The Grace Zone Part 3

This morning, I have the pleasure of preaching about being holy. We are going to read one Peter chapter one through to one Peter two verse three. This section is titled “You are called holy.” The message to the church is that we are called to be holy. I want to lay out things this morning that I believe that is foundational to this doctrine of that. As we are saints, we need to be holy, and on top of that I want to give you three handles about how we can outwork this thing in our daily lives. One Peter one verses thirteen. “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former ignorance, but as He who has called you is Holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written; you shall be holy for I am holy. And if you call on Him as a Father who judges impartially, according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. Like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you, who through Him are in believers in God, who rose from the dead and gave Him glory so that your faith and hope is in God. Having purified your souls by obedience to the truth of the sincere brotherly love, love each other earnestly from a pure heart. Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable though the living and abiding Word of God. For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the Word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” Chapter two verses one says: “So put away all malice, all deceit, all hypocrisy, all envy, and all slander, like new born infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed, you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

This morning what I want to look at is this subject of holiness but within that the fact that you and I have been called to live lives that are holy. If you remember it said there, God saying; “I am holy, and therefore I require you to be holy.” Why? Because we know that a holy God cannot mix with an unholy people. A holy God cannot mix with sin, and so if we want to fulfil and walk in the fulfilment of what Jesus has done on the cross, was to restore the relationship between the creator and the created was the original idea of God in the garden of Eden. We have to walk lives that are holy. Because we will never be able to enter into the presence because God is holy, and we are called to be holy. As believers, not one of us is excused. Not one of us are excused that we are called to make sure that we have a clear understanding of what it means when the Bible says that we are called to holiness. As I was praying, as I was preparing around these verses, I had these four thoughts, and I want to share them with you this morning.

Two of them, I believe, are foundational to our understanding of what it means to be holy. And then the other three, if you take it straight out of the text that Peter is writing to the church. These are three instructions or encouragements or exhortations that he gives us as believers. In terms of how to work this thing out. We have to start with the foundation, and there are two key foundation stones that need to be laid down. And when I was preparing this, remember Jacob in the Old Testament. He went to sleep one night, and he had a dream. He was wrestling with God the whole night. And Jacob was holding on tight and said I will not let you go until I have received a blessing from you. And eventually in the early hours of the morning, Jacob was blessed. My encouragement is the same thing is just like Jacob was wrestling the whole night through, until he received something. My encouragement to everyone is that we need to wrestle with this text until we get a thorough understand of what it means. When you lay a foundation, you do not lay down a wishy washy foundation that you throw today and tomorrow you start building. In anything, this needs to be bedded so well that whatever you build on top of that, it will be supported. My encouragement to you is in terms of this is that if you don’t understand it now, that’s fine. Take this thing and go wrestle with it. You have to wrestle with this because we are called to be holy. It’s not easy, but yet it is so key You need to bed this thing down properly and you do not stop until you have a full understanding, and if you don’t have it, you go to John, you go to the Holy Spirit And you say “Holy Spirit, John teaches that you are the teacher. You are the revealer of truth. Will you teach me, will you reveal this truth? I will not let go of this thing until I can say in integrity that it has gone from information to now I understand.” Because, you see, when we understand this thing, suddenly it brings a liberty and easiness to the task of living a holy life. The two foundation stones are: Let’s read one Peter one verses eighteen to nineteen, picking up half way through verse eighteen: “Knowing you were ransomed from the futile ways from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”

1.       Foundation stone number one: We need to understand and make peace with the fact that we are not our own. We were ransomed or redeemed. What happens when the ransom was paid? What was the position of that person prior to a ransom being paid? They were held captive, they were removed, they were locked up, they were in fear, and they were with no hope prior. Then, the ransom was paid, and that person is set free. Slaves were treated as things, an object, and they were removed and taken to a foreign place, they were made to do things that were not natural to them, and they were forced. Yet there was a practice at that time that everyone including the slaves themselves could come and redeem themselves. And thereafter, he was set free. This is the same concept Peter was speaking about. He says Jesus came when we were in bondage. When we were held captive by our sin nature. The consequences of what you and I did, sin, the consequences of sin is death. We had no hope, we had no future. And it says Jesus came down, we sang about it. He died on the cross, He shed His blood, He redeemed us, and He ransomed us. We are now His. We need to have an understanding of what that means. What does it mean to be holy? Righteous yes, blameless yes. To be holy means to be set apart. This is where the wrestle comes from. The world wants to make you a part of something. “Come and join us, we know how to live life. We know the solutions; we have the financial answers, we have the relational answers. Come and join us, let us all be as ridiculous as each other, and in our togetherness, we know.” That’s what the world says, and Jesus comes and He says: “You are called to be holy. You are called to be set apart.” The world says come and joins us. But Jesus wants us to be set apart. We have been redeemed, we are ransomed. You are no longer a part of the world, you have been set free. We need to wrestle with that until we know and understand this thing. And not to just pay lip service to it, but the flesh dictates to us, because like I said, when you have an understanding with that, when you know that we are not our own. Then the things that are required of us then from there on in there are the grace that goes with it. This is foundation stone number one, we need to put it down properly, that we are not our own.

2.       Foundation stone number two. To lay it down, it seems a bit lopsided, but it doesn’t contradict but flows with the first. But yet we are encouraged to be our own. Turn to Galatians five verse one: “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not be yoked again to a yolk of slavery.” But let us focus on the first third of the verse. For freedom’s sake, Christ has set us free. Christ has set us free, but he hasn’t set us free to introduce us once again another yolk of slavery. He says no, I have set you free so that you can be free. You are required to be your own, so that you can walk in the understanding that I will allow you to be your own. So it looks very confusing, but let’s go back to when God spoke about being holy. Leviticus chapter eleven verses forty four and forty five: “For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy for I am holy. You shall not defile yourself from any swarming thing that crawl on the ground, for I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy for I am holy.” So He is speaking to a nation that is in captivity and He is saying; “This is what I’m going to do for you. I’m going to bring you out under the dictatorship, the rule, under the oppression of Pharaoh.” Then, go to the book of Joshua chapter one, verses ten and eleven.  This is after God had brought them out. Remember the plagues; eventually Pharaoh chases them out of Egypt. And takes them out of captivity, and takes them through the desert, and He brings them to the Jordan River. At the River Jordan, they are standing at the border, the boundary of the Promised Land. God spoke to them when they were in oppression and He said; “I will take you out of Egypt, and I will take you to the land that is flowing with milk and honey. That is your inheritance.” In Joshua one, they are now standing at the border. Joshua chapter one verse says: Joshua commanded the officers of the people; he passed the message on that was given by an angel. It says: “Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, prepare your provisions, for in three days you are to pass over this Jordan River, to go in and take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.” Here see the second thing we need to understand that Jesus has taken us out of captivity, and He is taking you on a journey.

 Back then, Jesus took them out of Egypt, out of captivity, out of oppression, and he took them on a journey to the border of their inheritance. And you will notice, if you read the book of Leviticus chapter eleven verses forty four and forty five and Joshua chapter one verses ten to eleven God says: “I will do this for you, I will take you out, I will redeem you, I will ransom you, I will lead you out. And then you get to Joshua chapter one now, and you will notice the language has changed. It says: “Now you go and take possession of the land. Now you go and take hold of your inheritance.” You’ll see where God does stuff for us, Jesus has ransomed us, and we could not ransom ourselves. That’s why Jesus had to come to the cross. That’s why He had to die for you and me. Because it was God’s infinite wisdom. The word says before the ages, before the world existed, this was the plan of redemption. And then He brings us to this place now, Galatians chapter five verse one, He said: “For freedom’s sake I have set you free.” Then, Joshua chapter one says now, you need to go and take possession of the Promised Land. I have got it for you, you now need to move in and take all of this. So, go and wrestle with those two concepts, we need to have a good understanding of what God has done in terms of our holiness, we could never do that. God did that, and calls us to take it from there and to take it further.

 For freedom we have been set free. Revelations chapter five verse nine, and Titus chapter two verse fourteen are two verses that once again talk about the fact that we have been ransomed. That the life we have is not our own, but in God’s incredible and infinite wisdom, and His way is above our ways, He redeems us, He says your life is not your own, but then in His grace, He gives it back to us, and He says, now go and take possession of the inheritance I have for you. For me God has an inheritance, for you God has an inheritance, for us in our collectiveness of Outlook Church, in this area, in this city, in this region, we have an inheritance. It’s now our responsibility to take possession of that. God does this, and He gives us a job to do there. We are not our own, and yet we are given the opportunity to become our own. To take on the unique flavour that God has for you. God has plans for you. The boundaries, His word says they fall on pleasant places for you. And your borders and boundaries are not my borders and boundaries. I need to go and walk out and find out for myself the extent of that land that God says is my possession. I cannot fight your fight, and you cannot fight my fight. God says I have done the initial on behalf of you all; now, you have your own roll to go work out.

And we know that extends into our relationships, into our marriages, into our finances, into every facet of our lives. Nothing in this thing of being called to holiness nowhere is any part of your life excluded. God says, if you want it come into my presence, I am a holy God, you need to be holy completely. We need to be holy completely. Live your lives in front of Jesus. Because that is the definition of holiness. If there is anywhere in your life that you feel I can’t bring this before God, the warning bells should be going off. Because the Holy Spirit then wants to put His finger in the middle of that mess, and He wants to say: “Let’s make this thing right.” That’s when we sing of God’s forgiveness and mercy. Lamentations chapter three says: “His mercies are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness, oh God.” God will never be unfaithful to you and me. That’s beyond Him, He can’t do that. He will never stop loving you and me. Then, with that understanding, we reciprocate it. And that’s what it means to live our lives before God. Foundation things, we have to lie down really well. You might be sitting there and thinking, I know that. Then, I trust that the fruitfulness of your knowledge is evident and seen in your life. Because one day, we will stand before the Father who knows everything and anything that you have done, every second of your life, and He will hold you accountable for it.

 That’s the reality of this. We are called to be holy. When I was mapping out my notes of this, I was convicted like you won’t believe, and I was praying saying: “God, search my heart. Maybe there are areas in my life that I’m blinded to. Please shine you light on this. Shine Your light into my heart. Shine Your light in my life. Reveal what is not of You. Help me to root that thing out. With that understanding, I want to look at the three G’s. One Peter chapter one verses thirteen, fourteen and fifteen. Three G’s that we take out of each of those verses. These are the things I need to go and remind myself of every single day. Every single week, there should not be a minute of my life where my life is filtered through these three things. And I encourage you to do the same. Because, remember we are called to be holy. God is saying: “I am holy, and I’m calling you to be holy also.”

1.       First G: Gird. Verse thirteen says: Prepare you mind 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.” The New King James Version says: “Gird up the loins of your mind.” In the context of that day, it was talking about their dress code and how they dressed. Gird means to put on a belt or a buckle around your waist. To bind up or secure. Or if you want to take the verb aspect of it, it means to prepare yourself for action. As I wrote these things down, as I was putting these three G’s together, what’s come on my mind, you might have seen it yourself, but when you want to get ready for a fight, what is the first thing you do? You pull your pants up. You get yourself ready; you know that something is coming. I have to be ready. Peter says prepare yourself. Because this call to holiness is going to require you to buckle up, to prepare, to secure yourself. Because it’s not easy. Remember the world says come and be a part of us and holiness says you have to be separated. It’s so much easier to go with the flow. Yes, that’s what they do, that is how we do marriage, and this is how we do our finances. God please help us. When it’s a mess, but we go with the flow. That’s what the world says. The Lord says: “I’m holy. You need to be separated. My son went to the cross. He died for you. He shed His blood for you. Don’t think this is something light. You have the responsibility now. Separate yourself, don’t be part of, step away from, move away from the world. Because that what is required is to be holy.” We read in one Timothy chapter six verses eleven to twelve: “Fight the good fight of the faith. But as for you oh man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, pursue godliness, pursue faith, pursue love, steadfastness, pursue gentleness, fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you are called, and about which made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” Peter says prepare your minds, there is a fight coming. There’s no other way, prepare your minds. Gird yourself, its coming. One Peter chapter one verses fourteen.

2.       Second G: Guard “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.” The passage addresses as obedient children. And I pray Lord, I hope my kids will read that and say that word “Oh, that word applies to me, I’m an obedient child.” Because my kids challenge that concept all the time. We laugh at that, but we also challenge that concept. Regularly you will hear us say to our kids:” Pick up your clothes. Brush your teeth. Eat all your food. Tidy your room.” And I long for the day one that each and every answer to each and every answer would be “Yes Dad.” Sometimes it is, they are good children, but it’s not always by default. And that’s the joy of parenting. But one day I hope that that verse when God brings that verse to remembrance, and He gives an instruction like: “Love your wife. Be generous. Love your neighbour.” I hope one day we can also say: “Yes Lord, yes Lord, yes Lord.” Without even thinking, because that is what obedient children do. It’s not a fight, they don’t need to umm and ahh about it, they don’t need to go: “Well, actually, you know what, my ways are better than your ways.”  No, the natural response is: “Yes Lord.”  In terms of holiness. So he writes, he says: “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.” If I had to ask you, what presalvation, if you are saved, if you are sitting here this morning, and if you have committed your life to the Lord, if I had to ask you a question, presalvation, before the date and time you prayed the sinner’s prayer, what was the passion that fuelled your life? Were you passionate about sport? Were you passionate about your job? Were you passionate about my needs, my wants? What was it that you were passionate about? Peter is saying forget about those things. Do not be conformed, do not be lured back into that becoming a part of, but rather remember that you are set apart. The second thing about guarding your heart is that we need to make sure that we are not following our previous passions. I prayed about this yesterday, I said: “Lord, if I look at my own life, that is a continuous fights. Just because of my fleshly nature. My sin nature. It always wants to yearn back. And the Holy Spirit reminded me, because Jesus addressed this thing in Matthew chapter twenty two. Remember when He was asked a question, what is the greatest commandment? He said: “Love the Lord you God with all your heart, all you soul, and your entire mind.” What does that say to you? Be consumed with Jesus. And the penny dropped for me. Am I needed to replace that passion with a passion for Jesus? Make the main thing, instead of being distracted by about fighting about all these things, make the main thing, and these things will fall away by themselves. And I have seen that in my life. And I have seen that in your lives when you are in this church. People come in here with all sorts of baggage, all sorts of stuff like stones all piled in a rug sack, and the guys are staggering. And then three months, six months, they stand up here and give a testimony or they speak to you, or to one another and say: “I don’t know what happened, I don’t know how this thing came about, but I had this problem, and that, and it is no longer a problem.” You want to stand by them and say: “Halleluiah.” Because it is Jesus. When you put Jesus first. Matthew six: “Seek Him and His righteousness, and these entire things will be added to you.” When we follow Jesus, when we have a passion for Jesus, when we pursue whole heartedly, not just with lip service, but the fruit of our lives testifies and backs up what we are saying and when we are saying we are pursuing Jesus. When you have this passion that is burning so bright in your life, they are no longer there. You carry that testimony, I carry that testimony, and I love that sentence in the Hymn which the sentence says. “When the things of this world grows strangely dim, in the light of Your Glory and grace.” What does that say? It means that this thing burns so passionately in your life that fuelled your life that people look at you, this thing defines you. It was obvious. This thing now loses its flame, it loses its power, and on this side here, the passion for Jesus starts burning. It’s unstoppable, and people look at you and say: “What happened between there and here?” It’s this thing about holiness. God works in us, and people see it. Guard your heart, firstly, gird up your mind. Prepare yourself for action. Secondly, guard your heart. Here’s the third one, One Peter chapter one verse fifteen: “But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.”

3.       Third G, guide. Guide your lifestyle. God redeems you, He ransoms you, He brings to the border, to the beginning of your inheritance, and He says: You go and possess.” And as you are taking over your promised land, as you are walking in the land that is flowing with what I have for you, guide your lifestyle. That is your responsibility. Once again, coming back to this thing of the world calls you to part of, and we are called to be set apart. We need a guide to guide our lives so that our paths do go back that way again. We go to Titus with this scripture. Chapter two, verses eleven and thirteen: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness, to renounce worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of our great God and saviour Jesus Christ when He returns again.” How do you guide your lifestyle? You train yourself, and it never lets up. We allow the Holy Spirit, the allow God’s word to work in us and then it’s not a once – off work, it’s not a drive through, it is a continual working out of your salvation. Being trained by the Holy Spirit, being trained by God’s word, making sure that we are living lives that are upright and holy before God, waiting for the day that Christ Jesus returns. Gird, guard and guide.

On the foundation of this understanding that actually, we owe it to God, because he redeemed us in the first place. But also we owe it to God because he was so gracious, and He was so generous that He paid the ultimate price to redeem us, and then he was so generous to give our lives back to us again. We are called not to be our own, to ultimately to become our own in the context of living a holy life. Does that make sense? And it’s a call to you and to us as a church; God is standing there and says: “I am holy; I delight myself when you are in my presence. But I require you to be holy to be able to do that. I want to leave this thought: The simplicity of holiness is this; that at all time, that every second, of every minute of every hour of every day of every week, of every month of every year, you can in integrity I can say I’m living my life before Jesus. And if you are answering that, maybe there’s an area of my life I cannot bring before Jesus. Can I encourage you to bring this before Jesus? “My mercies are new every morning.” I love that it’s new every morning, because we need them. Come before your heavenly Father and respond to Him. Respond to Him today, don’t put it off.  And say: “Lord you require me to be holy; I know this area is not right. Thank you Lord, that you make a way, thank you that you are merciful. Thank you lord that Your word says that we can come before your throne of grace and we can find mercy, and we can find grace in the time of need.

Web address: www.outlookchurch.co.za

Senior Pastor: Brent Brading