God the Father governs his family through discipline, which has a dual purpose: to correct disobedience and to reward obedience. This discipline is essential for the Father's honor and the children's happiness, requiring believers to pattern their lives after God's holiness. The sermon emphasizes that while sinless perfection is unattainable in this life, believers are called to strive for practical holiness in all aspects of their living, reflecting their identity as God's children. Ultimately, the message encourages self-examination to determine if one is living a life that mirrors the Father's character.
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Beloved radio friends, we greet you in the ever-precious and the worthy name of our beloved Savior, the Lord Jesus. This is your Bible teacher of the air speaking, J.W. Bramhall, giving you a hearty welcome to the study of the precious Word of God. We continue the blessed theme that we have been recently considering. God the Father and his family. We have touched upon many facets of truth in relation to the family of God. We now would approach a subject of great importance to all those who are in the family of God, who are his children.
And the subject is this, the Father's government of his family. Now when we mention such a theme as this, the Father's government of his family It represents to us the need of discipline in the family of God. And the need of discipline in relation to one who is a child of God should be recognized. Though we acknowledge that today it is little appreciated and even practiced. But there are various forms of discipline in relation to the children of God.
Our particular theme of discipline is in regard to the Father's discipline in his family. For this is a ministry that is from as well as by the Father that is unfailing toward every member in his family. There is not one child of God that is neglected by the Father in his governmental authority over his children. And God the Father has a double purpose in relation to disciplining his redeemed children upon the earth. The first fact would be this.
It is his desire to chasten, to reprove, to discipline, when his child is in need of correction because of disobedience in life. But also there is another truth. to this subject of discipline of the Father. It is his desire and purpose to reward his children when they obey him and when they are in submission to his control and his authority. My beloved radio friends, if you are a child of God, please may I bring before you this fact that when we consider the discipline of the Father over all of his children in his family.
It involves the honor of the Father himself, because he desires to maintain his own holy character in his children. But there is not only the honor of the Father at stake, but the Father has also involved in this discipline the happiness of his children, and he desires this happiness. And your happiness and my happiness as a child of God, my fellow believer, depends upon the Father's discipline. For he knows we are affected by the behavior of each child within his family, either for blessing or otherwise.
We turn to a scripture portion that we would read in the Epistle of Peter, the first Epistle of Peter, chapter one. May I begin reading at verse fourteen. First Peter chapter one, verse fourteen, and I would like to read the whole section through verse twenty-one. As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as he which has 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. For as much 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 a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifesting 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.
Now in the opening portion of this Scripture section, verses fourteen through sixteen in particularly, we have the Father's call to the children for them to be obedient. It is a call to obedience as obedient children. This is the desire of the Father. May I point out a clear distinction, my fellow believer. There can be a difference between being a child of God and being an obedient child of God. May I re-emphasize that?
We can be children of God, but isn't it not too possible and often perhaps probable? We manifest disobedience to the Father, rather than obedience to his will. And we are told why we should be obedient children in verses fifteen and sixteen. The pattern of our obedience is the holiness of the Father. As he which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, meaning manner of life. because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy.
Now let us not gainsay the fact. The Father is a holy person. The character of holiness, he desires to see it develop and brought out in the life and testimony of his children. And we are to be like the Father. And one characteristic of the Father is this, our Father is holy. Now may I remind you very carefully that when this question of holiness is raised and stated here, let us be reminded that when it comes to practical holiness, this is a development.
This is a stage of growing to become more and more like the Father as we grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And though I am persuaded from the teaching of the Word of God, we shall never be sinless while upon the earth, sinless perfection will not be attained to in all of its fullness, till you and I, my fellow believer, lose this body of flesh. And in the day of resurrection, or in the day of translation, when our Lord Jesus comes, then we know we should be fashioned like unto his own glorious body, and we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
But nevertheless, let us not indeed minimize the truth. God is calling his children to pattern themselves after his holiness, and to seek to conform more and more in practical holiness like himself. This is our responsibility. It contains what we have already noticed in a preceding study. We are to maintain and practice the features that show that we belong to the Father as His children. And we notice, if I may remind my listeners who have been consistently hearing these messages, we found in a preceding message in First John chapter two, that a child of God should practice right living.
and he should not practice sinning, and that we were to love our brethren, as well as to be overcomers of the world. And we recognize and clearly would emphasize that we are called to pattern our lives after our Father. And thus we have the very call of the Father in Peter's scripture here, first Peter chapter one, to be obedient children. The preceding verse of our reading, which is the thirteenth, I would like to read, The call to holy living. 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.
Beloved, you and I, who are believers, we have a holy calling. We also have a wonderful hope. And that hope is the coming again of our Lord Jesus, when we shall be like him. But while waiting for him to come, the loins of our mind should be girded. We are to be in sobriety. We are to seek to pattern ourselves in character and conduct in a pattern of holiness. And as you have it, if you please, please note it in verse fifteen as I read the words. as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.
Now let me correct what may be a false impression regarding the meaning of the word conversation. It has nothing primarily to do with our conversation in talk, but it is an old English word obsolete in its meaning today. that implies in all manner of living. Please let me repeat the closing words of verse fifteen before we close our study today. So be ye holy in all manner of living. God calls us to holiness. We must never minimize that fact. And my fellow believer, I repeat again, we shall not be sinless until we get our new bodies.
But while we are here, we should never minimize nor lower the standard of living that our God has called us to, and seek by His grace and by His enabling power, through His word, by the Spirit, to conform our character and our obedience to His word, the conduct of our lives, to a life of holiness. May God remind us of this. The Father we should be like. And I would leave with you, my fellow believer today, the consideration, am I like my Father? Do I live in this scene, patterning my life after his character?
God help me to do it. May this be our prayer. Father, we pray, in the name of the Lord Jesus, sanctify the truth we have covered to each one of us in our Savior's name for his glory. Amen.