We Are Called To Holiness

It's easy for believers to let the world press us into its mold, to conform us to what our culture expects. But God has a higher calling for His own. They are to enjoy the fruits of holy living. For as God said, be ye holy, for I am holy.

From Chicago, this is The Moody Church Hour, a weekly service of worship and teaching with Pastor Erwin Lutzer. Today, we continue a four-part series from 1 Peter on living as God's community. Some people think holiness is joylessness.

In fact, the opposite is true. We find our joy in being set apart for God. Later, Dr. Lutzer's message will be on the second of four callings believers share as he speaks on, We Are Called to Holiness. Pastor Lutzer comes now to open our service. And yes, I do want to say how pleased we are that you are worshiping with us today.

And many people will be joining us around the world and in the city of Chicago via the internet because we stream. Our theme during these weeks has to do with community, particularly as it relates to our relationship with God and with one another. And here at The Moody Church and therefore Jesus Christ, who is the head of the church, we invite his presence. We're thankful for the Holy Spirit of God who comes to lead us. We are going to be singing the song We Are God's People as a reminder of the fact that we are here to listen to him, to obey him, to find out who we are and what we should be doing.

So would you take a moment now to bow your head? Just take a moment to be silent before the Lord and leave behind all the concerns about yesterday and the concerns about today and tomorrow. And let's give ourselves to the Lord so that we can worship with one voice and one heart. Father, among all of the honors in the world, there is none as great as the fact that we are called to be your people.

Thank you. And now we pray that these people whom you have redeemed, that you have saved, we pray that all of us may worship you acceptably through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom we give thanks and praise. Amen. We are God's people, the chosen of the Lord. Lord of all his spirit, established by his word. The chorus of his words, the long ways, strong in him we stand. Come let us with transparent faith, and all who want to love and care defend. We are God's troubles, the blood of the strong.

For we have known it, now love, love, love, love, love. Now let us work hard to return, and lift up our hearts to him. Amen, and share this joy with him, and pray that he may see and be saved today. We have a body, the which doth pour his head in, called to obey him, now risen from the dead. He wills us be a family, diverse and truly loved. Oh, let us with our needs to love, and so shall his work on earth be done. We are a temple, the Spirit's dwelling place. Lord, make great peace, now come to know what's best. We die alone for our own reason, we share the roots with God. Let joy be found, the grave was done.

Let him walk and laugh, and sing his song. I invite you to follow along in your bulletin as we read today's scripture, which is from 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 13 through 25. Please read aloud on the bold print, this is God's holy word. Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on him as father, who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers. Not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you. From the fount of every blessing, to my heart to sing thy praise, streams of mercy never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. Praise be son, analogous on it, sung by flaming tongues above. Praise his name, I'm fixed upon it, name of God's redeeming love. Here I raise my Emily's herd, hither by thy help I've come, and I hold by my good pleasure, safely to our right at home. Jesus, on me went a stranger, wandering from love full of love.

He to rescue, leave from danger, bought me with his precious blood. O to praise, how great a terror, daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like a feather, by my wandering heart to thee. O to wander, o'er I feel it, O to lead the God I love. Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above. O to praise, how great a terror, daily I'm constrained to be.

O to wander, o'er I feel it, O take and seal it for thy courts above. O, let the God conceal his praise, read by your hearts to know your praise, that from our slumber make us wise, that we may know the risen Christ. O word of God, so clear and true, renew our lives to trust in you, and give to us the bread of life, that we may know the risen Christ.

O word of God, so only strain, refresh our souls, react the pain, remind us of your sacrifice, that we may know the risen Christ. The name of the Father, God the Son, and of the Spirit make us one. In holiness, let us unite, that we may know the risen Christ. In holiness, let us unite, that we may know the risen Christ. Holy, holy, holy, holy, we come in love to worship you, we kneel before your throne, our hearts are hungry for your touch, we worship you, O Lord, we worship you, O Lord, holy, holy, holy, we come in love to worship you, we kneel before your throne, our hearts are hungry for your love, we worship you, O Lord, we worship you, O Lord. Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, we worship you, O Lord, we worship you, O Lord. Holy, holy, holy, Lord, God almighty, early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee, holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, calling three blessings, blessed changes. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty, all thy works shall praise Thy name in earth and sky and sea. Only Thou art holy, there is one beside Thee, earth and in body, all that knoweth me. We worship you, O Lord.

Thank you. Let me begin today with a question. I'm going to give you a word, and as soon as you hear that word, I want you to think of what you associate with it.

If this were a classroom, I would ask you to say it out loud, but we can't do that here because we have so many hundreds of people. But I'd like to know actually what you think when I mention the word holy or holiness. A number of years ago, a man by the name of John White wrote a book on prayer, and he says that when he casts about for what comes to his mind when he mentions the word holy, he says it is hollow-eyed gauntness, beards, sandals, long robes, stone cells, cold baths, fasting, stained glass.

I remember when we were on the island of Patmos, you know out there in the east, you have Eastern Orthodoxy that has icons. And the tour guide said, if you look at an icon, have you ever noticed that the person is always expressionless? That's intentional because they are so holy that they should have no expression on their face at all. I began to realize, you know, I've seen a lot of icons, but I don't think I've ever seen an icon with a smile on his face. Have you?

Expressionless. If that's what you think holiness is, I wouldn't be surprised that if I were to ask you, would you want to be holy, you'd say, do we really have to? Is this something we really want to do? Do we want to really ruin our lives and suddenly become holy?

What is it? What misconceptions? To be holy really means that you are set apart to God. God is holy and God is separate and we are to be separate as well. We are set apart to God so that if I give you a fuller definition, it might be something like this, to be free of sin so that we can be God's exclusive treasure. I'll probably be repeating that a couple of times in this message, to be free of sin so that we can be God's exclusive treasure.

That's what holiness is. Now take your Bible and turn, if you would please, to the book of 1 Peter. I hope that you are taking time to memorize chapter 2, verse 9. Chapter 2, verse 9 is sort of the capsule verse that we are using for a four-part series that comes out of the book of 1 Peter. And you'll notice it says you are a chosen race.

We dealt with that last time. What does it mean to be chosen by God? To be called to a living hope. And then it says you are a royal priesthood.

We'll talk about that next time. And you are a holy nation. And the next messages are going to deal with what it's like to proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. But for today, a holy nation. A little boy was asked as to what holiness is, and he answered very correctly. He said that holiness is to be clean inside.

And that's at least half the definition. Clean inside, exclusively belonging to God alone. When you get married, what you're saying is I want to be committed to you alone and committed to no one else in the marriage relationship. To be holy means separated unto God for his exclusive use and pleasure. I hope now, and as we go through this, you will want to be holy. Now what I'd like to do is to give you three reasons why we should be holy. Three reasons why, and I begin here at verse 13 of chapter 1. Chapter 1, verse 13, 1 Peter. Therefore, preparing your minds for action, be sober minded. Set your hope fully on the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

As obedient children, don't be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But he who has called you is holy, so you be holy in all manners of conduct. For he is holy, therefore you be holy. The text says in verse 16. And then it goes on to talk about God as Father.

All right, let's back off now for a moment and let's put this in perspective. Why should you and I be holy? First reason is because we have now the nature of God. We are God's children. We are born children of corruption, children of disobedience.

We are by nature children of wrath, the Bible says. But when we have been born again to the living hope that we talked about, we are being born again into an entirely different family. And like Father, like Son, the Bible says that we are partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the pollution that is in the world as a result of lust, Peter says in 2 Peter. And so what we really need to recognize is we now have the nature of God and that is what God-likeness is all about, being like God.

Now there's a big word coming up, I want to warn you in advance, it's one that I use only every two or three years, but I like to use it when I do. The big word is this, that we are not like God ontologically. We are not like God in his essence. But we can be like God in relationship to some of his moral attributes and that's what holiness is all about.

You'll notice it says that we should not be conformed to the world and to the passions of your former ignorance. There are two ways at least that we can be like God, maybe more, but first of all we can be like God in purity, in purity. As a matter of fact that's the emphasis most often when we're talking about God-likeness because God has no sin, God is entirely and totally pure, and he says, I am holy, therefore you be holy. Now you and I know what impurity is, don't you? You've had the experience of being in church and you have been praising God and you've been reading the word and you'd really do feel cleansed.

And then you go home and you see something on television that is sensual and it's as if the fellowship that you had with God and the cleansing that you had simply drained away. We know what impurity is. We know what uncleanness is. When Jesus cast out demons, they are sometimes called unclean spirits. Those of you who are in sinful relationships, you have told yourself there's nothing wrong with it, you have justified it, you've rationalized it, you've given a hundred different reasons why of course it's okay, but there's something within you that says this isn't right, it is impure, it is unclean.

And if you're struggling with such a thing as pornography, you know that that is unclean. And so God is entirely pure. And so what God is calling to us today is deep repentance, not just about the sins of the flesh, but the sins of covetousness, the sins of dishonesty. In him is no sin, the Bible says about Jesus, and the same about God the Father. And God is calling us today to purity, that we might be washed and sanctified without spot and without wrinkle. Let me ask you something, what does God have to put you through before you are willing to give up?

Uncleanness. There's another way that we can be like God, and that is in love. It says in the fourth chapter, or perhaps chapter five of Ephesians, it says, be imitators of God as dear children and walk in love. There's another way that we can be like God. Why should we be holy? Because God is holy. Key verse today, verse 16, you should be holy because I am holy. And he's quoting the Old Testament, where over and over again, God said to his people, be holy for I am holy. And then God says in the 19th chapter of Exodus, and you shall be my treasured people. That's what holiness is all about, to belong to God.

And when you look at it that way, it's enough to make even an icon smile. Maybe holiness is more than simply expressionlessness, as indeed it is, like Father, like Son, begotten of God, be holy for I am holy. There's a second reason. A second reason is not very well accepted in evangelical circles today, and that is because of the judgment of God. Notice what it says in verse 18, excuse me, verse 17. And if you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourself with fear throughout the time of your exile. Now, he uses two words there that seem inconsistent with grace.

Let me ask you a question. Is it safer to sin today than it was in Old Testament times? You know, in Old Testament times, you knew that if you sinned, you might be stoned to death.

You might find that the earth opens up and you're swallowed up into it. We don't have those kinds of things happening today. So people take a casual attitude towards sin because they say it's safe to sin. Right now as a staff, we are dealing with someone who used to be a member who has decided that he's fallen in love with a different woman other than his wife. And in the marriage relationship, he was unfaithful and now he's divorcing one woman so that he can marry another and supposedly he's a believer and in emails back and forth, he made this statement to the effect, I know that God will forgive me and then I'll move on. In other words, God will forgive me. That's kind of his business. I mean, isn't God in the forgiving business?

And then I'll move on. Now let's look at the text. You see, we live in an era of such casualness, which is totally contrary to the New Testament because he uses the two words, judgment and fear. You say, does that refer to us as believers?

Absolutely, it refers to us as believers. Ask Ananias and Sapphira who lied and God struck them dead. Can you imagine that they arrive in heaven and they say, we didn't understand this.

We thought that this is the New Testament era. We're under grace. There was a pastor who said that if God dealt with people like that today, we'd have to have funeral parlors in the basement of churches to take care of all the dead. God says, just because you're under grace, that doesn't mean a casual attitude. Yes, indeed, God will forgive you, but there are two kinds of judgment. First of all, all sin has immediate judgment, immediate judgments. And by the way, speaking of sexuality, when it comes to that kind of sin, David, the Bible says, he was totally cleansed by God because God does forgive and he bounced back, but his children didn't.

You have four sons, each of them ended very, very badly in great sin. Yes, you see, all sin has some immediate judgment. You can receive forgiveness for it.

That's true. But the consequences continue to boomerang and the fact that you are forgiven does not mean that the consequences are thereby negated. They might be lessened in certain contexts, but at the end of the day, all sin is judged, including a believer's sin, especially a believer's sin. The other word that he uses, and by the way, that's the immediate judgment, there's also a future judgment. When we stand in the presence of Christ and there in his presence, we are going to be judged, 2 Corinthians 5 verse 10, for the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or bad, the thoroughness of that judgment is amazing. And John says in the book of 1 John, we should live in such a way that we do not have shame at his coming.

Wouldn't that in itself be a judgment to have shame at his coming? The other word that he uses is not only judgment, but he says, pass the time of your exile in fear. Most pastors will tell you that fear simply means reverence. I mean, why should we, who are under grace, fear God?

Actually, it's throughout the New Testament. It says regarding the early church and they met together in the fear of the Lord. Paul says in Philippians, work out your own salvation with fear and with trembling. Yes, fear means fear. It doesn't mean a soul destroying fear. It doesn't mean the kind of fear that a servant has of his master, especially if the master is unpredictable.

It's not that kind of fear. It's the kind of fear that we have between a son and a father. You know, there's a sense in which I feared my father. It was not that I ever thought he would disown me or cast me out of the home or not take care of me, but there was something about dad. All that he needed to do is to look at you and you kind of shivered. Were there others of you who had a dad like that? He just looked at you and that's all that was needed. Now my older brother needed a little more than simply a look.

But I was the youngest and the youngest is always the charmers. You know, they just need a look and they begin to obey. But I feared him, but in a good sense. In the very same way we should fear God, you remember when Joseph was confronted with sin?

What did he say when Potiphar's wife tried to seduce him? How shall I do this great wickedness and sin against God? That's a proper fear of God. What he was saying is I have a right view of God and I have a right view of sin. He didn't say, now how can I have this affair on the side and get by?

What lies can I tell afterwards? It's not the fear of God that is insulting God. It's not the fear of a servant, but it is the fear of a son. Why should we be holy? First of all, because if you're born again, you have the nature of God. And not only that, but we anticipate the judgment of God. God takes it very seriously.

And by the way, if you're here today and you're simply investigating Christianity, I want you to keep listening because I want you to know what you're missing out on when it comes to holiness and everything else. There's a third reason, and that is because of the investment of God. Notice how Peter connects these ideas. He says, for example, in verse 18, knowing that you were ransomed, and this is a continuation of the sentence, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish and without spot who was foreknown or foreloved or chosen from before the foundation of the world.

Peter says, don't you know how much God invested in you? Now, when we think of the word ransom, we have to realize that there's the word redeem. You have a situation in those days where there were many, many millions of slaves.

And a slave could have bought his own freedom if he had had enough money, but of course he didn't. In that sense, the slave had a better chance of redeeming himself than you and I do because he could have won the lottery or in some way, he could have had the money that he needed, but there was no way that you and I could redeem ourselves. Dead in trespasses and sins, everything that we do is somehow tainted.

There is really no way that you and I could have accomplished our own redemption. Jesus had to do it. Just like in the Old Testament, you remember the story of the Israelites in Egypt, how that God was going to send a plague and he did. And the firstborn of Egypt were killed by the angel of death, the angel of the Lord. And yet, if there was a lamb that took the place of the firstborn, when I see the blood, I will pass over you, God said. And that's why we have the Passover, is because God passed over all those who were protected by the blood of Christ. But the lamb died in the place of the firstborn. In the very same way he says here that Jesus Christ is our Redeemer and the price that he paid was called a ransom.

Two things about that ransom. First of all, it was intended to purchase us out of the slavery of sin. And you know, sin is a terrible slave master. Jesus said, whoever commits sin is a servant of sin, especially when sin becomes an addiction.

What a terrible master it is. You wake up in the morning and it tells you what to do. It tells you what to do during the day, no matter how much you dislike it, no matter how much it affects your conscience, no matter how polluted you feel afterwards.

This is something that you have to do. And Jesus came to purchase us out from under that kind of slavery. He bought us so that we don't have to have that obligation to sin anymore. And so the object is really our redemption.

And what is the price that is paid? Once again, Peter refers to money, silver and gold. If you were with us last time, you know that he referred to the trial of our faith being much more precious than gold, even if it's the kind of gold that is refined by fire, he says. Now, in the very same way, he says we were not redeemed with perishable things.

Don't you love it? When an economic crisis happens, the thing that people go for, the thing that they are willing to die for is gold. Have you seen on television, probably the History Channel, all that people have been willing to endure during the gold rush?

Poverty, the death of some of their teams, going through excruciating things just to get gold. And Peter says that far from it being imperishable, it is perishable. Silver and gold, he says, that's not what purchased you. You were purchased by the precious blood of Christ.

There's no comparison. Gold may be able to buy a slave out of slavery in the Roman Empire a piece of gold. Gold will never purchase you out of the slave market of sin.

Only Jesus could do that. Have you ever thought of how terrible sin is? It is so terrible that in order for God to purchase us out of its power and slavery, he had to give the best he had, namely his son, to come and die and to give his life and to shed his most precious blood. Sin is terrible. Now when you and I magnify sin, because it was sin that put Jesus on the cross, it would be like taking a knife that was perhaps used in the murder of your own son.

If your son were murdered, you would take the knife that the murderer used and you'd keep it in a case and you'd show it to all your friends and you'd say, you know, this knife is very, very precious to me. You say, well, that's absolutely absurd. And that's how absurd it is for us to honor our sins and become slaves of them because we were purchased at such high cost by God. No wonder we should love the Lord Jesus Christ.

No wonder we should serve him. No wonder we should love holiness. First of all, because we've been born again with the nature of God. Secondly, because of the fact that we should fear the judgment of God. And then we think of the investment of God and we're playing around toying with our sins when Jesus did so much to redeem us from them. How sin dishonors Jesus.

Now to help us nail this down for just a few moments, let me suggest the following bottom lines. The call to salvation. The call to salvation is a call to holiness. The call of salvation is a call to holiness.

It is a call to God likeness. You know, when the Bible calls us saints and it does often. For example, the apostle Paul begins the book of Ephesians and Philippians to the saints which are in Ephesus or the saints which are in Philippi, et cetera, et cetera.

Do you know what the Greek word is? It's the holy ones. To the holy ones in Ephesus, to the holy ones in Philippi, that's what it really is.

Because in Jesus, when you receive him as savior, you are already in him made holy. And God declares you to be a saint. You know, this idea that you have to die and then you have to do some miracles because somebody prayed for you in order to become a saint.

I hope that you understand that that is purely human man-made tradition. That's not the way you become a saint. You are already a saint. Would you look at the person next to you right now and say you are a saint?

Some of you are taking a little longer to say that than I anticipated. Paul could write and say, to the saints that are at Moody Church. You see, we become saints by faith in Christ, but, and this is very critical now, now that we have been made holy in Jesus, it is our responsibility and privilege to pursue holiness in actual experience. I told you that the prayer that I try to pray every morning before I get out of bed is this, O God, glorify yourself in my life today at my expense.

Eventually, by the way, that expense becomes the very best thing that could happen to me. But another prayer that we really ought to pray is this, O God, today make me as holy as it is possible for a human being to be. It says in the book of Hebrews that we should pursue holiness without which no man will see the Lord.

I want to speak to you candidly today if you are totally comfortable with your sin. If there is nothing within you that says I desire something better and I would like to really be holy, I would like to be God-like in purity and in love. If there's nothing within you that says that you need to seriously question whether or not you're a believer because God implants His nature within us. God gives us a desire for holiness because a desire for holiness is a desire for God and a love of God produces holiness.

In fact, a love of God to the exclusion of self or if you love self, you will not love God. But the call to salvation is always a call to holiness. Are you saved?

Have you been born from above? There's a second bottom line and that is this, the call to holiness, this call to holiness, is always a call to enjoy God, to enjoy God. Remember I mentioned the little boy who said that holiness is being clean inside? Is there anything as wonderful as being clean inside and being in fellowship with God?

Oftentimes when I'm asked to give my autograph to something, I always like to write Psalm 16-11. In Thy presence there is fullness of joy. At Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. You really want to be free of sin. You want to be free of the clouds that are left over after you sin and all of the nagging conscience.

You want to be free of that. You come to Jesus Christ. You're cleansed.

You're forgiven. You're made clean inside and then you live clean and you discover fulfillment and blessing and a sense of the benediction of God on your life. First page of Augustine's Confessions. O God, Thou hast made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless until they find they're all in Thee. Sixteenth century Henry Seagull, I believe it was, is that every person is born within having a raging thirst for God and he goes to this well to get it quenched and to that well and all of the wells are basically empty and he goes to the cisterns that are broken that can hold no water and he goes from here to there from relationship to relationship from issue to issue and what he doesn't do is to go to God and find that that's what he's been looking for all the time. Pascal, we are created with a God-shaped vacuum that only God can fulfill. I wish it would be more true of my life but the more you know God you can really say, you know there is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God, a place where sin cannot molest near to the heart of God.

What a place to be. Can we agree as a church to be done with sin? Can we agree to that? Anybody out there who says, yeah we agree?

Playing around with mud pies as C.S. Lewis said, when God has prepared something so much better for us, be holy for I am holy. Write that verse above your television set. Finally, a call to holiness is a community project which really leads us to the messages that will follow.

You'll notice it says that we are one nation. We are a holy nation. We can't be holy alone.

We can't make it on our own. God established the church in such a way that he says we need each other. And that's why the early church that we will also be looking at, how the early church always was meeting together, always meeting together.

Why? Because there's strength. There's strength in community. We are a community, as we'll be explaining, called by God to live passionately for Jesus Christ.

But we can't do it without community. I conclude today by appealing to those of you who have never trusted Christ as Savior. There was a man by the name of John Bunyan who wrote a book entitled The Pilgrim's Progress. Actually, Bunyan was in jail for 12 years for preaching the gospel. He could have gotten out if he had just stopped preaching, but the whole idea was he was told there in England that he had to be licensed to preach. And he said, I'm not going to be licensed by anybody because licensing means control.

So he's in jail. He writes that marvelous book, The Pilgrim's Progress, and in it, if you know the book, he visualizes himself with a burden of sin on his shoulders. The burden of sin is a troubled conscience. It's with you when you wake up.

You need sleeping pills to put you to bed because of the guilt and the turmoil. And it's always with you. And the Apostle Paul described it in Romans chapter 7, Who shall deliver me from this body of sin, this sin that I carry on my shoulders. If you could go to the grave of Bunyan as Rebecca and I had the privilege of doing in England, you would see that there on his tombstone, chiseled into it, is a picture of a man broken, burdened over with his load of sin.

And he's rolling it off at the foot of the cross. It's the only place, my friend, where your sin can be rolled away, the precious blood of Jesus, to redeem you, to save you. Can we as a church be committed to holiness? If we are committed to holiness, we will be a strong powerhouse in the city of Chicago and around the world because the Bible says that Jesus is working with his people to sanctify the church, to present her pure and holy, without spot and without wrinkle. And that's really what Jesus is after. But you and I thwart that because sin means so much to us.

We don't want to give it up. Be ye holy, for I am holy, saith the Lord God. Let us pray. Father, this message is difficult to preach and difficult to hear because we've had our own way so long, we have had such a casual attitude towards our own sins. And I confess that and our congregation confesses that. And we ask today, Lord, that in these moments as we sing together, may we sing a prayer from the very depths of our heart, that whatever you ask us to do, would you give us the grace to do it? And now before I close in prayer, those of you who have never trusted Christ as Savior, why don't you just finally give up your sin and say, I trust Christ.

I receive the precious blood of Jesus for myself. And those of you who already know him and love him, what issues in your life are keeping you from the joy of holiness? Speak to us, Lord, we pray. On today's Moody Church Hour, we heard about the second of four callings all believers have in common.

From 1 Peter 1, we found that we are called to holiness. Next time on our broadcast, we'll learn about the importance of the local church in a message on We Are Called to Belong. Pastor Lutzer has written a compelling book on Cries from the Cross, a journey into the heart of Jesus. This book will be sent as our gift to you as our way of saying thanks for your gift of any amount to The Moody Church Hour. Just call us at 1-800-215-5001.

Ask about Cries from the Cross when you call 1-800-215-5001. Or you can write to us at Moody Church Media, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Also, you can go online at moodyoffer.com. That's moodyoffer.com. Join us next week for another Moody Church Hour with Pastor Erwin Lutzer and the Congregation of Historic Moody Church in Chicago. This broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church.