You want to turn with me in your
Bibles to the book of First Peter. We're going to continue our study
of the book of First Peter. And it has been a delightful,
it's a delightful The book of the Bible, the first chapter
is just so full and rich of God's grace towards us in the Lord
Jesus Christ. I appreciate what you had to
say, Ramel, about how we face unknown circumstances in 2023. We look back on 2022, we don't
know how the Lord managed to keep us through all that, but
he did. And we look forward to 2023 when
he will continue his grace towards us. But we don't know the troubles
that we will face. Many of us may face very great
troubles and others lesser, but whatever they are, we know the
Lord is with his people. And that is our hope, that is
our confidence that it is all in Christ. And for Christ's sake,
what a blessing that is to know. And we see that in the book of
1 Peter. And so I wanna pick up in 1 Peter
as we have been going through this at verse 10, and we're gonna
go through verse 17 today. I've entitled today's message,
Gird Up, Be Sober, and Hope to the End. It says in verse 10,
of which salvation? Now this is the subject of 1
Peter and the whole book of God, that it is about our salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And this salvation, it says,
the prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied
of the grace that should come to you. What an amazing sacrifice
they made, knowing that the gospel given to them was going to be
for those who were yet to be born, and that they would wait
for that salvation to come when Christ appeared, and would fulfill
that salvation himself being our salvation. Verse 11, he says,
Searching what? This is what the prophets did.
They searched what or what manner of time? The Spirit of Christ,
which was in them, did signify when it testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
So we see that the prophets were led by the Spirit of Christ,
that he was in them, and that the subject they were given was
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
That's the subject of the gospel. Verse 12, unto whom it was revealed
that not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minister these
things. They were servants for us. God
gave them as gifts to his church to serve us in this, which are
now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel
unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which
things the angels desire to look into. So here we see that those
who have been sent by Christ have been given the gospel, which
would be the apostles and those who were with Christ, his disciples.
They preach the gospel, and this is the same gospel the prophets
in the Old Testament preached. So it's not two different messages,
it's one message throughout scripture. And that message is Christ and
him crucified. And we see also that the gospel
is preached with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, sent obviously
from God the Father and from Christ. And the things that they
preach to us are things which the angels desire to look into.
And this is a great amount of information. But stop and pause
for a minute to consider the fact that the angels, the holy
angels in heaven, the servants of Christ who are his servants
for the heirs of salvation, those promised by God salvation from
eternity in the Lord Jesus Christ, these are servants to Christ
for his people. And that's a phenomenal thing.
And they're so much the servants of Christ and so in tune with
his desire that their desire also is for the salvation of
God's people. And yet the angels are not aware
who the Lord is going to save until the Lord does it. Remember,
Jesus spoke in parable in Luke 15 about the shepherd who lost
one sheep. and left the 99 in the fold and went out to find
that one sheep. And when he found it, he brought it back rejoicing.
And he said, this is like when God saves a sinner, all of heaven
will rejoice. All of heaven and the angels
of God will rejoice because this is the joy. This is the joy set
before Christ that he would save his people. And that joy that
compelled him to do this is the joy the angels feel because they
are so in tune with the same mind of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that they want nothing more than to run like a swift flying spirit
to complete his commandments to them. Every time he gives
them a command, they receive it with joy, that I could do
this for someone so great and so lovely and glorious as the
Lord Jesus Christ, the one who is both God and man, the glory
man. And so the angels now desire
to look into this gospel in which the Lord Jesus Christ has given
it to men now to preach to those who are the heirs of salvation,
the ones Christ has appointed them to minister and serve in
bringing them along their life into this path God has carved
out in his predestination to bring them to hearing the gospel
to preserve their life and to keep them unless they should
dash their foot against a stone. This is the ministry of the angels
and it's a wonderful thing that God has done this. Who would
think that these glorious and holy beings who live in the presence
of God and serve Christ with all of their heart would be given
to serve us who are so sinful in ourselves and have nothing
but what we have in Christ. And yet it is the joy and delight
of the Lord Jesus Christ to give us this salvation. It was that
for which he laid his life down. We are saved by the payment that
He made. But that payment was not just
merely a payment out of His bank account. It was Himself given
in sacrifice for our sins. And this the angels are constantly
and continually desiring to look into. And where do they look?
Well, they look into the face of their Savior. And what do
they see? Well, they see His ministry in
building His church, that which the gates of hell cannot prevent.
And he builds his church, and they watch this, and they see
the elect of God called by the Spirit of God through the preaching
of the gospel, through these ministers of Christ who are sent
by him, and they're in awe, they're involved in this, and he reveals
to them who they are in this process. And so he says in verse
13, Considering the fact that the
Holy Spirit of God sent from Christ, sent from the Father
through the Lord Jesus Christ to his people to bring the gospel
with power into the hearts of chosen sinners. That's what verse
12 is saying here. The gospel which is preached
to us by those sent by Christ. And the angels are desiring to
look into this. In the presence of the saints where we meet together,
the angels are desiring to hear the gospel that we preach. The
one we believe, the one God's spirit reveals to us in our hearts
so that we love him and trust him. And so he says, wherefore,
considering all these things, beginning from the very first
verse of this chapter, He says this, gird up the loins of your
mind. Now, that's a phrase that we're
not so much familiar with, to gird up the loins of our mind,
but it turns out that in scripture, This phrase is used quite frequently. In fact, if you remember when
Elijah, the Lord told Elijah to gird up his loins and run
before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel, and he ran before the
chariot of Ahab. And when he was running, he outran
the chariot. The only way he could do that
is if he girded up his loins. And what that picture is, is
that a man who has these garments, or anybody who has these garments,
that go down and extend below their knees in order for them
to run and enter into a race, they have to gather them up and
attach them to something like a belt so that their legs are
free to move about freely. So gird up your loins. Elijah
girded up his loins and he ran before Ahab to the entrance of
Jezreel, it says. And they spoke about this in
other places. Elisha, the follower, the subsequent
prophet to Elijah, told his servant Gehazi, he said, gird up your
loins and take my staff in your hand and go thy way. And if you
meet any man, salute him not. And if any salutes you, answer
him not again and lay my staff upon the face of the child. So
in that case, Gehazi was to lay the staff of Elisha on the face
of the dead son of the widow woman. Actually, she was not
a widow woman, but her husband and her were still alive. But
he laid that staff on. Of course, nothing happened.
But in order for him to carry out that mission, Gehazi had
to focus with urgency and run with swiftness and not be distracted
by anything but to accomplish this mission that Elisha sent
him to do. And in Job 30, I'm just giving
you some examples so that we can appreciate what this phrase
means, to gird up. In Job 38, in verse three, the
Lord spoke to Job and he said, gird up now thy loins like a
man, for I will demand of thee and answer thou me. So Job was
to come before the Lord, since you have these objections against
the way that God and His sovereignty is moving in your life, and you're
trying to justify yourself, then gird up your loins. Let's enter
into the controversy now, as a man, with God, if you're able
to. Of course, Job wasn't able to,
and he admitted as much. But the Lord is silencing his
objections in saying this, then gird up your loins like a man.
I will demand of thee and you answer me. So you can see that
in the girding up of the loins is gathering together those things
that naturally hang down and drape and get in the way of the
race and the urgency and the earnestness that we're to focus
on. I want to also take you to this
text of scripture in Exodus chapter 12. Look at this. In Exodus chapter
12, he talks about this girding up and being ready. He says this
in respect to the Passover. Remember the Passover? And next
it is chapter 12, where the children of Israel were all poised to
leave the land of Egypt. God had sent the nine plagues
and now the 10th plague was coming, which was the firstborn of all,
throughout all Egypt would be killed. God was gonna take the
life, not only the firstborn of man, but of the firstborn
of beasts. And the children of Israel were to take a lamb and
to offer that lamb and sprinkle its to kill the lamb and sprinkle
its blood on the doorpost and go into that house where the
blood was sprinkled and roast that lamb and eat it. OK, do
you remember that? And so the Lord was going to
pass over the houses where the blood was seen. If you look at
Exodus chapter 12 and verse 13, he says that he says, And the blood shall be to you
for a token upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood,
I will pass over you and the plague shall not be upon you
to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt." So here we see
that this is our salvation, isn't it? God said in 1 Corinthians
5 and verse 7 that the Lord Jesus Christ is our Passover. He himself
is our Passover and God sees his blood and therefore passes
over his people. And who are they? They are those
in the house, they're in Christ. And what do they do? They trust
the blood. They trust that God will receive the blood and pass
over them. They've been given this gift
of faith. And so God does, he passes over them because of the
blood. But notice, he says to the same
people, He says in verse, chapter 12
and verse, let's see. Oh, in verse 11, he
says, and thus shall you eat it. This is the lamb that had
been roasted in Exodus 12, 11. And thus shall you eat it with
your loins girded. So get yourselves ready. You're about to leave. And your
shoes on your feet. and your staff in your hand,
and you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover." What
were they doing while they were eating it? Not only were they
considering the great deliverance of God, of them, making the distinction
between them and Egypt, and saving their lives by the blood of the
lamb, but they were to get ready. When they were sitting there
and eating the lamb, They were to know that God was about to
bring them out of Egypt, and therefore to gird up their loins,
gather up all that encumbers us and that prevents us from
running, and get your staff in your hand and make sure you got
your shoes on your feet. So these things are revealed
in the New Testament. They have a correspondence to
spiritual things. the girding up of our loins,
and the shoes on our feet, and the staff in our hand. And what
is this but the preparation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, held tenaciously and earnestly, clinging to Christ
by faith, eating of Him, living upon Him, and expecting that
God is going to bring us out of Egypt, which is not only sin
and the world, but is also the final coming of Christ when he's
going to come again. So we're to be ready. We're to
be like those who watch for their master to return, girding up
our loins. And this is what all of scripture
makes reference to. So for example, another passage
of scripture in Luke chapter 11, let me take you there. In
Luke 11, it talks about this same situation of the people
waiting for their master to return. He says, let's see, I got the right chapter
here. Let me make sure I got the right chapter. Go to my notes. Yeah, it is Luke chapter 12,
actually. Luke chapter 12, beginning with verse 35. He says,
let your loins be girded about and your lights burning. Okay,
now we see we've had some We've looked at the way that God uses
this throughout the Old Testament, how that Elijah and Gehazi had
to gird up their loins in order to run, and Job was challenged
to come into God's presence. If you want to have a controversy
with God, then you better get ready. but you can gird up your
loins and the children of Israel were to wait for God's deliverance
to come because of the blood of the lamb by girding up their
loins. Here, the Lord Jesus Christ says, let your loins be girded
about and your lights burning and you yourselves like men that
wait for their Lord. So we're waiting. That's the
posture we're to take. We're watching, we're looking,
earnestly waiting and intently looking for Him. Not giving over
to the cares of this world, not spending our time in the things
of this world as if this is our end. This is what the world does,
doesn't it? This is what the idolaters do.
We put our trust in money, so we pursue money. We put our trust
in health, so we do the things to keep our health and to maintain
our life, because that's the whole substance of our hope and
desire is our health in this world. But those are not to be
the things that preoccupy us. It's the things of the kingdom
of God. He says, let your loins be girded about, your lights
burning, you yourselves like men that wait for their Lord,
when he return, when he will return from the wedding, that
when he comes and knocks, they may open unto him immediately. So there's this expectation,
Christ is coming. I'm one of His. I'm trusting
Him. I have no other hope. And this
is all of our desire. And then finally, look at Ephesians
chapter 6, and you can read on there in Luke chapter 12 and
see how it plays out about this being girded up. In Ephesians
chapter 6, I want to read this to you also, because this has
to do with our loins being girded. He says in Ephesians chapter
6 and verse 10, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in
the power of his might. Now, notice the whole focus here
on what Paul is about to say is the Lord, his power, his strength. Verse 11. Put on the whole armor
of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil. So this is standing. This is
holding our ground. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood. We're not political combatants. This is something so important
that we as believers need to realize. We are not here to fight
the political battles of this world. And how often people with
churches associated with them go out to fight the battles of
this world. No, our weapons are not the weapons of this world.
They're not carnal, they're not material, they're not things
of this world. They have power, they're spiritual. He says, we
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, notice,
here it is, taken to you the whole armor of God that you may
be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to
stand. Now notice, this is something
I'm going to emphasize again. The Lord gives his people a charge. Watch, be ready, look, wait,
stand. And our natural response is,
okay, I'm gonna gather up my things, I'm gonna get ready.
And we start thinking about things and taking things into our account. But the first thing we should
always do, and the middle thing and the last thing is to, like
they did with that Passover lamb, they were eating that lamb, they
were waiting, they had their shoes on, their staff in their
hand and their loins girded, but they were sitting and eating
that lamb, weren't they? So as we anticipate the commands,
the charges, the exhortations of the Lord to us, our first
response should always be, Lord, give me that grace. Do and work
in me what you have given me to do, this charge you've given
me to do, to stand. How can I stand if you don't
make me stand? How can the house be built if
you don't build the house? How can I believe if you don't
open my eyes and give me that faith? Lord, help my unbelief. Increase my faith. Cause me to
stand. Humble me that I might find my
need of Christ and then find Christ to be all of my need. Verse 14, stand therefore, having
your loins girt about with truth. All right, there it is, gathered
it all up. Take the truth of God that he
has revealed in the gospel and hold it close. Keep it so that it becomes that
mind that we have to ready ourselves for the Lord's coming and his
work to run the race. and your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace, above all taking the shield of faith,
wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of
the wicked and take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the
spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all
prayer and supplication in the spirit, watching thereunto with
all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. And for me,
Paul says, that utterance may be given to me that I may open
my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. for
which I am an ambassador in bonds that therein I may speak boldly
as I ought to speak. So this is the fight. What are
they supposed to be doing? Preoccupied with the truth, with
salvation, with the word of God, with the spirit of God enabling
us by his word, with the preaching of the gospel, to pray to God
that his gospel would go forth with power, to hold fast The
fact that on my breastplate is the righteousness of God. This
is all an action of faith, isn't it? A shield of faith quenching
the fiery darts of the wicked. All right, so you get some sense
here. The urgency, the focus, gathering
the truth together of the gospel, holding it fast. We are in a
race, we are in a battle, we are like farmers, we are like
athletes, we are like soldiers. All these things require great
discipline and focus, and our master is Christ. If the angels
desire to look into these things, if they are swiftly running to
do what the Lord Jesus Christ commands them, how much more
we who have been saved by grace. And so he's exhorting us now
on the basis of God's electing for knowledge of the sanctification
of the spirit that we've been brought to the obedience and
sprinkling to the blood of Christ and all the grace and mercy that's
been given to us. The fact that he's given us an
inheritance incorruptible, we're preserved by the power of God
through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed. All these
things bear weight down on us to urgently gird up the loins
of our mind and be sober and hope to the end for the grace
that is to be brought to you." To be sober, to be sober. A sober
man doesn't allow himself to be intoxicated with something
that's going to make his mind uncontrolled. Isn't that what
intoxication does? I can't control my thoughts.
I can't control my bodily actions. No, don't be drunk with wine,
wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. To be sober,
therefore, is to be filled with the Spirit of God, and the Spirit
of God produces this fruit, the first of which is faith and love
for the Lord Jesus Christ and his people. Right? That's the work of the Spirit
of God in his people, to direct us to Christ and to cause us
to serve him with a heart that's of faith, that's unfeigned, that's
not mixed with the hypocrisy that we're so prone to have.
Lord, give me this sobriety. Don't we pray that? Lord, cause
me to gird up the loins of my mind. Help me to focus on Christ. Don't let anything cause me to
be intoxicated in this world because it's so easy to do. Don't
allow me to be insensitive, but sensitive to the things of Christ.
Help me to be aware of the one thing that's needful. That's
what a sharp mind does. It focuses on God's purpose and
His grace and my need and His supply in Christ and His power
to save His people and the love of His heart is to make them
know His salvation and His love for them. This is what should
drive us. In 1 Peter 5, it says, be sober,
in verse 8, be sober. Be vigilant, because your adversary,
the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may
devour. This is no game. The devil is
out to eat you up. And what does he say? How are
you going to defend against him? 1 Peter 5, verse 9. Whom resist steadfast in the
faith. There's the thing. He says, how
do you resist the devil? You look to Christ. the one who
conquered the devil, the one who sits on the throne of glory
against whom the gates of hell cannot prevail, the one, as in
Psalm 65.3, Lord, iniquities prevail against me. As for our
transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. We as poor, helpless,
weak, senseless sheep who are sinners need to be sober. We
need a Savior. And so in faith, we don't, We
don't become numb and asleep. We don't close our eyes. We open
them wide and we ask for the grace to be alert and to watch
and cling more tenaciously to Christ by faith. We look to Him,
we run to Him, and we see nothing but Him as our salvation. We
call on Him. And we don't have an impaired
walk or an impaired vision of faith. We want it to be Christ
alone. He is the rock. There's no other. He's the way.
There's no other way. And he builds us on himself.
He leads us to God by himself. And this is our hope. And this
is what we want to see. And so we're kept by his power.
We hope all the way until the time he returns. That's what
we're to do. Gather up the loins of your mind. You've been given the gospel.
Hold to it. Cling to Christ. And he says also, hope to the
end. This is what it is. Hope to the end for the grace
that is to be brought to you. Not for the reward of our own
works. No, for the grace, it's all of
grace. We're hoping, expecting God to
give us the salvation and to bless us entirely out of the
grace that flows from His eternal purpose, out of the work of Christ,
not for anything in us. And so we have a confident hope.
We have a hope that doesn't falter because it rests on Christ alone. And then he goes on, he goes
on. Verse 14, as obedient children,
as obedient children, when you're a child, your mother and your
father taking care of you, providing for you, caring, nurturing you,
all the things they spend their time, they've given their life
up to care for you. You owe them what? The loving
obedience of a child, a trust, the trust of a child. not listening
to those they have warned you against to avoid, not going after
the stupidity of someone who cares not for your soul, but
to listen to them. And so God says, as obedient
children, listen, listen to your father, listen to Christ, his
dearly beloved son. not fashioning yourselves according
to the former lust and your ignorance. When you had no knowledge of
Christ and his salvation, you were going on to doing all sorts
of dumb things. Ignorance. We pursued the satisfaction
of our own lust, and this is all of our life. It amounted
to this. Now God says, no, no. Your dear children, you're the
children of God. Right? The children of God. Think
about this. And the implications of this
follow as it flows out here. Let me just read it. As obedient
children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust
in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy,
so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written,
be ye holy, for I am holy. At this point, I have to point
out, I feel utterly inadequate to tell you what this means. I have to let you know that I'm
no different than you are. God is holy. What does that mean? Give that question to the wisest
of men in this world, and they're utterly incapable of answering
that question. What does it mean that God is
holy? It has something to do with his
absolute purity. God is light and in him there's
no darkness at all, it says in 1 John 1. And it says this in
Habakkuk, in Habakkuk 1.13, Thou art of purer eyes than to behold
evil, and canst not look on iniquity. God is holy. There's nothing
about God that you can see that is impure or can find fault,
not even a shadow of it. He in himself is utterly holy,
entirely holy, completely holy, perfectly holy. In fact, you
can't even define holy because you have to say whatever holy
is, that's what God is. He's the standard. There's not
an outside external reference point we can say, here's righteousness,
let's see if God conforms to it. No, whatever God thinks is
holy, whatever he does is right. And whatever He says is the truth
because that's all He is. There's no one like Him in this
way. Not even the angels who are holy
in themselves have no holiness but the holiness He gave to them.
God is holy from eternity and He never changes. He never increases
in His purity. He is utterly holy and there
is none like Him. And we should reverence Him as
the ultimate, the highest in purity and in holiness. So what
does it mean, be ye holy as I am holy? Well, we have to understand
this now. That there's only one in scripture
who's described as, in himself, holy, and it's the triune God. God the Father is called the
Holy Father. In John 17, Jesus says, Holy
Father. And the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, is the Holy One of God. The Holy One of God. And the Spirit of God is called
the Holy Spirit. So in that sense, only God is
holy. in himself, originally, unchangeably,
without increase, without any comparison. No one can be compared
to him. He is utterly holy, perfect in
all of his ways, righteous in everything that he does. Psalm
145, verse 17. God is holy, holy, holy, holy. When Isaiah saw the Lord Jesus
Christ high and lifted up because he had Finished our salvation,
sitting on his throne, he said, holy, holy. The angels, the seraphs
said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. This is the
theme throughout scripture. God is holy. And it's hard for
us to even comprehend what holy is because we're anything but
holy. We just can't enter into this. That's why I say I feel
utterly inadequate to even begin to describe what holy means because
God is holy and I, in my nature, am not holy. And yet, he says,
be ye holy as I am holy. And he prefaced that with as
obedient children. Here we see something that is
amazingly gracious of God. amazingly powerful, amazingly
holy, because all that God does is holy. He has taken us, who
in ourselves are utterly ungodly sinners and the enemies of God
in our mind and by wicked works, and he has made us holy. How? How could God do this? Through the Holy One of God,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God and he is therefore
holy, holy, holy. But he is also man and as man
he is the only one that God has said he is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ is holy
in his divine nature and in his human nature. And he as the mediator
lays hold on both the holiness of God without any barrier between
Him and God in the perfect understanding of His mind from eternity and
lays hold on us in all of our utter great need. And as our
mediator, He brings us to God. He is the way that we are brought
to the Father. I am the way, the truth, and
the life, Jesus said. And what that means, therefore,
because God cannot look upon evil, that if he brings us to
God, then he brings us to God in his presence, approved of
God in all of his holiness, because he makes us holy. himself. The one who is the only holy
man in himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, has so united us to himself
in our nature and as our husband that we are made holy by that
union of himself with us. And so he's the one who sanctifies
us. Look at Hebrews chapter 2. In
Hebrews chapter 2, he talks about this because the word sanctification
means holiness. It means the setting apart, the
separateness. God is separate. All that is
associated with God is exclusively dedicated and consecrated and
set apart for God. And so he says this in Hebrews
chapter 2. It says, it became him, God the
Father, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things in
bringing many sons to glory. These are the children, the obedient
children. How does he bring us to glory? Well, he made the captain
of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that
sanctifyeth, this is Christ now, the one who suffered. He that
sanctifyeth, that means to make holy, to set apart. And they
who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not
ashamed to call them brethren. Not only are they one in nature,
but they're one in relation. They have the same relation to
God as the Son of God, because they're the brethren of Christ.
He calls them my brethren. He calls them the children that
God has given to me. In the next verse, saying, I
will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the
church while I sing praise to thee. So the church of God is
sanctified by the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see that? Who
is he that sanctifies? Jesus Christ. Who are the sanctified? The Church of God. And what is
their relation to God? Therefore, they are the sons
of God, because it became him. It was good to the Father to
make them his sons, and he must do it according to his perfections
through the sufferings of the captain of their salvation, Jesus
Christ. And so he says here, I'm not
ashamed to call them brethren. I will declare your name to my
brethren in the midst of the church, will I sing praise to
thee. And again, I will put my trust
in him. And again, behold, I and the
children which God has given me. God the Father. in His divine
decree and purpose, has set apart, out of humanity, a people for
Himself to make them His children. To do so, He gave them to His
Son, and therefore, for Christ to make them the children of
God, He had to make them holy. The Father chose us in Him before
the foundation of the world in order that we might be holy and
without blame before Him in love, Ephesians 1.4. So the Father,
yes, praised God because God did this. In Exodus 31.13, it
says, I am the Lord, Jehovah, that sanctifyeth thee. We don't
sanctify ourselves. God has to set us apart for holy
use. To sanctify means to set apart
for God's use. It's God's, he put his name on
it. He claimed it as his own for
his own purpose. Look at 1 Corinthians 6. And
see this here, 1 Corinthians 6, this work of God that makes
us holy. He says in 1 Corinthians chapter
6 and verse 19, what? Talking to those who were committing
fornication or were not alarmed at the fact that someone in their
church was doing this, he says, what? Know you not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which
you have of God, and you are not your own? This is a description
of sanctification, isn't it? God has given us his spirit. He is the holy, holy, holy spirit
of God. Holy in himself as God over all. And he says that he is in us,
therefore we are not our own. We're God's. God's property. God's use. We're set apart. We're sanctified. We're the saints.
That's what the word means. Saints, sanctified. Verse 20,
for you are bought with a price. That's the payment. But it wasn't
just a mere payment of of cash or goods. It was the the price,
the payment of the life and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're
bought with a price. Therefore, because you're bought,
because you're not your own, because the spirit of God is
in you, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit,
which are God's. That's a description. It's God's. It's His property. It's to bring
glory to Him. He set us apart for Himself.
How did He do this? He bought us. What did He pay?
He paid with Himself. Look at Ephesians chapter 5.
We're bought, we're purchased. We belong to him. We're not our
own. We're not to live to ourselves.
Gird up the loins of your mind. Consider these things. Be sober
and hope to the end for this grace that's going to be given
to you. And as obedient children, not
fashioning yourselves after the former lust, but as he which
has called you is holy. Look at Ephesians chapter five.
Look at this. How are we made holy? Well, we just said the
Lord Jesus Christ is the one who sanctifies us. He sanctified
us, and how did he do it? Look at verse 25, Ephesians 5,
verse 25. Husbands, love your wives. The
picture of marriage, which is a physical, God-given, established
relationship between a man and a woman who are married, is given
by God and is so indelibly inscribed in history and in society and
in our conscience that we understand it quite well. But this is just
a picture of something real and internal in the heavens. Husbands,
it just should make your hair tingle. Love your wives even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. He didn't give himself for two
women. He gave himself for one woman, the church. He gave himself,
that's the price, in blood. in order that he might sanctify
and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. So not
only did his precious blood wash us and purge our sins, but he
also gives us his gospel and by his spirit applies that gospel
in the new birth and creates us as a holy people unto God,
as the children of God. We're born of God. Look at John
chapter 3. John chapter, no, actually, look at John chapter
one. These are the sanctifying work of God, because he's the
one who sanctifies us. John chapter one, verse 12. The
Lord Jesus Christ, in verse 11, in 10, 10 it says, he was in
the world, the world was made by him, the world knew him not.
In John one, verse 11, he came to his own, his own received
him not, the Jews. Gentiles didn't know him, the
Jews didn't know him, and they didn't receive him. Verse 12,
but as many as received him. So even though all of us were
naturally rejecters of Christ, God in His grace moved upon us
in great love and mercy, and gave us this reception of Christ. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God. Notice, even
to them that believe on Christ, believe on his name, which were
born. How were they born? This is a
spiritual birth, not of blood, because that's what physical
birth is, is of blood, nor by the will of the flesh. Not by
our will, nor by the will of man, not some other man, but
of God. How are we born? Of God. It's
a spiritual act. Look at chapter 3, John 3, verse
6. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, merely flesh. That which is born of the Spirit,
what was born of the Spirit? is spirit, and in John 1, 13,
that's of God. So what is the spirit of God?
He is God, because we're born of God, we're born of the spirit.
Verse 8, John 3, 8. The wind blows where it listeth,
or wherever it pleases, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but
you cannot tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is everyone
that is born of the spirit. So we are sanctified by Christ,
He gave Himself for our sins, and then He did that in order
that He might purify and cleanse us with the washing of water
by the Word, and that Word is applied by the Spirit of God,
and here's that Word, verse 14. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that
whosoever believeth in Him. So our faith is in Christ lifted
up, as our substitute, our surety, who by his blood washed us from
our sins. So the word of God given to us
is the gospel of our salvation, and that's the one we believe.
That's the subject of the gospel. The object of our faith is Christ
crucified, and that's the work of the Spirit of God. Remember,
the gospel preached by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven.
Okay, so we're born of God, we're born of the Spirit, and that
birth by the Spirit of God produces faith in Christ and Him crucified,
and that's the evidence of being the children of God, and this
is the sanctifying work of Christ. And then we see this in Hebrews
chapter 10. Look at this a little further
in Hebrews, and I'll get you back to 1 Peter, Hebrews chapter
10. This work of sanctification,
it's a mysterious thing. He says, and actually Hebrews
chapter 9, look at Hebrews chapter 9. I want you to see this. The
blood of Christ. And verse 22, Hebrews 9, 22,
almost all things are by the law purged or cleansed with blood,
and without shedding of blood is no remission. There's no remission
of sins without the shedding of blood in the Old Testament.
And in fulfillment, there's certainly none unless it's done by Christ
in the new. Verse 23, it was therefore necessary
that the patterns of the things in the heavens should be purified
with these, those animal sacrifices, but notice, In verse 23, the
last phrase, but the heavenly things themselves with better
sacrifices than these. You see that? The patterns of
things, those cups and bowls and curtains and altars and the
incense table, all those things, the people were all sprinkled
with blood. The tent, the tabernacle, the people, all the vessels of
the ministry were all sprinkled with blood. But the heavenly
things, were purged or purified with better sacrifices. And verse
24 tells us what that is. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God for us, nor yet that he should offer himself often as
a high priest, entereth into the holy place every year with
blood of others, for then must he often have suffered since
the foundation of the world, but now, listen, once, In the
end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. That's purging, that's cleansing. And chapter 10, verse 10, by
this will of God, by the which will? The Father, the will of
the Father. Chapter 10, verse 10, we are
sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. How are we sanctified? by the
will of God the Father, by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In chapter 13, verse 12, he says the same thing. He says, in chapter
13 of Hebrews, in verse 12, he says, Jesus also that he might
sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without the
gain. There you have it. And finally in verse 20, Hebrews
13, 20, now the God of peace that brought again from the dead
our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood
of the everlasting covenant. The whole covenant of God was
ratified, fulfilled, and put into force when Christ shed his
blood. The blood does everything. Christ
did it all. Look at chapter 10, one more
verse. In chapter 10, verse 19, look at this. Hebrews 10, 19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness. To do what? To enter. Where? Into the presence of God.
But who can come into the presence of God? Only the one who is holy. Only the one who is holy is approved
of God and allowed into his presence in acceptance with God. But here
he says, having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest,
obviously with acceptance and approval and access to God on
his throne, all by the blood of Jesus. So we see here, in
so many ways, the sanctifying work of God, the Father, is to
commit us to Christ, who shed his blood to cleanse us from
our sins, and then sent his spirit to make this known to us with
saving grace and power to give us life and faith in him. Now,
back to 1 Peter. This is the work of God, isn't
it? So he says, As He who has called you is holy, obviously
God in Himself is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. This is saying, first and foremost,
you need to lay hold on who you are and what you are by the will
of God and the work of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit.
That's the first thing. If you don't know how in God,
by God, you are made holy in Christ, then you're going to
be flailing away, trying to accomplish something that only God can do.
But he says, as it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy. How can we be what God hasn't
made us? He has to make us holy, which
he did in Christ. And that's why I say he's the
way to the Father. Therefore, he has to have been
the one to make us holy. So we're to take this now, and
I'm going to close with this, because we've run out of time.
Look at Colossians chapter 3. I'm going to get to this. In
Colossians chapter 3 and verse 12, he says, put on, therefore,
as the elect of God, which made us holy, holy and beloved. He calls us, we're holy and we're
loved of God. Then put on, what? Bowels of
mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering
for bearing one another and forgiving one another. if any men have
a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you. And above
all things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness, and
let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also
you are called in one body, and be ye thankful. And let the word
of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing
one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever you
do in word or deed, Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God and the Father by Him. And then he gives some
very practical ways of doing this with wives and husbands
and children and fathers and servants. And then he says in
verse 23, and whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the
Lord and not to men, knowing that of the Lord you shall receive
the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ. Isn't that saying the same thing
as 1 Peter 1, verse 15 and 16? You serve the Lord Christ. You're
not your own. Gird up the loins of your mind.
Be sober. Hope to the end for the grace
that shall be brought to you. As he which has called you, as
obedient children, not fashion yourselves in the former manner
in your ignorance, but as he which has called you is holy,
and as he has made you holy in Christ, so be what you are. by God's work, live out the grace
God has given to you, look by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ
and God's work of grace, and live as this is the way things
are. This is what God has said. Where
is this strength going to come from? Not from us. We're gonna
go to the Lord to ask him to do what he has said and look
to him for that grace. What a blessing it is when God
commands us to do something, he always gives us the grace
to do it. He has told us to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and he's given us that grace. What a blessing,
let's pray. Father, we thank you that your
mercy is so great that you would find a way in your wisdom to
save a people who had alienated themselves by all that we've
done and raised up a barrier between ourselves and God. Our
sins have separated us between us and our God, but our God,
in His grace and mercy, has removed the barrier in the death of His
own dear Son. The Lord Jesus Christ has borne
all of our sins in himself and fulfilled our obligations and
made the payment to God that justice required and magnified
his law that we might be brought to God through his substitutionary
work as our surety and redeemer. May he receive all the praise
and the glory, because it's all due to him. And may we be humbled
in the presence of God, and look only to Christ, and have no confidence
in this flesh, but trust in Christ fully, and come into your presence
by his blood alone with boldness, because that's the only way anyone
can come The only way that any man can be holy is in the Holy
One of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. May we be found in Him, and may
we know from Your own Word that this is the way things are, and
take it to ourselves in our conscience and be convinced of it. In Jesus'
name we pray, amen.