Our Call: Holy Living

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This is a reading from the first letter of Peter.

1 Peter 1.1 and 1.13-2.3

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to God's elect,

exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober,

set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.

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

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

For it is written, be holy because I am holy.

Since you call on a father who judges each person's work impartially,

live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.

For you know that it was not with perishable things, such as silver or gold,

that you are redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors,

but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.

Through him you believe in God who raised him from the dead and glorified him.

And so your faith and hope are in God.

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth,

so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply from the heart.

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable,

through the living and enduring word of God.

For all people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.

And this is the word that was preached to you.

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.

Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk,

so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,

now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

This is the word of the Lord.

Good morning, Christ Church.

Honestly, I don't know what I'm doing up here after Lindsay.

I think we could just be done.

Good job.

Thank you.

We are in this letter of 1 Peter,

and if you've been here the past few weeks,

you know that it opens with this glorious doxology.

Peter's just praising God for the mercy that he's had on us in Jesus Christ.

And really at this point,

having celebrated the wonders of God's salvation by grace in Jesus,

Peter now turns his attention,

and he turns our attention,

to describing the appropriate response

in the lives of those who received God's grace.

He's describing what it means to live consistently

with who we've been made in Jesus Christ.

And so I want to focus your attention today on an unpopular topic.

We're going to talk today about a topic that very few Christians and churches

tend to spend much time focusing on,

and that is the topic of holiness.

Personal, individual holiness,

collective, communal holiness.

Peter quotes this Old Testament book of Leviticus

when he says,

Be holy.

The Lord is saying there,

Be holy because I am holy.

What in the world does that mean?

Well, that's what we're going to explore,

and because I have a lot to say,

we're just going to dive right in.

Here's the thread I want to follow,

is that the gospel creates holy lives,

revering our God and craving His grace.

That's what the gospel creates.

The gospel creates holy lives of revering our God

and craving His grace.

So first of all, the gospel creates holy lives.

Just follow with me in verse 13.

Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober,

set your hope on the grace to be brought to you

when Jesus Christ is revealed at His coming.

As obedient children,

do not conform to the evil desires you had

when you lived in ignorance.

Peter's saying that if you're confident

in Jesus' return,

when He comes again in glory,

and if you're confident in the hope

that there and then,

you're going to experience the fullness

of God's grace that you already have

here and now,

then here are all the implications

of God's grace for your life.

And he describes in verse 14,

he says that when you were ignorant

of the reality of Jesus Christ,

before you came to know Christ,

you were full of all these evil desires,

full of all these self-centered desires

that were in fact driving your life.

But now, he says,

this God of grace is coming in

and He's given you a new birth

into a living hope.

We talked about that in chapter 1, verse 3.

He's brought you into this new reality.

He's made you a new creation.

He's given you a new life in Jesus Christ.

So, Peter says,

you've got to abandon your conformity

to all of those old self-centered desires.

And now, because of this new life,

you've got to give yourself

to that new life

in conformity to the grace of God.

Now, what does that mean?

Well, Peter says in verse 14,

it means this,

be obedient children.

Live as obedient children of your Father.

If God has given you this new birth,

if you've been born again

through the imperishable seed of the gospel,

as it says in verse 23,

if you've been brought into this new relationship

as a child of God the Father,

then Peter says,

the only proper thing to do

is to obey your Father

who's newly begotten you.

And what does it mean to obey

our good and gracious Father?

Well, to obey means this,

like Father, like Son.

Like Father, like Daughter.

That the character of the children

is to reflect the character of their Father.

And what is the Father like?

Well, when Jesus prays in John 17,

that great high priestly prayer,

He calls God, He says,

Holy Father.

That's how Jesus prays.

Holy Father.

And that's what Peter's picking up on here in verse 15.

But just as He who called you is holy,

so be holy in all you do.

For it is written,

be holy because I am holy.

The Holy Father who called you and me to Himself,

He is the pattern

to which our character is to conform.

Now, what does it mean when God says,

I am holy?

What does that mean when He says,

I am holy?

Well, the word holy means set apart.

So God is saying there,

I am separate.

I am distinct.

I am different.

I'm in a category of my own

in terms of moral beauty

and excellence of character.

And just to try to illustrate this,

when you go to the center point

and the high point of the Torah,

which is the first five books of the Bible,

basic Bible,

you find there this amazing moment

where the people of God,

they've just made the golden calf.

And Moses,

the leader of the people of God,

he's interceding for God to forgive them.

And he says to them,

to God,

in his intercession to God,

he says,

God,

show me your glory.

And God says,

well, that's great, Moses,

but you can't handle my glory.

And so he says,

I will hide you in this rock

and I'll cover you with my hand

and I will show you

the backside of my glory.

I'll show you the afterglow

of my goodness and my glory.

And here's what happens in Exodus 34.

This is what Moses hears.

He hears,

I am the Lord, the Lord,

compassionate and gracious God,

slow to anger,

abounding in loving kindness

and faithfulness,

maintaining love to thousands,

forgiving wickedness,

rebellion and sin.

Yet I do not leave the guilty unpunished,

but I punish the children

for the sins of the parents

to the third and fourth generations,

which means I'm just

and I'm righteous

and I'm holy.

Now there's a reason

that that is the most quoted verse

in the whole Bible.

It's repeated over and over

in the Old Testament

because it definitively reveals

our Father's moral beauty

and his excellence of character.

It reveals his holiness.

This is the God,

the Holy One of Israel

who dwells in the midst

of his people.

And so why does Peter now quote

Leviticus 19 here in this passage,

be holy because I am holy?

What does that mean?

Well, God is saying to us,

you are my people.

You have been set apart by me

and for me.

You belong to me.

And so because of that,

you've got to live

no longer for yourselves,

no longer for your desires,

but you're to live for me

and for my desires.

And this is what Exodus 34,

Leviticus 19,

the whole of the Torah

is really all about.

It's to direct Israel

in a way of life

that's completely other than

the way that all the people

around them are living.

The people in whose midst

they dwell,

Israel,

the people of God,

are to have a decisively

alternative way of life

that's set apart

from all of those other cultures.

And so when God says,

be holy because I'm holy,

he's saying,

just as Abraham and his family

were set apart

from all the cultures

of Mesopotamia

and just as Moses and Israel

were set apart

from the culture of Egypt

and the culture of Canaan,

just as Isaiah and Jeremiah

and Ezekiel and Daniel

and that whole generation

were set apart

from the culture of Babylon,

I am telling you,

Christian exile

scattered throughout

these five provinces

of central and northern Turkey

that you are to be set apart.

You're to be set apart

from the culture

of the Greco-Roman Empire.

That it's within

this cultural environment

that is ignorant

of the reality

of Jesus Christ,

this cultural environment

that's full of evil

and self-centered desires.

This is the place

where you are to be holy

because I am holy.

The Lord says to his church,

I've set you apart

from this culture

for lives that conform

to my moral beauty

and my excellence

of character.

Now what might it mean

to live this set apart,

distinctive, holy life

in a practical way?

Well, I want you to think

about these Christian exiles

that Peter's writing to.

Think about all the people

in central and northern Turkey

in the Greco-Roman Empire there

and think about

what people there believed.

Think about how people there

were living with respect

to the gods of the empire.

People all around the church

were saying,

okay, mammon,

mammon, the money god,

is divine.

And mammon rules our pockets

so that making a profit

trumps everything else

that we could possibly value

or be about.

And then they said,

not only mammon,

but Aphrodite.

Aphrodite, the goddess

of sex and love,

she is divine.

divine.

And she rules our loins.

And so any hint

that we should resist her

just feels like it infringes

upon our rights.

Why would we ever say no

to our appetites

and to getting more pleasure

for ourselves?

And the people said,

not only mammon

and Aphrodite are divine,

but they also said Mars.

Mars, the god of power,

the god of war,

is divine.

And he rules our relationships.

And so the way we engage our lives,

the way we go about our relationships

is through merciless competition

and conflict.

And ruling over all these cultural gods

of mammon and Aphrodite and Mars

was Caesar,

who they also thought was divine.

And they said, you know,

in his empire,

money, sex, and power

just reign unchecked and unchallenged.

And so when Leviticus 19,

be holy because I am holy,

is spoken to these Christian exiles,

what in the world does that mean

in this cultural environment?

Well, these Christian exiles

whom God had set apart,

they refused to give allegiance

to all these prevailing gods.

They said, we refuse to be conformed

to all the desires

and all the customs

and all the practices

that are accepted as normal

by our society.

And they were holding fast

to their risen and exalted Lord Jesus,

at whose name they believed

every knee would bow,

including the knee of Aphrodite

and Mammon

and Mars

and Caesar

and all the other gods.

These Christian exiles

had embraced a holy way of life

that made them instantly suspect

by the people around them

because they were living

by different beliefs,

different values,

different priorities

that were at odds

with their cultural surroundings.

And that's why,

as it says in verse 6 of chapter 1,

they're suffering grief

in all kinds of trials.

It's why it says in verse 7

that they were going through

a fiery furnace

that was testing their faith

because our Holy Father

had called them

and our Holy Father

calls us to this

set-apart,

distinctive,

alternative,

non-conformist,

counter-cultural

way of life,

which is a life

as obedient children

who are becoming

more and more like

our Holy Father.

You with me so far?

Trying to give you

some practical examples

of holiness.

holiness.

If we are bending

our knees to mammon

and money as God,

if we're bending

our knees to Aphrodite

and sex as God,

if we're bending

our knees to Mars

and power as God,

if we're bending

our knees to Caesar

and politics as God,

if we're bending

our knees to anything

other than the true

and living God,

then we're not being

holy as the one

who called us

is holy.

None of these many gods,

none of these

deified ultimates

of our culture

have any claims

on the life

of the people of God.

We have one Lord

and we've been set apart

by Him

and for Him

and He's separated us out

to this different

and distinctive life

so that we,

as I said before,

we're no longer living

for ourselves

and for our desires.

We're living for Him

and for His desires.

The Christian life,

if it's about anything,

it's about deliverance

from sin.

Jesus died for our sins

so that sin

might be overcome,

it might be resisted,

it might be nullified

as an influence

in our lives.

And the Christian life

means orienting

our entire lives

around this Holy Father

and allowing the beauty

of His image

and the excellence

of His likeness

to be reflected

by us

and through us

into the world

so that when people

are looking at

the character

of the church,

when people are looking

at the character

of our lives,

what are they seeing?

They're seeing the character

of our glorious God.

So I have to leave this point

because I have other things

to say,

but I'm going to leave you

with, first of all,

with a quote

and that is from

G.K. Chesterton

and he said,

the Christian ideal

has not been tried

and found wanting,

it has been found difficult

and left untried.

The Christian ideal

has not been tried

and found wanting,

it's been found difficult

and left untried.

And this apostle of Jesus,

Peter, is saying,

go ahead, try it,

try to be holy.

But don't try it

without this prayer

and it's a prayer

that I've given you before

from Robert Murray McShane

and it goes like this,

Lord, make me as holy

as it's possible

for a saved sinner to be.

Lord, make me as holy

as it's possible

for a saved sinner to be.

And if you want

to follow up on this,

I encourage you to

go home this afternoon

and Google the word holiness

and then you can Google

the name J.I. Packer

and then you can watch

the first video

that pops up for you there

and that'll be helpful,

I think,

in terms of applying

the meaning of this text.

But the gospel

creates holy lives.

It creates a holy people.

And one of the ways

that that holiness

gets expressed

is through reverence.

The gospel creates

holy lives of reverence,

of revering our God.

And so Peter continues on

in verse 17.

He says,

since you call on a father

who judges each person's work

impartially,

live out your time

as foreigners

here in reverent fear.

Again,

that word foreigners,

he says,

you're exiles,

you're following

the way of Jesus

and that means

that you're a counterculture

within the dominant culture.

And he says,

as exiles,

I want you to live out

your time,

I want you to conduct

yourselves

in reverent fear,

reverent awe.

And he contrasts this

in verse 18

with what he calls

an empty

or a futile way

of life

handed down

from our fathers.

What Peter's saying

is that your holy

and gracious Father

who's caused you

to be born again

by this imperishable seed

of the gospel,

verse 23,

your Father in heaven

has handed down to you

a very different way

of life

than the empty

and futile way

of life

that you receive

from your fathers.

It's a new life.

It's a new way

of life

that's marked

by reverent fear

and reverent awe.

And Peter's point

is that to live

or to conduct

ourselves

in any other way

without this reverence,

without this awe

of our holy Father

is to cheapen

his grace.

To continue

to live

in any of the

empty

or useless ways

of idolatry

and immorality

that were handed

down to us

and that's being

practiced

all around us,

Peter says

that's to implicitly

deny the value

of what our Father

has done

for us.

And here's what he says

in verse 18,

he says,

for you know

that it was not

with perishable things

such as silver

or gold

that you were

redeemed

from the empty

way of life

handed down

to you

from your ancestors

but with the

precious blood

of Christ

a lamb

without blemish

or defect.

See,

in the first century

everybody who heard

that word

redeemed,

they would have

had a very specific

image come to their mind.

If you were

a Greco-Roman pagan

you would have

this image

of slaves

or prisoners

of war

who in order

to be freed

had to have

a ransom price

paid for their

redemption.

Or if you were

Jewish

and you heard

this word

redeemed

you would think

about your

people's bondage

and slavery

in Egypt

and how

the Lord God

himself had to

move heaven

and earth

to deliver

his people

and Peter's

saying

I want you

to think

about

what God

the Father

was willing

to do

when you

were slaves

in sin.

When you

were in

bondage

to death

when you

were prisoners

of dark

spiritual

powers

what was

the price

that God

was willing

to pay

for your

freedom?

Did the

Father

give something

perishable

to get you

out of that

old

empty

useless

way

of life?

Did he

give a

large

sum

of silver

and gold

for your

freedom?

Did he

pay a

price

of relative

value

for your

redemption?

Peter's

talking about

money because

he wants

us to see

that none

of us

if we

even wanted

to

could redeem

ourselves.

I mean

at our

best

if we

tried to

redeem

ourselves

all that

we could

offer

is just

perishable

things like

gold and

silver.

silver.

Right?

And how

much of

that do

we even

really have?

You know

if we

took all

of our

bank

accounts

and mutual

funds

and 401ks

and we

pulled all

that together

this morning

could we

redeem

one

eternal

soul?

No.

Peter's

saying look

your money

is useless

in this

realm of

redemption.

It's not

enough

to ransom

a single

soul.

what had

to be

given

was not

silver

and gold

what had

to be

given

was a

life.

What had

to be

given

to liberate

us from

our

captivity

to sin

and death

and the

devil

was a

life.

And here's

the most

wonderful

thing that

the world

has ever

heard is

that God

gave that

life.

God

gave that

life that

was most

precious

and most

infinitely

valuable.

God

our

Father

our

gracious

Father

gave

his

only

son

Jesus.

And God

the son

gave the

highest

and the

best

that he

could

give.

He says

in Mark

Mark 10:45

chapter 10

verse 45

I've not

come to

be served

but to

serve

and to

give my

life as

a ransom

for many.

He laid

down his

life for

us.

He paid

the ultimate

price to

redeem us.

And again

in verse 19

Peter says

it's with

the precious

blood of

Christ

the lamb

without

blemish

or defect

that you

were

redeemed.

He's saying

here think

about all

those

sacrificial

lambs

in the

temple

of God.

Think

about how

they're

offered on

behalf of

sinners

every morning

and every

night

day by

day

week by

week

slaughtered

in the

place of

sinners

as a

substitute

to atone

for their

evil and

self-centered

desires.

Peter says

that's what

Jesus came

to be

for you.

That's what

the eternal

Son of

God is

for you.

All of

our sins

have been

laid upon

this pure

and perfect

one

Jesus

who is

the Lamb

of God

who takes

away

the sin

of the

world.

And Peter

is telling

us that

you can't

measure the

value of

this.

It's

beyond

silver

and gold.

It's

beyond the

highest

standards

known to

human

beings.

Think about

what it

took for

you to

be redeemed,

for you to

be ransomed

and set

free,

Peter says.

It was the

precious blood

of Jesus.

That's the

measure of

the love

that God

the Father

has for

you.

And here's

his point.

To live

in a way

and to

conduct

yourself in

a way

that's

inconsistent

with the

gravity

of this

cosmic

reality

of the

ransom

price that

God paid

for your

redemption

is to

presume

upon God's

grace,

is to

cheapen

his grace,

is to

deny the

value of

what your

gracious

Father has

done for

you.

If your

new life

was secured

by nothing

less than

the precious

blood of

Jesus,

which is

of infinitely

greater value

than anything

that can be

secured with

silver or

gold,

then each

and every

one of us

is called

to recognize

the value

of our

new status

by living

our lives,

conducting

ourselves

with what

Peter calls

reverent fear,

reverent awe.

The Apostle

Paul is making

a similar

point in

1 Corinthians 6

when he says

you are not

your own,

you were

bought at

a price,

therefore honor

God with

your bodies.

What these

apostles are

saying is how

could we

live carelessly?

How could

we live

self-indulgently?

How could

we give

free reign

to our

self-centered

desires?

How could

we allow

money

or sex

or power

or any

of the

other

gods

that are

out there

to rule

over us

as if we

were our

own,

as if we

did belong

to ourselves,

as if we

had not been

bought with

this great

price,

as if we

were not

in fact

accountable

to our

Father who

Peter says

is going

to judge

all of our

works

impartially?

See,

becoming

obedient children

of our

Holy Father

means that

we leave

behind the

empty way

of life

that was

handed down

to us

from our

unholy

fathers.

And having

Jesus as

our Redeemer

means living

in ways that

are appropriate

to the

precious and

measureless price

of our

redemption.

We've seen

that great

hymn,

love so

amazing,

so divine,

demands my

soul,

my life,

my all.

It's the

degree to

which you

see how

Jesus gave

himself for

you,

and that is

the degree to

which you

will be

willing to

give yourself

for him.

The degree to

which you

value the

price that he

paid for

you is the

degree to

which you

will live as

if no price

is too high,

no cost is

too great to

honor him.

reverent fear,

reverent awe.

Peter's asking

us, is that

the attitude,

is that the

posture that

we have before

our God?

Is that the

way that we're

living our

lives and

conducting

ourselves?

The gospel

creates holy

lives of

revering our

God and

craving his

grace.

And I just

want to

close briefly

with this.

The gospel

creates holy

lives of

revering our

God and

craving his

grace.

There's so

much in

this passage

and a

lot to

leave on

the table.

But I do

want to

close with

Peter's final

imperative to

these Christian

exiles.

He says in

chapter 2,

verse 2,

like newborn

babies crave

pure spiritual

milk so

that by it

you may

grow up in

your salvation

now that

you've tasted

that the

Lord is

good.

Now this

is a

lovely text

because we

have so many

newborns in

this church.

And so we

don't have to

look very far

to think about

what this

means.

to think

about the

single-mindedness

with which

those newborns

yearn for the

milk that

alone will

nourish them.

That milk is

the very

sustenance of

their lives.

And as some

of you parents

know painfully

well, any

delay at

feeding time

creates this

powerful reaction

from this

tiny little

person.

For the

infant,

milk is

not a fringe

benefit.

It's not

just like a

nice to

have.

It's a

need to

have.

And Peter

is urging

these Christian

exiles, he's

urging the

church to

have an

infant's

desperate

desire for

their appropriate

nourishment.

And he's

saying as

babies crave

milk, so

you must crave

the goodness

and the grace

of God that

alone will

sustain the

vitality of

the new life

you've been

given in

Jesus Christ.

God

is

going to

do it.

And so Peter's

saying you've

got to put

off.

You've got to

put behind you,

you've got to

abandon all of

those old

desires, all of

those old

cravings of your

former life.

And because of

this new life you

need to begin

instinctively desiring

new things, eagerly

and incessantly

craving God and

the grace of God.

God, like a

sensible baby, do

not be satisfied

with anything less

than this.

Cry out for it and

if you don't get it,

cry more.

Let your desire for

God, let your desire

for the grace of the

gospel, Peter says, to

be as fervent and as

constant and as

unrelenting and as

tenacious as a

hungry newborn.

If you make God's

regenerative word and

His satisfying grace

and His life-giving

presence your

desperate desire, then

this is the spiritual

nourishment that will

enable us to grow up

in the salvation that

we've been given.

This is the thing that

will enable us and

nourish us and

strengthen us to be

able to be the

obedient children God's

calling us to be, to

be the holy children

God's calling us to

be, to be the

reverent children our

Holy Father has made

us and called us to

be.

So as we prepare to

come to this table of

grace, my question for

us is, how hungry are

you?

How thirsty are you for

our holy God?

What are you desiring?

What are you craving?

It is your deepest

desire to know more and

more of the goodness and

the grace of the God, the

holy God who's called us to

be holy as He's holy.

In the name of the Father,

Son, and Holy Spirit,

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.