You Shall Be Holy For I Am Holy

God's word says this having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love one another earnestly from Pure Heart since you have been born again not of perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God for All Flesh is like grass in all its Glory like the flower of grass the grass withers and the flower Falls but the word of the Lord remains forever and this word is the good news that was preached to you let's pray Lord we just thank you for this time that we've had this morning great time of fellowship and laughter and Community groups a great time of worship and lifting up your name High a great time of testimony and now Lord we set our minds to this worship through the word and we pray that our hearts would be attentive that are Souls would be receptive to what this passage says Lord let us walk out

Of here not thinking oh that was a funny sermon or anything like that Lord in ways that we can apply it to our lives we give you all the praise and all the glory for what you're doing out in Kentucky at Asbury and we just pray Lord that you would do that same thing in many churches across our nation help us dear Lord in Jesus name amen well these these next few verses that we're going to be looking at today it starts out with this phrase having purified your souls now that phrase having purified it's a perfect participle in the Greek which means that it is something that has already happened in the past it's complete it is done and so I we have to ask this question has your soul been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ that's the number one question that we have to ask ourselves and it's the most important question that you can settle in your heart if you do not know Christ settle it today in the old Covenant the nation of Israel was cleansed by the sprinkling of blood at the institution of the Covenant at Mount Sinai you know growing up in Virginia you guys y'all know I'm from Virginia I used to spend my Summers playing in the matapanai river and it's it feeds into the Chesapeake Bay and so one of the things I would do to make money is I would go at low tide the water would receive and it would just reveal thick black mud everywhere there were all these wonderful little fiddler crabs that you could catch you know the ones with the big old claw out there you didn't want to get pinched by them it hurt but I'll go into the mud and the mud was about like thigh deep right and I take this stick and you know you go to the holes and you kind of hit

Behind the holes and flush the water out and out and come to fiddler crab you grab it and I'd sell about 10 of them for a dollar and that's how I was able to make money during the summer as a kid one of the things that you did not want to do okay to avoid the wrath of my grandma was fall into that mutt okay I mean it was it would get everywhere and I remember one time it was a big mistake I've tripped over something I couldn't see it as mud and I fell face first in this mud right and so I mean from head to toe I was just covered in this thick black sticky smelly yuck that was at the bottom of the matapani river and try as hard as I could I could not get clean I mean I was I was rubbing I was trying there was no water to get to because you know it was it was receded and I didn't want to go too deep because mud got really deep real quick and so I could not make myself clean the only way to get clean was through water through cleansing and finding clean water to do that and in that same way there is no effort that you can do on your own behalf to get to get clean you have to go to Jesus Christ you have to go to his cleansing blood and he will make you clean you can't do it by yourself it doesn't matter how hard you try doesn't matter how hard you work at it doesn't matter what good works you do you have to come to Jesus and you must enter through him you don't get to hop the fence you don't do that God will find you out and so look at what first John chapter chapter 3 verse 3 says it says and everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure see you must repent and come to Christ you're not saved simply by acknowledging the fact that Jesus died on the cross okay we're not saved through our head

Knowledge you can you can know the resurrection as a historical fact that is not what saves it's by being born again it's by entering into a covenant relationship with God through the blood of Jesus Christ you have to come to God you have to come to him and you've got to say I am so sorry for what I have done my sin has broken me and it's by trusting in Him believing in him and when you come to Christ listen he never turns anyone away as we look at this passage the first thing I want to point out through having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth is the first point is the source of Christian love it's because we have been saved that we can rightly love now we've talked a bit about obedience in our series here on First Peter and he writes about it again meaning that we have heard and we have obeyed the call of the Gospel message we see this kind of language also used by Paul in the Book of Romans Romans chapter 15 verse 18. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word indeed and likewise he concludes the message I mean Romans is one of the best and most powerful books in the Bible it's a it's a Systematic Theology for the first century believer and he concludes with this now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my Gospel in the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery that was Kept Secret for long ages but has now been disclosed through the prophetic writings has been made known to All Nations according to the command of the Eternal God to bring about The Obedience of faith to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ amen

And it is this enabling power of the Holy Spirit when he calls us we obey when he has sent out his Gospel message and you remember that moment if you're saved you remember what it was like unless you were saved a really really young age but you remember what that was like that calling that drawing that being born again and it's at that moment that light bulb goes off aha I believe the spirit of God is the source that has moved us from death and in worldly desires to life and Heavenly love which is always Christ's focused and this obedience is defined look at look at the passage it's it's defined as the truth not just a true not just some arbitrary truth not just truth in general but the truth of the Gospel message in our culture we see not just an apathy to the Gospel but a hostility to it as well and as people increase in their hatred toward God in this word you know what we're going to see we're going to see exactly what Paul said that we will see in second Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 11 and 12. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure and unrighteousness I mean isn't that isn't that our culture right now almost delusional believing what is false remember that it doesn't lead to their Glory it leads to their condemnation and this is why Christians you and I as Believers rather than just cursing the culture we need to shine the light of Jesus Christ that they might hear the Gospel and that God by some means might save them that's what your hero on Earth to do to make disciples of all the nations regardless of what society says regardless of what Society tells us we must stand firmly at the truth of the

Gospel message and we see similar language in Romans chapter 1 verses 22 through 20 25 claiming to be wise they became fools in exchange the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever amen now we could talk about those verses for hours right we could have all sorts of social commentaries but I want you to notice the judgment and the wrath of God the Judgment in the wrath of God he has this on people who hate him who oppose them God gives them up for their sins and allows for their celebrations to be their condemnation because they were checked rejected the truth about God in the Gospel message listen listen our even our local culture is changing very rapidly it's true and so I want to warn you if you are here and you are not a Christian okay you don't know Jesus Christ I have to warn you that if you do not believe what the Bible says about God what the Bible says about the Gospel then you don't have either you don't have God and you don't have the Gospel what you have is a God of your own design and of your own making and God calls that idolatry if you're not willing to stand on what the word says and say the Bible says this just as that idolatry led to the destruction of an entire generation in the Sinai Wilderness unless you come to Christ and repent it will lead to

Your destruction as well secondly an object of Christian love talked about the source of Christian love an object of Christian love Peter he writes for a sincere brotherly love now remember the context okay Peter he is writing to these Christians modern day Turkey Asia Minor and they're beginning to experience all sorts of sufferings and persecutions it's just ramping up it's just before Nero starts his great persecution and people in our own nature we are tempted to divide over all sorts of things especially race and culture we're very tempted to divide over those type of things so Peter he encourages these Christians to be sincere in their Brotherly Love towards each other now that word sincere it means genuine it means no hypocrisy this is the natural result of God working in our hearts because we are New Creations with a renewed mind and we have a new nature because we've received a new heart because of what Christ has done that we are called to love other believers genuinely now did I say Believers yes absolutely does that mean that we shouldn't love the lost I did not say that okay like I said Christians are supposed to be nice and loving and forgiving seeking the good of others but we should as Christians have a special affection for other believers we're called to do that and Romans chapter 12 verses 9 and 10 it says let love be genuine poor what is evil hold fast to what is good love one another with brotherly affection outdo one another in showing honor I mean that's that's a wonderful picture of what authentic Christian brotherly and sisterly love is to look like it's not to be cold or lukewarm it's to be

Genuine and warm and inviting so we don't celebrate evil in fact we abhor it we promote good things your affection for Christians should be like a loving close-knit family looking out for them doing your best to show that brother or sister in Christ honor assuming the best about them and I'm preaching them to myself right there the two greatest Commandments love the Lord to God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind and the second is like it you should love your neighbor as yourself see the Apostle Paul he taught extensively on the importance of Love In First Corinthians he said you know you can be talented I'm paraphrasing you can have all the you can have the spiritual gift of discernment you can have the spiritual gift of teaching prophecy he even talked about speaking in tongues and working miracles but if you don't have love what do you have nothing first John chapter 3 verse 14 it says we know we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers whoever does not love abides in death and there is a danger in hypocritical love the critical love has more to do with Judas than Jesus Judas he walked up to Jesus in the garden rabbi gave him a kiss that's the epitome of hypocritical love this means believer that you are called to love with genuine love and affection not waiting for someone to slip up not waiting for someone to fall but actually seeking out their good

Seeking out their their holiness calling them and things like that but we'll get to that in a second actually thirdly is the sort of Christian love for the kind you might want to write there Peter he tells us that we are to love one another earnestly from a pure heart and that's a that's a one another statement whenever we see a one another statement in the Scriptures it's always in the form of a command and so Peter he is using his Apostolic authority to command Christians to love one another this means that as a Believer since you've been bought by Christ you are a slave to righteousness and when he tells you to do something we have to do it and we don't like thinking about that right but you've been bought at a price the price of the death of the son of God therefore honor him but the heart behind this phrase this one another statement is not overbearing Apostolic Authority but a loving instruction for the benefit of these Believers that are in Exile take a look here look at the passage because Peter he tells us that our love is to be sincere that's undivided and it's to be a brotherly love that's that Greek word Philadelphia right who's going to lose tonight which which is about the authentic love that we are to have but then Peter he says love one another and that's a second love but this is a different love than that brotherly love this is that acabayo kind of love which is the verb tense of agape love which is self-sacrificing it's the others focused love which Christians and only Christians truly enjoy because we have the love of God in our hearts this is the love that is to be done earnestly that means fervently with

Great passion and emotion constantly and Luke he uses the same word in Jesus's prayer at Gethsemane Jesus he's he is praying and being in agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground it's that same word there this is the kind of love that can be shown through a hug through a visit a phone call a card through a meal this is the kind of love that can be shown by giving a helping hand and yet this love cannot be transmitted in this way what I mean is that you have to get this love by entering through Jesus Christ Edmond Clowney he wrote that Christian love is born as Christians are born through the truth of the Gospel as Christians we must remain in the Gospel believing it reminding ourselves of its truth every single day and we do this from a pure heart Peter he brings it back to where we began our purity over the past several weeks we've been talking a lot about Holiness right we've been talking about purity and Paul he writes in first Timothy chapter five chapter one verse five at the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith and so fourthly is the reason for Christian love what why can Christians love what is our reasoning it's because we have been born again if you've come to God through Jesus Christ you have been born again that's what the passage says at least here verse 23 since you have been born again that word born again it's the Greek word it's I practiced something like that butcher

But it's actually translated best as begetting anew be getting anew Thomas Schreiner he's a professor of New Testament at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary he comments this the emphasis is on God as the one who granted them New Life and the means by which God begat them was the seed of his word God be getting his children by the seed of the word is likened to a father begetting a child Christian if you have come to Christ for salvation then you have been born again as a child of his and this is the reason that you can and are commanded to love one another biblically you've been born again what does passage say not of perishable seed you think back to First Peter chapter 1 verse 18 you should Circle that underline it highlight it whatever knowing that you were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers not with perishable things such as silver or gold you see you weren't saved because of things that you earned and did well how are you safe through the precious blood of Jesus Christ this is the imperishable seed of the Gospel message that part that Peter opened up his letter with look at verse in chapter one verses 3 through 4. It says this 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 and unfading kept in heaven for you no matter how hard we may try the kind of seed that is planted is the what kind of plants you're going to get if you put an acorn in the ground you're not going to get an apple tree you're not going to get a peach tree

It doesn't matter how hard you try or wish what you planted is what you sow what you will sow you're going to get an oak tree those who are born of the perishable seed of Adam will die thank you will die but those who receive the imperishable seat of the Gospel will not be separated from God in hell but will have a great confidence because we know that what we have is eternal and protected revivalists used to say if you're born once you'll die twice if you died twice or you'll have life forever you must die to yourself take up your cross and follow the Lord God has ordained for this to be accomplished through the living and abiding word of God that's what the passage says now there is an all-out assault on the word of God not primarily by the world but primarily through pastors teachers whose you know neglect the word of God they say things like well the Bible you should not say the Bible says well the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 4 verses 12-13 for the word of God is living in active sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the division of soul and of spirit of joints in a marrow and Discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart and no creature is hidden from a sight but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account it is the word of God that is living abiding active and sharp Charles Spurgeon he said the word of God it's Edge all over cutting this way and that the word of God is Edge all over it is alive in every part and in every part Keen to cut the conscience and wound the heart depend on it not a verse in the Bible is Superfluous or unneeded

Or a chapter that is useless when a preacher or teacher neglects God's word apologizes for it encourages Christians not to read or study God's word you should probably Mark them step back because it is only God's word that makes one alive makes one pure and makes one obedient Peter then references Isaiah chapter 40 verses 6 through 8 to prove his point he says this look at the passage with me all flesh is like grass and all its Glory like the flower of grass the grass withers and the flower Falls but the word of the Lord remains forever All Flesh that's all living things are like grass this may not make a whole lot of sense to us living in first century America but put yourself back in or as 21st century America but put yourself back in first century Middle East okay it was they didn't have a whole lot of irrigation and things like that we take for granted today and so what would happen is that during the Spring months it was it was rainy season and so the grass would would come up in Tufts they didn't have wands or anything like that would just be these these Tufts of grass that would pop up and these little flowers that would sometimes Peak up over the grass but typically the grass was very tall and so the only way that you could actually see these flowers was to get right up on them but that season didn't last very long it was only for a couple of weeks and then the heat came and it would burn up the grass and the flowers they were here one moment and gone the next James chapter 4 verse 14 says what is your life for you are a Mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes I mean that's what our breaths our lives are like they're like just a breath at

Night last night I was walking my dog you know and I'm like you know it's cold outside it's gone that's what our lives are like they're very merely a vapor just a Mist they're here for a moment and gone and why do we why do we as Christians live like this is all that there is we need to stop that and live for eternity folks we're gonna have a long time to think on it but God's word it remains forever and this is the good news that was preached it's the general call of the Gospel message pleading for a lost world to come to Christ when God spoke to Abraham and Sarah you know what they did they laughed they laughed at the Lord there's no way we're too old to have children in Genesis chapter 17 verse 17 it says that Abraham he fell on his face and laughed to himself shall a child be born to a man who is 100 years old shall Sarah who is 90 years old bear a child God in the next chapter he says is anything too hard in Luke chapter one you got an even greater Miracle with Mary being told you will give birth to a son and yes you are a virgin but this is the work of God and what did he say and in that same passage for with God nothing is impossible God's word is full of promises that will be fulfilled by the word of by the word of God the word of God became flesh and was born of Mary and by the word of God we are born and we are made new to enter into a covenant through Jesus Christ as well and so we can't can't neglect God's word it's Central focused it is the Pinnacle of study in the Christian Life and this word is the message that was

Preached the Bible says so faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ and now because we have received that message of the good news we have the capacity for Christian love and so I guess that my question is what about you do you love like the Hypocrites and the Pharisees do where you just love those who love you or do you have a genuine sincere love for your brothers and sisters do you have the source for a puristified soul that's only found in Jesus Christ do you have Christ better yet does Christ have you let's think on that head hand heart head I want you to know that salvation is the foundation for our ability for Godly love there is no other Foundation all the other foundations begin with you or someone else other than God but since you've been born again of a of an imperishable seed you have that capacity for authentic Christian love it begins it continues and it finalizes in Christ and so I pray that you have him hand I want you to seriously consider if you love your Christian Brothers earnestly do you have a genuine affection for them is your heart cold to those who are your family remember that you have been United by the blood of Jesus Christ you are commanded to love them heart I want you to believe that God's word remains forever since God's word remains my prayer is that you and I would love to study God's word now and forever as well amen let's all Stand Together let's respond to the Lord through

Worship God we just thank you for this day we thank you for your word we thank you that it abides and that's powerful thank you for your word that changes our hearts and if there's anyone here that maybe they just need to receive you that today would be that day that they would just be born again of that imperishable seat if there's someone here that needs to make that decision a public Lord I pray that today would be that day we ask that you would continually work in US that you would move Among Us God that you would help us as people of the book to take your word seriously and to genuinely love our neighbors and most importantly those for whom you've died thank you Lord for what you've done in Jesus name amen [Music] that saved a Wretch like Me I once was lost by it was mine but now I see to his grace [Music] and Grace my fears release [Music] my chains are gone I've been set free by God my Savior has ransomed me and like a flood his Mercy unending love [Music] this time we are going to take up our offering and so as you guys know we preached that you're commanded to give generously specifically and prayerfully hilariously but as the Lord leads you to give power the work that God is doing around the world let's pray Lord I pray that you would bless this offering that you would continually work

In our church and in the lives of people Lord just move us God we want more of you we want to experience the fullness of Who You Are God we pray that these tithes these offerings all these gifts would be used to further your kingdom not just here in Camdenton at our church but through the various Ministries missionaries that we support God Lord help us to give generously as you've given generously in Jesus name amen [Music] he will my sheep and portion me as long as life my chains are gone I've been set free God my Savior has ransomed me and like a flower his Mercy unending love face [Music] but God who called me [Music] will be forever [Music] will be forever [Music] you are forever mine well there's some awesome Scripture in there today wasn't there I just love that talking about the grass whether in the odor I get the more I resemble that but anyway I love 22. Kind of points the direction to God for those unbelievers if you don't believe in Christ today if you don't know Christ there's the plan for your obedience to the truth of the Gospel we would love to

Share that with you today if you would like to just come up and talk to us we won't embarrass you in any way we just want to share that Gospel with you but also there's a challenge there for us believers that is to love one another there's no one in here that you shouldn't be loving today that's God's command so let's do that let's pray God our Father we just thank you for the word that you have given us the Salvation you have laid out for us that all of us can have salvation through the shed blood of Jesus Christ Lord just encourage us to work out our sanctification here while we're here loving each other and Lord we ask your blessing upon the food for those who are at stand I thank you for it thank you for the people who brought it may you bring nourishment and strengthe through our bodies that we can continue your work while we are here on Earth we pray this in Christ's name amen thank you