Justin Thomas: The Call to Holiness (1 Peter 1:13-25) - Message from the 2024 CGN International Conference

[00:00:00] Welcome to the CGN podcast. My name is Nick Katie and on this episode we have another message for you from the CGN International Conference, which took place this past summer in Southern California.

[00:00:11] The theme of this year's conference was hope, suffering and glory, studies in the book of First Peter.

[00:00:18] This next message was taught by Pastor Justin Thomas, Justin has already been a guest this season on the podcast.

[00:00:24] He serves as the President of Calvary Chapel Bible College in Twin Deaks, California,

[00:00:29] and prior to that, Justin planted and pastor to church in Seattle, Washington in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of that city called Calvary the Hill.

[00:00:39] Justin also serves on the executive team of CGN. This episode is also available as video for those of you listening on an app which supports video.

[00:00:49] We hope you'll be blessed by this message. Here's Pastor Justin Thomas.

[00:01:10] Amazing things that the Lord is doing in our movements and in our family,

[00:01:15] but I do want to just take a minute and kind of recalibrate so that we don't just open the Lord's word as if it was another announcement.

[00:01:27] Heavenly Father, because we open your Word God, you know, every heart,

[00:01:32] and you know your own heart. And so we pray, Lord, that you would lay bear your intentions for us this morning from your Word.

[00:01:40] In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen.

[00:01:47] Holiness is almost buzzword worthy in Christian circles and by which I mean that often it's a word

[00:01:56] that has lost its true meaning but we use it so often we don't notice. If I asked the question,

[00:02:05] what does Holiness look like? A good deal of the first things that come to mind are things that aren't

[00:02:13] necessarily relevant to our passage today. And it's interesting here that Peter draws as he does throughout the letter.

[00:02:23] So heavily on his Jewish background, on the Jewish scriptures, on what God has done in Israel and

[00:02:34] in some ways effortlessly, pivots and transitions to a group of Christians drawn from all nations scattered across

[00:02:44] the Roman Empire. And what I want to do this morning as we look at this passage is try and draw out some of the

[00:02:54] facets or the aspects or maybe most appropriately the dimensions of Holiness. Peter is going to give us

[00:03:04] three. And so my hope is to provide a three-dimensional view of Holiness, something that gives it depth,

[00:03:11] tangibility, realistic characteristics to both counteract some of those placeholder Holiness concepts we have

[00:03:23] and accomplish Peter's purpose, which is to exhort the church that they're primary.

[00:03:33] By primary, I mean first order of business is Holiness. And so read with maybe getting here in

[00:03:40] verse 13 and we'll read through the end of chapter one. Therefore, with minds that are alert and

[00:03:47] fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his

[00:03:54] coming. As obedient children do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance,

[00:04:00] but just as he who called you is Holie. So be holie and all you do for it is written be holie

[00:04:08] because I am holie. Since you call on a father who judges each person's work impartially,

[00:04:16] live out your time as foreigners here in Reverend Fear. For you know that it was not with perishable

[00:04:24] things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you

[00:04:31] from your ancestors but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

[00:04:38] He was chosen before the creation of the world but was revealed in these last times for your sake

[00:04:44] through him you believe in God who raised him from the dead and glorified him so your faith

[00:04:52] and your hope are in God. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you

[00:04:59] have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply from the heart. For you have been born

[00:05:06] again not of perishable seed but imperishable through the living and enduring word of God for all people

[00:05:13] or like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field, the grass withers and the

[00:05:20] flowers fall but the word of the Lord and doers forever and this is the word that was preached to you.

[00:05:29] This passage has a good deal of depth more than we have time for in our session this morning

[00:05:38] but I want you to notice right out the gate that Peter is playing the greatest hits of Israel.

[00:05:45] He roots his exhortations in this passage into the three great identity realities of the

[00:05:52] nation of Israel. They are elected there called, they are redeemed and they are in covenant with the

[00:06:00] living God. That is the language of this passage and so he says that they are called to holiness.

[00:06:07] He says they are redeemed by the spotless land and he quotes from Isaiah the grass withers

[00:06:14] and the flowers fade a classic articulation that God will keep his covenant. Not only that but

[00:06:22] he roots the calling of Christians in the calling of Israel to be God's holy people and he's going

[00:06:28] to push it further. By the time we get through chapter two, he will have referred to Christians

[00:06:34] as a kingdom of priests, as a holy nation. He's going to take the job description of Israel and

[00:06:40] apply it to Christianity. So in some sense there is a deep continuity in this passage with what

[00:06:50] God has always been about in his people. In another sense there is something new and novel

[00:06:57] lurking beneath the surface which we would just simply call conversion. Did you notice it?

[00:07:03] As we read it, he consistently says not as you were but as you are now. No longer in those ways but in

[00:07:12] these new ways. And if you were in Pastor Wayne's session this morning, he's already walked through

[00:07:19] all the indicatives, all of the truth statements, all of the identity statements that lie behind

[00:07:26] the imperatives of this passage. In fact verse 13 is a transitional statement to the rest of the

[00:07:33] book. The intro is done and Peter says now let's get down to business therefore and then for the

[00:07:38] next five chapters he's going to hammer us with exhortations. But we must remember that they're all

[00:07:46] rooted in what came before as it says in verse 13 therefore with minds that are alert and fully

[00:07:52] sober set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.

[00:07:58] He's already talked about the revelation of Jesus Christ. He's already talked about the living hope

[00:08:03] that we have and he says therefore if this is true, let it guide your actions, let it set the trajectory

[00:08:10] for your life, gird up your loins which is the expression he uses here or maybe we would say roll

[00:08:17] up your sleeves be sober-minded and alert and then he begins his exhortations and the first one he

[00:08:25] gives us is a call to holiness. Now in a movement that values evangelism missions, church planting

[00:08:35] it is significant here to recognize that those things will come but they're not Peter's first priority.

[00:08:43] Now I want to be clear here this is not a separate issue it's not holiness and mission.

[00:08:56] In other words what I'm going to suggest this morning is that Peter's emphasis on holiness here has a

[00:09:02] missional importance. It has a reason for being so it's not just Christian should be holy and evangelized. Peter

[00:09:10] doesn't emphasize the proclamation here of the gospel but he does emphasize the demonstration and that's what he

[00:09:17] means by holiness and this will become clear as we work through first Peter together this week

[00:09:22] you will see that Peter is very concerned for how the behavior of Christians appears to and impacts

[00:09:31] their non-Christian neighbors. They are to live as exiles not just to remain unstained from the world

[00:09:38] but actually to reach them in fact we regularly say that Christians are called to be in the world

[00:09:46] but not of the world we will see that sentiment repeated again this morning but we also need to remember

[00:09:51] that Christians are called to be for the world and not against the world and although we may not

[00:09:59] always realize it holiness is a vital way we go about that for the world mission like I said it

[00:10:07] is the demonstration that coincides over laps with and enhances our proclamation. You may remember

[00:10:16] later in first Peter Peter is going to tell them to be ready to give a defense for the hope that lies

[00:10:23] within them. That's in the Greek that word defense is where we get the word apologia,

[00:10:30] apologetics. We should be prepared to provide a reasonable and compelling case for the things we believe

[00:10:36] but do you remember the context? If you don't you'll be exposed to it this week as we go through it

[00:10:41] together the context is when they suffer well they should be ready to give a defense. Our lives

[00:10:51] are the apology before the apology. They're the reason the world questions why we live the way

[00:10:57] we live and why we do what we do and that is essentially tied to holiness and so as we look at

[00:11:05] the passage this morning the three dimensions that jump off the page the three facets of holiness

[00:11:10] that help us to understand what it is and what we are supposed to do is first that holiness

[00:11:17] involves the character of God. Second that holiness involves the conduct of foreigners and third

[00:11:25] holiness involves a loving community. So let's look at the first one here in verse 14 as obedient

[00:11:32] children do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance but just as he who

[00:11:39] all you is holy so be holy and all you do for it is written be holy because I am holy. And so again

[00:11:48] as Peter begins his exhortations here he gives us commands he gives us grammar that tells us what to do

[00:11:56] in the imperative tense and there's four imperatives in this passage the first one is actually to

[00:12:01] hope we saw that in verse 13 but that one is really just a bridge or an overlay to all the exhortations

[00:12:09] we are to live in light of the return of Jesus Christ and you will see that through the rest of our

[00:12:15] passage you'll see it through the rest of first Peter but the next command he gives us is to be holy

[00:12:23] and again I want to ask you this morning if I ask the question what does it mean to be holy

[00:12:29] what comes to mind and it's worth pointing out here right when when Peter chooses his cross

[00:12:36] reference when he roots this idea he draws it from the definitive book on holiness,

[00:12:41] Leviticus but even there when we think of holiness we think of clean and unclean we think of

[00:12:49] gold utensils dedicated to service in the tabernacle we think of purity and even ritual purity

[00:12:57] we think of priests and we think of all these things and when we read this passage actually

[00:13:04] he assumes we know the content but he doesn't actually draw attention to those things

[00:13:11] the first thing I want you to know is in verse 14 as he says we are to do this as obedient children

[00:13:19] here to begin with before he gives his exhortation he recognizes a relationship

[00:13:24] in fact he's going to say that if our father is holy we should be holy

[00:13:32] and in pointing to this idea of relationship and pointing to this idea that we are children

[00:13:37] of the father of verse 17 since you call on a father he is making a commentary on character

[00:13:46] in other words what I'm suggesting is holiness is Peter understands it is not just something

[00:13:52] God has so also something we should have holiness in God is primarily expressed in his character

[00:14:02] and so for Christians to express holiness means to imitate the character of their father

[00:14:11] now this gets us to the first thing that we shouldn't have to say but we have to say

[00:14:17] which is that holiness is an ethical statement holiness is about ethics it's conduct

[00:14:26] that flows from character and this is important because again a lot of us take the idea of

[00:14:33] holiness and our first way of thinking about it pop culture wise and sometimes in our own subconscious

[00:14:40] is to think that it is in some way about avoiding other people sins you know what I mean

[00:14:47] right holiness is that you don't hang with those people and you'd never be caught in that place

[00:14:53] holiness is about keeping yourself clean from the contamination of the world around you

[00:15:00] but holiness in the character of God is so much more than that that in some sense you could say

[00:15:08] it's not that at all in fact I would suggest that that view of holiness sees holiness as something

[00:15:14] very weak and corruption is something very strong and so holiness is fragile and has to be

[00:15:21] protected and preserved but is that what we see in the holy life of Christ? Do we see Jesus

[00:15:28] avoiding places of contamination no we see him taking the contaminated and making them clean

[00:15:33] we see the same thing in Isaiah right Isaiah chapter 6 one of the definitive holy passages

[00:15:40] the one where God is declared to be by the angels holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts

[00:15:46] the one where Isaiah recognizes that he's just traipsed into a dangerous place for a sinful human being

[00:15:52] what was me for I'm a man of unclean lips from a people of unclean lips

[00:15:57] but remember that he's there by invitation he didn't just wander in he was brought there

[00:16:05] and in God actually provides for and does something about his uncleanness right he sends the angel

[00:16:11] grab the coal touch his lips now you are holy is it possible that holiness is contagious

[00:16:21] but again the reason why I think we get off basis because we start at the fringes of holiness

[00:16:25] we start at the ritual and the symbol we experience a transference where we mistake the picture

[00:16:33] of holiness for holiness itself and so what's interesting here is that not only does Peter quote

[00:16:42] from Leviticus but most likely the verse that's primary in his mind is Leviticus 192

[00:16:49] so be holy for I'm holy is repeated more than four times in the book of Leviticus

[00:16:54] but the closest to malagamation to the way that Peter puts it here is found in Leviticus 19

[00:16:59] now the reason why that is significant is because if you go and read it yes you will find

[00:17:07] a few references to what we would call ritual holiness this is where they're not supposed to mix

[00:17:11] their clothing or their crops you'll find them but the majority of statements in Leviticus 19

[00:17:19] that unpack the statement when God says be holy for I am holy and then says here's what this

[00:17:24] looks like the majority of them are moral they're ethical in fact there Moses records almost

[00:17:33] all of the ten commandments stated for a baton more than that you know what else is on that list

[00:17:39] the way that we treat foreigners impartiality in judging leaving leaving some of the crop for the

[00:17:48] war to gleam and most importantly right in the middle of Leviticus 19 we find Jesus' synopsis

[00:17:57] of half of what we are called the be as human beings it is there in Leviticus 19 where we're told

[00:18:02] to love our neighbors as ourselves so when God tells Israel be holy as I am holy yes there are

[00:18:10] symbolic aspects to that yes there are kosher laws yes there are distancing but the front and

[00:18:16] center core of it is moral it's ethical and extends even into areas again of how we treat foreigners

[00:18:25] the poor the widow the orphan that is what God's holiness looks like and we as the children of

[00:18:33] God are to reflect the character of God and so again if we ask okay so who is God if we are to be

[00:18:44] like him of course the great Old Testament expression one that would be so ingrained in Peter's mind

[00:18:51] is God's revelation to Moses in Exodus 34 and you know it you've heard it but reflect on it

[00:19:00] in the concept of holiness this is who God is verse 6 says that God passed in front of Moses

[00:19:08] proclaiming the Lord the Lord the compassionate and gracious God slow to anger abounding in love

[00:19:17] and faithfulness maintaining loved a thousands forgiving wickedness rebellion and sin yet he does not

[00:19:23] leave the guilty unpunished he punishes the children and their children for the sin of their parents

[00:19:27] to the third and the fourth generation when Moses wants to know who God is this is how God answers

[00:19:37] and when Peter tells us who we are to be as Christians he says this is the character that we are to have

[00:19:45] holiness reflects the character of God and what's interesting this in this passage is

[00:19:51] although it does emphasize the fact that God is ultimately and finally just

[00:19:58] the scales are tilted with compassion long suffering for given us this is holiness

[00:20:07] let me give you an example of this one of the places where God makes a distinction

[00:20:14] between himself and humanity as we know it listen to what it says in the book of Hosea

[00:20:21] this is from chapter 11 and at this point Israel has blown it big time

[00:20:28] they were in covenant with God they were elected by God they were redeemed by God

[00:20:33] and now they've basically thrown it all away to behave like the nations to live their rebellious

[00:20:39] lives and Hosea is great illustration of course of this is prostitution and here in chapter 11

[00:20:47] we get this glimpse into the heart of God who looks at his unfaithful wife Israel and response

[00:20:53] and notice what it says here in verse 8 he says how can I give you up Ephraim how can I hand you

[00:21:01] over Israel how can I treat you like Amda how can I make you like Zeboim my heart is changed within

[00:21:07] me all my compassion is aroused notice this I will not carry out my fierce anger nor will I

[00:21:13] have a state e-frame again now do you hear how the language of Exodus is coming through there

[00:21:18] this is God as usual this is not an abnormal one time thing this is the very character of God

[00:21:23] coming through but notice what it says here as verse 9 continues for I am God and not a man

[00:21:30] the holy one among you I will not come against their cities this is not just the character

[00:21:40] of God who is also holy this is the character of the holy one the holiness of God is made

[00:21:47] manifest in the character of God and Peter's call to the church is to establish to walk in to grow

[00:21:56] in the same character and again let me point out that that purity mentality that preserve

[00:22:05] myself against the risk of this contaminant world is almost diametrically opposed to this character

[00:22:12] who always puts himself in the way of sinners who always enters in and who ultimately

[00:22:21] took that same degrading disgusting defiling sin upon his own shoulders and dealt with it once and

[00:22:31] that is not unrelated to the holiness of God it is an aspect of it it is a manifestation of it

[00:22:40] it is the final and ultimate demonstration of it the unclean crucifixion in all of its

[00:22:47] gore and filth is a manifestation of the holiness of God and so Peter says as obedient children

[00:22:56] we also need to pursue that character in other words and this shouldn't surprise you

[00:23:01] the call to holiness is just the call to sanctification to become like the character of God and since

[00:23:07] no man has seen the father and lived but the one who has made him known Jesus Christ has walked

[00:23:14] a human life has lived out human relationships has loved as a human being in the midst of humans

[00:23:20] we know what this holiness looks like and I think it's essential it's central it's vital that

[00:23:28] Peter begins here that's the first to mention it's the starting place but he doesn't stop there

[00:23:36] notice for 17 since you call on a father who judges each person's work impartially live out

[00:23:42] your time as foreigners here in reverent fear now let's let's deal with the punchline and then

[00:23:49] the set up the punchline is live as foreigners okay now here maybe we're getting closer to things

[00:23:56] we normally think of in terms of holiness right here we see the clear call to live differently

[00:24:04] distinctively separately that that's part of what he is getting at here when he mentions foreigners

[00:24:10] but it's also interesting to notice his reasons did you notice his reason so he starts with the

[00:24:16] fatherhood of God as obedient children but now he reminds us that the father we call on is the one who

[00:24:22] judges everyone's work impartially now remember this is a lesson Peter learned first hand remember the book of

[00:24:28] Acts he sees the vision of the sheep down thinking in kosher law rise Peter killing me I've never touched

[00:24:36] anything unclean and it's all a setup right it's all a setup so that he'll receive the

[00:24:41] messengers of Cornelius and proclaim the gospel to Gentiles but as he's summarizing what he learned

[00:24:48] to the Jerusalem counseling Acts chapter 15 he says I myself have learned that God shows no

[00:24:54] partiality but what's intriguing here is about the application of that he says because God

[00:25:03] does not treat people differently you should live differently than people it's not a very high

[00:25:11] commendation on human nature and human society now it's also important to remember here when

[00:25:18] he uses the language foreigner here this is a key word for Peter right remember how we open the letter

[00:25:24] go back to verse one Peter in an apostle of Jesus Christ to God's elect exile scattered throughout

[00:25:30] the provinces of Pontius he's gonna hit this more as we go through the book but what is the

[00:25:38] conduct of foreigners have to do with holiness and again the ideas of difference the ideas of

[00:25:46] distinction I think are closer to the surface of what we think about in holiness but it's worth

[00:25:52] slowing down and looking at what he says here and so he says we're to live as foreigners here

[00:25:59] and then notice verse 18 he says for you know that it was not with perishable things such as

[00:26:04] silverers silverer gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down from your ancestors

[00:26:10] but with the precious blood of Christ so here he talks about our redemption and he makes a contrasting

[00:26:18] point he says your redemption is different it's unique it's significant not with gold or silver

[00:26:23] but with the precious blood of the spotless land as four ordained by God and revealed for your

[00:26:28] sake it's a huge passage but what I want to draw your attention to is the other part of this statement

[00:26:37] it's easy to miss notice what he says he says you were redeemed from what in verse 18 not with

[00:26:43] perishable things such as silverers gold you were redeemed from the empty way of life

[00:26:48] handed down from your ancestors okay so whereas the first part of this passage deals with an

[00:26:55] internal reality for sake your desires the ones that used to drive you remember what used to get

[00:27:03] the bed in the out of bed in the morning before you were a Christian Peter says our life should

[00:27:08] be continually turning away from those desires and turning towards the character of the father but here

[00:27:14] he talks about an external reality not the way you want but the way that you were taught

[00:27:23] the way that you were trained and again sometimes in a Christian subculture even in this context of

[00:27:31] holiness we can read over a statement like this the empty way of life handed down from your ancestors

[00:27:37] and we can take it for granted and we're like yeah we we got to leave all that behind okay

[00:27:43] but there's a few things I want you to keep in mind here the first is that this phrase handed

[00:27:49] down from your ancestors is a really common phrase in first century Greek it's a way that Greek

[00:27:56] philosophers Greek moralists Greek politicians regularly talked about society as the empire handed down

[00:28:05] from your ancestors the ethics handed down from your ancestors in other words this is usually a

[00:28:10] very positive thing and I think the place where we make a mistake in this is we so quickly

[00:28:16] read this handed down from your ancestors but we read it as being about their culture instead of our

[00:28:22] culture we read it about them instead of us and what I want to suggest to you is that you are so

[00:28:31] shaped by the ways of the world you grew up in grew up and a lot of them you actually don't think

[00:28:37] are shaping you just think are natural obvious that's just the way things are that's how culture works

[00:28:45] and the thing he wants us to recognize here is that this is also a forsaking and a personal one

[00:28:52] that we have to turn away from the empty way of life handed down from our ancestors now here's a

[00:28:59] really difficult question about first Peter the audience he's writing to primarily Jew

[00:29:05] primarily Gentile where is it a mix of both commentators will spill ink if not blood on this issue okay

[00:29:13] so for example if you read Arnold Frucht and bomb a Messianic Jewish commentator on first Peter

[00:29:18] he will be adamant that this letter is written to Jews because it calls them the elect in the

[00:29:23] beginning and he's very sensitive to replacement theology this idea that the church is the new

[00:29:28] Israel and so he says first Peter is a letter for Jews. Other people many people read this and say well

[00:29:35] clearly he's writing here to Gentiles he mentions no partiality he's thinking about the church at

[00:29:40] large he uses the language of Israel to talk about the church of God and they read this passage and

[00:29:47] see it as exhibit because the way handed down by your ancestors is the way of idolatry

[00:29:55] it's the way that Paul is always trying to point out in his preaching in the book of Acts

[00:30:00] it's the vain and feudal worship of idols that is on par here Peter many commentators would say

[00:30:06] would never say this about a Jewish background but Frucht and bomb does and this is what he says

[00:30:14] he says the empty way handed down by your ancestors is the fair sayacle traditions of men

[00:30:18] that Jesus was so concerned about and the reason I bring this up is because if Frucht and bomb

[00:30:24] is right about this passage and even if he isn't I'm pretty sure I'm right about the concept

[00:30:30] you need to recognize that there were things in Jewish culture that were not holy

[00:30:38] that the Jews who followed Christ were called to live as foreigners in the midst of Israel

[00:30:46] there should be something different about them something distinct and I would suggest you in a history

[00:30:53] as entwined with Christianity as America we are not absolved from the same danger

[00:31:00] that we can assume Christian culture is holy but it is really just the ways passed down

[00:31:07] from our fathers and without discernment the leading of the spirit dialogue with other

[00:31:12] believers especially from other parts of the globe we sometimes take for granted the ways

[00:31:17] of our ancestors for the ways of God holiness is a devotion to turn away from these things

[00:31:25] and unto a new citizenship set in the kingdom of heaven whose ways and laws are established by

[00:31:35] our father the king and his character and here's why I'm banging this gavel and rattling this

[00:31:45] saber I think a lot of times the battle for holiness in the church is reduced down to choosing

[00:31:52] between two preconceived options I don't know if you've realized this and I don't know if this

[00:31:58] true of other cultures but America is a binary culture it's A or B it's this or that it's

[00:32:05] Pro this or it's Pro that and constantly the question is faithful Christians must be here

[00:32:11] faithful Christians must be here again if we look at the life of Jesus one of the things that's

[00:32:16] so striking about his holiness because everything he does is holy is that he will not be put in boxes

[00:32:23] are you with Gameleon or Shamayam should we pay our taxes or not constantly Jesus is asked to

[00:32:33] pigeonhole and he says no the ways of God are different and what I'd like to encourage us towards

[00:32:39] is that holiness means to do things differently that if we can be easily categorized as not just

[00:32:46] Christian but also this that the distinction fades away what if holiness means we can't be put in boxes

[00:32:58] what if we're more rigid and more compassionate like Jesus was look at the way that Jesus

[00:33:04] dealt with sexuality do you know how easy it is to have a half Jesus on your views of sexuality

[00:33:11] nobody is more rigid and demanding on the Christian sexual ethic than Jesus Christ

[00:33:19] nobody is more compassionate for giving open-handed with sexual sinners and all the time I read

[00:33:26] people who pick half of Jesus and demand that but a whole Jesus doesn't fit in boxes

[00:33:33] it creates a new way a different way holiness is that type of distinct living

[00:33:39] there's an old story that I love that was told by Watchman knee about some new Chinese believers

[00:33:47] who were following Christ and one of them was working in his rice paddy once day one day and the

[00:33:53] way of rice paddy works you have to pump the irrigated water up to it so he pumped his water

[00:33:57] he went out at lunch to check on his crops and they were dry

[00:34:00] he was a little confused by that but you know sometimes things happen the weather he left alone

[00:34:04] it happened the next day and the next day so he finally went and expected his field a little bit closer

[00:34:09] and he found a pipe in his field leading to his neighbors field instead of responding

[00:34:16] he went back to the equivalent of his home group his Christian community he told him what was

[00:34:22] going on and said would you just join me and prayer to see what we'll do the next day he pumped

[00:34:26] enough water for two fields and he continued to do that every day

[00:34:32] a week later his neighbor came to him in tears and he said I don't understand I was stealing from you

[00:34:36] you clearly know that it's going on why are you treating me this way and he shared the gospel with him

[00:34:41] what if that's not just good PR what if that's holiness and so there is a sense where right here

[00:34:53] right now for the sake of our neighbors we need to live differently that is a dimension of holiness

[00:35:02] now let's turn to the last one verse 22 now that you've purified yourselves by obeying the truth

[00:35:09] so that you have some sear love for each other love one another deeply from the heart now I want to be

[00:35:14] really clear here Peter is not moving on to another topic it's not be holy and be loving

[00:35:21] now how do I know that because look at how he opens this section having purified yourselves

[00:35:28] that's holiness language okay one of the things that you helpfully have told your congregations

[00:35:34] your Bible studies those your ministering to is that holiness is not just separation from but it's also

[00:35:39] separation too it's dedication the difference between a spoon and a holy spoon is the holy spoon has a

[00:35:45] dedicated purpose and so rightly here purification is part of that dedication when did you become

[00:35:54] established set aside dedicated to holiness when you were bought with a price and you were no longer

[00:36:03] when you were washed with the water not just the water but of a clean conscience purified

[00:36:10] set apart for a purpose you may have been a spoon in the pub downtown now you were a spoon in the

[00:36:16] temple of God that's holiness he says having purified yourself which he also adds includes

[00:36:25] an alien love notice what he says here he says now that you have purified yourselves by

[00:36:33] obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other he assumes that that's not the command

[00:36:39] do you see that he assumes that because God has worked in your life and set you apart you have

[00:36:44] discovered in yourself a love for other believers and he says since that is the case

[00:36:53] he continues he says love one another deeply from the heart now I want you to notice something

[00:37:04] about this concept here and the first thing is if this is really a holiness concept then again

[00:37:11] we can find a kind of holiness within the church that is not three-dimensional holiness

[00:37:18] because sometimes we think that holiness and love are in tension and the people who are the

[00:37:23] dedicated to holiness are the most divisive in the church but not for Peter Peter says holiness is

[00:37:32] made manifest not just in the character of God not just in the conduct of foreigners but in a loving

[00:37:38] community and I'm going to tell you very quickly that two out of three is zero that if this is not here

[00:37:47] then it is not that character of God that we already observed which John defines for us is what love

[00:37:54] and so the love that's envisioned here is a love internal to the Christian community again the

[00:38:02] the conduct of foreigners means you play by the rules of the kingdom of heaven as defined by love

[00:38:07] your neighbor that's an external love but this internal loving reality is also a manifestation of holiness

[00:38:13] and it's important to note that in the Old Testament as well that God wasn't just interested in

[00:38:19] people but but people plural of holiness a community set aside and so here the way that that's made

[00:38:29] manifest his love and when he says love one another deeply that words only used a couple of times

[00:38:36] in the New Testament you want to know the place where it's the most provocative it's in the gospel

[00:38:40] of Luke in the Garden of Gassemony when Jesus is literally sweating blood in his prayers and it says he

[00:38:47] prayed fervently the word here means to extend extensive energy and so if we put these together

[00:38:59] since you have this love he says invest in it deeply the love that we have for other believers

[00:39:07] if it is holy is a love of blood sweat and tears it's a muscular love it's an energetic love

[00:39:15] it's a sit in bed and wonder how to love your brothers and sisters better love that is the love here

[00:39:24] now throughout this whole thing and we didn't have time for this Peter has rooted these realities

[00:39:31] in resources that the gospel provides so you can actually establish and cultivate the character of God

[00:39:39] because you have been adopted as his child you can actually live a different life in foreigners

[00:39:46] because you have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ and he does the same thing here

[00:39:51] he says you can accomplish this love because you were born verse 3223 not of perishable seed

[00:39:58] but imperishable to the living and enduring word of God God has done something in you that is both

[00:40:04] living and permanent that makes this type of love possible but where it is possible it is also

[00:40:14] necessary this is the natural and obvious outworking and again it's rooted in the covenant

[00:40:23] this new living permanent imperishable thing that's happened in you is the new covenant

[00:40:28] God has placed his spirit in your heart God has written his law on your heart and the first place

[00:40:35] that that's expressed that covenant is expressed is within the covenant family we call the church

[00:40:42] but don't tell me the church is holy when the church is divided don't tell me the church is holy

[00:40:51] when it's filled with slander and with backbiting and again the horrible irony of this is that

[00:41:00] slander and backbiting sometimes stems from this misconception of holiness and so there's a

[00:41:06] proclamation of preserving the purity of God so I have to say something and then we tear down those

[00:41:12] who'd Christ paid for with His own blood there's nothing about that that is holy this is why we need

[00:41:21] all three dimensions do we need to live differently than the world yes but we also need to live

[00:41:28] like our Heavenly Father and we also need to live in loving community and to fail one is to fail

[00:41:35] all three and and maybe I do need to reverse that and say the opposite that just saying I'm going

[00:41:41] to live like Jesus did and love people and then live just like the world in their version of love

[00:41:47] doesn't fly either we need all three dimensions here but again what I'm suggesting to you is

[00:41:54] we need all three dimensions for the sake of our mission for the sake of our neighbors as I said

[00:42:01] earlier holiness is contagious as I said earlier holiness is provocative it causes our neighbors

[00:42:07] to ask questions if we reflect the character of God then we like Jesus said our light and make

[00:42:14] the light visible we say this is who God truly is if we live differently than our neighbors we

[00:42:21] make ourselves distinct so that people pay attention and go wait what why don't you live according

[00:42:28] to the ways of our ancestors this is conventional this is common sense if you reflect past

[00:42:36] orally you've heard these comments right well that may work on the sermon on the mount but it doesn't

[00:42:40] make any sense in the workplace that's what lived differently means and loving community what happens

[00:42:48] in this room with these people not just on Sunday mornings throughout the church is also of

[00:42:54] mission importance what is Jesus tell us in the upper room discourse he says by this they will

[00:43:02] know you are my disciples by your love for what for one another Leslie new begins said at

[00:43:10] best he said the church is the hermeneutic of the gospel it is the interpreting principle

[00:43:16] that makes the gospel visible shows you what it means in flesh and it also makes it valid

[00:43:23] it validates it and says this is the way the truth and the life this is the God who is love

[00:43:29] this is what I've been looking for my whole life so holiness is not personal it's not private

[00:43:40] it's not optional it's not additional it's not just for the upper echelon the unique you know

[00:43:47] the the prophet in the wilderness holiness is the demonstration that gospel is real powerful and active

[00:43:57] in this world and it's such it is essential essential for Christian mission this is why Peter begins here

[00:44:06] but again we can't settle for story book holiness we have to have all three dimensions

[00:44:16] we must grow in the character of our father you must conduct ourselves as foreigners

[00:44:23] and we must deeply cultivate a community of love let's pray God I don't know why we're so

[00:44:35] prone to get this wrong but I suspect that it stems from our self righteous hearts

[00:44:41] that we really do want to not show impartiality we really do want to be distinct we want to

[00:44:48] demonstrate that we are pure then better than more loved than more righteous then

[00:44:55] and so we create these classifications of holiness that are man-made and run contrary

[00:45:02] to the very holiness of the holy one of Israel and I just I just pray for our churches I pray

[00:45:09] for our movement I pray for your church at large that you would purify that you would make it holy

[00:45:15] that you would peel away the draws and the impurities so that we would look like Christ who looks

[00:45:22] like God and I also pray Lord against this tendency of accommodation that says the gospel is

[00:45:31] most important just just love a man and don't worry about holiness don't worry about these issues

[00:45:36] it's fine to coincide these things Jesus forgives all sins yes God is forgiving compassionate

[00:45:41] long suffering but he is also just and he is not partial so if we were to reflect that just

[00:45:50] and loving God we must be a just and loving people and we just ask that you would do a new work

[00:45:58] in our churches there'd be a new movement of your spirit that is not just the proclamation

[00:46:05] of the gospel with the demonstration of its power in transformed lives and we thank you Lord

[00:46:14] that this is Peter's calling because it's your mission and it's your mission because it's your

[00:46:20] character and so we pray in confidence and we ask that you would do according to your will and Jesus name amen

[00:46:36] thanks for listening to this season of the C.G.N. podcast new episodes are released every two

[00:46:41] weeks so make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you'll be notified when those new episodes come out

[00:46:47] in upcoming episodes we'll have more messages from this year's conference as well as an

[00:46:51] interview with Pastor Dominic Done on the topics of doubt, deconstruction and how we can help those

[00:46:57] who are struggling with these topics we'd love to hear feedback from you on these episodes you can

[00:47:02] email us at cgnacowrachapel.com until next time God bless you