Book: 1 Peter

In this sermon, Pastor Babij examines the apostle Peter’s teaching on how fearing God as Father and Judge should lead to holy living.

Full Transcript:

1 Peter 1:17-21:

If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; ¹⁸knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, ¹⁹but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. ²⁰For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you ²¹who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Let us pray:

Lord, I thank You for another opportunity to be in the Word of God. To have it in our hands, read it, and hear it preached. To be able to worship freely, so I pray, Lord, that we never take for granted the peace that we have in our country to be able to do this. For we know it’s very precious and could leave us in moments. I pray we would always cease this time. We know the days are evil, as Ephesians tells us. Let us always be prepared to receive what the Word of God has for us. I know, Lord, for myself to your people, we all need what the Word of God says for our own spiritual growth, edification of the body, rebuke of sin, and for the advancement of the Glory of God. I pray, Lord, that You would teach us what it says, and I pray this, in Christ’s name, Amen.

In 1 Peter, Christ makes a difference. When we become believers, we are to live a different way, not the way we used to live. The exhortations that Scripture has already presented to us are designed for the believer’s preparation to be equipped for what lies ahead. We live in a hostile world, and we are going to face hostilities and sufferings. As the bible has been saying, Christians are living as aliens in this world.

Of the four exhortations, we have looked at two. First, we are exhorted to have a fixed hope. 1 Peter 1:13:

Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

We are to do this for two reasons: purpose of prayer and resisting the enemy. Second, we are exhorted to live a holy life. 1 Peter 1:14-16:

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, ¹⁵but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; ¹⁶because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”

An obedient Christian is someone we assume has listened, received, and believed in the Word of God. Also, we assume they understand what the Lord requires in the Word of God. Because they are now believers, they are willingly to do what the Lord says to live holy lives. Jerry Bridges said, “the only safe evidence that we are in Christ is a holy life.” If you know nothing of holiness, you shouldn’t flatter yourselves that you are a Christian. Bottom line, it is not those who profess to know Christ that will enter heaven, but those who live holy lives, which is the result and fruit of real conversion to Christ. Hebrews 12:14:

Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.

Without holiness, no one will even enter the presence of God. Meaning, set-apart or holy Christians are to reflect attitudes and behaviors consistent with our new relationship with God, in Christ. Apostle Peter’s concern is that the way Christians live should testify to their faith in God, show the character of God in their life, and then witness the Gospel. Therefore, a correct understanding of God’s holiness should change us.

Somebody going around saying, “I believe in Jesus,” but does not have fruit of holiness in their life, then something has gone wrong in their understanding of real conversion. When we are captured by the awe of God’s holiness, we don’t, at first, rejoice since God’s holiness exposes our guilty conscious and mountain of sins, which clearly lays bare our extreme unholiness.

Immediately, we realize that we are not like God, and sense that we will never be able to escape the punishment that is due us because of how we have offended God in our sin. After seeing the Lord God in His holiness, Isaiah concludes that he is done and that there is no way for him to go. In Isaiah 6, his view of God was heightened and clarified. As a result, he understood God in His holiness, which led to understanding himself and his need for repentance, which then led to an understanding of God’s forgiveness, cleansing, and need for restoration. Then, it led to an understanding of a willingness and desire to serve the living God, and then, ultimately, an understanding of what true worship is that brings man in touch with the living God.

When we begin to grasp God’s holiness, we begin to understand like Isaiah. All this talk of holiness includes the thought of approaching God. In the Old Testament, when someone approached God in the temple, they had to bring their sacrifice, have the sacrifice slaughtered, and the blood of the perfect lamb shed so that they may have their sins forgiven and approach God properly. Without that sacrifice, the judgement of God was upon them.

God is holy, and He must be approached in holy fear. The heavenly Father is not only a good and loving parent, but He is a judge who demands our obedience. Many people have the idea that the Old Testament prophets preached the fear of God, and the New Testament is nothing but the love of God. However, there are many places in the New Testament that will change one’s thinking on that matter. In fact, Jesus, and the entire New Testament, bids us to fear God, which brings me to our third exhortation in our passage.

The exhortation to have a fixed hope and a life of holiness flow together very nicely into this next exhortation, which is the exhortation to fear God. In 1 Peter 1:17, we are preparing to live for God, and part of that preparation is to understand that not only are we to live holy lives in our conduct, but our conduct before God needs to be a conduct of fear. Of course, this is one of the most misunderstood things in the Bible.

As believers address the Father, as children, they should never forget that He is an impartial judge towards His own children, and the holy one is without respect of persons, judging each one according to their deeds. After we become believers, God is evaluating our service to Him, our holiness in our life, and He is making proper and clear judgements on those things. Remember, the heavenly Father does not cease to be a judge once He becomes our Father, in Christ Jesus.

Christians are not able to say, “it doesn’t matter how I live because I believed in Jesus, and in the end, everything will be forgiven.” That is presumption, and we should never think in that way. Therefore, the Father treats every child equally based on what they have done. Again, God judges without favoritism or partiality of any kind. The Father knows the sum and substance of each person’s life either of doing the will of God or of rejecting the will of God.

In saying that, this is not horrifying fear such as the fear we had under sin and a father who lied to us, who is Satan that kept us under the extremities of death. 2 Corinthians 4:4:

in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

This passage helps us to discern that Satan takes a leadership role in the world to impose his influence upon humanity. As a direct resource, he is taking you down the course he is dictating. When you become a believer, you are off that course and on a new course. The course you are on now is a course led by God.

As human beings, we have many phobias. When I did a search of how many fears that could be found in the human population, I was surprised by the enormity of the list, a list of fifteen pages, front and back. Sometimes fear can grip us so tightly, we even lose a sense of reality. There is a kind of fear to be so horrible that it almost completely cripples a person from functioning normally in society. Fear is powerful and enslaving to many. As believers, if we are not careful of how we interpret things, fear will enslave us too.

In the list, I found a couple of fears. Acrophobia is the fear of heights, autophobia is the fear of being alone, aviophobia is the fear of flying, batophobia is the fear of being close to high buildings, and dentophobia is the fear of dentists. In addition, there is ecclesiophobia, which is the fear of the church. Hamartophobia is the fear of sinning, which we should all have as a phobia. Homilophobia is the fear of sermons, and hopefully, you don’t have that one. Theophobia, an uncommon phobia, is the fear of gods or religion, and zeusophobia is the fear of God or gods. The list went on and on.

With much proof supporting me, human beings are creatures that can be diagnosed with polyphobia, the fear of many things, and we all have those fears. There is a right kind and wrong kind of fear. In fact, our passage is pointing us to a healthy fear, a fear of the true and living God, in which we all ought to have. The fear here is not a fear of a slave nor merely a fear of the creature to the creator, but a reverential fear of an obedient child to a loving Father. At the same time, that child is not taking the Father with lightness or with indifference, and it is very important for a believer to make sure they have that kind of attitude toward their God.

Christian reverence rests upon the knowledge of God’s holy character and God’s plan of redemption, and both are important to understand fear. Fear and holiness is linked together in 2 Corinthians 7:1:

Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Leading to Christians being exhorted to fear God. More importantly, the fear of the Lord must be taught. You are not born with the ability to fear God, and it is not inherited nor given to you. Psalm 34:11:

Come, you children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

In that passage, there are two things: they are calling the younger children to come, so that the older people may teach the children to fear the Lord properly. The wise parent is to teach their children the fear of the Lord. Make no mistake, the fear of the Lord needs to be taught and modeled. This is not something that comes to us naturally, so it needs to be taught when the human being is a child and a new babe in Christ. No matter how old you are biologically, you are a baby spiritually. If you just became a Christian and are forty-years-old, you just became a babe in Christ.

Therefore, parents and the disciples of the church should teach this fear of the Lord. They can direct, mold, and shape a person to understand what that is, and then to live in that sphere. Romans 3:18 explains why mankind is so degenerate:

“THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”

Therefore, there is so much sin in the world. People have thrown God out, reinterpreted God, substituted God for their own idol, and their own philosophy of worship, so this doesn’t produce holiness or godliness rather the opposite, which is more sin and the proliferation of sin. With false teaching and understanding, this always happens, especially since there is no God, no standard, and no one to judge what you think or are doing in your life. Yet, the Bible teaches that there is a God, He has a standard, and He will judge you for what you do.

In the Old Testament, the children of God were reminded, Deuteronomy 4:10:

Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, ‘Assemble the people to Me, that I may let them hear My words so they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’

Specifically, they are to teach their children how to fear God. Each generation must teach the fear of the Lord, which assumes that we know what the fear of the Lord is ourselves before we can teach it and model it to someone else. Does the fear of God mean physical fear where we stand and tremble in the presence of the Almighty God? For a believer, it doesn’t mean that. However, it doesn’t necessarily exclude that either.

A believer has a whole different relationship with the Father because of Jesus Christ. The fear of God could be looked at with two facts. First, the fear in the sense of terror, especially since He is God. Second, the sense along with the first, which is of awe and reverence. In that awe and reverence, I mean also love for God. When you awe something, you hold that as something you cherish. When we think about God, we think of Him in awe as if He is awesome and that there is no one like Him.

A good working definition of the fear of God is to be afraid enough to care what He has to say, and to be humble enough to submit to His authority. Fearing God and loving God are opposite sides of the same coin. The fear of God has to do with worship. The one who fears God, in the Old Testament, is a true worshipper. In Scripture, you will find people who feared God, but what it’s saying is that the person is a true worshipper of the one true God. To be a servant of God, is to be at God’s beck and call. A God-fearing servant is not necessarily someone under the Mosaic Covenant or the Abrahamic Covenant. For example, Job wasn’t under neither since he was a gentile. Job 1:1:

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.

In Scripture, fearing God and turning away from evil always go together, so they are connected. Meaning, when we fear God, we turn away from evil, especially since we know that evil doesn’t please God. If you are growing in holiness, you don’t want to do what you used to do, go where you used to go anymore, or think the way you used to think. Job 1:8:

The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.”

Wouldn’t you like God to say that about you? Near the end of the book of Job, Scripture concludes, Job 28:28:

“And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; And to depart from evil is understanding.’”

The element of fear, in the usual sense, is not absent of true worship. Worship is to set on God, His importance, honor, and to give Him the weight that is due His name, who is creator, has supreme dignity, and is the redeemer of repented, Christ-trusting sinners. Leading to another definition that encompasses fear, trembling, awe, and reverence, which is found in Proverbs 1:7:

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 28:14:

How blessed is the man who fears always, But he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.

The fear of God will keep one from a hardened heart. Proverbs 14:2:

He who walks in his uprightness fears the LORD, But he who is devious in his ways despises Him.

The fear of God will keep one on the straight path from despising God. Proverbs 19:23:

The fear of the LORD leads to life,
So that one may sleep satisfied, untouched by evil.

Fearing God brings one to have a pleasant night sleep because you are not in control rather God is in control. We cannot spin all the plates. Personally, I cannot spin one plate before it starts tottering and falling apart. By understanding the fear of God, God is bringing us to understand that we don’t have to control everything. In fact, we cannot control everything, so why do we try to control everything?

Satan always promises greener grass on the other side of the fence, and he always makes sin look good and pleasurable. Don’t forget, children, the Word of God exposes him for what he is, which is a liar, deceiver, and he will never lead you down the path to fear the Lord God. Satan will always present God in an unbalanced way, and that is either as a tyrant or a lenient Father, who is absent, uninvolved, or uncaring of what is going on in His children’s lives.

We cannot go by these things and must have a balanced view as we look at the Word of God, which means that obedient children should never assume that our Father shuts His eyes to the sins of His children. We know the Father never judges based on social status, rank, external appearance, natural abilities, or talents. Of course, this is how everybody judges. In this world, if you don’t have those things, you don’t rank. None of those things matter to the Lord when it comes to the fear of God and walking a holy life. Meaning, we must choose to fear God. Now, a Christian can choose to fear God.

Knowing the Father is an impartial judge is paramount to how you will choose to act or will. You will choose either the high road or the low road, or the worthy way or the unworthy way. You are the one who determines what you will do and put into effect. Determining how you will act each day proceeds under the influence of various considerations. Everyday we are influenced by things and our bodily appetites. When things aren’t going so good in our body, sometimes were dull, lethargic, and no interested.

Affectional desires are going to affect how we choose. Rational judgements are going to affect how we choose. Spiritual convictions and level of maturity you are, as a Christian, will affect how you choose. If your conscious is convicting you, especially since it is being developed by the Word of God, you should not go against conscious, especially since your conscious is developing in you deep, Biblical convictions.

Also, examples and influences of others will affect your decision. In addition, the Holy Spirit’s promptings and the teaching of the Word of God, where the truth of Scripture is transforming your mind and soul in the right direction, is the very thing that ought to influence your decision. This will bring you to the place where you have a true view of life and a clear understanding of your own character needs.

Yes, the Word of God teaches us to better understand our self, and sometimes we are very confused, in our world, about our identity. In Christ, our identity is clear, and it will bring us to the place where our decisions are affected by our worthy conception of God in Christ. How we think of God, in our mind, should affect everything that we do. The Holy Spirit makes Christ evermore, truly known to us, and He constantly calls out new faith and new love toward God and man in Christ. In addition, He is constantly showing us new hope for the future and the blessings that come because we are in Christ, and He shows us the progress that we are making because we are living in a manner that is in the direction, not perfection, to serve God. Therefore, He turns the various events of life to their sanctifying use.

In other words, the Father is going to teach us certain lessons that parents cannot teach their kids, or that anyone can teach except for God. God will teach us lessons that no one else can teach us, and He is going to do that, and the Holy Spirit of God is going to awaken us to those things and to a desire to pray, which gets directed to conform to the will of God, not to our own selfishness. Ultimately, all these things come because we learn to fear and respect God. Proverbs 14:26:

In the fear of the LORD there is strong confidence, And his children will have refuge.

Also, the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life that one may avoid the snares of death. So, what are some things that we ought not to fear? First, we ought not to fear idols or other gods. Scripture tells us, 2 Kings 17:38-39:

“The covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods. ³⁹“But the LORD your God you shall fear; and He will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.”

Because we know that idols are nothing, we don’t have to fear other gods. We know that behind idols are demonic powers, so we should not fear them. When you do look at cultures steeped in idolatry, you see all kinds of wacky stuff, sinful behavior, and fear of not bringing the right sacrifices to the idols. Christians know that there is nothing to idols. Also, we are not to fear man. Proverbs 29:25:

The fear of man brings a snare,
But he who trusts in the LORD will be exalted.

Because we know man is nothing but dust, we don’t have to fear man. Thirdly, we are not to fear earthly calamities. Luke 21:25-28:

“There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, ²⁶men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ²⁷“Then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN A CLOUD with power and great glory. ²⁸“But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

We don’t have to fear earthly calamities because we know, from the Word of God, that they are just birth pains for the coming of Christ, which He has in His control. Just last week, I was looking through the news, and there’s a volcano going off in the Philippines, an earthquake off the west coast of California, and I’m getting upset because my daughter is in the British Columbia and they’re supposed to have tsunami. Then, there’s another earthquake and volcano going off somewhere else, fire’s in California, and this is all in the same day.

There are crazy stuff going on in the world, and it seems as if this stuff is becoming more available for us to know quickly. However, these things should never cause us fear because it is going to happen, especially since God says it is going to happen. Those are birth pains, like when the woman has birth pains, the child is going to come, so we know Christ is coming. This doesn’t mean we don’t get prepared for anything, but we are getting ready for the coming of the Lord.

Next, true believers do not fear future judgement. Hebrews 10:26-27:

For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES.

Because we know that our Father sent Jesus Christ to redeem us at a great cost to His son, by dying in our place, we don’t have to fear that terrifying judgement, especially since Jesus Christ has taken the judgement for us. This gives us great comfort.

There are several things that can motivate us to cause us to fear God. First, the holiness of God can cause us to fear Him. Revelation 15:4:

“Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For ALL THE NATIONS WILL COME AND WORSHIP BEFORE YOU, FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS ACTS HAVE BEEN REVEALED.”

Secondly, the greatness of God causes us to fear the Lord. Deuteronomy 10:17-21:

“For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. ¹⁸“He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹“So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. ²⁰“You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name. ²¹“He is your praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen.

In fearing the Lord, the motivation we can have is that God has done great and awesome things for us, and He continues to do that. In fact, there is no greater miracle than a conversion of a soul to Christ. Sometimes, this is minimized, but that is the greatest miracle. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, someone gets redeemed forever.

Thirdly, the goodness of God causes us to fear. When we taste the goodness of God, it motivates us to do something. Can we truly say that God has not been good to us? No, God is good. The more you grow, walk in holiness, and fear God, the more you understand how good He is and how much He has done for you, and what He is doing for you in your life right now.

Fourthly, the forgiveness of God causes us to fear Him. Psalm 130:4:

But there is forgiveness with You,
That You may be feared.

Next, the works of God causes us to fear, and lastly, the coming judgements causes us to fear Him. Revelation 14:7:

and he said with a loud voice, “Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters.”

There are two things every believer ought to fear always. First, it’s God’s discipline. If we decide not to walk in holiness, God will discipline us. If we are policing ourselves on a regular basis when we hear the word of God, most likely, the Lord will not have to discipline as much as He may have to discipline you if you don’t.

Secondly, we are to fear God’s displeasure, especially when we choose to live selfishly instead of for God. We are told, in our passage, where God the Father does judge His children. After our salvation, we will be judged by our deeds and works. How you live as a disciple of Jesus Christ will be evaluated. How faithful you run the Christian life will be judged, so Christians should live, in this world, with reverence for God in the face of coming judgement. Real disciples will be rewarded for their services or their reward will be taken away from them. 2 Corinthians 5:10:

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

This passage gives us a sense that judgement is definite, and every Christian will face a time of judgement, which is called the judgement seat of Christ. It is at that place that Christians will give an account before God, which is serious. Every day we live considering that, but this is not a judgement for sin. Sin will not be the issues at the judgement seat of Christ, especially since the believer has already been settled for keeps. The moment you repented of your sin and turned to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior, the judgment due you, because of your sin, was placed on Christ, as He hung on the cross of crucifixion.

There on that cross, Jesus satisfied the justice of the Father, and bore the penalty for all your sin. Your account is now marked, “paid in full by Christ’s death.” Your sins have been transferred to the cross, and Christ’s righteousness has been transferred to your account. Romans 8:1:

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

There is no fearful condemnation to the believer if they are in Christ, and how great is that truth. However, if that truth is stressed without bouncing that truth out with knowing we are saved for good works, then we’d have to take this into consideration: the reason for the judgement seat of Christ maybe obscured if we think that we are saved, and we can live the way we want. In fact, when we are saved, we are saved for good works and for God’s plan for us now.

Meaning, this accountant is not for the judgement of sin, but for the judgment of service and works. 1 Corinthians 3:8:

Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

We are not laying a foundation, but we are building upon that foundation. Therefore, the purpose of the judgement seat of Christ is not to determine whether people will enter heaven or hell. When that person believed in Christ as their own savior from sin, this issue had already been decided. The purpose of the judgement seat of Christ is to review our lives, services, thoughts, words, and motives after we became a Christian.

In other words, the Christian life became a very serious and sober thing. This is not a, “Oh, I believe and Christ and will do what I want.” Being Christian changes everything we do. After His perfect evaluation, Christ will either give or withhold reward.

Therefore, the Scripture is very serious and impresses upon us two things. First, the necessity of practical holiness and the fear of God, and secondly, faithful and sacrificial service to Christ. Even with all the certainty we are given with Scripture, concerning the security of Salvation and the Holy Spirit’s efficient, divine work within us, human responsibility still applies. As said in Philippians 2:12:

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God who is at work in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. Then, the standard of His judgement is our faithfulness. Therefore, this passage of Scripture is bringing into light what it means to fear God. This brings me to the last point, which is that Christian reverence rests upon the knowledge of redemption, focused in on one person.

There are four things that become very clear, in 1 Peter 1:18-21, and fearing God comes about by realizing the depth of God’s love for us, which is realized in the Cross. If the Cross is not the biggest motivator of fearing God, reverencing God, and living a holy life, nothing is. First, to understand redemption and what redemption has done, we are ransomed from a lifestyle of bondage inherited from our forefathers, and some would think the inheritance of their forefathers is good. However, the Bible says it is not good.

If you didn’t have Christian parents, a way of life that you were given was dedicated by evil desires, selfishness, ignorance of God, and ignorance of God’s will. Though, what could our parents hand down to us except what they knew? If they didn’t know Christ, all they could hand down was what they knew. If they did not know Christ as their savior and master, then all they could pass down was their own version of how to live life on this earth.

According to the bible, this is a life of bondage, especially since it never delivered you from sin, which is the problem. A lifestyle that was pointless and senseless since it had no lasting value, and completely devoid of hope. You lived in ignorance, in bondage, and died in bondage, which brings no hope in death.

Christ purchased His children and freed them from that futile way of life. This gives a picture of a prisoner, who needs to be set free from something he could not escape himself. Remember, ransom is the picture of God buying you from the slave market of sin, and that purchase was of very high cost.

Secondly, in 1 Peter 1:19, we’re ransomed by the highest cost possible, which is precious blood. Christ’s blood is an inestimable greater value than any earthly, temporary commodity like silver and gold. Christ purchased us with His own blood, not any temporal, human payment, which was an eternal sacrifice. His blood washed away our sin forever. We were rescued out of the slave market with a high price, and that’s the cost of the blood of Christ.

Thirdly, we’re ransomed by an extraordinary death. In 1 Peter 1:19, the translators must have had a hard time translating that passage. They were trying to avoid saying that Jesus Christ was like all the other lambs of the Old Testament, so it does not say in the Scripture that Christ is a lamb in a class with all the other top quality and spotless lambs. Rather, Christ stands alone as such a lamb, being no other like Him.

Christ is the original of all the copies of the Old Testament. Therefore, we are talking about a man, who dies in the place of a sinner and is called to perform what the lambs performed in the Old Testament for someone to have their sins forgiven, and have approach to the holiness of God, which is given to us by Jesus Christ and the high cost of this extraordinary death.

Lastly, we’re bought from the slave market of sin by a personal plan of God. Through Christ, we are believers in the true and living God. This is the right path, delivered to us by God, but it was planned before the foundation of the world, before you were born, and before the universe was formed, which was all done for your sake.

Long before creation, God knew what would happen when He created mankind. God was not taken by surprise. He chose the only way that sin, laden mankind could be brought back to Him. He foreknew His people and He foreknew Christ’s perfect sacrifice for us. God’s plan is personal, and if you don’t see the love of Christ here, and the number one motivation for fearing God and living a holy life, then you have missed the point of the passage.

Christians can persevere through life’s trials because they are elect, for whom Christ died. They have been chosen, in Christ, before anything, and God’s whole plan was all planned out before anything took place. Therefore, God is not taken by surprise, and knows what is going to happen. In fact, He knows the future already, and we’re heading to the future.

This frees us up from any kind of fears and bondages, which gives us freedom to serve God. It gives us freedom to put our head on our pillow at night, thank God for what He has done, and whatever God has for us, we are trusting Him. Also, it gives us the knowledge that everyday we wake up, we live before the eyes of God, and we are responsible for everything such as our words, actions, and relationships. We have an impartial judge, our own Father, who is not going to tolerate bad behavior or excuses, and He will reign it in for His children.

Therefore, Christians can persevere through life’s trials. Through faith, our present salvation is realized. Through hope, our future salvation is realized. Since Christ was the first fruits, believers will share in His resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15:24:

then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.

Someday the Lord is going to take everything and hand it back to the Father. That day hasn’t come yet, but it is coming. So, because God is holy, you know that you are to be holy, especially since you are one of His kids. You know that the Father is to be feared and revered in a proper way, and that means you are to love Him. Love and fear are different sides of the same coin.

Then, you know God’s purpose to redeem His people, in the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which happened long before anything was here. Meaning, it was never touched by human beings, or messed up by anyone of us. God has full control of everything, and He is sovereign over everything.

On a sad note, if someone is not rescued from this futile way of life they were born into, their life will end in condemnation from a Judge, who judges all things according to their works. I pray that this is not you, and being that you read this message, it shouldn’t be you.

Therefore, the fear of God in our life is necessary for worship, service, to keep us from sin, for good government, for the further progression of the understanding of God, the administration of justice, and the perfecting of holiness in our Christian lives. The result of fearing God is that it brings pleasure to the Lord, and it causes the Lord’s pity to be increased upon us every single day.

Also, it brings acceptance with God, mercy of God, blessing, confidence, separation from evil, fellowship, it supersedes the fear of man or world, answers to prayer, and a long life. It brings a longer life. Of course, this is in God’s control, but if you are a wise person, you can live longer, especially since you won’t do stupid things to your body. In addition, you have a sound mind too since you are understanding truth, which is cleaning you up, correcting everything, and causing you to live in a right way.

In conclusion, let’s pray that God will teach us to fear Him, and let’s be serious about it. Psalm 86:11:

Teach me Your way, O LORD;
I will walk in Your truth;
Unite my heart to fear Your name.

Proverbs 15:16:

Better is a little with the fear of the LORD Than great treasure and turmoil with it.

Let’s pray:

Lord, I Thank You for bringing to our mind the truths found right in the Word of God, in our hands. Thank You, Lord, for the sovereignty that we see in Your whole plan of salvation. I pray, Lord, You would teach everyone of us to fear You and have reverence for You. Lord, that we would be afraid enough to care what about You say, and that we would humble ourselves into Your mighty hands so that we can submit to Your authority over our life. Lord Jesus, You are our master now, and sin is no longer our master. We’re not our master, but You are. I pray, Lord Jesus, as we do that, we would realize that fearing God and loving God are the opposite sides of the same coin. Lord, as we begin to grow in this, free us up from any other bondages that we have dragged into our Christian life, so Lord, we can learn everyday how to live in a pleasing manner before Your eyes, and give You glory and thanks for all that You have done. I pray this, in Your name, Amen.

In this sermon, Pastor Babij continues teaching from 1 Peter how Christians are called to be holy since God Himself is holy. Pastor Babij explains how Christians are to bear fruit unto holiness and what such fruit looks like. Pastor concludes by exhorting Christians to fear God.

Full Transcript:

Lord, as we consider the topic within the passage, I pray Lord that we would examine ourselves to see how we’re doing. So, Lord, we can know that we have progress in the Lord. Since the day we believed, every day there should be progress. There should be something we are growing in and delighting in that we didn’t delight in before. I pray that it would bring us to live our life, and to have a relationship with You in which we are growing in our love for You, Lord. That our understanding of what’s going on in the world, and what we are to do while we live here. I pray every day we would learn to live before Your eyes, before anybody else. If we live there, Lord, we don’t have to be concerned about anybody else. I pray, Lord, allow us to live there, from the inside out, before your eyes. I pray this, in Christ’s name, Amen.

Last time, we were given several exhortations in Scripture. First, that we are exhorted to have a fixed hope. 1 Peter 1:13:

Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

According to 1 Peter, spiritual sobriety will be important in two specific areas. In these two areas, we are to be this way for prayer and resisting the adversary. In the next chapters of 1 Peter, we will understand the enemy, his character, and how he works in our life. Christians can be sober and decisive in their minds because they have a fixed hope in Christ, what He has done, what He is doing now, and what He will ultimately complete, which has been the point of this whole section of Scripture – understanding our salvation.

Under the second exhortation, we have been looking at the holiness of salvation, and how to live a holy life with a fixed-hope. We are no longer children of disobedience, wrath, darkness, or of the curse. Now, we have become obedient children to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:14:

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance.

You have listened and received the Word of Truth, the Gospel of salvation, which saved you in the person of Christ. Then, you understand what the Lord requires of you from the Word of God, which makes you willingly to do what the Lord has said to live a holy life. In 1 Peter 1:14, we are warned not to do or to be what we used to be since in our new nature, we are made new. Therefore, this obedience leads to responsibility. Today, we are commanded what to be in our new spiritual natures. 1 Peter 1:15-16:

but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; ¹⁶because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”

Peter quotes directly from Leviticus 11:44-45:

‘For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth. ⁴⁵‘For I am the LORD who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus you shall be holy, for I am holy.’”

In this context, the people of God were called out, by God, to be significantly different than all the nations and all the people around them down to what they could and could not eat. They weren’t to eat the same, look the same, worship the same, or to do the same things as the nations around them. This adjective holy, in both the Hebrew and Greek language, includes in its meaning synonyms like consecrate or to set apart, for or by God, things that are not common.

In the Word of God, you see holy ground, holy vessels, holy places, and holy days. The word holiday is derived from the term holy, which is a special day that is different than all the rest of the regular days of the year. A holiday is different where we are off from work, eat special food, or have a special focus on that holiday.

A person who is holy is different because God makes them different, but they are to cooperate with that difference. When someone hears the Gospel by responding to Jesus Christ by repenting of their sins and trusting Him alone for their salvation, they are, at that point, set apart onto God and as holy. When God touches you, you become different, special to God, holy, sanctified, and God’s possession. Only God can put the touch on something or someone that changes it or them from something common place to something special, different, and set-apart.

In 1 Peter 1:15, notice where holiness is to be manifested in our life, which is something we cannot recognize. You will become increasingly holy in all your behavior. However, I must warn you that I am not talking about moralism, and the Bible is not talking about moralism. Moralism is an improvement in your behavior. The Bible is talking about transformation by God. This is not something you are cleaning up on the outside with nothing happening on the inside, which is moralism. God cleans you up on the inside, which comes out of your life in behavior, and everybody has behavior.

In fact, we can tell a lot about someone’s behavior, and we can tell a lot about them by the way they behave. We don’t even have to talk one word, just observe them, their actions, their eyes, how their brow goes up and down, how their shoulders shrug, or whatever they’re doing. Body language can tell a lot about someone’s behavior.

This passage of Scripture is very pointed: you are to be holy, but holy in a specific area, which is your behavior. This is not ritual correctness, but genuine holiness. The Old Testament, the law, did not impart the power to fulfill the man to be holy. However, the Cross of Calvary, in which Jesus died and shed His blood, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost, changed all of that by providing divine enablement to carry out this command. Without God intervening and the Spirit of God indwelling in you, this command is impossible to carry out. Therefore, the command is very clear in Scripture. God is holy, and because of His holy character, you are called to be holy, which is seen in your behavior.

The Holy Spirit makes us holy, and as we cooperate with His promptings, which is to put off your sin and put on righteousness. In that process, we become increasingly holy and sanctified. God furnishes the power and ability, and because of the salvation call, we are called to a life of holy progress. John Calvin referred to this as a definitive sanctification. Meaning, sanctification changes a human nature such that a believer no longer wants to continue sinning. The same faith, by which the sinner is justified, also makes the sinner sanctified.

In the Gospel, there is sanctification. Again, sanctification and holiness are synonymous. During sanctification and holiness, our hearts and our lives are conformed to the law. It is communicated to us by means of teaching and learning something we cannot see without the Word of God. We would never recognize it or know it without the Word of God. Acts 26:17-18:

rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, ¹⁸to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’

That is the Gospel sanctification, which sanctifies us. This process is continued in the doctrine of sanctification. Simply, doctrine means teaching. In this passage, there is a form of doctrine made use of, by God, to make people free from sin, and then, servants of righteousness. Romans 6:17-18:

But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, ¹⁸and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

In other words, we went from one slavery to another slavery. We went from the slavery of sin, which is a cruel master that wants to keep you in bondage and blindness, to a good master, who wants to free you up to give you understanding of who God is, what He is doing, and what you ought to be doing. It frees us up to understand righteousness, which means the right way to think and live, and God is the one who does that. Further in Scripture, we can know how to put our armor on to stand against sin and Satan in the evil day. Ephesians 6:13:

Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

All these things are included when we think about this subject of sanctification. Then, the Word of God is sanctification, which becomes very important. 2 Timothy 3:16-17:

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; ¹⁷so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Sanctification, in the Word of God, becomes very important to us. The Word of God gives plenty of instruction in righteousness that believers may be thoroughly furnished for everything God wants you to know and do. In fact, there is no attaining to holiness and Godliness without learning the Holy Scriptures. It takes work to learn the Word of God. The Bible says, 2 Timothy 2:15:

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

Double effort must be given to study since we must unlearn many of our former, deeply rooted notions and misguided passions and desires, which is our problem. The deep-seeded stuff in our heart will be dug out by the Word of God. All the garbage is going to rise to the surface. Believe me, God doesn’t allow all that garbage to arise at once. If He did, we would have the worst horror story that we could not deal with. God allows us to see it bit by bit, and as we see it, we don’t ignore it, but deal with it.

Therefore, we do have misguided passions and desires. We desire the wrong things, we have passions and goals for the wrong ends in our life, so God will have to change all of that. In other words, the Word of God, will redirect just about everything in our old way of thinking and doing. If I were to put a percentage on it, I say that 99.9 percent of everything that you ever knew must be changed, especially since we came at it with a sinful heart, the knowledge we got from the world, and from the deception that Satan threw along our path all our life to keep us in bondage.

We must be taught the Word of God. Once we learn it, we must put it into practice. We must pray earnestly, to the Lord, to teach us as well as to search the Scriptures of where we must get this knowledge. We must get this understanding from the Word of God. We are not going to get it from anywhere else but the Word of God.

In the following passages, each one has an indication to someone being taught the Word of God. Something they could have not known unless God taught them. Psalm 119:33:

Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes,
And I shall observe it to the end.

We have David and the Psalmists learning to be taught by God. Psalm 143:10:

Teach me to do Your will,
For You are my God;
Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

Then, the Apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 3:5:

May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ.

We don’t know how to love God unless He directs us there, we don’t know how to do the will of God unless God teaches us what the will of God is, and we cannot know the ways of God’s statutes unless we learn them from Him, but we must observe them. The Lord, Jesus Christ, in His high priestly prayer, John 17:17:

Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.

The word sanctify is to make them holy, set-apart, and different, which is what the Lord prayed. For every one of the true disciples of Jesus Christ, this will take place. If you notice in these passages, there is a dependence on the Word of God, so that we may apply ourselves to this holy practice. Meaning, we cannot apply ourselves to this holy practice without the Lord’s divine assistance. Without this assistance, we have no ground to expect any hope of success or forward movement in holiness. Evidentially, we cannot practice true holiness while we are continuing in a natural state or an unsaved state. Romans 8:8-9:

and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. ⁹However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

The Holy Spirit of God is very important not only in salvation, but also in sanctification. Therefore, the Apostle brings it all together in Romans 8:10:

If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

From Scripture, we learn that the old and new man are two contrary states. Contained in them, not only is it sin, but also of holiness. All other things are contained therein that dispose and incline us to practice something other, in the old man, that is holy. The old man must be put off, as crucified with Christ, before we can be freed from the practice of sin. Romans 6:6-7:

knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7for he who has died is freed from sin.

Putting off sinfulness and putting on holiness in all manner of behavior is what Peter is talking about in his epistle. Meaning, we can have a correct, Gospel-order of holiness and sanctification. The correct Gospel-order toward a holy life is as follows: God first purges our consciousness from dead works by justification, so that we may serve the living God. Hebrews 9:14:

how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

In other words, the cleansed conscious must come first before we can properly understand God and serve Him. Galatians 5:25:

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

First, we must live in the Spirit. Meaning, we must be made alive in the Spirit and the Spirit must indwell us. Secondly, we can walk in the Spirit. If you don’t have the Spirit, you cannot walk in the Spirit, so without the Holy Spirit, you cannot walk a walk of holiness. You must be alive in God by believing the Gospel, and the Spirit of God will indwell you. Because He indwells you, you can now walk in the Spirit. This is the correct order that cannot be reversed.

Against moralism, a person can walk and change their behavior, but it’s not the spirit of God prompting them to change. They may have decided to do it, or somebody is pushing them to change such as a counselor. However, anybody can change their behavior in this area or that area from time to time in their life, especially if it has destroyed your life. “Stop doing that behavior! Look what it’s doing to you and others,” so you learn to stop.

In this case, I am talking about how when the Spirit of God indwells you, you will change comprehensively. Not just in one area, but you will change in all areas. God changes us first in our minds. Knowing this order gives us an advantage for attainment of holiness. In other words, you have the advantage of the love of God manifested toward you. As a believer, we know that God loves us whereas before we didn’t know our position standing before God. Because we didn’t know anything about God, we feared Him a lot of the times, but, as the Bible says, love casts out fear.

Therefore, God loves us, forgives our sin, receives us into His favor, He has given us the spirit of adoption where He adopted us into His family, and He is giving me a hope of His glory freely through Christ Jesus. This is huge to know. People spend their whole life searching for that in various religions and meditations, but never find this knowledge. When you come to Christ, that is when you get your questions answered.

First, you must come to Christ before you can have your answers adequately answered. When the Spirit of God comes, He comes to persuade you with sweet allurements to love God, who has so dearly loved you. Also, to love others for His sake, not for your sake, and to give up yourselves to the obedience of all His commands out of a hardy love for Him. When you obey the Lord, it’s not a, “you must do this!” Rather, by a hardy love for God.

At that point, you will enjoy the help of the Spirit of God to incline you powerfully to obedience, and to strengthen you for the performance against all your remaining corruptions and temptations Satan can throw at you. As a result, you will have everything you need to move forward in this practice of holiness.

In this life, holiness is necessary to salvation, and you cannot separate the two. It’s not only the end, but part of the end itself. The true Gospel faith makes us come to Christ with a thirsty appetite, so that we drink of the living water and of His sanctifying spirit. Not only to trust Christ for true salvation, but a hardy desire to be made holy and righteous. Said by the Lord before the Spirit of God came, John 7:37-39:

Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” ³⁹But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Jesus is giving us a sequence of the promise of the Father in this passage of Scripture. He tells His disciples that it’s expedient to leave, so that the Spirit of God can finish the work. In other words, the Spirit of God is completing the unfinished work of Christ through His church. Jesus had to go back to heaven, sit at the right-hand of the Father, and make intercession for the saints. Meaning, the Spirit of God is important in our sanctification.

In sanctification, we start with justification to sanctification. When we became Christian, the first thing that takes place is that you are justified, where God declares you just before Him. At that point, we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, in which He begins the gradual process of holiness, or sanctification. Once we believe in Christ, change starts to happen immediately since the Spirit of God is in you. It starts the instant we are justified, but it is not complete until we receive the glory by dropping off these bodies. Romans 8:30:

and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

The process starts where it is finished in glory. In the meantime, we experience warfare. We start understanding that there is an internal struggle going on inside of us because we still sin. Romans 7:24:

Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

To a military person, who committed the crime of murder, this is an illusion. To a Christian, the old man is dead, but still there, giving off decaying odor until we are glorified, where we drop off this body of death and go to heaven to be with the Lord forever. Therefore, we experience this warfare of what the Spirit of God wants us to do with the remaining corruption that we bring and drag into our Christian life wants us to do.

Remember, God must remake us and create us new again, so He does this in our passions and desires. The Holy Spirit of God is cleaning us by making changes in our lives and bringing us into conformity to the will of God. This conformity happens from the inside to out, not outside to inside. We are not just cleaning the outside, or faking behavior. We’re smart enough to say things to the right people, at the right time, and in the right context, so we can fake behavior. However, this is not fake, but real.

There is a struggle going on within with what the Word of God says on what we ought to be, and we’re dealing with it inside because the Spirit of God is convicting us. Also, God wants us to see, in our life, fruit. If we’re going to have changed behavior, we must see and recognize the change. Therefore, God wants us to see the fruit of what the Spirit of God is doing inside of us. In fact, He wants you to see the fruit too. The goal of the Christian life is righteousness. We are being sanctified so that we may do what is right and pleasing to the Lord.

This holiness and sanctifying process is seen in our behavior. In other words, the term behavior is the center of concern in sanctification. Behavior shows what is and what is not going on inside your heart. If there is no internal transformation, it may mean that a person is not a believer. However, it can mean that they are masquerading around with righteous behavior with no internal change, which is call hypocrisy.

The Bible warns against hypocrisy. The whole book of Malachi is about hypocrisy. Don’t question the love of God or saying in your heart that it is not profitable to serve God. Don’t say, “since I’ve been a Christian, look at all that has happened to me! My life seemed to be better before I was a Christian.” These are things that will take place in our mind, so the Holy Spirit is inside of us to change us, and to produce good fruit in us. This is fruit of daily connectedness to Christ

In John 15, if you are not a connected branch to the vine, you will die away. If you are connected to the vine, which is Christ, you will live. You will be supplied everything you need to live, so there will be some fruit of daily connectedness to Christ of how much you depend on Christ, how much you are growing in your love of Christ, how much you are putting into practice of what you are learning about Christ.

Then, there is the manifestation of spiritual fruit, which is, as said in Galatians, love, joy, long-suffering, peace, gentleness, kindness, goodness, etc. Remember, it is fruit of the spirit, not fruits of the spirit. Meaning, it is singular since it is happening all at once. In that process, we must see where we are growing and not growing. Under that is the fruit of words, which is the words we used to use, but are now cautious to not use that terminology again since it is not pleasing to the Lord. In addition, actions that we have constantly used in the past, and since we’ve become Christian, those actions need to change.

Also, there is the fruit of righteousness. Knowing what are right behaviors that we have not been doing but should be doing based on what the Word of God is saying. There is the fruit of the fear of the Lord, so are you fearing God more than you ever have. Where are the fruits of service and good works in your life? Can we see them, or can you write them down on a paper? What did you do in the last year that you grew in these areas?

If you are not serving or being involved with good works, the problem is that you are selfish, or self-centered. All those things need to change so that you may be able to serve people. Lastly, what about the fruit of souls? Are you concerned to share the Gospel with someone you know doesn’t know Christ? Not only are you concerned to do it, but you are going to find out how to share the Gospel. You are willingly to learn the Scriptures to use to share the Gospel with people. The fruit of souls is something God will grow us in, and we realize that there is a bunch of people heading to a lost eternity without Christ. If the church is not concerned about them, who is going to be?

The Spirit of God is giving us a world-view that we never had before, an eternal view that we never had before, and He is giving us a really good view of ourselves that we didn’t think we were like. Personally, I thought I was a nice, good, and loving kid. When I became a Christian, I found out that I was not good or loving. However, it was the Word of God that brought that to my attention, and the Spirit of God that convicted me.

Therefore, the Spirit of God will bring you to repentance. Meaning, there will be a change of mind by impressing upon your consciousness or sin so that you can identify it and put it off. He is going to convict you of not only sin, but also of righteousness. Conviction is about what is right, pleasing, wrong, and evil in the sight of God. We become convinced by Scripture that we ought to change in an area, and we are given divine enablement, from the Spirit of God, to change.

Through Scripture, the Holy Spirit addresses your mind and informs your understanding with truth. He doesn’t bypass your mind but addresses your mind. John 16:13:

But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.

He is not only the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit of Truth, so the Holy Spirit is working on our consciousness with truth. Romans 12:2:

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

In other words, don’t get pressed into the thinking and sway in which the world goes. We get swayed by the media pounding us with one thing, which may be true or not true. Today, who knows if the media is true. Eventually, if you say things six or more times, people will believe it whether it is or is not true. In Scripture, it tells us to conform to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. 1 Corinthians 14:20:

Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.

When it comes to evil, you should be like a little kid. This doesn’t mean you don’t understand evil, but you don’t go there. God is maturing us. He is bringing us from the milk of the Word to the solid food of the Word, where we gain a lot of spiritual protein. You cannot get good muscle mass without protein. Therefore, you cannot get good spiritual mass, where you become strong, without the meat of the Word of God, or the maturity the Word of God brings to our mind on how we are to think as believers.

Through the truth of the Word of God, the Holy Spirit is making this change in us, and it is happening right in your mind. The Word and Spirit go together and should not be separated. The Word of God transforms us so that we develop deep and strong biblical convictions based on Scripture, and your conscious will not allow you to live against those convictions. It doesn’t mean you will not get tempted to go the opposite way when you will, but your convictions, in the Word of God, become strong that you will be able to say no to what you used to do before. The Spirit of God is making you strong to say no. Regardless if anyone doesn’t know, God knows, and you will not commit the sin anymore.

Everyday, this will bring us to the presence of God, and now we are holy because God is holy, and He sees where we are developing in our holiness. As we develop deep convictions, which comes from a transformed mind, we will desire what is right, and to live in a pleasing manner before the Lord, Jesus Christ, in all our behavior, which is what Peter is saying.

Bottom line, pursue holiness. The Spirit of God has made us sanctified and holy, but now we pursue holiness. You learn the Word of God until it changes your mind and gives you deep convictions so that you can serve God the right way. Hebrews 12:14:

Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.

If you are not developing holiness, you will not see the Lord. We are to pursue holiness, which is sanctification, since it is our responsibility as God’s children, and it is our responsibility to the members of the community to be holy. Hebrews 12:10:

For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.

Holiness is required, first, for our wellbeing. When God disciplines us, His goal is for us to share in His holiness. If you are not going to deal with your sin or put off your sin, and if the church is not going to deal with your sin, God will. If you are one of His kids, He will not allow you to live any old way you want. If you don’t want to step into an area to be holy, He will discipline you by bringing something into your life. There is a manifold of things God can bring into your life to discipline you in an area of sinning.

God doesn’t do this to destroy you, but rather to share in His holiness and carry out the command to be holy. The goal is to correct us and drive out the sin in us, but only for us to be more truly the children of God. God will ensure that we will be holy. That is who God is, that is His will for us, and it will happen if you are a child of God. God has not called us to uncleanness or impurity, but to holiness. We must earnestly strive for personal and practical holiness of life, which means that believers are to be set apart from evil and separated to God, consecrated, and entirely given up to His service. Therefore, it is for our wellbeing.

Secondly, holiness is necessary for our effective service. 2 Timothy 2:21:

Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.

God is growing you in holiness so that you may effectively serve. When people don’t serve, they have sin they have not put off, they have not put on righteousness, and they are not pursuing holiness. Until they do that, they are sometimes stuck in the mud. Don’t stay there to long before God’s hand of discipline comes down upon you.

In Hebrews 12:14, holiness is required for assurance of salvation. Why is it that people are not assured of their salvation? We need to know on the inside and proved on the outside in behavior that we are the children of God. Jerry Bridges said, “the only safe evidence that we are in Christ is a holy life.” If you know nothing of holiness, you shouldn’t flatter yourself that you are a Christian.

Bottom line, it is not those who profess to know Christ who will enter heaven, but those who live holy lives. Their holy progresses manifest more and more in their thinking, words, actions, outlook, world view, passions, and desires. Set-apart Christians are to reflect attitudes and behaviors consistent with their new relationship with God in Christ. Keep pursuing a life that is more and more set-apart onto the Lord.

Therefore, the Christian community should be a living example of harmony and holiness wherever you look. All this talk of holiness includes the thought of approaching God. God is holy and must be approached in holy fear. The Heavenly Father is not only a good and a loving parent, but He is a judge who demands obedience.

Many people have the idea that the Old Testament prophets preached about the fear of God, and the New Testament teachers only about the love of God. However, there are many places in the New Testament that will change one’s thinking on this matter. In fact, Jesus and the entire New Testament bids us to fear God. 1 Peter 1:17:

If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth.

This passage is not talking to unbelievers, but people who are Christians pursuing holiness, which is us. We must learn how to fear God. Let’s pray:

Lord, Your Word is very piercing. It brings to our attention things we did not know, but, Lord, when we do know them, now, Lord, because of Your Spirit, give us the cooperation and divine enablement to be able to put these things into practice. So, Lord, that we could be people that not only understand holiness, but pursue it, and I pray, Lord, that we would do that in all our behavior. Lord, allow us to see the fruit of what you are working in, on the inside, on the outside. So, Lord, we can grow in our confidence and assurance of our salvation. I pray, Lord, in doing so, we know we are to reflect your character, which is one of a Holy God, who is so different than us and set apart from anything that is sinful or evil. Let us be people that are like that, and I know, Lord, that in a holy life, it becomes powerful, a life of convictions, yet a life of joy and peace. It’s a life that is good for my wellbeing as well as the wellbeing of those who I serve with and grow with in Christ. Lord, impress in our heart today the things we must change and lay aside for good. I, pray, Lord Jesus, for also the things we need to put on that we have not put on. I pray, in doing so, Lord, we truly would carry out this command in Scripture: to be holy because you are holy in all our behavior. I pray this, in Christ’s name, Amen.