June 16, 2024 | Children of Obedience

Transcript:

Let me wish you Happy Father's Day again. That can evoke a lot of different memories throughout each of your minds, and it's going to span the spectrum. Some are going to have fathers that they just absolutely adored and respected and love. And at this moment, I can think of nothing that hurts. You go to the other side of the spectrum.

Some when they think of father. Cannot think of anything that's good. So what I'd like you to do this morning is direct your attention to our Heavenly Father, who is your father, who does all things well.

If you could put that last song. Holy, Holy, there is none besides you. Just that one phrase up on the overhead. Because that was the song we just sang. And I just want to kind of meditate on that this morning as we begin our message. And if you would turn in your scriptures to First Peter chapter one, and we'll be starting in verse 13 and reading through verse 16.

First Peter chapter 113 through 16. Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober minded. Set your hope fully on the grace that will be 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. Holy, holy. There is none beside you. There is no one like you. I don't know about you, but when I read that passage and I come to that you shall be holy. For I am holy. I have to confess. This is my sinfulness. Deep inside me. I have two reactions.

I'll just give the invitation, and I'll come forward because I don't match it and I need it. That's one. And the other is. Oh.

I just feel the weight of something that I don't feel I am and can't feel. I can get.

So that's where I am. And I approach this passage. I don't know where you are. I hope we end in a different spot. And that is our goal this morning. You shall be holy because I am holy. Let's pray and then we'll begin. Father, we desperately need your help.

One, because we we feel very much the passions of our former ignorance that kind of stick on us like glue, like Velcro. And we keep ripping them off, and then we can't rip them off, and we just em. And we don't feel that holiness and, Lord, I pray that you would help us today to think clearly so we can see you.

And by seeing you be changed to be more like you. Lord, speak to us through your word. Do not let these lips this speak or get in the way of your message. I pray that you would overwhelm us with who you are because there is no one like you. In your name we pray. Amen. Verse 13. First word therefore, and every time you see it, therefore, you got to see why it is there.

For that word, therefore as one person puts it is the hinge on which hangs the entire epistle, that turns the entire epistle. Verses one through 12 are very much doctrinal teaching. This is who our God is. From verse 13 through chapter 511, which is only 2 or 3 verses from the end. Peter is now switching. He's turned the hinge his turn to.

Therefore, this is how you ought to live from this point through chapter five, verse 11. There are 35 imperatives, 35 commands. Do this. Now that's if you counted in the Greek. The Greek has a way of taking participles and sticking them next to commands. And if you and make them sound like commands and you put it in English, they come across as a command.

We're going to see that in our passage. You count it that way. There's a lot more than 35. This is how we ought to live, which you can't get to. How you ought to live until you see why what's there before.

And we've been through that in the last couple of weeks. Jed and John have done a fantastic job, and Jed and John will be back, and they will do a fantastic job in the future as they deal with that. But let's review, okay. And to review what we're going to do is just read the first 12 verses and just make a few comments.

Peter begins his epistle. Peter, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles, will pause right there. Two nouns you are the chosen. You get to chapter two, verse nine. I believe you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood. You are chosen people. You might be in exile. We don't belong to this world. This world of the old gospel song.

This world is not my home. I'm just passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. That comes from Peter here. You're exiles. We are exiles, but we are chosen. How are we? He names specific people. Those are the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia. Cappadocia. Asia. Bithynia. Don't let that distract you from saying those that are in Knoxville, at Berean.

You are chosen exiles, but chosen. You are chosen ones. How? According to the foreknowledge of God the Father. God knows about it. He knew about you in the sanctification of the spirit. He is working in you through His Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ. That is the goal of this. And for sprinkling from his blood. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

So Peter thinks about that. He breaks into praise. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The two people, the Trinity, God the father of the Lord Jesus and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has worked this for us according to his God, the Father's great mercy.

He has caused us to be born again. Let's sit on that for a minute. We are here chosen because he has caused us to be born again. He did that for us to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He did this through the power of the resurrection to an inheritance. We have an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.

It is kept in heaven for you. You who by God's power are being guarded through faith. So the inheritance is kept and you are being kept. For a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Well, that's one big sentence right there. And that is huge in this salvation. In all of this hope, this salvation that you are expecting, you have and you are looking forward to both.

Right there in this salvation. You rejoice, though, now for a little while if necessary. You have been grieved by various trials. You feel that? I feel that. So that that. Why? Why is he lousy not to happen? So that the test, the genuineness of your faith, your faith that your genuine faith which is more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, that that faith may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Now it is very typical for us to think, yes, when I get to heaven, I'm going to look to Christ, and it's going to be all glory, honor and praise. And that is true. But the focus of that phrase right there is that your genuine faith that was proved to you through the tests and trials that you go through that genuine faith when we get to heaven, he's going to say, well done, good and faithful servant.

He's going to bless you with praise. And it's a genuine faith that he developed and brought to the forefront and purified through those trials. Though you have not seen him, you love him. All God's people say Amen to that. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him, and you rejoice with joy that it's in expressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

And we've talked about this when you say salvation, there's we are have been saved, justified. We are being saved. We have been sanctified and are being sanctified. And we will be saved, glorified. All three come under the word salvation in how it's used in the New Testament, and is how Peter is using it here. Remember, this is about your salvation.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, old Testament searched and inquired carefully, inquiring, asking what person? Who is this guy? Or what time? When will this happen? The Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when the Spirit of Christ predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories, it was revealed to them that they were serving, not themselves.

They didn't understand it fully. But you. They did this for us in the things that have now been announced to you, through those who preach the good news to you. So these are things about Jesus Christ, about the salvation. He has provided good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven things into which angels long to look.

Now when you get through that whole list, I hope you are just filled up and all you can say is, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He did that for you because you are his chosen people. Therefore. Now we get to the hinge. Therefore, what comes after that therefore cannot come unless what is said before it.

We can't practice what we don't know. We can't be like a God that we do not know. It is the teaching. And now the living, the doctrine, and now the practice.

In our passage today, verses 13 through 16, I said, there's 35 imperatives throughout the rest of the book. There are two imperatives, really, two main commands. The first one is in verse 13. Set your hope fully. That phrase is going to govern everything in verse 13. In verse 15 there is the phrase, you also be holy. That's going to govern everything in verses 14, 15 and 16.

Set your hopefully be holy. There's a third one that's going to come next week, which brings out the third aspect of our reverence toward God. All three of these are dealing with our reverence toward God. Our relationship to him. Set your hope fully on him and be holy. Be like him. Let's take it apart word by word. The main first, the main command there in verse 13 is to set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Hope is an expectant reliance on what God has promised. He has promised us and heretics that he is keeping for us, and that he is keeping us for it. And he said, set your hope fully on that inheritance. Looking ahead at the return of Jesus Christ, set your hope fully on it. Yesterday I had the unfortunate. Well, I had the blessed opportunity to serve a family who is not a church family, know them through work.

in performing a funeral service. For someone who by their statement said. And I don't know anything about them other than that one statement is, yes, I believe in Jesus. And so I was walking through the cemetery yesterday and, thinking about how can I give the gospel. And I had the opportunity to give the gospel to a family.

That was the good part. The bad part was walking through and looking at the gravestones and seeing how many people were younger than I were when they died. We are not to set our hope fully on the fact that, well, when I die, I go to heaven. That's not what he's saying. He's saying, focus your attention beyond that point.

Jesus is coming back one day, and all the promises that he has brought forth that he has laid forth for us. He's going to bring them to pass. Set your hope fully on that. This is an imperative. This is directed to the will. Do this. I will do this. This is directed to the will and indicates that this is not a matter of the emotions, but the will.

It calls for obedience. It is in an arris tense or a tense that says you need to do this now. This is urgent. And then he adds an adverb. Fully set your hope fully, completely, perfectly. It demands that our Christian hope not be half hearted, not be kind of dispirited. It should be characterized with a finality that leaves no room for doubt and uncertainty.

I have a certain hope. It's in the future. That leaves a question. How do I develop that? How do I get that? Especially in the midst of tough times? And he gives that with the first phrase, two participles in some of your translations. It may come across as an imperative. Prepare your minds for actions. Be sober minded. Set your hope fully.

It's not how it originally is. It's by preparing your minds for action and by being sober minded. Set your hope fully. The two participles. Participles. Former English teacher. Here. They're verbals. They're verbs that are used as nouns. They have an action, a sense of action. Doing the action it's called for is that we are to prepare our minds for action.

And this is a beautiful thought. Prepare your minds for action. The word behind it, the picture behind it, is. Gird up the loins of your mind. You know that's a picture. Okay. Because our loins are down here. Our mind is up here. Okay. It is. It's the idea and it's used in that's a related word is used in Ephesians chapter six with the armor of God.

You gird yourself with the belt of truth. And the idea is, is they wore long tunics. And if they had to go on a trip or be active, get working, they would pull that tunic up and bind it in the belt so they would gird themselves for action. And he's saying, do that in your mind. Gird your mind up for action.

It's a metaphor derived from that practice of of how they live and bind their garments up. What is suggests is an aggressive activity. It says, don't be lazy about this. Get it together, get busy, get working. Get your mind in order. And what the mind there is the thought processes that are going through your mind. It is calling us to bring all of our rational and reflective powers under control by cutting off those vague, loosely flowing thoughts and speculations that lead to nowhere and only hamper obedience.

Time for confession. How often do we get on Facebook? Or YouTube? And we kind of cruise around Facebook and YouTube and all that looks interesting and that looks interesting. And our mind goes here and our mind goes there and says sometimes not necessarily bad things. I get caught on sports things. I get caught on woodworking. And I'm not a woodworker.

It is fascinating to me how they do that. But what that is is vague, loosely flowing thoughts and then sometimes speculations get off and there's some weird stuff on Facebook and YouTube, and you end up way out there in the speculations. And if there is any area that is rife and just full of that speculative thought, it's Christian stuff.

You have no idea where this guy's coming from, who he is, and what he's thinking. Until your imagination has got caught out here.

Paul Peter is calling us. Pull that together. Get my thoughts and my mind together and focus on setting my hope on Jesus. It's an essential preparatory action that if I'm going to be successful, to resist the dangers that are around me, I have to do. Bringing that mind under control. A disciplined mind has a vital place in spiritual living.

And then he puts another one. Being sober minded. First thing we think about is not being drunk. And the word that's used here is never used about not being drunk or intoxicated. It is to take from that thought. So keep that thought there and say, don't be inebriated in your thinking. Now there's another end. The minute you say, be sober minded.

We think of being glommed Puritan like those aspirations that are thrown at the Puritans, kind of dour and sour and never happy. If you read Puritan stuff, those who are very happy people, that's that's a misnomer. But this is not talking about being glum and straight faced. It's not talking about not being drunk. What it's bringing out is being free from every form of mental and spiritual loss of self-control.

In your mind, have self-control of your thoughts. I don't know about you, but I do take both of those pictures right there and say, I have to fight for that.

It's all in here. And I need help for that. This is teaching an attitude of self-discipline that avoids extremes of reckless irresponsibility, of self-indulgence. On one hand, and of religious ecstasy to the extreme on the other.

Being balanced in what I'm thinking. It teaches a calm, steady state of mind that evaluates things correctly so that it is not thrown off balance by new and fascinating ideas, such as you find on YouTube. Such level headedness is a constant Christian need.

This word is used three times by Peter right here. Then verse chapter four, verse seven, he's talking about prayer and he says, you need to be sober minded in prayer. And in first Peter chapter five verse eight. You need to be sober minded when dealing with Satan, because he is like a roaring lion seeking to devour. You need to have your head together and thinking clearly so we could put it this way.

You need to be actively engaged. Thinking and clear thinking, active thinking and clear thinking. If we are going to set our minds, set our hope on what Jesus has provided for the future. We need to have active thinking and clear thinking to set our hope. That's our affection. Set it. That's our will. Using our mind. How we think, our mind, our will.

Our heart comes together here. It is engaging every part of who we are in order to set our hope on Jesus.

And then this is a very focused action. We are to set our hope fully on the grace needs to be set fully on the grace that will be brought you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. This is grace that's equivalent to two things he's already mentioned. It pulls the idea of salvation from the first 12 verses and inheritance.

Our salvation, what we have now, what we will realize fully in the future, are inheritance. Everything that comes from the promise of God. We are to set our hope on those things. We are to focus our attention on our salvation and on Jesus. And notice that it is being brought to you. So it's grace that will be brought.

That's not a passive tense. That means that Jesus is doing this in you and for you. This grace, this salvation is something that Jesus is working in you. He is the divine agent who has given us this grace, and it is given to you. You know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. If you have been adopted into his family, you have this grace.

He has brought, that is bringing that will bring that to you. It's yours. Set your hope on it. That is what he's saying, right here. And notice we are to set in on the revelation that when it takes place as the revelation and this phrase probably controls the meaning of this verse, it is directing our thoughts the same as verse seven.

Look at verse seven so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. It's in the same passage. This is when he reveals Himself at His Second Coming. We are to set our hope on the grace that is being brought to us, that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

By the way, that there is a saint in the present tense. This is being brought, which brings out the idea that we already have the salvation, and we will experience it more fully. Completely. When he returns. Set your hope. And then we turn to the second command. Be holy. Beholding. He begins this with verse 14 as obedient children.

Literally that should be as children of obedience. Those are two nouns together. Obedience is being used as an adjective, but it's really a noun with that adjectival force to it. It says children who are characterized by obedience as children. Stop there for a minute. This is all about relationship with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who through His Spirit is sanctifying us unto obedience of Jesus Christ.

He has redeemed us. He has given us this salvation. We are his as children. Just as in as much as you are children, as much as you are related to God the Father, who has caused you to be born again out of a living hope. That brings the first question of application. Are you his child?

Are you his child? Three things have happened. One is. Amen. Yes, I am. It comes from deep within the heart. You know the relationship. You have that relationship. Or it may be him. I'm not sure.

Or. And I really don't know what you're talking about. Are you his child? Yeah. Those last two. You don't know what I'm talking about or you're not sure we need to talk. You need to settle that today. Are you as child? If you had that first reaction, and I would say the majority of us here had that first response.

Yes, I am this child.

Then you are his child. As children who are characterized by obedience, children of God the Father are characterized by obedience. Sit with that.

First, John. James. They echo those same ideas. Children of God are not characterized by disobedience.

Children who are characterized by obedience. They have the same character trait that their father does. This identification indicates that the call to holiness is grounded in the very nature that we have received. When he caused us to be born again, when he caused us to be born into his kingdom, to be born anew, he gave us his nature.

He imparted to us his holiness as children of obedience. We are like him. These are God's children as his their children. They are to obey him. We've already seen in verse two for that if all of this took place with the idea of obedience to Jesus Christ, obedience is necessary for conversion, not obey, to be converted. But when you are converted, you will obey.

Make that very clear and ultimately cannot be separated from faith. It flows from faith. Peter had no conception of a Christian life in which believers gave mere mental assent to doctrine. Their volition, their will, their affections, their heart, their mind were all involved.

In that assent. This is not a call. Be obedient children. That's not what he's saying. This is a foundation. As obedient children be holy. This is the foundation for what is going to command as obedient children. Do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.

This is a negative notice that's put as a imperative. Do not be conformed. It's really a participle. Not being conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. Be holy. But it picks from that be holy, the force of that be holy. And it says, I'm going to. I'm going to translate it just like that. Do not be conformed.

That that word appears one other time in Scripture. And I bet you you know where it is. Romans 12 two do not be conformed to this world, but be renewed by your mind. Do not be pressed into the mold of this world as obedience are children of obedience. Do not be pressed into the mold of your desires that were from your former ignorance.

It's a command, and it's a contrast from your desires of your former ignorance to the desire of your new knowledge.

The passions of your former ignorance. Your formal evil desires. It denotes the sinful cravings and practices that characterized these people's lives before they heard the characterized years of my life, before we heard. Look, in chapter four. Verse three. In the time that is passed. It suffices for the time that is passed suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do.

Gentiles being used here as those that are outside the family of God, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties and lawless idolatry. So the unsaved people, that's what characterizes their life with respect to this. They are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of the boccieri, and they malign you when you do not join them, but they will give account to him who's ready to judge the living and the dead.

This makes it very clear that when it talks about the passions of your former ignorance, the original audience for this was not Jews. Predominantly, it was predominantly Gentiles.

Lessons. Like our former life. The minute we read through that, I read through chapter four, verse three, and I said, my goodness, I didn't do that.

Oh, not me. We start thinking, remember the loose thinking in our mind. And how much it was involved. There. We are not to be conformed. These are desires, not the desires of Rome, but the desires of your former ignorance. Ignorance of what?

Ignorance of God. Romans chapter one. There was a time when you did not know God and what you did know of him. You put down and you fell down, and it that constant descent into debauchery, into sin that Paul is using to say, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Whether we were religious sinners or non-religious sinners, all have sinned.

These desires were practice when they lived in spiritual ignorance that characterized their lives. Looks back to a time before they knew God knew God through the gospel. That ignorance evoked and stimulated their depraved desires. This reference to past ignorance is not to minimize their dark past or explain it away, but to remind them. And what it should do for you is remind you.

This is what God has redeemed me from. At the same time, the Christian life is not passive. It demands for you and me that we fight against our flesh.

Ungodly desires still beckon and tempt us to depart from God. Oh. I know there's few people here that I've talked to when we talk and just share about what God is doing in our life. One of the things that we are amazed about is that we can be in the middle of praying to God and talking to God and focusing on his greatness.

And all of a sudden, our minds are flooded with ungodly thoughts. You ever have that happen? That's why you have to gird up your mind. That's why you have to gird up your mind. But as he who called you is holy. There's two ways of translating that. If you've got a new American standard, it says, as the Holy One who called you, or you can turn it around says, he who called you is holy.

Both of our acceptable translations. I like as the Holy One who called you. For those of us who went through Isaiah, what does that remind that you of? The great title that Isaiah gives for God is the Holy One of Israel. He is the Holy One of Israel. It was his favorite designation. This characterization that that God is holy is a basic biblical teaching concerning the nature of God.

There's anything we know about God is that he is holy. He what he hates. We need to hate what he loves. We need to love. He is holy. He is separated from all that is morally impure and evil as the Holy One. He was immutably, unchangeable, holy from all eternity. He reveals himself as holy, and he loves all that is pure and good.

He is infinitely holy, and his redemptive purpose is to deliver fallen humanity from all sin and all un holiness, so that conformed to the image of His Son. They may be fitted for abiding fellowship with himself, as he who calls you is holy. You also be holy in all your conduct. Those who cultivate a Christian hope must cultivate personal holiness.

You also be holy. That is a command, hope and a coming Savior demands conformity to his nature of holiness. It is a positive command for personal sanctification. Having been brought into fellowship with the Holy One. Our duty is to be holy in all we do now, and it's you also. It sharpens the focus that it's us. It is be holy.

It is an urgent demand. Now be holy. Behold, in all your conduct out.

Peter's got a name. A lot of that from the rest of the book. We're not going to go there. I'll let Jed go there. He can step on your toes. Okay. All your conduct. How you think, how you dress, how you live.

We all are to be distinctly different. From those who are not God's children. I know absolute holiness cannot be achieved perfectly. None of us will have reach perfection. Especially me. Okay. Don't think I'm speaking from that platform. None of us have reached perfection, and we know that we won't. But we set our hope that at the revelation of Jesus Christ, we will.

We will reach that point.

And then Peter grounds it in Scripture. Since it is written, Peter's call for holiness is nothing new. It's been a clear part of God's teaching all the way through the scriptures. All the recorded words. It is his revealed will. It is God's command. It cannot be trifled with. Cannot be avoided. Cannot be evaded. This quotation embodies a call to holiness.

Now, if you've ever tried to read through the scriptures in a year, you start in Genesis as Genesis goes, pretty good. Okay. Pretty active. You're talking about creation and Babel, and then Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Jacob's sons. They end up in Egypt. You get the Exodus. And it's pretty good, too, because you've got all that goes on with Moses and Exodus and coming through the Red sea.

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and our reading stalls in Leviticus. Because then you get about all the eating rules. You don't eat this. You got. What kind of hoof does it have? Kind of. Does it have does it have scales on. Does it not have scales on all. No. I can't eat shrimp. One of the things it tells you you can't eat are bugs.

Amen. Yeah. And right in the middle of talking about insects. And there are some you can eat and there's some you can't eat. He says the reason he's given this command is so that you will be holy because he is holy. That's Leviticus chapter 14, Leviticus chapter 19, or excuse me, Leviticus 11 and Leviticus chapter 19, in connection with social and religious duties.

He says the reason that you have this relationship with one another is because God is holy and you are to be holy. And Leviticus chapter 20, because of all the demonic and all the cultic stuff that you will see when you get into Canaan, you are to separate from it and not be part of it. Why? Because I am holy and you are to be holy.

It brings out the idea that conformity to the character of God is insisted upon in all areas of life, and was back at the beginning. Peter is reaffirming that we are still under that command. Now you can eat bugs if you want to eat bugs. Okay. I don't think you want to. And I enjoy ham. Okay. As part of my Gentile heritage, not my Jewish heritage, because he declared all foods clean.

Remember? That was a revelation to Peter. But Peter reaffirms that what he did not change, which is a requirement that you and I be holy. And the reason we are to be holy is because we are his children.

Couple observations. Many times we avoid this. Now let's start with another one. We'll get to the avoiding next. Many times we grab hold of this. I have been in groups of people that grab, hold of this, and we get down and we create our own laws. Your hair shall be so long and I can meet that one standard.

I had to have it two fingers above my eyebrows. It fits now. It didn't when I was 19. Okay. The date? Yes. How long is the hair? Should you have long hair? Should you have longer hair? How long is the dress? Is it to the knees and below the knee? Does it show an arm? And we can get so picky.

Does it mean I had a missionary friend who worked with Muslims in London? I can tell this story because it doesn't affect us. He's working with Muslims in London, and he was doing very well talking to the men. Having Bible studies, interacting with them. They weren't listening to him about Jesus. His wife started working with the ladies and that wasn't going so well.

I mean, after a few months and it just kept dwindling down and down. And this couple came from my background, dressed to the knee, never showed the shoulder hair was the right length. All that was right. Kosher. Okay. So you got to understand that because when this man asked the other men, why don't your wives want to meet with my wife?

I want to tell you. I don't want to tell you. Finally, he made them tell. You know what their answer was? Because she dresses like a whore.

What does that mean? Her wrists show and her ankles showed.

Now, I don't know where you are on the spectrum, but there's always someone who can one up. You.

When I talk about being holy, I'm not talking about that. I'll let Jed talk about that. Okay. On the other hand, because we fear that type of legalism, we understand his danger. We just avoid it. Oh. Doesn't matter. You know, I just I don't have to pursue holiness. When I was saved, Jesus sanctified me. I'm sanctified. I don't worry about it.

Well, then why did the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 12, I think it's verse 14, say, pursue holiness, without which no man will see God.

You got to scratch that one out of your Bible. So we can't just avoid it. We can't just ignore our family likeness. God is holy. He's our father. We are his children. We are to be like him.

Another attitude that we take. Nobody's perfect. God is a God of love. He's a god of forgiveness. He'll take care of it. Don't worry about it. He's living for me, Larry. For me. We are raptured. we bail out of our pursuit. Oh. I'm justified. I don't have to worry about being sanctified. God's love. God's forgiving. No. I'm to pursue holiness without which no one will see God.

Another observation. And I think this is the focus. You shall be holy as he who calls you is holy. You also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. There's another perspective of that you shall be holy because I am holy. Remember this. We have been birthed. We have been brought.

We have been. We have been born again. That's a passive tense. That's verse. verse four. No. Three. Verse three. We have been born again. That emphasizes that he is the active doer. Take that with you. If he births you into his family and he pass, he passes the family likeness along. You shall be holy. You shall be.

You shall be holy. Because he is holy. It is both a command and a statement of completion. You're not there yet. I'm not there yet. Pursue it. Basis is where his child. That brings me back to the question we ask earlier. Are you God's child? If you are, you shall be holy. Pursue it. You are God's child. You shall be holy because he is holy.

Let's form clear.

Weighty subject the Lord. When we talk about your glory, that is a weighty subject. Matter of fact, that is the very word for glory. It's a weight of glory. And we talk about your holiness. I say, I saw you sitting on your throne in a specific year, under the reign of a specific king, when he had died and another king had taken place.

He saw you sitting high and lifted up, and there were terror being surrounding the throne, shouting, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts! And Isaiah's response is, Oh God, woe is me, I am undone. And you took a one of the angels took a coal off the fire, put it on his lips, purified him, and you told him to stand up and speak.

So we come before you, and that holiness can be so off putting, so much fear and fray, being afraid of drawing near to you because you're a holy God, and yet you, because you are our Heavenly Father. You say we shall be holy because you are holy. Help us not back off from the pursuit, but help us to aggressively, mentally emotion.

But you'll finally set our face towards you, toward the hope that we have in heaven, which includes be like you, Holy. Make us so. Your name we pray. Amen.