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In all honesty, the Word of God has so much to say about being holy, doesn't it?
But I'm going to do my best, by God's help and grace, as we study this together. I'm in this with you.
The Lord is teaching me so much. I've been following the Lord for 38 years.
And I find myself almost as a babe before God.
And I see myself, the more I search the Scriptures, the more it searches me. God's Word is not on trial.
It's going to put us on trial. And I don't care what any preacher says, or what any so -called
Christian says. We're not sufficient for these things. We're not adequate for it.
As a matter of fact, it was J. Vernon McGee that says, the more I study this Word, the more I see myself coming so short.
The more I find myself, I don't know what I don't know. And as we study the holiness of God, let this penetrate your soul.
May this not be just another sermon to hear. May this be something real and vibrant for your everyday living.
So today, and Lord willing, next week, we're going to look at application.
Now, within this message today, what I'd like to do, I've given the theological aspects, we're going to go over that, but I was really thinking,
I said, really for any of us, including myself, to understand what it means to be holy.
We must understand what the Scripture says about the person of God. Holiness begins with God.
It's not within us. Actually, it's foreign to us. We are such despicable, fallen beings with the nature of sin within us that's been transmitted to us from our mother's womb.
All the way back to Adam. It is our natural bent to sin.
We're comfortable with sinning. And actually, we will look around and see everybody else in sin, but we can't see our own sins.
Luther said, the reformer said, never measure your holiness by another person.
You measure your holiness by the Word of God. And this is what we want to do, beloved. So within this hour,
I got some things to say from the book of Knowledge of the Holy A .W. Tozer, and I'm passing this to him because I could not say it no better.
Next week, some practical holiness guidelines of everyday living by J .C. Ralph in his book,
The Holiness of God. Now, I'm not going to preach to you the Word of Man, but I really believe that these men knew God. So I got some things to say from them, but mainly the
Word of God. So in saying that, and then we're going to look at some application.
I'm going to give some application today, but I got more application to give next week as God tarries. I pray that this will be a help to you in your everyday living.
It's been a help to me. I want to grow in holiness. That's my desire. As a child of God, I want to be holy in every part of my being, in my conduct, in my behavior, in my heart, in my mind, before God and before my fellow man.
So we are called to holiness. There's a call to holiness and there's a command to holiness.
So turn with me to 1 Peter as we study this wonderful verse, two verses, and I'm going to just read two.
And please stand in honor of God's Word. 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 15 and 16.
Hear the Word of the living God. The Apostle Peter brings a old, not a new message to the church, right?
It's a message that God has given to His people. And He brings it to the new covenant, to the new
Christians, to the Christians there in Asia Minor. Hear the Word of God. God says, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.
Because it is written, be holy for I am holy. Amen. May God richly bless the reading of His holy words to our hearts.
Let's pray and seek His face this morning as we study this wonderful and glorious text.
Our Father in heaven, Lord, we bow in Your presence.
This is holy ground. Because where Your presence is, there is holiness.
You taught us from Your holy Word, through Your Holy Spirit, from Your Holy Son, that Holy Offspring, the
Holy One of Israel, our King, our Lord, our Redeemer, that the very first petition that we are to speak of, and when we pray, is hallowed be
Thy name. Your name is absolutely holy, it is set apart, it is sanctified.
In order to do that, Father, Your people must have a high view of Yourself. This is where we missed a mark.
Our view of You, O Lord, is too low. It's too low. Lord, by Your Holy Spirit, may it be raised through the understanding of what
Your Word says. Lord, we are in great need of Your help this morning.
By Your Holy Spirit, I recognize, Father, within myself, Lord, I am not the true teacher here.
It's through Your blessed Holy Spirit that must teach us Your Word and Thy truth. So, Father, we honor
You, we honor Your holy name, we exalt Your holy name, and Your holy name is above the heavens.
Father, in this time of worship, we adore You, and it is Your beauty that we behold, the beauty of Your holiness.
May we lift up Your holy name and lift up high the Lord Jesus Christ, because He is the one that brings
Your holiness to us and imparts it to us. So, Father, He is the one that has revealed
Your holiness in human flesh through the Incarnation. Lord, I pray that You would change us forever by Your Spirit, and I pray this in Jesus' name for His sake.
Amen and amen. Thank you so much. When we approach the holy, there is something other than what this world gives.
This is why this is so foreign to us. And as a servant of the living
God, I pray that God hides me behind the cross this morning, that we behold the Lamb of God and His holiness.
But the best that I can do, and I stumble anyway in my preaching, you know that.
And I stumble because I, myself, is unworthy of such a great task before me.
I have felt inadequate the whole time I've preached this. I honestly can say within my personal walk with the
Lord, since I've started on this series of holiness, I have really undergone some serious warfare.
Not that I'm special, no, and I'm sure you have too. I'm not alone. I know
I'm not. Sister Lydian reminded me this morning, as we embark on such more, you go deeper into the
Word of God, unholy spirits are not close by, far away.
They are going to do everything they can to discourage us and hit us with everything.
Brother Keith reminded us very well this morning, we should be known in hell. Hell shakes holy men and women of God.
And it's not because of them, it's because of the Holy One that's in them. So, let me say this,
I, myself, in an unworthy great task before me, all I can do, and I'm going to give an illustration.
Keith, I appreciate him so much. He says, bring out some good illustrations. And he's so good at this, and I still work at this.
But it does help bring the light of what I'm trying to say. And let me give an illustration here.
This is a poor illustration, but I think it's a worthy illustration. That all I can do, as a minister of Christ, is preach the
Word. But as I preach the Word to you, it's as if I am holding up a large diamond.
You know, you take a diamond, and you reflect it in the sun, in the light.
But can I say this, imagine for a minute that I got a diamond the size of a basketball.
Okay? Wouldn't that be a powerful, I mean, a very expensive jewel?
And imagine if I held it up, right now, in my hand, in the sunlight, or the light that's before me.
And you know as well as I do that a diamond has many facets within its beautiful stone.
And as I turn it, each facet has a glory within itself. And the light shining on that diamond reflects its beauty and its glory.
You behold that jewel, you behold that diamond, the beauty of it, the glory of it, and every facet of it.
How many facets does a diamond have, by the way? I don't know. But you and I know that stones, sometimes stones can be fake, right?
They don't have the beauty as a genuine stone. There's something about the genuine stone that has a beauty that's otherworldly like.
You see what I'm saying? And that is the illustration that I give to you, is the gem and the precious treasure, the pearl of great price, is the holiness of God as I hold up before you this morning.
Beloved, it is an attribute of attributes. Every attribute of God, His love,
His mercy, His wrath, is holy. That's why
God is holy, holy, holy. And Sproul reminded us,
R .C. Sproul said this, it's not mercy, mercy, mercy, it's not love, love, love, it's not grace, grace, grace, as great as those attributes are, but it's holy, holy, holy.
Why? Because everything about the being of God is holy. His grace is holy.
His love is holy. His wrath is holy. His mercy is holy. His patience is holy.
Everything about God is apart from us. You know this as well as I do.
His patience is not like the patience of men, is it? It's holy patience.
It's set apart. Because if it had been me, I'd given up on the human race a long time ago, and I would have struck them all down.
But I'm not God, and you're not God, but God is God. He's set apart.
You see what I'm saying? Beloved, it is an attribute of attributes. Jonathan Edwards said this, the great theologian, he says this of the holiness of God, a true love of God must begin with a delight in His holiness, and not with a delight in any other attribute, for no other attribute is truly lovelier without this.
Lovely than this. And he continues to say this, and I love this, and he gives one of those practical illustrations.
He says, some of my views on holiness as I once wrote them are as follows. Holiness appears to me, and this is his personal experience of holiness, to me to have a sweet, calm, pleasant, charming, and serene nature.
All of which brings an impressionable purity, an expressionable purity, radiance, peacefulness, and overwhelming joy to the soul.
In other words, Edwards says, holiness makes the soul like a field or a garden of God.
With every kind of pleasant fruit and flower, and each one delightful and undisturbed, enjoying a sweet, calm, and gentle, and refreshing rays of the sun.
Jonathan Edwards' testimony on the holiness of God there, and I believe it's very deep for us, very practical he gives it to us.
Yet I'm afraid to say, beloved, that we are so far from seeing this. I say this to myself as well, as much as I've studied it, and I think a lot of times we study it and we get it in our mind, and I believe that's where it starts, it begins in the mind, but we cannot just leave it in the mind.
It must be part of us, it must be part of our heart and our soul. Because we have not seen the most holy
God as He is revealed in the Scriptures. And let me say this, beloved, you read the
Scriptures, and every person that has come in contact with the holy God was absolutely changed, radically changed forever.
We could take it all the way from the beginning to the end, and I really don't have the time today to do that, but I think of Jacob, who was known as the deceiver.
He wrestles with God all night. There's a wrestling match going on. He wrestles, he does not let go of God.
He's desperate for the blessing from the blesser himself. And then, of course, as God defeats him, he's changed forever.
He's converted. He goes from the deceiver, Jacob, to Israel, means prince with God.
He's defeated, and he comes to a place where he's radically, totally transformed.
You see this with Moses, as he came before God at the burning bush, and as he approaches
God, God says, Take off your sandals, for where you stand is holy ground.
He's in the presence of the holy. Moses has changed. He's never the same.
Jacob was never the same. All the prophets of God was never the same.
Isaiah, when he had a touch from God, was never the same. I'm telling you, this is life changing.
So we cannot lightly talk about this. It is a life radically changed by the holiness of God.
I think about the woman that had an issue of blood. She pressed her way through the crowd.
She knew that all hope was gone. But there was some hope for her if she could but touch the hem of his garment.
Now you think about the holy touching us, but if she could touch but the hem of it. One touch from God changes us, but also we must touch.
It's as if the unclean touches the clean. And I'm not talking about in the sense of Uzzah, because he was stricken down by God.
Dirt cannot help. His motive was different than the woman who had an issue of blood. His motive was to help
God. God doesn't need our help. So God smote him and struck him down.
Dirt from the earth could not. What God created couldn't help the
Creator. But this woman that had an issue needed to touch to Him. And beloved, this is what we need to do.
We need to reach out by faith. By God's help and faith which pleases
God to touch the hem of His garment. So it will change us. This is so foreign to us, beloved.
This is because of our sins. Even as redeemed sinners. Even though we know
Jesus Christ and we pray and we seek His face. We come so short, don't we? Let me give you something from the knowledge of the
Holy. A .W. Toza from his little booklet. I highly recommend you to read this book on the attributes of God.
I personally believe outside of the word of God, of course, you cannot compare with the word of God. But everything he speaks of comes from Scripture.
And I believe it's worthy for us to read a little bit from the knowledge of the Holy. So I wrote this down.
I should have brought the book because I ate up a couple of pages here. But stay with me on this, okay?
And listen to what Toza says from the knowledge of the Holy as he writes. He says this, quote,
Until we have seen ourselves as God sees us, we are not likely to be much disturbed over the conditions around us as long as they do not get so far out of hand as to threaten our comfortable way of life.
He said a mouthful right there. We have learned to live with unholiness and have come to look upon it as the natural and expected thing.
We are not disappointed that we do not find all truth in our teachers or faithfulness in our politicians or complete honesty in our merchants or full trustworthiness in our friends.
And Toza goes on to say that we may continue to exist. We make such laws as are necessary to protect us from our fellow man and let it go with that.
He goes on to say, We cannot grasp the true meaning of divine holiness by thinking of someone or something very pure and then raising the concept to the highest degree that we are capable of.
No. He says God's holiness is not simply the best we know infinitely bettered.
This is good. Listen to this. Stay with me. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible and unattainable.
The natural man is blind to it. He may fear God's power and admire
His wisdom, but His holiness he cannot even imagine. Only the spirit of the
Holy One can impart to the human spirit the knowledge of the holy. Holy is the way
God is. To be holy He does not conform to a standard. He is that standard.
Don't you love this kind of teaching? I can eat this up all day. He is absolutely holy with an infinite incomprehensible fullness of purity that is incapable of being other than it is because He is holy.
His attributes are holy. That is, whatever we think of as belonging to God must be thought of as holy.
God is holy and He has made holiness the moral condition. This is good.
Listen to this. The moral condition necessary to the health of His universe.
Universe is His. Listen to this. Sin's temporary presence in the world only assents this.
Whatever is holy is healthy. Evil is a moral sickness that must end ultimately in death.
That's an interesting thought. The death of death. John Owen wrote something of that, didn't he? God will put death to death.
Death will have its final say. And Jesus defeated that death, folks. Jesus Himself reversed everything.
Jesus Himself in the Incarnation brought restoration and holiness back to fallen man.
He lifts man to that holiness. And the only way that we can be lifted is in being in Jesus.
You see where this is going. I love Tozer's thought pattern here because he's got the big picture here.
He goes on to say this. The formation of the language itself should suggest this.
The English word holy deriving from the Anglo -Saxon hegai. Hai meaning well, whole.
That's what it means. Being well. Being whole. He goes on to say since God's first concern for His universe is its moral health.
That is its holiness. Whatever is contrary to this is necessarily under His eternal displeasure.
Let me stop right there. You see what he's saying? Anything that is not holy is displeasure to God.
And His wrath will come down on it. Mainly sin. He goes on to say this.
To preserve His creation, God must destroy whatever would destroy it.
When He arises to put down iniquity and save the world from imparable moral collapse,
He is said to be angry and every wrathful judgment in the history of the world has been a holy act of preservation.
Wow. I know this is lengthy but this is good.
It helps us understand the holy. But we must experience it.
But he goes to that. Listen to what he says. The holiness of God, the wrath of God, and the health of the creation are inseparably united.
That's interesting, isn't it? God's wrath is His utter intolerance of whatever degrades and destroys.
He hates iniquity as a mother hates the polio that would take the life of her child. God is holy with an absolute holiness that no nose degree.
And this He cannot impart to His creatures. But, I love that transition there.
But, there is a relative and contingent holiness which
He shares with His angels and serve
Him in heaven and with the redeemed men on earth as the preparation for heaven. Aren't you glad?
This holiness God can and does impart to His children and He shares it with them by imputation and by impartation and because He has made it available to them through the blood of the
Lamb. He requires it of them. And to Israel first and later to His church
God spoke saying, Be ye holy for I am holy. Now, I like what
He says here. He did not say, Be as holy as I am holy. Tozer says,
For that would be to demand of an absolute holiness something that belongs to God alone.
And before the uncreated fire of God's holiness, angels veil their faces. Yea, the heavens are not even clean and the stars are not pure in His sight.
And no honest man can say, I am holy. Wow! You hear that?
No honest man can say, I am holy. But neither is any honest man willing to ignore the solemn words of the inspired writer,
Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. And Tozer gives a question.
Caught in this dilemma, what are we Christians to do? Good question. What are we to do?
And he gives an answer. And it's scriptural. We must like Moses cover ourselves with faith and humility while we still a quick look at God whom no man can see and live.
The broken and incontrite heart He will not despise.
We must hide ourselves. We must hide our unholiness in the wounds of Christ. You hear that?
We must hide our unholiness in the wounds of Christ. That man that wrote
Rock of Ages, beloved, he knew his theology. As Moses hid himself in the cleft of the rock while the glory of God passed by, we must take refuge from God in God.
There it is. That's the gospel. Above all, we must believe that God sees us perfect in His Son while He disciplines and chastens and purges us that we may be partakers of His holiness by faith and obedience, by constant meditation on the holiness of God, by loving righteousness and hating iniquity, by growing acquaintance with the spirit of holiness, we can accommodate ourselves to the fellowship of the saints on earth and prepare ourselves for the eternal companionship of God and the saints above.
Thus, as they say, when humble believers meet, we will have a heaven to go to heaven in.
End quote. Now I know that was a lengthy quote, but I thought it was worth it. Because it helps us get a grasp, a little bit, of the
Holy God. Now, apart from Tozer, we have the Word of God where he got his message, right?
I got a few scriptures to give.
This is where I'd like to go, and it was kind of sparked by what he said about, in that quote, above all, we must believe that God sees us perfect in His Son while He disciplines and chastens us and purges us that we may be partakers of His holiness.
Where did he get that? Where did he get that? Go with me to the book of Hebrews. This is where Tozer got this.
The Holy Spirit gives us this, and I'd like to read this whole chapter, because there's a pattern, okay?
What's the pattern? The pattern is, it's the whole complete chapter, verses 1 to 2, he speaks of the race of faith.
Jesus is the author and the finisher of our faith. Verse 3 through 11, he speaks of the discipline of God. Verse 12 through 17, he speaks of the renewing of your spiritual vitality.
Then, and that's in verse 18 through 24, he speaks of the glorious company of the firstborn, the church.
And then the writer of Hebrews concludes the chapter with verse 25 through 29 to hear the heavenly voice of God.
Now, what does the Word of God say? Now, listen, I'm just going to read it, and I want you to see the pattern here.
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. He's speaking about all those witnesses in Hebrews 11, the hallmark, the hall of fame of faith, okay?
And then he says, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily besets us or ensnares us.
Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The race of faith, in order for us to win this race, we must keep our eyes on Jesus. We don't get our eyes on man.
We don't get our eyes on politicians. We keep our eyes on Jesus. Even preachers will let us down.
I will let you down. Not intentionally, but you see what I'm saying.
We're not to keep our eyes on man. We're to keep our eyes on Jesus. And that's what he's saying.
He points us to Christ. Now he talks about the discipline of God, for consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
Consider him. Consider Jesus. Look at the cross. Look at what he underwent.
And then he says, you have not yet resisted the bloodshed, striving against sin.
Who strives against sin? We do. It's a fight. It's a battle. And then he says this, and you have forgotten the exhortation.
He didn't say, in question, have you forgotten? No, he said, you have forgotten.
This is an admonition. This is a rebuke to the
Hebrew Christians. You have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as sons.
My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you're rebuked by him.
By God. God allows this to come. And he gives, out of this admonition, he gives an encouragement.
And then he says this, for whom the Lord loves, he chastens. So, if you're undergoing the discipline of God, be encouraged.
He scourges every son whom he receives. Because he loves you and he cares for you.
In other words, it's through this process he will make you holy. This is what he's saying.
If you endure chastening, by the way, there is an endurance. You've got to persevere if you're chastened.
Because it's not pleasant. God deals with you as sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
Don't you love these questions? What son is there whom a father does not chasten?
I could stop right there. I loved my children when they were younger. And I still love them.
But when they were able to be disciplined, I disciplined them.
And I taught them, this is wrong, this is right. Now, why did
I do that? Why did you do this? Those that had children.
Because you love your child. And I always told my children, it hurts me even harder and worse.
And you know what I'm talking about, parents. To discipline them and spank them. To lead them right and to inflict a little pain on their backside for their good.
And my children never have forgotten that. They said, Dad, you used to say that all the time. I said, yeah, because it hurts me, my heart.
But I love them so much, I don't want to see them straight from the truth. I want to see them on the right path.
And God is the same, even more so. God wants to see us on the right path,
His path. The path that is straight and narrow. And when we get off the highway of holiness, and start abhorring after idols and things of the world,
God is going to come after us and He is going to spank us. Why? Because He loves us.
It's all because of the love of God. See, this is real holiness. He goes on in verse 8.
But if you are without chastening, now this is something to think of. If we do not receive the chastening of the
Lord, He says, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate, not sons.
In other words, excuse the term, it's been used in a wrong way.
But what are you saying? You are bastards. You are not born of the
Spirit of God, if you are not receiving the chastening of the Lord. That calls for self -examination, doesn't it?
Verse 9, furthermore. And then He brings it about human parents, in which
I gave an illustration myself a minute ago. But He said, furthermore, in verse 9, we have had human fathers who corrected us.
And we paid them respect. Oh, listen to the question
He asked now. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?
What a question, folks. Isn't that wonderful how
He puts that in question form? That's a very probing question, but it's a good question.
Well, we fear God because He loves us. Verse 10, for they indeed for a few days, speaking of the earthly fathers, for a few days, for a few days, chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, our profit, it's all for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.
Isn't that wonderful? Well, God desires holiness in all of His children.
And then He says in verse 11, now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Don't you love the
Word of God? It's straight up. Of course it doesn't seem to be joyful.
There's joy on the other end. He's not taking away joy, but He says, seems to be joyful at the present.
You don't feel a lot of joy when you're going through chastening, do you? But it's going to produce something on the other end.
Amen. It's restoration. It's joy. It's to restore the joy of thy salvation in me.
And He says, but it's painful. Then He says, nevertheless, what does it produce? What does it profit? Afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
There's a training in it. Isn't this wonderful? Now He talks about renewing your spiritual vitality.
Don't you love the pattern here? I'm just taking you through the Word of God and what it says. Therefore strengthen the hands.
Now it gets very, very particular what to do. You strengthen the hands which hang down. If you're discouraged, strengthen those hands that hang down in the feeble knees.
Your knees are feeble, but strengthen them. Hands and knees. Isn't that what we pray with?
Isn't that what we praise God with? Isn't our hands what we give? Our hands are to give.
Verse 13, and make straight paths for your feet. Now He speaks about the feet. Paul says our feet should be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Why? So that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
That's God's purpose, is the healing of it. Then that wonderful verse, this command comes to us in verse 14.
Pursue peace with all people, and holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
Looking carefully, listen to the verse that backs it up. Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God.
Let me stop right there. It does not mean we lose your salvation. He's talking to children of God here. He's talking about, in other words, that you fall short of the grace of God.
You can fall short of God's grace. We don't want to fall short of it, do we? Lest any root of bitterness.
Oh wow, there's some heart -probing things here. The root of bitterness. You know what he's talking about?
Poison. Bitterness is poison. It's at the root. It will poison your soul so much, it will destroy you.
Springing up. Notice, there's a root, and then it springs up. Cause trouble.
And by this, many become defiled. If you want to know how you can get defiled, here it is right here.
You fall short of the grace of God. That's the first step. And then there's a root of bitterness that springs, that's in the heart.
And then it springs. It's a poison. That poison will slowly kill you. That root of bitterness, springing up, calls you trouble.
And then the next thing you know, you're defiled. Don't you love these warnings? A lot of love behind it.
And then where does he go? Verse 16. And he gives an example. Lest there be any fornicator.
Oh, fornication was a problem in the church? Absolutely. Among God's people?
Absolutely. Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau.
Was Esau a profane person? Yes, he was. That man was more, he was more concerned about his fleshly appetite than the blessing of God.
And by the way, you know the story. He sold, he gave away his blessing. Didn't he?
What did he do? Who for one morsel of food sold his birthright?
He did sell it, I'm sorry. But he gave it away. He sold it.
For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. Now folks, this verse, the rest of this verse makes me tremble.
For he found no place for repentance. He did not find repentance. And get this, even though he sought it diligently with tears.
You can have tears until you die or until Jesus comes and it will not be true repentance.
Tears is not repentance. Tears involves repentance. But what he's talking about here is worldly sorrow.
Not godly sorrow. Godly sorrow turns away from the sin. Because it's a sin that is offensive to God.
Because God's holy. You see that? We could camp right there, but that's a powerful verse folks.
He found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears. Let's go on, look at verse 18.
For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire.
Now he's talking about when God's holiness came down on Mount Sinai.
And to the blackness and darkness and the tempest. And the sound of a trumpet and the voice of the word.
So that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.
Remember I read it last week. It's found in Exodus 19, right? It's there.
That's what he's referring to. For they could not endure what was commanded. And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.
He basically quotes that verse. In verse 21, and so terrifying was the sight that Moses said,
I'm exceedingly afraid and trembling. The prophet of God even said that I'm exceedingly afraid and trembling.
Where does that put us? And then God is lightly spoken of today in the churches.
He's the man upstairs. I tremble when I hear people say that. God is not a man that he should lie.
Verse 22, but you have come to the Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to the innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly of the church of the firstborn, who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of the sprinkling that speaks better than things than that of Abel.
Better. Now he gets right down to his conclusion and what does he say? You hear the heavenly voice.
Do not refuse him. See that you do not refuse him who speaks. God's not silent.
MacArthur said it right. The problem is men's death. For if they did not escape who refused him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape.
If we turn away from him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth.
But now he has promised saying, yet once more I shake not only the earth but also heaven.
Everything is going to be shaken but God's kingdom, folks. God is going to shake this earth. He is going to shake the church.
He is going to shake the world. He is going to shake the heavens, but guess what? The kingdom of God can't be shaken.
Now this yet once more indicates the removal of those things which are being shaken as things that are made, that things which cannot be shaken may remain.
And then he tells us, therefore since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace.
Don't we know we need grace? By which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
That's how we serve God, with reverence and godly fear. And why? Verse 29,
For our God is a consuming fire. It's sad to say, folks, but most churches do not even open up this word.
And just given what I've given you, I don't have much longer,
I've got about 15 minutes here, but I've got to conclude this. You know as well as I do in 1
Thessalonians 4, that God's children are first called, we are called in holiness.
Called in holiness. We're commanded to be holy. We're called in holiness.
For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. This call of God is always a reference to the effectual, saving call, never to a general plea.
It is always linked to justification by faith. This is the heart of the gospel, beloved.
And if we don't understand this, we're not going to understand how we can be holy. The reformer
Luther was, he was very simple about it, but he was right.
He had the wisdom of God. He says, every week I preach justification by faith alone. You know why?
He reminded the people constantly that the only way you can be holy in Jesus Christ, the only way that you can have the security of God, the only way you can escape the wrath to come, the only way that you can have eternal life, the only way is all in the person and works of Jesus Christ, that His righteousness is imputed to us on His account about what
He did on the cross on our account. And it's imparted to us. Folks, that's so important to understand.
That a holiness that God actually commands, He provides.
You could put the word holiness or righteousness the same. They're synonymous. You see? Because without the imputation of the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ to our account, beloved, we perish and go to hell.
If we do not understand this and the gospel, we do not understand what
Christianity is about. We can look at every external deed, and we will miss the mark by a million miles.
It doesn't matter whether we read the scriptures or come to church or whatever we do externally.
We must by faith alone understand that it is Jesus Christ alone that saves.
And people need to hear that. This is the gospel we need to tell them. You must be born again. Why? Because our righteousness is filthy rags.
Our works cannot get us into heaven. Sanctification then is a work of grace by which we are renewed after the image of God.
We are set apart for His service. We're enabled to die daily to sin.
Mortify the deeds of the flesh, right? In the Spirit. We're enabled to die unto sin and live unto righteousness.
That's what Paul says in Romans chapter 6. It must be carefully considered in a two -fold light.
Let me give you this. First of all, as an inestimable privilege granted to us from God, 1
Thessalonians 5 .23 says this, Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, completely.
And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And He who calls you is faithful who also will do it.
God calls us in holiness. See, a lot of people think that calling is just a calling out of the world in which
He does do that, but the calling is an effectual calling in holiness. And you could say in righteousness or in Jesus because Jesus is our righteousness.
We fail to be righteous like we should, don't we? All the time. But Jesus is our righteousness.
We should strive to live right and pure before God, but we can't do this within ourselves. How many times do you find yourself calling out to God, saying,
I cannot do this. I find myself on my face all the time before God.
God, I cannot be holy without You. I cannot live righteous without You.
I cannot be loving without You. It must be You doing this in me and through me.
Sanctifying me. Second, as an all -comprehensive duty required of us by His Holy Word, first is the call in holiness in justification.
That's justification. Second is the command of holiness. So we have the call in holiness, then we have the command of holiness to be holy as He's holy.
And Peter says, in all your conduct. That hits me between the eyes.
In my heart, everything goes. How many of us can honestly say, I've been holy in all my conduct?
Honest? I fail in that every day. 1
Thessalonians 4, 3, For this is the will of God. You want to know God's will? Your sanctification.
God desires you to be sanctified. You know, you hear a million messages on the will of God, and you never ever hear this.
You hear it from godly teachers, though. This is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should, what? Abstain from sexual immorality.
Was that a problem in the church? Absolutely not. And Paul says, this is
God's will for you. You abstain from being immoral. You're not your own.
You've been bought with a price. Oh my, isn't that...
It's because God loves us, folks. You know, I used to think of the Ten Commandments as something so harsh, and then
I heard a minister talk about this once, and he says, you know, every command is from a heart of love. Those ten commandments that are so high and lifted, it's all just about thou shalt not, but it's about God saying, this is me, me and Jesus lived this out in flesh, by the way.
That God is the standard, and God is saying, you are to reflect this, and it's because I'm not trying to hold something good from you,
I'm trying to give you something wonderful. It's to protect us.
You see what I'm saying? So all of God's word contains God's will, doesn't it?
John MacArthur said this, I got a good quote from him. Both affirmations and prohibitions. There are affirmations and prohibitions.
MacArthur says specifically, and I love the essence here. He preached on this. Brother Keith knows where I'm going on this, and I believe a few of you do.
Miss Lillian and several of you. Notice God's will. God's will includes salvation, self -sacrifice, spirit -filling, submission, suffering, satisfaction, settledness, and sanctification.
I love those S's. It literally, and he goes in this, literally refers to a state of being set apart from sin unto holiness.
In this context, MacArthur says, it means being set apart from sexual impurity.
In particular, holding oneself away from immorality by following the instructions that's found in verse 4 through 8.
End quote. I love that. Do we got a problem? Do we have a problem in the churches of immorality?
Yes, we do, folks. We're seeing leaders and leaders. How many leaders in the church you can name right now in your head, don't name them out loud, within the past year that has fallen to immorality?
How about the last past ten years? There's more than ten that comes to mind right now.
It's sad. Preachers of the gospel has been disqualified because of immorality.
And warning after warning after warning is found in the Word of God. And if these men were on their faces before God, and obeying
God, and loving God, they would heed these warnings. Even though we're all tempted.
Being tempted isn't sin, right? But entered into the temptation is sin.
That's why Jesus says, Watch and pray. There's your answer right there.
It's simple. Watch. Be sober. Be vigilant. Pray. Watch.
Pray. If you don't remember anything that I say today, you remember those two words from Jesus.
Watch and pray. Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. I'm telling you.
Sanctification is distinguished from justification. Let me give you something here. Barnhouse says, Where justification and sanctification begins.
They're twins. But they're connected. And I want to prove this to you.
Justification changes our state and law before God as a judge. Sanctification changes our heart and life before Him as our
Father. Justification proceeds, and sanctification always follows.
It's never the other way around. And by the way, that's what the Catholics do. You see what I'm saying?
They try to get sanctified by going to the Mass, by doing this, by doing that, making themselves holy.
But it is Jesus that is our sanctification. Amen. And it is internal.
This is what Jesus preached to the Pharisees. He says, You can't pour new wine into old wineskins.
In other words, what He's saying, it's not on the outside being reformed, it's on the inside being regenerated.
Jesus says, You've got to have a new heart. You've got to have that heart cut.
There's got to be an operation. Circumcision of the heart. The new covenant.
That's what He's saying. Justification proceeds, sanctification follows as the fruit and evidence of it. The surety righteousness of Christ imputed is our justifying righteousness.
This is what I wrote down. But the grace of God that is implanted is the matter of sanctification.
Jesus Christ alone by faith. Justification removes the guilt of sin.
Sanctification removes the power of it. Justification delivers us from the revenge and wrath of God.
Sanctification conforms us to His image. You can't separate them. Yet justification and sanctification are inseparably connected in the promise of God, in the covenants of grace, in the doctrines, in the promises of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and in the experience of all true believers.
As we've been looking, there is a positional sanctification, there's a progressive sanctification.
But in progressive sanctification, first, there's a divine work not to be begun or carried on but by the power of the
Spirit of God, but it cannot be in man's flesh. It's in Zechariah, I think,
I believe it says, not by might nor by power but by my Spirit, says the Lord. I've always loved that verse.
Because it tells me that if I'm going to live out this Christian life, which is impossible in the flesh, it must be by the
Spirit. Progressive work in the Spirit, and not perfected all at once, by the way, and I think this is where we get overwhelmed, it's the direction of our life, it's never perfected in this life, but there's a striving toward that, a maturing toward it.
We live in Romans chapter 7 every day. Third, sanctification is an eternal work, a work in the heart, and is not consisting of external profession or just bare morality.
Spurgeon said this, he said, morality will keep you out of jail, but only the blood of Jesus will keep you out of hell.
That'll preach. Praise God. Think about that.
A necessary work. Necessary is the evidence of our state, our honor to our characters, our usefulness in our lives as a
Christian, the holiness and happiness of our minds, the internal enjoyment of God, that God's presence here and now and also forever and eternity.
Sanctification therefore gives evidence. Number one, the fear of God, a holy reverence in all of God.
Number two, an earnest regard of God in everything. It gives evidence of patience, patient submission to God.
And as the old Archbishop said this, his name was Archbishop Usher, a godly man. Look him up sometime. This great saint said of this sanctification.
I love this. Quote, sanctification is nothing less than a man to be brought to resonation of his will to the will of God.
And to live in the offering up of his soul continually in the flames of love and as a whole burnt offering to Christ.
You know, when Brother Ben was reading about those offerings, I couldn't help but think, that's the way we have to lay ourselves before the altar of God.
Jesus laid down himself, now it's our turn. Now we don't do anything substitutionally to earn our salvation.
Jesus is our salvation. But what Paul says, you're to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.
In other words, what he's saying, you submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ by the mercies of God.
Next, increasing hatred to sin. We must have an increasing hatred to sin.
Psalm 119, 133, Direct my steps by your word and let no iniquity have dominion over me.
Next, communion with God. Bless her heart. She's having a bad day, isn't she? Fifth, yes.
If she's having a bad day, we've probably had far worse. Next, communion with God.
Isaiah 26, 8 says this, Yes, in the way of your judgments, O Lord, we have waited for you.
The desire of our soul is for your name and for the remembrance of you. Six, delight in his holy word.
Delight in his holy word in ordinances. Now, I don't know if you've noticed what I've already named. There's a fear of God, number one.
There's an earnest regard of God in everything. Patience, submission to God.
Fourth, an increasing hatred to sin. Fifth, a communion with God. Six, a delight in his holy word in ordinances.
Where does it say that? All over the scriptures. Psalm 27, 4, I'll give you one.
One thing I've desired of the Lord that will I seek. You seek this? You really desire it?
You know, we are as holy as we want to be, holy folks. And he says this,
David says this, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord. And he's not talking about a house on earth.
He's talking about the eternal house of God. In the house of the Lord all the days of my life, and what?
To behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. What is the beauty of the Lord? His holiness.
In other words, David was saying I desire the holiness of God above everything else on this world.
Amen? I desire this more than anything else. Seventh, how about humility?
How about humility? Job 42, 5 and 6, Job said this,
I have heard of you, and this is when God came to him in a whirlwind. God gave him question after question, oh my, and he was just humbled.
And then Job says, I have heard of you. This is what he said, I have heard of you. By the hearing of the ear.
He's talking about the inner ear now. But now my eyes see you. But what did he say after my eyes see you?
Therefore I abhor myself, and I repent in dust and ashes.
Amen. The more we see God, the more we abhor ourselves. Oh no.
What's this being taught today? Love yourself? Self -fulfillment?
It's all from hell, folks. Don't believe it. Jesus said deny yourself.
Take up your cross. Follow me. Abhor myself.
I abhor myself. I've even heard some preachers say love yourself, this is Bible. That is so deceitful.
And Job says, and I repent in dust and ashes. I repent. Folks, this is how we get holy.
Next, prayer. How about prayer? This scripture is all over.
Let me give you a quick one. Psalm 109 .4 In return for my love, they are my accusers.
But I give myself to prayer. I give myself to prayer. Where do you give yourself to prayer?
Confidence in God. Confidence in God. Psalm 27. Verse 1.
Word of God says, The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Well, not to fear man.
What to fear? God. The Lord is the strength of my life. Whom shall I be afraid? Who am
I going to be afraid of? If God is your salvation, if God is your light, He's the strength of my life.
And He really meant it. He just wasn't just saying mere words. He really meant this. And when the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, and they stumbled and fell, though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.
And though war may rise against me, in this I will be confident. And what's he talking about?
In God. Obedience to God and His commands. John 15.
What does Jesus say? In John chapter 15, Jesus brings it right down where we live.
Verse 9. As the Father loved me, I also loved you. It's all about God's love, isn't it?
But this concept of love is really warped, folks. It's skewed. He says,
Abide in my love. That's a holy love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I kept my
Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things have I spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, that your joy may be full.
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I've loved you. J .C.
Ryle said it. Tell me not of your justification unless you have some marks of sanctification. Hebrews 10 .14.
For by a single offering, He has perfected all time those who are being sanctified.
Notice what he said. For by a single offering, that's positional sanctification. He has perfected all for all time, once and for all, in the person of Jesus Christ.
And then he talks about progressive sanctification, those who are being sanctified. Is this you today?
Are you being sanctified? One more scripture. Isaiah 35. Go with me to Isaiah 35.
I'm going to close right here, and then we'll pick the sermon up next week, as God wills it.
I won't read the whole chapter, because it's only 10 verses, but I believe it's worth hearing. My time's gone, but I'm going to close with this.
Listen to the word of God from the prophet Isaiah. The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them.
God's going to have a holy people, folks. And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose, and it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to them, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the
Lord, the excellency of our God. And get this, this is where the writer of Hebrews gets his strengthen the weak hands.
We've heard it, haven't we? Hebrews 12, right? Strengthen the weak hands and firm the feeble knees, and say to those who are fearful hearted, be strong, do not fear.
Why? Behold, your God will come with vengeance. God's going to come back with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you. He will. He will. And then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
He's talking about Jesus, right? This is a prophecy of Jesus. And it's a double prophecy.
I believe in that, behold, the God will come with vengeance. That speaks of the second coming. In verse 5, he speaks about the first coming.
And then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing, and the water shall burst forth in the wilderness, and the streams in the desert.
Who made this happen? Jesus. Verse 7, the parched ground shall become a pool.
Listen to what God can do. And the thirsty land springs of water, and the habitation of jackals where each lay, there shall be grass and reeds and rushes.
In verse 8, I love, a highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the highway of holiness.
Folks, Jesus is the highway of holiness. We all traveled on the highway to get here this morning. We travel a highway every day, but are you on the highway of holiness?
Straight, narrow path. That's Jesus Christ. The unclean, notice what it says.
This needs to be preached, folks. There's people that are unclean today, preaching God's word. They don't need to be preaching
God's word. They don't need to be meeting, because they are outside of not only the will of God, they're living immoral in the name of God.
But notice what it says. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for others.
And whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it.
But it shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.
Are you walking there? On the highway of holiness? In verse 10, And the ransom of the
Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads.
And they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing, and shall flee away. Praise the name of the living
God. Let's pray. I'm going to read something from a
Puritan. My dear Lord, my dear
Lord, I can but tell
Thee that Thou knowest I long for nothing but Thyself, nothing but holiness, nothing but union with Thy will.
Thy has given me these desires, and Thou alone canst give me the thing desired.
May this be our prayer this morning, folks. My dear
Lord, my soul longs for communion with Thee, for mortification of indwelling corruption, especially spiritual pride.
How precious it is to have tender sense and a clear apprehension of the mystery of godliness, of true holiness.
What a blessedness to be like Thee, as much as it is possible for a creature to be like its creator.
O Lord, give me more of Thy likeness. Enlarge my soul to contain fullness of holiness.
Engage me to live more for Thee. Help me to be less pleased with my spiritual experiences.
And when I feel at ease after sweet comings, teach me to be far too little
I know and do. Blessed Lord, let me climb up near to Thee and love and long and plead and wrestle with Thee and pant for deliverance from the body of this sin.
For my heart is wandering and lifeless. My soul mourns to think it should ever lose sight of its beloved.
Lord, wrap my life in divine love and keep me ever desiring
Thee. Always humble and resign to Thy will, more fixed on Thyself that I may be more fitted for doing and suffering.
We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen and Amen. Praise God.
May I have more practical holiness, Lord willing, next week. Those three