Good morning, church. It's a
blessing to be here amongst you again to be able to learn and
glorify God. I think this will be my last
Sunday before you. James will be back and he'll
preach. He'll preach one sermon and we'll
go right into 1 Thessalonians. We're looking forward to that.
This morning the Lord will have us in 1 Peter. We'll pick up on verse 3 and
we'll read down. Of course we won't preach all
this but we'll definitely talk about some of it. 1 Peter verse
3. He says, or chapter 1 verse 3,
sorry about that. He says, Blessed be the God and
Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy,
he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance
that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for
you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time. In this, you rejoice now
for a little while, if necessary. You have been grieved by various
trials, so that the test of genuineness of your faith, more precious
than gold, though perished Though it is tested by fire, it may
be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation
of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen Him,
you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him
and rejoice with a joy that is indescribable and filled with
glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith and the salvation
of your souls. Concerning this salvation, the
prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be your
search and acquire carefully, acquiring that what person or
time the spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted
the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories, it was
revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you.
and these things that have now been announced to you through
those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent
from heaven, things into which angels long to look. Therefore,
preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your
hope fully on the grace that we've brought to you at the revelation
of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not
be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but
as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your
conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy.
And if you call on him as father who judges impartially according
to each one's deeds, conduct yourself with fear throughout
the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the
futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable
things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of
Christ like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown
before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in the
last time for the sake of you, who through him are believers
in God, who raised him up from the dead and gave him glory,
so that your faith and hope are in God, having purified your
soul by your obedience to the truth and the sincere brotherhood
you love. love one another earnestly from a pure heart since you have
been born again, not with perishable seed but the imperishable, through
the living and abiding word of God, for all flesh is like grass
and all the glory like the flower of grass. The grass weather and
the flower fall but the word of the Lord remains forever and
this word is the good news that was preached to you." Let us
pray. How blessed we are, God, that
you would cause us to be born again. through the resurrection
of Christ, that you, O God, knew us before the foundation of the
world, that you elected us, that you predestined us to be your
children, not because we were good in your eyes, not because
you saw that you could use us, but you just loved us anyway.
You saved us. Now Lord, you give us the strength
to walk with you each and every day, Lord, that you would cause
us to walk in holiness as you as holy, O God, that you would
use us for your glory, that we would submit to you each and
every day, Lord, that we would deny ourselves and follow you
each and every day, Father. And I pray, God, that you would
be with us this hour, Lord, that you'd be with me, your weak servant,
and fill me with the power of your Holy Spirit. And I will
preach nothing but truth to my brothers and sisters in Christ.
And Lord, you'd open up our ears and up our hearts to receive
your word, Lord, that we might grow in you, Lord, and also might
grow in maturity in our walk with you. And we ask this in
no other name but the name of Jesus. Amen. Peter writes to
a scattered church, a scattered persecuted church in the world. From studying, it seems like
he would write to a church in the area of Turkey, what we would
call Turkey today. And they were scattered abroad.
And he writes to them. And he starts his letter letting
them know that God has elected them from the foundation of the
world, that they are exiles because they belong to God. He lets them
know that God has caused them to be born again through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. He lets them know that though
they suffer for a little while, that their faith is more precious
than gold, that God has guarded their faith and they will remain
steadfast to the end of their days. that no one can take their
salvation from them. He lets them know before we get
down to verse 13 also that the prophets of old prophesied about
the coming of Christ, that the Spirit of Christ prophesied through
them, hear that, the Spirit of Christ prophesied through them
about the coming of Christ. Though they didn't know when
it would happen, they knew it was sure that God has promised
through their lips that God would bring us a Savior so that we
would have our sins forgiven. And on God's timing, we know
that Christ came into the world and lived a holy, righteous,
just life before God the Father. And though He knew no sin, He
became sin so we as sinners could become the righteousness of God.
Hear that church. That we are the righteousness
of God because the spotless Lamb of God was slain for us on the
cross. That we stand before God as forgiven
people today. Because we have trusted in His
beloved Son, Jesus Christ. That no one can take our salvation. Satan can't take our salvation.
Our friends and our families cannot take our salvation. That
God has secured us in the hand of His Son. That we are in Christ. And when Christ comes in His
glory, we know when He comes that we will meet Him in the
air and we will be with Him for all of eternity. And knowing
this truth in verse 13, look what it says. It says, therefore
preparing your minds for action. Other translations would say
something like this, that gird up your loins of your mind. And
in that day when they were in a hurry and they had loins, they
would gird them up so they could move quickly. In that day also,
Roman soldiers would fasten their equipment around them so that
when they went on the battle they would be ready. They would
have their equipment flying everywhere and they would be able to move
quickly so they would not be killed in the battle. But they
would win the war. And you think about Men who go
in the army today, they are well trained. They train before they
go. You look at professional athletes,
they train their whole lives so that they can be good at what
they do. And we, as Christians, must prepare our minds each and
every day for all-out war. All-out war. We know the Bible's clear that
we as Christians do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but
we wrestle with the prince and power of the air. That Satan
roams as a warring lion looking to devour us. Satan runs around
trying to take our kids, trying to ruin our marriage, ruin our
churches, ruin our lives, ruin our jobs. That Satan is after
us, church. We forget about that. We wake
up every morning and we forget that we are entering into a battlefield
that day. See, it isn't that Satan messes
with me just for a season of my life. Satan comes at me every
day. The fallen angels come at you
every day. They want to see you run away
from Christ. His main objective is to lead
you to hell with Him. to take your joy out of Christ,
to take your strength out of Christ, to make you become weak. He doesn't want you worshiping
Christ. And He will do anything that He can do to keep that from
happening. That God allows Satan to bring
trials to our life so that we would be tested. And
sometimes trials is that work. We get a A bad boss. He's hard to deal with. He's
mean to us. And God is purposely playing
that for your good. We have problems in our marriages. Why? Because Satan wants us to
divide. He doesn't want us to be married no more. Hear that? And we must fight against that.
We must make war on that. And the only way we can make
war against Satan, we know, is through prayer and through the Word of
God, through our faith. We must trust in Christ. When Satan comes around us, we
must forget about our problems and look to Christ. For all of us know that there's
nothing about our life, in the midst of our struggles, in the
midst of our sufferings, that we can change in our own power. We cannot change any of it. Only
God can change it. That Satan is after us, church.
That Satan is our enemy. He's our enemy, church. But only
must I make war on Satan. You know who else we must make
war on? Not our spouse when they're mean
to us. Not the Muslims. Not our boss. You know who we
must make war on? We must make war on ourselves. That's who we must make war on. In 1 Peter 2.11, listen to what
it says. It says, Beloved, I urge you
as soldiers and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh
which raise war against your soul. That it's Jesse, it's the
flesh that I'm wrapped up with that wants to destroy me. It's
my flesh that longs for the things of this world. That if I'm tempted,
it's because my flesh is tempted. If I sin against God, it isn't
because the devil made me sin, it's because I sinned. Satan
doesn't get credit for my sin, I do. And he can tempt us all day long
and we can point the finger at him all day long, but at the
end of the day it's us. That we're the one who eats the
bait. We're the one who opens up our mouths when we shouldn't. That you see so many Christians struggling with pride. Struggling
with sexual morality. Struggling with gossiping about
people. Struggling after lusting after
women and men. Struggling with porn. Struggling
with self-righteousness. Struggling with pity parties.
Struggling with complaining and laziness and fear and gambling
and struggling with the love of money. And the list could
go on with the things that our flesh struggles with. And we
complain about these things. We complain about our failures.
But it seems like there's so little war on ourselves So little
war. What is it that keeps you from
walking in holiness? What is it that keeps you from
walking with Christ on a day-to-day thing? What is it, that one thing,
that is keeping you from praying? Keeping you from being in the
Word of God? Keeping you sidetracked? We can complain about it all
day long, but are we going to make war on it? Are we going
to cut it off? Isn't it what Jesus says that
if your eye causes you to see him, pluck it out? That if your
hand causes you to see him, cut it off? So many things, or so one thing,
or two things, or three things that hinder us. But are we going to make war
on it? Are we going to die to ourselves? Because so many times
we don't make war on something because we want it to stay there.
We want to hug up with it. We want to live in it. We bought
the lie that at times in our Christian life we can ride the
fence that we can actually be lukewarm and think that we're
okay. We're never okay, the elute one.
We're never okay when we test ourselves through the Word of
God and we see ourselves riding the fence. We're never okay that we must wake
up every day and have a funeral with ourselves. We must wake
up every day and die to ourselves, church. We must die. that there must be a mean streak
in us, a holy, righteous, mean streak that hates our sin. See that? That the Holy Spirit
of God lives in us. And since the Holy Spirit of
God lives in us, we should have a righteous, holy thing about
us in our hearts and our minds that we hate sin. We once loved
our sin. We once wanted to water in our
sin. We once wanted to participate in our sin. And now the Holy
Spirit of God lives in us. Now we must hate it. We must
hate it. And the thing is, we love hating
it. We love hating it. Why do we
love hating it? Because we love the Father who hates it. And
it's our aim in our life to what? To please the Father with our
lives. Every Christian's mindset is
to glorify God with their life. We must hate our sin. We must prepare war. Here in this
church, it's very crucial that we wake up every morning knowing
that we're entering a battlefield. It's very crucial. Because we
never know what temptation is going to come that day. We never
know what suffering is going to come that day. Nobody wakes
up that morning with the knowledge of God knowing that everything
that's going to happen out there in their life is going to take place
and they know every little bit about it. We don't know none of it. We don't know if we're going
to get a phone call that a loved one has been in a wreck and died.
We don't know if we don't go into work and we ain't heard
but they laying people off and it's us. We never know if we
go home and all of a sudden our spouse doesn't want to be with
us no more. Or better yet we go home and
not that she's leaving us or he's leaving us but they had
a bad day and now we're the consequence of it. And what do we call to do? In
situations like these, we are called to doubt ourselves and
look to Christ. But is it hard to doubt yourself?
Especially our flesh wants the rule. Our flesh wants the reign. Our flesh wants to be right in
every situation. Our flesh wants to be prideful.
We don't want to admit when we're wrong. We in our flesh, we justify ourselves. Well, if you wouldn't have said
that, if you wouldn't have done that, then I wouldn't have done
this and I wouldn't have done that. Not realizing that we sinned. And there is no justification
for it. Except through faith in Jesus Christ. must make war. Because each one of us has got
our own temptations. Each one of us has got certain
things in our life that maybe I'm stronger here than my other
brother is stronger over here in that area. And we all got
different temptations and we know them temptations. As I sit
here today or stay here today, you know very well what it is
in your life. that tempts you more than anything
else. Just like as I stand here today, I know the very things
in my own life that tempt me. That might not tempt you, but
it tempts me. But are we going to die to it?
Are we going to make war on it? Are we going to cut it off? Of course, As you know and I
know, the only way we can cut it off is through the strength
of the Lord. He says, therefore prepare your
minds for action and being sober minded. Being self-controlled in your
mind. Not giving your mind over to
the things of the world. What does that look like? If you know you struggle with
something, why feed yourself that? It's like, for instance, being
addicted to pornography and you got a computer in your house. Or you got a lust issue by you
always looking at women or always looking at men. Why would you
go to a store that's got the Joker magazine right there? That we should run from places
that might cause us to sin. It's like I was ministering to
a guy and he struggled with drugs. He said, man, no matter where
I go, there they are. I said, brother, if you get out your car and they're
there, run. to another gas station. We must keep our minds
sober for when we see things that tempt us, we're more likely
to grab hold of it. That's when we should be very
careful of what we take in on TV. We must be very careful at
the music that we listen to. Why? Because it plays in to our
minds. And the things of the world gives
us more remembrance than the things of God does. Think about that. I know when
I first got saved and even time after that and sometimes still
I'll just be working or doing something and the next thing
I know I'll be singing the most ungodliest song you can sing.
I'm like, whoa, where did that come from? Because I fed myself that so
many years. And I had to cut it off. It's like being, it's like God
saves you from idols. So why would we place them idols
back in our life after God has removed them? Here's something that most of
you wouldn't even consider a sin, but if God removed that out of
my life, then it's a sin to me doesn't mean it's a sin to you.
One thing, when I used to come home every day from work and
on break, I would watch SportsCenter religiously. Anything wrong with
watching SportsCenter? Absolutely not. Unless it be
your God. So if SportsCenter was my God,
why in the world, now that God has saved me, why would I go
back to watching it? Is watching SportsCenter a sin? Absolutely
not. But it was my God. So why would I go back to doing
it? It's like, another thing, one of my idols when God saved
me was the love of money. I loved money. Before God saved
me. I'd work seven days a week. Every
week. Not because I wanted things,
it was because I wanted money. So when God saved me, what did
I do? I quit working weekends. Unless I had to work. To keep
myself from the love of money. Is there anything wrong with
working weeks? Absolutely not. But we must always come into
question, why are we doing the things that we're doing? Is it
to glorify God? That we must be self-controlled
in our minds? that we must take out the things
of the world that hinder us from walking with the Lord and put
in the things of God. We must put in the Word of God.
You know that repentance is a renewing of the mind? That is the reason
why God gives it, because we cannot renew our own minds. God
does it. That God, through the reading
of His Word and the supernatural work of His Holy Spirit, He changes
our mind about things. That's the reason as Christians
we're babes and by God's grace we continue to mature, to continue
changing our mind about things in our life. That we see it as
sin, where we used to didn't really know. And now we see it
as sin because God has renewed our mind. How can we ever walk
in holiness, walk in righteousness, if we're not in the Word of God?
We can't. If we listen all week to ungodly
music, why do you think nothing else is going to come out of
us but ungodly words? How can I be gospel-centered if I'm always
listening to stuff that isn't gospel-centered? I know we have liberties in Christ,
but come on, if something is hindering me from welcoming the
Lord, I'm going to cut it off. I've been called to live different.
We've been called to run a race of faith. We've been called to
die to ourselves and pick up a cross and follow Christ, not
just when I feel like it, but every day. It's like some people,
not certainly our church, but some people put on a mask when
they walk into the church or walk into the fellowship of the
saints. and then they remove it when
they leave. They put on their godly hat and sing Christian
songs and glorify God and then jump back in their car right
after they take their godly cap on and listen to the most ungodly
stuff you can hear. Or go home and after being in
church and sit down and watch the most ungodly thing you can
watch on television. Men we must, women we must be
sober minded. We must keep ourselves clear from sin. That surely if we have
tasted that the Lord is good through His Word, we would abide
in it. Then Ezekiel got fed the stroller
of God and he said that it was as sweet as honey. Meaning, in
Ezekiel's day, the sweetest thing to him was honey, and that was
the closest thing that he could compare to the Word of God, but
we know that the Word of God was way more sweeter than honey.
That it was good to him, that he loved the taste of it. And
see, that's the thing, as born-again Christians, we love the taste
of the Word of God more than we love the taste of anything
else. It's like any something you really
don't like versus any something that you really love. You know,
me as a broccoli, I hate cooked broccoli. OK, so if I order something
and I didn't know broccoli had it, well, I'm going to chop it
out. I don't want to touch none of
my food. I'm going to keep that thing far away from everything else
because I don't want to taste it at all. And then I'm going to munch on
everything else. Because everything else is better than the broccoli. You see, if I love the Word of
God, I'm going to keep everything else that hinders me away from
the Word of God. I'm going to get you out of my
life by God's grace. I'm going to stay in His Word
and I'm going to grow in Him. I'm going to grow in my prayer life
by God's grace. Because if I struggle with something,
church, in our own flesh, we cannot overcome it. If my marriage
is on the rocks, I have no power within me to change it. I must
pray. If my spouse isn't saved, I cannot
save them. Though I want to save them, I
can't. But am I praying about it or am I complaining about it? That we must turn everything
into prayer. Sometimes I catch myself in a
mindset like that. Man, am I praying or am I complaining
about this thing? Which is more? We must come to God in prayer
knowing that He fights our battles. Knowing that He wins the war
for us through the power of His Holy Spirit. Why didn't these early churches
fall in the midst of suffering? Because God held them through
the power of His Holy Spirit. Why didn't their joy wane in
the midst of suffering? Because God held them in the
power of His Holy Spirit. Hear that, that God caused joy
to well up in them even though the world was crashing her down
around them. that they prepared their minds
for all that war and was sober minded because they were focused
on the things of the God rather than focused on the things of
the world. How does Paul get stripped down
naked and beaten and hung up on a wall and yet sing praises
to God at midnight? Because he was sober minded. He wasn't drunk in the world. That if you're drunk in the world,
you're full of the world, you're full of worldly ways, you're
full of worldly wisdom. But if we're in Christ, if we're
sober minded in Christ, when struggles come our way, we know
God's got it. That my joy doesn't waver when
struggles come. Because I know God's got it.
But if I'm carelessly walking in my faith and struggles come,
I'm going to fall all apart. Because I wasn't ready for it. And the Bible has already promised
that it's coming. The Bible has already promised that it's coming,
that suffering is coming my way. And if I'm not preparing for
it, if I'm not being sober minded in my walk with God, church,
we will fall. We will waver in our faith. And we must prepare our minds
for action. And be sober minded. And we must
set our hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at
the revelation of Jesus Christ. And every day we must wake up
and run to Christ. Every day we must focus on that
the Lord is coming back to get me. He's coming to resurrect
me. He's coming to show me His grace
that He has promised to me. That we must focus on that. That
when we focus on the coming of Christ, we think differently.
When we focus on the coming of Christ, we live differently.
Those who read the gospel, it's so vital and important to everyday
life. But the gospel was very important
the first day I heard it and God saved me, but it's very important
every day after that. And with suffering coming my
way, I know it's just for a little while because I know soon God
is coming for me. He's coming to bring His unmerited
favor towards me. He's coming to get me. that my time on this earth, though
it seems long, is very short. It's just me a blink of an eye
and soon I will be with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and
I hope for that day. I look forward to that day. I
think about that day. I think about the coming of Christ.
I look forward to His coming. And as a church, we should always
be looking forward to His coming. You see that? Are you looking
forward to it? Because that's the only hope we got. It's the only hope we got. That
if Christ doesn't rise again from the grave, then we know
our worship and our doings and everything we do for the glory
of God is in vain. If Christ doesn't rise again
from the grave. But we know He did. And that He's coming to give us grace. Hear that. That I must rest in
the grace of God that He gives me now and the more of a grace
that He gives me when He comes. When He comes to give me my glorified
body. When He comes to resurrect me
from this earthly world. Is that where your hope is today?
Is that where your mind is today? Or is it on your circumstances? See, if we're not preparing for
the war, and we're not being sober minded in our battles every
day, then surely our mind really isn't on the hope of the grace
of God to be revealed at the day of Jesus Christ. It's not. That every time we suffer church,
every time we go through trials, every time the devil rages war
against us, we must look to Christ. We must look to Him. Because that is where our joy
comes from. I mean, let's be real, most of
us in here have tasted everything that the world has to give us
and we know it's a waning joy. It's there for a moment, then
it goes away. But yet, the joy that the Lord
gives us endures and lasts for all of eternity. You see, if our mind isn't on
the coming of the Lord, how can we rejoice in the midst of our
trials? If our mind isn't on the Lord in the midst of our
trials and in His coming, how can we be used? Isn't it when we're in our weakest
moments that God uses us the most powerfully? Especially if our mindset is
on Him. Child's new life, and then God uses you. How in the
world can this happen, oh God? Because He uses us when we're
weak. He uses us when our focus is absolutely on him and him
alone. Every day, church, every day
we must run to Christ. The time we wake up in the morning
we must run to Christ. That we must pray that God would
have us to have the mind of Christ all day long. That we would focus
on Christ's coming all day long. Focus on the gospel all day long. For really, if you really think
about it, what else matters? What else matters? Does your circumstance really
matter when you think about the gospel? The only thing that matters at
the end of our life is our relationship with Christ. The only thing that
really matters at the end of our life is the gospel. And we
know everything is going to fade away. Everything that we worked
so hard for in this life is going to burn up. Hear that? Everything we worked
so hard for in this life is going to burn up. That this is, we don't as believers
have earthly treasures. We have heavenly, a heavenly
treasure, which is Jesus Christ. So wherever my heart is, there
my treasure will be also. There my treasure is in heaven,
there my eyes will be also. There my mind will be also. There
will my thoughts be also. But if my mind is on the coming
of Christ and on His grace that I will experience, then my mind
is on Him. You know, you hear about people
growing up and like gymnastics. and men who run long races that
they will train from the time they are six all the way until
the time they are grown to run to earn a perishable reward. Their main focus is every day
of their life training, training, training so maybe one day I will
be able to complete in the Olympics and win this award. And some do it and they hang
it up on the wall And then Christ comes and it
burns up. It was nothing. But we run a race that has a
reward that doesn't fade. We run a race that the reward
does not perish. We're running a race, church,
that will endure. The reward of running this race
will endure for all of eternity. That this race right here that
we're running, this race of faith, this hope in Jesus Christ, will
last for all of eternity. See, we can't grasp eternity.
But it will last for all eternity because the Bible said so. What are we living for? What are we living for? Why do
we do the things that we do? Is it because we hope in the
glory of God? Or is it because we hope in something
else? The whole church. Chasing. Chase Christ. chasing whatever fiber in you,
seek Him. Pursue Him. Live for Him. Call on His name all day long.
He's the only one that matters in this life. Not saying our kids doesn't matter,
not saying our wife doesn't matter, but God is way more important
than them. If God doesn't save Ezekiel,
then Ezekiel won't be with me for all of eternity. But Christ
will always be with me for all of eternity. And that He, in
His grace towards us, has given up Himself for us all, that His
blood would shed for us all. He is worth living for. He is
worth pursuing. It's mind-blowing that Christ
would save us. It's mind-blowing that He would
save me. I look at my life at times and
who am I living for? What am I chasing? What am I
hoping in? Open Christ Church. Look, He is coming. 1 Peter 1.14 says, as obedient
children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former
ignorance. Notice what he's saying, that
Peter's already assuming that we are obedient children. The
people whom he's writing to, he's already assuming they are
obedient children. Because why would you be an obedient
child if you are of God? It isn't that we serve a worthless
father that isn't worth being obedient to. We serve a mighty father. A good father. Who our heart longs to obey. I mean, let's assume that if
we had been saved, we had been born again, the Holy Spirit lives
in us, surely we would have been obedient to him and we would
not go back to our former ignorance. And we wouldn't be the dog that
returns back to the vomit. We would be the swine that, once
it had been cleaned, returned back to the water hole. That we would not go back. to our evil ways. We wouldn't
go back to the ways that isn't godly. I mean, think about it. When I
think about my past before God caused me to be born again, every
way I want was ungodly. Every way of thinking was ignorant.
It was the ways of the world. It was the wisdom of the world.
It was worthless. It was foolish. And it led to
hell. It led to the destruction of
my very soul. That the broad way that many
walk down because it's easy is the way which is ignorant. No matter how much wisdom may
be seen on the broad way and no matter how much pureness or
maybe godliness that one can put on in a broad way, it's all
ignorant. It's vanities upon vanities to
walk down the broad way. That we cannot retreat from Christ to go back
to our old ways. And you say in your mind, oh
I would never do that. But many have said they would
never do that. And yet they went back. We've
seen some in this very own fellowship who have went back. So you can have the right doctrine.
Listen, you can have the right doctrine. You can be very sound
in theology and still retreat from the Lord Jesus Christ. We've seen sound brothers return. back to their vomit, return back
to their ignorance. Return back to a state that was
worse off than when they were before lost. Return to a state where Jesus
never even runs across their mind. I'm talking about men who preached
the Word of God, what we would call faithfully. Men who went
on the streets and witnessed for the glory of God. Who you
would say, man, they are brothers in the Lord. They are walking
with Jesus. Man, they retreat. They go back
to their old ways. See, we must keep watch on our
own souls. We must keep watch on our own
selves. We must strive after Christ so that we don't return.
We must take our mind every day and put it on the Word, put it
on prayer. Every day. Because Satan is crappy. Adam and Eve just got the commandment
of the Lord. Not the eat of every tree but
that one. And Satan sneaks in. And what do they do? They fall. They can sneak into our lives. They trick us. He calls us to flee Christ. We must put our hope on Him. In 1 Peter 1.15, But it is He who called you as
holy. It's just that He who has called you as holy, which is,
we know God is holy. And He has called us. Notice
that He is, as He said in 1 Peter 1. He has not only called us,
but He has called us to be born again. That His holy God has
looked at sinful men and caused them to come alive in
Him. His holy God has looked at sinful men and He has caused
them to be holy before Him. In His own eyes. Because of Christ. That God hasn't called us to
unrighteousness, but He's called us to holiness. And what is it? He has given us His Spirit to
help us walk in holiness. He's given His Spirit to us to
walk in righteousness. That Christ has showed us love
by calling us His children. That we once was His enemy, and
now we're His children. Because He has showed us grace
by saving us. It isn't that we willed salvation
our way. For none of us have that type
of power to will salvation our way. Just like we can't will
the wind. We can't will salvation our way.
Not only God can will salvation our way. That we were pitiful
people who cried out for the mercy and grace of God and He
saved us. But it wasn't in our own power
that we cried out to Him because our flesh is hostile towards
God. It was the Spirit of God stirring up our hearts to cry
out to the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Isn't that I just come
to a sense in my life, in my own power, that I just walked
in to grace? That I just walked in to being
a child of God? You know what I mean? I was foolish,
I was foolish, and all of a sudden in my own flesh I was right.
I was making the right decision. No. Jesus tells thousands of
people in John 6, after they grumble against Him, because
of who He said He was, He says, do not grumble. No one can come
to Me unless the Father draw him. No one seeks after God. No, not one. That while we were
running the opposite way of God, and loving Him, He drew us. He drew us. And He gave us salvation. That the Spirit of God caused
us to cry out, Abba Father. The Spirit of God opened our
eyes to see our criminal acts against God. We cried out for mercy and He
heard us. Now we, as simple people, are holy before His eyes. That's good news. What does it say? But as He who
called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. God has called me to this holiness.
that I might continue in His holiness. For we know, since it is written
in verse 16, you shall be holy for I am holy. That Peter takes
the Old Testament command and he brings it into the New Testament
and he gives it to the church. You be holy as God is holy. that
God would tell the Israelites to be separated from the world. Be separated from the world.
And then He looks at us, and He says, be separated from the
world. Does that mean we don't hang around the world? Well,
people know that ain't what He's meaning. That we should be separated
from the ways of the world. That we should walk in holiness,
that we should walk in purity, Not that we walk in our holiness
and our righteousness, that we strive in our own power, but
because we love Jesus Christ, because we love the Heavenly
Father, we walk in His ways. You see that we're seeking after
Christ, so we are walking in holiness and righteousness. See,
religious people read the Word of God, though they hate it,
and they try to build their own righteousness. They try to build
their own holiness. And it's worthless, because it
isn't holy, it isn't righteous. That God still sees their hearts. That they find the Word of God,
when they read it, to be a burden. They don't want to obey it. They
don't want to be holy. Many professing Christians search
the Word of God so they can find loopholes in it, so they can
participate in sin. because they don't want to live
holy. But they want to go to heaven. They want to go to heaven,
but they don't want to live for Jesus. But see, when we search after
Christ and we live for Christ, we are walking in holiness. And
we're walking in the same way in which he walked, that if Christ is holy and we're
walking after Him, then we also will live in holiness and righteousness.
It does not mean we will be perfect as He is perfect, but we will
strive. We'll keep close watch over ourselves lest we fall. That the Word of God is not a
burden to the believer. that we find much joy in obeying
the Lord. See that? The religious man doesn't
find no joy in obeying the Word. But the bored again of children
find great joy, great pleasure in obeying that which God has
said to do. And when we look at ourselves
and it's not lining up with the Word of God, we hate it. We hate it whatever fiber in
us. We hate it. Because we know in
our lives as born again believers that we do not want to displease
God. Because we love Him. What does Peter say? Though you
do not see Him, you love Him. Though you do not see Him, you
believe in Him. Many in our day, you call them
to live holy. You call people to live holy
as God has called them. You're just being judgmental. You're being legalistic. Because you call men to walk
in holiness. Not realizing it isn't Jesse's call or other faithful
men whom God uses to preach their call, but it's the call of God. He says in verse 16, Be holy
in all your conduct. These wasn't Peter's words. These
were God's words. It means anytime in my life or
throughout my day that I'm not being holy in my conduct, I'm
displeasing to God. And we will find ourselves like
that, will we not? So what do we do? We repent. And we trust in Christ. And He forgives us. Why? Because He's a loving God. He's
a loving God who is faithful to finish the good work that
He started. He's a loving God that causes us to strive after
Him each and every day. Because if God doesn't cause
us in the power of His Holy Spirit to strive after Him, if God doesn't
cause us in the power of His Holy Spirit to look at our lives
to see if we're living for Him, it's because we do not belong
to Him. If holiness is not a big deal,
test yourselves to see if you're in the faith. If sin isn't a big deal no more
because you've been doing it for so long, test yourselves
to see if you're in the faith. Don't go by because you have
the right knowledge of the truth. Test yourselves, do I still hate
this or am I now loving it? Because sometimes we have that
same sin in our life, that same thorn in the flesh that sometimes
doesn't go away. But here's the different church.
Sometimes temptation or sometimes it does not go away as much as
we would want it to. But the thing is, are we hating
it? Are we hating it? Or are we loving it because it's
been there for so long? Satan knows our weaknesses. And our flesh, our flesh knows
our weaknesses. And every time we sin against
God, it's because our flesh was just itching for it. We quit thinking about it. We
had to do it. And in times when your flesh
is itching for it, in times when your flesh is causing you to
walk in unrighteousness, walk in unholiness, we must cry out
to the Lord. Because if we do not cry out
to the Lord, we will do it as born-again believers. We will do it. What happens if we cry out to
the Lord? What happens if we run straight to the manual, the
Word of God, when temptation comes? We overcome it. We overcome
it through the power of God's Word. What happens sometimes, what
I need to do when temptations are there, maybe I need to call
a brother in the Lord, that He might pray with me to help me
bear this burden. See, God has given us Word, He's
given us a heart that wants to pray to Him, and He's also given
us brothers and sisters in Christ to help us overcome the temptations
of our life. Because as I said earlier, we
all got our temptations. Cause we're still stuck in this
flesh. But no matter how much the temptation
comes, God has called us to walk in holiness. God has called us
to walk in righteousness. And only through His grace will
we do that. Only through His grace will we
be a people who endure to the end. Only those who endure to
the end will be saved. Only those who walk with Christ
to the end will be saved. And if we're truly in Christ,
He will cause us to endure to the end. He will cause us to
walk in holiness. He will cause us to trust in
Him. That Christ made it possible
for us to be holy. How? Because He took our sins.
And He took the judgment of God for us. And he died on that cross,
and three days later he rose again from the grave to show
that he was a mighty God. And by his grace, he called us
into his holiness by saving us. And now he has given us a heart
that seeks after him each and every day. He's given us a heart,
church, that wants him. He's given us a heart that doesn't
find his word to be a burden, but we find joy in walking with
our Lord because he has saved us. Let us pray. Father God, what a call! To call
us to something, Lord, that in our own flesh we cannot do. That our flesh longs for the things
of the world, our flesh longs, O God, to walk in unholiness
and unrighteousness. But Lord, we know through You
it is possible for us to overcome our flesh, It's possible through
the work of your Holy Spirit in our lives to live as according
as you call us to live. Lord, it's possible through your
Holy Spirit to cut off the very things, O Lord, that displease
you. O Lord, every time we go to sin against you, O Lord, give
us the grace to die to ourselves. Give us the grace to think about
Christ and His death on the cross. Give us the grace, O Lord, to
hope in You each and every day, Lord, that we might wake up with
a mind ready to do battle against ourselves, ready to do battle
against the devil who roams through our souls. O God, let us be a
people that glorify Your great name. Let us be a people, Lord,
that walk with You each and every day, that You might be our Lord
and our Savior of our life. Yes, it's in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you, church.