If you will take your Bibles
and turn with me to 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. We'll be looking
at verse 16 through verse 25 this morning. The title of the
message is, Sinners Made Holy. Sinners Made Holy. Now, the Apostle Peter writes
to believers here and tells us that because of our salvation,
because we have received of Christ the salvation that only comes
by the grace of God, because His gospel has been revealed
to us and we have received it as it has now come to pass, And
he tells us that these Old Testament prophets, he said, they wrote
and they many times didn't understand what they were writing. He said,
searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ
was in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings
of Christ. But now their prophecies, their
testimony, has come to pass and we can clearly see it. We can
clearly see that the sum and substance of God's salvation
is found only in Jesus Christ. We see that. We see their testimony. We understand what they testified
of. And because we have obtained
the grace of God and salvation, therefore, you believers, hear
the Apostle when he says, gird up the loins of your mind, Quit you like men. That's what he's saying. Stand fast in the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Be sober and hope in Christ till
the end. He says tribulations will come,
troubles will come, trials will come, but gird up the loins of
your mind and hold fast to Christ until the end. In verses 14 through 16, He says,
"...as obedient children." That's how we're to gird up the loins
of our mind. Be obedient to the revealed will of God. Be obedient. "...And holy in your lifestyle."
Why? "...For God said, Be ye holy,
even as I am holy." You believers, hear the Word of God. Be ye holy,
even as I am holy. This is Peter's command and Peter's
exhortation to every believer in Christ. Be ye holy. Let me ask you this. Is that
not just reasonable? I've asked you that before. Is
that not just reasonable for us to be holy? Is that not reasonable
for God to exhort us to holy living after what He has done
for us in Christ? Is that not reasonable? Of course
it is. But I'll tell you, this text
that Peter says, he gives this as an exhortation. But go back
to Leviticus chapter 11, where Peter got this from. Leviticus. Leviticus 11, verse 45. Leviticus 11, verse 45. What does the Word of God say?
It says, For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land
of Egypt to be your God. Now here it is. Notice how this
is written. Ye shall. Therefore. Be holy, for I am
holy." You see, it's not written as an exhortation, but rather
it is written as a declaration. God is declaring something here.
He says, because I delivered you out of Egypt, you shall be
My holy people. That's what He was telling the
nation of Israel. Even so now, He tells His church,
He says, you, My spiritual Israel, listen to Me. You have been delivered
from the bondage of sin and Egypt's night. I delivered you from them
and you shall be, what? Holy. You shall be holy. God is making a declaration. It was the Lord that delivered
us, and it is the Lord that makes a difference in our nature, didn't
He? When God came and saved us, He
created something in us, a new nature, that is holy. Did He not accomplish what He
said He would do? Absolutely. In everyone that
believes, God has created in us a holy nature. You see, God
didn't change the old nature. He didn't fix it up. He created
something that wasn't there before. A holy nature. A holy nature. Ephesians 4.24 says, "...put
on the new man," which is after God, created. in righteousness
and true holiness. You see, God, as He spoke the
worlds into existence, God spoke and created something in us that
wasn't there before. A holy nature. A holy nature. And it is this holy nature that
was created by the Spirit of God, and it is because of this
nature we are obliged to follow Peter's exhortation. Isn't that
right? Because God did create something holy in us, therefore
we desire to be holy. We desire to be holy. Friends,
if you don't desire righteousness and holiness, something's wrong
with that. Something's wrong with that kind of salvation.
If you don't desire to be holy as God is. If you've thrown up
your hands and said, I can't be holy, I just quit. Something's
wrong with that salvation, friend. You better go back and check.
You better make your calling and election sure if that's your
condition. Because we who are holy and created
holy, we desire holiness. We desire it. Friends, man by nature is unwilling
and unable to desire holiness. Isn't that right? But when God
came to us, what does the Scripture say? Thy people shall be willing
in the day of thy power in the beauties of holiness. The beauties of holiness. But man by nature, he sees no
beauty in holiness, does he? The natural man sees no beauty. The Scripture says Christ's holiness,
He says He hath no form or comeliness that we should desire. Why will
men not come to Christ? Because they don't see Him of
any value. You see, they have something
else that they love more than His holiness. They either love
their family more, they love their job more, and they especially
love themselves more than they love Christ. Man loves sin by
nature, and he is at enmity against Christ, and he will not have
Christ. They see no beauty in Him, and
the gospel to them is nothing more than a dried-up message. When the gospel is preached to
people who don't love Christ, it is nothing to them. It's nothing. It's a dried up, withered branch. It's just worthless to them. I remember as a child the things
of Christ, what it was to me. You children, I understand where
you're at. I was at where you were. This gospel was meaningless
to me. It was meaningless. It had no
value to me. I would rather be doing something
else than to be here. Under the sound of the gospel.
When you told me to sit down, I wanted to stand up. When you
told me to move, I wanted to stay still. And doing anything
other than that was like pulling my fingernails out. Why? Because I saw no value in good
living. I saw no value in holiness. It was worthless. But now we
that have believed by the grace of God, by the power of the Holy
Spirit, created in us a nature that is not only willing to love
holiness, but in and of itself it is holy. It is holy. And because of that we desire
holiness. We desire it. Friends, I know my sin. I know my sin, but I don't want it. I want to
be like Christ in every aspect of my life. And this is because of what God
has done for us. Therefore, we see both the holiness
of God that He has sovereignly placed in us, and we see then
from this text our responsibility to be holy. It is our responsibility
to be holy, even as God is holy. I can't do it. God doesn't give
us any excuse, does He? I don't find any excuse in here
not to be holy, do you? I don't. I know you can't. Why? Because I can't. I can't
be what I want to be. But that's not going to stop
me from striving to be what I want to be. Now how then does this take place? How does this change take place?
How does a sinner now come from one that has loved only sin,
desire only sin, to love holiness? To love righteousness? I think
this is an important question because, listen to me, every
one of us will have to stand before God, and if you do not
stand holy before God, you will not stand. You will not stand. God's wrath will consume you
in an instant, and you will spend the rest of eternity in hell
because of your lack of holiness. So how then may a sinner be made
holy? Well, look at our text. The first
thing that's mentioned here in verse 17, it says, if you call
on the Father. Well, there it is. Sinner! Hear
me. Do you need mercy? Do you lack
holiness that God demands? Hear this. Call on God. Don't look to me. Don't look
to me. I can't give you holiness. I
can't make you holy. Only God can. If any of you have
come to the end of your religion and yourself, then I tell you,
call on the Father for mercy. God demands it. Scripture says, Who shall ascend
unto the hill of the Lord? Shall you? Can you? Who shall
stand in His holy place? God says, He that hath clean
hands and a pure heart. Do you have clean hands and a
pure heart? We know by nature we don't. We
know by nature that our hearts have been deceived and are full
of vanity, and we have lied into our own conscience. And yet,
if any man is to be holy, that holiness must then come from
outside of themselves. You can't produce it in yourself. God demands it of you, but you
can't produce it. Who can? The source of holiness,
only God can give holiness. Only God. Only God can make one
righteous. Friends, I cannot make you righteous. I long for my children to be
righteous, but I cannot make them righteous. And I cannot
make you righteous. I can tell you how it is that
a man is made righteous, but don't look to me to give you
righteousness. I can't do it. And neither can you. You can
come to this church every Sunday and every Wednesday. You can
come here and sit and listen to the gospel every day of your
life. But friends, sitting in this
church will not give you holiness. Your church membership, your
baptism will not give you holiness. The only hope for a man is that
God impute righteousness. That God impart holiness to a
man. And holiness is foreign to us
by nature. It's foreign to us. Therefore, sinners, stop calling
on yourself or other men and call on God. He's the only one
that can help you. He's the only one that can give
you righteousness. God says, who is the judge of
all, that the soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. But the
hope for the sinners is the same God who judges all. That's where
hope is found. It is only found in God. Only
found in God. I like this. The same text of Scripture, the
same sentence of Scripture says this, God will by no means clear
the guilty. God will by no means clear the
guilty. But you know what it says before that? Keeping mercy for
thousands and forgiving iniquity, transgressions and sins. I like
that, all three of them. Iniquity, transgression and sin.
Every word for sin is mentioned there. You see, mercy is to be
found with God only. God only. And friends, that's
what I need. I need mercy. I need mercy. You need mercy. And the only way to get it is
to call upon God who can alone give it. Well, then how does
it come? How can God impute righteousness
and holiness? Look back at your text in verse
18 through 20. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed, that's it. To be holy, one must be redeemed. not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold of your vain conversation, received
by the tradition of your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who was verily
foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest
in these last times for you." If we are sinners in need of
holiness, how then can God give holiness to sinners without impinging
upon His holiness, His justice? This is a question that most
men don't even consider. They don't care. They don't care
how God can forgive them so they can make up any way they want
to. They don't care anything about God's justice or God's
holiness. But friends, the important question
is how can God be just and justify you? How is that possible? Only by redemption. Only by a Redeemer. Someone to
pay for our sins. Friends, God will never have
mercy on one sinner at the expense of His justice. Do you realize
that? God will never have mercy on
one sinner at the expense of His justice. We do it all the
time. We do it all the time. You get
pulled over by a police officer, what do you want? You're speeding. You're guilty.
What do you want? You want mercy. Not really. You
want injustice. You want Him to let you go even
though you're guilty. And if he were to give that to
you, he himself would be what? Guilty. Guilty. Now mercy is this, the cop giving
you the ticket and then going and paying it for you. Now that's
mercy. That's mercy. That's someone
paying the redemption price for your guilt. And that's the only
way God will have mercy on any son of Adam. By paying the price
of sin and satisfying his just demands of the law for guilt. The law and justice of God holds
all men by nature in the chains of their sin and imprisons them
in the bars of their iniquity. And justice will not let one
sinner go unless redemption is paid. And what is the price? What is the price? Well, what
does Peter say? Not of corruptible things. That's
not the price. Men like to pay that price, don't
they? They don't mind giving silver and gold for their souls.
They don't mind giving their time of religion and energy in
religion to save their souls. But friend, redemption is never
paid by religion, ceremonies, or rituals. Never. Those are
corruptible things. John says, it is not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. Why?
Because those are corruptible things. They're corruptible. Why? You're corrupted. I'm corrupted. And everything we do is corrupted. And God says, not by corruptible
things, but by the blood of Jesus Christ alone. This is the redemption
price. The price that must be paid was
innocent blood. It was man that brought sin into
the world. It must be then by man that redemption
is paid to the justice of God. How many times have you heard
ignorant fellows start talking about God paying Satan by the
blood of Christ? How many people would think that
God is paying a price to the devil to release you? No! God is paying Himself a price. It was God's justice we offended. It was God's holiness you offend. And God Himself says, I will
pay the price myself. And He did. He did. He paid the
redemption price by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. I like
that song. It says, not what my hands have
done could save my guilty soul. Not what my toiling hands have
wrought can make my spirit whole. Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God. Not
all my prayers and sighs and tears could bear my awful load. Friends, the redemption price
is only by the blood of Jesus. You remember the Passover, that
beautiful picture that God puts in the Old Testament, how that
He said, you pick out a lamb without spot and without blemish,
and you sacrifice that lamb, you put its blood on the doorpost
and on the lentil, and I will pass over you. That is exactly
how God redeemed sinners by the blood of the Lamb Jesus Christ
alone. There is no other way. There
is no other way. And you remember how on the Day
of Atonement the high priest Put His hand on the head of that
goat and He confessed the sins of the people. That is a picture
of what God has done. He has imputed all of our sins. All the sins of His people. And
He has put them on Christ. And He bore out His wrath on
Christ on the cross. In the place of the guilty. If you would desire to be holy,
friends, Jesus Christ and Him crucified is the only means by
which God makes sinners holy. So when you call on God, don't
call on God, but by Jesus Christ. He won't hear you any other way.
He won't hear you any other way. Jesus Christ took our sins. And
He paid the redemption price. but yet he himself remained the
spotless Lamb of God." Now this is a mystery, a mystery beyond
mysteries. That's what Peter says here,
he says, "...but the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb
without spot and without blemish." Here he was. God imputed all
of our sins to him so much that he confessed that they're his
own, and yet he himself remained the spotless Lamb of God. What a wonderful thing. Because
see, I didn't need a spotted Savior, I needed a spotless Savior. I could have done that. If you
wanted a spotted Savior, I could have tried that myself and it
wouldn't have worked. But Jesus was the spotless Lamb
of God. And God charged our sins, imputed
our sins to Him. So much so, they became His.
And He paid our redemption price in full. In full. I like when I have a big bill
and you get that thing that says, paid in full. Don't you? You
get that letter and you go, what? It's paid in full? I've got a
big letter! Because I had so many sins. And
God is stamped on there, paid in full. And not only did He
stamp it, He blotted out all the transgressions that were
on there so that He cannot see them. He says, there are sins
and iniquities I will remember no more. And therefore, in the
eyes of God, all who call on Christ by the blood of Christ,
we know this, in the eyes of God, I'm holy. In the eyes of
God, we are as Christ is in this present world, John says. Number
three, holiness comes by faith alone. Look at verse 21. It says, "...who by Him do believe
in God." Faith is the only grace by which salvation comes. Holiness, righteousness comes
only to guilty sinners through faith. How many people speak of love
as though love is the grace that saves? Love is not the grace
that saves. Faith is the grace that God uses
to save. And notice who it comes by. Who
by Him do believe. You that believe in Christ, do
you realize again that your faith is not from you? My faith is
not from me. It was by Him I do believe. By Him. Well, by grace you are
saved through faith. Never apart from it. And that
faith is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast."
Sinners, it is only by Him that we may have faith. Our natural man knows much about
God. The natural man may believe many
things that God says. How many times those false prophets,
soul winners, so-called, get people into the room and they
corner them and they say, well, you know, God says all sinners.
Do you believe that? They say, well, I don't know. They say,
look, here it is. It says all of sin. Do you believe that?
Well, I guess so. And then someone else comes along
and says, hey, well, Jesus died for sinners and you're a sinner,
right? Well, Jesus, well, I don't know. Well, here it is. God said
He died for sinners. And they say, okay, I guess so.
I guess so. Friends, that's not faith. That's
knowing a lot about God, but that's not believing God. To
believe God is a supernatural thing. It's something that God
must give us. Faith that God gives in Christ
is one that puts all one's faith and hope in Christ alone. You
know why the natural man will not give up and believe on Christ? It's because naturally we want
to hold on to something that we can do. Naturally, we want
to. And naturally, you can't do anything
else. You want to hold on to something.
Something God will take from me. Surely God will take something
from me. No. No. Faith lets go of all
of it. True faith lets go of all of
our works, all of our righteousness, and puts all of the eggs of our
salvation into one basket, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's
my only hope to stand before God. That's my only hope of holiness. Sinners. It is by divine faith
that is given to us that we purify our souls. Look at that. Now
this is surprising. Look at verse 22. Seeing ye have purified your souls. That sounds strange, doesn't
it? Does that wording not sound strange to you? You mean, pastor,
that by faith I purified my own soul? That's what the Scripture
says. That's what the Scripture says. You see, faith is only the only
channel by which the purification of the blood of Christ comes
to the sinner. That's the only way. You see,
your faith didn't purify, but obeying the truth is the channel
by which purification comes and no other way. You will not be
forgiven of your sins if you will not believe on Christ. That
is true. Your soul will never be purified
unless you believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. Never. You'll never be made holy unless
you believe. And I'll tell you, if you will
not believe, you will suffer in hell because you will not
believe. You will not be made holy because
you will not believe. It is your responsibility to
believe. Therefore, believe. And all who
believe have purified their souls. The only means by which God brings
salvation is through the grace of faith. Number three, holiness
comes by the new birth. 23, being born again, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. When a sinner hears the Gospel
of Christ, when he calls on the Father in conviction, when he
sees Jesus has accomplished redemption, and he believes and he's moved
by the Spirit to believe and obey the truth, at that moment,
that person is born again. Now, this is a big theological
argument that I really don't care to enter into. It's very
simple. Some people say that life comes before faith, and
other people say faith comes before life. Friends, I have
never found in one place in Scripture where any man was spiritually
alive that he did not believe. And neither have I found anyone
who believed that is not spiritually alive. These two must come together. You cannot have faith without
life, and you cannot have life without faith. I don't believe
in this idea of a man being spiritually alive for many years before he
believes. I don't believe that. There's not one instance in Scripture
of any such thing. And I really don't care what
opinions or feelings men have about it. There's nothing in
Scripture. Jesus said, except you be born
again, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Those two come
together. What means does this spiritual
life come? If I need to call on the Father,
if I must seek Christ, and faith must be given, and I'm responsible
to believe on Christ, how then does this new birth and faith
come to sinners? Well, Peter doesn't leave us
in the dark. Look back at your text. being born again not of
corruptible seed, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God." You see, those things are corruptible.
Not of the fleshly religion of grass. He said, for all flesh
is grass, and the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass
withereth and the flower fadeth. What is He talking about? He's
talking about religion. He's talking about the flower
of morality. The flower of reformation. That doesn't last, friends. People
who come into a church and all of a sudden they feel guilty
and they come out and they try to reform their lives, how long
does that last before they're off doing what they would have
done before? That doesn't save. That doesn't give new birth.
What does? But the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever. Friends, we have before us on
the pages of Holy Scripture. This right here. This is the revealed will and
Word of God. But you know this Word lived
long before these pages were written. Am I right? The Word
of God that liveth and abideth forever. God's Word was settled
in eternity before it was written on pages. But now it is written. God has written and sealed the
vision. He's sealed the covenant with
His own blood. This is God's Word to us. And it is by this Word that we
are saved. How do we believe on Christ?
How do we call on the Father? By the Word. By the Word of God. And by what means then is this
seed planted? He said, by the incorruptible
seed. Well, in order for a plant to
grow, it has to be planted. Right? If you put a seed on top
of this pulpit, it will do nothing. It will do nothing. It has to
be planted. And so the Word of God has to
be planted in the hearts of men. And by what means has God chosen
to make sinners holy? Read verse 25 with me. being born again by the Word
of the Lord that endures forever, and this is the Word which by
the gospel is preached unto you." It is by the preaching of the
gospel. That's how the message is planted. This is the means by which God
the Holy Spirit has chosen to apply that blood of Christ on
the doorpost of your heart by the preaching of the gospel.
In this electronic, educated, religious age we live in, people
believe that God uses several means to convey His message to
sinners. But according to God's Word that
liveth and abideth forever, the only chosen means that God has
chosen to save sinners is by the preaching of the gospel.
To this religious world, the gospel, the preaching of the gospel is
foolishness. As I said in Sunday School, preaching
is not foolish. but the preaching of the gospel.
Now that's foolishness. Why? Because men think that they
can naturally obtain salvation by their own understanding. Men
believe that they can take this book and they, by their own natural
ability, can understand the gospel. But that's not what God says.
Go to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. And verse 13. I read this this morning, but
I'll read it again. Romans chapter 10, verse 13. For whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall
they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall
they believe on Him in whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things." Friends, the preacher is nothing.
Preaching the gospel is everything. And this is the means that God
has chosen to plant the seed of His Word in the hearts of
His people. Avail yourself to it. Avail yourself to it. Some people say, well, preacher,
that's narrow. That's narrow. I didn't make
it narrow, God did. This is His Word, it's not mine.
This is His means, it's not mine. I'm not exalting myself. I've
done told you I can't save you. I told you I can't make you holy. But I tell you this, it is by
my Gospel that you shall be saved. It's by the Gospel of Jesus Christ
that I preach unto you, and that's it. That's the only means that
God has chosen. Believer in Christ, I know that
you understand these things. If you have believed in Christ,
does not these things move us to holy living? Is that not what
moves us? Have we not called on the Father,
and do we not still call on the Father? Have we not believed
in the precious blood of Christ? Do we not still believe in the
precious blood of Christ? Have we not believed to the purifying
of our souls, and do we still not believe to the cleansing
of our sins, constantly, daily, confessing them before God? Have we not seen that He gave
us a new birth and He's given us His Word? Is it not reasonable then that
we who have been made holy should be holy? John says, little children, sin
not. Ah, but when any man sin, we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous."
I'm glad he used that in the same sentence, didn't you? I'm
glad there was no period after that. I'm glad he said, sin not,
but when any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ, the righteous. Be ye holy, even as I am holy. Sinners, would you be holy? Call
on the Father. Believe on the Son. And He will
give you life and faith by His Word, by the Gospel I preach
to you. I pray that God will bless this
to your hearts. Let's stand and be dismissed.