1 PETER 2:4-12
Chosen to live a life of Holiness
Before I begin this morning I would just like to let know that the constraints of the noon time clock may not apply this morning. I know that I have been pretty good in the past at beating the clock, but this message is so important to all of us, that I feel the Spirit will be moving so powerfully that you won’t even notice the time.
This is one of those sermons that may need a Surgeon Generals warnings, “Message may be hazardous to your sinful behavior”
The text that I will be sharing with you this morning is as you see in your bulletin is 1 Peter 2:4-12
When Pastor Steve asked me if I would mind preaching this morning he asked me if I would be able to share text that would compliment what he had preached in Isaiah 40, and I am so glad that God is providential, because the text that I had left off with the last time I preached almost 2 months ago is I believe very complimentary to what Steve said in his “Here is Your God” series.
We saw in Isaiah that God is beyond comparison and our lives should that kind of God. In my sermon this morning I hope and pray to show that.
Before I get into the text at hand this morning I would like to back up 3 verses and begin by reviewing the first three verses of this chapter. But I am going to read it just a little different than it reads in your bible this morning. Now that you have tasted that The Lord is good, rid yourselves of malice, lies, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind, be like a newborn baby, and crave spiritual milk, so that by it, you may grow up in your salvation. There are three phrases in these verses that are I believe very important for the Christian to see in order to achieve the character of Christ. The first phrase is “you have tasted that the Lord is good,” by a resounding Amen, could I just ask how many of us have tasted that The Lord is Good. Good now that we agree that He is good. The second phrase is “crave spiritual milk.” What is this spiritual milk? It is the Word of God, we should have a true craving to read it, study it, and meditate upon it. I am standing up here in judgment of you this morning if anything I am preaching this to myself. There are times in my life that I do not crave spiritual things, and that is why I feel that this message this morning is so important. I am sick and tired of the sin in my life and I want to have a greater fellowship with God. God gave me something I did not deserve and I know that I should be living a life that shows Him just how much I appreciate what He did. The third phrase is “so that you may grow up in your salvation.”
This definitely lets us know that the life of a Christian is a life of growth, a life of suffering, mistakes, and healing.
Now let’s get to the text at hand this morning.
I would like to do something a little different this morning though, I would like to ask you to read the text with me and I would like us to stand as we read.
READ TEXT:
PRAY:
The title that I have given my message this morning is “Live the life you have been chosen to live.”
In my message this morning I hope to share with you the reason we should live Holy lives, and the method by which to accomplish this great and difficult task.
I only have 1 reason as to why we should live a life of Holiness. And that is stated by Peter just a few verse prior to where I begin this morning.
Chapter 1:15,16 but, just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." This exhortation is not just for the Pastor and elders but also for all of us that say we know God, and have claimed Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Allow me to share with you the meaning of Holiness.
This is from the Dictionary of The Bible
The root idea of Holiness is that of “separation” or “withdrawal.” It is a divine quality, part of the intrinsic nature of God, but absent from a fallen world. The basic theological problem is that The Holy God of the universe desires to have fellowship with sinful humans living in a fallen world. Since God cannot become less holy in order to fellowship with us, we must become more holy, once we have gained this holiness, it may be lessened by our sinfulness. Our holiness can be regained by confession and repentance when we do sin.
The very name, Yahweh, by which The Israelites called God, revealed holiness to be His chief attribute. This is the very reason that I believe holiness is the attribute that we should most vigorously pursue. I believe that all of God’s other attributes are important, but I believe that His Love, His Grace, His Mercy, all of these are shared with us because of His Holiness. This is the reason that Holiness should be so important to us. I believe that the fruits of The Spirit stem from holiness. And we know that all of these things come directly from God.
There are three points to my message this morning.
My first point, The work of Christ in Holiness, is found in Vv4-8 Read,
The first thing that goes into any new building is the foundation. Having a good, solid foundation is the most important part of a building. If the architect of a building has any brains at all he will be sure to figure in the best foundation. And if the builder wants to remain a builder he will be sure to inspect it before building on it. But unlike man’s feeble attempts at building something that will last forever, and never accomplishes it, God wanted to build something eternal, He did not want to build just a building, but a nation, and not one that would only last for a time, but an eternal one. The concrete and steel that we use, is good, but not as good as the flesh and blood that God used. What Jesus Christ did on earth as a human, and ultimately, on the cross is the foundation of our Holiness. But as you see this foundation is a living one, if the foundation is alive the building should be alive. God did not make this sacrifice in order for us to benefit only in our death, but I believe that He made such a great sacrifice for us to take advantage of it here on earth as well, our eternal life, and happiness with God begins the moment we accept that Jesus Christ as our Savior, We must give God, through Christ the rightful place He deserves in our life. That is we must make Christ not only Our Savior but we must also make God The Lord of Our Lives through Christ.
There is only one way that we can show God that He is Our Lord and that is to live a holy life.
I think that we sell The Almighty God short, when we resign ourselves to the notion that Holiness is near impossible to achieve in this life. It may be difficult, but it is not impossible. The Apostle Paul wrote, “All things are possible, through Christ who strengthens me.”
God wants to fellowship with a fallen mankind, and in order for Him to do just that, He had to devise a plan by which we could become Holy, without losing His own Holiness. He knew that in order to have an eternal fellowship with us, He would have to have the perfect sacrifice. He fulfilled that plan nearly 2000 years ago, when He sent His to earth to live for a time as man, and then when He ordained that His only Son should die a horrible death, on The Cross. You may have a question in your mind as to why God would choose such a way. Do not feel bad about questioning why God makes difficult choices. But do know this that God has the right to make those choices. For Jesus himself asked for God to find another way, but in the same breath He resigned himself to the fact that God would make the right choice, not only for Jesus, but the right choice for all mankind. In the Garden before His arrest he prayed Mark 14:36 "Abba, Father," he said, "Everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."
In verse 5 we see that we who believe are like Christ, or living stones, and we are being built into a holy priesthood. That is to say that we should take on the character of Christ. Jesus was compared to the priest Melchezadeck in Hebrews and therefore we too are in the same order of this priesthood.
We do not adhere to the sacrificial system of The Old Testament but our sacrifices should be Spiritual ones. God is spirit and so our sacrifices should be spiritual. I would like to offer 4 examples of what our sacrifices should be. The Body, Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. That is to give Him control over everything we do with our bodies. Is God truly the possession of our bodies? Our Praise
Hebrews 13:15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess his name. That is to say that our lips should not only confess His name, but we should not use our lips to defame His name, or His character. Do we ever use our words to degrade the name of God? Our Good Deeds that is found in the next verse. When you have more than you need be willing to share with others, and when you do it give God the Glory for allowing you to have the ability to do such things. Do we ever take credit for something we’ve done, when the credit belongs to the One who made it possible? And lastly our material possessions Philippians 4:18 I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. The people of Philippi gave some of their material possessions and Paul called it a pleasing sacrifice to God. Do we ever keep a little back for our own security because we do not trust that God we meet our every need.
Peter was not exhorting only the leaders of the church, he was addressing the whole church. We are all part of this priesthood.
In verse 6a God reassures that this plan for salvation was His idea. Peter quotes Isaiah 28:16 in this verse. Peter is letting it be known that this was God’s doing, He laid the foundation of salvation, and therefore the guidelines of Holiness. In verses 6b through 8 we see how the work of Christ separates mankind. The first thing Peter does is use God’s words to reassure believers that their faith is not in vain. And then God’s sovereignty is revealed. If God chooses those who believe, He must choose those who do not. These two and a half verses are direct quotations from two Old Testament verses the first is from (Psalm 118:22). The second half is from (Isaiah 8:14). God not only was in control of how salvation was imparted to us, but he is also in control of whom it is imparted to. Believers in Christ should take to heart the fact that God chose them. God may have created us all for His pleasure, but he chose those who believe to share His glory with us. He also chose to harden the hearts of those who do not believe. Not only does the work of Christ on the cross frustrate those who not believe, but I think that it also frustrate those that He has chosen. When I was doing my thing, I always wondered why I could not find happiness in it. I know now that it is because the God that lived within me would not allow me to be happy, until I came back to Him.
Why he chose some to believe and chose some to be frustrated I do not know. All I know is that after being convicted as I have been over the last month or so by Isaiah 40 and this text this morning, I am thankful that he chose me, and I will not take it for granted anymore. After Pastor’s sermon last Sunday I have made a part of my daily prayers that God would give me the strength and wisdom to remain holy. There is absolutely nothing I can do to repay the debt that I owe God, the only thing I can do is maintain holiness.
The second point of my message, The Exhortation of Holiness in the Church, is found in Vv9-10. In the garden God actually walked and talked with man, but after sin entered man’s heart God could no longer fellowship that way, He created the Church so that he could live with man again. He lives in the hearts of every believer. The church is not The New Israel as some would like to think, we have not be chosen to replace God’s chosen nation, but we have been selected by God to compliment them. God through His infinite wisdom ordained the nation of Israel to reject Christ and then ordained that The Apostles would share the gospel with us. Imagine if Paul had been directed by God to take a right turn in Asia Minor, instead of directing him to go into Europe. We may be in the position that the people of the east are in. I have compassion for the Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims, but I do know they will not see heaven unless they come to a knowledge of Christ as their Savior.
In verse 9 Peter gives Christians an identity, first we are chosen, an individual cannot and will not choose God, unless he chooses them. We are a royal priesthood, one of the divine requirements of a priest were that he remain holy. In fact if a priest were to go into the Holy of Holies, unclean or unrepentant he would be put to death. So without Holiness there would be no priesthood. We are a nation, a Holy nation to be exact. We are to be a people that a set apart, different, non-conforming. A nation is only as strong as its leader and fortunately our leader is God. Our nation is strong and will last forever. The Holiness of our nation comes directly from our leader. And finally we are a nation that belongs to God. One of the reasons that God was opposed to Israel having a King was that He knew that a human king would have the influence to lead His nation away from Him.
Are there things in our lives that lead us away from God? I venture to say yes, how do we change that we get down on our knees and ask God to forgive us, and declare that He is the Lord of everything in our lives. In this verse Peter also answers the question, why did God choose a fallen people? The answer, to declare His praises. Everything that the church does must be God-centered we must declare His praises.
In verse 10 Peter uses the negative-positive to reinforce his position that we should give all our praises to Him who called us. Before we were chosen, we were not and had not. But now that God has chosen us we are an organized people and we have received and will continue to receive His mercy.
My third and final point, The Exhortation of Personal Holiness, is found in Vv11 and 12.
In these two verses I see a change in Peter’s tone of voice, throughout most of the letter up until now Peter is challenging believers, he even went as far as to quote Isaiah 40 in the first chapter when he compared man and man’s efforts to withering grass. He has called us babies; he even makes it apparent that if it were not for God choosing us we would not even have an identity at all. But now he calls us friends. He is still firm with us, when it comes to our sin, but he also realizes the difficulty in living this holy life, in a world that despises God, and consequently despises those who have a relationship with God. If you recall from my previous message I had mentioned that the theme of the whole letter is remaining holy even in difficult times, or in suffering. Peter’s urging is equivalent to a command written by Moses. Peter repeats prior thoughts in these two verses. Once again he points out that we are strangers on earth. Before this urging he includes dear friends. I believe that this is Peter’s way of saying that he only wants to see good things in our lives. Peter genuinely loves his friends and this is why he uses such language to get through to us. He knows that a repetitive beating will only harden a man that sees this new life as difficult anyway. This sort of reminds of my friendship with Pastor Steve, you see he and I have been working on a discipleship program for a little over two years now, and he and I have not always seen eye to eye on issues, and consequently we have had some pretty tense conversations. Eventually though we hash things out and I realize that he tells me things I don’t like to hear for my benefit. I know that he wants to see good in my life. A friend should be straightforward and not afraid of offending when it comes to important matters and spiritual matters are very important. Peter repeats himself from the first chapter by once again calling us strangers to this world he did this for reinforcement. Our pursuits for happiness should not be the same as someone who is a permanent resident of fallen mankind. Our pursuit for happiness should be in our pursuit of holiness. Peter makes it clear in this verse that Christians will have sinful desires after conversion, and even after we have matured in our faith. I really appreciate the last phrase of verse 11 he says that our sinful desires war against our soul. You see our soul belongs to God now, and our fallen human flesh despises Him and therefore does not want to accept that He is in control. God through the Holy Spirit continually frustrates our sinful life and likewise our human flesh frustrates our soul. There can only be one Commander-in-chief in this war and I say for a Christian that has to be God. When faced with sinful desires, all we have to do is call upon the One who chose us. Just remember that He who chose you will also sustain you. And if we do fall prey to our desires, we must not let our sin go unconfessed too long. Unchecked sin will only get worse until we are so hardened that the things of God are no longer important to us. In verse 12 Peter finally gives us a very good reason as to why to live differently than the world. We must have holy lives so that the when Christ returns, the world will give glory to God for your deeds and they will not have any excuse as to why they did not trust in God before. What good would it be if we Christians lived no different than a pagan. What would be the attraction. I want my life to be one that glorifies God and attracts believers and non-believers alike to ask me why am I so different. What is it that makes you so happy all the time?
Before I close this morning I would like to share a song with you that I feel says it all. You will find the lyrics to the song in the back of your bulletin.
LORD OVER ALL
In closing I would just like to sum up my sermon in this, Live in holiness. How do we do that? Two things crave spiritual milk, or the Word of God, and make God the Lord of All in our lives.
