The Calling to Purity: Be Holy for I am Holy: Part 3

The Person and Work of Jesus as the Center of Scripture

A deep and a profound answer, but simple. It's all summed up in one person, in His person and work, the Lord Jesus Christ. This whole book, all 66 books compiled in one book, is about Jesus. It points to Him.

Spurgeon says, no matter where you are in the Word of God, I can lead you to Jesus Christ. And how true that is. So we continue our study. It's a series I'm calling, The Calling to Purity. Be holy for I am holy.

So please turn with me to the epistle of 1 Peter as we continue our study in this wonderful practical... And I say it is a practical book, isn't it? It's a practical theological book, but it's more than that.

It's a book that is full of Jesus Christ and points to Jesus Christ. You know, holiness is practical. It deals with our everyday walk and our conduct and our behavior before the Lord. So as you turn to 1 Peter chapter 1, I want to just read two verses this morning.

I'd like for you to stand, just shortly, briefly, for these two verses in honor of God's Word. Verse 15 and 16, verse 15 and 16. Aren't you glad for this wonderful book? There's much blood that's been shed so that we can have it in our own language today.

May we never ever take it for granted. The holy, inspired, eternal, infallible, all-sufficient Word of God. Hear God's Word. The Apostle Peter says this, But as He who has called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.

And then he gives us the reason why and he gives us the written Scripture to back it up of the prophet. Because it is written, be holy for I am holy. Let's bow in prayer. Lord, You have blessed Your Word.

It is eternal, it is living, it is active. Sharper than any two-edged sword. Lord, this is not man's opinion this morning. This is not man's suggestion. This is Your holy Word. Father, You have hallowed it.

Your name is most holy. You are the Holy One. Everything about You, O Lord, is glorious in holiness.

Absolutely holy.

It should cause us to tremble before You. Because we fall so short of this. Holiness is Your beauty. It is Your beauty. You delight in it. It is the only thing that is lovely. It makes all the other attributes in which You have, mercy and love and justice and grace, and all the thousands of attributes that You possess, all of it is holy.

Because You are the Holy One.

The Most Holy One.

So Father, the only way that we as sinful, redeemed people can even approach You this morning and approach the throne of grace is through the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the everlasting covenant of Your dear Son, who gave His life for us to redeem us to Yourself.

Lord, You made that provision through Jesus for us so we can come before You, so we can be adopted, so we can be redeemed, but so that we can be made holy. That is Your purpose. And having Your children as You, be imitators of You, imitators of God.

So Father, as we come before You this morning, Lord, we come in reverence, we come with all, we come with trembling, but also, Father, we come with rejoicing. And Father, we look at Your greatness, and oh Lord, it humbles us.

But Lord, we also recognize that Your great works You have wrought, but the greatest work that You have wrought most of all is the glorious work that You have accomplished on Calvary's cross to redeem sinners to Yourself when mercy and justice met and kissed each other.

Father, when the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate God, as a God-man, satisfied Your holy command, Your holy demands, and made that payment in full at Calvary's cross, the precious blood, oh God, it is here that we are made holy.

It is here that we are made righteous. It is here we are adopted. It is here at the cross we are reconciled through Your precious blood. So Father, we give thanks to You for this great work of redemption that You have accomplished through Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and by Your Spirit.

So now Father, be pleased to meet with us this morning and Your Word change us, transform us, and may not a one of us this morning leave this place until we've made peace with You. Lord, that's the most important thing, to be justified by the blood of Jesus and be at peace with You.

So Father, I ask this in Jesus' name I pray. Amen and amen. You can be seated. Thank you. The Apostle Peter presents a positive standard of holiness as the very perfection of the Holy One who has called us to be holy.

Believers, namely, unto God Himself. That is the positive aspect. There's a positive and there's a negative. Negatively, they are to stop living sinfully. And that's what God commands us to do. He commands all men to repent everywhere, to turn from their wicked ways.

That is the command. You don't hear much repentance nowadays. It's become harsh and mean, supposedly, from the world. But the one who charges you, and granted it should be charged in love and grace, is the one that loves you the most, to say repent from your evil ways and your evil deeds because they love your soul.

So we are negatively to stop living sinfully, to stop and do a 180 degree turn by God's power if God grants that repentance. And why I say that is because no one can repent in the flesh. In other words, you cannot repent within your own power.

It will take God to make you to hate your sin. Because men love sin. That's the problem. And everything else follows that, and out of an evil heart. That's where the sin comes from, is a depraved, a fallen, evil, wicked heart.

How desperately wicked that heart is. That's the negative aspect. They are to stop living sinfully as they did prior to regeneration. But the positive aspect of it is that they are to be holy. And that is a command from God, but aren't you glad in the command that God provides holiness?

God commands holiness, but He provides that holiness. God never leaves you to yourself to do this. And that's the problem. So many people try in themselves to be holy. It must be by the Spirit of God.

We're going to look at that. They are to be holy. God commands holiness, but He provides holiness. And by the way, what Peter says here, and what we've been looking at, that they are to be holy in all their conduct, in all their behavior.

The Old King James says, in all conversation. And of course, that conversation, as soon as I say that, you think it's like speaking. But what Peter is speaking about is not just speaking in a sense of conversation.

The Old King James actually says, in your conduct, in the way you live before God and man. That's what he's talking about. Your behavior.

The way you behave.

Your everyday walk.

The way you talk. Your actions.

And it's very practical, isn't it? All their conduct in everyday living. Practical living. You know, in the Sermon on the Mount, it makes me think of Jesus is basically preaching one of the greatest sermons ever preached by the greatest man who ever lived.

Jesus set forth this standard. This standard was set forth in Matthew, actually it's chapter 5, verse 48.

You don't have to turn there.

But it's the pinnacle of His sermon. He comes to that pinnacle, and what does He say? Therefore, you are to be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. Now that makes me tremble when I think of that.

How many of us has literally come to that perfect standard? A perfect maturity, without sinning, without one thought, without one action. I tell you, we can't do that within this hour. You can't do it within a few minutes.

I can say to you right now that some of your thoughts is already strayed from what we're talking about this morning. Because there is a tendency and an inclination to just be distracted from the things of God.

And who God is.

Because we have a bent toward naturally sinning. You know, you should never have to teach children how to say no or to sin or be disobedient. That comes natural. But it's a battle to teach them the good and the right way and the way we should go and the way God has commanded us and all that He's created.

See, that shows you how when we speak about holiness, holiness is foreign to us. Holiness, and that's why people do not want to hear it because they want to naturally keep sinning and enjoying the pleasures of sin.

Why do they enjoy the pleasures of sin? Because sin is fun. Sin is, they love their sin. Folks, I'm telling you, that comes natural to a man. And that's right, amen. Keith nails it. It makes you stupid and it makes you retarded.

You look at how idiotic and stupid people are because there's not one drop of wisdom. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God. They haven't even come to that. What Scripture says here, Jesus talked about that perfect standard.

And Jesus actually,.

I don't know if you know this, Jesus quoted a lot from Deuteronomy. He is quoting a verse from chapter 18 verse 13 from Deuteronomy. Listen to what Deuteronomy chapter 18 verse 13 says. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God.

That's it.

That's one verse. And that's exactly what Jesus quoted. Jesus read the Scriptures. Here was the living incarnate Word reading the written Word. Because it's all about Him. He was that holiness incarnate.

And if you really want to look at the way holiness really is, look at the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God. Beloved, this is the holy perfect standard that God sets before us in this life as we as believers cannot be totally completely sinless.

And I want to say this now. We cannot be totally sinless.

Only Jesus was the sinless one.

I want to make that very clear. And by the way, we looked at it last week. And if you didn't hear last week's message, I encourage you to. We talked about positional sanctification, positional holiness, and progressive sanctification and holiness as well.

It's the same word. What it means to be set apart. And what God does at regeneration. That Jesus is our sanctification. He is the sanctifier. And He continues to be our sanctifier until we leave this world.

Because He knows in this world we can easily, even though He has redeemed you and cleansed you and forgiven you, you must stay clean before God. Heaven is a holy city that is made by a holy God for a holy people.

Let's admit that. This world is not our home. We're just a passing through. And here's what the important, sobering message is. We are going to all, everybody that's living, end up in eternity. People might as well face that.

We're going to die. This flesh is going to be laid down. You having a soul, the Bible says in Ecclesiastes, God has put eternity in your hearts. You are a living soul before God. He made you. And God does not delight to see the wicked die and perish in hell.

But God has made a way through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for us to come, to live with Him forever, eternal life. But that means we have to turn from our sin. We have to turn away from loving our sin and the pleasures of sin, which is only for a season, and look at the eternal things.

But God calls us to be holy. He commands us to be holy. That's what we're going to look at more today. We looked at the calling of holiness. We're going to look at the command of holiness. God is holy.

It's really focused on the character of God here. Be holy as God is holy. Not as holy. We can't be as holy. That's ludicrous. No one can reach that kind of standard. But we are to aim at being holy and be imitators of God.

And walk and be like, because actually, you are children of God. If you are in Jesus Christ. So we should reflect His image. Just like in the family. There's a family resemblance. Being a child of God.

Can someone look at you, and look at your behavior, and your conduct, and say, there goes a child of God.

He's different.

He's other than this world. And that's what holiness means.

He's otherworldly.

Oh, he may be looked as peculiar and strange.

But oh, he's so different. She's so different. She talks different. She walks different.

He walks different. They are peculiar people. They are of a royal priesthood. There's something about that person that is completely different. In this dark world, there's light that shines in that person.

And the image of God is restored because they walk in holiness.

Not perfect.

And I want to tell you this. We at Redeeming Grace Church, we don't believe in entire sanctification. Let me explain what that means. Entire sanctification basically means that we believe in positional sanctification, that at the cross of Jesus Christ, you are sanctified in Christ.

Then you progressively grow in sanctification, and you grow in it and mature in it. You see? But you're not perfect. And basically what entire sanctification teaches is that there comes a place in your life as a Christian now that you're entirely perfect in sanctification.

I don't see that in Scripture talk. There's Scriptures that could be taken like that and twisted in that. That's why there is a teaching. There's churches out there and movements out there that do teach this.

An entire sanctification. In other words, sin is completely eradicated. Done away with. No, we live in Romans 1. Paul, in that whole chapter,.

Talks about,.

O wretched man that I am. Now the apostle Paul could say, O wretched man that I am. I don't understand the people that teach this because why don't they understand? Well, I do understand where they got that from because I went to a Bible college once that taught this.

And they felt that, well, Paul eventually moved out of Romans 7 and went into Romans 8. But look, we're in Romans 7. Yes, we are to go to Romans 8. But entire sanctification, folks, is not possible on this side of eternity.

And I'm not talking about we are to live in defeat either. We are to live a victorious life. We are not to make excuses of our sin and say, Oh, because I cannot be perfect in holiness that means I can keep on sinning.

No, God wants you to not practice sinning. God desires for you to go on in holiness and grow in holiness and strive and aim toward it. I hope I made that clear. But God is our goal in this. Not necessarily holiness because if you make God your goal, holiness will be your goal.

Because God is the Holy One. Because a lot of times when we think about being holy we somehow think it's something within our performance that makes us holy. You see that. It's all in the abiding in Jesus Christ.

And that abiding in Jesus Christ is obeying Christ and obeying the gospel. Obedience is everything. When Jesus commands it to love one another, He means it. But it's not only the command when God gives you a new heart.

That's a delight.

It's just not a duty. I love that about God. You know, God gives us the word. He equips us to be holy by His Spirit. And we are to be striving toward it. Ephesians 2 .10 says this, For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus.

That's the key right there. Jesus Christ, the hope of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory. You are created in Christ Jesus.

For what?

Good works. Good works don't get us to heaven. But when you are in Christ, good works follows you. There's fruit unto righteousness. Which God prepared beforehand that we should what? Walk in them. See?

Ephesians 1 .4. Paul says this, Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Even in the election that God chose you to bring you into the kingdom of God, holiness is something that God will work within His elect.

That's what He's saying. It's going to happen. 1 John 2 .6. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. That's a high standard, isn't it? To walk as Jesus walked. Abiding in Him, in Christ, as habitual holiness in everyday living.

Peter said it, As obedient children. As obedient children. Not conforming yourselves to the former lust as in your ignorance. That's what he means. Peter says this. It actually means resting in Christ.

Resting your souls. Jesus says, come unto me and I will give you rest for your souls. He's not talking about just physical rest.

He's talking about.

Spiritual rest. Spiritually rest. Jesus says, I am the one you can put your confidence in and you can rest assure in me. That's what Jesus is saying. He says, come and learn of me. For I'm meek and lowly of heart.

That's Jesus. So the admonition to live by the teaching of Jesus Christ is conformity. And that is conformity into His will. When we talk about God's will, there's so many aspects we can go there,.

But He's talking about.

What He desires for you. God's desire. Be not conformed to this world, Paul says, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. This is your spiritual, reasonable act of service. Your act of worship, in other words.

In life, in conduct, in behavior. Peter, the apostle, calls us to holiness. And by that, he's not talking about something new here.

He's talking about.

Something he's echoing from the Old Testament as indicating by introducing an Old Testament quote in the common phrase, because it is written. Followed by the quote, you shall be holy for I am holy. This command, by the way, is derived from Leviticus 11 .44, Leviticus 19 .2, Leviticus 27.

It goes on. God Himself reiterated this command in the Mosaic Law. We see this in Exodus chapter 19. We see this in Deuteronomy chapter 7 verses 6 -8. We see this in Leviticus 11 .43 -45. And I wish I could go to all of them, but let's just go to one.

Go with me to Exodus 19. I want you to see something. Exodus chapter 19. This is what happened right before God delivered the law on Mount Sinai. And I want you to hear the instructions as I read this of what God commanded them to do.

The children of Israel. He just delivered them out of Egypt. God just... He destroyed the Egyptians. He's provided to them. This is after that happened. In chapter 15, there was the song of Moses. And then if you go on, chapter 16, bread was given from heaven.

Chapter 17, God provided water from the rock. There was victory over the Ammonites. A lot happened right before this took place. Chapter 18, Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, gives Moses some godly wise counsel because Moses had too much on him as their pastor, as leading them.

And it was wearing him out, spiritually and physically. So they set elders in order. Wise advice from the father-in-law. And then chapter 19. Listen to this. In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt on that same day, they came to the wilderness of Sinai.

And they had departed from Rephidim and had come to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain. Moses went up to God. And the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, Tell the children of Israel, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians.

Notice what God says. And how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Don't you love that? That's the purpose of redemption in the Old Testament there. And that's what God does. Bring you to himself.

There's a purpose in why God brings salvation. To bring you to himself. Now therefore, he says, If you indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people.

For all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests. And notice what he says. And a holy nation. A holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. So Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid before them all these words which the Lord commanded him.

Then all the people answered together and said, All that the Lord has spoken, we will do. Boy, he's so glad right now. This changes, folks, but don't listen to it. But they're excited about it. Oh, we're God's people.

They've been saved by God's right hand. Brought them out of the land of Egypt. And so Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord. Notice that he's a priest. He's acting as the office of the priest.

He's a prophet. A prophet speaks to the people for God, and the priest speaks to God for the people. And here in verse 9, And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud. So God's basically saying, Okay, I'm coming.

That the people may hear when I speak with you and believe you forever. So Moses told the words to the people, to the Lord. He goes back to them. And then the Lord said to Moses, Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their clothes.

Notice this here now. God is so holy, His presence, His manifest presence is going to come down on this mountain, the Sinai. I want you to see this. And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day, the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai and the sight of all the people.

You shall set bounds for all the people all around you, saying, Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain and touch its base. Can he touch the base of it? Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.

Now think of this. Sinful man cannot touch when the holy God comes upon it, even the mountain, His manifest presence. And notice what He says in verse 13. Not a hand shall touch Him, but He shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow, whether man or beast.

He shall not live. When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near to the mountain. So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people, basically setting them apart, that they wash their clothes.

And He said to the people, Be ready for the third day and do not come near your wives. In other words, He's saying, basically those that were married, not even were to have sexual contact. Then it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there was thunderings and lightnings.

You can just picture this in your mind. And a thick cloud on the mountain and the sound of the trumpet was very loud so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

This is God, folks,.

The Creator of the universe, coming down on the mountain in which He made. His manifest presence is everywhere, but this is His manifest presence, folks. It's like a Shekinah glory coming down. And Moses brought the people out of the camp.

To meet with God.

What happens when you meet with God? Well, watch this. They stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke. Can you imagine a whole mountain in smoke? Because the Lord descended upon it in fire.

Our God's a consuming fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long, it became louder and louder. Moses spoke and God answered him by the voice.

And then the Lord came down upon the mountain Sinai and on the top of the mountain and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up. The Lord said to Moses, Go down and warn the people.

Warn them.

Let's say break through to gaze at the Lord and many of them perish. They could not even gaze at God. Also let the priests who come near the Lord consecrate themselves. They say let the Lord break out against them.

But Moses said to the Lord, The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai for you warned us saying set bounds around the mountain and consecrate it. Then the Lord said to him, Away. Get down and then come up, you and Aaron with you and do not let the priest and the people break through to come up to the Lord lest he break out against them.

So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them. And then the Ten Commandments in chapter 20 is given. Now I'm reading this for a purpose. If you go just a few chapters over, a lot happens. You would think right there at that point these people would just be changed forever and be holy and live holy.

It didn't happen that way folks. Something horrible happened. I want you to jump to Exodus 31. A few chapters over, these same people did something horrible. Now I'm leading up to something because we're talking about the people of God here that met God, trembled before God, but tasted and seen that God was good in His greatness and His holiness.

But in chapter 31 something horrible happened. I'm sorry, chapter 32. Let me back up to 31 though. I want to read something here. Notice in 31 verse 12. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak also to the children of Israel saying, Surely my sabbaths you shall keep.

Just to let you know God's heart for a day to Himself. Listen to this. For it is a sign between me and throughout your generations that you shall know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. And you shall keep the sabbath therefore for it is holy to you.

Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death. Now think about that. You've got to keep the holy day, the sabbath unto the Lord. Because why? It is God's day in which you are to set aside. As Christians under grace now we should be doing this every day.

But specifically the day of the Lord which that has changed folks. Because now the day of the Lord is the resurrection day has changed not from the old sabbath observance the Jewish sabbath to the Christian sabbath because of Christ.

But it is still so important it shows you how important it is in God's mind that you are to keep it and He says everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death. Think of that. Put to death? For whoever does any work on it that person shall be cut off from among his people.

That's how serious God looked at this. Work shall be done for six days. Isn't that amazing? God says I gave you six days to do your work. But there is one day I want you to set aside. Set apart all to myself.

That's folks that's why we meet on the Lord's day. It's now because of Christ and His resurrection but it means something. It's a time that we come together as God's people.

It's set apart.

To give glory unto Him. As the Puritan says, the market day of the soul. But I like the camp there but I'm moving towards something. But the seventh is the sabbath of rest holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death.

That's again He reiterates. Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath and to observe the sabbath throughout this generation is a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever.

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. And when He had made an end of speaking with Him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the testimony and tablets of stone written with the finger of God.

Now all this was taking place as God was speaking to Moses and something was happening at the camp down below. These are God's people. Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain the people gathered together.

To Aaron.

Aaron compromised folks, listen to what happened. And said to him, oh come make us gods now that we should go before us as for this Moses.

The man.

Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt we do not know what has become of him. In other words disappeared, something has happened. Their faith is unbelief that's come in here. Because of their unbelief they didn't enter into God's rest, right?

And Aaron said to them, break off the golden earrings and he compromised he gave in which are in the ears of your wives the sand. And we see this today. You got, you have priests, he's a priest you got pastors that are compromising and then as they come to him he is doing exactly what they're telling him.

Break off the ear, and then he says break off the golden earrings and the ears for your wives and your sons and your daughters and these thousands and thousands and he's gathering all these jewels of gold which they looted from Egypt.

I say looted, it was basically something that they took with them from salvation as God brought them out bring them to me. So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, brought them to Aaron and he received the gold from their hand and he fashioned it with an engraving tool and made a molded calf.

Then they said this is your God, then they said this is your God oh Israel that brought you out of the land of Egypt. We've got to have a God that we can see a God of gold.

And made in a.

Calf which is symbolic of strength.

So they have.

Committed idolatry folks. They've invented another God and when Aaron saw it he built an altar before it and Aaron made a proclamation and said tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. Then they rose up, rose early on the next day offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

You know Paul the Apostle spoke of this. Now Paul gives his commentary on this. Turn with me very quickly to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Now this is the New Testament commentary of what happened there in chapter 10 and Paul is basically telling the Corinthian believers you're to flee idolatry folks.

All this is idolatry and that's what they were doing. The people of Israel was committing idolatry and God became very angry. His fierce anger and you can read on what he did. He became so angry that he wanted to just wipe them all out.

You read the rest of that story and Moses had to plead and intercede for them. God was going to wipe them all out. Because God says it's a stiff neck generation. But here Paul tells us something that's very enlightening.

Notice in chapter 10. I do not want you to be unaware that all of our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink.

They drank that spiritual rock talking about the water from the rock that followed them and that rock.

Was Christ.

See it speaks of a type and symbols that's symbolic of Jesus Christ.

And but.

With most of them God was not well pleased for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Why? Now notice what he's talking about. He gets right down to what these Corinthian believers were doing.

They were committing immorality in the name of God.

Lightly, not.

Living holy. And what does he say? Now these became our examples. They were our examples to the intent that we should not lust or desire after evil things as they.

Also lusted.

And do not become idolaters. That's why immorality folks.

Is wrong. It's.

Idolatry. It's what people has put in their hearts and by the way we all have to guard our hearts on this because John Calvin said this, the reformer, the Frenchman. He says the heart of man is a factory of idolatry.

It produces.

Idols constantly.

But can I say this? In America right now the biggest idol I see that's around is immorality. Gross immorality. Committing in a fornication.

People saying.

Living together. It's no big deal. God sees it as normal. Folks, it's not right. Because God is a covenant keeping God. He's a God.

Of a covenant.

And I say that in love folks because this is what the scripture says. Do not become idolaters as were some of them. Notice this is not pastor speaking. This is God. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.