The Bride's Holy Life

So in the previous two messages in our current series, we have been looking at how the first advent points us forward towards the second advent, and we have been discussing what was accomplished by that first coming of Christ.

And so as we previously talked about, it is important that we celebrate the birth of our

Savior, the incarnation, during this time of year, but that as we do so, we reflect and we remember, and that we take into account the entirety of the work, not just the baby in the manger, not just the nativity scene, the entire life of Christ, His death on the cross,

His burial, His resurrection, His ascension, His current state, all of these things need to be continually in our minds as we celebrate this season, so that we are looking forward, just as much as we are looking backward, we are looking forward to when

Christ shall return. Now, as you should recall, because you have probably all heard the

Christmas story a thousand times or more in your life, we've sung the songs, we know that it was a silent night, right?

We don't know if it was a silent night, but it's a wonderful thought. We know that it was certainly a somewhat quiet event that occurred in a manger in a small town, and literally the only spectacle that was made of it was pronounced to the lowest of people.

Hopefully, however, you understand that His return will be somewhat different.

John gives us a glimpse of it in Revelation chapter 19, as we read these words.

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sits on it is called fateful and true, and in righteousness he judges and wages war.

His eyes are a flame, and on his head are many diadems, having a name written on him which no one knows except himself, and being clothed in a garment dripped or dipped in blood, his name is also called the

Word of God. In the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses, and from his mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it he may strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, and he treads the winepress of the wrath of the rage of God the

Almighty, and he has on his garment and on his thigh written

King of kings and Lord of lords. Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, come, assemble for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of commanders, and the flesh of strong men, and the flesh of horses and those who sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great.

And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth, and their armies assembled to make war with him who sits on the horse and with his army.

And you know that as we continue through that return that ultimately these armies are defeated, ultimately we see this return, this overwhelmingly beautiful picture that transforms from a battle king to a final consummation between Christ and his bride,

God and his chosen people. This is the fulfillment of all that is promised in scripture.

In our first study, we examined the truth that the church is truly the fulfillment of what

God said in his word regarding his people. We demonstrated how the

Old Testament continuously speaks about God's chosen people, not as a singular ethnic group, but as a singular group, united people, consisting of people from all of the nations.

How the Old Testament expects the church that exists today.

Last week, after we saw both Jesus and John, the previous week, declare

Christ as the bridegroom of God's people, we saw the justification of those people prophesied in the prophet

Isaiah, Isaiah fulfilled in the work of Christ as he imputes his righteousness upon his lawful bride.

And as a result of that imputed righteousness, God declares believers just in his sight.

We came to an understanding towards the end of the message where we actually referenced the fact that the responsibility of the husband,

Christ, was to purify the bride. We read from Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus, chapter five, verses 25 through 27, where he says, husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word that he might present himself, to himself, the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and that she would be blameless.

What an amazing and beautiful truth that is presented for us in that passage.

In just those two short verses, three short verses, to be declared just in the eyes of the almighty

God the one who is truly just, truly righteous, and absolutely at all points, holy, to be saved, to be secured by the hand of the almighty himself for all of eternity.

But what if I told you that that portion, that declaring just was just the beginning?

Now, I wanna be very clear about what we're talking about, so we're gonna walk this slowly today. All too often what we have is we bring people to a certain point.

We show them the hope of Christ, we show them the hope of having their sins forgiven, we walk them to the edge of professing faith, and then we walk away leaving them at somewhat of a preface, a big cliff, a thing they can fall into, because I can't think of the word right now, and we walk away from them.

And when we do so, we leave them to deal with the rest of their lives without helping them to see that not only does

Christ impute his righteousness upon his bride, not only does God declare his bride just, and that all of that is absolutely accomplished by grace through faith, but that also

Christ, through the person and the work of the Holy Spirit, and the power of what is contained within his word, purposes to shape us into the true fulfillment of what we read in Holy Scripture.

You see, it's not enough for him to leave us there. What he describes for us in Ephesians 5, 25 through 27, is that we are presented in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such things, but that she would be holy and blameless.

Christ does not just simply impute his righteousness and walk away. We are not declared just and left alone.

There is something that results from the work of the

Holy Spirit, from the work of Christ, that is lived out in our lives, not as a means to an end, but as an evidence of that very justification that has occurred.

That leads us into our texts for today. So, this morning,

I'm gonna need you to do some finger gymnastics with me, and open up your copy of God's word to 1

Peter. Just stick your finger in chapter one of 1 Peter, and then after you've found 1

Peter chapter one, and keep your finger there, or your bookmark, or your pen, or however you wanna do it, flip on over to Luke chapter one, and we're gonna begin in Luke first, and then flip over to Peter.

Now, Peter will be, the words that we will really deal with the most will come from 1

Peter, but I want you to see that there is a tie, a statement in Luke chapter one that absolutely underscores exactly what we're talking about, and the words that Peter wrote to the church.

So, now that I have given you sufficient time to complete your finger gymnastics this morning, please stand for the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative, sufficient, complete, and certain word.

Beginning in Luke's gospel, the first chapter, verse 67, we read these words regarding the prophecy of Zachariah that occurs after the birth of John the

Baptist. You may recall that John was mute during Elizabeth's pregnancy because he laughed, and so finally he's able to talk, and here are the words that he says.

And his father, Zachariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, blessed be the

Lord God of Israel, for he visited and accomplished redemption for his people and raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David, his servant, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show mercy toward our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to Abraham, our father, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all of our days.

And now, if you will turn over to 1 Peter chapter one, we will begin reading in the 13th verse and read down through the 24th.

Therefore, having girded your minds for action, being sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

As obedient children, not being conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the

Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your conduct, because it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy.

And if you address as father the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your sojourn, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your futile conduct inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but appeared in these 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.

Our prayer this morning is adapted from a prayer entitled to be fit for God from the

Valley of Vision. Lord, we know that you are maker and sustainer of all things.

Day and night belong to you. All creation declares your glory.

Yet we confess that we, your people, formed by your power, blessed by your goodness, have sinned against you.

Father, we have resisted the voice of our conscience. We have ignored the commands of your word.

And all too often we have turned away from the call of the gospel. Still your mercy, your mercy allows us to live under the hope you have given us in Christ.

We pray that our hearts are free from worldly attitudes and worldly desires.

For you have made us new. You have set our eyes on glory. You have helped us to see holiness as true beauty or keep us awake spiritually.

Strengthen our assurance. Clothe us with the armor of faith as we walk through a world that opposes you.

Prepare us, Lord, for every situation we face. Keep our minds fixed upon you and use every trial to shape us for your purposes.

Turning hardships into blessings so that gratitude and praise rise from our hearts as we see your work more clearly.

Make our obedience to you sincere, joyful, rooted in love.

By your word and spirit, correct our thinking with clear and consistent truth. Never let us overlook or take anything lightly that you have revealed.

Teach us the value of the whole gospel, to love its command as well as its promises, to make us holy in every relationship, responsibility, in every season of life.

Keep us humble. Grant us strength to prevent us from losing heart.

A steady mind. And Lord, help us to see every duty you give as a privilege to serve you and trust it to us.

Lord, we pray that you make us content in Christ, that we bring glory to your name through our lives and use us as examples that point others to you.

We ask all of these things in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

You may be seated. The late Vodie Bauckham was delivering a message at a missions conference in 2023 when he quoted these, or when he said these words.

All the gospel requires is repentance and faith.

Some of you are going to say, well, what about obedience? That's not what the gospel requires.

It is what the gospel produces. If the gospel were to require obedience from us, then that would mean that we could be obedient apart from the person and work of Christ, and Jesus died for nothing.

The gospel produces obedience in us. Joyful obedience.

If we get these things mixed up, that's where we end up in legalism and moralism and works righteousness, and that is when the good news is not really good news at all.

It becomes burdensome. I started out with this particular quote this morning because the focus of today's message deals with the holiness of the bride of Christ, holiness that is ultimately supplied by Christ himself, but as we talk about this particular topic, one of the things that we are going to inevitably discuss is obedience.

Obedience is one of those things that in the life of a believer, we need to understand what it looks like, but we need to understand how it is made possible and understand that in our lives, holiness is inevitably produced as we undergo the process of sanctification.

So as we begin to process this, we need to first understand the word holiness, and I'm not talking about the

Greek language here. I'm talking about the English language because often we hear the word holy or we hear the word holiness, and we don't necessarily truly completely understand what we are talking about.

Well, as we look at that word, the first thing we know is that the suffix ness, N -E -S -S, when it's added to a word, is describing the state or the quality of that thing.

So we could be really glib and say holiness is the state or quality of being holy, and like any good circular argument, we're right back at the beginning.

We really don't understand what it means to be holy, and so we are lost.

But the word holy in the English language is in the sense of an individual's life.

Understand we're talking about a little bit different holy than when we talk about God being holy, and I'll explain why in just a moment.

But when we're talking about it in the individual's life, what we are talking about is being dedicated and devoted to the service of God, being godly, being pious, being devout, and having a spiritually pure quality.

Now, why did I say it's slightly different? Well, when we talk about God being holy, we talk about him being holy because he himself is the very definition of holy.

In truth, holiness is, without understanding

God, we really can't even begin to describe holy.

It is an attribute of God. It is one of the things that make

God, that defines his character. We truly cannot make a distinction between God and holiness because without holiness,

God is not God. The difference is, as it's an attribute of God, God has two different kinds of attributes, and it's gonna get a little technical for a moment, but we need this technical stuff.

The first type of attribute that God has, it's what's called a communicable attribute.

The second type is a non -communicable attribute. Now, if you struggle with those two terms and you're not really sure what they mean or how they apply here, let me use a modern -day example.

We have communicable diseases and non -communicable diseases. We have diseases, sicknesses, illnesses that people have that they can share with others, such as everyone's favorite common cold, the flu, all of these things, and then we have those sicknesses, illnesses that we cannot share with other people, things like cancer, fatty liver disease, those kinds of things.

These are things that are not shareable, and so just like those things are not shareable, when we talk about the communicable and non -communicable attributes of God, we are talking about attributes that God shares with us and things that God cannot share with us.

For example, some of the things that God cannot share with us that are his attributes are things such as his omnipotence, his omniscience, his immutability.

None of us in here have the ability or could contain the ability to know all things or be in all places or to never change.

We look back over the course of the last year, every single one of our lives have changed in some way, shape, or form, maybe even since first thing this morning, maybe even since you walked in the door, but then there are those attributes of God which can be shared.

And these attributes of God are things which we can reflect to a degree, which means we can reflect his holiness.

We cannot be his holiness because we are not in ourselves capable of that.

We can reflect these things as a visible manifestation in our lives.

So that's what I mean when I say that there's a little bit of difference between holiness as we talk about it with God and holiness as we talk about it with individuals.

And we have to be very careful here because in the life of a believer, in the process of sanctification, the production of holiness is demonstrated in our obedience and adherence to the commands of God.

And I'm going to give you a warning. And that warning is, is that when you do this in your life, you are going to have people who you think are good brothers and sisters in Christ who are going to say you're being legalistic, who are going to say that you are going to a point where you think your obedience is required for salvation.

Brothers and sisters, I will assure you that it is not. That the whole point of the quote

I shared above, the whole point of understanding what this looks like is so that we understand that our obedience is not a requirement, it is a result of the transformation that has occurred in our life.

That it is brought about by the power of the Holy Spirit working together with the power of the proclaimed word of God.

And so keeping these things in mind, we want to look at one last truth, one last reality that we need to be clear about before we dive into the text.

And that is the difference between divine sovereignty and human responsibility.

Now, the first thing we need to understand about those two truths is they are both absolutely truth.

They are both proclaimed in scripture, taught in scripture, and they exist.

What we need to understand though is that these are like a pair of rails running on a train track.

So if you've ever paid attention to a train track, you know that there are two metal rails that run down. That's what the wheels run on.

What a disaster it would be if at some point down the line, those two rails ran into each other.

Human responsibility and divine sovereignty run in parallel, but never intersect in a way that causes damage to either.

This is what we need to understand. And so for the sake of our conversation this morning, we've talked a lot about both sovereignty and responsibility in the past.

Certainly more than glad to talk to you about them more in the future. But for this morning, we need to just simply recognize that these two great truths exist, that they are absolutely essential, and that neither violates the other in any way.

With those in mind, let us turn to our text. I want you to recall as we read the words of Zechariah's prophecy, that in the last two verses, we get down to a point where Zechariah points out the purpose of all that God is doing.

And you may recall the words are this, that we could serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness.

That we are able to serve him without fear of being struck down, without terror, in holiness and righteousness.

This is very much in line with the prophetic claims of the Old Testament. Ezekiel says in 25 through 27 of chapter 36, then

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your uncleanliness and from all your idols.

Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

I will put my spirit within you and will cause you to walk in my statutes. And you will be careful to do my judgments.

Prophet Jeremiah, who also wrote in Jeremiah 31, 33 through 34, but this is the covenant which

I will cut with the house of Israel after those days, declares Yahweh. I will put my law within them, and on their heart,

I will write it. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they will not teach again each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, no,

Yahweh, for they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, declares Yahweh.

For I will forgive their iniquity, and in their sin, I will remember no more.

All three of these passages, all three of these prophetic statements clearly demonstrate that as a result of the work of God in the lives of the people, there is a transformation that will occur.

And it's not just an inward transformation. It's not just a spiritual transformation.

It is an external transformation, one that begins to affect our behavior.

One that begins to change the way we live. Then one that produces in us obedience and holiness and right living, not in an effort to gain salvation, but as a result of what the salvation has done, what it has accomplished.

Zechariah said to grant us that we could serve him.

That word grant means that it's given to give us the ability to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness.

Ezekiel's words cause you to walk and be careful to do, both being results coming out of the transformation.

Jeremiah's words are slightly different, but he still no less effectively and unequivocably demonstrates that the new heart given to us by God contains his law.

That as it contains his law, we come to know him.

And it moves us to where we want to know him more. And this knowledge that we see here is a twofold knowledge.

It's not just simply head knowledge. Head knowledge is important. It's essential that we study.

It's essential that we learn. It's essential that we grow. But here's the thing, you can be an expert in everything this word says.

You can know it in, out, upwards, backwards, sideways, and it never affects you.

You never be transformed because at the end of the day, you still have a heart of stone and not a heart of flesh.

So yes, it's important that we grow our head knowledge, but we also must have what the

Puritans refer to as experiential knowledge. Now experiential knowledge is one of those terms in modern day

Christianity that we need to be very, very careful with. Because the experiential knowledge that we are talking about here is not what is seen in mainstream

Christianity today. This experiential knowledge is the understanding of the

Holy Spirit's work in the life of a believer. The true work, the transformation that occurs, the desires that occur, the ways that we want to submit to His authority, that we want to be obedient, that we want to live as He has called us to live, that we have the desire to please

Him because of what He's already done. Not in an effort to gain more, not in an effort to have an experience of speaking in tongues or one brought about by earthly activities and notion, but an experience that is born of the

Spirit through the Word according to God and for His glory alone.

Over in 1 Peter, we enter into the middle of a conversation. Now, ordinarily,

I would really love to take all the time I could to unpack exactly where Peter is and show you what he's talking about and how he's doing it.

What we need to understand, though, is that Peter is talking about the salvation of the church, the people that he is writing to.

In fact, he's talking so much about this truth that he wants them to understand something that has been revealed to them and to which even the angels long to look.

And so as we approach our text, the entirety of the letter is focused on encouraging and exhorting the people of God, the church,

God's chosen people, the elect, to be divinely, to seek the combinedly conferred dignity and responsibility that God has given to us.

And so as we see here, we begin in verse 13 with the word therefore.

Now, the word therefore is one of those conjunctive words that ties what came before it to what comes after it.

And so Peter begins by saying, as a result of the salvation that he's already been describing, as a result of what he has already unpacked in verses one through 12, this is the way in which you should be living.

And so the primary, there's a lot in this passage, okay? 13 through 21, we could be here all day, half of tomorrow, maybe next week.

But we wanna focus our attention down to a couple of verses here today.

So what we're gonna do is we're gonna kind of narrow down to what we see as a command. And then we're gonna look at what

Peter teaches us are actions that kind of result from that command. And so the command that we see is actually contained in verses 14 through 16.

So you'll notice here, verses 14 through 16, he says, as obedient children, you see he's making an assumption already that you're going to be obedient.

Why is he making that assumption? I'm glad you asked, we'll get to that in just a moment. As obedient children, not being conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance.

By the way, which were yours are added words for us for our benefit in the English language so that we understand what's being stated.

The original text literally says the former lust in your ignorance. But we're clarifying that these are lusts that we had in our ignorance.

But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your conduct.

The command, the call that's given clearly and plainly in Scripture is that the body of Christ, the bride of Christ is to live a holy life.

Now, as we see this unpack, we need to understand that this final result, this change is brought about not because of our ability, not because of our strength.

Listen, you don't get saved and then live a life that you white knuckle and just push through.

The desires of your heart begin to change. And as the desires of your heart begin to change, begin to shape themselves into desiring to be obedient, you begin to want to live in this manner.

And so what we see is that this happens by the change that is brought about through the grace that has been poured out on us by faith in Christ.

That's the impetus of the transformation. That's the thing that begins it.

We also need to recognize that this is not an optional result.

Now, this is the part where we really begin to get people's hackles up. Because what the world has done has so infiltrated the church.

What the enemy has done is whispered into the ear of the people, did God really say?

And what has happened is, is within the church, the people who would profess that they can be saved and continue to live the way that they have always lived.

That there be zero transformation that occurred. The problem is, that's not what's gonna happen.

Scripture is clear that there will be a transformation, that there will be a change, that there will be something done.

But instead of it being on our abilities, it is done, again, on the person and work of Christ, the power of the

Spirit, as he does exactly what Jesus promised in John chapter 14.

You recall speaking to the disciples on the night before his crucifixion, said these words regarding the

Holy Spirit and then regarding the disciples themselves and future disciples.

In chapter 14, verses 16 through 17, he says, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate, that he may be with you forever, the

Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him. You know him because he abides with you and will be in you.

Down in verse 21, it says, he who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my

Father, and I will love him and will disclose myself to him. And then we have a question asked by Judas Iscariot and Jesus' response is,

Jesus answered to him and said, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.

Who does not love me does not keep my words, and the word which you hear is not mine, but the

Father who sent me. These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you, but the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the

Father will send in my name, he will, note the word will, will is not an optional thing here, that's a definitive statement, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

Notice the sureties, I've already given you one. First, the first assurance is that another advocate will come.

And who will he come to? Believers. Notice, he says, not the world, believers.

Only those who truly believe receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Second thing that he says to us in this passage that are absolutely things, the advocate or the

Holy Spirit will abide in you. You will be indwelt by this

Holy Spirit. Third thing he says here, our love for Christ will produce obedience.

If you love me, you will do what? Keep my commands. Not you might, not you'll try, you will do it.

Again, not a option, a definitive statement. Christ is not saying, hey,

I'm gonna give you the Holy Spirit, maybe if you listen to him, you can be obedient. He's saying that this will happen.

You will be obedient. Fourth thing, the advocate will teach us all things concerning Christ.

How do we do that? We do that through the Word. We read the Word of God. The Spirit works with the

Word, embedding itself in our heart, enlightening our minds, enlightening our understanding.

We get together with other believers who are like -minded. We sharpen each other up and we grow.

Is it optional? No. He didn't say, yeah, well, when the

Spirit gets here, he might, if you'll listen, he might teach you all things regarding me. He didn't say that.

He said he will. And then lastly, the fifth thing that we see just in these short verses, the advocate will bring to remembrance the truths of Scripture.

There's no if, ands, or buts. It will happen. The bride will receive from the groom the

Spirit, and the Spirit will result in this transformation.

And this transformation is demonstrated to the world and to other believers as obedience to God.

Love for Christ, growth in his Word, holy living.

Even as Christ imputes his righteousness, even as the

Father declares us just, Christ determines,

God is determined not to leave us in that place that we were. He is going to bring his church along.

He will enable us through the work of the Spirit to be obedient, to understand his truth, to live according to his commands.

Now, this is where we have this massive resistance, even, again, within the church. We have those people who profess, claim, call, demand that they can live however they wanna live, that we, because we hold people accountable, because we call people to obedience, because we call people to holy living, because we call people to repent, that somehow we've not got this thing right, when all we do is proclaim exactly what

Scripture says, versus twisting the

Word of the Almighty. So when the truth of Scripture is boldly and completely declared, when you are saved because of the transformation, because this heart of stone has been removed and a heart of flesh has been installed, because you are now a new creation in Christ, because you are dead to sin and alive to Christ, you absolutely will live a life obedient to Christ.

You desire holiness. It becomes your aim, your goal.

It is this thing you wanna walk in this full knowledge and understanding that it's not you, it's the

Spirit that is accomplishing these things. It is done through the transformation that is brought about by the sanctification.

And so what I wanna look at in our last few minutes very quickly is there are three things identified in verse 13 that are actions of Christians, of people who have truly been transformed and are living holy lives.

The first of those is that Peter says to them, and I love this statement, therefore having your minds girded for action.

Now, if you have an elect standard version, it says preparing, but I really like the old fashioned girded, right?

Just because, hey, it sounds old fashioned, it ties right back into the Old Testament, it's awesome. But hopefully that word tickles something in the back of your mind, because what it literally is describing is the long flowing robes that they would wear in that day.

Well, they weren't really, you know, they probably were comfortable, they were definitely breezy, but they probably weren't really effective for fighting, walking, traveling, riding a donkey, camel, whatever.

And so as they prepared to go into action, they would reach down, grab the rear hem of the garment, pull it up and tuck it into their sash around their waist.

And in so doing create something like pants. Maybe you recall back in as we walk through Exodus when the

Israelites were preparing for the Passover, God commanded them to eat that Passover meal with their loins girded, prepared for action, ready to move.

But I want you to notice though, as Peter brings this, of course, he's not talking about the idea that we all need to wear long flowing things and walk around all day with our robes pulled up, tucked in our breeches.

What he is telling us, and not just telling us, I want you to notice the language. He says, therefore, having girded your minds for action.

He's talking about something that you should already be doing, that you should have already accomplished.

Now here's where we get a little bit of difficulty sometimes. People think, they hear stuff like that, and go, well,

I'll never be able to get to that level. I'll never be at a level where I'm truly ready for action.

That's a good thing. Because the moment you think you're ready, you find out you're not. This is this call to study, to understand.

The work has already been done. They've mentally prepared themselves, made themselves ready for action, made themselves ready for service.

It's the same concept that Paul talks about in Romans, when he talks about renewing your mind, right?

This constant study, digging into God's word. Again, it's not a call to sit on the sidelines until you're an expert.

Because you're never gonna be an expert. The experts aren't really experts. They just think they are. That's the difference between a regular person and an expert.

Regular person knows they're not. Expert thinks they are. They're not an expert.

How do I know? Because they don't know all things. Until you become an expert, you're gonna sit there forever.

This is describing a regular person who has come to faith because of the work of the

Holy Spirit, together with the proclamation of the good news, has repented, has believed, and it's only done with an understanding of God's word, where we seek to actively dig into the truth, understand the true nature of God, understand the truth of Christ, the reality of who we are as individuals.

That's a great place to start. If you can understand, at least to some degree, those three things.

One, you really have to be a Christian to truly believe.

You have to know you're a sinner. You have to know Christ is a great savior. You have to understand something about God to know why he has done the things that he has done so that you can believe.

And not just believe in the fluff that is thrown out there. So often. But the truth of scripture.

We study that we show ourselves, as Paul described to Timothy, taking the

God -breathed word, study to show ourselves approved. To be conformed to the word, not the world.

To be transformed in the image of Christ. Knowing and taking in this word allows us to see how the entire counsel of God's word is profitable for our lives.

This is one of the reasons we spend time in texts like Exodus. Because so many people read the book of Exodus and they go, well,

I'm, you know, this is 2025. This has no implication to me. Brother, it has deep implications for you.

We've labored for a couple of years on the implications of what

Exodus says. The whole counsel of God is profitable.

This is what Peter's talking about when he says, have your minds girded. That there is a preparation for the spiritual battles that lay ahead.

Because brothers and sisters, there will be spiritual battles. They may look physical, but truly, they are spiritual.

And a person in this situation, not only have they spent time in the word of God, they have spent time in communion with God, in prayer.

And they are moving forward in faith. And a faith that is built on resting in the finished work of Christ.

They're not trying to get somewhere. They already know that they have a perfect reality of eternal existence in the presence of the almighty

God. And all they're doing here is sojourning through this life in a worthy and pleasing manner because of what

God has already done for them. Secondly, notice

Peter calls us to be sober. Now, of course, in 2025, when we hear the word sober, we immediately think of drug and alcohol addiction.

And yes, to an extent, there is a call here for you to not go beyond in those kinds of things, but you need to go deeper, okay?

Because if we stop at that level, we miss the real big picture. The real big picture's got nothing to do with drugs and alcohol.

The big picture has to do with your life. Calvin's probably one of the best definitions that I've seen of what we would call spiritual sobriety.

He wrote these words. Spiritual sobriety is when all our thoughts and affections are so kept as not to be inebriated with the allurements of this world, where since even the least taste of them stealthily draws us away from God, when one plunges himself into these, you must necessarily become sleepy and stupid.

And he forgets God and the things of God. I like that because he used one of my favorite words, stupid.

No, I'm just kidding. The word that is being translated as sober here can also mean self -control.

The idea being that in our lives, as ones who have our minds girded, prepared for action, we still live with attention, that we still pay attention to what's happening.

That one of the greatest danger, again, you remember I said a while ago that the experts only are experts because they think they're experts.

They've arrived at a level they think that they've achieved. They think they know it all. They think there's no reason to grow and expand and study and learn.

This is what we're talking about. This is getting into that place where you feel like I've arrived.

And when you reach that place, you're at a dangerous point. Peter is warning you against doing that.

But not only that, also to slip into what can be seen as an apathetic approach to life and even to church.

You know, doing the things that you're doing because you're supposed to be doing them. Anybody ever have that occur?

Maybe in your routine job, you have tasks that you do every single day. And a lot of times, you can do them.

You don't even have to be thinking about them. You just do them. Your mind's somewhere else. You're sleepwalking through the day in that respect.

Don't sleepwalk through the word of God. Spurgeon once wrote, for people to live with their eyes open, not go about the world half asleep.

Many Christians are asleep. In fact, whole congregations are asleep.

Jesus warned the church at Ephesus in Revelations chapter two, verse two through four, I know your deeds and your toil and your perseverance and that you cannot bear those who are evil.

And you put on to test those who call themselves apostles and they are not. And you have found them to be false in your perseverance and have endured for my name's sake.

And you have also not grown weary. Man, you've done all this great stuff. You're keeping on, keeping on.

And then he drops the bomb. But this I have against you. You have lost your first love.

In other words, you're doing all of these things by rote action. They have no meaning. They have no desire. They have no truth.

They have no purpose of following me. Because now you are asleep.

So be sober. And so as a

Christian, living that holy life means that we are, again, diligently assuring that our minds are prepared, diligently living out the life that God has called us to live and that Christ provides for us.

And then finally, we come to Peter's exhortation here to fix our hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

This stands at the heart of the call to us to live a holy life.

We are to fix our hope completely on the grace that is brought to us the revelation of Christ.

Now, there's twofold meaning to this statement, revelation of Christ. First of all, there is the revelation of Christ that happens and occurs to the

Holy Spirit, regenerating your life, and you become to save because you hear the gospel truly. But Peter's also talking about that final consummation when

Christ will be fully revealed to his people. Remember, we see dimly now, but there will come a day when we will see face -to -face.

There will come a day described for us in Revelations chapter 21, where we will see God in all of his glory.

When we fail to hold these truths together, that it's about now and then, that we see this dangerous life, but this call to holiness is weighty.

It is grounded in hope. A call to be holy is not to be taken lightly.

A call to obedience is not one that we can simply just shrug off.

When we fix our hope completely, it means that we anchor all of our expectation, all of the thoughts of final joy, all of our thoughts of security, all of the thoughts of fulfillment, not in our obedience.

Our obedience is important. Listen, don't misunderstand me. We have to be obedient.

We have to live a holy life. We do such as a result of what has been done for us, but our hope is not fixed on our obedience.

Our hope is not fixed on our holiness. Our hope, the thing that keeps us moving forward is that we base this on Christ, this unearned grace that we receive, the transformation that has occurred, the work that was accomplished on Calvary, the truth that one day when

Christ returns, we will experience all of this face to face.

You see, we've already had grace brought to us. Spurgeon said that God has already placed his grace on the road.

It is coming with Christ like a chariot with unfettered, unutterable love and infinite joy.

It looks forward to that second advent. The hope here is that that eschatological thought shapes the identity and the preparation of the bride of Christ, that by the work of Christ himself, traced from the

Old Testament, the people of God, we've all been called to live as a betrothed bride, one prepared, one adorned, one that belongs to Christ, clothed in his righteousness, in his holiness, producing in us holiness, and ultimately, we will consummate as we come together.

So as we draw these thoughts together this morning, again, we return to that central theme that we talked about coming from Zachariah's prophetic announcement that God has done these things to grant us to live without fear in holiness and righteousness.

That first advent, that inaugurated the work. The second advent will consummate that work.

But we live now in between these two, and it's here now in between these two that our life, our work, is to be obedient, not to receive salvation, not to earn salvation, but as a calling that flows from salvation, that's empowered by the gospel.

The bride who has been redeemed cannot remain, cannot remain unchanged.

The bridegroom is coming. The bridegroom, his first coming secured your redemption.

His second will reveal your glory. And the question that has to confront each of us is if Christ made you his own, or are you living now as the bride he is preparing for himself?

Let's pray. Most gracious heavenly Father, will we come before you now humbled by the weight of your word, the beauty of your promises.

Lord, you have redeemed us with the precious blood of Christ. You have called us out of darkness.

Your spirit has been set within us so that we might walk in your ways.

Or do not allow these truths to drift from our minds or lie dormant in our hearts.

Awaken us so that we have not grown dull. Steady us where we may have become distracted.

Convict us of sin that still clings too closely. Or teach us to fix our hope fully on the grace that is coming and is now with Christ.

Let that hope shape our steps today. Make us a people who long for holiness, for obedience, not as a burden,

Father, but as a joyful evidence of belonging to our

Savior. Lord, strengthen our resolve. We pray that you sharpen our minds and deepen our love.

And that we may live as a bride prepared for her King. Work in us by your spirit through your word and for your glory.