God has an encouraging Word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton and this challenge to live a holy life.
Yes, experiencing God by living a holy life. That's today's message with Dr. Wilton. You can take a peek right now at www.tewonline.org to see the rest of the story. But let's just open God's Word together. 1 Peter 1 with Dr. Don Wilton.
Thank you so much indeed. Would you turn with me in your Bibles this morning to 1 Peter chapter 1? I trust that you have a copy of God's Word with you. Now ladies and gentlemen, our subject this morning is one that I should imagine would cause all of us to want to get up and leave before we hear the message from God's Word. Experiencing God by living a holy life. Experiencing God by living a holy life. I should imagine that if we were to take a survey in our congregation upstairs and downstairs and every person worshipping with us by way of television this morning, we would find that a vast majority of people would say that the one thing that troubles them about the Christian faith is the mandate to lead a holy life. In other words, if we could put it into today's terminology, how is it possible to lead a holy life?
Is this an unattainable goal? Is this something that God has said that's impossible? I mean, we hear all this talk about holiness and we are all sinners saved by the grace of God. We're not immune or exempt from sin.
We become sensitized to sin. So how is it possible for us to be holy? And if I may respectfully submit to you this morning that I want to guarantee you that there is not one holy person out here today and if there is, I'd like to meet with you for a brief moment after the service. None of us would ever have the audacity before God to call ourselves holy. And I'm here to remind us today that the only difference between the best of us in here and the worst of them out there is the grace of God. So how can we ever experience God by living a holy life?
I want to just use an illustration, if I may, before we read God's Word this morning. Right throughout the centuries, people have taken great lengths and giant steps to try and be more like Jesus. Some of the finest people that you and I will ever meet in the entire world are people who belong to monastic orders, nuns and monks and people who have denied themselves and have forsaken the world and have given up everything that pertains to our human well-being and have put themselves away for God. Some of the most precious people in the world, some of the finest schools in the world are run by men and women who are part of monastic orders.
Now there's some people who have gone to extreme extremes. Maybe you want to have an interesting time, go and read some of the books about the great monastic orders. There was a man many years ago who near the Negev Desert built a pole with a platform on probably the size of the platform I'm standing on this morning. He was a monk and he sat on top of that pole on that platform for 47 years, never came down.
Just think about it. His food was sent up to him by means of a piece of string or whatever they had in those days and everything, he never came off that platform and the whole idea behind it was to deny himself to such an extent that he was drawn into the presence of God and you and I would have nothing but the highest commendation. The Epicureans were a sect of people who denied themselves the pleasures of life, both physical and material and human pleasures.
They just denied themselves. They believed that deprivation was going to draw themselves into God's presence and in fact fasting is in keeping with what they had in mind but fasting of course does not find itself in sync with the Epicurean philosophy of life. Neither does the word of God and so we could go on one of the most famous of all people was a man by the name of St. Francis of Assisi, one of God's choicest servants, a man who exemplified holy living. St. Francis of Assisi was a man who denied himself everything.
He was very wealthy, he gave away everything and he gave everything that he had, his life and his material possessions in service of the poor. How can we experience God by holy living? Let's read together in 1 Peter chapter 1 and beginning at verse 13. Therefore, prepare your minds for action.
Now you know that I want to stop right there, don't you? See, we're talking about action here folks, that says it all right there, prepare your minds for action. Be self-controlled, set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 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 man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. 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 forefathers, 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 in the King James Version, through the spirit, through the enabling power of the spirit, so that you have received, so that you have sincere love for your brothers, 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 men 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 stands forever. And this is the Word that was preached to you. Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, all 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. What a tremendous passage from God's Word, action packed. May the Lord write his Word upon our hearts, experiencing God by living a holy life. What an impossible goal. The first question that we need to address this morning is why ought we to live a holy life?
Why? In this passage, there are three reasons why we need to live holy lives as Christian men and women. Number one, because God commands it. It's right there in verse 15. Again in verse 16, but just as you, as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written, be holy because I am holy. Why should we be holy? Because God commands it, that's why. In other words, if I could put it into classic terminology, there comes a time when you just stop and you say so, you are not doing that because I say so.
That's right, because why is a crooked letter and you can't make it straight? It's just as simple as that. You've got to draw the line in the sand and you say, my son, my daughter, it doesn't matter how unpopular I make it. It doesn't matter how much I'm unable to prove it by means of logic or rationalization.
It doesn't matter what your friends think about it. It doesn't matter who, what, where, why or when you are not doing it because I say you're not doing it. You know, we can talk about that as parents. But folks, when it comes to God, sometimes we believe that God says to us, why don't you call a deacons meeting about this one? There are many things in God's Word, my friend, that you don't need a deacons meeting for. You don't need a preacher to rationalize. You don't need you and me to try and understand why do we need to strive to be holy because God commands it.
Number two, because Jesus died for it. It's right there in verses 18, 19 and 20. You see, as we go on mission trips, we tell everybody about it. When we preach in the pulpit, we tell everybody about it. When we witness, we tell everybody about it.
And when we do, we are doing what the Bible teaches us. And that is that God died, Jesus died for you. Why?
Because he loves you. Is that true? Yes, sir. It is absolutely biblically true. It is 100% correct. But I'm going to say to you, friends, that Jesus died because of the holiness of God. That's why Jesus died. You see, all the attributes of God are to be found in his holiness, whether it be love or grace or mercy. Everything that God is can be summed up in his holiness. And Jesus died because of the holiness of God.
Why? Because God cannot and will not tolerate anything that is even remotely outside of the boundary of his complete holiness. But there's a third reason why we need to be holy. And that is because the Spirit of God enables it. The Spirit of God enables it. In verse 22, the King James Version, Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth, how is it possible, first of all, to purify yourself?
And secondly, how is it possible to obey the truth? It is through the enabling power of the Spirit of God. And one of the functions of the Spirit of God is to do what? Is to enable us to lead holy lives. Outside of the Spirit of God, it's impossible. But because the Spirit of God lives in us, we are enabled to lead purified and holy lives only because of him. God commands it, Jesus died for it, the Holy Spirit enables it. And so the question becomes then, how am I to lead a holy life? There are seven practical directives here in these verses that we have read this morning. Please permit me to share them with you. How can I become holy?
What do I need to do? Just tell me, give me a formula. The Bible has many, many ways, because this is God's manual that unlocks the key to kingdom living, isn't it? This is God's directive. And if we are going to experience God, we need to turn to God's Word and say, Lord, what would you teach us?
There are seven, there are many others, by the way, but there are seven directives here in 1 Peter. Number one, be prepared in mind. Look at verse 13. Therefore, prepare your minds for action. You see, as the apostle by the inspiration of the Spirit is moving up to this climactic experience, this prerogative, this mandate, this imperative of God that we need to lead holy lives. He says, be prepared in your minds. In other words, take action to prepare yourself to do what God wants you to do. You might say to me, well, pastor, how can we prepare our minds?
We're doing that this morning. You say to me, well, pastor, you're preaching to the wrong crowd. I want to commend you, my dear friends, this morning for being in God's house. You could just as easily be out on that lake.
You could just as easily be out on that golf course right now. You could just as easily be somewhere, anywhere, but in the house of God, the weather's perfect. It's a weekend, you have every opportunity, every reason and yet you've come to God's house and God's Word says forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. Do you know why? Because there is something so special about coming and sitting under the Word of God and singing and praising God together.
It is part of the preparation of our minds. You say, pastor, you should never go to such ridiculous lengths. There's some people, it doesn't matter what you do, they're not going to do it.
I would beg you with everything at my disposal. Do you know why? Because God's Word says, be ye holy. How can I be holy? We need to prepare our minds for action, for action. Number two, be self-controlled in spirit. Look at the second part of verse 13, therefore prepare your minds for action, be self-controlled.
Now that gets to all of us. You see what the apostle is saying here, my friends, is that the Christian man and the Christian woman does not have license to do whatever he or she wants to do. Now in the United States of America, the most beautiful nation upon the world, we are all created equal with equal voice at any time. We have our rights, but that is not the case. You and I do not have a right under God to be out of control. Bible says if you want to lead a holy life, you have got a biblical mandate to be under control. There is never, there is never an excuse for a Christian person to be out of control.
You and I do not have license to say whatever we want to say whenever we want to say it. We live under the lordship of Jesus Christ and God is in control and He controls everything that we do and here the apostle is reminding us, my friends, that if we are ever to lead holy lives, we must be prepared in mind and we must be self-controlled in our spirit. Number three, we must be dependent on God's grace. We must be dependent on God's grace.
I love this one. Look also at verse 13. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. You see, all of us here this morning, every one of us without exception, every one of us, we know that there is absolutely no earthly hope that we could ever strive to be prepared in mind or to be self-controlled if it is left up to ourselves, is it? Is there any way that we could ever do that?
No, sir. But you know what our hope is? Our hope is simply this. It is our dependency upon the grace of God and every single day that we live this life, God's Word says that we need to wake up with a renewed spirit and a dependency, a fresh dependency, upon the ongoing outpouring grace of Almighty God in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Be prepared in mind. Be self-controlled in spirit. Be dependent upon God's grace. And number four, be impartial in judgment.
Now, this is a tough one. Be impartial in judgment. I want you to look at verse 17 because I believe that God's Word is endeavoring to try and teach us an unbelievable eternal truth about the condition of the Christian person since you call on a Father. Now, listen carefully. The apostle here is saying because what you do is only made possible by virtue of your relationship with this one called God our heavenly Father, who judges each man's work impartially, therefore live your lives as strangers in reverent fear. Now, that word reverent there is a very interesting word because that word reverent there is used with nobility and is used with the kingly status of the king. And what the apostle is saying to us here is simply this, that if we are to do what God says, which is to be holy, what we have to do is we have to submit ourselves in reverent respect and holy fear to the Father whom we worship who is impartial in His judgment. Please forgive the interrupts, and we'll be back with the rest of today's message, Experiencing God by Living a Holy Life with Dr. Don Wilton in just a moment, but he wants me to remind you we are connecting on our website 24-7, T-E-W, online.org.
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Join us today, T-E-W, online.org. Prejudice, my beloved friends, will kill the soul of a Christian person and rob them of their joy. If you have prejudice in your heart, you will never lead the life that God is calling you to lead, and all of us are prejudiced, every single one of us. We're prejudiced about people, about ways of doing things, about whether it's up or whether it's down. We have biases, every single one of us, and one of the things that God's word teaches is that there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female. We are all one in Christ Jesus.
Be impartial in judgment. Perhaps what he is saying is that we need to love one another on an equal footing. We need to love one another on an equal footing.
And that leads very clearly to the fifth point, be sincere in love. Look at verse 22. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth. Now we need to just examine that word there and that structure there, because here the apostle is saying, after the fact, you have now come to grips with the fact that Jesus died for God's holiness. Jesus died and God commands it, and the Spirit of God enables it, and you ought to be prepared in mind and self-controlled in spirit and dependent upon God's grace and impartial in judgment.
And if you are able to understand these things, you will become sincere in love. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for all of the brothers, and that love is deep and it comes from the heart. What a tremendous thing to think about. That's why I love this congregation so much.
It's a magnificent thing to think about the love that exists between people. You see, it is the mandate of God, and it is inextricably intertwined into the holiness of God. You cannot divorce the holiness of God from the love of God, and you cannot divorce the love of God from the love that we are instructed to have for one another. Number six, be pure in motive. Be pure in motive. Look at chapter two and verse one.
Now I could preach on this one until the cows come home. Here it is, look at verse one. Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit and all hypocrisy and all envy and slander of every kind.
What is he saying to us? What is God's Word teaching us about holiness? Maybe it can be summarized in this one statement, be pure in motive. Are you pure in your motives?
Or do you have strings attached to whatever you do? What is he saying here in chapter two and verse one? Therefore, rid yourself, cut it off of all malice, all deceit, all hypocrisy. What is hypocrisy? Hypocrisy is sitting in church on Sunday saying and looking something, and from Monday to Tuesday saying and looking something entirely different. Hypocrisy is going up to someone and saying I love you and going up to somebody else and saying I don't love that person. That's hypocrisy, it's a two-sided nature.
Hypocrisy and slander, my friend, an impure motive is someone who goes around making phone calls and trying to curry people's favor and sow seeds of doubt and destruction and break characters down and assassinate and begin rumors. That's what the apostle is talking about. Be ye holy because I am holy because I am holy. Be pure in motive. Be pure in motive.
Be prepared in mind. Be self-controlled in spirit. Be dependent upon God's grace. Be impartial in judgment. Be sincere in love. Be pure in motive.
But there's one more. Be longing for purity. Look at chapter 2 and verse 2. Like newborn babies crave spiritual milk, pure spiritual milk. I love that word crave.
You know, I always used to think that was a kind of a modern term. I suppose it is, crave. It means that the longing, the soul searching that needs to be going on is that we should have pure spiritual milk so that, here it is, here's the consequence, by it you may grow up in your salvation.
Isn't that straight? You know what the apostle is saying? He's saying you want to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? You want to be more like Jesus?
You want to grow up? Crave purity. Strive for it. Put yourself out for it. A powerful challenge from Dr. Don Wilton in today's teaching about the pursuit of purity.
And here is the reality. You cannot do it. I can't do it. Dr. Wilton can't do it alone. But Jesus is ready to empower you and me to do remarkable things as we start with him.
Here's Dr. Don Wilton with the most important 60 seconds of our day. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today I repent of my sin and by faith I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God. This is exciting news. Welcome to the family of God.
Welcome home. I believe some of you have made significant decisions as Dr. Don was praying and we want you to know we are here to walk you through the next steps. Give us a call at 866-899-WORD for your free copy of information Dr. Don wants you to have if you just gave your life to Jesus. That's 866-899-9673 or meet us online at tewonline.org and many have been asking and visiting the website talking about wanting to become supporters of the ministry. Well, if you're interested, that's what we call encouragers. The promise of spring brings the promise of hope. Where do we find hope? We find hope in Jesus. We want to share this great hope with as many people as possible.
Will you join us? We need your help. Become an encourager today. Call us at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673 to request information on how you can support the work of the Encouraging Word. The Encouraging Word is a viewer and listener supported ministry. Thank you for listening today. We'd love for you to encourage us but know that we're here to encourage you 24 hours a day at 866-899-WORD. The Encouraging Word
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