PM2 - Be Ye Holy For I Am Holy

So like Cam said, tonight is our replacement service for Wednesday because of our graduates in Xenia. There's quite a few of them this year and for us to keep going with it this year would have been kind of an empty service on Wednesday because of all our servants have kids graduating. So tonight we're going to be in 1 Peter 1. We're going to be looking at something Peter laid out for us here. What's really cool about this church service and different things is it's kind of like our sending charge to our seniors. That's kind of how I looked at it. We've got a handful of them in here. Some of them are in our LBI classes right now that are going on.

So it's kind of like a sending charge for them. So let's go ahead and look at 1 Peter 1, verse 13. If you guys don't mind, stand again.

Maybe stretch your legs and wake back up. We'll go ahead and read that. The Bible says, Wherefore you gird up the loins of your mind. Be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust of your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manners of conversation.

Because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy. And if you call on the Father, who without respective persons judges according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. For as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by the tradition of your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that he raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, tonight we want to thank you for this opportunity to be in your house. Lord, we want to thank you for who you are and what you've done. God, I thank you for Brother Cam as he presented your word. But Lord, I pray now as we look at this other portion of scripture that you would fill this room, Lord, hide me behind your cross. Empty me of myself, that way only you are seen. Lord, I pray that you would have me say exactly what you want me to and nothing more.

In Christ's name. Amen. So like I said, this is kind of like our sending charge to our teenagers. So I have a little statistic here, just to kind of look at. Lively Research conducted a study in 2017. They polled young adults from ages 23 to 30 who had attended at least one year of church regularly in high school. They asked the young adults if they had stopped attending church regularly for at least one year from the ages of 18 to 22, which are typical college years, 18 to 22. The study showed that 66% of young adults stopped attending church for at least a year during this time.

And while this alone is staggering to hear, the study actually showed that the dropout rate accelerated with age. So while 69% of teenagers that were still in church were attending at age 17, it fell to 58% at 18 and 40% at 19. And once they reached their 20s, the statistics showed that one in three say they had stopped attending church or only one in three said that they were attending church regularly. So this means that 33% of teenagers who attended church regularly in high school are still in church in their 20s. That's not including the people that are outside of church. This is kids that were in church.

Only 33% of them remain as of 2017. And that's the mold of the world. That's the way the world is going.

That's normal. So when we look in the Bible, something that's always key and important to look at is context. We have to take context and consideration to see whether or not it actually applies to us in our day. Just like when we read Leviticus, we know that some of those ceremonial laws and dietary laws don't apply to us anymore because we're under grace, not under the law. So 1 Peter was written to suffering Christians that were scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. And because it was written to Christians, it can still apply to us today and was still written to us today.

This book was written around 63 A.D., which was about four years before its author was martyred in 67 A.D. So in our passage tonight, God gave us a very specific command. God doesn't give us a suggestion or an if you want to do this. He gives us a specific command. He tells us to be holy. He wants us to be holy because he is holy. Like verse 16 said, God has always wanted his people to be holy. Verse 16 says that because it is written be holy, for I am holy, but where was it written first? Originally it was written Leviticus 19 2, which the context of Leviticus 19 is God laying out laws for Israel to separate them from the world. He wanted to separate them, make them different, his people, not the world, but his specific people.

So that verse though is reinstated like we said in 1 Peter 1 16. God still wants us to be holy, not just Israel. So we could spend all night looking about how God is holy. We could spend weeks on that because that's God's main attribute. That's who makes God who he is. The main part of God is his holiness.

So we could spend all evening there, but for the sake of time we won't do that. I think there's a single passage that covers the fact that God is holy and I'm sure almost all of you could quote it. Let's look at Isaiah 6 1 through 3. It says in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon the throne high and lifted up and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings.

With 20 he covered his face and with 20 he covered his feet and with 20 he did fly. And they cried unto another saying holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is filled with his glory. So in the throne room of the Almighty, in the presence of the Creator, the most obvious and most apparent thing about him isn't love. It isn't grace. It's holiness. The seraphims can't help but to cry out of the holiness of our Heavenly Father. God's clearly a holy God.

Like I said we could spend all night there, but for the sake of time we won't do that. But with all this talk of holiness, what does it really mean to be holy? The Hebrew word that's translated holy here in Isaiah 6 is the word kadosh. And it carries the idea of being sacred or set apart. Different than everything else.

Unique in its own way. God's holiness is more than just perfection or his sinless purity. God's holiness is the essence of his otherness. So it makes him different, other, separate from the world. So MacArthur and Mayhew write in their book, Biblical Doctrine, that both the Greek and Hebrew words for to be holy, which appear around 2,000 times in scripture, basically mean to be set aside for something special.

To be set aside for something special. Thus God is holy in that he sets himself apart from creation, humanity, and all pagan gods by the fact of his deity and sinlessness. We worship a holy God tonight, guys. God is holy. So for God to tell us to be holy because he is holy, this means that God wants us to be set apart. Different.

Set apart. How he wants us, excuse me, he wants us to be set apart from the world. He doesn't want us to look the same as the world, right? But how can we be holy? We're sinners by nature. We're sinful people.

How can we be different than the world that surrounds us? One thing I love about the Epistles is how practical they are. I'm a practical guy. You tell me to do something, how to do it, I'll do it. Like, just give me basic, lay it out, I'll do it.

That's easy. So one thing I love about the Epistles is how simple they are. They lay out instructions for our lives so clearly, and Peter tells us how to live out the commandment of holiness in our daily lives, and all we have to do is obey. Isn't it wonderful that God doesn't make his words super hard to understand on the basics?

Such a blessing. So number one tonight, his holiness starts in our mind. Let's look at 1 Peter 1-13. It says, Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind. Be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. The word wherefore at the beginning of this verse could also be translated as therefore, and as I'm sure you guys know, when you hear the word therefore, you need to figure out what it's there for, right?

Same idea here. So in verse three, in the beginning of chapter one, Peter highlights that because of God's abundant mercy, he is saved us. Because God is so merciful, he saved us, and because God saved us, we now have an inheritance that is reserved for us in heaven. This inheritance is nothing like the inheritances that are here on earth.

It's different. Verse four, 1 Peter 1-4 says that this inheritance is incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away, and is reserved for us in heaven. So after we're told of this great inheritance that is now ours, we're told of this great inheritance that is now ours because of what Christ has done for us, verses ten to twelve highlight the great salvation that made this inheritance possible. Because of what our salvation is, this inheritance is now made possible. Verse ten shows us that this great salvation was prophesied by the Old Testament's prophets, and even they understood the immense grace that salvation came by. The grace is so powerful and unique that even the angels of heaven, as verse twelve says, desire to understand it. They long to look in, but they'll never understand it because they cannot be redeemed.

The angels are already, they can't be saved. So this is where we come to verse thirteen. The great doctrine of salvation has just been laid out for us.

It's been highlighted. Because of this, because of all of this, wherefore do this? It's our background. Now we take into, the doctrine's been laid out.

Now it's the application time. So what is our mind, though? Okay, so the word mind in verse thirteen is translated from the Greek word denoia, okay? And this word is used thirteen times in the Bible. Denoia is translated nine times as mind, understanding three times, and then as imagination once.

So the word mind here basically has to do with our understanding or our thought process, basically what we would call our mind today. So Peter tells us to gird up the loins of our mind. I don't know about you, I don't say that ever. That's not a phrase I say. So it's not a common phrase that we just say.

It carries the idea of preparing our minds for action. This metaphor actually is derived from the practice of the Orientals in that area, who in order to be unimpeded in their movements were accustomed when they started their journey or engaged in any work, they would bind up their long flowing garments to themselves and then bind it together with a belt. They would take all the looseness and bind it together. It's not flowy, it's not going everywhere.

They pull it all together and bind it up with a belt. That way it was in its specific place. And Peter tells us to do that with our thought process. We aren't to just let our minds flow and go wherever they want because they never stay where they're supposed to be. He says for us to gird up the loins of our mind, bind it together, hold it in place. Hold your mind in place otherwise it will always lead into sin. If the mind is left to wander, it will wander into sin. So another word that talks about our thought process in the Bible is the heart.

We see this a lot. In the time that it was written, the heart was also looked at as the seat of thoughts and intelligence. Basically what we would call our mind in the modern world. And Jesus gives us a warning about what comes out of the hearts of man. It's in Matthew 15 19 to 20. It says, for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies. These things wish to file a man but to eat with unwashed hands to file not a man. So basically Jesus says if you don't keep this intact it will go to sin.

It will. It just, that's where all these sinful things come is from the heart of man which is understood as the seat of intelligence, our mind, where our thought process comes from. So Peter tells us because that's where all sin comes from, to bind it together.

Hold it in place. Hold it to holiness. Another warning about guarding our hearts in the Bible comes from King Solomon, the wisest man, second only to Jesus Christ to ever walk the earth. And it's Proverbs 4 23. It says keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. That word heart there is again talking about thought process, your mind, keep it. Guard it with all diligence.

That word keep there has the idea of it's kind of like a, excuse me, it's kind of like a base, a war base. And they said to keep it was to guard it, to hold it down the fort, to guard it. And Solomon says to guard our hearts with all diligence because out of it are the issues of life. Guard your mind. It's the first step in holiness.

If we let this go it all goes. If we can't think right, if we can't get this right, nothing else will be right. So the next thing that is in that verse in 13, it says to be sober. And this entire phrase comes from the Greek word napho, napho, excuse me. And it just carries the idea of looking out for danger. What's that verse that says be sober, be vigilant for your adversary the devil's roameth about like a roaring lion seeking whom he made of the hour, right? Be sober, pay attention, guard yourself, guard your mind is the context here.

It carries that thought of guarding your mind, keeping it in place. And then the final part of that verse is rest your hope fully on the grace of Christ. It says hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. This part of the verse tells us to rest our hope completely in the grace of Christ. Think about this, without the grace of Christ we could never be holy. We could never be in right standing with God if it weren't for the grace of Christ. So rest our hope fully on that grace that is in Christ. You would be dead in your sins without that grace.

This same grace is the grace that will be brought to us at the second coming of Christ which is referred to at the end of this verse. So this is where our holiness begins. It starts in the mind. Before it can be transitioned into the way that we live we have to have it right in our mind. If we don't start right we'll never be able to live right.

So that's my first point. Looking at number two now, holiness shows in our lives. Starts in our mind and now it shows in our lives. 1 Peter 1 14 says as obedient children not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust of your ignorance. So we're supposed to live as obedient children, okay?

Living obedient to the Heavenly Father. In fact the word hupa, oh excuse me here, hupa, oh man, hupa, okay, okay, and that's just translated as the adjective obedient. And our English Bible is translated as the adjective as obedient.

But in the original Greek it's actually a genitive noun. So what this means is that obedience is what characterizes every true child of God. And it separates true Christians from false Christians which are called the children of disobedience in Ephesians 2 2. Which says wherein in time past you walk according to the course of this world according to the prince of power of the air that the spirit now worketh in the children of disobedience. So obedience is what separates us.

It's what identifies and characterizes a true believer from a false believer. We used to be like the world. We used to. But God saved us.

We're no longer supposed to look like that. We're called to be holy, set apart, different. And if we're the same, how are we holy? Let's look at the rest of that passage of Ephesians 2. Let's look at verses 2 through 6. It says wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Among whom we also had our conversation in time past when the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires, this is talking about our life, fulfilling the desires of our flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath even as others. But God, but God, those two words are so key in the Bible. So many places. Romans 5, 8 like Kim was talking about, but God commended us with love.

Those two words are so key. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together and made us alive with Christ. By grace he are saved and hath raised us up together and made us to sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. We used to fulfill the lust of the flesh. We used to in time past, in the past, before God quickened us or saved us, we lived according to the flesh.

But guess what? God separated us from that old way of living. He doesn't want us to live according to the flesh anymore. That's not why he died for us. He saved us from that lifestyle. We're not to live that way anymore. Look in your Bibles at 2 Corinthians 5.

This is really, really cool if you guys want to see this for yourself. It's 2 Corinthians 5 verses 15 and 17. It says, in that he died for all, that they which live, spiritually speaking, should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. Jump to verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, like pastor says, highlighter, pay attention, all things are become new. Old things are gone.

They're gone. All things are new. Christ died for everyone, according to verse 15, and anyone can accept salvation. But those that accept life in Christ are not supposed to live for themselves anymore.

They have to live for the one that died for them. Verse 17, if anyone is in Christ, right, and has accepted him as their savior, they're a new creature. Old things are passed away. Stop living in the old you and start living holy. All things are become new.

Highlighter, all things are become new. We can't keep living the way that we wanted to. It's not how that works. In verse 14, our home text says to stop fashioning ourselves to the form of lust. Stop conforming to the world. Fashioning means to conform, to push into a mold. I think of Play-Doh.

I'm a visual guy. When you put that Play-Doh in the cup, it forms it. We're forming ourselves to this world. Let's look at Romans 12, 2. It says, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, again, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Listen, this is really, really key. Conformed is not separate.

It's not. If you're conformed to this world, you are not separate. You're the same. You're the cookie cutter mold.

Everybody looks the same. Sinful, sinful, sinful, sinful. We're not supposed to be that cookie cutter mold. Conformed is not holy.

It's not. Stop being conformed to the old lust of your flesh and be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you can be holy just like our God is holy. Verses 15 and 16, our home text says, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be holy in all manners of conversation. As it is written, be holy, for I am holy. Because he that called us or in other words saved us is holy, we have to be holy.

The phrase in all manner of the conversation could also be translated as in all manners of our life. Every little part of our lives is expected to look like God. We're commanded to be holy in every manner, separate in every manner of our lives. This means you can't be holy on Sunday and look like the world on Monday.

That's not how that works. God says holy in every manner of our lives, every little part. You can't be holy at work because everyone knows you go to church and then come home and not be holy to your family and the vice versa. You can't live like the world because you don't want to be known that you're a Christian and then come home and try and be holy to your family.

It's not how God says to live. Be holy in all manners of conversation. Every part of your life, you have to be holy. Holiness is the key part in the Christian faith and without it, we're no different than the world. It's what separates us from the ungodly. We're called to be in the world but not of the world.

It's what separates us. Holiness is the way that we can stay in the world but stay separate from the world. That's what holiness is. So number three here as we're still moving is holiness came with a cost. Holiness came with a cost. First Peter 1, 18, 19 says, for as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversations received by the tradition of your father but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. That's what we were dealing with, the precious blood of Christ. As the final reason for our holiness, Peter reminds us of the cost.

Without Christ, we could never be holy. Our holiness wasn't free. In fact, our holiness wasn't even expensive on our earthly standards. The Bible says that we weren't bought out of our vain lifestyle with earthly money, with silver and gold. Your salvation wasn't $9.99, guys.

It wasn't. It bought with a price, okay? Our salvation cost God the Father His Son. Our salvation cost the Messiah His life. Our salvation was purchased with the precious blood of Christ as verse 19 puts it. The word precious here in the Greek is Timios. Timios carries the idea of being the most precious or especially dear.

Talk about something that's close to your heart. The precious blood of Christ was dear to God, was dear to Christ, and that's what he paid for our salvation. That's what he paid for us to be redeemed was that precious blood of Christ. Christ didn't suffer on die on a cross so that you could be your own. He didn't do it.

That's not how this works. Christ didn't pay for your salvation so that you could have a free ticket to heaven. He bought you so that you could live a holy life separate to him and for him, for his work. That's why Christ died on a cross was so that we could live for him. 1 Corinthians 6 19 and 20 says, what? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and ye are not your own.

For ye are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. If you've accepted Christ as your savior, you have to accept him as Lord.

They're not separate. If you want your sins paid for, then you're no longer your own master. 1 Corinthians tells us that clearly. You were bought with a price so now you have to glorify God with your body and spirit. How selfish are we that we think that since Christ died for us, we can live like we want?

And I'm not saying I'm any better. I still have men flesh to. But how could we think that we could do as we please after Jesus was beaten and nailed to a cross and gave up his life as a payment for our sins? God commands us to be holy. And that's not even asking that much according to Romans 12 to or 12 one excuse me. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. What's this word we so often skip over? Holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

How often do we read it? I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Right? We just roll over that.

That word right there is important. Holy, acceptable unto God. It's only reasonable for us to be holy and live a separate life. After all that Christ has done for us, the very least we can do is be holy.

It's the very least we can do. So as I'm wrapping up now, seniors remember that poll I gave you in the beginning about how like only 33% of teenagers that attend church leave as soon as they graduate and hit their 20s? That's the pattern of the world.

It's what the world looks like guys. So are you going to be different? Are you going to be set apart? Are you going to be holy in your lives as you guys move on? Are you going to live for God instead of living for yourself?

And maybe you're in here and you can say that your life looks the same as the world. If you're truly a born again Christian, then you're commanded to be holy. We have to stop living for ourselves and live for the one that paid for our sin. Stop living in the old creature and start living in the new creation that is in Christ. But maybe you're in here and you don't know if you're a new creature and you haven't surrendered your life to Christ.

If you want to know how you can do that, then there will be myself and Cam and pastor up here that you're more than willing to talk to about that. So as the music team comes tonight, we'll wrap up here. Come and see what Christ has done for you on the cross if you don't already know. And if you do, maybe you could understand what holiness really is and maybe you haven't been living that way and you want to commit that to the Lord. So if you'll bow with me in prayer, we'll wrap up the service tonight. Lord, we come to you tonight thankful for the opportunity to be in your house.

What a blessing it is to be here. And God, I pray that tonight you would be with the seniors that are here. Lord, help them to live wholly separate lives, dedicating themselves to you. I know the testimony of most of them in here and they love you, Lord, and want to serve you with their life. But God, I pray that you would keep them holy, keep them separate, keep them sanctified. Lord, we love you and we're thankful for all that you've done. Lord, I pray tonight that if there's anyone in here that's not saved, that can't say that they live a holy life, that tonight they would come and get that settled for good. We love you and we're thankful for all you've done. In Christ's name, amen.