"Be Holy" Sermon: I Peter 1:13-16

"Be Holy"
[I Peter 1:13-16]
May 13 2007 Second Reformed Church

Christian: since you have been given a living hope of salvation in and through Jesus Alone, since you will glorify Christ through suffering, through the testing of your faith through the fires of suffering, since you have received the Good News of Jesus Christ the Savior, the Word, that the prophets and the angels and the whole creation have been and continue to long for -- since those things are true -- be holy.

Christian: you have been called to be set apart, a different people, a people called to a life and a living for God. You ought not to sin, but ought to do all things perfectly, rightly, justly, like our Heavenly Father.

Peter says that we ought to prepare our minds for action. The expression Peter uses is an expression taken from the fact that many people in his day wore long robes. And when they needed to go quickly or for a long distance, they didn't let the robe drag or tangle them up, they pull the robe up, they tied it off, they tucked it in, so it would not be a hindrance to them. They prepared their robe for action.

Similarly, Peter tells us that we are to prepare our minds for action. We are to pull up the excess, tie off the impediments. We are to do whatever is necessary to keep our minds quick, alert, and right. But we let our robe hang down; we think that a little ways won't impede us. We won't trip if we only bring the robe half-way up. We look at our lives and see that we attend worship every Sunday, we give to the work of the church, both in time and money, we pray, we read our Bible, we attend our Bible studies, so, that one sin we love, that one sin that's so hard for us to let go, that one thing, that last thing that we don’t want to let go -- we brought our minds up 98%, surely that’s better that only 20%, surely that's good enough, surely that will be acceptable, surely that is holy enough.

If your child came to you wearing a shirt and nothing else and said, "Mother, I'm dressed; I'm not wearing everything you put out for me to wear, but surely this is enough, surely this is acceptable." No mother in her right mind would allow that child to go out or to school or to do anything else until she was fully dressed.

Paul wrote, "Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But this is not the way you learned from Christ! -- assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:17-24).

Be sober minded. Don't give in to your lust; don't give in to your sin. Be moderate in the things that are lawful. Observe the patterns God has set for us to live.

As Christians, we don't have to give in to our sin, we ought not to give in to our sin. When we give into sin, we tell God that we don't care what His Son did -- hit Him again, pound the nail in deeper -- He will forgive me. No, we cannot. We must say, "no." And when we fall, we must repent and then say, "no," when the temptation comes again. We must not be drunk in our minds about what is sin and what is right living. Even with those things that God has given us that are good, we ought to live in moderation: no one needs to eat so much that he vomits. No one needs to wear so much make-up that he looks like a cartoon character. The proliferation of storage units tells us that we have too much. We have too much. It's not easy to be a Christian in a country where we have too much.

If we are sober in mind, we will follow the patterns that God has set before us. We will live within the patterns of the seasons and the week and the day. We ought to eat food that is fresh and in season. We ought to sleep during some of the twenty-four hour day. We ought to set aside one day in seven for worship. "You don't understand, I don't have time to eat right, I don't have time to sleep, I don't have time to worship." The Christian has time to use time rightly and to learn how to use time rightly.

Did you prepare for worship this morning? Did you get sleep last night? Did you set your mind on spiritual things this morning? Do you have it in mind to set aside time each day for God and knowing Him better?

God has set rhythms, patterns, in the days and weeks and seasons. We do well to observe them and live them to the glory of God. We ought to know what God has said and be able to read the patterns and the signs.

Paul wrote, "Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you, for you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, 'There is peace and security,' then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of the light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness. So let us then not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation" (I Thessalonians 5:1-8).

We ought to set our hope fully on grace -- on that hope that was given to us in and through Jesus Christ. What does that mean? It means our hope is not in our works. We do not rely on our works for our salvation. We understand that what we do or don't do has no bearing whatsoever on our being saved. Our salvation has nothing to do with our doing or not doing something. Salvation is a gift, given to us through the Work of Christ -- and Christ Alone. We are to truly, solely, trust in Him and hope in Him and find our future in Him.

If we mix anything with Christ, we pervert Him and His Gospel. Our Salvation is Jesus and nothing else. If we add anything, it is like mixing honey and bile, light and darkness, good and evil -- it cannot be. We are either saved by Christ or we save ourselves, there is no other option. And if I were to rely only on myself -- if you were to rely only on yourself -- we would fly down the shaft into the fiery pit of Hell. So let us find, in Christ, humility, thankfulness, our confidence, and our comfort.

John wrote, "Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we will be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure" (I John 3:2-3).

So, as obedient children, let us not be conformed to the passions of our former ignorance. Let us renounce our lust and sin and evil. Let us turn away from all those things that kept us from God and make us ashamed before Him. Let us now do all the good works that He has set before us, not for our salvation, but in response to the glorious work and hope that He has put in us. And let us obey all of the Word of God, all the moral Law, all those things that God has called all to believe and do. The commentator John Rogers wrote, "Moreover, we must obey the Commandments of the Lord, be it never so strange, harsh, upleasing, or contrary to our Nature, denying ourselves contrary to custom, though all the world counsel to the contrary" (83).

Why? Why should we obey God and His Word when it doesn't make sense, when it is offensive to ourselves and to our feelings and to the latest poll? Because our God is Sovereign. Our God is Righteous and Holy. And our God has been merciful to us. God will never lead us into sin. God does not give us commands to make our lives miserable. No, our God is the Sovereign, Holy and Righteous God Who gave His Own Son for us -- how can we say, "no," to anything He commands?

The devil listens to the sermons that are preached. The devil takes note of every point. The devil searches out your weakness and my weakness and leads us by our noses at that very point to a place where we can receive the delightful smell of sin, and he hopes we won't remember the Word of God. He hopes we'll lay it aside. He hopes we'll say, "Well, just one more time."

Paul wrote, "I appeal to your therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Romans 12:1-2).

Therefore, be holy. God told Israel, "I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy" (Leviticus 11:44a). In Hebrew literature, when the writer wants to emphasize something, he repeats it, twice or three times -- three times meaning it is the ultimate possibility. There is one Attribute of God that is brought to the third power, not because God is lacking in His other Attributes, but to put this one at the center. We will remember the scene as Isaiah tells us, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!'

"And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the whole house filled with smoke. And I said, 'Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!'

"Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said, 'Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away; and your sin atoned for'" (Isaiah 6:1-7).

Isaiah knew that he wasn't holy. He knew that he stood before God Who commanded him to be holy. And he understood that unless God Himself interceded, he was doomed. There was no way that Isaiah could make himself holy. And there is no way that you and I can make ourselves holy. It's not posible. By our hands, by our efforts, by our will, you and I cannot be holy.

And here's the problem: the Word of God says, "[without] holiness...no one will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14b). We are commanded to holiness. Without holiness we are doomed to Hell. And we cannot, of our own selves be holy. "So," we argue, "I must be good enough. I must be holy enough." But we're not.

Our hope, our life, our trust, our salvation, our holiness can only be found in Jesus Alone. Again, hear John Rogers' comment, "The Devil, like a Harlot, would be content with the one half, but God, like the true Mother, will have all or none" (85).

We either have Jesus, or we don't. We either believe in Him, or we don't. We're either holy in Him, or we're not. You see, you and I are holy, and we are becoming holy. We cannot become holy of ourselves, but God chose to give His Son, to purify us through His Blood and to credit us with His Holy Life, so now, when God looks at us, He sees the Purity of Jesus and the Holiness of Jesus, because we are in Jesus, if He Alone is our Savior, Hope, and Trust. And the Holy Spirit is working in every Christian throughout this lifetime to make us holy, so, on that final day, we shall be made like Jesus and be received into His Glory.

How, then, should we live, now, in this lifetime, since all these things are true?

Let us pray:
Almighty God, Lover and Savior of Your people, we thank You for the sure hope that we have in You and Your Salvation through Jesus Alone. Teach us and cause us to be different people, holy people, through Your Word and through the Working of the Holy Spirit. Make us holy for Your Glory. For it is in Jesus' Name we pray, Amen.