Sermon Notes

Below are my rough draft sermon notes from this past Sunday.  There will be typos and errors, as well as deviations from the actual sermon preached.  I share these with you as a means to help you go back over your own notes and study God’s Word.

 

Ten things Christ asks of His Church; Part One, To Joyfully Be Holy for He is Holy

  1Pe 1:3-16 

Sunday April 28, 2019

 

INTRODUCTION

God’s command to be holy for He is holy is the key to our joy and delight.  It is the doorway to happiness.

Reading the Old Testament can be hard. There are many genealogies. But also, there are many commands for the Jewish people in regards to holy living.  Much of this was to make them a peculiar people.  They were not to be like those around them.  They were called to live differently.

We too are called as Christians to live differently.  Nothing can be so clear as to live a life separate from the world and devoted unto God. He calls us to be holy.

The sins that formerly caused us to fear and dread God, as well as His judgments are now gone, and replacing them is a joy in that same God, knowing that He has redeemed us, bought us back. The true mark of redemption is a love for our Redeemer that drives us to change.  The essence of repentance is a change of heart that desires emphatically that we love and serve Him.  Without this, you may be dry, but a greater peril still is that you may be unsaved.

But fear not, for in what God requires, He also provides.

The call to follow Christ is a call to holiness.

1Pe 1:3-16  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  (4)  to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,  (5)  who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  (6)  In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,  (7)  so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  (8)  Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,  (9)  obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.  (10)  Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully,  (11)  inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.  (12)  It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.  (13)  Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  (14)  As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,  (15)  but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,  (16)  since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

 

THE HOLINESS OF GOD

Think about the holiness of God for a moment.

Isaiah chapter 6 and the confrontation

• Picture this scene in Heaven Isa 6:1-7 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.
• God’s holiness is the missing part of our understanding. Because of our sinful birth, we cannot see that which is spiritually discerned, unless God reveals it.
• It was God’s holiness that forbade Moses to approach the burning bush with shoes on.
• It was God’s holiness that gave Moses a glimpse of God’s shoulder only.
• It was God’s holiness that caused wrath to be poured out upon Christ on the cross.

Seeing God always brings death or purification

 

THE TEXT TELLS US… (Exegeting the scripture)

V1-4 An inheritance, reward, settling of scores against our sufferings, crown of life.

 

V6 Rejoice in the future

 

V7 Tests of this life are making us Holy, refining us.

Truly evidenced by being saved to display His holiness

Praise=testify

Glory=give credit

Honor=serve

Which are all part of being worshippers.

 

V8 Rejoice with eyes on Jesus results of the heart change we have

Salvation is a soul fixed upon Christ.

 

V10-12 Revelation reserved and reported, but now we know.

 

V13 THEREFORE,

Prepared + Minds = Action

Sober minded (Correct doctrine)

For the future

 

V14 Do not go back to sinful ways as heirs are holy, be holy (Standard of living)

(List how plays out in the application)

V16 it is written, not new, but eternal

THUS, WE SEE IN THE BIBLE THAT……..

Holiness is what makes God so very different from man. (Holiness= justice & wrath, Love and atonement)  God is to be served, He is not a servant.

God’s holiness affects all of His other attributes.  It is what makes Him God.

Holiness affects His splendor. He is the only to be worshipped. So much so, that to worship anything else is a sin.

Thus, there needs to be justice for sinful acts, resulting in Hell.  Hell is the continual wrath of God against the unholy.  God must be just.

But, because He is holy, he is also a loving God, not a hater.  His love then provides an opportunity for redemption. He is not obligated to redeem, but He chooses to.  Thus, He is even more worthy of worship.  In redemption, He displays His character of mercy and grace, to the underserved.

So in response, to those of us who have been redeemed, we seek a proper life.  We seek to be holy as He is holy, thus displaying His glory and learning and growing in His delightful service.  We delight in God.

 

THE CALL FOR US TO BE HOLY= APPLICATION

• Set Apart
• Morally Pure
• Active Worshipper

SET APART

We often think of holiness as purity, but that purity follows a first priority of dedication of exclusiveness unto God.  To be holy is to have a purpose.  That purpose is wrought in the design of God that every knee bow and tongue confess Christ as Lord.

You were created for the purpose of glorifying God and enjoying Him forever.

Ps 86, Isaiah 60:21, Romans 11:36, ! Corinthians 10:30, Rev 4:11

Ps 16:5-11, Ps 44:15, IS 12:2, Luke 2:10, Philippians 4:4, Rev 21:3-4

God’s command to be holy for He is holy is the key to our joy and delight.  It is the doorway to happiness.

MORALLY PURE

We are to be holy, and that involves righteousness.  The morality of our lives follows the repentant change of our redemption. Sanctification and justification call for change. Without change, we are not saved.

To be without change is to be without salvation.  But we do not desire little change, but complete change.  Spiritual growth is a sure sign of being alive.

 

ACTIVE WORSHIPPER

Again, Our purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  This is best performed by consecration (Set apart) and having a devotion that affects our heart and thinking, thus resulting in fulfilling our active worship.  To be a Christian is to be a verb.  We worship God.  We live abiding in Him.  We express the welling up of emotions through the doctrine of His truth redeeming us.

 

CONCLUSION

A holy God, who is so holy, that by the mere eating of a piece of fruit would have to condemn all of his creation to hell is not to be taken lightly. We must understand the holiness of God to be a holy people of God. It is non-negotiable.

• God is so holy that to abate his wrath his only begotten son had to suffer the cross, otherwise for all of eternity all of creation and the people within would burn in the fires of hell crying out holy holy holy is God Almighty. That those suffering in hell would pay for their offense against who he is by having to suffer without end.
• To be holy is to be set apart, not just for special occasions, but for a continual example in action of devotion and purity to the worthiness of God.
• And are holiness shines greatly in the midst of a dark and dying world. It is our obligation, as believers, as new creations, to be ambassadors of that holiness that God would be glorified and that the Spirit would work through us that more might believe, through hearing the gospel and giving glory unto him who all glory is due.
• To take the holiness of God lightly is to reject him. God’s command to be holy for He is holy is the key to our joy and delight. It is the doorway to happiness.

 

 

Verses for Seeking Holiness

1Pe 1:14-16  As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,  (15)  but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,  (16)  since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Rom 12:1-3  I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  (2)  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.  (3)  For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

1Co 10:12-13  Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.  (13)  No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Eph 4:17-24  Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.  (18)  They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.  (19)  They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.  (20)  But that is not the way you learned Christ!—  (21)  assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,  (22)  to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,  (23)  and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,  (24)  and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Gal 5:16-25  But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  (17)  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.  (18)  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.  (19)  Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,  (20)  idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,  (21)  envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.  (22)  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  (23)  gentleness, self-control; against such things, there is no law.  (24)  And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  (25)  If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.