Holy Nation a 1973

I'd like to read today from 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 15 through 19. But as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct, since it is written you shall be holy for I am holy. And if you invoke as father him who judges each one impartially according to his deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.

You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb, without blemish or spot. If we follow Peter through the gospel narratives, we discover that he had a hard time recognizing the holy. It seems as if it had to hit him over the head every time before he realized that he was standing on holy ground.

For instance, when Jesus came and asked to borrow the boat, that was fine with Peter. He was flattered that this popular teacher should want to use his boat, but Peter did not see Jesus as holy until the net came up loaded with fish. And then suddenly he understood and fell on his face or in the passage that bill read earlier, transfiguration, Peter sees Jesus face shining as the sun, his Raymond giving off an unearthly light.

And yet he doesn't understand. He goes right on talking like he always does until the cloud comes over and says, this is my beloved son in whom I am well-pleased. Listen to him.

Almost as if God had to say, Peter, shut up. And then he gets the point. Now, the reason Peter had such a hard time discerning the holy was that Peter was himself so unholy.

Now that doesn't mean that he was immoral necessarily. It simply means that he was like we are full of himself. But by the time Peter comes to write, these epistles, he's a very different man.

And we notice as in these epistles of Peter, as almost nowhere else in scripture, there is an atmosphere of awe for the holy God that pervades the whole thing. As he who called you is holy, so be holy in all your conduct. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.

We were within a holy man all the time. Peter understands and conveys this thought that everything that God touches and everything that belongs to God is holy. If you want to know why the church at this hour is so weak, why there's this big difference between the New Testament church and the church of this hour.

You know, don't try to study the difference in pattern of organization. People think that if they set up a church that has the proper elders, then it's going to be apostolic or they think that if they learn to worship in the proper way, this is going to get it what it needs. But that's not the point at all.

See, where the church loses its vision of the holy, it loses its vision of God and it loses its authority. And we can trace all over the world trying to get power. But power, God's power is never safe in the hands of people who don't have enough sense to take off their shoes when they're standing on holy ground.

Now, the difference between what we see here in the New Testament, the apostolic church, and what we see as we look over Christendom right now and look at ourselves, is that those people had a healthy respect for God's holiness. They tremble at God's word and we argue with it and they bent their necks at God's glory and we hold our step. That's where the difference is.

Now, the apostolic church had a door that was wide open, far wider than our doors, to everybody out there in the world. It didn't matter what they were into or what their life was like. It made no difference.

All kinds of messed up, troubled, sin-stained souls came in. They just, the drains in society just poured in as the word of God was proclaimed and everybody rejoiced. Nobody was turned away.

Everybody was made welcome. But, when a man would then rise up and enter the door of the kingdom of heaven and put on the new robe of God's righteousness, then his life must be conformed to the will of God or then that man is thrown out. And they did that without batting an eyelash in those days.

For instance, we see Ananias and Sapphira. You know, they committed what was considered to be a rather minor sin. All they did was lie.

See, but they lied to the Holy Spirit as men, as a man and woman, who had already come into the kingdom of God and they died on the spot. Or take the man in 1 Corinthians 5 who was having a thing going with his stepmother. In a place like Corinth, that was not too unusual.

All kinds of strange and crazy things were going on in that city. You know, and if he wanted to do that, that was all right if he was just a seeker. You know, let him come and seek, never mind what goes on back home.

But this man was a believer. He knew the truth. And he had the audacity to continue to live that kind of life and still come into the fellowship praising God.

And so the Apostle Paul says, turn that man over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. And so a little further on in this epistle, Peter says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, that you may proclaim the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And the question is, what does God see when he looks down over his saints in the city of Detroit? Does he actually see a holy nation? And what does God see when he looks over this assembly right now? Does he in fact see a holy nation? See, are we living as people who have been touched by the living God? Are we living as people whose bodies have become indeed the temple of the Holy Spirit? The words that come out of our mouths, the thoughts of our minds, the imagination of our hearts.

See, are we living in God's marvelous light, open and unashamed before him? And there are a lot of people who are quick to say, well, I'm out in the open. I'm not ashamed of anything that I'm doing. My life is an open book before God.

God understands where I'm coming from. Those are easy words to say, and they sound very frank and sincere. But when God turns on the light of his spirit and shines, causes that beam to come right smack into someplace in your heart where you know that what you are doing is displeasing to him, that grudge or whatever it is, and you hold on to that and you still stand there without batting an eyelash, that does not prove that you are frank and sincere.

That simply proves that you are so full of yourself that you can't recognize the holy. God is telling you to bring that thing to the cross, bury it under the blood, and you don't have enough sense to take off your shoes. Because you're standing on holy ground.

You don't have enough sense to fall on your face. Instead of this, what you do is you're going to do God a favor to get him off the track. You know, Lord, I'm going to build you a temple right in my living room.

I'm going to convert my fireplace into a chapel. And that's going to take care of it. And we do that kind of thing.

And God says, heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool. What's this house you're going to build for me? What's the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, so they're mine, says the Lord. But what is the man to whom I will look? He who is humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at my word.

And the question is, where are the saints who tremble at God's word? Where are the people who have enough sense to fall on their faces before God's glory? Who confess the sins that God puts his finger right on? Instead of pretending we don't even see it. Who stop when God says stop and go when God says go. Where you find such people, you are looking at God's holy nation.

And where this trembling before God's word is lacking, those people can call themselves by any name in the Bible or all of them. They have no part or lot in God's kingdom. So you think you're holy because you don't drink, smoke, or play cards.

You think you're holy because you have disengaged yourself from the unclean institutional church. You think you're holy because the only mode of transportation you own is a bicycle. You think you're holy because you've seen a vision or you speak in tongues or you prophesy.

But the holiness which God is calling for from us has nothing to do with how we think we compare with other saints. Holiness begins with the fear of God. How in the world is Jesus ever going to be able to come to us and say rise, have no fear? Until we first learn with Peter, James, and John to fall on our faces.

First petition of the Lord's prayer our Lord teaches us. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Let thy name be kept holy by me.

Forget about trying to make everybody else honor it, you honor it. When Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up and heard the seraphim shouting, crying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Isaiah did not pull out his pocket camera and start taking pictures.

He melted with dread. Woe is me for I am undone for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Oh, but I don't fear God, I love God.

You don't know the first thing about the love of God until you learn to fear him. May God show us who we're dealing with when we use the name of Jesus. Lord, make me to know my end and the measure of my days what it is that I may know how frail I am and what I am before your glory.

Holiness is to listen to Jesus Christ. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Nevermind what you think about him, I'm pleased with him.

So listen to him. Now, how can our hearts be trembling at the word of Jesus if we continue to persist in the sin that he has already spoken to us about? How can I go on in that lie? How can I continue to hold that hatred in my heart? Underneath my unprejudiced smiles, how can I go around bad-mouthing every other fellowship in town except mine? See, are we listening to what Jesus is saying or are we busy running around trying to get everybody to listen to us? The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the son of God and those who listen shall live. Those who open their ears and bring their lives into conformity to what I say.

Now, if you're not sure that it's Jesus speaking to you, don't act. Don't go off half-cocked. If you're not sure who's doing the talking, wait until you know.

But the minute you know that it's Jesus, you listen and you obey. Now, holiness is to have a sincere and God-fearing love for brothers and sisters. Having purified your souls, says Peter, by your obedience to the truth for a sincere love of brethren.

Love one another earnestly from your hearts. A sincere love, a love that goes on through storms and lasts more than a year and a half. And many times God has to deal with every single one of us and says, he has to say to us, no, love that brother, you're getting stubborn.

Love that sister, you're holding a grudge. And the minute God says that to us, we have no choice but to obey. We have to say, yes, Lord, and do it.

When you walk into a house where God is held in awe, really held in awe, there you will always find love. Not just talk love, but live love. Where people honor each other and respect each other and care about each other and help each other.

And when you come to a city where the saints of God in that city truly hold God in awe, there you will also find a love that runs deep enough that these people can begin to work together in harmony. And finally, holiness, to be holy is to be real. You know, a holy man or woman doesn't put holiness in his voice or in her face.

You know, it's not making people so uncomfortable. They have to hide the beer every time you come. The holiness is to be out in the light for real, you know, so that they don't have to be afraid you've got some spiritual ace hidden in your pocket.

You're going to throw it down on the table and make everybody cry. You know, make everybody nervous. What's he up to now? What's the plan? See, if you are really living in the fear of God, then you're delivered from the fear of man and you can be yourself.

You can be the person that Jesus saved and God and knows. If Jesus knows my heart, what do I have to worry about everybody else and their opinions if I'm walking with him? Now, the word of the spirit of God, I believe to the church in the city of Detroit, suburbs and all over the earth at this hour is be holy for I am holy. And that address is not just given to one or two super saints so that we can have a few holy people to add the flavor of holiness to the body.

But he's calling for a holy nation, a holy people, and that includes every single one of us. And God is able to make us what he calls us to be. If we will answer that call with hearts that tremble at his words, may God help us to get our eyes off all our great achievements and on his side and answer the call to a holy life as a people this very day.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just pray that you'll show us exactly what it means for us to fit in with your will and all those things in our hearts that are of self, that so blind our eyes and dull our ears and cause us in our hearts to have a stupor. Oh God, at whatever cost, just drive them out of us, that we may be clear and open to what you're saying to us and responsive to what you command.

We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.