Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.gracechurchwilliamsburg.org/sermons/26127/go-big-and-go-home-part-2/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Father, this morning, rejoicing in the steadfast love of God as he teaches us to live holy lives in the midst of suffering and persecution in this life. Not necessarily and hopefully not because we're sinning and being disciplined by the Lord, but because we're living holy lives and the world hates that. And so we incur that kind of persecution for living faithfully to God.

[0:30] So, friends, before we get into reading the text, let me tell you just a brief little story here.

[0:41] At one time, in my extended family, my parents, Suzanne and I, and brothers and sisters as grown adults, we actually owned and operated a working farm in rural middle Georgia on the edge of the Ichikani Swamp where I was raised. That's my people. We had all kinds of animals. No kidding. All right. I'm just going to give you some. This is not all of them. We had a pair of buffalo. We had multiple donkeys and ponies, miniature horses. We had sheep. We had goats, pigs, lots of rabbits, well over 300 and something at one time. Hundreds of emus, some huge ostriches. We had chickens, ducks, geese, peacocks, turkeys, dogs, and if you can believe it, even millions upon millions of worms. We sold worms.

[1:57] Now, one of the things that we did on our farm was we had busloads of school-age children from the cities and towns around middle Georgia and actually as far away some as South Atlanta come down to visit our farm. They wanted to see the animals and see how a working farm operated. And so that became a lucrative aspect of our farm life as we tried to branch out and think of ways that we could generate income for all these families that were working the farm at that time. We didn't just depend on agriculture or even the animals themselves producing something, although that was a lucrative part as well. So we wanted to show these kids, here are the animals and here's how we labor together on the farm in different aspects of farm life. Now, believe it or not, there were kids who would come out and they had never seen most of these animals. I'm not just talking about the buffalo, but just a goat or a sheep or real chickens. They'd never seen those animals do their thing except on TV. And so you can imagine it's like when they would go to different places and they would have petting zoos where they put goats and sheep and all. Well, my kids, when they were little like you guys, and we would go to places like that, we'd just walk right by because the farm was the petting zoo. They could pet anything they wanted to. When little baby emus were hatched out of their eggs, we would give them to my kids and they'd walk around the farm with them in their arms. Now, three months later, they were three and a half to four feet tall, some of them bigger than them. So they couldn't do that and they were mean.

[3:45] So we wouldn't let them hold them when they were that big. They'd run from them. But this was a fun time for the kids to come out and see all of this happening on what we called Misty Oaks Farm. We had these huge big white oak acorn trees back in the back in a meadow right before the border of the swamp, the Ichikani Creek. And when the mist would settle over that meadow in those trees, it was like postcard beautiful. So Misty Oaks Farm. All right, now let's just do the little scenario. What if while we were showing the children our sheep, let's say they were going to look at our sheep in the sheep pen, the sheep started to go like this. Eeyah, eeyah, eeyah.

[4:32] What if the sheep started doing that? What's that sound? What animal makes that sound? A donkey. That was a pretty decent donkey, right? Thank you. Yeah, a donkey brain, right? And then what if we said to the kids, all right, all right, we'll come over here and see our ducks. And the ducks started to go like this. Bah, bah, all the ducks running around doing that. And then what if we said, well, come over here and we'll let you pet our dogs and our puppies? And the dogs started going like this. What if what if that happened? This is what would happen. You'd say, this is a crazy farm.

[5:21] I'm getting out of here. Right. And you'd leave. Well, I don't blame you. Animals, animals, animals act like they do because of their nature. So that's a very silly illustration of what could never happen. Dogs are never going to cluck like chickens.

[5:44] Ducks are never going to bah like sheep. It's just not going to happen because animals do what is according to their nature, what's inside of them, the way that God made them to be. In fact, everything that lives on this earth does what it does because of its nature, because of what it is inside working its way outside in the way that it acts. God made chickens to clock and sheep to bat and donkeys to bray and they act like what God made them to be. Now, humans are not animals.

[6:29] Human beings like you are very, very different from animals. And yet we share this characteristic with animals. We also act, live, do by what is inside of us. We have a nature.

[6:51] And so we act according to that nature, though we are very different from animals. So you and I don't go around getting on all fours and eating our food out of a dog dish on the floor, do we?

[7:07] And when we want to talk to each other, we don't talk to each other by going, and then I say, okay, tell me what I just said. And you say, you said, right? No, we speak. We're very, very unique and different from animals, aren't we? In so many ways. But we're acting out of human nature, not animal nature. And that's why we do what we do. Because of what we are on the inside, working its way to the outside in what we say, what we do, how we live.

[7:50] Now, in 1 Peter, to the Bible, in the book of 1 Peter, if you'll look at chapter 1, verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, he has done something very special in the lives of these human beings. He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

[8:29] And then as he comes to verse 13, he begins to tell his Christian readers that what God has caused inside of them, that is, being born again to a living hope, needs to work its way outside them in the way they live each day. So he spent all these verses, 12 verses, talking about the wonders of how God has regenerated you, recreated you. He has changed your very nature from being a rebellious person against God, an unbelieving person outside of faith in God, to a new creature who loves God and wants to obey God and believes God, two very distinct and different human beings. And he's taken you from being one to being another, if you've put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And if you're trusting in him alone to forgive you for the sins that would send you to a devil's hell. Those are two very different natures. And so Peter is saying, given that God has given you this wonderful new nature to love him, live it out. Be in your behavior who you are in your nature.

[10:03] That's what he's concerned with. The rest of his letter will be all about that. And verse 13 gets us started in that way. To our great, great benefit, Peter gives us what we would say would be detailed teaching on how we can live, listen, as children of obedience to a holy God by, in a miracle of God's grace, being holy ourselves in all of our behavior. Will you look at these verses with me, starting in verse 13?

[10:40] Therefore, prepare your minds for action. Keep sober in spirit and fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, or it reads in the ESV, as children of obedience, I believe, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance.

[11:07] But like the holy one who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior. Because it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. This is an incredible, incredible series of verses about a new reality that characterizes your nature as a born-again person. We would say a born-again Christian, but that's redundant. If you're born again, you're a Christian. If you're a Christian, you've been born again. It's like people who say, we're going to go hunting at 7 a.m. this morning. 7 a.m. means the morning. You don't have to put the morning on that. So when you say you're born again, you don't have to put Christian on it, right? Because they mean the same thing. You're just being redundant. Praise God, we're born again. It's not just a grammar lesson. Praise God, we're born again. Holy in all our behavior.

[12:10] Peter now, now urges these readers to, in reference to my title, Go Big and Go Home, to go big. Go big in living out the rich reality of their salvation. The big, look now folks, the big that God has worked in you, because look, it is so big that God's brought you from death to life. It is so big that he's brought you from being a rebellious sinner to a God-lover, from disobedience to children of obedience.

[12:44] That's possessive. That's a genitive. It's possessive. It means that God owns you in that obedience. Wow. Wow. That's big. The big work that God's done in you now needs to come out in a big way.

[13:02] And he just means live a holy life. And we need to understand what that means. What does it look like to live a holy life? We talk about that. We sing about that. What does it mean to live a holy life? I want to show you up on the screen here what will be some encouragements. What will be some encouragements in these verses that Peter, Peter, wants to give us three ways for you and I to activate and apply God's salvation blessings, that big that he's worked in us, to how we live our lives each day. That is, working out or living out that big reality about you so that the world sees that. But listen, also, so that your spouse, if you're married, is a recipient of you living that big out in your life for God's glory so that the people around you are blessed in the spirit of holiness that you seek to live in. And that pleases the Lord. This becomes a win-win all the way across the board as you bless the Lord in a holy life, as other people are blessed from you living a holy life, as the church is built up from you living a holy life and made stronger because you're willing to deal with your sin. You're willing to face off with your flesh and the things that draw you away from a simple and pure devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. Second Corinthians 11 three. This is what it means in some ways to be holy. And so the first point that I shared with you from last week, obediently prepare your heart.

[14:51] That's the first way that Peter's going to talk to us about what this means. Now, last Sunday, using the first half of verse 13, I explained that as a follower of Jesus, you live and move and have your being in a salvation-soaked relationship with the creator of the world.

[15:14] Wow. Praise God. Then given the uncertainties and hardships, the trials that you experience in your life, Jesus living in you is the difference for how you respond to life. Friends, your life of responding to the kinds of things that happen in daily life should look very different most of the time from the way unbelievers respond in the circumstances of life. Why? Because there's one major difference that we can characterize based on what Peter's teaching here. And here it is because you aren't responding so much to circumstances as to God. That's why. Circumstances come and go and change in intensity and in kinds and all that kind of thing. But there's one steady factor about your life that doesn't change. God in you.

[16:19] Jesus in you. So when you make your life more about responding to God in holiness, you get off of the roller coaster and you find God giving you this peace we've been singing about and reading about, this steadiness of heart and life and mind and soul and spirit. It anchors you in grounds. And you hear people say things like this to you in those times. How do you stay so calm? And you say Valium. No.

[16:54] You say victory in Jesus. That's how I stay calm. Right? No. All right. Valium serves its purpose, folks. Have I had that one time? I was going to have some procedures done and I told them, Doc, listen, I've never been in the hospital. I've never had anything done to me. If you're going to do something to me, you're going to have to give me. So I don't want to know nothing. Right. I'm a baby. I'm a wimp. And so they did. And did it work, Suzanne? Yes, it worked. She said. All right. I don't remember. So she says it works. Yeah. The victory is in the Lord. Now, here's the rub in us responding to God. We need to respond to God. Jesus is the difference in how we respond to life. But there is a rub in all of that.

[17:41] And the rub is this. The rub is that the world is anti God. And so there is this powerful force that you live within and around and that permeates everything about what this planet is and what it stands for that is working against you, living a life that responds to God and not to just circumstances so that your heart and mind and soul and spirit aren't drawn into the system of the world so that you're copycatting and mimicking and mirroring the way that other people deal with hardships in life who don't know the Lord. The world works against you being faithful and living a holy life of responding to God in faith. You see that you live in a sin, curse, sin, drenched world.

[18:35] And all of that system of sin works. That's why you battle. That's why you struggle. That's why you stumble. Now, Peter wants our lives to reflect our salvation soaked relationships. So he begins with our hearts because our hearts are who we are. Friends, we relate to Jesus. We respond to God and to others from who we really are in our hearts as born again humans, as we could say, recreated humans, regenerated humans. These are words the Bible uses to talk about us when we've been saved by grace through faith in Christ. Now you say, Jeff, where do you get this hearts from? When I read verse 13, it says this, therefore prepare your minds for action or gird up your minds for actions. Keep sober.

[19:37] I don't see heart there. So what are you talking about with heart? This is just me reminding you. All right. Look at this. Our hearts, that is our real selves, the core of who you are is what we're talking about biblically here are made up of what we think, believe, feel, choose and desire. That all comes from our hearts. The heart is not the organ pumping the blood. That's a physical. On a spiritual level, your heart is the core of who you are, according to scripture, made up of all those things.

[20:14] And what is in our hearts is shown in how we speak and behave in relationship to God and others. I can't see into your life and see your heart. I can't. And you can't do that with me or other people. You look, Suzanne and I've been married for 38 years. And in 38 years of being married and a couple of years of seeing each other dating before that, I don't, I still can't read her heart. I can't look into her life and see her heart, her, the way that her self is functioning. Only God can do that.

[21:02] But I can see Suzanne's behavior and I can listen to her words and that can give me indications and insights into what's going on in her heart. Now, I want, I want to show you how I get that. Our lives reveal our hearts and our hearts are who we are. Look at this verse up on the screen. The God, the good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil for his mouth does what it speaks from that which fills his heart.

[21:44] Every single word that ever passes your lips comes from your heart, period. Sayeth the Lord. And then this, Jesus said, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in or steal for where your treasure is there.

[22:12] Your heart will be also what you value most and prioritize most for your life is where your heart is. That's where your loyalty resides.

[22:25] You can't help it. And your mouth is going to speak. Look, you spend 15, 20, 30 minutes with people and listen and don't talk much and you just draw them out and get them talking within that 30 minutes.

[22:38] I can almost 99% sure guarantee you you're going to start hearing out of their mouth what's in their heart. They're going to gravitate toward talking about what's valuable to them. What's most? It might be the wife and the kids. It might be Christ. It might be something going on in their life at that time that they're trying to face in the Lord, whatever. You see, we're going to talk about what's in our heart and what's most important to us because we live out of what fills our hearts. That is a critical key concept of biblical spirituality.

[23:13] That is what defines and drives us more than any other thing in our lives. Now, notice what the text says. By God's mercy, verse three, chapter one, verse three.

[23:28] By God's mercy, God has caused us to be born again. He worked salvation in us.

[23:40] And now by his grace, we are to work out that salvation in how we live. Do you see? The big has been done in us in the miracle of new birth.

[23:53] And now we need to live big out of that big new birth that God has done in our lives. So Peter wants us to live our salvation in a fullness of faithfulness.

[24:08] He wants it to be full and overflowing, not meager and spit and sputter. He doesn't want a roller coaster Christian life.

[24:19] He wants to steady us out and keep it full and meaningful and rich to live out of the depth of knowing the Lord.

[24:29] So he says next, noticed in the text, verse 13, keep sober in spirit. Keep sober in spirit. Therefore, prepare your minds for action.

[24:40] Keep sober in spirit. What is the ESV say, Greg? Being sober minded, being sober minded. It's about being, as I mentioned last week, spiritually alert.

[24:54] So you think high alert here, alert status. That's what we need to think about in being sober minded so that you maintain a spiritual outlook on life.

[25:08] OK, you with me? You maintain a heavenly minded perspective on living. Do you see why and how that would be very important to you getting to the place where you're speaking and doing holiness in your life?

[25:26] Where does that have to start? What did I tell you earlier? Everything you say and do starts right here. It starts with your desires.

[25:36] It starts with how you reason and think and interpret and perceive and make meaning of. All of that's going on at the same time.

[25:46] And then you activate your will and you make a choice in a certain direction based on what you're thinking, what you're feeling, what you're desiring. Then you set into motion all of that by what you choose from your will.

[25:59] This is why we say that in an unbeliever's life, all of that is tainted by sin and controlled by a rebellious heart.

[26:10] So it's no wonder that they then choose out of that fallen will, that rebellious will to do things that are in keeping with not loving the Lord and being rebellious.

[26:23] Now reverse that, change that all around. And now you're living out of a will that chooses to be obedient as obedient children, as children of obedience.

[26:35] That will goes in a different direction now, doesn't it? It's aimed at pleasing the Lord, something you weren't concerned about before you were saved. This is what's going on as Peter talks to us about being sober minded.

[26:50] If you think about it with me, just put it into the physical. And think about someone who is physically intoxicated or inebriated through drugs or alcohol or some mind altering substance that there's some chemical reaction going on.

[27:10] You can take prescription medications and it can alter the way that your mind works, right? So this doesn't have to be a super bad thing. I remember I was taught my brother just had surgery and he was telling me he hates taking the pain medicine, but he's in so much pain that he does.

[27:28] And I said, what's the deal? And he said, oh, Jeff, it makes me so crazy minded in my head, just makes me loopy and it gives me weird thoughts. And I hate it.

[27:39] See now think about the physical aspects of being some mind altering issue. Alcohol, drugs, whatever. How hard is it for you to remain mentally alert in that condition?

[27:55] Right. This is a nurse right here who understands the drug aspect of what it does. She worked with people who took powerful medications, right?

[28:06] And it can have powerful effects. That's what he's saying. Don't be spiritually intoxicated. Don't allow anything to come into your mind and your heart that makes you spiritually unalert to the realities that will have an impact on how you choose and live your life and take you away from holiness.

[28:29] Prepare your minds. Keep spiritually alert, sober minded. This is a call to action and it's an injunction that is a command for us.

[28:40] It's our responsibility to do this. So he wants us to succeed at living out our faith. Ready and steady your heart for the action that will help you succeed in living your faith.

[28:57] Now you say, Jeff, what is it again that the action that we're aiming at by preparing our minds and studying our souls and our spirits in the Lord being spiritually alert?

[29:08] What's the action? The action you're preparing your heart for is that of responding to God. Responding to God.

[29:19] The one steady, trustworthy factor in your life, regardless of what you're facing, regardless of what life throws at you. You have the steadiness of your heavenly father who controls every detail of the cosmos and your life.

[29:37] Oh. Wow. Peter is saying, let me tell you how to connect to that. And draw from that. So that you live a holy, God-pleasing life.

[29:51] So, friends, you prepare a godly mind and you keep a spiritually sober outlook on life to express a lifestyle of responding to God.

[30:03] And this begins, all of this begins with your heart worshiping the Lord. Do you see? Now what happens? Let me just put this in here real quick.

[30:13] What happens if we reverse this? What happens if we reverse the idea that everything that you're doing as a response to God comes from a heart of worship to God because God has changed you and made you a new creature?

[30:30] What happens if we reverse that? And say that everything that you're doing? Everything that you're operating from? Everything that you're speaking and doing is something that you're doing to help create pleasure in God and create worship for yourself for the Lord.

[30:52] Now we change all of that. Now we change all of that to work salvation. We put you in a situation where you're not doing it out of your heart. You're doing it out of a work mentality to earn something, to get something.

[31:08] God's favor. When God has already put his favor on you in your heart through the Lord Jesus Christ, you can't get any more favor from God than God's son living in you.

[31:18] That's as much favor as you're going to get. And it'll never run out. It'll never diminish. And there's nothing you can do to lose it. So live out of that favor.

[31:31] If we reverse that, now we're trying to earn favor. We don't want to do that. Just a warning. Just a little. Keep that in mind. God is pleased with good works.

[31:42] We just need to understand that God prepared them beforehand. And give the glory where it belongs. All right. We're squared away on that.

[31:52] Well, last week I briefly introduced you to what these two calls to a prepared mind and a sober spirit are intended to produce.

[32:03] Godly mind and a sober spirit support the first of two primary commands for faithfully living in response to God the Father.

[32:15] The first of two. The first primary command is fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

[32:28] You see that? In verse 13, as it finishes the verse out. We're in the second half of that now. So preparing your minds for action and keeping a sober spirit are how you faithfully come to the place where you are fixing your hope on the grace that will be revealed to you at the coming of Christ.

[32:50] Now, the question that begs at that point, what does it mean for you to fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus? The answer concerns Peter's second way for you to activate and apply God's salvation blessings to how you actually live every day in your marriages and your parenting and being a kid who's in a family to being single.

[33:18] Whatever it is, your work environment. And here it is. Obediently place your hope. I could also say this. Obediently promote your hope.

[33:30] That would capture the idea. So verse 13 might read like this. Set your hope fully on the grace by preparing your minds for action and keeping spiritually alert.

[33:49] In other words, put your hope on God's future grace. Now, stay with me as I explain this to you. So we won't miss this primary command of where he's telling us to fix our hope as Christians, because many, many, many Christians get this wrong to their detriment.

[34:08] And it'll put you on that roller coaster and it'll keep you all over the map doctrinally instead of helping you focus and zero in. The danger, the danger, the danger in not doing this, not putting your hope on God's future grace is that you will find yourself lulled and dulled to God's grace for your future sinlessness.

[34:36] You become, here's the thing, you become so fixed on this world and on your desires for this world that you lose sight of or diminish the saving grace of Jesus still in store for you, friend.

[34:56] See, your death brings more of God's grace to you. Your death puts God in the position of fulfilling his promises that what he's done to you in this causing you to be born again will be made complete only when you die and he ushers you into his presence to be with him forever.

[35:22] Now he sealed the deal completely. That's still coming. And that's the best. You think this is the best part?

[35:33] Are you kidding? When you woke up this morning, how'd you feel? Did you? 20 more minutes. I don't know. Did you get out of the bed like me?

[35:44] Oh, you'll see, you'll see, man, you'll see. We're the young ones. You'll see. This is not the best.

[35:56] The best is way far to come, right? It's beyond the universe better. The Lord tells us we can't even imagine what's coming. That's what he's saying.

[36:07] He's saying, friends, you need to live like the best is yet to come now. Now. That's what he wants. The grace, this grace that he's talking about, it's about God keeping his promises by coming back for you, taking you to heaven where the much greater reality of your new nature is going to be fully revealed with him in glory.

[36:33] Look at what it says in the Bible. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed, will be revealed with him in glory.

[36:47] Colossians 3, verse 4. Dr. MacArthur distinguishes faith and hope because both are in these verses.

[36:58] And he distinguishes them like this. The major difference between the two attitudes, faith and hope, is that faith involves trusting God in the present, whereas hope is future faith, trusting God for what is to come.

[37:18] Faith appropriates what God has already said and done in his revealed word. Hope anticipates what he will yet do as promised in Scripture.

[37:31] Boy, that's just good wisdom. And this is where we're being called to live. We're being called to live in this appropriating state and in this anticipating state together.

[37:45] That's how we live our lives. And only Christians can do this. This hope, this hope, is of the Holy Spirit. Spiritual.

[37:57] It's a hope fixed with future faith as you believe God for what he's promised you in Jesus. You say, Jeff, could that make a difference? Could that make a difference in how I live my life and how I face the issues of my life?

[38:12] If I'm able to think like that, to appropriate what God has said for me and promised for me now, and to anticipate with great hope, the best is yet to come for me.

[38:23] That this is all going to be surface. This is all just temporary. Well, folks, it's not a hope of wishful thinking like we use the word sometimes, right?

[38:34] Well, I sure hope it snows or I sure hope it doesn't snow if you're Suzanne. Or of positive thinking. It's not that. It's not Norman Vincent Peale and positive thinking.

[38:45] It's not trying to think the best in hard situations and put your little spin on it. Nope. This is a confident expectation of God making good on his promises.

[38:59] So who are you hoping in? Are you hoping in you? Are you hoping in the Lord? You're hoping in the Lord. Amen. This is why Peter tells us to fix this kind of hope.

[39:11] Look completely. On the grace to be brought to you. You see that in the text? Keep sober in spirit. Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

[39:27] The Greek word for completely is teleos. Teleos, which has the idea of to a complete degree.

[39:39] No surprise to the full or entire extent. So this is pressed to the very top kind of complete. And so here's what we can gather.

[39:53] Fix your confident expectation to the full extent on God's grace. Brought to you when Jesus is revealed in his second coming.

[40:06] So what he's saying here, you are fixing your hope on this grace. Grace is synonymous with salvation or inheritance. He's asking you to fix your heart and your hope on the salvation reality that God has brought you from death to life.

[40:24] And made you his child. That is fixed in heaven. And one day he will bring all of that to completion. So completely hope in what God will complete for you.

[40:40] In Christ Jesus. And let that be the difference in how you face this sin-cursed world. And your struggles against sin.

[40:52] This is life-changing reality. Let this future grace overwhelm your soul with hope. Because of the richness of God's goodness to you in his son, Jesus Christ.

[41:06] So what he's saying is this. Focus on your salvation. Focus on your salvation. Now unbelievers can't do this.

[41:19] Do you realize that? Now have you ever asked yourself about the unbelieving people in your life who struggle with life? Don't you ask yourself how do they do it? How do they get through?

[41:30] How do they make it? What? Well they're not hoping in the Lord. Right? So you know the answer to this question. So where does their hope go to?

[41:41] Ultimately when you peel all the layers away. Who are they hoping in? Absolutely. No matter what they're doing to help them get by. Whether it's drinking.

[41:52] Or this or that or the other. Whatever it is they're trying to distract themselves with. Or put this little spin on it. You know the Scarlett O'Hara. What it was she say? I won't think about that today.

[42:02] I'll think about that tomorrow. That's fine Scarlett. But it'll still be here. Because that's the world. So you might as well deal with it now. And she's like nope. I'll deal with that tomorrow. And you see where that got her.

[42:13] Did anybody see that movie? Gone with the Wind? It didn't end well for her did it? No. It didn't. No. Fix your confident expectation on this.

[42:25] Realize that this future grace. Should also. Help you live in great godliness or holiness now. And that's the last point.

[42:36] Look. Obediently protect your holiness. Obediently protect your holiness. You say well we've spent.

[42:51] Two sermons. In one verse. There could have been three. Or more. In verse 13. Now we're going to do 14, 15 and 16.

[43:01] Basically in one point. Because it's his second. Primary command. We're talking about heart. Hope. And holiness. Alright. Think of it that way.

[43:12] These verses move you from heart. To hope. To holiness. It starts in your heart. He tells you where to aim. What you're cultivating in your heart.

[43:24] Which is worship. Now where do I aim that worship? You fix your hope. On the grace that will be brought to you. When Jesus comes again. That's your greatest hope.

[43:36] That's your. The greatest reality about you. Is that death will not conquer you. You're going to die. And then live again forever. With Christ.

[43:46] Christ. And so now. He says. Go live that out. Go be holy. Just like your father's holy.

[43:57] Because your father lives in you. In Christ. And in the power of the Holy Spirit. Peter's command for us. To fully and confidently reflect on God's amazing grace.

[44:10] Still to come to us. Doesn't divorce us from the realities of the hardships. And trials of this life. Look. Verse 14. As children of obedience. Or as.

[44:21] In the new American standard. As obedient children. Do not be conformed. To the former lusts. Which were yours in ignorance. But like the Holy One.

[44:33] Who called you. Be holy yourselves. Also in all your behavior. Because it is written. You shall be holy. For. I.

[44:43] I. Am holy. God talking about himself. So preparing our minds for action. Keeping ourselves spiritually alert. Allows us to then fix our hope entirely.

[44:55] On what should motivate and define us. Most. We do not deserve any of our salvation blessings. But God freely makes them ours in Jesus.

[45:11] That's the first 16 verses. Of first Peter in a nutshell. And what he's telling us is this. This. This wonderful miracle. Of God's salvation blessings.

[45:24] That should well up within us. This overwhelming desire. To live a holy life. For God's glory and honor. If we can ever get to the point.

[45:35] Where we are so taken in gratitude. With what God has done in us. It will make us want to live out. What he's done in. And that's how it starts.

[45:48] It starts with your love. And joy. And devotion to Christ. And it works its way out of your life. And beams through your eyes. Through your mouth. Through your ears.

[46:01] And that's what we want. Right? Well look. Look at what he says here. Peter follows all of this. With his second primary command.

[46:12] About activating and applying God's salvation blessings. And here it is. Be holy yourselves. Also. In all your behavior. Fix your hope. On the grace that is to come.

[46:24] And then number two. Be holy yourselves. In all your behavior. Those are the two primary commands. Everything else around it. Is subordinate to it. In participles.

[46:36] A holy life. Is a God-pleasing life. Of joyful. Willing submission. To God's will. In all aspects. Of your life. Will of God.

[46:46] So it's obedience to. I could say it this way. Scripture. Because we can't know the will of God. Apart from the Bible. So a holy life. Is about living out. The will of God.

[46:57] In scripture. As it's been revealed to us. And it flows. This obedience flows. From your relationship to God. As your father.

[47:08] Do you remember. In Ephesians 2. 1 through 3. We read earlier this morning. Don't turn there. Just listen. Paul tells us. That before. God caused us. To be born again.

[47:19] As Peter puts it. We were all. Spiritually dead. To God. In our trespasses. And sins. And were. Catch this part. We were. By nature.

[47:31] Children. Of wrath. Now. What does Peter say? What does he say? In verse 14. We are now. Children. Of obedience. What a designation.

[47:43] See. We skip over this stuff. The preachers. Are the ones. Who say. Don't skip over it. As children. Whose new. Nature. Is to obey God. That's what God.

[47:53] Created us for. That's what he saved us for. Is obedient living. Worshipful living. Right? Live a God pleasing life. And all you say and do.

[48:04] The fact that you can do this. To God's pleasure. And honor. Is a blessing. Of your new nature. Being born again.

[48:15] Being made a child of God. Let me say it this way. Folks. Listen. You can. Now. Offer. This God. And father.

[48:25] Of your salvation. The most wonderful. Of gifts. From your own. Life. And that is. That you would bring him.

[48:36] Glory and honor. By how you live. In response. To him. Each day. You can't get any higher. In the gift. That you offer to God.

[48:48] Than that. What does God want most from you. As a gift. Because of what he's done for you. Your worship. He wants you to give back to him.

[49:02] In an attitude. Of love. And devotion. The greatest. And most precious gift. That he's given to you. What is it? He has transferred you.

[49:13] From being a worshiper. Of the devil. And of yourself. To a worshiper. Of his son. So worship. The Lord. In grace. In goodness. In holiness. And he wants all of that.

[49:25] To come out in your life. A life. Of worship. Not just here. What you're doing right here. This is you getting ready. To rocket. Into this world out there.

[49:35] And bring that holiness. To bear. On everything that you say. And do. In your relationships. Why? Well it brings God. Honor and glory. For one thing. That's the most important.

[49:46] And it testifies. To a watching world. That there's something. Radically different. About you. And his name is Jesus. Amen. I could say it this way.

[49:59] From verses 14 through 16. It's very straightforward instruction. Look. Tongue in cheek. Let me say it this way. You're a duck. So don't cluck.

[50:11] Quack. You're a Christian. So don't be pressed. Don't be formed. Molded. Defined. By your past life.

[50:22] Of sin. And selfishness. And greed. And pride. When you lived in sinful ignorance. In ignorance. Before God rescued you. From you. And that's what he says.

[50:34] As obedient children. Don't be conformed. To the former lust. Which were yours. In ignorance. But. There's another but. Like in Ephesians. Like the holy one. Who called you.

[50:45] Be holy yourselves. In all. Of your behavior. But. In that sentence. Is a strong. Contrast word. Don't give in.

[50:57] To the desires. That used to rule you. In your spiritual ignorance. I told you. It was very straightforward. But. Value God's grace. By being.

[51:08] Like. Or being. The word means. According. To. The holy one. Who called you. Be. Like. Your father. Be. Holy.

[51:20] By being. Who you truly are. In all your behavior. Could you have ever thought. In your life. When you were living. In sin. That you could say. At some point. I am.

[51:30] To be. Like. God. That's sobering. As you've been made holy.

[51:41] With the perfect. Righteousness. Of Jesus Christ. Live out. What your heavenly father. Put in you. So be molded. Be fashioned. Be conformed. And patterned.

[51:51] After your father. The holy one. Whose nature. You now share. By faith. In Jesus Christ. Look at a couple of these. With me. God wrote.

[52:02] As scripture. Something. About you. Which is true. And which can never be broken. What is that? You.

[52:14] Shall be. Holy. For I am. Holy. You. Shall be. Like me. Wow.

[52:26] And then this. Blessed be the God. And father. Of our Lord. Jesus Christ. Who according. To his great mercy. Has caused us. To be born again. To a living hope.

[52:38] Through the resurrection. Of Jesus Christ. From the dead. Prepare your heart. Place your hope. Protect your holiness. Yes. Go big.

[52:52] And then go home. Let's pray. Father. We delight.

[53:02] In the riches. Of our salvation. In Jesus Christ. Christ. We thank you. So much. For. Your grace. At work. In our hearts. And that we can come together. At times like this.

[53:14] And be encouraged. By the will of God. That's written in scripture. For us. By faithful men. And by the power. Of the Holy Spirit. We thank you. That we believe. The word. To be sufficient.

[53:25] For life. And godliness. Everything that we need. To live a God pleasing. Holy life. That you are here. Calling us to. And telling us to live. Everything we need. For that. Is contained in scripture.

[53:37] So that when you gave us. The Lord Jesus Christ. You didn't leave out. Anything. We have in him. All that we need. We have in your word. All that we need. And we celebrate that.

[53:49] At the same time. Father. We all confess to you. That we do not live. A life. As good. As the message. That we preach. And so we ask.

[54:01] Your forgiveness. Please forgive us. For the sins. Of our hearts. Our minds. Our sins. Of willful choice. Our sins. Lord.

[54:11] That are manifest. Through the way. That we talk to each other. And the things. That we say. Pride. And greediness. Being exposed. In our words.

[54:21] And in our actions. Lust. Coming out. In our words. In our actions. Selfishness. Self-righteousness. Please forgive us. Almighty God. Help us to.

[54:32] Soberly. Take to this teaching. To subscribe. And submit. To Peter's instruction. That we would fix. Our hope. Completely on the grace. To be brought to us.

[54:44] At the revelation. Of our Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ. And that we would be. Holy. In all our behavior. Even as you are holy. We thank you. For this.

[54:54] And for your grace. In Jesus precious name. Amen. judgment.