Amen, you can open your Bibles again this evening to what our brother Harry read, 1 Peter 1, verse 13 to verse 16, and we're gonna consider the calling to which we've been called and the living to which we've been called. We've been called by the holy God to live a holy, happy, and useful life, and we'll read our text once more as we begin. 1 Peter 1, verse 13, Entering a new section, Peter uses that summary word, therefore, in light of what we've read, therefore preparing your minds for action, and being so reminded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written," and then he quotes Leviticus 11, verse 44. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. I want to begin this evening by bringing you back to March 20th, 1832. I love the minister Robert Murray McShane in Dundee, Scotland. He used to read through the works of Jonathan Edwards, the theologian in the American colonies. And Jonathan Edwards wrote, he wrote several volumes. We have now his modernized works and they're two volumes and you could look at his works, they're only two volumes you could say, but they're microscopic form and thousands of pages within those two volumes. But Robert Murray McShane in 1832 read through Jonathan Edwards' works and he read through the life of Jonathan Edwards. And what McShane said is striking. He's looking at Edwards and his life and McShane considers his own life in light of the life, the holy life of Jonathan Edwards. And McShane says the following, he considers Edwards life and he says, how feeble my spark of Christianity appears besides such a son as Edwards. And then he says something striking. He says, but even his, even Jonathan Edwards, his, his light that seems like a sun in comparison to McShane's life as a spark, McShane says, even his light was a borrowed light, and the same source of light is still open in me. Now what's McShane saying? Well, he's looking at this holy life of Jonathan Edwards and looking at his own life as Robert Murray McShane, and he's saying, well, Robert Murray McShane is down here, like a little spark of holiness, and I'm looking at Jonathan Edwards and his life, and it's like this glorious son, but he doesn't stop there in despair. He says, but the one, the Holy One, who shed abroad in Edwards' life, Well, the Holy One who called Jonathan Edwards in holiness to live a life of holiness, that's the same God that called me, Robert Murray McShane, in holiness. So the same source that fueled and sustained and helped Jonathan Edwards live a life of holiness was The same God that called Robert Murray McShane out of darkness and into light. And He's the same God for you and I. If we're Christians, our God is a holy God who delights to call sinners out of darkness and stamp His image of holiness in His people so that we live a holy life that reflects God. And we're gonna see that this evening in 1 Peter 1, verse 13 to verse 16. We look at our own lives and it's humbling to look at holiness. It is but a spark, but we wanna grow as we look at the source of our holiness, God, who has called us to holiness because he's the holy God. I wanna give you a thesis as we look at this text. If you could summarize what Peter's getting at, you could say the following that, The Christian's usefulness, these believers he's writing to, or our usefulness as a church or as Christians, our usefulness is vitally connected to our holiness, our holy living, is what will determine our usefulness. Robert Murray McShane would say, it's not great talents that God blesses, so much as it is great likeness to Jesus Christ that God blesses. So we ought not to say, well, if we want to have an effect in this world, we ought to just boost up or increase our giftedness. No, Peter in the wisdom of Robert Murray McShane from the scriptures, is that if we want to be useful, we ought to grow in our holiness as God's people. And what Peter will show us is that our holy living will only expand to the degree that we're looking upon our holy God in our Christian living. That's what Peter's getting at, and we'll see the flow of this argument. If you look in verse 13, that connecting word, again, by way of context, he uses that phrase, therefore, And what he's getting at is what he's shown us the last couple weeks throughout chapter one. Verse, you could say verse 12, therefore, since the angels are longing to look into the salvation that we've received, therefore, since the prophets who prophesied about this grace, verse 10, that was to be yours, searched and inquired carefully, therefore, you could say verse nine, we're awaiting the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls, therefore, we've been called to this living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, verse three, Peter's saying, therefore, in light of all of this, this holy calling that God's called you to, it now produces holy living. In other words, the calling that God has called us to, it changes how we live in this world. It is transformative. So Peter now, in verse 13, throughout the rest of the book, is going to get to practical Christian living in light of the hope to which we've been called, in light of the God who's called us. It's this life, as Peter describes, as a mind, verse 13, that is preparing for action. Therefore, in light of the salvation you've received, preparing, verse 13, your minds for action and being sober-minded. He's saying if you didn't get the first 12 verses, I'm going to say it once more, and then get to your living. He says, prepare your mind, be sober minded, how? Verse 13, by setting your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So he's saying, I'm going to leave that behind now, but don't forget that. If you want to have a prepared mind to live for Christ in this day, and if you want to have a sober mind to live for Christ in this day, set your mind on the things that I've told you about in chapter one, But when you do that, when your mind is set on the hope, the glory to be revealed when Christ returns, it's gonna produce fruit in your life. And now in verse 14 to verse 16, Peter's gonna show us that when our mind, you could say, is a spiritual mind, or a mind set on heaven, it doesn't make us useless in this world. Actually, Peter and God himself, through the apostle Peter, saying, when you're more heavenly minded, thinking of our Lord's return, and thinking of the holy calling to which you've been called, the more spiritually minded you are, and with the eternal mindset that you have, that's going to make you more earthly good. That's going to make you live a holy life, set apart, useful for God in this world. And it's this life of holiness. Now, we can look at this holy life, you could say, in two arrows of holiness. In verse 14, there's the arrow of do not, in the negative, you could say, do not be conformed. And then in verse 15 and 16, there you could say is the arrow of a positive command, be holy. So what ought we to do in light of this grace that has been given and this grace that we anticipate? The first command is the arrow of not being conformed. Look at the text. Verse 14, Peter, He's writing to children of God, those born again, Christians, and he uses this do not command, verse 14. He says, as obedient children, here's the negative command, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. And Peter here, he's almost bringing these believers that he knows down memory lane. He's saying, I remember some of your former ignorances. I remember when you walked in the passions of the flesh. But let me bring you down memory lane. I've just told you about the holy calling to which you've been called. And what Peter's saying here now is really he's warning the believers to to show them that your life as a Christian now is fundamentally different than the old life. And there's a temptation and a warning here for the believers that Peter's addressing. He's saying that if your life is starting to get more of the aroma of the old life, Well we need a reality check. We need to go back to our holy calling and the God that's called us in holiness and he speaks about the former ignorance because there's some gentile believers here that he's addressing in the church that are slowly being pulled back and their life is slowly beginning to look a little more like their former ignorant days rather than living in light of the days that God's called them out of and called them into, and you can get a glimpse of their former ignorant lives in chapter 4 for a moment. Verse 1 to 5, speaking about these Gentile believers in Christ, this is what their life was shaped by, you could say, or conformed to when they lived as ungodly, unconverted Gentiles in the flesh. It looked like this, Peter says, In chapter four, verse three, you can get a glimpse here. For the time that has passed, suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do. And here's what he says. Here's the passions of the flesh that Peter's talking about in chapter one. He says the Gentiles, they live in sensuality. Chapter four, verse three. They have passions, sinful passions. They have drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawlessness, idolatry with Verse four, respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you, but they will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. That's what Peter's getting at. There's some here that their life is starting to look a little more like the ungodliness that they walked in in their unconverted days. And what Peter's saying is he's warning them about a reality that Paul says in Romans 6 verse 11, that if we're in Christ, if the old man in Adam is dead, and we've been given new life in Jesus Christ, Peter's essentially saying that you have a new life and a new identity, and God has put new passions and new desires in you, and so your life ought not to be conformed to the old man in Adam. Why is he saying it that way? I love the quote by Paul Washer. He says, imagine if God turned a pig into a man. And from time to time, that man, he forgets that he's a man. And so what does he do? Well, he sees in the field there a little pigsty. And from time to time, that man goes to the pigsty and he starts eating all the mud and he's rolling around. And then his friend says, hey, what are you doing in the mud? And he says, well, I thought I was a pig. And his friend pulls him along and says, no, no, no, no, no, no. You've been transformed from a pig to a man and come back inside. You're a new man. You have a new identity. You're a new creature. Come feast at the table. And Paul Washer says, well, that's what happens in the Christian life. That's what Peter is addressing because our former ignorant lives, the former old man in us, you could say, that still remains to some degree an indwelling sin. Well, from time to time we forget that we're a new creature in Christ. We forget that we're not a pig anymore. We've been set free from the enslavement to sin that held us bound in that pit. And we've had our guilt of sin paid for by our Lord Jesus Christ. And what Peter's saying is that that old man in Adam, that pig that you used to be, that pig's long gone. That pig's dead. Don't be conformed to that pig anymore. That's not you. Know your new identity. You're a man. You're you're in Christ. If anyone's in Christ, he's a new creation The old is passed away behold the new has come and what he says is similar to what Paul says in Romans 6 verse 11 that when we When we feel the former ignorance, passions of the flesh that so marked our lives when we were unconverted, what do we do with that? When anger that used to control my life or whatever it may be for you or I, when that sin pops up in the flesh, Paul says, do this in Romans 6 verse 11, consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. And Lloyd-Jones, puts it this way in his sermon on Romans 6 verse 11. He says you've got to stare your flesh in the face that remains and says, no, no, no, no, no, you're dead. That old man that used to enjoy you and that old man that used to just live for you, that man's dead. Josh Mills that gave himself into this and that, that man's dead. And Lloyd-Jones says, you've got to preach to yourself that reality. Jesus Christ, when he was crucified, that old man in me was crucified with him. And Paul says, it's no longer I who live, Galatians 2 verse 20, but Christ who lives in me. That's what Peter's getting at. Don't be conformed to these old passions because That old man's dead. And then he'll go on to give us not only a warning, but the reason for this, it's not a do not command that you sometimes give to a child, do not touch that, it's gonna burn you, and they fuss and squirm because they think it's a bad command, and the parents are saying do not, because that's gonna harm you. And that's what Peter's doing here, he's saying if you go back and try and live as a pig, even though you're a man, That's gonna do some spiritual harm. That's gonna grieve the Holy Spirit that dwells within you. And Peter is saying that this do not command is good for your souls. Do not give in to indwelling sin that remains. And Peter's giving us an example here that the Christian life is not one of passivity. We don't just try and live a holy life by just passively saying, well, God, because he's sovereign, is gonna work that in us. Yes. Philippians 2 says God is the one who gives us the desire and ability to do that, but then he says, work out. Because God is working in you, work that out yourselves. Peter's saying essentially the same things. Now, one temptation here is the reason we don't strive as hard for holiness is because it's a lot harder to correct the unholiness that still remains within us in our own life than to correct the unholiness in the world. And we can think of all the different excuses. we can make, we can look at the world, and we can say, well, I'm not, I didn't respond in a holy manner, this government's not good, this government, well, their ignorance, their wickedness, it led me to act unholy, and we can almost, in our day, where there's a lot of unholiness around us, we can almost, as Christians, justify our unholiness for the sake of the times, and what's fascinating is that Christians here, under a heavy burden of persecution, God doesn't come along and say, well, you're only suffering persecution because you lived a holy life, and so now the bar's just down here, you know? Just ease up on the holiness. You gotta pass for holiness. Well, Peter's actually saying, because persecution's coming, for your holiness to Christ, You've got to ramp it up even more. You've got to live a greater holy life for Jesus Christ. And it begins with the do not, but the main verb, and we'll spend most of our time now looking, is verse 15 to verse 16. Do not be conformed. Isaac Watts says, I hate the sin that made you mourn and nailed you to the tree. That's what Peter's saying. Hate the sin that nailed Christ to the tree. Hate the sin, my sin, that nailed him to the tree. Hate it. And then he says, verse 15 and 16, be something. Do not be conformed, but be, verse 15, 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 Now the word holy means to be separate from that which is evil and devoted to that which is good. So God is saying that there's the standard for Christian living because the holy God has called you and he's separated you from evil and that which is sinful and devoted yourself to good and that which is holy. He says that there is this new kind of life you live. Now I want you to think of it in two ways. First, theologians talk about a definitive positional holiness, but then also a holiness in the Christian life. And the positional holiness we cannot achieve. The message of Christianity is not become holy and try and make yourself more holy and then you'll receive God's blessing, then you'll have this living hope, then you'll have the great inheritance to come. No, the message of Christianity is that Definitively, positionally, we were that dead pig in that pigsty, unholy, enslaved, defiled, devoted to everything that which is unholy and not according to God and His will. And the question is, well, how do we become holy positionally? It's nothing to do with us. There is nothing in us that caused God, the Holy God, to call us to Himself. He was wholly separate from us. Well, how does this happen? Look at verse 15. Peter reminds us, who called us, as he who called you is holy, you also be holy. The holy God, Peter says, called you. And what he's getting at is effectual calling. The call of God that called you from darkness to light. Peter is saying the only reason you are positionally holy before God is because the holy God called you. He came to you while you were in that pigsty and drew you out through the preaching of his word that our brother read about, this good news preached to you, Jesus Christ and him crucified. God came to you and called you out of that darkness. What does that look like? Look at chapter two, verse nine to 10. Peter will later talk about this calling. If you look in 1 Peter 2, verse 9, halfway through, he says, well, read the whole verse 9 and 10. He says, this is your new status. You're not a pig anymore. You're a chosen race, a royal priesthood. Verse 9, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. How can the holy God have an unholy people for his own possession when he cannot have fellowship with that which is unholy? Well, look what he says. He says that you, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him, and there's that word called. Who called us? The excellencies of him, God the excellent one called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people for, but now you are God's people. Once you were, you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. That's what Peter's getting at positionally. You and I are debtors to mercy alone. This is the great mercy that Peter's spent 12 verses talking about. It's the holy God who called an unholy people out of darkness and into marvelous light for the great purpose that we would proclaim the holy God's excellencies who called us to a new life, that we were not his people. We were unholy his, you could say, but now he's made us his people. Now we've received mercy when we did not have mercy at one point. Positionally, Peter says that the way you're holy before God is because the Holy God called you to himself. He drew you to himself. The Shriner says all holiness stems from the Holy God who called you into his sphere of holiness and we know the gospel The gospel of justification by faith, what happened there? Well, we know there was a double imputation that happened when we looked to Jesus Christ by faith. What happened when God called you to himself through faith in Jesus Christ is that God himself united you to the Holy God and he clothed you in the Holy Son's righteousness to make you his holy possession. That's what Peter's saying. So your new identity in one sense positionally before God, is holy. That you are holy right now. You're not unholy if you're in Christ, you're holy. And when God the Father looks at you, He sees you clothed in His Son's holiness. He doesn't look at your garment and say, ah, you're holy in and of yourself. No, he looks at you and I and says, there's my holy son. There's the one for whom my son gave his life for to clothe them in his holy, sinless life in a pay for their unholiness on the cross. So positionally, we are holy in Jesus Christ. And if we forget that, We'll forget what Paul says in the wage against the flesh. We'll forget that we are dead to sin. We're no longer unholy in God's sight, but we're holy, alive in Jesus Christ. That's one aspect of this holiness. As He who is called you is holy, you also be holy. Positionally, by God's grace, we're holy in His sight. But there's another aspect in terms of sanctification for the Christian, that we ought to grow in holiness. And that's where this verb goes in verse 15. You also be holy. And look what he says, the Christian life, a holy living, holy. in all your conduct. So there are implications if you have been called by the Holy God out of darkness to life, God says I want all of your life, all of your heart, all of your thoughts, all of your conduct to be one of holiness because you represent the Holy God that called you. That is this bar that God raises for those who have been redeemed in Jesus Christ. Now I have a word for those who may not be Christians here today and again as I try to articulate here that this is primarily a message for believers, those who have called upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and have believed upon him to draw them from darkness to life. But this phrase here in verse 16, you could look at the immediate context, we won't turn there, but Leviticus 11 verse 44, it's a Mosaic law. And we know Paul in the letter to the Galatians says that the law has been given to be a tutor or a taskmaster to lead you to Jesus Christ so that you would be justified, made right with God, not by your own works, but by the finished work of Jesus Christ. So if you're here today and you're not a Christian, this verse here, Leviticus 11.44, you shall be holy, For I am holy, that's a text to lead you to Christ, as Paul would say. And what it shows you is that this is a holy God that created all things. Isaiah, we won't turn there, but Isaiah gets a vision of the throne room, that the robe of God fills the room. And this cherubim can't even look at the holy God. They're covering every aspect of their body, and they're singing ceaseless praise of holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And we see Isaiah falls down and says, I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips who stands in the midst of a people with unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the Lord of glory, the Lord of hosts. And then what does God do? He puts a little throng on Isaiah's tongue and he says, your sins are atoned for. He atones for Isaiah's sins and he clothes Isaiah in the holiness of God. And he says, go and I'll send you to my people to be a messenger. Well, if you're here today, And you see this holy God. He can have no fellowship with sin. And you look at this text and say, I'm not holy. I realize that I'm not holy. Or maybe you don't even realize that you're not holy. And the Bible gives us a stark reality that you're not holy in God's sight. Well, the good news of the gospel is that the holy God came into this world to save a holy people from their sins. So the Holy God, he has this text for the unbeliever, you could say to, in one degree, open up the window of our heart to see our own unholiness, but to drive us to the Holy God, not on our own, but through faith in the Son, who drunk the wrath that was for an unholy people, that we would be saved. That's your response if you're hearing this, but then for us as believers, This is for our sanctification. This is a law used for our good. Be holy. Imitate God is what Peter is saying. And again, He doesn't lower the standards. He doesn't say, let's lower the bar, you need a little less striving. Hebrews 12 verse 14 says, that without holiness, no man shall see the face of God. Now, he's not saying it's holiness that brings you to God, but he's using that as a warning for believers who are tempted to not pursue holiness as they ought. He says, no, there's a serious thing that we should strive for in our Christian walk to have an ever-growing degree of holiness in life. And that phrase, holy living, it simply means a greater devotion. to God, a greater devotion to His will, a greater end to His glory, a holiness of mind, you could think of that. What do I consume my mind with? Is it wholly devoted to that which is good, pure, lovely, acceptable in God's sight, as Paul says to the Philippians? Is it Is it actually allowing me to glorify God with the content that I watch online or the movies or whatever? Is that being filtered through my mind to actually help me be more wholly devoted to God? Or is it actually just causing me to step back a bit and just dwell on evil and all this stuff that bogs us down? Holiness of mind, holiness of speech. We'll see later on throughout the letter that There's a holiness of speech as well, even in difficult times when we don't want to have holy speech. There's a holiness of living and modesty. What Peter wants us to know is that this gospel transforms us. That if you struggle with lust, the gospel can make you a pure person. That if you grumble, the gospel can make you thankful. If you're anxious, it can make you thankful. If you're angry, it can make you kind. If you gossip, it can make you encourage. What does this holy life look like according to Peter? I'll give you a few texts and then show us why we ought to pursue this. If you look first at 1 Peter 2 verse 11, Peter's getting at this for holiness. To be holy means to flee from all sin that so easily entangles us. That's one way that we can pursue holiness in the Christian life regardless of the times we live in. Chapter 2 verse 11, here's an exhortation for holiness. Peter says, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles, even when you're out of your own home and you're under persecution, is what he's saying. He says, abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak evil against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. That's a life of holiness. If they're slandering you, and there's just this tyranny pressed in upon you, Peter's saying, your holiness should abound so that they have no excuse against you, that they will actually glorify God by saying, there's something radical here. How can we afflict a people that are sojourners and exiles in this world and they actually glorify God and reflect the holy God who has nothing to do with sin. Holiness that Peter's talking about here is a life that hates sin and flees from it whenever it pops up. If you look in, well we just went over chapter 2 verse 12, it's also an honorable life of integrity before all. We're integral before God whether someone sees us or whether people are watching us. You can look in chapter three, verse three to five, Peter will address holy modesty. In this context with women, God cares about how we dress and conduct and visually portray ourselves before a watching world. Chapter three, verse three, Peter says, do not let your adorning be external. the braiding of your hair, the putting on of gold and jewelry or clothing you wear. But then he says, let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is in God's sight very precious. And then look at this word, holy. Verse 5, for this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves. A holy life is not only one that flees from sin or one that is a life of integrity, but Peter says it's also a life of modesty before God. And then finally, an example is holiness and suffering for righteousness. And you can look at that in chapter 3, verse 10 to verse 12 first. Just a glimpse here. Peter says in chapter 3 verse 10, for whoever desires to love life and see good days, look what he says, let him keep his tongue from evil. He's talking about a tongue kept from evil and we'll see the context here in the face of suffering. He says, Let him keep his tongue from evil. Have a pure tongue, a holy tongue, his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." And then look what he says, verse 13. He says, now, who is there to harm you if you're zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, You will be blessed, have no fear of them, nor be troubled. But in your hearts, look what he says, honor, literally, set him as supreme. Honor Christ the Lord as holy. And we always know this is an evangelistic apologetic text, but it's in the form of suffering. He's saying even if you should suffer for righteousness, honor Christ in your mind, set him apart as holy, Peter says. always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame, for it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil." And where does he go? Who's the source to produce this holiness in us? Look where he goes, verse 18. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. Peter's saying if you're to live a life that hates sin and flees from it, if you're to have a life of integrity and honorability and a life of holy modesty and a life of holy suffering and thought, honoring Christ as Lord and having a tongue that praises him regardless of the circumstances, he says, You've got to go back to the gospel again. You never outgrow that. Think of the Holy God, the righteous God who came into this world and died for unrighteous sinners that He might bring us to God, having put our sin to death, nailing it to the cross. So Peter here is always going back. What governs our heart and minds will always affect what we live. And he's telling us again and again as we began, the thesis is that our usefulness in this world is directly tied to our pursuit of holiness. And if we want to have an increased holy life, we ought to, as Peter said again and again, Come to the holy God who's called us from darkness to light and know the power that he has called us by and called us to. Now three things very quickly as I conclude. What is a motivation for holiness? We often think holiness is gonna make us unhappy, but holiness is the greatest blessing that we can receive and pursue. And I'll give you three texts. You don't have to turn there, but I'll read them. Three motivations for holy living. Number one is that our life is not our own. And we read that in 1 Corinthians 6 verse 20. Paul says, for you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body. Why do we pursue holiness? Why do we honor Christ as Lord in our heart, mind, soul, strength? Because we're not our own anymore. The Holy God's bought us with the blood of His Holy Son who became incarnate for us. And so Paul says, glorify God with your body. Why? Because your body is a temple for the Holy God to dwell in this world. So we realize we ought to pursue this because our life is not our own. God dwells within us if we're in Christ. So we ought to use all that we have to honor Him. That's the first motivation, the greatest, God's glory. The second is a holy life. It's always a happy life. How do we know that? I'll give you one text. If you look in the Beatitudes, it's remarkable. Matthew 5 verse 8, Jesus is blessed So here's where eternal blessing is found. He says, blessed are the pure in heart. You could say the holy in heart. for they shall see God. That's a promise in the gospel, but it's also, you could say, a promise for our Christian living. We behold more of the glory and the face of God by faith in proportion to the holiness that we are living. If we're not living a holy life, we'll grieve God, and sometimes he'll turn his shining face away from us, though in Christ he's still smiling, but clouds can come over and different forms of discipline. But Jesus says the blessed one, the truly happy one, is the one who has a pure heart, the one who pursues holiness. Why? Because we get to see God. We get to behold more of His glory. We get to see more of His beauty when we pursue a life of holiness. If that's not motivation, Well, Jesus says then we're missing out. A holy life is a happy, blessed life. And then finally, 2 Timothy 2 verse 20, a holy life is not only because we're not our own or because it's a happy life, but it's also a useful life in relation to our thesis. And Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2 verse 20, If anyone, and he's talking about believers here, growing in sanctification, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, you could use it in Peter's language, if you turn and put to death by the spirit's work in you, the former ignorant patterns of the flesh, If anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, Paul says, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. Well, there's Peter's thesis. How are these believers, how are they to be useful in a day where persecution is ramping up? Peter's not gonna say, it must be your great giftedness. No, he's saying, It'll be your holiness that will make you useful. And so that's an instruction for us to, day by day, as we look at the scriptures, to pray as McShane did, that the source that was given to Edwards in times past, and the source that was given to Robert Murray McShane to live a life of holiness, well, it's still open to us. Theirs was but a borrowed light. and the God of holiness, and the God of glory, and the one who said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. He's welcomed you, he's called you, and he's enabling you and I to live a light that is of salt and light-giving life through Christ in this world. And so may that be our exhortation for the week to come. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you are the holy God who's called an unholy people to yourself through the cross we thank you as Peter reminded us Lord that we at one point were not your people but now we're your people once we did not receive mercy but now we've received great mercy, abounding mercy. We think of Psalm 23, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and then I shall dwell in the house of the Lord all of my days. We pray, Father, this week for each of us that we would live a life that is fully devoted to you in our mind and will and affections, that you would Help us as the God who's called us positionally out of holiness, but also the God that is working in us to stamp the holy image of Christ upon us. And we await that day, Lord, of glorification, where that glorious, holy image of the Son will be produced upon us in full. And we pray, Father, if there's any here today enslaved to sin, and things that are unholy, we pray, Father, that you would set them free and give them your holy life within their soul, that they would know you, that they would serve you, that they would be the blessed one who's been given a new and a pure heart in Christ, that they too would one day see your face, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.