other words, fix your hope completely on the grace.

Can I encourage you today?

It's God's grace that motivates you and I to be holy. It's not mustering up under and saying, well, I'm going to make myself holy. Well, you know, you've got to have a desire for that. But what gives you the desire?

God's grace. God's grace. Notice what God's grace does. It motivates holy living. The word brought to you. Brought illustrates or emphasizes, I should say, that it is the grace of God. In context. The context here that speaks of the grace of God and Jesus Christ himself.

The grace of God's supreme gift. The gracious gift is Jesus Christ. That's the grace. Can I give you another scripture for this? Go to Titus chapter 2. You know, I quote this quite often. You should know where I'm going here.

Right after 2 Timothy. You'll be there. Notice what it says. And I'm going to show you by scripture right now. That it is God's grace that teaches us to live holy. Titus chapter 2. Notice verse 11. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.

Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts. We should live soberly. There's that word again. Righteously and godly in this present age. Looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Notice he calls him great God.

He is God.

And Savior Jesus Christ. Who gave himself for us. That he might redeem us from every lawless deed. And purify for himself his own special people. Zealous for good works. Stop right there. And notice what he speaks of.

The Father has sent the Son. The Son has brought salvation to all men. That does not mean universal salvation, beloved. Basically what he's saying in general to humanity. Not to every individual. Jesus Christ had made a sufficient sacrifice to cover every sin of everyone who believes in him.

That's what he's saying. Notice what he says. First of all to deny ungodliness. This is exactly what God's grace teaches us to do. Because how do we know this? Notice the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared.

Verse 12. Teaching us.

What teaches us?

God's grace. Number one. Denying ungodliness.

Number one.

That means anything. You turn away from anything and everything that is unlike God. Wow, that eliminates a lot of things. In other words, it's ungodly.

Ungodly.

It's not God-like. It's ungodly. Ungodliness.

Second.

Worldly desires. Worldly lust.