Today, on the verdict with Pastor John Monroe. No, we don't live a holy life to be saved. It is because we are saved, because we are forgiven, that God calls us to live a holy life. What I'm saying, and Peter is saying, authentic Christianity must make a difference. In particular, What's Peter saying?
We're called to live holy lives. Welcome to the verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. In a world increasingly hostile to biblical truth, how should followers of Christ live? Writing to Christians scattered throughout a pagan culture, Peter emphasizes the call to holiness. John's lesson today has direct application for us as we navigate our own morally challenged society.
So here's Pastor John Monroe with this message: the call of holiness. One of the great hymns of the church is Holy, Holy, Holy. Lord God Almighty. We recognize that God is holy, but what does that mean? and what are the implications for us.
As we continue our series in 1 Peter 1, we come to this all-important subject of holiness. It's clear that we live in a very unholy world.
Social media hasn't helped that downward trend, and it's very difficult not to be impacted by this corrupt society. In our text today, Peter is giving us a strong call to holiness. We are to be holy. because God who called us is holy. I think you'll find this a very interesting subject.
and also deeply convicting. Let's look a little closer. and what God's call to be holy means to each one of us. Here is my question today: a question which really the Apostle Peter. Was dealing with 2,000 years ago, and a very, very relevant question for each one of us.
How are we, as followers of Jesus Christ, to live in this world? In a world which is hostile to Christ, in a world which is unholy, sleazy, very immoral? We as a society have become addicted to the well of instant gratification. And it seems as a society we can't get enough of its poisoned waters and have not learned the lesson that unbounded indulgence brings unbounded pain and unintended consequences. God's way.
Old Testament and New Testament we see. God's way. is to take A clean man, a clean woman. A clean boy, a clean girl, and to drop them, as it were, in a moral cesspool to live for his glory. You say, can we really do that in our society?
Yes, we can. And Peter is going to give us wonderful guidance. In the midst of the sleaze, the dishonesty, the lying, the deceitfulness, in the midst of the moral pollution of our society, God is calling those who are saved by His grace to live holy lives, to shine as bright lights, shining, not retreating, but shining as lights in the darkness. Jesus said in his teaching on the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the pure in heart. For they She'll see God.
The writer of Hebrews says, Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. You hearing this? Your greatest need, my greatest need, is your personal. Holiness. You say, well, this word holy seems a bit frightening.
Seems very old-fashioned and remote from me.
Well, we're going to understand what it is. Biblical holiness is to be set apart. is to be separated. Followers of Jesus Christ are to be holy. What does that mean?
It means to be set apart. Set apart from that which is evil. and set apart to God. There is a negative And a positive. We could put it another way.
Holiness means to be devoted. to God. Would you say That that's true of you? Could I say that's true of me, that I am devoted? to God.
The impression is sometimes given That holiness is optional for followers of Jesus Christ. There are holy people, these super spiritual people, they're always praising the Lord, they're always shouting hallelujah, they seem to know their Bible so well, but they are just the elite. That's a false view. Holiness In the New Testament, is applied to every follower of Jesus Christ. God in His grace Do you know what he calls us?
He calls us saints. I'm looking. at hundreds and hundreds. of saints. No, there's no halos.
But really, you could turn to the next person and say to them, Good morning, saint. Put under name. A saint is one who has been sanctified.
So Paul, when he writes to the Corinthians, Says he's writing to the Church of God that is in Corinth. Corinth in the first century was like the United States in the 21st century. Very sleazy, very immoral, very decadent. And he writes to those who have come to Christ Through the preaching of the apostles. To the church of God that is incarnate, he says, to those.
Sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be. Saints.
Now, when you read Corinthians, you realize that in the church at Corinth, there were some people who were far from perfect, but in the grace of God, God has called them. out of the unholiness of Corinth to himself. And regards them as he regards you and me as saints. Isn't that wonderful? You see, I thought that only applied to people after death.
No. Biblically, a saint, if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, an authentic follower of Jesus Christ, you are a saint. Set apart from evil, set apart from evil. For God.
So, what do we do? We follow a holy God. We've been singing about that. We follow a holy Savior. We are indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
Now let's stand and read. Our text for today from 1st Peter chapter 1 verses 13 through 16. Will you stand with me and read this together? And as we read, seek to understand it. 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.
So, what is Peter saying here? Here is a very, very important point. Our great salvation And our magnificent Saviour, make a difference in our daily lives. Did you get that? Peter, in the first 12 verses, has been expounding the great salvation that we have in Jesus Christ.
He's been lifting the Savior, our magnificent Savior, and now he is saying, if that is true, If you believe it. That must make a difference in your life. Doctrine, can I say, makes a difference in how we live. And Peter doesn't begin this letter by telling the First century readers, these exiles, what to do. What's the first thing he does?
He blesses the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He looks up. One of our problems as Christians, we're always looking at ourselves, we're always looking at some. action steps as it were, but first, very, very important, we must think of who God is and we must understand who Christ is and we must rejoice in our magnificent salvation. And this is what Peter is doing.
If you've got your Bible, turn to 1 Peter. 1 Peter 1. Verse 13, he says, Therefore, he's making a logical and necessary application from the doctrinal section in the first 12 verses, where he's expounded the glory and the magnificence of the Christian's great salvation. What she said about it, we learned last week. This great salvation, he says.
The prophets, the Old Testament prophets searched and inquired about it. This gospel, it was preached to you by the apostles. This gospel? It's so wonderful that the very angels long to look into it. There's so great salvation.
It affects our past, our present, and our future. Regarding our past, he's told us in the opening verses, verses one and two, that we are chosen by God and sanctified by God the Holy Spirit. I surpassed. As to our present, he's told us in verse 3 as we saw that we are born again. We've had a supernatural experience with God.
Something supernatural has happened in our life. We have been born again by the Spirit of God. Our past, I'm chosen, I'm sanctified. My present, I'm a born-again person, I'm a new creature in Christ. Whatever my future, He's told us, hasn't he, about our living hope We have a future inheritance which is reserved in heaven for us.
It's imperishable. It's undefiled. It will not fade away. This is why, as Christians, in spite of difficulties in our lives and in society, we are people of hope. We have a living hope.
We have a past, we have a present, and we have a glorious future.
Now, Peter is saying, Now that you have received such a magnificent salvation. And follow this brilliant Savior, Jesus Christ. You must. Live differently. But notice, very importantly, Peter's order.
First he deals with the indicative, then he deals with the imperative. First he tells us what God in Christ has done for you. Then This is how you live. He doesn't start with a command. He doesn't start by telling us what to do.
He first explains what God in Christ has done for you.
Now that Christ has done All of this for you.
Now, this is true. This must make a difference in how we live. The unbeliever Approaches it very differently. The unbeliever, If you stop the man in the street and talk about salvation and heaven and so on, they will first think of what they are doing. I must Go to church.
I must read my Bible. I must be kind. I must be a good wife, and so on. I must be generous. They're starting with themselves.
As if Their works, their deeds will make them righteous before God. That's the opposite of the gospel, isn't it? That's the opposite of the good news. God doesn't start with what you can do. Because the reality is we can't do anything for our salvation.
We realize that God in Christ has done it all for us. And now, because of what God has done for me in His magnificent Savior, I am to live a different life. You get the point. Is that true of you? As being a Christian, does it make any real difference in your life?
You say, Well, I'm here at church, that's wonderful. But is that what it is? Surely not. No, we are being transformed by the Holy Spirit. rather than being Conformed to our unholy World.
So what's true of you? Is there a spiritual transformation in your life? Or do you find yourself more and more being conformed So the culture around you. Listen to the words of Paul. In 1 Corinthians Where he's dealing with the same thing.
Some of these Corinthians had lived very, very unholy lives before they came to Christ. And he says this in First Corinthians six, verse nine. Do you not know that the unrighteous The unholy will not inherit the kingdom of God. Not everyone gets into the kingdom of God. Don't be deceived.
Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Verse 11. And such Where some of you? But you were washed. You were here's her word Sanctified.
You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Isn't that magnificent? Here is God at work in a corrupt society of Corinth. Where people were committing all of these sins. And now says Paul.
That kind of characterizes what you once were. You once were like that, Abbot now. You're washed. Isn't that wonderful to be clean? Isn't that wonderful to be forgiven?
Isn't that wonderful to know? that all of my sins They're gone and I'm cleansed and I'm now sanctified. This is the reality of the gospel. that when you come to Jesus Christ, If you truly are a believer, there must be a difference in how you live. I've told before when I came to Christ At 12 years old in the camp, the theme song was Things Are Different Now.
We sung it all week. The camp began, what ran from Saturday to Saturday. On that Thursday night, I committed my life to Jesus Christ. And For the first time as I sang that song, which we learned all week. The real truth of it sunk into me.
Things are different now.
Something happened to me when I gave my heart to Jesus. Things I loved before have passed away. Things I love far more have come to stay. Things are different now.
Something happened to me when I gave my heart to Jesus. That was a very good truth to teach to 12-year-old boys. these many years ago. That things are different. I fear.
that some of us think. That as long as we say we're a Christian, we're all right. What I'm saying, and Peter is saying, authentic Christianity must make a difference. In particular, But Peter's saying, we're called to live holy lives. Did you notice that?
Verse 15. As he who called you is Holy Is God a holy God? Of course He is. You also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, he's quoting from Leviticus 19, verse 2: You shall be holy, for I am holy. Peter reminds His readers As we have been reminded in our worship, as we're reminding in the text of Scripture that God is holy.
God was holy, that's true in the Mosaic covenant, it's true in the new covenant. God is a holy God. God is so holy, the Bible tells us. That Man cannot look on God's essential being and live. That God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
Tim reminded us from Isaiah 6 that God is so holy that when Isaiah the prophet goes into the temple and gets a vision of the glory and majesty of God, he says, Woe is me, I'm undone. When Abraham The righteous Abraham is standing before God. Abraham says, I am but dust and ashes. Job, the great job, the blameless job. When he came into the presence of God, he says, Wherefore I abhor.
Myself. Remember the incident when Peter the Apostle Saw the power of the Son of God in the great harvest of fish. What did he do? He fell at the feet of Jesus and said, Depart from me, for I'm a sinful man.
So holy is God that when John the Apostle, when he receives that wonderful revelation in Revelation 1, when he sees the risen Christ, he falls at his feet as a dead man. There's no question, is there? that God is holy. Think of the brilliance and the And the light of God, that we by ourselves could never, ever, ever stand in that magnificent light and that absolute holiness, which is the perfection of all of his attributes, that God is holy. And now, Peter is saying.
This holy God has called you. He said, that's wonderful. It called me. Yes, it is wonderful. But the implication is that the God who calls us.
And the Jesus who saves us is a holy God. And Peter quotes from Leviticus. Where Leviticus mentions many times that God is holy, and now we are to be holy. And you say, John, well, that's utterly impossible. I'm a very unholy person.
You can imagine. My thoughts and my actions over my years. I'm a very unholy person. If I've got to be holy to get into heaven and into the presence of God, you can count me out.
Well, I'm glad you feel that because that is absolutely right. You're absolutely right. It's called sin. And the Bible says that all of us, without exception, have failed, have come short. But I want you to listen to the gospel.
That into this world of darkness. Into the unholy world, this God who is holy sends His Holy Son. Who comes as the Lamb of God without spot and without blemish? He and He alone is the only sinless one. Who did no sin, who knew no sin.
In him there is no sin. And what is his mission? Why does he come? to condemn us. John 3:17 know that God sent his son into the world.
Not to condemn the world. That's it. Not to condemn us, not to judge us, although we deserve that, but that through him, that is through Jesus, the world might be saved. And how does God deal then with their sin? Our sin is placed on the sinless one.
The death that we deserve is born by our Saviour. He who knew no sin becomes sin for us. And then the wonder of the gospel When we receive Jesus Christ, when we repent of our sin, Our sin is placed on Christ who dies for our sin. Pays the price for our sin, demonstrates that by rising from the dead, and not only are our sins forgiven. That's wonderful in itself.
God does something more. He credits to us. The technical word is imputes to us, he puts to our account. There's debit and credit in accounting. He takes our sin.
and he puts into the credit column his righteousness.
So that I receive the righteousness, the holiness, of Christ. Isn't that incredible? That's the gospel. And now As one who has been sanctified, cleansed. Forgiven.
Justified, declared righteous.
Now I can come into the presence of a holy God. Not because I'm a holy person by myself, I'm not. Certainly not because I'm a pastor. No. I come purely on the standing of my Lord Jesus Christ.
His righteousness has become my righteousness. The Bible pictures it as being clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. This individual who was once sinful. Unholy.
Now You're sanctified.
Now you are a saint. And God's will for you and for me. Is that that holiness and that righteousness be worked out in our lives? You are listening to the verdict with Pastor John Monroe and the first part of a message titled The Call of Holiness. John will be right back with closing remarks.
But first, let me tell you about a special opportunity. In today's teaching, we've heard how Christians are called to live differently in this world with an eternal perspective. To strengthen your understanding of God's plan for the future, we're offering a complimentary copy of John's thought-provoking booklet. For the time is near. Lessons from Revelation.
This resource connects nicely with our study in 1 Peter, highlighting how we're to live in view of Christ's return. God calls us to have a different perspective, to strive for a higher standard, and to live with eternity in mind in all areas of life.
So request for the time is near. by mail or download it today when you go to our website at the verdict.org. Each broadcast of the verdict reaches thousands of listeners with biblical truth. and your financial partnership makes this possible. When you contribute to this ministry, you're investing in transformed lives and hearts drawn closer to Christ.
Consider becoming part of the spiritual impact with your gift today. It's quick and secure to give through our website at the verdict.org. We'd love to have you join us at Calvary Church, where John serves as senior pastor. We were located in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the corner of Highway 51 and Ray Road. For more details about our church services and ministries, visit our website at theverdict.org.
Now, here's Pastor John Monroe with closing remarks for today's lesson.
Well, what's your verdict? Do you agree that our surrounding society is far from holy? The prophet Jeremiah wrote of a generation which had lost its ability to blush. Isn't that the case today? But followers of Jesus have been washed.
with his precious blood. Peter is reminding us that just as God is holy, we who know God and follow His Holy Son are to be characterized by holiness. Will you confess any unholiness in your life?
Next time we continue on this important subject of holiness. Thanks for joining us today on The Verdict. I'm Michelle Davies. Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
