All right, if you'd open your
Bibles to 1 Peter 1. Now, is this volume plenty good
for you all? Okay. 1 Peter 1. Beginning in verse 13, we're
not gonna read the entire text, We'll touch on the rest of it
as we get to it, but we'll just start by reading 13 through 16. Therefore, prepare your minds
for action. Be self-controlled. Set your
hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is
revealed. As obedient children, Do not
conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you
is holy, so be holy in all you do. For it is written, be holy
because I am holy. Now, how would you react if someone
came up to you and said, you should live a holy life. I know I'd be at least a little
bit suspicious as to their motives in telling me that. And I would
assume that the person who told me that was probably somewhat
self-righteous. Now that'd probably be our first
reaction. And I know why we have that reaction. We have that reaction because
generally speaking, when the people, when most people talk
about a holy life, they are talking about something that you won't
find in the scriptures. And their reasons for living
a holy life, and the way they try to go about living a holy
life, are in complete contradiction of what the gospel teaches us. So we might be, we might have
that knee-jerk reaction. Somebody said, now you need to
be holy. You need to live a holy life. Okay. Who are you to be
telling me that? But here's the thing. God told
the Jews that back in the Old Testament. He said to them, be
holy. for I am holy. And the Lord Jesus
Christ himself told a crowd that he was preaching to, be holy
because God is holy. You say, yeah, but they were
all, you know, when God was speaking through Moses, that was to the
Jews, and the Lord Jesus was just addressing the Jews, and
Jesus Christ hadn't died yet, and the new covenant hadn't really
been brought in yet, and, you know, this doesn't apply to us.
Well, then Peter says, be holy, for I, that is God, is holy. He tells us to be holy in all
we do. Here we have this exhortation.
And in this morning's message, I want to answer three questions
if I can. First, this holiness that Peter
says that we are to do, what does it look like? Secondly,
why? should we live in a holy manner? What should motivate us to do
that? And then thirdly, what are the means for accomplishing
this, or strategies, if you will? I hate to use that word, but
it's as good a word as I can think of. In other words, what
can we do that will cause us to live the kind of life that
Peter's talking about. Now, because of the religion
that nearly everyone here came out of, certainly everyone when
this church first began, because of that, we almost get scared
whenever we talk about how a person ought to live because we remember
the legalism of the past. The religion I was raised in,
I tell you, there were more rules to keep than, well, than you
could keep. And the interesting thing is
you couldn't find them in the Bible. Most of them were made
up. As I've told you before, I wasn't
allowed to dance. It didn't bother me when my parents
enforced that, because I was in the sixth grade. We were square
dancing in gym class. I didn't want to do that anyway.
So mom wrote a note and said I was to be excused whenever
they were doing square dancing. And if you say, well, square
dancing, there's nothing wrong with that. And well, their idea, they
said, well, if you start with square dancing, who knows where
you'll end up? But that was their way of talking.
We were not supposed to listen to rock and roll music. And they
told us we weren't supposed to listen to it because the lyrics
were dirty. I wasn't wise enough to say,
well, do you ever listen to a country song? They're singing about the
same things, they just don't pronounce their G's at the end
of the words. Said we weren't to go anywhere
where they sold any kind of alcoholic beverages. We shouldn't play
with traditional cards. All this kind of stuff. Lots
of rules. And so they call that holy living. And so when we hear someone talk
about living in a holy way, immediately we react. But here Peter has
told us to do it. So what does this holiness look
like? Now the mere religionist will
invent rules to follow. Some kind of outward observances.
and it will always involve things that others can easily see and
detect. Our Lord said to the Pharisees,
who thought themselves to be holier than others, he said,
what things they do, they do for men's eyes to see. And they wore these big, long
black robes with a fringe around them that was, you know, or the
tassels on them were very easy to see. These were things that
God had mentioned in the old covenant and they would kind
of go overboard on it. And they would wear these boxes on their
heads that had little pieces of scripture on it so that everybody
would know they were always thinking about the scripture. And they called that a holy life.
And you can see it in the religious world of our day when people
put on a particular form of dress. Now, we all need to dress appropriately
for whatever occasion we're in. But I know a religion that one
of my sisters got involved in. Women were never supposed to
cut their hair, not even trim off the dead ends. And they were
always to wear dresses, long ones, couldn't wear makeup. Well, you could spot one of them
a block down the road. If one of them's coming up the
road, you know what church they go to. I thought it was kind of interesting
that these rules for holy living, it seemed most of them applied
to women. There weren't very many for men, at least not in
that particular church. But it's things that men can
see. And, you know, there are some
aspects of the holiness of a believer's life that can be seen. But for
the most part, when the world sees them, these patterns of
holy living that a believer practices, they're not impressed. They don't
look on that and say, now, that's how everybody ought to be. I
agree with that. They don't pat believers on the
back when their holiness of life is evident to others. Now, it's
important to note that all these things that Peter is going to
mention that characterize a holy lifestyle, they are things that
a believer already wants to do. Do you realize the gospel doesn't
call anybody to do something they don't want to do? The problem
with the believer, the struggle that the believer has is he's
got competing desires. He's got, because he's still
in the flesh, he still has all the old desires that he ever
had, which were sinful. But by means of the new birth,
God has created with him a new spiritual life, and the fruit
of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
kindness, all these things. These new ways of thinking, these
new ways of approaching life, and they're in competition with
what the flesh says. But the truth is, everything
Peter says we should do, There is at least a part of the believer,
his spiritual part, wants to do that. He just doesn't do it
very well. Now, in general, the practical,
and when we say practical holiness, we are talking about holiness
in practice. But in theological circles, that's
the way they talk about it. They talk about practical holiness.
So holiness in practice or in lifestyle, it is summed in this
attitude and action. Look here in verse 13, the last
half of it, set your hope fully on the grace to be given you
when Jesus Christ is revealed. Now, holiness of life has got
to start out with holiness of thought. Now, holy, the word
simply means to be set apart. That's all. See, most people,
when they think of holy, they think immediately of morals.
Well, it has an effect on a person's morals, but it doesn't start
there. And we read in the scriptures
of those who were considered holy ones, and yet their morality. was not anything that we would
want to copy. Holiness starts in the mind and
in the heart. And it begins with setting our
hope fully on the grace to be given us when Jesus Christ is
revealed. Now, as we live our lives, as
everybody lives their lives, there's something that drives
them, a hope that they have that guides everything else they do. Now, not everything they do is
going to help them achieve that goal, but they will do all they
can to keep anything from hindering them in attaining that goal. Fame. Now, all of us, well, not all
of us, but probably a lot of us would like to be famous. But
very few people are willing to do the work that it takes to
become a celebrity, famous. Most everybody, if you said,
okay, now you can be poor or you can be rich, well, we'd choose
rich. But very few of us are willing
to do the amount of devoted labor and work necessary to achieve
that. So while, yeah, I wouldn't mind
being a millionaire, you know, that'd be nice, but obviously
that's not my hope because my life is not directed in that
pursuit. And there's lots of things the
world does, but the believer, his hope That for which he reaches
and which guides the course of his life is his desire to experience
the fullness of the grace of God when Christ is revealed or
when he goes to be with Christ. Now, in other words, we read
back a little earlier in here in this chapter it talks about
that you, this is verse 9, for you are receiving the goal of
your faith, the salvation of your souls. That's the same thing
he's talking about over here when he talks about set your
hope fully on the grace to be given. That grace is given to
us. It's the salvation of our souls.
Yes, we've already been saved in one sense, but not every aspect
of salvation has been experienced by us. We aren't like Christ
yet. We aren't without sin yet. We do not behold his glory yet, but that will be given to every
believer. That's the goal and that's what
he reaches for. And if you look back here at Philippians chapter
three, you know, Peter and Paul said
the same things. They just said them with different words. Philippians chapter 3, and we'll begin reading verse
7. Paul had been talking about his
former life before the Lord converted him, talking about his former
life as a Pharisee. And he says, but whatever was
to my profit, that is in that life, I now consider loss for
the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything
a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them
rubbish that I may gain Christ. That's what Paul wanted. He wanted
Christ, which means he wants everything in Christ as well. And so he realized that those
things from his past, he had to let go of them. That is, he
had to let go of his own righteousness. He had to quit seeking his own
reputation, had to give up the praise of men. Because you can't
serve the world and serve God. And so he said, I consider these
things rubbish, trash, garbage. that I may gain Christ and be
found in Him. Now God's coming, and He's looking
for you, and He'll be looking for you, and He will find you.
He's gonna find everybody. So the question is not whether
or not you will be found. The question is where are you
gonna be found? I've heard people say, I hope when I die, I'm in
the church. Won't make any difference. interrupt
a worship service, because they call somebody to come collect
your body. You might be in a church. You
might be in a grocery store. You might be in a bathroom. Won't
make any difference to your soul. When God comes, here's where
you want to be found, in Christ. because everybody outside of
Christ perishes. He said, that's what I want to
be in him. Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the
law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness
that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ. Well, Paul, don't you already
know him? Not completely. I know him like you might know
someone who passes letters back and forth. Now, he probably knew
him better than you and I do, because he had met him face to
face, and we've never done that. But he had not lived with him
face to face. And he finishes up here, verse
11, and so somehow, and I think the significance of that word
that they translate somehow is, by this means, to attain to the
resurrection from the dead. Paul said, now that's my hope.
Now, what did that make him do? Verse 12, Philippians 3, not
that I have already obtained this. He said, I'm not gonna
pretend to you that I have obtained these things that I say I want. Nor have I already been made
perfect. No, we aren't perfect, that's
for sure. He says, but I press on. I press on to take hold of
that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Now that's what Peter
meant when he said, set your hope fully on the grace which
will be given to you. when Christ Jesus is revealed. Like Paul, you know, is likening
himself to a racer who, you know, the gun goes off and I mean,
this is, they just take off. This is particularly true of
sprinters. And I mean, it's just everything they've got is aimed at reaching that goal.
And they're not paying attention to how much progress they've
made. They aren't paying attention to how much progress the ones
on the side of them have made. They're just eating up as much
ground as they can to get to the finish line. So we set our
minds, our hope on the grace that we are going to receive
when Christ Jesus is revealed. And brethren, that is the essence
of holy living. In other words, we have set ourselves
apart from the way of the world, which has as its hope riches,
fame, happiness, and all these many things. And we said, here's
my hope, God's grace. fully given to me in Christ when
Christ is revealed." He says now, and here's another
expression of how the believer's holiness of life looks, he says,
do not conform to the evil desires of your former way of life. This
is verse 14. As obedient children, do not
conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.
Now there was a time when everybody here lived in ignorance. And
while we may have had some desires for what on a human level would
be considered decent and right, yet we were full of evil desires
and we were quite willing to live that way so long as we thought
we could get away with it. He says, don't do that anymore.
Don't live according to that pattern. Now, if we look at chapter two,
verse three, excuse me, verse one, We'll get an example of
some of the things he's talking about here when he says, don't
conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.
He says, therefore, rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy,
envy, and slander of every kind. There are other things he could
have listed, but I find it interesting that he doesn't list any of those
things that mere religious people generally mention when they think
about a holy lifestyle. In fact, many of them, as they
are carrying out what they consider to be holy living, are full of
malice toward others, are certainly
hypocritical, because they're not living like they want to.
They're willing to slander those who live freely in Christ and
accuse them of all kinds of wickedness because the only way they can
build themselves up is to tear other people down. They're deceitful, envious. And Peter says, rid yourself
of that. And wouldn't you like to be able
to do that? I sure would. I would like it that no malicious
thought ever entered my mind. I can't say that it never does.
I hope that I can restrain myself enough that no malicious act
will ever come to pass. But I have malicious thoughts. And I'm a hypocrite. I know it. I never live as good as I preach.
So don't take my preaching to be a declaration that this is
how I live. Certainly not, you know, like Paul said, I'm not
saying I've been made perfect. Preachers are always preaching
beyond their reach. Envy? I used to think I didn't
envy. But I remember about the time
I hit 60 years old and it occurred to me, you know, you've just
about hit the top of your game. You can't expect that you're
going to collect much more. And I started looking around
and seeing people that had much more than I have, and maybe even
had it much younger than I have. And they got plenty of years
to get even more. And I was surprised to find out
how envy could come up in my heart. I didn't think that was
a part of my nature. It was. And I suppose it still would
be were it not for the grace of God. And I imagine there'll
be a time again when I do exhibit that kind of envy. I accidentally closed my notes
out. That wasn't very smart. It's
the thing about using these electronically. All right. What else does it
look like? He says it's to live as an alien
in this world. Verse 17, since you call on a
father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives
as strangers here in reverent fear. Now we're in this world
and we're not called to leave it. We're not called even to
set up a monastery or some kind of cloister and we withdraw from
everybody else in the world. Someone said, you know, these
fellows that go off in a monastery, you know, he said, they're like
a light in an empty room. They don't do anybody any good.
No, we live in the world, but we're strangers here. Now, the
word really means, we call them aliens today. We've got illegal
aliens. Well, we're not allowed to call
them that anymore, evidently. But an alien is someone who simply
didn't come from here. They came from somewhere else.
Paul said our citizenship is in heaven. Now we live in this
world, but we are not citizens of this world. We are citizens
of heaven. And you know, you can tell when
somebody living in your community came from somewhere else. When
I moved here 33 years ago, and I had lived three to four years
in Western Kentucky. But before that, it had been
like 20 years in West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky. And pretty
much none of that had left me. And when I came here, I acted
different than the people from this area. I sounded different. And I suppose I still do some,
though I don't think it's as bad as it was when I moved here.
We started a radio broadcast, and I imagine anytime someone
heard me, they said, I don't know who that is, but I know
he's not from here. The hillbilly was pretty thick on me. I was
an alien. And I lived like one, too. I'm
not saying that's good. My yard didn't look nearly as
good as the people around me. And they used to tell a joke,
you know. How can you identify a rich West
Virginian when he's got two cars up on blocks out in the front
yard? Took me a while to realize, you know, these folks around
here kind of clean things up. Maybe I ought to live a little
more like that. Well, we live like that. We should be like
that in this world. That is, it's obvious we speak
different. And I don't just mean that we
don't cuss or something like that. When we speak of religious
things, we talk about Christ. It amazes me how much religious
talk I hear in this area and yet nobody's talking about Christ. Our manner of speech is different.
Or even if we're saying the same words, there's a different accent
to them. I remember one time, Henry was talking to one of his
old friends in free willism. And they were debating, you know,
the sovereignty of God's grace. And Henry said, well, here. And
he opened up to Romans chapter nine. And he read it. He just read right out of the
Bible, Romans chapter nine. And when he got done, he looked
at his friend and says, now, do you believe that? And he said,
well, not the way you read it. Not the way I read it. We live as aliens in this world.
Recently, Bonnie and I and our daughter and her family, we all
went out to the Black Hills. We enjoyed ourselves there. We
went to the restaurants. We went and saw the, someone
said the rock group there on Mount Rushmore. We went to see
Crazy Horse and did a couple other things. But it's pretty
obvious we didn't live there. Why? Because we stayed in a motel.
We didn't have a local address. We probably didn't act quite
like the folks that are native to that area. And once we had
spent two or three days there, we packed up and left. We lived as strangers in Keystone,
South Dakota. And we are to live as strangers
in this world. And then we live in Reverent
fear, and reverent fear is a strange thing in this world. To live in reverence of God.
I'm on several Facebook groups, most of them have to do with
jokes. I like good jokes, especially puns. And there's this one about
cleansing. Once in a while, and I don't
know if it's the same person, but they'll put something in
there that's just so blasphemous. It really irritates me. And one
time I responded to it, and they got all mad at me and everything
else, so I just deleted all my responses and said, they are
not interested in hearing about this. But what struck me is they
have no reverence whatsoever for God. Now there's a lot about
religion that would be suitable to make fun of. There's a lot
about us that people can make fun of and be fun. There's nothing
about God to make fun of. God's not the proper object of
humor. He's not to be used as simply
a religious icon by which we Try to convince others we're
better than others because we worship God, you know. We live
in reverent fear. We know who God is. We know that
he's above us, that our destiny is in his hand. We have respect
for who he is. We have respect for his name. Well, why would we live a holy
life? What would motivate that? Well, because the God who has
called us and made us his people is holy. It's what it says right
here in the end of verse 15, be holy because I am holy. And
so there's a reason and motivation. Secondly, and this is one to
me, one of the most powerful ones that we are to live with
that attitude heavenward with, you know, laying aside that the
malice and deceit and all that sort of thing and living as strangers
in this world. Here's one. because we are the
children of God. God is our father and not our
judge. Now, the world would think that's
crazy. Well, that's why you should live holy. God's a judge and
he'll send you to hell if you don't live right. Well, that's
true. God's a judge. And if you don't
live right, he'll send you to hell. If you stand before him
with him as your judge and you as the one being judged, But
notice what it says here, verse 17. Since you call on a father
who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers
here in reverent fear. Now, does he mean by this? You
better live right because you know your dad is the judge. How would you like to live in
a home like that? I had a friend. I say a friend, a guy I went
to school with. And his dad was the judge, probably a district
judge or something like that, county judge. And he's kind of
a wild boy, probably because, and I don't know, I never met
his dad, but his dad being a judge might have been a kind of severe
person. And this young fella, Bear was always getting into
mischief, not terrible stuff, but mischief. And he and a bunch
of his friends were out late at night spook knocking. I don't
know if you all know what that is, but I don't know if that's
what you call it, but they go up and knock on someone's door
and then run late at night. And that's what he was doing.
And they did it to this older couple. They were the kind of older couple,
you know, you might find the old guy hollering out the door,
get off my grass, you know, that kind of fellow. So that, you
know, that kind of person invites people being mischievous to them.
And they were out one night and they knocking on doors and running. And the man was at work and the
woman was all scared about it. She called her husband home from
work and he'd come home and he just wanted to give those boys
a good scare. So he got a gun and hid in the bushes and here
they came again. And when they knocked on the
door and ran, he stepped out from behind the bush. It was
a zip gun. And my friend ran into him, and the gun went off. And my friend was killed, 14
years old. That's a friend, like I said.
I knew he was kind of tough, so I stayed away from him. But
he was dead. Now someone might say, well,
he should have been careful. His dad was a judge, you know. No, here's
what it's saying. Here's what Peter's meaning.
There is one who will judge every man's work with impartiality,
and all the unbelieving people of this world will stand before
him as a criminal before the judge. But you address him as
father, not as judge. Isn't that a blessed thing? no longer presents himself to
us as our judge. Why? Judgment's been taken care
of. He judged us in Christ, that's
done. Now we are children before the
Father. We might have been disobedient
children, but when your kids are disobedient, you don't throw
them out of the family, do you? You might give them some discipline,
but there is, or at least there should not be, any reaction by
which you're going to get your pound of flesh. Boy, they did
what I didn't like, and I'm going to show them what that gets them,
you know? No. We address the judge as father. He is father to us, always having
an eye of mercy, pity, and grace toward us. And with such a privilege
as that, why should we live just like those who must cower before
him in fear, knowing that his judgment's gonna fall on them? God doesn't try to whip us into
holiness, but with mercy. kindness and gentleness towards
us as a father has towards his children. So does he call us
to a holy life. And we should be motivated to
this because we've been redeemed from our bondage to the law of
sin and death, having been delivered by the precious blood of Christ. Look what was paid for us. Paul
said, you're not your own, you were bought with a price. Oh,
what our Lord paid to redeem us. And he paid that to redeem
us from law, sin, and death. Therefore, why should we act
like those and live like those with the same goals and the same
hopes and the same conduct as those who are yet in bondage
to the law, sin, and death? We've been born again by the
Spirit of God. We have a life that the world
does not have. We have a hope that the world
does not know. We have a word that the world
cannot understand, the word of the gospel of grace. You who
believe, anybody here that believes, do you realize that there's not
one sin laid to your charge in the court of heaven, not one.
Do you realize that there is right now reserved for you in
heaven an inheritance of unspeakable glory and blessing? It's there. It's just wait until the appointed
day, or the day that God has appointed to call you out of
this life and into the next one. Do you realize you're free? Absolutely
free. what blessings we have. Well
then, how might we, or what things might we do that would promote
these holy attitudes, holy way of life? Well, remember that
we're children of God and the great privilege that's been given
to us because we are children. I didn't realize what some people
suffered growing up. because I had two of the most
wonderful parents anybody could hope for. I had no idea what abuse is.
As an adult, as I've heard the kind of childhood some people
have had to live, I can't imagine. I don't know how they survived
it. And you know what that did? Having
had such good parents as I had, it made me desire to live up
to them. It did. I couldn't stand the
thought of disappointing them. Kept me back from a lot of things
I might otherwise have done. I loved them. And I didn't want
them to hear a report about me that would bring their head down
in tears. And oh, what a heavenly father we have. We're not among those abused
children of the world who live under the lash and must labor for their spiritual
blessings. Our Father freely gives all of
them to us. Remember that. Meditate on that
living word of God which was brought to us by the Holy Spirit,
that which Peter calls the gospel. This involves both our personal
study and thinking about it. You know, it shouldn't be that
only Sunday morning, that's the only time we ever think about
the grace of God. We should keep it on our minds. But it also involves faithful
attendance on the preached word. It is written that God has determined
by the preaching of what the world calls foolishness, and
by that Paul meant the gospel. Because the world thought it
was foolishness. So God is determined by preaching this gospel to save
them that believe. You say, well, I thought those
that believe were already saved. Yeah. And they're being saved,
and they shall be saved. And the means by which God accomplishes
that in this world is through the declaration of the word of
God to them. And then recall that we have
tasted that the Lord is gracious. It says here in chapter two, verse three, now that you have
tasted that the Lord is good, gracious, merciful. I know this,
if I get a taste of something good, I want another bite. The
only way for me to restrain myself from eating something that tastes
good is to not have it in the house. We don't keep ice cream
in the house. If we did, I'd be that big. I limit the amount of jelly we
buy, because I love peanut butter jelly sandwiches. We've tasted
that the Lord is good. Well, taste that goodness over
and over and over again. It will change your way of thinking.
And then looking, and here's the last one, verse four of chapter
two, as you come to him, the living stone. Say, well, I already
come to him. But the way Peter writes it here,
that's something we're always doing. We're always doing. We came to him in the beginning
seeking his salvation. We continue to come to him knowing
that he is the only fountain of salvation. And we come to
him wanting to know him better than we knew him before. We keep
coming to him because he is our continual supply of grace and
strength for whatever it is the world throws at us. Start your
day seeking him. As soon as you awaken, this will
do you good if you'll do it. As soon as you awaken, give him
thanks that you're alive. Give him thanks for your life,
no matter what your life is right now, give him thanks for it.
Because he gave it to you, and even if it's full of some things
that are unpleasant, it's good for you. Give him thanks. Ask him to help you for the coming
day. I once saw, I think it was on a poster originally. I've
seen it float through Facebook. It's someone's early morning
prayer. It says, Lord, so far, I've not gotten angry. I've not
yelled at anyone. I have not used bad language.
I have not coveted anybody's goods. But I'm about to get out
of bed and I'm going to need help from now on. Don't get out
of your bed without seeking the Lord. It'll do you good. It'll set your mind for the day.
It'll set your hope on the grace to be given you when Christ is
revealed. You say, oh, I might do that,
but it's only gonna last about a half hour after I get out of
bed. Well, that's a good half hour then. Maybe if you keep
doing it, it'll go up to 45 minutes. Who knows, you might make it
to noon. Nothing we reach for in this
life, in spiritual things, will we attain or achieve perfection,
but we reach. We reach. We reach because he
reached for us. And he laid hold of us when we
were running away. And because he did so, we turn
around and we reach for him. Well, I hope this has been a
benefit to you. Let's pray. Father, bless your
word as only you can. Thank you for this truth and
I pray that our minds and hearts would be set on things above
and not on things below. That we'd set our hearts on the
grace to be given to us when Christ is revealed. And we pray
this in the name of the Lord Jesus, amen.