Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter
chapter 1.
I'd like to read beginning at verse 13
through the end of the chapter.
1 Peter chapter 1, verse 13 through the
end of the chapter.
Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind,
be sober, and hope to the end for
the grace that is to be brought unto
you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to
the former lusts in your ignorance, but as
he which hath called you is holy, so
be ye holy in all manner of conversation.
Because it is written, Be ye holy, for
I am holy.
And if ye call on the Father, who
without respect of persons judgeth according to every
man's work, pass the time of your sojourning
here in fear.
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not
redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold
from your vain conversation received by tradition from
your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish and
without spot, who verily was foreordained before the
foundation of the world, but was manifest in
these last times for you, who by him
do believe in God that raised him up
from the dead and gave him glory, that
your faith and hope might be in God.
Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying
the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love
of the brethren, see that ye love one
another with a pure heart fervently, being born
again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible
by the word of God which liveth and
abideth forever.
For all flesh is as grass, and all
the glory of man as the flower of
grass.
The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth
away, but the word of the Lord endureth
forever.
And this is the word which by the
gospel is preached unto you.
Verse 15, But as he which hath called
you is holy, so be ye holy in
all manner of conversation.
For it is written, Be ye holy, for
I am holy.
The highest description of character is found in
the word Christlike.
There is no greater compliment or tribute that
you could pay to a person than to
say he or she is Christlike.
There is no ambition that comes close to
that.
Christlikeness is the ultimate honor.
I like what Henry Drummond said, he said,
To become like Christ is the only thing
in the world worth caring for.
The thing before which every ambition of man
is folly, and all lower achievement vain.
And that is true.
There is no greater ambition than to have
someone say of you, of me, that person
is really Christlike.
It must be great to be extremely gifted.
It must be great to be able to
get up and preach the word of God
in such a way that hearts are bowed
and stirred beneath the influence of the word.
It must be wonderful.
But it's not as wonderful as being Christlike.
It's possible to be very gifted in the
assembly and a perfect grouch at home.
There's a difference between gift and grace.
Gift is a sovereign bestowment of God.
But grace is something that we develop in
our lives by the Spirit of God.
Paul makes that distinction very clearly in 1
Corinthians chapter 13, doesn't he?
The folks in Corinth were proud of their
gifts.
They were displaying their gifts.
Much of it for self.
For self edification.
Self importance.
Paul is pointing out that you could speak
with the tongues of men and of angels,
but if you don't have love.
And love really stands there for personal grace.
It amounts to nothing.
In the early history of the church, one
day a Christian was being taken out to
his martyrdom.
As he was led out, another believer rushed
up to him and said, Oh dear brother,
he said, I have an apology to make
to you.
Before you die, he said, I have wronged
you.
And I have come to apologize to you.
And the martyr swept him aside with his
hand and went on to his martyrdom.
And his name has never been listed among
the heroes of the early Christian martyrs.
That is exactly what Paul says in 1
Corinthians 13.
Though I give my body to be burned
and have not love, it profiteth me nothing.
I used to wonder, how could a person
give his body to be burned and have
not love?
But it's possible, isn't it?
The martyr went to his death for the
name of Christ.
But he didn't show love in the closing
moments of his life.
So I say, well, it must be wonderful
to be extremely gifted, but we must never,
we must never emphasize gift above personal grace.
It must be wonderful to be a great
personal worker, to be able to deal with
souls and see them come to the feet
of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ.
But I want to tell you there are
a lot of people today rushing around in
a frenzy of personal evangelism and their lives
don't back up what they're saying.
They're a poor advertisement of it all.
And I'd like to suggest it might be
a very good thing for people like that
to declare a moratorium on personal evangelism.
They've got their priorities wrong.
Jesus said, follow me and I will make
you fishers of men.
What does it mean to follow me?
It means to live as he lived.
It means to become Christ-like and he'll
take care of the rest.
That's interesting, isn't it?
It doesn't say take a 12-lesson course
in personal evangelism and I will make you
fishers of men.
He says you take care of the character
and people will be drawn to the Savior.
Follow me and I will make you fishers
of men.
We've been counseling our interns lately.
We go over them with them at the
very beginning of the year.
We sit them down.
We say, look, what are your goals?
And they have to sit with us and
tell us what their goals are.
So far, not one of them has said
to me, my goal is to become like
Jesus.
Too bad, isn't it?
They want to have effective quiet times.
They want to be effective on the campus
when they go and witness for the Lord
Jesus.
They want to be effective in their home
and all the rest.
But so far, no one has said, I
want to be like Jesus.
And yet, that's God's great purpose in our
lives.
That we might be conformed to his Son.
And when we say conformed, we don't mean
physical likeness.
We mean moral likeness and spiritual likeness.
One day, all believers are going to be
perfectly conformed to the Lord Jesus morally.
When we see him, we shall be like
him.
One look and we'll be changed into his
likeness.
But it's more glory for God if we're
becoming more like him down here.
That's God's purpose.
That's how all things are working together for
good to those who love God.
What could come out of that tragedy, that
sadness that I've just been through?
That we might be conformed to the image
of his Son.
And God is working everything in the lives
of his people toward that great aim.
Carol Nahal gave two good illustrations of the
process that I can't get away from.
She told about a lady who was a
little bit overweight.
And the lady decided to go to a
weight reduction salon.
And she was going to be put on
a strict diet.
When she went to this weight reduction salon,
the first thing that the manager did was
go to a full-length mirror and draw
an outline of the lady on the mirror
as she wanted to be.
As she wanted to be.
And every week she would come up and
she would stand before the outline.
She had been dieting.
She had cut out dessert.
She had cut out sugar.
She had cut out white flour.
And she would stand, but she was still
bulging over in spots as far as the
outline was concerned.
But finally one day, she stood before the
mirror and she perfectly conformed to the outline.
They all gave her a rousing ovation.
That's it.
That's exactly what God is trying to do
with us.
Not through dieting.
Through spiritual means to make us more and
more like Jesus.
The other illustrations she gave us I thought
was very good.
She told about a sculptor who had taken
a great huge block of granite and he
had chiseled away on it until it was
a perfect lion emerged.
And a friend came to him and said,
how did you ever get a lion out
of that block of granite?
And he said, it was easy.
He said, I just chipped away everything that
didn't look like a lion.
That's exactly what the Lord is trying to
do with us.
He's trying to chip away everything in our
lives that doesn't look like Jesus.
I think that's beautiful.
But you and I have to cooperate.
God wants to make me Christ-like, but
I tell you this, he won't do it
without my cooperation.
In this, as in so many aspects of
the Christian life, there is a mysterious merging
of the divine and the human.
We can sow and we can water, but
God gives the increase.
We have to fight the good fight of
faith, but only God can give the victory.
And so it is with personal holiness.
God wants me to be holy, very intent
on my being holy, but he won't do
it without my cooperation.
And one of the worst hindrances to the
Christian faith today is the lives of professing
Christian people.
James Spinks said it years ago, he said,
more evil is done to the cause of
Christianity by its adherents than by its opponents.
Think of that.
More evil is done to the cause of
Christianity by its adherents than by its opponents,
for the world often contrasts a Christian profession
with his practice.
They argue rightly that if Christianity is what
we claim it to be, it ought to
make a difference in the life.
And Hudson Taylor said somewhat the same thing.
He said the inconsistencies of Christian people who,
while professing to believe their Bibles, lived as
if there were no such book, had been
one of the strongest arguments of my skeptical
companions.
When his skeptical companions argued against him about
the Christian faith, they would always bring up
the lives of professing Christian people.
This is one of the great problems in
the church today.
To hear people talk, you'd think there was
a great evangelical revival going on in the
United States.
There's certainly a lot of activity.
But the truth of the matter is that
many of us are very poor role models
of the Savior.
I was over in Alameda recently, and there
was a little pickup truck there outside the
building I went into.
And on the back of the pickup truck,
there were two stickers on the bumper.
In the back bumper, two stickers.
On the left-hand side, it said, I
love Jesus.
Nice, isn't it?
The sticker on the right side said in
mock Italiano, You break-a my car, I
break-a your face.
Somehow or other, they didn't fit together.
I love Jesus.
You break-a my car, I break-a
your face.
What do people think?
Well, I'm glad to tell you that somebody
spoke to the owner of the pickup truck,
and the light dawned.
And he removed one of the stickers.
A Christian businessman had been on the radio.
He had spoken on the radio Sunday night,
and one of the girls in his office
had heard it.
And so they came to work Monday morning,
and things went very bad.
It was not good at all.
And the girl got the benefit of his
temper.
And as she was going out the office,
another girl was coming into the office, and
she said, Yep, there it is.
Come to Jesus on Sunday night, and go
to blank on Monday morning.
Poor role model of Jesus.
That draws me up short.
How's my temper?
Is my temper under control?
I don't know many things that give a
worse personification of the Savior than the display
of temper.
I think of the famous actors and actresses
in the United States who are talked into
becoming born again.
Pardon me if I say it that way.
And they make no clean break with their
former lifestyle.
They carry on just as they've always carried
on.
Sometimes star in low-rated movies.
It's very obvious Christ has not made a
difference in their life.
They're extolled, they're exalted, and all the rest,
Christian movie actors and actresses.
I think of many prominent, quote, Christian musicians
with their theatrical performances, their suggestive body language,
in many cases the questionable lyrics that they
use, and music that apes the world.
Is this Christianity?
This is what is being pawned off of
the world today as Christianity.
Dear friends, it's a parody.
It's a caricature.
And all in the name of Jesus.
I want to tell you that much of
the publicity today about Christian people and prominent
in public life is a ridiculous imitation.
God wants us to be conformed to the
image of his Son.
Some years ago, a gangster professed to be
saved in New York.
And it made all the headlines.
I'm sure many of you read all about
it.
But, after his so-called conversion, he continued
to carry on his underworld activities.
And somebody confronted him about it.
And he said, when I professed faith in
Christ, nobody told me it had to make
a change in my life.
He said, after all, you have Christian cowboys,
you have Christian football players, you have Christian
politicians, why not a Christian gangster?
And since then, he has abandoned the Christian
faith.
But his name was heralded far and wide
as the great new Christian.
I think of Christian TV celebrities with their
expensive coiffures dripping with jewelry, costly
clothing, made up like Jezebel.
What a picture of our penniless friend from
Nazareth.
Is that what I'm to think Jesus was
like?
No wonder the world turns away in disgust.
I think of many radio and TV preachers
that they talk about money more than they
talk about Jesus.
They live in sumptuous homes, drive around in
expensive cars and even planes until some clever
reporter comes along and exposes the fraud.
No wonder the world says all the church
wants is your money.
Poor role models of the Lord Jesus.
I think of Christian politicians.
I don't think that we have to doubt
that many politicians profess religion because of the
tremendous power of the evangelical vote in the
United States today.
But how disappointing to hear their earthy language,
to know of some of the compromises that
they make along the way, and to learn
about their shadowy associations.
And all, I say, in the name of
Jesus.
I think of Christian prisoners, men who profess
to be saved in prison and seem to
do very brightly in prison.
And then their friends intercede for them and
the judge looks down on them and he
said, well, I still think you're a con
man, but I'll let you go.
But they go.
And some Christian organization comes along and gets
them and puts them on the circuit.
They travel over the United States giving their
testimony and collecting money and the next thing
you know they tube out.
But you never hear of them again.
We had a very vivid illustration of that
this past week in California.
And I just think of the lives of
Christian people in general.
The things that we do for money, the
compromises we make, the way we fudge, the
way we hedge.
Voltaire said when it comes to money, all
men are of the same religion.
And I can see that this would break
the heart of Christ as he looks down
and sees people whom he wants to be
his representatives on earth, representing him and giving
a very poor representation.
I'll tell you very frankly, the evangelical world
in the United States needs a thorough house
cleaning.
But thank God that's not the whole story.
I thank God for men and for women
who do show Christ to the world.
Some years ago we introduced a young fellow
into our program, our training program in California.
When we accepted him we knew that he
had had melanoma, a very severe form of
cancer, and we accepted him just the same.
And in December of the year he was
with us, it recurred.
And we were able to keep him at
home all the time.
He never did have to go to the
hospital.
What really touched my heart was one day
the visiting nurse came.
And after being with Rob for a while
she went out to the kitchen and she
said to his wife, Rob makes me think
of Jesus.
She wasn't even a saved person.
That's lovely.
Rob makes me think of Jesus.
I'll tell you dear friend, I couldn't wish
for anything better to be said of me.
Rob makes me think of Jesus.
I'll tell you dear friend, I couldn't wish
for anything better to be said of me
under that tribute that was paid to him.
He was one of the most Christ-like
fellows I'd ever known.
I said to him one day, Rob, what's
your favorite verse?
He had only memorized 1,200 verses in
the four years he was saved, thanks to
his association with the Navigators.
And the verses that God gave him to
memorize were marvelous because they were the verses
that stood him in good stead during this
time.
I said to him, Rob, what's your favorite
verse?
You know what he said?
He said, but none of these things move
me.
Neither count I my life dear unto myself
that I might finish my course with joy
in the ministry that I received of the
Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the
grace of God.
And I'll tell you, his room was a
little anti-room of heaven.
I don't mind saying that.
An anti-room of heaven.
When you were there, you thought, there's so
much about Rob that makes me think of
Jesus.
But he wasn't the only one.
There have been many others in the history
of the world as well.
R.C. Chapman, one of the men in
the early days of the Brethren movement, he
said, since so many preach Christ and so
few live Christ, I will make it my
aim to live Christ.
And Darby said of Chapman, he lives, but
I preach.
Had a tremendous testimony for the Lord.
The testimony of a Christ-like life.
Another man, William Arnett.
It was said of him, his preaching was
good.
His writing was better, but his life was
best of all.
Wouldn't you like that said of you?
His life, best of all.
I don't know if any of you have
read the story of Sadhu Sundar Singh.
A Sikh who had been converted to God
when he was about 15 years of age
and really was apostolic in his ministry for
the Lord Jesus.
One day he came to a house and
he knocked on the door and the maid
came to the door and she saw him
and she spoke to him and she rushed
back to her mistress.
And she says, ma'am, I think Christ
has come to the door.
And in another home, Sadhu Sundar Singh was
down on the hearth rug playing with the
children.
That night before they went to bed, they
said, mother, could Jesus put us to bed
tonight?
That's wonderful, isn't it?
His whole bearing, his whole demeanor made them
think of Jesus.
Some of you have heard of Robert Murray
McChane.
He wrote some of the hymns that we
sing.
When this passing world is done, when is
sunk yon glaring sun, when I stand with
Christ on high, gazing o'er life's history,
then, Lord, shall I fully know, not till
then how much I owe.
He died at the age of 29 in
Scotland and he had left a deep mark
on that entire country.
Somebody said of him, his holiness was noticeable
even before he spoke a word.
He spent a night in the home of
a minister in the north of Scotland and
the minister said, that is the most Jesus
-like man I've ever seen.
The most Jesus-like man I've ever seen.
He spent hours in holy communion inside the
veil, in rapturous praise and adoration.
He would come forth from God's presence to
leave the fragrance of Christ as he went
from house to house in visitation.
As he walked the streets of his parish,
people were startled to see the look of
Jesus on his face.
Richard Hillary, a pilot, tells a story on
himself.
He had a co-pilot who was a
Christian whose name was Peter Pease and Richard
Hillary was very upset by the Christianity of
Peter Pease.
He decided to attack him mercilessly and tear
the very fabric of his faith to pieces.
And his chance came.
One day he glared at his victim and
he snarled and he said, your religion is
a fake, a hereditary hangover, a useful social
adjunct and nothing more.
And poor Peter opened his mouth and stammered
out a few feeble protests and then he
lapsed into silence, utterly crushed by his opponent's
flood of words.
But Hillary said, I knew I had lost
the argument.
He said, there was one fact I could
not explain, Peter's character.
He said it and his faith were bound
together and they played havoc with logic.
The power of a Christ-like life.
He lost the argument, but he won it.
He won it.
Hillary couldn't explain his character, the union of
his faith and his character.
He said it played havoc with logic.
And that is why J.H. Jowett wrote,
men may more than match you in subtlety
of argument, in intellectual argument you may suffer
an easy defeat, but the argument of a
redeemed life is unassailable.
That's true.
The argument of a redeemed life is unassailable.
We read that in the book of Acts.
Seeing the man who was healed standing there,
they could say nothing against it.
Isn't that right?
The argument of a Christ-like life.
How do we get there?
Well, I think the word of God sets
before us certain steps to holiness and I'd
just like to go over some of them
with you quickly now.
How can I become more Christ-like?
And God knows I want this.
First of all, I would suggest confess and
forsake sin as soon as you're conscious it
has come into your life.
Waste no time.
Rush to the throne of grace and confess
it before the Lord.
That keeps you clean.
But people have a problem with what is
confession.
To me, confession is dragging the sin out
and calling it by its wretched name in
the presence of God.
This is not confession.
One lady said, If I have done anything
wrong, I am willing to be forgiven.
That's not confession.
Watch out for any of these iffy confessions.
True confession has no ifs, ands, and buts
attached.
I have done something wrong.
Lord, it's this and I want to confess
it before you just now.
This is not confession.
A man confessed that he had stolen a
length of rope.
He neglected to say that there was a
cow at the other end of it.
That confession was not complete, was it?
It was withholding the truth without telling a
lie, I suppose.
But God is not fooled by that.
True confession is earnest.
It's honest.
It's complete before God.
God hates the attitude of hiding our sins.
The second thing, I think, is to yield
ourselves to the Lord moment by moment.
Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2.
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God, that ye present your bodies a
living sacrifice If confession keeps you clean, constant
yielding to the Lord keeps you available.
That's what we should be.
We should be available to the Lord at
any time, any day, anywhere, anything, just waiting
to hear His instruction for that day.
The third thing is to read, memorize, meditate
on, study, and obey the Word of God.
We mentioned that this afternoon, didn't we?
The importance of the Word of God.
And I think of those words that I
mentioned, probably the one we neglect the most
is meditate.
The holiest people I've ever known were people
who spent time meditating on the Word in
the presence of the Lord.
If I had time, I could tell you
some very, very interesting stories of men who,
through meditation, were so close to God that
He could reveal secrets to them that nobody
else knew.
I don't mean additional revelations to the Word
of God, but the secret of the Lord
is still with them that fear Him.
Four, pray without ceasing.
Pray without ceasing.
A step to holiness.
Say, what do I pray?
Pray that God will keep you from sin.
Pray that He will keep you from sin
even if you want to do it.
Pray that He will make you as holy
as it is possible for a man to
be on this side of heaven.
Pray that the temptation to sin and the
opportunity to sin will never coincide in your
life.
Because sometimes we have the temptation, sometimes we
have the opportunity.
It's bad when they both come at the
same time.
I'm always amazed at the Lord when He
taught the disciples what we call the Lord's
Prayer, and lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from evil.
And people struggle with that.
They say, God would never lead you into
temptation.
No.
But I know what it says to me.
It says, Lord, if I'm left to my
own, I'm sunk.
If you don't keep me, I won't be
kept.
Keep me by your mighty power.
I think the longer we live, the more
we see the problem in life about us
today, the more agony prayer is in this
regard.
Not just enough to pray a rote prayer.
We come to the place where we have
to agonize before the Lord.
Five, maintain regular fellowship with other Christians.
There's a sanctifying influence in being with other
Christians.
How much we owe to our brothers and
sisters in Christ, to their example to us,
to their encouragement to us.
We need it.
We need their fellowship.
Six, keep busy for the Lord.
There's safety in a life poured out for
the Lord Jesus.
Some of the worst times of temptation in
life are times of idleness.
Satan still finds things for idle hands to
do, doesn't he?
I think the times when we're most idle
and perhaps most well-fed are the times
of greatest temptation.
So now one of the scriptures says, whatever
your hands find to do, do it with
all your might.
When did David fall into his deepest sin?
The time when kings went to war, David
lounged.
The story became one of adultery and murder.
He didn't keep busy for the Lord.
This is a discipline, but it's one of
the greatest disciplines in life.
I know that some dear people are allergic
to work.
They think work was part of the curse
in the Garden of Eden.
Work is not a curse.
Work is a blessing from God.
We're going to be working all through heaven,
did you know that?
His servants shall serve him.
And he will come forth and serve them
too.
Us, his servants.
Work is one of the greatest blessings.
It's the toil and perspiration of work that
were part of the curse in the Garden
of Eden.
Seven, discipline the body.
We talked about that this afternoon, didn't we?
1 Corinthians 9, 27.
The body is always there craving its appetite.
And really, if we're going to mean business
with God, it probably will mean saying no
10,000 times a week.
God wants men and women with spine, with
spiritual spine, who can swim against the tide.
Stand up against temptation, say no.
After King Louis XVI had been put to
death in France, there was a witch who
tried to get a hold of his son
and teach him vile language.
And the son said, I will not do
it.
I will not speak those filthy words.
I'm a son of a king.
I will not say it.
Good for us to remember that we're children
of royalty.
And it should affect all our lives.
Number nine, be willing to take drastic action
like Joseph did.
Like Joseph did.
To put a few healthy miles between himself
and the temptation.
I must hurry.
Ten, avoid petty familiarities or objects that arouse
the passions.
Jude says, hating even the garment spotted by
the flesh.
Eleven, avoid anything that lowers your resistance to
sin.
I believe that God has built in a
resistance to sin in every human life, saved
and unsaved.
But drugs, alcohol, things like that, they lower
the resistance.
And men will do, while under the influence
of those things, what they wouldn't ordinarily do.
We must avoid them.
Reckon yourself to be dead to sin, Romans
6.11. What does that mean?
It means respond to temptation just the way
a corpse would.
Ever talk to a corpse?
Didn't get much answer, did you?
That's exactly the way I should be when
sin comes knocking at my door.
Corpse-like.
Don't get any response from me.
And finally, in the moment of fierce temptation,
call on the name of the Lord.
The name of the Lord is a strong
tower.
The righteous runneth into it and is saved.
The name of the Lord stands for the
Lord himself, doesn't it?
Whenever you get the name, it stands for
the person.
The name of the Lord is a strong
tower.
Peter found that out when he began to
sink beneath the water.
Lord, save me!
The Lord saved him.
The only times I sin are when I
don't call on the name of the Lord.
Good thing to remember in that moment of
fierce temptation, when the waves seem to be
engulfing you, you can always look up and
say, Lord, I need you.
You'll never fail.
Praise the Lord.