Be Holy Series

Workers outside of Milwaukee are building a new vehicle, called a submersible that will allow oceanographers to plum the ocean’s depths.

The submersible is to replace Alvin. Alvin, you may remember, was the Treasure Hunting vehicle that illuminated the rusting hulk of the Titanic. Alvin is able to descend to 2.8 miles under the water and allows two scientists and a pilot to look below the ocean’s surface. This new vehicle is scheduled to hit the water sometime after 2011. It is schedule to cost more than $50 million as it can move faster and stay down longer than Alvin. This new mini-sub will be able to descend up to four miles below the ocean where it will allow scientists to see At four miles below the sea, this mini-sub will be able to withstand intense pressure – files miles per square inch. There is an equally intense pressure for each one of us this morning. You may very well be unaware of this pressure upon you, but it is upon you nonetheless. It’s the pressure to conform to this outside world.

Today’s Scripture

“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” (1 Peter 1:13-16)

1. Is Anything like God?

“…since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16)

Holiness has the root idea in the Old Testament (quoted here in 1 Peter 1:16) of being separated from what is defective and evil and separated for God. So the Sabbath is holy to the Lord: separated from the pursuits of other days and dedicated to the Lord (Exodus 31:15). Priests are holy to the Lord, set apart from ordinary pursuits and dedicated in a special way to the Lord (2 Chronicles 23:6). And things could be holy by setting them apart from ordinary use and dedicating them to God. When you apply that definition of holiness to God Himself, something interesting happens. God is holy in that He is set apart from all that is evil and defective and impure.

That’s the first half of the definition. He is absolutely free from any taint of evil or deficiency. But the other half of the definition is that God’s holiness is His set-apartness for Himself. The holiness of God is the most fundamental reality of all. It refers to the reality that God is utterly unique and in a class by himself—that is His set-apartness—none compares with Him. There is no other Creator, no other sustainer, no other final measure of good and evil.

“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:?’I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.?7 Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen’” (Isaiah 44:6-7).

“There is none holy like the Lord; there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God” (1 Samuel 2:2)

“For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth” (Exodus 9:14).

“But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him? Who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to make offerings before him” (2 Chronicles 2:6)?

“what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him” (Psalm 8:4)?

2. Center Your Life on God.

Living is living permeated by God. God in the morning, God in the midday, God in the evening. God as motive, God as guide, God as moral standard, God as comfort, God as strength, God as truth, God as joy. What emerges from 1 Peter and the whole New Testament is that the Christian life is a life lived in God. Ever aware of God. Ever submitted to God. Ever trusting God. Ever guided by God. Ever hoping in God.

Your biggest failure and your greatest sin is to forget God.

“They shall eat, but not be satisfied; they shall play the whore, but not multiply because they have forsaken the Lord to cherish whoredom, wine, and new wine, which take away the understanding” (Hosea 3:10-11).

“For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces….” (Hosea 8:14)

3. Be Holy

Three out of every four Americans (around 73 percent) believed that it is possible for someone to become holy regardless of their past. Only half of the adult population (50 percent), however, said that they knew someone they considered to be holy.