1 Peter 1:13-2:3

13 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

24 For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,

25  but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.

2:1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Our text begins by saying: “Therefore” and anytime you see “therefore” you need to ask, where and why? The where and why is in the verses you find at the beginning of chapter 1. And the strong statement in the opening verses is Grace and Peace be yours in abundance. Please try to allow God’s grace and peace be a capstone in your everyday life. Each moment of each day we need to allow grace and peace to be our assurance to keep moving forward.

God’s grace allows anyone seeking him to find salvation in Jesus.

God’s peace allows those who find salvation to live with complete assurance in him.

Peter does not use any extra words to lead into the theme of this part of chapter one and part of chapter two. He says “ As obedient children. . . Notice that our verse does not say, try to be obedient.

Followers of Christ must live in obedience to Christ himself. We are not looking at lessons on how to obey. We are not looking at exercises to keep us from sinning. Peter’s point is we are children of the living God and to act contrary to that is going to impede our journey toward living a holy life.

The call to be Holy is actually a command to be Holy. Vs. 15 & 16 Fact is you and I were created to be holy. Eph 1:4 says: For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. Living a holy life was never an after thought or a plan B for God. Before man existed, before planet Earth, the universe, etc., God purposed His people should be holy and walk before Him in love. Holiness was on His mind before He made us.

Before there were any people, before there was a planet called earth, before God made the universe, the solar system. Ephesians tells us that God purposed that His people should be holy and walk before Him in love.

How does salvation play a part in living a holy life? Not only is holiness part of God’s creative plan, but holiness is part of God’s calling. When mankind fell, God didn’t change His mind about us being holy. In 2 Timothy 1:9, we read that God ““He has saved us and called us with a holy calling not according to our works but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus.” In other words, when you became aware of your sins and your need of a savior, when God through His grace enabled you to repent and invite Jesus into your heart and to allow Him to take control of your life, it wasn’t just forgiveness that He was offering you. With his offer comes His call for us to live a holy life.

So I got to this point in writing this message and I wondered if I really understood, or if I could define Holy. I’ll tell you one place not to look to define Holy and that is the dictionary. But I will tell you exactly how to define Holy and that is to look at the life of Jesus. If you and I do that today then we begin to produce fruit in our lives and that fruit is Christlikeness. We begin to look like Jesus when we live a holy life.

I’m a visual learner so I began to search the scriptures to see how those who were near Jesus acted/reacted to being in his presence. Jesus told John in the book of Rev 1:11 Write down the things that you see in a book and send them to the seven churches in Asia. When John turned around to see who was speaking to him he saw it was Jesus the scriptures say that John fell at Jesus feet as a dead man. Why, because he was frightened? No I believe it was because John caught a glimpse of the Holy one of God. Jesus himself. In the very presence of Jesus we see the essence of Holiness.

Then again in the 4th chapter John is is looking and he records that he sees a throne in heaven and around the throne were 24 other thrones and with these thrones were 24 elders and near these elders were four living creatures. The bible tells us that whenever the four living creatures saw Jesus (remember if you want to know what Holy is look at Jesus) and gave glory the 24 elders fell down and cast their thrones at Jesus feet crying out, Worthy are you Lord God. Why? Because they were getting a look at a perfect holy Lamb of God.

Again in chapter 5 the elders and the living creatures once again fall prostrate before the throne and are declaring that the one who sits on the throne os completely worthy. But it does not stop there because along with the 24 elders and along with the four living creatures were angles numbering myriads of myriads. The largest number in the ancient Greek was considered myriad myriad of MM which was 100 million. But here the myriad were myriads of myriads. And thousands of thousands. And they were all proclaiming that Jesus is worthy. Why because they were looking at the perfect example of holiness. You want to know what Holy is? Look to Jesus.

Let me give you three points today with the outlook of each one of us making the decision to lead a holy life.

For you and I to be holy we need to be connected to the source of holiness, - God. All holiness finds its origin and source in God alone. Revelation 15:4 says, “Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy.” Nothing is holy in a biblical sense until it is connected to the origin and source of holiness—God himself. There is no holiness independent of His holiness. The holiness of persons, things, days, and places is derived and sustained only by being in a special relationship with the holy God. The world wrongly calls people of other faiths a ‘holy man’ or a ‘holy woman’. That is a pagan understanding of holiness. The Biblical understanding of holiness teaches that only God’s presence makes something holy. In other words, God is the source of all holiness.

Many of you know we are the proud owners of two dogs. Peanut and Maggie. We live in a condo so we really don’t have much private yard to walk the dogs in so they they can do what they do. We have a common area and we need to put the dogs on a 16’ retractable leash to let them move around in this common area. Both dogs, without exception want to explore the world one foot beyond what their leash allows. I cant let them do that. It’s against the rules. There is no safety if they are not connected to me. They could get hurt. So their only option is to stay connected to me, and I take care of them. I am the source for everything they need. They fight against me sometimes and want to go beyond where I want them to go.

If I am to be holy I need to stay connected to the source which is Holy God. In Him I am secure, safe, stable, at peace, all of which leads to a desire towards Christlikeness.

Point number two. In order for you and I to be holy we must be separated from the things that do not point us to Jesus or in other words we are separated to God. We are His possession. This is where it gets sticky. You’re saying we must separate ourselves from the world? Nope. I am saying we need to outlook that what we see in the world pinpoints/fine tunes our view of a lost and dying world. I really don’t think we are very different.

I am tired of the junk going on in this world. I am tired of the junk going on in our country. Ii am tired of the junk that takes place in our cities and our communities. I am tired of the junk that takes place in our families. But all of these items just remind me of how much we need to declare that Jesus I the answer for society today.

Does that make me intolerant? No, just the opposite, that makes me more tolerant. If a believer tells me they are living in the practice of a particular sin I can speak against that. But when I see the lost world acting like the lost world I am extremely tolerant because they are not being measured to the same standard as those who are trying to live a holy life.

So #1 I must be connected to Jesus. And #2 I must be separated from the things that try to corrupt me.

And number 3. To live a holy life we must be obey God’s word. I jump to the Old Testament for this principle. Leviticus 20:7‐8 teaches us that there is an inseparable relationship between holiness and obedience to Scripture. God said, "Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God, and you shall keep My statutes, and perform them: I am the Lord who sanctifies you." Again in Leviticus 22:31‐32 we read, “you shall keep My commandments, and do them: I am the LORD. And you shall not profane My holy name, but I will be sanctified among the sons of Israel: I am the LORD who sanctifies you.”

In the very same breath that God commands us to be holy, He commands us to obey His word. Therefore, holiness is displayed by obedience to God’s Word. A holy person is a person who is obedient to Scripture. You can't knowingly be violating the Word of God, and say, "I am holy." It's a contradiction of terms. The boundaries of holiness.

1 Peter 1:13‐14

“Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance.”

Peter tells us that holy people are not only to be obedient to God’s Word, they are also to stop being conformed to this world. Conformity to the world came as a result of the desires they sought to satisfy before they were saved. Holy people, says Peter, are “not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance.” Peter’s statement is similar to Paul’s statement in Romans 12 Do not be conformed to the world.

I am going to finish with this testimony. I began writing this message believing, Great I want to be more Holy, this will be a great challenge. But what happened was this. Within the first week of studying I Peter 1:13 Jesus literally drove me to my knees in prayer. While I was praying I was saying to God please teach me more about holy living and the need to pray became more and more profound. The words to the message were not coming but the understanding of Holy God was being fleshed out as I prayed. Jesus showed me for probably a month that me trying to live a holy life began with me being broken and crumbled, and humbled, and emptied out, and then like one day as I was praying Jesus said I did this because I love you. I broke you because I love you. I took you to a place of total reliance on me because I love you.