Personal Holiness - Part 1 — William MacDonald

Dr. Koronis for the rest cure, isn't it? I don't know about you, but I find in my own life every so often I need to come and have my spiritual batteries recharged. And I don't doubt that's true of some others here tonight.

We all face the danger of letting down. We all face the danger of becoming complacent. Where it all seems to become old hat to us. We lose our enthusiasm for divine things. And we need a fresh touch for God.

Sometimes those who are older look at young people who are burning for Jesus and they say, I was like that once. Well, that's a terrible admission to have to make, isn't it? To see young people on fire for Jesus and to have become cold or even bitter or cynical along the way.

And then I realize that there are some here tonight with problems. And it's quite possible that your problems won't be dealt with in the ministry. We try and we're on our knees before the Lord asking the Holy Spirit just to use that unintended word to help somebody along the way.

But you might be here with problems. Some of you might be here with a problem of assurance. You can't look back to any particular time in your life when you trusted Jesus Christ as Savior. You might be fuzzy on the whole idea of assurance.

Some of you may be having personal problems in your own life. I rather suspect that's true. I watch people's faces. And sometimes faces tell a lot. And I suspect that there are problems in personal lives here.

Problems in business life. In the home, marital problems. And as I say, it may not be answered in the ministry. I wish you'd feel free to come and talk to us. We don't know all the answers, but we like to sit down with people and open the word of God and seek to help them directly.

The Necessity of Personal Holiness

In my series here this week, I'd like to talk to you on the subject of personal holiness. I often think of what a Pentecostal preacher said once. He said, if you haven't tried holiness, don't knock it.

And I think there's a lot to that. A little shaver went to a meeting with his father, and he became reckless during the meeting. And his father had to clip his ear during the meeting. And when they were going out, the usher saw Johnny, and he said, you don't look happy, Johnny.

And he said, I'm not. And he said, why? He said, it's hard to be holy and happy too. But it isn't. You can't be happy without being holy. And you can't be really holy without being happy. I'd like to suggest to you that the greatest hindrance to the work of the Lord in the world today is the lives of us Christians.

Do you believe that? Oh, you think, no, a lack of dollars, that's a big... No, it never was a problem and never will be. Lack of finances is not the problem in the work of the Lord. The problem is the lives of Christian people.

A secretary was listening to her radio one Saturday night, and she heard her boss preaching the gospel on the radio. And he came in Monday morning, and his nose was out of joint, and he took it out on her.

And after he stepped out of the office, she said to the other girl in the office, she said, Yeah, come to Jesus on Saturday night and go to hell on Monday morning. That's it. Come to Jesus on Saturday night and go to hell on Monday morning.

And that's what his life was saying to her. I was talking to Brother Kim here this afternoon. We were reminiscing about a mutual friend. During the Navy days, there was a young fellow out in Honolulu named Bert Graves.

And after he'd get off duty, he used to go out in the basketball court and shoot baskets. And there was another fellow who was not a Christian that used to go out and join them playing basketball. His name was Dick Kegler.

And Dick used to watch Bert. Dear friends, the world really watches us. We don't realize how much people really do watch us. And Dick Kegler was watching Bert Graves. And one night he came to Bert and he said, Bert, you have something I don't have.

I don't know what it is, but I want it. And it was an easy thing that night for Bert Graves to lead Dick Kegler to the Lord. And Dick has been going on for Jesus ever since. Why? Because he read the life.

He saw Christ in the life of Bert Graves. And he wanted it. I think that's what the Lord Jesus meant when he said, follow me. And I'll make your fish as of then. You follow me. You live the life. And I'll take care of the fish.

I believe it's true, too. I really believe that Bert was a living example of that. God wants his people to be holy. God is looking for saints. I know in a way we're all saints, in a way. We're all saints positionally.

But God wants us to be saints practically. You know, the meaning of that word holy, the basic meaning of the word is different. You ever think of that? To be holy means to be different. I know it means to be set apart, but that's what set apart means.

Holiness as Separation from the Nations

To be different. Turn to Numbers chapter 23 and verse 9. Numbers 23 and verse 9. It says, and this is Balaam's prophecy, of course. One of Balaam's prophecies is, That was it. That's what God wanted. I know that Balaam was a false prophet, but many a truth has been spoken between false teeth, and this was one of them.

Lo, the people shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations. God wants us to be different. He wants us to show to the world that Jesus Christ makes a difference in the life. The trouble is we don't want to be different.

It's tough when you're in high school or in college or even in the community. It's tough to be different. It's tough to swim against the tide. That's exactly what the Lord wants. He wants us to be different for Jesus.

Divine Grace and Human Cooperation in Holiness

Now, in the matter of Christian holiness, there's a curious mingling of the divine and the human. Let me explain it this way. Only God can make you and me holy, but he won't do it without our cooperation.

I hear an awful lot of preaching in other circles today, and it makes it sound that you can go down to the altar at the close of a meeting and have a priceless experience of the Holy Spirit, and you're catapulted onto a plateau of super holiness, and you have no problems from then on.

I don't believe that for a minute. I've heard it preached. Believe the promise, claim the filling, and all the rest. Just by a single crisis experience of the Holy Spirit. I believe in crisis experiences of the Holy Spirit, but I also believe that in this matter of holiness, our cooperation is absolutely essential.

The farmer plows, he sows, he cultivates, and God gives the increase. The mingling of the human and the divine. We have to fight the good fight of faith, and God gives the victory. This is the way I believe it is in the life of holiness.

The danger is self-satisfaction. Somebody has said that satisfaction is the grave of progress, and I believe that's true, and I believe it's true in connection with our subject tonight. Satisfaction is the grave of progress.

We figure, well, here I am, and what I am, I am, and it's almost as if there's no room for improvement, or we don't care. The wonderful thing, I think, is to see believers who are sensitive before the Lord and want to grow in the life of holiness.

To me, it's very, very touching. A bunch of our young people went down to Yosemite not too long ago. The trip was organized by some of the leaders. And they were going to climb the steep trail to Glacier Point.

It was spring. There was still snow and some snow and some ice, and they went down there and they camped, and in the morning they were going to climb the steep trail. And one of my young friends went along with a recent believer.

I think he's been saved two years. And he had taken along an unsaved friend that he wanted to witness to. So they started out, and they started up the trail, and they came to a sign, Trail Closed. So the spiritual leaders jumped the fence and started up the trail.

And my young friend said to them, Hey, did you see the sign? And they said, Yeah. He said, What about it? They said, Come on. He didn't. He didn't go on. He went back with the friend he was trying to witness to.

Now, you know, it took courage for him to do that. In a party of Christians, it took courage for him to say, I'm not going to pass that sign. The sign says, Trail Closed. I want to always have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man.

You know, I was really touched when Eric told me what had happened. He wasn't trying to blow his own horn or anything else. He wasn't trying to bring discredit on anyone else. But it's that sensitivity that the Lord loves and loves to see in his people.

Reading and Obeying the Word of God

We have to strive to be more holy. And we'll never become holy by being passive and waiting, or as I said before, by a simple crisis experience. I suggest to you tonight that if we're going to be holy, there are certain things you and I have to do.

There's a book we have to read and obey. And you know that book. That book is the Bible. And you know that there are two things that God himself cannot part. And that's dust on the Bible and ice in the heart.

He can't do it. God's omnipotent, but he can't do that. He can't part dust on the Bible and ice on the heart. And there's no use of me thinking about holiness if the Bible is a closed book from Monday through Saturday.

Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his ways by taking heed thereto according to thy word. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. It's a wonderful thing, isn't it, when you open the word in the morning and you're reading there, and you don't know that during that day something is going to come up.

Some temptation is going to come up. Some problem in the Christian life is going to come up. And you know you read the answer that morning. That's how the word has a cleansing effect in our lives. It's a book we must read constantly.

And we must obey what we read. I've often said obedience is the organ of spiritual knowledge. And it says we obey the word of God, but we grow in the things of God. At the end of his wonderful sermon on the mount, the Lord Jesus said, Who's the wise man?

The wise man is the man who comes and builds his house upon the rock. Who is the man who builds his house upon the rock? The man who hears his saying and does them. The trouble is that you and I are masters at thinking of reasons why we don't have to obey the word of God.

We say, well, it doesn't mean what it says. We say, well, you have to use common sense, don't you? We say, well, I know it means that for most people, but in my case God wants to make an exception. And we can think of 60 theological rationalizations why the word of God doesn't mean it for us.

And that's not the kind of a Christian who grows. The kind of a Christian who grows is the one who goes to the word of God on his knees and says the Bible means what it says. Either it means what it says or we ought to throw it away.

And you know, when God gets that ruthless attitude in people's hearts, he looks up and says, here's a man who trembles at my word. That's the man that pleases me. So there's a book we have to read and obey.

Prayer as the Altar of Holiness

There's an altar we have to frequent. And that altar is the altar of prayer. My dear friends, we're really in a battle. And it's not getting any easier. And the only way we can ever move forward is on our knees.

I don't know if I can explain this to you, but we're out in California, northern California there, and right across the bay is Sodom and Gomorrah. And I mean that seriously. And I want to tell you this, that living out there, we're conscious of the conflict against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in our places.

And you know, coming back here to Minnesota and to Corona, you can sense a vast change. I'm not saying that to inflate you, to make you proud, but I want to tell you, you notice the difference. And I tell you, we ought to pray for one another because there are an awful lot of casualties in the Christian life.

The highway of Christian service is littered with corpses today. And if we really love one another, we should pray. We should pray for ourselves. What do you pray? Well, I'll just let you into a little of my prayer life.

I say, Lord, don't let the temptation to sin and the opportunity to sin coincide. Sometimes I have the temptation, but I don't have the opportunity. Sometimes I have the opportunity, but I don't have the temptation.

I don't want them to come at the same time. I pray, Lord, don't let me die a wicked old man. Why do you pray it? Because I know my own heart. That's why I pray it. The pit of corruption. I know that in me dwelleth no good thing.

And I know only by the grace of God will I be able to go on faithfully to the end. It's a battle. Don't think it isn't. I pray, Lord, and I do. I say, Lord, take me home to heaven rather than let me fall on my face morally.

I often think of that when some of our friends go home to heaven. You know, and we stand around and weep and grieve. How do you know? How do you know? I know, but they prayed that prayer and God is answering it.

Don't weep if you hear that I've gone. Sing the hallelujah chorus. I mean that sincerely. I really do. I often pray, Lord Jesus, take me home to heaven rather than I should bring shame and dishonor on your holy name.

I pray, Lord, keep me from doing it even if I want to do it. It's desperate, isn't it? Our prayers should be desperate. Best arrow prayers come from a tight bow. I often think of the prayer of the Lord Jesus in a way it's a puzzle.

He taught the disciples to pray, lead us not into temptation. Well, you say the Lord would never lead us into temptation. It's true. What did he mean when he said that? Lead us not into temptation. If the Lord never would lead you into temptation, what does he mean?

Well, I don't know theologically what it means, but what it says to me is when I pray that prayer, Lord, don't ever let me even get near it. Don't let me play with it. Don't let me get close to the edge of the precipice.

Just keep me as far away as possible. Serious business, isn't it? It really is. But God will honor those prayers if we pray them from our heart. So that's the second thing we have to do, an altar that we have to frequent.

Resolute Action Against Temptation

And it's a good thing for us to feel our own frailty. We're dust, dirt. And we should be in that position of brokenness and humiliation before the Lord all the time. The third thing is there's a word we have to learn to say 10 ,000 times a week.

And what is that word? Very negative, isn't it? No. A word that we don't like to say it. But it's important. Probably without thinking of it, you've had to say it today. Some unguarded thought comes to your brain like a swallow to the gable of a barn.

You have to decide whether you're going to entertain it, roll it as a sweet morsel under your tongue, or whether you're going to reject it and judge it as sin, as a sight of God. And I believe that. I believe there's a word we have to learn to say 10 ,000 times a week.

And that word is no. The hymn writer says, Yield not to temptation. Each victory will help you some other to win. Well, I believe it. Every time God gives me the grace to say no, it makes it easier to say no the next time.

Every time you yield, it makes it easier to yield. God wants men and women with backbones in this whole matter. For there's resolute action that we often have to take. Resolute action. Jesus said in Matthew 5, 29 and 30, If your right eye offends you, pluck it out.

Some of the Lord's words were really strong, weren't they? Some of the young people would call it gross today to think of plucking out an eye or cutting off a right hand. Well, fortunately, you don't have to pluck your right.

Jesus didn't say you had to do it. He said it would be better to do it than to go into hell with all your members. But I think he also is teaching there that there comes a time in life when we have to take strong, decisive action.

Joseph is an illustration of that, isn't it? When a woman tried to seduce him into sin and she grabbed his coat and he slipped out of the coat and put a few healthy miles between him and the woman and lost his coat, but gained a crown that he'll wear eternally because he had the courage to stand up for God and for what he knew was right.

Controlling Television and Movies

I think I could add this, too, that if we're really going to make progress in the life of holiness, we're going to have to take resolute action with regard to TV. And I'm speaking of the general run of programs that there is on TV today.

I may have shared with you before my favorite verses on TV. The first is Psalm 119, verse 37. The Bible is so up-to-date, isn't it? Psalm 119, verse 37. I'm sure some of you know it by heart. It says, turn, that's the T, turn away my eyes from beholding vanity, V.

TV, turn away my eyes from beholding vanity and quicken thou me in thy ways. And the second one is in 1 Samuel, chapter 3, verse 1. 1 Samuel, chapter 3, verse 1. And if you'll just let me paraphrase it.

It says, Child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. The word of the Lord was precious in those days. There was no television. Do you get it? It says really no open vision. But I can look back to times when before television came, the word of the Lord was more precious in homes than it is today.

The word of the Lord was precious in those days. There was no television. And I think you might also look at Psalm 101, verse 3, which is apropos, although it doesn't mention TV by name. Psalm 101, verse 3.

I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave to me. TV does not help us on the highway to holiness. The trouble is you start looking at it and you get used to it and your spiritual temperature is lowered and you don't even realize it.

It's a subtle thing, isn't it? It's a subtle thing. It's the world coming into our house and we're succumbing to the chill of our environment and a very, very subtle thing. The world is clever, isn't it?

And it knows how to hack away at God's people. And then, in the same breath, we could mention the movies today. Because I don't see how a woman can go on and increase in holiness if they feed on the stuff that comes out of Hollywood.

I don't see how. You know, I thank God today I was brought up by a strict Presbyterian mother who ruled us with a Bible in one hand and a Singer sewing machine strap in the other. And one of the edicts in our home was no movies.

We were the odd kids in the neighborhood. All the rest of the kids went to movies and we didn't. Until we were 18 and then she said, OK, you're old enough now, make your own decisions. You know, I'm so grateful for that today.

You know why? Because my mind has enough filth in it already. And some of that filth comes back to me in the most sacred moments of life. Some of it comes back to me when I'm at the Lord's Supper breaking bread.

When I least want it. But it reappears. I'm glad I didn't put years of movies in there. It had kind of a humorous twist that I couldn't help thinking of when we were singing the Chariots of Fire tune tonight.

This picture Chariots of Fire came along and all my friends said, oh, Bill, you've got to go. You've got to go and see Chariots of Fire. I said, listen, mental block. I've never been in a theater. I'm not going to go.

If they'd only show it in a neutral place, I'd go. I won't go to a theater to see it. A relic of the Victorian era, they thought. In January 15, 1980, I'm in London and I'm with O .M. there and a friend, Roger Malmstead, comes in and he says, Bill, I've just been to see Chariots of Fire.

You ought to go and see it. I said, I know, Roger. Mental block. If they'd show it in a neutral place, I'd go. I want to see it. I really want to see it because I heard it really honors God. And I've used the story in illustrations in my preaching for years.

An illustration of the truth that those that honor God, God will honor. I said, Roger, I'm not going to go to see it in a theater. Too old to begin. Well, it was time to leave and they had a young fellow drive us over to Heathrow Airport in London.

We boarded a British Airways plane coming back to the United States. And we weren't airborne 30 minutes. The stewardess announces, ladies and gentlemen, the film to be shown on today's flight is Chariots of Fire.

Now the young people at Fairhaven say, yeah, Bill McDonald, he won't pay $3 .50 to go and see it. He won't pay $3 .50 to go see it in a theater. He'll pay $750 to see it on British Airways. But there is a serious side to it just the same.

That's very exceptional. Chariots of Fire. And the general stuff that comes in the films today drags people down spiritually. Resolute action we must take. Strict control of TV. Strict control of the movie.

Removing Objects Associated with Sin

Your children, too. And then we have to exercise strict control of the things that are associated in our minds with sin. I often think of that in Jude, verse 23. It says, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh.

And, you know, I believe that with every one of us, every David has his Bathsheba, you know. And every one of us has his own besetting sin or sins. And I believe that there are physical objects in our lives that are associated with sin.

And we can't play around with them. You with me? I believe it's true. I really believe that it's true. Okay, number five, there's a position we have to keep. A position we have to keep. It says, keep your, in Jude 21, it says, keep yourself in the love of God.

That's another discipline of the Christian life, isn't it? Keep yourself in the love of God. How do you keep yourself in the love of God? Well, I'm just a simple believer, and I ask myself the question, how do you keep yourself in the sunshine?

And the answer is, you don't let anything come between you and the sun. Not very profound, is it? And I believe that's how you keep yourself in the love of God. You don't let anything come between yourself and the Lord.

Christian Companionship and Mutual Correction

Like what? Like sin. Like random thoughts of evil. Nothing between my soul and the Savior. Keep the way clear. Let nothing between. Number six, companionships to cultivate. It says in 1 Corinthians 15, 33, evil companionships corrupt good manners.

How often do you hear it? You say, what happened to that young person? Oh, he got in with bad company. I was reading the other day, and I think it was Our Daily Bread, about the parrot that loved to fly out and get there with the crows in the field.

And the farmer had just had enough of those crows, and one day he went out with his shotgun, and he let off a blast, and he hit the parrot. The parrot was there, breathing its last, and somebody said to him, what happened to you?

He said, bad company, bad company. That was it. He was out with the crows, where he shouldn't have been. It's wonderful to have Christian fellowship. It's wonderful to have Christians whose desire is to help us along and edify us in the things of God.

I value the times I spent with dear Dr. Ironside. They weren't as much as I would like to have had, but I don't remember ever being in his presence, but he was trying to feed me the Word, and encourage me on in the things of God, and counsel me, and teach me, and warn me.

And I tell you, if you have somebody like that, it's a great gift in life. Do you have someone in life who loves you so much, that if he or she sees something in your life that is not Christ-like, he'll speak to you about it?

I have one friend like that. He comes to this country and calls me from Detroit, and he says, how's your spiritual life? Nobody asks me how's my spiritual life, but he does. His name is George Verwer, those of you who are guessing.

It's a wonderful thing. Are you that kind of a friend to somebody else? Where you can go lovingly, the way you do it is awfully important. When we wash one another's feet, we don't want to do it with scalding water, or with ice water either.

But lovingly, graciously, perhaps with an arm around the shoulder, manifesting the meekness and humility of Christ, and seeking to help a brother or a sister along the way. You know, the communists do that, they cultivate self-criticism.

When they, maybe they have a big campaign going on, maybe they're going to try to disrupt the city on a certain date, a certain celebration of something, they're going to swing into action. And they organize the thing, and they have it really down to a fine point.

And then when it's all over, they never sit around and congratulate themselves, never do. They always ask, how could you have done it better? And they critique one another. You know, I feel we fail in that.

I feel that some of us, for instance, with a personality like a dill pickle, can be a perpetual problem in the assembly, and nobody has enough love to come and tell us. We should cultivate this matter of self-criticism.

The Hope of Christ’s Return and Purity

Then something else I would suggest, and it's very, very precious to me, and that is that there's a blessed hope that we want to maintain. I link the hope of the imminent return of Christ very strongly with a life of holiness.

I really do. And the reason I do is because the scripture does. It says, every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. I don't ever want to get away from that momentary expectation of the Lord's imminent return.

I believe he'll come back tonight. I wish he would, with all my heart. I wish he would. Jude, verse 21, says, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a lovely use of the word mercy. Mercy has many faces in the Bible, and this face means coming.

The coming of the Lord is a mercy from God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a wonderful thing to realize that he's coming, perhaps very soon. And we want to be ready when he comes.

We want to have garments that are clean when he comes. We want to have our feet disentangled from the things of this world, so we'll be prepared in that moment of time to go up and meet our blessed Lord.

Daily Consecration to God’s Will

And then finally, I think that if we're going to think seriously about the life of holiness, there's a consecration that we want to maintain. You say, what do you mean by that? Well, I mean Romans 12, verses 1 and 2.

I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Be not conformed to the world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

There has to be a time in my life when I do that for the first time, and after I do it for the first time, I should do it continually. My experience is that caught up in an emotional moment, I might turn my life over to the Lord for service or for anything else, and yet tomorrow, with all the pressures of life crowding in upon me, I forget and start to live my life the way I want to live it.

And that's why I say a consecration to maintain. It isn't enough to put self on the altar today. The wretched thing will crawl off tomorrow. If at the beginning of every day I don't come before the Lord and say, Lord Jesus, I'm yours for this next 24-hour period.

Prayer for Purity and Faithfulness

Live your life through me. And make me as holy as it is possible for a man to be on this side of heaven. What a prayer for all of us to pray. Shall we look to the Lord in prayer? Father, we thank you for speaking to our hearts tonight.

We feel the pull of the world all the time upon us. So many things to drag us down spiritually. We have such a wily foe, the devil, seeking whom he may devour. And we have the flesh within, the world without, always working away at us.

But Lord, I believe it's the sincere desire of every believer in the meeting tonight that we might be holy. When he appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. And so we put our hearts very low tonight and say, O Lord Jesus, keep us in wonderful grace.

Keep us pure. Keep us separated from the world. Make it so that men may judge of us that we have been with Jesus. Work out your perfect will in our lives at any cost. And O Lord Jesus, take us to heaven rather than letting us make shipwreck on earth.