You Shall Be Holy For I Am Holy

This is because Paul he is or Peter he is tying these things together that our holiness and the Judgment that is coming is intrinsically entwined the word call here in verse 17 is epicleo think of like an epidermis right you know it's the covering of our dermis it's the outer part it's we might might say top Supreme first it this call is in response to God's summons in your life and in mine it is what is the result of the new birth and as a result of that new birth because of our new position in Christ God has called us to be holy and so we call on God as our father remember Peter he spent three and a half years with the Lord Jesus Christ and I want you to think about that for a moment because he got to learn all sorts

Of different things that you know we don't have recorded here and one of the things that we do have recorded is how to pray and Jesus he taught us when you pray like this our father who are in heaven you know he is our heavenly father that's why we address him as our heavenly father many times in our prayers in second Corinthians chapter 6 verse 18 it tells us this what's going on here oh all right there we go all right I will be a father to you and you shall be Sons and Daughters to me says the Lord Almighty so I guess that we got to ask this question what does it mean that God is our father firstly it means that God is the author of life God is the uncreated creator he's the uncaused cause in the same way that my children would not exist if I didn't God he has caused us to exist because he exists he is very real he's tangible he is the as I said uncaused cause and he authored life he created life in a literal Six-Day period it also means that God is the authority over everything and everyone there there is no higher authority God is the only highest and most supreme authority we can't go any higher if there was someone over God that would be the supreme authority but there's not he is the highest he is the greatest he is the most powerful and yet he invites us to call on him the most highest Authority he invites you to come to him he beckons you to and he calls you to respond as well it also means that God is the provider and the protector he is the provider as the originator of creation he is totally independent he doesn't depend on anything or anyone to exist

You and I on the other hand we are completely dependent upon the father that heartbeat that you just took is a gift of Grace from God that breath that you just took is a gift of Grace from God as well every single thing that we depend on in this universe God upholds by his righteous right hand if God were to delay even for a split second we would all be destroyed but God he provides for us because he loves us God also is our protector he watches over his people he watches over his creation as a father would and primarily when we talk about protection God he brought about the greatest protection through offering his only son Jesus Christ to save you and I as creations made in His image from the Wrath to come he sent his son to deliver us to die on the cross for our sins so that anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved it also means that he loves us God loves us he loves you particularly God's love it's it's unconditional it's it's full of sacrifice yet it's also full of discipline in Proverbs chapter 3 verse 11 and 12 it says my son do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof for the Lord reproves disciplines chastises whatever your translation might say reproves him whom he loves as a father the son in whom he Delights this father who is the one that invites us to call upon him he is also the same father who judges us and it is in it is within this context of a relationship that God judges the believer so four truths about judgment for the believer is that we have a relationship with the father listen if you're not a Christian okay you do not have the confident saving relationship that I want you to have that the Lord

Wants you to have it is not yours in order for God to be your father you must come to God through Jesus Christ you don't go through me you don't go through another spiritual leader you don't go through your parents you don't go through a church Christ is the one mediator between God and man and that's why we preach for you to come to God through Jesus Christ and Jesus he came and if you ask God to forgive you guess what he will he will make you new he has a tremendous love for you and he beckons for you to come to him but what kind of judgment remains on the Christian obviously it's not about salvation here okay so I don't want you to go well Pastor said that Christians are still going to be judged in their salvation no that was that was settled on the cross when you came to Jesus Christ by faith alone and you repented of your sins you trusted in him that is done the wrath of God does not remain on you but Paul he does tell us that we will give an account to God in Romans chapter 14 verses 10 through 12 it says us why do you pass judgment on your brother or why do you despise your brother for we will all stand before the Judgment seat of God for it is written as I live says the Lord every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God so then each of us will give an account of himself to God now we will stand before the Judgment seat of God this is sometimes referred to as the bhima seat and the bema see it was a seat of judgment in a sports competition determining who the winner is okay yeah that doesn't mean that amongst us Christians that there's going to be winners and losers okay don't don't think that for a moment okay we're not in a competition with one another we

Are in a marathon and we're called to finish that race but this bema seat is where the judge would sit and in sports competitions the athletes they would stand there to receive their reward of how they did in the competition in the same way Christians are going to stand before the Lord and give an account for the life that we live right here and right now so the actions that we've done the sins that we've repented of all of those things are going to be brought out and rewarded on that last day the end result of the believer will not be condemnation but it will be to receive rewards for our lives Jesus he clearly taught this in Luke chapter 19. In Luke 19 he gives this Parable he says Luke says as they heard these things he Jesus proceeded to tell a parable because he was near to Jerusalem and because they suppose that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately he said therefore a nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then returned calling ten of his servants he gave them ten Minas and said to them engage in business until I come but his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him saying we do not want this man to Reign Over Us when he returned having received the kingdom he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him that he might know what they had gained by doing business the first came before him saying Lord your Mina has made ten minutes more and he said to him well done good servant because you have been faithful in very little you shall have authority over ten cities and the second came said Lord your Mina has made five Venus he said to him and you were to be over five cities then another came saying Lord here's your Mina which I kept laid away in a handkerchief for I was afraid of you because you are a severe man

And you take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow he said to him I will condemn you with your own words you Wicked servant you knew that I was a severe man taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow why then did you not put my money in the bank and at my coming I might have collected it with interest and he said to those who stood by taking me enough from him give it to the one who has the ten minutes and he said to him Lord he has 10 minutes I tell you that to everyone who has more will be given but from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away see our father he will judge his children impartially notice that this one who received who didn't do such a great job with what the Lord had entrusted him he's not condemned and cast out he's severely chastised because he wasted the precious time that the Lord had given to him and the judge the God he judges according to each one's Deeds that's the second point if you're taking notes is that we will give response that we have a responsibility for our conduct now this is not something that we should just gloss over but instead we should kind of allow for what God is saying through his word really just kind of sit on us for a second that God he judges him partially and that we will give an account is the life that you're living the things that you are doing do you think that when you stand before him that you will have a peaceful kind of humility or we kind of be not so looking forward to what the Lord might have to say do people know right here right now that you're a citizen of Heaven that you're a child of God are you sharing the Gospel are you let's

Forget about all those all those good things for a minute because those are good things but do you know God are you spending time with your heavenly father just seeking his face and having conversations with him and spending time in his word allowing the spirit of God just to wash over you with his peace and are you doing those things and let's talk about our conduct because that's what the passage is about are you are you living for the Lord you know how you can tell if someone's a vegan don't worry they'll tell you right how much more important is the kingdom of God for us if the fact that you're a Christian has almost zero bearing on how you Orient your life then you should probably a little fearful be a little fearful for when your master calls you and it's it's not all about doing and I don't want you to miss this okay because God he's not going to be all like look at all that you've done for me had a boy remember that on the last day there will be many people who said Lord didn't I do this in your name and didn't I do that in your name and what will God say to them on that last day depart from me for I never knew you so it's not so much about the doing although there's an element of that it's also about the being who are you in Christ are you seeking the Lord are you spending time with him do you know him this is the most important issue for you to settle and to continue settling that's why we work out our salvation with fear and trembling Peter he writes for us to conduct ourselves with fear and that now that word conduct it's the same word used in verse 15. So Peter's continuing his thought here

And he uses it in that context of being holy and so for us it's not be holy and God will save you or be holy and God will do this for you it's that God has saved you and as a result of that be increasing in holiness and that word fear it's that Greek word Phobos and it's where we get our word phobia from it's used four times in the book of First Peter and this is the first time that's popped up and so I wrestled with this a bit this week like okay God how on Earth are we to be like terrified but like you're a father like you know I'm like I'm like you know singing the songs and remembering all these different things like you know and I know that God he's not given us a spirit of fear but a spirit of power and of love and a sound mind like I understand that but remember that God he is good he is it's literally one of his attributes he is always good he is always gracious he's also full of Wrath and justice and the fact that God is good should simultaneously be a source of extreme joy for the believer because we know that he is good but it should also be a source of fear for us because there's many times where we are not good and when we when we look at the Old Testament we see God he's still good and yet when there was sin in the lives of his people there was terrifying judgments that were brought and in the New Testament we see the exact same thing you see ananias and Sapphira they bore false witness they lied against the Holy Spirit they said well we sold our property for this much and so we're giving it all to the church they did that because you know they wanted to look good and yet what happened to those people they were struck dead

I mean don't don't think that God is just going to wink at your sin because you're his child that's called a presumptuous sin and it's one of the things that God hates if you're a Christian you might need to you might need to change some things about your life you might have to last week I said the mindset of the believer is determined by the orientation of your hearts and you might be mad at me fine Don't Kill the Messenger talk with the Lord you need to deal with him imagine for a moment that your dad's going away on a business trip for a while and you all know exactly when he's going to be back but he's told you to take care of these things and so you know he's he's always traveling and stuff like that he says he's going to be gone for a long while and so instead of taking care of these things that the Lord is that your father has told you to take care of you decide that you're just going to kind of hang out for a little while spend some time with your friends and things like that you're checking in with them every so often you're doing all the things that you get done oh yeah I'm doing doing great you know I'm gonna need to catch up on some of these things but I'm doing okay and so weeks go by and that list keeps getting longer because you're falling further and further and further and further and further behind and then all of a sudden you hear the tires in the driveway and you look around and the father is there how do you think that the father is going to react he's going to be angry now I don't that doesn't change the relationship or the love that the father has but there will be discipline because he's a good father you know it reminds me of a story about

These missionaries who spent 18 years in West Africa back in the early 1900s and they were traveling back on the boat in Theodore Roosevelt was on that same boat and as they get into the port there's you know this big parade and everyone's celebrating Theodore Roosevelt has come back home we're so excited that our president is back and these missionaries for 18 years they've been serving so faithfully and they're looking around they're going where where's our reward why aren't wasn't there a parade for us we just spent 18 years out in the mission field they didn't even have a welcome crew no one knew that they were coming back and so the wife she confided in her husband a couple of weeks later she said you know I'm still just dealing with some bitterness about that and her husband just looked at her and said it's okay honey we're still not home yet believer your work your sacrifices your victories your repentance of sin will be rewarded on that last day and he will come to you and wipe away those tears from your eyes he will embrace you he will remember that your salvation is secure in Christ praise the Lord we don't deserve it but he will give us our rewards and Paul at the end of his life he knew that things were kind of wrapping up for him he said I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come I have fought the good fight I have finished the race I've kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing blessed believer you know that the crown of righteousness is yours

It's there and it's not something that you've earned it's something that Christ has earned on your behalf you know what we're going to do with that Crown we're going to lay it back down at the feet of Jesus because he's worth it he's earned it he deserves it thirdly and we've we've touched on this already a bit but we have been ransomed from our sins that word Ransom it's a good word it's full of Rich theology because it encompasses the fullness of the Gospel the fact that God is infinitely holy and if you think that your sin is not a big deal it's because you're minimizing the Holiness and the goodness and the righteousness of God you see God has said that when someone breaks his laws there must be the shedding of blood that's a nice way of saying death in order to pay for sins this is what God has established from The Garden of Gethsemane all the way through the Patriarchs to the New Testament the Septuagint which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament it's what Jesus read from the Septuagint uses the same language that word ransomed it's also translated as redeemed and in Deuteronomy chapter 15 verse 15 it says you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you therefore I command you this today and gives the law it is the Lord who has paid the penalty by offering up his only begotten son as a willing sacrifice and so now since he has paid that penalty on the cross we who believe have been purchased we have been set free from the penalty and the power of sin increasingly so with power Paul he writes in Titus Chapter 2 verse 12 of 14 excuse me that Jesus he gave

Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works now Peter puts what we're talking about here both positively and negatively how we were redeemed negatively firstly oh here I'll come back to those negatively from the feudal ways we were not ransomed with feudal ways this feudal ways is anything that you may think that you can do to earn favor with God so being a good person giving to the poor going to church serving loving people being honest those are those are good things but ultimately they're futile things in regard to Salvation the few ways it's the Traditions that were passed down from the fathers that word futile is matayo which means it means worthless it means useless it means vain it can be understood as vacuous an empty space in Acts chapter 14 I think I saw it up here yeah there it is Acts Chapter 14 verse 15 Paul and Barnabas they're in the city called lystra and they're sharing the Gospel and they're performing these wonderful miracles in their preaching Christ and the people in lystra they're really excited thee they think that these guys are almost deities and so they called Paul Hermes they call Barnabas Zeus and they're about to build an altar to these guys and so Paul he says men why are you doing these things we also are men of like nature with you and we bring you good news the Gospel that you should turn from these vain things these empty things these vacuous things to a living God who made the Heaven and the earth and the Sea and all that is in them now there's tons of vain things that people do to try to earn salvation and they might be good they might sound

Good but ultimately they're empty and not beneficial and this isn't just a new testament problem we read in Jeremiah chapter 9 verses 13 and 14 and the Lord says because they have forsaken my law that I set before them and have not obeyed my voice or walked in accord with it but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Bales as their father taught them ultimately it boils down to Pride they wanted to do what they wanted to do and that's oftentimes true in our lives sometimes it's selfishness sometimes it's unbelief well my way must be better than God's way because I feel better about it that's the danger of sin isn't it looks good it sounds good we try to justify it but the fruit in the garden looked pretty good too don't you don't you dare think for a moment that just because with all your wisdom and all of your life experience that your way is better than God's way simply because you feel comfortable with we're also ransomed not with perishable things not with perishable things Peter uses the idea of silver and gold the implication is that all of the silver and all of the gold in the world cannot Ransom any one person what kind of price tag is on your soul how much would that cost your soul the Bible says that we can't afford that price we cannot pay it in Psalm chapter 49 oh I don't know why these are all out of order I'm so sorry didn't see it okay I thought that put that in there okay Psalm 49 verses 7 through 9. You can write that down look it up later it says truly no man can Ransom another you can't pay for someone's soul or give to God the price of his life for

The Ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice you cannot give to God anything that he doesn't already lay claim to Jesus himself said all authority in heaven and on Earth has been given to me that means that he is the Lord of all Everything Seen and unseen what are you going to give to God even ourselves isn't enough for salvation what can you do to earn salvation if we come to God in our own strength and in our own power do you think that you can stand before the holy God just based on your own efforts no that's what God sent Jesus because it's only by entering to God through Christ that we can be redeemed before him where we can endure his Holiness and his Justice in his goodness so Peter puts it positively here that we have been redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus think for a moment about the power that must be in the blood of Christ because he took on the penalty for our sins and he took your place on that cross this means that the blood of Jesus is infinitely more precious than all the precious things in this world because it is still effective not just for one person but for every person that comes to him that The vilest Sinner can still have their sins paid for he reaches to the lowest hell he reaches down to the lowest pit and he can redeem you too and it's this blood that is like that of a lamb without spot or blemish and this should remind us of the nation of Israel who at Passover they were redeemed as we saw in Deuteronomy in Exodus chapter 12 verses 5 through 7 it says this I promise it says it all right I don't know what's going on can you follow me along with me there Nathan Exodus chapter 12 verse 5 through 7. We read that your lamb he's telling

Them exactly what this they're supposed to be looking for your lamb shall be without blemish a male a year old you may take it from the sheep or from the goats and you shall keep it until the 14th day of this month when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lamps at Twilight they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lentil of the houses in which they eat it in this passage we learned that Christ is the Fulfillment of the Passover Lamb who ransomed us out of spiritual bondage we were once slaves to the kingdom of darkness and through the vicarious work of Jesus Christ we have been transferred into the kingdom of God and Peter knows Jesus he saw Christ came transfigured on the mount he was there with James and with John and he saw God Jesus in his glory it's Jesus who was foreknown before the foundation of the world that's the same phraseology that God uses about you who trust in him that you were foreknown before the foundation of the world and this tells us that Jesus was the plan from creation to redeem a people for himself in Christ he knew this truth as well if we look in John chapter 17. Verse 24 it says father I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world Christ was also made known in these last days listen we are in the last days and we've been in the last days since Christ ascended into heaven that's why they were expecting Jesus to return even then and so I would encourage you to look for the Lord to seek the Lord's face even right here even right now

That you could take this time to get to know the Lord better now Christ he was revealed in these last times for our sake is what Peter says now remember that Peter he is writing to Christians in the Asian Asia Minor right we sing that song O Come All You Unfaithful where it says Christ is born for you he is born for you the reason for Christ's Advent was to seek and to save the lost this is the fourth point of today is that we are reliant on God if you're taking notes write that down reliant on God the verse says who through him are believers in God it is through Jesus Christ that we come to the Lord and he invites us to come to him to drink of a living water to buy and purchase without cause and he does this because of his great love for you Isaiah the prophet in chapter 42 verse 3 it says that the bruised bruised Reed he will not break and the smoldering Wick he will not quench so you can come to God you can come to Christ with all of your sin with all of your weakness with all of your shame with all of your hurt with all of your guilt and he will not condemn you he came to seek and to save the Lost and he died for you and God raised him up from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and your hope are in God so how does this relate to how our passage started talking about judgment and wrath but now also we're talking about the peace that we have with God well remember that it is God who redeemed your soul remember that and so now the Judgment that Christians face is different than the Judgment that those who are separated from God will face Christians we no longer face the penalty for our sin because we've been redeemed we've been purchased with the blood of Christ however we will give an account for the life that we have lived here on

Earth but our faith and hope are in God so what about those who aren't saved well sadly the wrath of God Still Remains on them and they will pay very dearly eternally by being separated from God in hell yet God he is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and so my question is what about you do you know the Lord Jesus are you saved are you redeemed you come to God you come to him through Jesus and you say God I trust in you I trust in what you did on the cross through Jesus Christ and I need to be made whole I need to be born again can you save me and he will he promises it he promises that he will redeem you and then you need to tell someone make that change public because Christ also died for you in public head hand heart head I want you to know that Believers will be judged and rewarded at the end to give an account for to God for the life that we live so live in such a way that you won't be ashamed when you stand before the board hand I started thinking about this could lead into some very if you're not careful you can get so consumed with conducting your lives in the Holy way that you neglect the relationship with Lord we don't want to do that amen and so I want you guys takes time to study First Corinthians chapter nine First Corinthians chapter nine and in this chapter Paul he takes time to dig to encourage Believers to Dig Down Deeper into how he lives and it will be a great Advantage for

You as well as you and I we seek to live for the Lord in heart I want you to believe that we are to fear God well his wrath no longer remains on us in judgment I want you to I want you to consider what it means to conduct yourself with fear as you would your father who loves you who has redeemed you and has given you every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly realms because he desires to have a relationship with you let's stand let's pray let's worship together God we thank you for this day we thank you for what you're doing in our people and our church and our lives we just give it over to you Lord and we just ask you to continue working in US because you're good help us to conduct ourselves with trembling not because simply of fear but also because we want to be like you and when we're acutely aware of our shortcomings the Lord our faith and our hope is in so help us Lord to strike that balance to be holy to seek your face to submit to you God because you were good we love you [Music] as we worship you today if there's anyone that just needs to talk I just pray that today that they would take those steps say I don't know if I have a relationship with Lord but I know that I want to what I pray that today would be that day of salvation

We thank you for your kindness and your mercy in Jesus name [Music] what gift of Grace is Jesus [Music] he is my joy my righteousness my steadfast love my deep and boundless peace to this I hold my hope is only Jesus for my life is Holy bound to his oh how strange and divine I can all is mine yet not I but through Christ in me foreign [Music] pouring my need his power is displayed to this I hold my shepherd will defend me through the SE Valley he will lead [Music] night has been won and I shall overcome yet not I but through Christ in no fate I dread I know I am forgiven the future sure the price it has been paid for Jesus bled and suffered for my pardon and he was raised to overthrow the grave to this High hold my sin has been defeated Jesus now and ever is my plea oh the chains are released I can see I am free and not I but through Christ [Music] foreign I long to follow Jesus for he has said that he will bring me home and day by day I know he will renew me until I stand with joy Before the Throne to this High Hold My Hope Is Only Jesus Oh The Glory ever more to him

[Music] when the race is complete still my lips shall repeat yet not I but through Christ if [Music] all right Church man I see a lot of new faces out here so that's awesome I see every every week so man guys keep sharing the word and doing what Christ asks you to do and so let's just pray and we'll be dismissed father I thank you for what you do here Lord I Thank you for the people that you put in our lives and God I ask that you just put it in the people's heart today as they as they leave this building that they that they don't forget who you are they don't forget what you have asked them to do and father we thank you for your son in his name we pray amen