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Adult Sunday School Class
Blessing to us as we think about this subject of holiness.
It occurred to me this week as I was preparing the lesson and thinking about it
that this whole subject of holiness is really not even talked much about in
modern and the contemporary evangelical view with a very broad
umbrella circles.
It's just not.
All kinds of other things are talked about, but holiness is kind of like considered to be
a little archaic.
You know, we don't want to talk about it too much.
There are certain sub -segments of the church in
our time that still do talk about it, but in a very
distorted way.
We may have some time at the end today to talk about that a little bit.
Don't want to focus on it much.
But the point is that it isn't, there's not much said about it.
And yet, what we know is that we're called, Christians are called
to holiness.
Peter, in 1 Peter 1, he is quoting from Leviticus what the Lord said, and the Lord said, be
holy as I am holy.
And Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians that this is the will of God for you, even your sanctification,
or your holiness.
So as Christians, we are called to holiness.
But holiness is one of those things in the Christian life that has to be cultivated.
It's not a, we're not called to a passivity about holiness, as
if all we have to do is sit back, let go, and let God kind of a thing.
No, we're called to cultivate it.
And so, just want to review, because last week on your handout, we got down to number
three, sub number four.
So just, let's just kind of go through that and remind ourselves some of the things we said last week.
Talking about the call to cultivate holiness, we need to understand what holiness means.
And we said it has a negative and a positive components to that meaning of holiness.
On the negative side, it means to be separated from sin.
On the positive side, it means to be consecrated, or dedicated to God, and conformed
to Christ.
And so when you put those two poles, negative and positive, together, what you discover
and come to understand is that really holiness is a comprehensive thing.
It comprehends all of life.
So the separation from sin, consecration to God, and conformity to Christ
really involves our whole being.
It involves our being inwardly and outwardly.
It fills holiness, the subject of holiness affects our entire heart.
And remember our study on the heart, our intellect, emotion, will, our mind, desires, and
choices that we make.
But also is to be outward, how we live.
And that covers all of life, all of life.
We talked about the limits of the cultivating of holiness, and really just
emphasized one key idea.
And that is we're not cultivating holiness in an attempt to somehow gain
merit with God.
As if I can just, if I can scale the next height, God
will be more happy with me.
God will be more pleased with me.
I'll have more favor with God, if you will.
And that fails to understand that in Christ we have a
status of holiness, a status of holiness, a sanctified
status or position.
What we're talking about in the cultivating of holiness is the cultivating of a sanctified
condition, a condition of life.
So for example, the writer of Hebrews says, pursue peace with all men, but
also adds, and holiness.
Pursue holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.
So we don't pursue holiness in order to gain favor with God, to get a better
standing with him.
Our standing is settled, it is secure.
We cultivate holiness to have a holy condition of life.
All right, so what must be cultivated?
We've said these three things here on your handout.
We must cultivate the imitation of the character of the Father.
As 1 Peter 1, 16 tells us, we are to conform to the image of Christ.
We want to cultivate that.
Philippians 2, verses five through eight says, let this mind or this attitude be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus.
And that attitude, as Paul goes on here in Philippians 2, that attitude affects
behavior, and it always does.
So let this mind be in you, so conformity to the image of Christ, and then submission to the mind of
the Holy Spirit.
What is the Holy Spirit directing us to do?
And we must be submitted to that.
And so then that takes us to the nuts and bolts of that cultivation,
to the tools, if you will, of cultivation in the garden of our life.
And we said the first tool is to know and love the scriptures, know and love the scriptures.
Reading it, reflecting on it, rehearsing it, and so forth.
Knowing and loving the scriptures.
And secondly, how to cultivate holiness.
Allow the ordinances to be a means of grace to strengthen your faith in Christ.
In the morning service today, we're going to partake together of the Lord's Supper.
And that's one of the two ordinances, the other baptism.
And those ordinances are not religious rituals that we
simply go through.
As some branches of Christianity broadly discussed would
look at those sacraments, like in Catholicism, they look at the sacraments as
meritorious, earning some kind of merit with God.
So that's how they look at it as a means of grace.
You partake of the Eucharist in order to earn brownie points with God?
No, that's not what we're talking about.
What we're talking about is the fact that those ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper, they point us to
Christ.
They point our attention to Christ.
And as they do so, what is the effect?
If we engage in those ordinances properly, like with the Lord's Table, the
Lord's Supper, we reflect on the work of Christ on the cross, his
death in our behalf, his broken body, his shed blood.
And what does that do?
Well, it's like Paul says, the goodness of God leads us to repentance.
And so that attention focused on what Christ has done is designed to
grow us up in grace and knowledge of Christ.
So we talked about that.
And then thirdly, we mentioned, regard yourself as dead to sin's dominion
and as alive to God in Christ.
You are not under the dominion of sin.
You don't have to obey its demands upon you.
Number four, pray and work independence upon God for holiness.
We pointed out that holiness and prayer go together.
They're inseparable.
We're not going to grow in holiness.
We're not going to cultivate holiness in our lives without correspondingly praying.
But we also need to work.
Holiness and work are also inseparable.
That's why Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4, 7, exercise yourself unto
godliness.
It takes some effort there.
All right, now number five.
Number five, how to cultivate holiness.
Turn to Philippians chapter four and look at this verse in a moment.
Number five, we want to flee worldliness.
Flee worldliness.
The essence of worldliness is very broadly and generally described as
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
First, appearance of worldliness occurred in the Garden of Eden.
Worldliness is conforming ourselves to the
designs of the wicked one, just as Eve did when she
succumbed to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
And when she did that, she allowed herself to be conformed in her thinking and then in her behavior
to what the wicked one wanted her to do and to be.
Well, in terms of fleeing worldliness, what we want to do, what we want to be sensitive to
do, is to strike out at the first appearance of those things, at the first appearance of
the pride of life, when I'm feeling that pull
to self -exaltation, to selfishness, to self -centeredness, and so forth.
Strike out at the first appearance of the lust of the flesh,
the fulfilling, the inordinate, illegitimate satisfaction of the
desires of the flesh or the desires of the eyes.
So as soon as I feel that pull in a way that is
illegitimate, it's a violation, it's contrary to what I know is God's will, God's word,
then I want to strike out against that, strike out against it.
Secondly, in this regard, Philippians 4, verse 8, I
want to work on, here we are, cultivating holiness, I want to work on
my mind, my thinking, so that I fulfill what
Peter's exhorting me to do here, where he says, whatever things are true, whatever
things are noble, just, pure, lovely, good report,
if there's any virtue, if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things,
meditate on these things.
And I think it was in my pastor's page article this week, I kind of wrote about that and
how challenging it is, especially in the chaos of
our day, and one of the things I've mentioned, Chris and I
talking about all of the different fronts in which
attacks are made.
Okay, so you've got this mess in Afghanistan, you've got this problem with the southern border, you've got
the LGBTQ agenda,
you've got the gender dysphoria stuff going on, you've got all of these assaults
going on at the same time, and it's like the wicked one,
who is the author of confusion, has thrown so many things at the same time,
that it's incredibly difficult to be single -minded and focused.
You can't just focus on one thing, because there's all these other things over here, and all
these other things over here, and all these things going on at the same time, for the Christian are inclined to take us,
to take our minds and focus on those things, all of those things.
And how many of those things, if we focus on them, are going to
end up fulfilling Philippians 4, 8, thinking on things that are true,
lovely, not just true, but things that are true, and lovely, and noble, and
just, and pure, and good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy.
So as I mentioned in that article, Paul is not calling us to stick our head in the sand, and pretend those
things don't exist, but the key is what he writes at the end of the verse,
meditate on these things, focus your attention, rehearse
these things that satisfy the criteria of Philippians 4, 8.
Mike Barrett writes this statement, and I think it's a good summary of fleeing worldliness.
He says, we must live above the world, and not be of the world,
even as we are yet in the world.
Did you get that?
Let me say it again.
We must live above the world, and not be of the world, even as yet we are
in the world.
So flee worldliness.
A sixth tool to cultivate holiness is to seek fellowship in the church,
and to associate with mentors in holiness, to seek mentors in
holiness.
So back in 1 Corinthians 11, verse one, Paul writes to the church at Corinth, and he says,
imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.
So what Paul was calling the Corinthians to do was look upon him as a mentor
in the pursuit of Christ's likeness, in the pursuit of holiness.
And then in Ephesians 4, verses 12 and 13, Paul writes about the gifts that God
has given to the church.
And he's given these gifts for the development of Christ's likeness,
or of holiness.
In Ephesians 4, verses 12 and 13, verse 11, he talks about the gifts, apostles,
prophets, evangelists, pastor, teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the
edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the
Son of God to a perfect, complete man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
So what's he calling us to?
He's calling us to holiness, right?
And what has God given to us to help us in that pursuit of holiness?
He's given us these gifts, given them to the church.
And so seeking fellowship in the church and associating with mentors of holiness is
a valuable tool in our toolbox to cultivate holiness.
And let me encourage you here also, when thinking about the mentors of holiness,
to take advantage of the wealth of
mentors that are dead.
The old dead guys, as some like to call them.
For example, I brought a stack of books up to share with you.
And I think we, my wife will tell you,
I can go overboard in this way of getting good books.
And certainly I have more books on the bookshelf, the to -read shelf, than I will ever accomplish in this
life.
But by the way, I did hear one valuable insight on that.
And that is, the good thing about having a bunch of books that you haven't read yet
is that the Lord will oftentimes pique your interest in a
particular area to read.
You go to the shelf and there's a book.
There it is.
And you can take it off the shelf and you can read.
Well, anyway, let me just share some of these titles with you.
And all of these are, this one by J .C. Ryle
is on the bookshelf for sale.
This is, by the way, let me just say, this is a book J .C. Ryle wrote, Holiness is the
title of it.
It is a classic work on the subject of holiness.
It's like one of the best.
And Banner of Truth published this and republished it and reprinted it and
reprinted it.
This is a hardback book, very well made, and it's 10
bucks.
I mean, it's 10 bucks.
You can't even buy, there's paperbacks in here that are more than that.
So I don't, this must have been a lost leader for Banner of Truth when they offered it for
10 bucks.
But J .C. Ryle wrote this classic book on holiness and covers
probably just about everything that we're covering in this series.
John Owen, a Puritan John Owen wrote, he wrote prolifically, but this little book, a
little paperback is entitled Temptation, Resisted and Repulsed.
John Owen was also a very, how would you describe his
writing?
Verbose, perhaps, but thorough in that verbosity.
Well, this particular edition is, it says it's abridged and made easy to
read.
And that's very helpful when it comes to John Owen.
But Temptation, Octavius Winslow, we have a book on the
bookshelf for sale, a devotional book by Octavius Winslow.
But this one is entitled Personal Declension, like backsliding, Personal Declension
and Revival of Religion in the Soul.
Then John Flavel, I use this little book by him at
the end of our series on the heart.
It's entitled Keeping the Heart, How to Maintain Your Love for God.
Jeremiah Burroughs is a guy who lived in the 17th century,
first half of the 17th century.
He was not nearly as difficult to read as a lot of the writers in his day.
But he wrote this book entitled The Evil of Evils, What Makes
Evil So Evil, all right?
So that's a good title.
Here's a Dutch guy, I think he is.
Yeah, he's a Dutch guy.
And so this book was originally written in Dutch.
Willem Tielink is his name.
But it's entitled The Path of True Godliness.
Again, it's taking the same concept of cultivating holiness and developing it.
And then lastly, a guy by the name of Vincent Alsop,
he died in 1703, and he wrote this book entitled Practical
Godliness, The Ornament of All Religion.
Now, I mention these things, all these things will be available in the library.
But I mention them because these are classic mentors
in this matter of the pursuit of holiness.
And there aren't very many writers, there are very, very few writers that write on this subject
today.
This book that we're using as a basis for this series by Barrett and Beeke
is very unusual.
A radical call to comprehensive holiness.
Because I challenge you, I was going to say go to the Christian bookstore, they don't even exist hardly
anymore.
If you can find one anywhere, pop into a Christian bookstore and look at the titles on the shelves.
I dare you to try to find one on holiness.
You're not going to find it.
So where can you go to read on the subject a little bit at a time
that will just challenge you and encourage you in the pursuit?
You got to go to the dead guys.
Got to go to the dead guys.
All right, and that's part of the fellowship, the fellowship of the saints.
All right, then seven, number seven here
in our tools.
Live in a present tense total commitment to God.
A present tense total commitment to God.
And what I'm getting at there is, and what Barrett and Beeke are getting at here, is
avoid the just one more time syndrome.
Just one more time.
As temptation comes along, maybe it's a besetting sin, and you say,
just this one more time and then never again.
How many times have you said that?
Just one more time and then I'll never do it again.
I'll stop this, this will be the last time.
Barrett makes this comment.
He says, postponed obedience is what?
Disobedience.
Postponed obedience is disobedience.
Tomorrow's holiness is today's unholiness.
Tomorrow's faith is today's unbelief.
I say, well, I'll exercise this faith tomorrow.
Well, then I'm not exercising it today, that's unbelief.
So make it your aim, as John tells us in 1 John 2, 1, make it your aim
not to sin at all.
Joel, I'll never make that.
Yeah, we always fall short.
But John wrote this, he said, my little children, these things I am writing unto you so that you may
not sin.
Now he goes on in verse two to say, if we do sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
But he says, I'm writing these things so that you may not sin.
But is that our aim?
Is that even our aim?
Is that even on our radar screen?
Okay, today I got up today and I'm praying, Lord, lead me not into temptation.
Like the Lord's Prayer, lead us not into temptation.
Is that my aim?
If I pray like that, that's communicating to the Lord, this is my aim.
That sets you in a direction.
So make it your aim.
And 2 Corinthians 10, 5, Paul says this, casting down arguments and every high
thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity to
the obedience of Christ.
This is another goal in this matter of living in the present tense, a
total commitment to God.
A goal of seeking divine strength, asking the Lord for help
in capturing, bringing my thoughts into captivity.
You see, that's living in the present tense in this pursuit of holiness.
All right, let's shift gears a little bit and I want to give you four truths
to encourage you in the cultivation of holiness.
Four truths, I think I just wrote them all out here.
I don't even think I gave you blanks, did I?
Nope, I didn't.
So you can follow along very easily.
Here's the first one.
Number one, God has called us to holiness for our good
and for his glory.
Look at this in Proverbs 4, verses five and six, and I want us to capture
this idea.
Proverbs 4, five and six says, get wisdom, get
understanding, do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.
Do not forsake her and she will preserve you.
Love her and she will keep you.
So the idea here, the point is that a holy life is a safer
And say it's free from all kinds of physical harm or anything, but it's a safer life.
The pursuit of, the acquisition of, a growth in holiness is a growing in a path of
life that will be a preservative in
your life.
It's a safer life.
Again, I'm not talking about safety from all the physical harms and sicknesses and all that kind of stuff,
but safety from destructive
influences and harmful choices that will bring you down
in some way or another in the course of life.
A holy life is a safer life, and a holy life honors God by resembling Him.
God said in Isaiah 43, verse 21, he says, quote, this
people, speaking of his people, this people I have formed for myself,
they shall declare my praise.
So as we as God's people conform ourselves to God,
remember, one of the aspects, the objectives in the growth of holiness is to
be conformed to the image of Christ, to imitate our Heavenly Father.
As we make progress in that direction, we, as God says, I
formed them for myself, to be like me, they shall declare my praise.
The more we look like Christ, the more we glorify
So that's encouragement number one.
Number two, holiness gives evidence of your justification and election
and fosters assurance, fosters assurance.
So here's what we mean by that.
In, look at 1 Corinthians 6, 11, 1
Corinthians 6, 11,
Paul says, such were some of you.
What were we, the Corinthians?
What were they?
What were we?
Look in the previous couple of verses, nine and 10.
He says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived.
Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves,
nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
That is not an exhaustive list of unrighteousness.
That is a representative list of unrighteousness.
Here's what I mean by that.
There are other places that you can go in Paul's writing where he gives a, we call them a vice
list or a sin list, list of sins.
And he'll go through a litany of sins.
And none of those lists is exhaustive, covering every possible kind of
sin or iniquity.
So this is a representative thing.
And then Paul says to the believers in Corinth who are having their own struggles in all
kinds of areas, he says, such were some of you.
This is what you were like.
But he goes on to say, you were washed.
You were sanctified.
You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God.
All right, so what's the point?
The point is that sanctification is the inevitable fruit of
justification.
So if you could go back to that list, for example, if somebody is,
if somebody says, oh, you know, I'm a Christian.
How do you know?
Why do you say you're a Christian?
Well, because I remember when I was a kid, I prayed this prayer.
I asked Jesus to come into my heart, okay?
But there's a problem here.
What, what's the problem?
Well, you're just a perpetual thief.
You just can't, you're just constantly stealing or you are
engaged in an ongoing behavior of adultery or homosexuality or any one of those lists,
items in that list.
There's no change in your life.
There's no moving away from that.
There's no casting that aside.
You're just engaging in that and feeling no sense of wrongdoing at all in the
matter.
You're not a believer.
You're not a Christian.
You don't have any, you have no basis for
assurance of justification.
Why?
Because sanctification, the growth in holiness is the inevitable
fruit of justification.
Now let's look at this at another angle.
Sanctification furthermore is the earmark, as
Barrett puts it, the earmark of Christ's elect sheep.
Let me show you what I mean.
Look at 2 Corinthians 2, verse 13.
2 Corinthians 2, 13, Paul says, God from the beginning chose
you for salvation.
So, and the other places Paul writes about how you were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by
the Spirit and belief in the truth.
So, you know, the subject of election is one that causes a lot of people some discomfort.
And here's the deal.
The unconverted should not even be concerned about that subject in the least bit.
Am I elect or not?
How do I know if I'm one of the elect?
I'll tell you how you know you're one of the elect.
As God in his grace brought you to faith in Christ.
Yes, there you go, there you go.
And the evidence of that election is not only that God in his grace has brought
you to faith in Christ, but that there has been a growth in this matter of
sanctification.
Your life has been changing.
Doesn't mean you're perfect, obviously.
Perfection in this life is not the evidence of election.
What is?
Growth in holiness is the evidence of the, it's the earmark of
Christ's elect sheep.
So the conclusion of that matter is that holiness fosters
assurance.
Holiness fosters assurance.
John writes of this assurance in a couple of places in 1 John.
1 John chapter two and verse three.
1 John 2, three.
He says, now by this we know that we know him if
we keep his commandments.
If you have no interest in keeping his commandments, if you don't keep his commandments, you have no assurance
that you know him.
In fact, you have pretty good evidence that you don't, is the point.
And in chapter three, verse 19, John says essentially the same thing.
By this we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him.
How?
Verse 18, my little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but
in deed and in truth.
Look at the life.
If I am loving in deed and in truth, loving God, loving neighbor,
if I'm loving in deed and in truth, then he says, by this we know that
we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him.
So holiness fosters assurance of our salvation.
Third encouragement is that holiness purifies you for
effective service.
Purifies you for effective service.
In 2 Timothy chapter two, Paul is writing to his
protege, young protege in the faith, in the pastoral ministry.
And he says to him in verses 20 through 22, 2 Timothy two, he says
in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay,
some for honor and some for dishonor.
Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself, do you catch that?
If anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor,
sanctified, that is set apart and useful for the master, prepared for every good
work.
Flee youthful lusts, he says, but pursue righteousness, faith, love,
peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
So Paul's point is, you want to be a vessel for honor, a vessel of usefulness
to the Lord?
Well, cleanse yourself from the latter things.
Those things that are iniquitous.
Later he says, flee those youthful lusts, pursue the right kinds of things.
Holiness purifies you for effective service to God.
And then a fourth encouragement from Revelation 21,
verse 27, holiness fits you for heaven,
fits you for heaven.
Revelation 21, 27 says, there shall by no means enter into it anything that defiles
or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of
Nothing enters heaven that is defiled.
Everything in heaven, everyone in heaven will be holy.
Now that consummated holiness will occur as we see
When we see him, we will be like him for we shall see him as he is.
That will be the, we call it glorification.
That's the culmination of this lifelong pursuit of holiness, this
growth in sanctification.
John Owen, I mentioned him earlier, prolific writer, Puritan writer, he said this, he
says, holiness is indeed perfected in heaven, but the
beginning of it is invariably confined to this world.
God leads none to heaven, but whom he sanctifies on the earth.
So holiness prepares us and fits us for heaven.
I don't have time to develop the obstacles for the cultivating of holiness.
I've given you the main ideas here.
Let me just mention an idea related to number one.
An obstacle to cultivating holiness can be a self -centered attitude towards sin and life as
opposed to a God -centered attitude.
And this shows itself when our focus, our focus is inordinately
on the consequences of our sin
or our victory, our victory over that sin.
In other words, let me ask the question this way.
When it comes to the matter of sin, am I more concerned with the consequences of
that sin or my victory over that sin than I am
with how my sins grieve God?
Do you get that?
In other words, is God in the picture?
Other than the fact that he says this is sin?
Okay, he says this is sin.
All right, if I do this, then what's going to happen to me?
I've done this, what's going to happen to me?
Oh, I've got victory over this.
Boy, look at me.
Where is God in the picture, you see?
That ends up being a hindrance to the cultivating of holiness.
And secondly, they're a low or distorted view of sin, a low or distorted view of sin.
And I will close with this quote from the hymn in our supplement book, the hymn,
"'Tis the Christ.".
The third stanza goes like this.
Ye who think of sin but lightly, nor suppose the evil great, here
at the cross, may view its nature rightly, here its guilt
may estimate.
Mark the sacrifice appointed, see who bears the awful load.
"'Tis the word, the Lord's anointed, son of man and son of
God.".
If we can see the value and the depth of the
sacrifice of Christ, we will not be able to have a low,
distorted view of sin.
All right, so you and I, we need to press on.
We need to press on in the uprooting of sin and the cultivation of holiness.
Continue the good fight, the good fight, the fight of faith, but continue it, and I
appreciate this quote from Barrett, continue this fight of faith under the best of
generals, Jesus Christ, with the best of internal advocates,
the Holy Spirit, by the best of assurances, the promises of
God, for the best results, everlasting glory.
So on the bottom of your handout is this prayer that we prayed together last
week.
Let's close with this prayer today.
Our Heavenly Father, I pray, we pray together, that you would
cultivate within us, grant that, we might cultivate holiness
Not out of merit, but out of gratitude for all that you have done for us and all that you are
to us.
We might cultivate it by your grace through faith in Christ Jesus.
Sanctify us by the blood of Christ, the Spirit of Christ, and the Word of God.
Oh, our Father, make us as holy as pardoned sinners
can be.
With this we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
All right, we got about 10, 11 minutes till the service begins.