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Sanctification 1 Peter 1:3-2:12 By David Calderwood

The idea of holiness or sanctification,
and the word sanctos is just the Latin word for holy.
The idea of holiness or sanctification
is probably the most preached about
and the most talked about idea for Christians.
And I think it's the most misunderstood and macked up
for Christians as well.
The key concept in holiness or sanctification,
and we could also use the words godliness or Christ-likeness.
All those four words can sort of be used interchangeably.
The key concept is the idea of separating or setting apart.
And it's right at that very point
that we start to mess it up as Christians.
On the one hand, this notion of separation and being set apart
is then taken up by society and caricatured.
It's ridiculed.
And so holy people are those who, according to society,
are set apart in their own little prudish world, who
sniff disapprovingly at everybody around them.
It's said to be the stuff of wowsers.
That's what holiness is.
The stuff of wowsers.
All things boring, dull, old-fashioned, and undesirable.
It's said to be missing out on the good things of life.
And so the typical view is, well, holiness
means no smoking, no drinking, no parties, no dancing,
no movies, no fun, and even no sex.
As a result of that, many Christians, and especially
young Christians, and by the way,
I actually have heard Christians say that,
although if you think I was just being provocative there.
Many young Christians actually react
against the idea of holiness because they
see it caricatured.
And so what we have is a real problem
among young Christians today.
That is, they're determined to say, well,
we can live the good life in the terms
that society says are taken away from us.
And so we've got a generation, I believe, of young Christians
who are sort of pushing the idea of holiness aside
because they don't want to be caricatured in that way.
And indeed, they want to prove that they can be involved
in all those things.
Drinking, and parties, and all the rest of it.
The problem is, in all of that, that at no point
is God's idea of holiness or sanctification understood
or applied.
Do you see what the point, the problem is?
The whole concept of holiness has been kicked around,
but at no point has it been referenced to scripture or God.
On the other hand, even in Christian churches,
the idea of being separate or separate part
has led to a terrible imbalance in what is taught
as holiness or sanctification.
And so again, this idea of separation gets distorted.
So for many Christians, holiness is
about refraining from certain things, refraining from sin.
And particularly, it gets narrowed down
to refraining from sexual sin.
And instead, being good, honest, hard-working citizens.
Again, you see, it's a negative idea of being set apart.
And so the way it works is this.
I'm holy because I don't cheat on my tikes.
I don't sleep around.
I don't drink alcohol.
I don't swear.
I don't have dreadlocks.
I don't have body piercings or tattoos.
I don't yell at my children.
I don't engage in hair removal.
And again, I've heard people say that.
And I don't wear makeup.
Now, we sort of laugh at that.
And yet, it's a really serious problem
because this do-not approach to holiness or godliness
is often likewise linked to a do list that represents holiness
or sanctification.
And oftentimes, it's taught by pastors and study leaders.
And it goes like this.
A godly mother, what she looked like, well,
she'll have well-mannered, well-presented, well-dressed
children.
A neat house and will always have the ironing done.
And I've heard that expressed in those terms.
A godly child will have a neat bedroom.
Never be rude.
Generally be nice.
I've had it expressed in those terms.
A godly husband and father will always be loving to his wife.
Always go to their child's sport game on a Saturday
and so on and so forth.
And so again, you see, there's consequences for that.
Many Christians, and here I'm speaking perhaps
to the older generation of Christians
now, give themselves a pat on the back
because they, according to these terms, are quite holy.
And they then easily tat-tat at the younger generation
because they don't quite see life in terms of those values.
Now again, you see, I've actually,
in a sense, caricatured this problem for contrast
and to take us into it.
Because you see, again, we can refrain from all of those
things and yet not be holy in God's terms.
We can do all those supposed good things.
Now don't misunderstand me.
I've got no problem with a child having a tidy room,
being well presented and not being rude.
That's an important aspect, important characteristic,
important things.
But you can do all those things, but they're not issues
of holiness, not according to God's word, anyway.
Now that extended introduction is really bringing us
to our starting point.
And friends, what I want to say to you now
is that when we come to think about holiness
and sanctification, we've got a lot of unlearning to do.
We've got a lot of prejudice to get over.
We come to holiness with the idea
that holiness or sanctification is a joke, something
to be ridiculed and even avoided if you're a young Christian.
Or if you're an older person, then the temptation
is to come to holiness with thinking
that it's all about thou shalt not or thou shalt.
So therefore, friends, we really need
to put our thinking caps on this morning.
And rediscover what God means when he talks about holiness.
Turn with me now then to 1 Peter.
As we ask the question, how are we
to understand sanctification or holiness?
Verses 15 and 16 is our starting point
for building a picture of what sanctification is.
And I use that idea of building a picture quite consciously.
Because we need to put several things down item by item
before we get a full picture.
The first point I want to make is that God is the benchmark
or reference point for holiness.
Now that might seem so obvious, and yet it's not, I think,
for many of us Christians.
Look at verse 15 and 16.
But just as he who called you is holy, reference to God,
so be holy in all you do, for it's written,
be holy because I am holy, says the Lord.
What the Bible describes as holy in reference to God
is the sum total of all God's characteristics.
That in verse 16 is a quotation from the book of Leviticus
in the Old Testament, where in dozens and dozens and dozens
of verses, God's characteristics are spelled out.
That which when you add them all up together
describe God's holiness.
And having added them all up together,
it's impossible to define God's holiness.
All you can do is describe it.
It's beyond our ability to define.
Now God stands alone in infinite power, greatness, majesty.
He is perfectly good in his thoughts, in his actions,
in his purpose.
He is the awesome king and ruler of this world,
absolutely determined to be treated
with the honor and respect and obedience he deserves.
And so you could keep going on and on and on.
That is our reference point for holiness,
absolute perfection in every conceivable manner,
characteristic, reference possible.
In response then, honoring God's holy, distinct,
or unique character is the essence of worship.
And so you've got the two parts.
You have God who is holy and God's creatures, God's people,
God's creation, who respond to God
by honoring God's character.
That's the essence of worship.
Therefore, my friends, any understanding of holiness
must begin with understanding God's character
and must always be in reference to God's character.
And here's where the problem comes for us.
If we think too much about ourselves
and our sensibilities and too little about God's standards,
then certainly we'll be in trouble
with respect to understanding holiness or sanctification,
either by reducing our expectations of what God
commands and making it more about what we expect of others
or, and this has been a great problem in the Christian church,
by arrogantly thinking that we've achieved holiness
in our own lives.
When in actual fact, all we've done
is got to a level where we're quite happy with ourselves
relative to somebody else.
Secondly, holiness is a relational term.
It's a proper response to our holy God.
In there, in verse 15 and 16, it's a command.
It's an imperative.
It's not an optional extra.
God says, you must be holy because I am holy.
The only appropriate response to my character of holiness
is in my subjects, in my people, for them also to be holy.
I will accept nothing less, says the Lord God.
And that applies to all people.
And so God expresses his holiness
as he moves in judgment and destruction
of those who refuse to honor him as he ought probably
to be honored.
That's God's holiness, we see, when God destroys people
who refuse to bow to him.
But the context here in 1 Peter is much more specific.
It's in relationship.
It's addressed to the called ones.
Verse 15, but just as he who called you.
So the relationship here of holiness
is being spelled out in the context of the called ones.
In other words, Christians.
Verse 14, as obedient children, do not
conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.
My friends, at its very most basic idea,
holiness is about being obedient children.
It's not a difficult concept to grasp.
Holiness is therefore about showing family
likeness, family character, displaying
the family distinctive.
And that's where the set apart comes in.
So in a particular family, people laugh at the cauldron
and they say, well, they're all like peas in a pod.
I don't think that's right, but people say that.
I should know, I'm part of the family.
But you see, people are saying there's a family likeness,
and that sets us apart as a family from other families.
Just so with God's people.
Holiness is about displaying a family likeness that sets us
apart from the other family which
is out there in the world.
As our Father has saved us, our Father who is holy,
then we should be like Him in character.
And we should act like Him in everything
we do in our everyday living.
So on the one hand, it means therefore,
holiness means therefore, hating what God hates.
Look again at verse 14.
It means turning away from that lifestyle, that way of thinking
and acting, those attitudes that so easily engaged us
and formed us and made us what we were before we
became Christians.
Holiness means turning away from that.
So we are sanctified or we display holiness
every time we choose not to engage in the behaviors
that God clearly detests and which
were part of our previous lifestyle.
That's holiness.
But it also means, and this is a really important one
It also means loving and doing what God loves and does.
See, this is where we got it wrong.
Being set apart is, at a negative level,
refraining from things.
But being set apart, you can be set apart
for something good as well.
And so we're set apart to be like God.
Now, holiness is never simply a matter of refraining from sin.
It is equally about positively displaying God's character
in every respect.
Verse 13, Paul traces through a few ideas here in these verses.
Verse 13, it's a matter of living
in the light of who we are and who we will
be when Christ returns again.
We've got to live now in the light
of what we'll be in heaven.
Now, that's much more of a challenge than just
refraining from certain things, isn't it?
Verse 17 to 21, it's living in a way
that shows we understand how much our salvation cost
our Father.
It's free to us, but boy, it was pricey to Him.
And believing that as Christ was raised and glorified,
so we will be too.
That's holiness as well, living in the light of that.
Verse 22, loving one another deeply.
That's an imperative.
Hey, friends.
What that means is that a proper balance
in understanding holiness is summed up
in Christ's words in Mark chapter 12, verse 30 to 31.
First of all, it's an intense loyalty to God.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind,
and strength.
But holiness is equally an intense commitment
to being as the gracious Father and as Christ to others.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
My friends, if you're still with me, and hopefully you are,
you can see where we've gone wrong
with our view of holiness oftentimes.
Too often and too easily, we pat ourselves on the back,
thinking that we are relatively holy because we don't commit
this sin or that sin or the other sin.
Now, even at that point, we're very narrow in the terms
of sin we're thinking about.
But here's the question to you.
How often, when you think of holiness,
do you use the criteria of how you
deal with others in this church family
as a measure of your holiness?
Do you see what we've done?
We've just got one aspect of holiness,
and we've made it the whole.
Thirdly, holiness is God's gracious gift
at every point in salvation.
Now, I don't know about you, but taken by itself,
verse 15 just plain scares me, 15 and 16.
How could I possibly be holy like God is holy?
How can that be?
And yet, it's God's command to be holy as He is holy.
That crushes me just by itself, that verse.
The reality of my life, and I take it
the reality of your life if you're a Christian,
is that of Paul, wretched man that I am.
I find myself at war with myself.
I do the things I detest and don't want to do,
and find myself not doing the things I want to do
and know I should be doing.
So how do I stand against verse 15, be holy as I am holy?
And again, chapter 2, verse 3 there.
As a Christian, I know that I have
tested that the Lord is good, and the Lord is good.
But there's something very real and very strong in me,
even as a Christian, that rebels against the Lord being
ruler in my life.
There's something in me that, in spite
of knowing how good the Lord is, that makes me want
to be independent of the Lord.
The Bible calls indwelling sin, or the old nature.
Many of the bad thoughts and habits and actions
that I lived easily with before I became a Christian,
my friends, as a Christian, are still with me,
even though now I loathe them and long to be free from them.
There's the struggle.
And put that against verse 15, and where does it leave us?
At this point, it's absolutely crucial
to see holiness in the context of the whole of salvation.
And again, so many Christians have been destroyed
because they've lost this bigger perspective.
Look back to Peter's introduction, verses 1 and 2.
Peter's introduction, verses 1 and 2,
Look back to Peter's introduction, verses 1 and 2.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
to God's elect, strangers in the world,
scattered throughout Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia, who have been chosen,
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,
through the sanctifying work of the Spirit,
for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by His blood.
Peter's writing to God's special people, Christians,
scattered around the known world of the day.
And the theme of the letter is this,
he's writing to people who very much sense themselves to be refugees,
in the sense that they're hated, they're despised,
they're misunderstood, they're mistreated, they're even killed
because of their loyalty to Christ.
And these Christians, wherever they find themselves,
and we can identify easily with this, can't we,
they just don't feel as if they fit.
The majority of people around them want to go one way,
and there we are trying to go against the flow.
And so Peter writes to them and encourages them by this,
Remember who you are in Christ.
Yes, you are a refugee in terms of this world,
but in Christ you have a name, you have a family,
you have a home, you have a nation,
you have a brotherhood, and one day you will have heaven.
So remember who you are.
You're a refugee, yes, in terms of the world,
but one day you will be home.
And how did you develop that?
Well, who they are in Christ?
Peter says, Remember that you've been set apart by God's Spirit
to be made new, to be made alive,
to be made obedient to Christ, and then to be brought home.
It's all part of the Gospel.
And God says, Let not any man put asunder what I have put together.
And we apply that to marriage, but it should be applied to holiness as well.
How does that what Peter is saying to these Christians, verse 3?
He's saying, Just close your eyes and suck this in,
he says, when you read this.
He said, In Christ you have a wonderful new inheritance.
He's been given to you by God, and it's been kept for you by God.
It can't be squandered, can't be lost, can't be wrenched away from you.
It's yours, and it's far better than anything you can get in the world.
How does it all come to you?
Because you've been set apart in Christ by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.
Now, what does that mean in practice?
Well, it means this.
Part of God's gift of salvation is a once-forever holiness.
So when we become Christians, we are sanctified.
We are made holy in Christ.
In that sense, it's like justification, adoption,
some of those other regeneration words, some of those other salvation words.
In that sense, it's something that is part of being made acceptable to God.
God will only have fellowship with that which is like himself, perfectly holy.
How do we become perfectly holy?
In Christ, as I was speaking about last week.
We enjoy the benefits of his righteousness, his perfection.
When God looks at me as a Christian, he sees the perfection of Christ, not my sinful feelings.
He sees me as perfectly holy and on that basis gladly welcomes me into fellowship with him
and ultimately one day will gladly welcome me into heaven with him.
So there's holiness, once-forever holiness, what we call in theological terms positional holiness
at the start of salvation as it were.
Now go to verse 13 and look at the end and there's other verses in here as well.
Look at the end of salvation, when Christ returns again, what will that mean?
Well that means holiness, except holiness with a difference.
When I get to be with heaven, I will be in a position where I will no longer be able to sin
because my old nature will be taken away and I will be in actuality
that which I can only dream about by faith now, perfectly like Christ, perfectly free from sin,
perfectly free to do that which is good, perfectly free to be like Christ in every way.
So there's the framework of salvation, holiness once-forever, holiness complete at the end.
And there's another aspect of holiness that comes in between those two bookends if you want.
That is ongoing renovation by and with God's Holy Spirit.
Verse 2 again, the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, that's an ongoing work.
It's a progressive renovation that makes us more and more like Jesus in our lives.
You see, although we are already perfect in terms of our standing before God as He sees us in Christ,
we are far from perfect in our actual thoughts and attitudes and actions.
Now the wonderful gift of salvation is even here.
God doesn't leave us to our own resources and our own devices
because God has actually put His Spirit in us to dwell within us
and the Spirit's job is to work with us enough to work with Him to renovate us,
to close the gap between what we are in Christ and what we are in actual daily practice in our thoughts and attitudes.
That too is a gift from God.
And once again Peter uses that language, the language here of renovation.
Renovation is hard work, especially if you don't have skills for it like myself.
It involves struggle, it involves effort, it involves tension, it involves suffering
and in the earlier verses it even involves divine discipline.
All of those things are part and parcel of the ongoing progress, ongoing process of renovation.
Verse 13, Peter says, Prepare your minds.
Get yourself organized, get your thinking right.
Be self-controlled, be disciplined.
Verse 17, Live in fear. This is serious business.
Verse 22, Love one another deeply.
Chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, Rid yourselves of...
Crave pure spiritual milk.
All those commands involve discipline, effort and struggle.
All are part of the growing process, verse 2,
so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,
closing the gap at a practical level.
Well, how will that be seen?
Well, from time to time it will be seen as we make headway with that particular scene.
Another time we might reach out to someone in this congregation at great cost to ourselves.
That's sanctification.
But like a renovation, sometimes you think, well, all I have to do is take the covering of this wall
and replace it, but when you take the covering off, you discover a whole heap more problems.
And sometimes that's what it's like in the process of sanctification.
Sometimes you actually go backwards, at least that's what it feels like.
It isn't going backwards if in dealing with one sin you discover ten other sins that were hidden.
It might feel like you've gone backwards, it might mean a lot more progress,
but as trouble and discipline and heartache, the renovation itself is going forwards.
We have narrowed it down, my friends, to a linear idea,
especially as we ought to be taking steps forward all the time.
I believe the Scriptures and the Spirit has been my experience,
so maybe you can write this off as just a couple of words covering themselves,
but my experience is that forward and backward land,
sometimes I take a step forward and I think, I'm pretty good at that,
and then suddenly that step forward has uncovered a whole heap of attitudes and thoughts and actions
that I had either knowingly or unknowingly covered.
And suddenly I slip down a way back and I think, whoa,
just when I thought I was starting to get this Christian thing worked on,
there I'm back with all this disjointed.
Sometimes we've not allowed Christians to be honest and express that.
Importantly in this section, friends, we should never think of this struggle
to develop the family likeness in everyday living apart from the rest of salvation.
Our model must always be perfect in Christ but friends are all salvation
and yet being perfected in Christ in daily practices.
Perfect in Christ, yet being perfected.
Just very quickly, a couple of helpful strategies
to make sure we get this whole idea started to pass and the whole thing is right.
And first we need to not even know the basics of the gospel.
If we know who is responsible for doing what in God's saving activity,
we can have the assurance then to get on with the bit that's undressed
without investing more in it than needs to be invested in it.
If we understand, genuinely understand, that it was God's initiative
to renew this and bring us to faith in Christ.
If we know that through the Holy Spirit that we are united to Christ
and enjoy the benefits of Christ's death and resurrection and new life and nearby
are declared holy by the Lord.
If we know that that is in spite of our failings and our ongoing sin.
If we know that God commands us to struggle to be like Him practically.
And know that that's not about making a relationship but as a result of having a relationship.
If we know all these things then we can get on with the job of struggling.
And there is a struggle and we need to be struggling.
And if we know at that point that God's Spirit is working in us and with us
so that the struggle actually is worthwhile and is going somewhere,
and we can throw ourselves into the struggle, yet it's played out how to fall over.
Several times that particular day we can go again tomorrow because the renovation process is happening.
We take it off that sheet and it feels like we're going back away for a month or a year.
But, thanks be to God that we've uncovered more sin, more bad attitudes.
Let's deal with those. Let's press on. Let's struggle.
And let's help one another.
Peter then says, create a pure spiritual milk. What does that mean?
Well, just as physical development and fitness is determined in large part by the dietary intake,
so this whole process of holiness is going to be determined in large part by the dietary intake.
We've got to have the nourishment of God's Word.
God's Word is the nourishment we need to develop holiness.
So, God knowing God's Word helps us identify those things that God detests,
helps us identify those characteristics that God wants us to develop.
So what can Christians lament? They're not developing holiness.
But their dietary intake is rubbish.
The dietary intake comes from the TV, movies.
But other people are wrong with that.
Rather than from time standing in God's Word and in small groups, there's an issue.
Have you ever thought that not building small groups, not being involved in small groups
where you have the opportunity to be around God's Word and be with encouragement of other Christians,
do you think that's a matter of lack of holiness?
They haven't.
Can you see how it comes again? They excuse us.
They say, well, I've not done anything particularly wrong in terms of saying,
but we haven't done that positive thing.
I need to get myself to take holiness into God's Word
and take the opportunities afforded to me by the congregation.
It's where God is putting me. That's holiness.
Secondly, don't make one part of God's sanctification whole.
Really keep these things together.
If we separate the ongoing process of holiness
and forget that it's in the context of existing perfect holiness in Christ,
then, my friends, you're in great danger of despairing.
My sin-Christian hurtly destroyed by the notion that
they're going to be kept up to a certain level of behaviour to be acceptable to God.
I'm carrying bridges and cobbles throughout the treadmill of the forest.
It's the Christians that understand they're saved by grace
and understand they go to heaven by grace.
But in the meantime, it's it.
They're caught in this treadmill of the forest.
They're really happy.
I'm really glad we're Christians.
Badly fall over?
I don't think I've ever been a Christian.
That's just the result of separating the process, the struggle,
from the practice of perfect in Christ.
But on the other hand, if we think in Christ we are perfect
and there's nothing else to do in terms of practical holiness,
then we're in danger of real arrogance,
thinking that our failings contain every day the consequence.
Or if we think God's demand for holiness is met by virtue of not engaging in particular things,
while ignoring God's demand for pure attitudes and pure thoughts
and positive displays of his character in our dealings with others in our church, family and beyond,
then holiness will be a relatively easy thing for us.
But only because we're comparing ourselves to the others.
And ultimately, it will be ugly and an example of the Lord.
Friends, there's so much work to be said and I'm ready to turn back to our work.
Let me finish with this.
The idea of holiness trying to be Christian is not hard.
But it is important.
It won't do you young Christians.
If we react against our society to holiness, it's like being careful about holding ourselves.
And it won't do older Christians simply to evaluate holiness in terms of cultural familiarities
and expect the next generation down to do it exactly as you did it and measure that as holiness.
It won't do.
Holiness begins and ends in God's grace.
That's our motivation.
As beloved children who've been given so much in Christ, who've tested and seen that the Lord is good,
to strive to respond to God's precious salvation by being children that show the family likeness,
negatively and positively.
By making that family likeness so appealing to those who are looking at the family but not yet part of it,
wouldn't it be nice if through our actions people said,
boy, if that's the family of God, I want to be part of that.
And ultimately, and ultimately and most importantly,
be able to look forward to that day when we stand in heaven and have the Father's smile of approval.
Well done obedient child.
Let's pray.
Lord, we easily narrow your word down, taking good concepts and making them fit us comfortably.
Help us in this whole area of holiness, Lord, not to be guilty of that.
Help us to see and act for your standards and be motivated by love for you.
Amen.