Holiness of God — Leonard Ravenhill

The Call to Holiness and Sanctification

I want to deal with a theme this morning, a theme that's far too much for me, I'm sure, and too much for any man on earth. The theme is holiness. The text is in the first letter of Paul to the Thessalonians, chapter 5 and verse 23.

The very God of peace sanctify you wholly, notice that's W-H-O-L-L-Y, sanctify you wholly. And I pray God that your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let's backtrack a little and go into the third chapter. In chapter 3, verse 10, Paul says, Night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith.

To verse 13, to the end that he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even the Father, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. Down into chapter 4, verse 3, this is the will of God.

Now, in the previous verse there, I would call that, chapter 3, verse 10, his passion for this people. Night and day, not for their healing, not for their success, not that they might be liberated from the enemy, not that they might be great personalities in the church of God, but he's praying night and day that he may see their face and supply that which is lacking in their faith.

He does not accuse them of faithlessness, he accuses them of immature faith. And his prayer is answered because in the second epistle and the first chapter there, he says in verse 3, we are bound to thank God always, brethren, as it is meet, because your faith groweth exceedingly.

So, faith is something which really grows. So, his passion, I would call that, chapter 3, verse 10, his passion, he is praying night and day. For what? That he may see their face and supply that which is lacking in their faith.

In other words, he says, you have a very distinctive immaturity, and I want you to come to maturity, and I can't sleep for this. I'm so anxious about it. Do you ever get anxious about your own holiness or about the holiness of other people?

The philosopher said many years ago that theology is the queen of the sciences, and I'm sure that's right. Theology is the queen of the sciences, and if it is true, and it is, then holiness is the crown on the head of the queen.

There was an old preacher in this country years ago by the name of Joseph Smith, not the Mormon, that Joseph Smith, the man who established a holiness society. People used to say to him, well, Brother Smith, every time you open the Bible, every time you open this book, you open to holiness.

He said, I don't have to open it. What does it say there? Holy Bible. Who is it written by? The Holy Spirit. Who put it down on, whatever they put it down on, they put it on some kind of stuff they had, palimpsests or something, but whatever they put it down on, it says in Peter that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

So this is the holy word given by the Holy Spirit communicated by holy men that Peter again says that he who has called you is holy, and as he who has called you is holy, so be ye holy. In Ephesians 4, the apostle Paul says, he talks there about true holiness because there is a false holiness.

Now, this is a word that kind of frightens us. You get millions of people saying, I've had the baptism. They don't even have the decency to say they're baptized with the Holy Ghost because they're nervous of the Holy Ghost.

In the Old Testament, we read there that Saul, the king of Israel, had an evil spirit. Because he had an evil spirit, he did evil things. Jesus says if a man has an unclean spirit, he does unclean things.

Therefore, if a man with an evil spirit does evil things, and a man with an unclean spirit does unclean things, surely the man who has the Holy Spirit lives a holy life. If he doesn't, he's not got the Holy Spirit.

He may have the Spirit, but he's not the Holy Spirit. We hear a lot today about gifts of the Spirit. We hear far less about the fruits of the Spirit. We hear far less about the fruit unto holiness, which is mentioned in the sixth chapter of the marvelous book of Romans.

And we hear less still about bringing forth fruit meat for repentance. Now, some people charge me with saying that I differentiate. I say that God's character is holy. We're overboard on love these days.

And love often in a meeting means you get hold of somebody you can hardly get your arms around who hasn't taken too much care of the temple of the Holy Ghost. It's too much overweight. Maybe it would make two.

But anyhow, you try and get your arms around them. Give them a hug and a kiss. And this is called love. I call that sloppy agape. Do you know why? Because John 3 .16 talks about agape love. There's a city called Philadelphia.

That comes from phallus, brotherly love. There's an erotic love. There's a sensual love. There's an emotional love. But the love of God, which Romans 5 says, is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost, is the same love which is quoted there in John 3 .16.

God so loved the world. And love, true love, is capable of many things. One thing, true love suffers. True love sacrifices. God gave his only begotten Son. Not an archangel. Not Gabriel. Not some other super being in eternity.

But as Wesley put it, God was contracted to a span. Incomprehensibly made man. But you know, God has talked to me quite a bit the last two weeks, and I'm sure I can't convey all he said in this time. But I've been seeing again that the essence of God is not love.

The essence of God is holiness. How many times in the scripture is God called love? God is love, John says. Maybe twice at the very most. But over and over and over again, we read of the holiness of God.

Isaiah's Vision of God's Holiness

In the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 6. You know, we have that amazing story that's quoted so often. Isaiah had a vision in the first chapter. He'd seen a vision of a nation stupid. The ox knoweth its owner, and the ass his master's crib.

You're a stupid people. You look at the glory of God in the heavens, and you've forgotten that even the stars testify of him. Their voice soundeth throughout the earth. There is no place or language where their voice is not heard.

He has spoken in creation. He has spoken in conscience. And Isaiah sees a corrupt nation full of evil, blind evildoers rebelling against God. He has a vision of their sin and a vision of their corruption.

And if you read the fifth chapter, he spots all the cancers in the body of Israel, and he says, woe unto you, and woe unto you, and woe unto you, and woe unto you. His eyes are on the corruption in the nation.

In the sixth chapter, his eyes are upon the holiness of God and then on the corruption that's in him. And he doesn't say, God is love, love, love. He says they float around God, and they say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord.

And in Revelation, it doesn't say that those holy beings in heaven cease not by day and night to say, love, love, love. They cease not by day and night to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord. He calls his house holy.

While I was reading there this morning, some of these chapters, I nearly take off when I read them. In 1 Chronicles 16 and verse 29, it says, give thanks unto God. Give glory that is due to his name. Bring an offering and come before him and worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

I'm glad Tim had that song. That gave me a bit of a lift this morning when he said, let's sing holy, holy, holy. Worship the Lord in the beauty... And then the verse goes on to say, all that is within me.

Psalmist says that. Doesn't the Psalmist say that in Psalm 103? Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Now, if there's anger and pride and jealousy and malice and corruption and bitterness and an old man sleeping in your nature, you can't say, let all that is within me praise his holy name, because that corruption cannot praise him.

Heaven is a holy place. Okay, let's just look at this again. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. And then in the 20th chapter and verse 21, in 2 Chronicles 20 and verse 21, verse 18 says, Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judea and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before him, worshiping the Lord.

How do you worship him? You worship him in the beauty of holiness. How do you worship him? Well, they worshiped him prostrate. When he came into the upper room after his resurrection, what did they do?

They fell at his feet and they humbled themselves and they worshiped. What did the 4 and 20 elders do in the book of the Revelation? Even the 4 and 20 elders, in the indescribable, ineffable glory of eternity, they fall down and worship him.

This is far removed from the frivolous stuff of the day in which we live. Many of you know I'm quite a disciple of Dr. Tozer and many, many hours we spent just the two of us. And he said some things that used to awe me and leave me almost speechless for days in a phrase he would say it.

Worship as Preoccupation With God Himself

And one day as I went, and as some of you have heard this before, I went into his room and he said, Len, lock the door. Let your hair down. Otherwise, words relax. You see that rug there? I said, yes, doctor, I see it.

He said, Len, I often come in this room in the morning at 8 o 'clock and I call my secretary in the other room and say, no dictation today and put a notice on the door, no interviews today. I've got to worship.

Then he said this that made me realize I was in the presence of a man who not just only sang, he walks with me and he talks with me, he lived with him. And he said, I get down on my rug. No, he said, I get down on my belly on that rug at 8 o 'clock in the morning.

I'm still there at 11 or 12 or maybe 1 o 'clock and I haven't said one word of prayer and I haven't said one word of praise. I've just worshiped him. Worship him how? In the beauty of holiness. And since I don't have enough expression, he says, I borrow the words of favor.

How beautiful, how beautiful the sight of thee must be. Thine endless wisdom, awesome power and glorious beauty, and glorious beauty. Oh, Jesus, Jesus, dearest Lord, forgive me if I say for very love thy sacred name a thousand times a day.

Burn, burn within me, love of God. Burn fiercely night and day till all the dross of earthly love is burned and burned away. I said, Doctor, that staggers me. You can stay in God's presence three, four, even five hours without saying a word of prayer because, as a blanket statement, prayer is preoccupation with our needs.

Praise is preoccupation with our blessings. Worship is preoccupation with God Himself. My goal is God Himself, not joy, not peace, not even blessing, not even a thrilling ministry, not even doing the miraculous.

You can do all those and still be corrupt. There are men in this nation doing miracles who are filthy. They're living with other men's wives. The greatest need of the church of Jesus Christ in this critical hour in history is a baptism of holiness.

Purity. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. And Jehoshaphat says, they fell down at His feet. And in verse 21 of that same chapter, 2 Chronicles 20, it says,. And when He had consulted with the people, He appointed singers unto the Lord that should praise the beauty of holiness as they went before Him.

And to say, Praise the Lord for His mercy endureth forever. And when the people began to sing and to praise, praised Him for the beauty of His holiness, the Lord set ambushments against the enemy. There's not much emphasis on holiness today.

The emphasis is happiness. The emphasis is not character, it's charisma. It's not what God can do in you, it's what God can do for you. He's a great utility God. Short of cash? Tell Him. Need healing?

Tell Him. Got a problem? Let Him solve it. Now, He'll do all those things very often, but that's not the main thing about God. People run themselves weary. Even preachers have breakdowns and others. Do you know why?

Because they don't know how to stop and worship. Some of us were listening yesterday for a couple of times. I could have listened 200 times, I think, to Arthur Katz, Art Katz. Well, I don't know what he does, but I'll tell you what.

He puts the cats amongst the chickens. He says some very disturbing things. And I asked him about the fellowship that he lives with, and he said, Brother Raven, we're not much. We're just about 45 people, and we live mostly in a trailer court.

And we have no buildings, and we have a Bible school, but we don't have any desks. I said, what about your income? Do you sell anything? My, he looked as though I'd stabbed him. He says, do we what? How do you live?

He said, we live just above the poverty line, and we've lived there for five years. That's where we live. But we have a superb fellowship of people that God has selected. And their sole idea is to know God.

Everything these days has to be big to be successful. Success is our great God, isn't it, apart from sport? There's a great preach in England. Most preachers are great preachers in England, but anyhow, there was a great preach in England by the name of Dr. Moffat Gawtry.

Moffat Gawtry filled the historic pulpit of John Wesley with distinction for a number of years. I have a couple of his books which are just tremendous reading. But Moffat Gawtry made this statement once, and it's never left me in 50 years.

I've got a birthday coming up this week. I won't tell you what the date is. It's not the 17th or the 19th, but anyhow, I've got a birthday coming up, but you know, and when I pass my milestone this week, I'll have been preaching 60 years, and that's a good long while, and I don't know anything about it.

I've been asked many times to write a book on preaching. I don't know enough about it. Moffat Gawtry had an elastic vocabulary. He could lift the congregation out of their seats, as it were, into heavenly places.

And after all, when you've been to a meeting, it's not how exciting it is, how many miracles there were. The thing is this. Have you had a revelation of God's holiness? Have you seen God's majesty? Do you leave it with awe?

Do you say love's so amazing, so divine, that God, who was contracted to a span, the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, and yet deity and eternity was crammed into the matrix of the Virgin Mary. There's not a scientist on earth can explain that because there was no human father.

There's an old saying that says I believe in the virgin birth because it's incredible. And he said, I believe in the resurrection because it's impossible. Thank you. I got one amen. That's great. Everything's rationed these days.

But anyhow, God contracted to a span. The one who bowed, the cherubim bowed down and they couldn't look on His holiness. Say, tell me this. Did you come here this morning to meet God or hear a sermon about Him?

I like the quietness before we preach. I wish it was as quiet after. I don't think you should talk and do it outside. Somebody may be having a life and death struggle in this sanctuary and it ought to be holy because He calls His house the habitation of His holiness.

God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man. The cherubim couldn't look upon Him. They veiled their faces because they couldn't bear Him to look on them and they veiled their eyes because they couldn't bear to look on His spotless purity.

And yet one day He laid His glory by and wrapped Him in our clay and He came into the world not in a chariot that Elijah went up to heaven in. He could have conquered the world the first day. He could have come at midnight, at Passover, when Jerusalem was packed with a million or more Jews.

He came in through the back door of suspicion. Men still say He was a bastard. And He started with shame and He ended with shame and His life was shame. And you say you want to be like Jesus. You mean you want to be kicked about and despised and rejected?

That's what He was. You expect to be patted on the back as a good preacher. And people say what a marvelous thing you are. And something else that feeds your pride. All Jesus got was hostility from the world.

He got hostility from His disciples. Peter says don't go to the cross. He had been in the blazing light of God's holiness and He comes to earth. Sure, He was the holiest man that ever lived. But you know what?

In my reckoning He was the loneliest man that ever lived. And if you decide to live a holy life, brother, you better be prepared for loneliness because a lot of people want to be good and a few more people want to be spiritual but very few people want to be holy.

Do you know why? Because you won't get opposition from the world from being holy and say you want to be holy. You'll get opposition from the theologians and the preachers. They'll say the heart can't be cleansed from sin.

You need a little bit of sin to keep your humble. Oh, well, why not have a lot of sin and be real humble? If you need a little bit of sin to be humble, the humblest men must all be in jail this morning.

Well, you can't live without sin. Well, Jesus said to a woman taken in adultery, go and sin less. Isn't that what the Amplified says? Or is it in the Living Bible? Well, what did He say? Go and sin. No what?

To a woman who hadn't been, knew a thing about the blood of Christ or the cross or the death or the rest, go and sin no more. People say we sin because we have to. No, no, no, we don't. We sin because we want to.

We choose our sins. This man is lustful. He chooses a woman. That man is a thief. That man has a lot of malice. That man has something else. You see, immediately you talk about living a holy life, somebody will say, sinless perfection.

Well, I think I'd rather be accused of that than be accused of a Christian practicing sin anyhow. You say, well, if you get really sanctified, doesn't it mean it's impossible to sin? No, it means it's possible not to sin.

I've come across the Atlantic about twenty times in the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, United States and other little canoes that go over that way, you know, and I've been in some terrible storms, but they didn't worry me too much.

Man, I've been tossed out of bed. You couldn't eat some days and you're paying a big sum of money to get over, and boy, however good the cooking is, something down here won't take it, and they said there was one man at night leaning over the deck and he was throwing up badly and it was dark and somebody had told another man, you know, crossing the Atlantic, two great things you've got to see are sunrise and see the moon come up.

And the man rushed up behind him, and he patted on the back and he says, has the moon come up? He says, does that have to come up as well? Sure, I've been in some very, very bad storms. But, you know, you've no trouble, fear not, I am with thee, the storm shall not harm thee, the fire shall not harm thee.

While the boat's in the water, you've got no problem, but when the water's in the boat, watch out. Can you go to a world of sin like this and be not contaminated? Sure you can. Read Peter, first epistle.

I've told the story many times of catching fish and I don't often go fishing. As I've said often enough, you know, preachers say to me, well, can't we go fishing? I say, sure, Peter did when he was backslidden, but anyhow.

Sure, I've gone fishing occasionally. And I caught a nice kingfish, a huge one, it was about this, well, this size evangelically, this size, really, you know. Preacher's size is this size, but I remember it weighed 34 pounds and I think it weighed, it was about 32 inches long and we had it for dinner and they said, give the preacher the first cut because he caught it and I didn't quite like it.

Have you eaten this kind of fish before? No. Did you put any salt in it? Salt? Why, it's been floating around in the saltiest water in the world down there in the Bahamas and it needs salt on it? The skin on the thing is no thicker than this paper and yet the salt can't get through that little bit of skin and do anything in the body of that fish.

Now, you get in, you'll have some trouble if you stay in it too long, that salt will affect your skin. The salt doesn't get through the skin of that fish, it can sail years and years and years. This was an old one, to me it tasted about 900 years old but it was a pretty old, tough fish and it had been living in that atmosphere and yet it had not gone contaminated and yet the blood of Jesus Christ, look here, look, let's face it, the greatest problem in the world today is the problem of what?

Well, you say sin, that's right, that's true, the greatest problem in the world is sin. You could say the greatest manifestation of sin is, well, the inability of people to live with each other and it's a world full of temptation and trial.

There is no religion under heaven except the Christian religion which offers a pure heart and if you say that men cannot live pure in this world, you relegate the gospel to Mohammedism and some other ism and Romanism.

We've Romanized our Protestantism. We sin and then apologize to God at the end of the day as though it's not a very serious thing. I was at a conference in a certain university with one of the great broadcasters of this country speaking and he talked about sin, you know, we sin every day, thought, word and deed and I said, look, there's a congregation of, I don't know, a couple of thousand people.

Look, there's over a thousand young people under twenty years of age and they're puzzled in this generation of promiscuous living and all the liberality and so forth and you say we have to sin. Would you do me a favor, he said, if I could?

Well, I said, you can't but try. Would you tell these young people what sins they can commit and what sins they can't commit? If you say they have to sin every day, give them a list of sins that are permissible.

Now, I know many of you don't know much about the Bible, that's why you came here, but how many times did Adam sin before he got kicked out of the garden? How many times? Oh, so he gets punished and we don't, eh?

We just live on a cycle of victory, defeat, victory, defeat, cleansing, impurity and so forth. Again, this, this blessed, holy Word of God, the whole thing about the Word of God is about sin, isn't it?

What's it about? It's about something that came into the world through one man's disobedience, sin entered into the world. That's an awesome thing. We're used to sinning. It doesn't worry us too much.

Holiness, Sanctification, and the Vision of Christian Maturity

You know, I find some scriptures in this book that are just about shattering. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 13, says this, follow peace with all your heart, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.

Oh, that's shattering. Go back into verse 10. This takes my breath away. He's talking about the chastisement of our fathers, they chastise us for a little while, and after their own pleasure, but He for our profit, that we, listen, come on now, you're a farmer, okay, you're a druggist, okay, but a housewife, a doctor, a theologian, whatever.

This almost takes my breath away. It says that you and I, little mortals that come over this earth just for a little span, may be made partakers of His holiness. He's already said in another place, we can be made partakers of the divine nature.

He says we can be made partakers of the saints in light. But isn't this something that this little heart of mine, who says this? The Holy Ghost says it, so who? The Apostles. Listen, no man ever gazed into the abyss of human nature like the Apostle Paul.

Read Romans. He sees the human heart as a cesspool of corruption, full of every unclean thing, adulteries, and every impurity, along with malice and pride and envy. He sees men as seducers. He sees them manufacturing a religion that will counter or try to counter Christianity.

How firm a foundation. As we sang that, I said, well, hallelujah. What a foundation I'm on. The foundation is Jesus Christ. And the gates of hell are not going to disturb the foundation of the church of Jesus Christ.

He's been opposed by the critics. He's been ridiculed by the satirists. People have tried to get a false religion to counteract it. The theologians are not very sure about it these days. In a very famous Bible school not long ago, theological seminary, somebody asked the professor, what about the sanctified life?

Well, he says it's a perpetual approximation to another realizable ideal. Isn't that gorgeous and soothing? See, we kind of figure you can go to heaven, well, first class, second class, or third class.

You see, God is a God of love and He's not too worried because actually He never sees you. He sees you through Jesus Christ. That's pure bunkum. If He only sees me through Jesus Christ, who's, and I commit sin continually, who's going to answer for the sin?

Jesus Christ? Well, He imputes righteousness. He does more than that. He imparts righteousness. God is holy. Because He's holy, He hates sin. Because He's righteous, He must punish sin. Because He's merciful, He forgives sin.

But He doesn't ask me to sin every day in thought and word and deed. Again, Paul here is writing to a marvelous, marvelous group of people as far as I'm concerned. What does he say? The very God of peace, sanctify you wholly.

1 Thessalonians 5, 23. And I pray, God, and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord. I said His passion is revealed in the first, in chapter 3. His passion is revealed where He prays night and day for them.

His proclamation is chapter 4, verse 7. He that hath called you has called us not unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. His prayer is in the 23rd verse. The very God of peace, sanctify you wholly. His prayer is in the promises in the 24th verse.

Faithful is He that calleth you who also will do it. I think Paul had a colossal intellect. He had acres of culture. He had as much pedigree as any man that ever lived in the New Testament. And he had a righteousness of his own and he was going down that Damascus road, you remember, and he was going to liquidate the church.

He had a death sentence. He had a, inside of his toga, he had authority from the chief priest to put anybody who was accused of death. Isn't it amazing, or is it amazing? You under the psalmist hits the highest spots of praise.

Nobody praised God. Nobody in the New Testament praised God like David did. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all He hath redeemed. What? Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. Who healeth all thy diseases.

Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies. He lifted me out of the horrible pit. Not a pit of hell, but a pit of hell. A horrible pit. He not only saved me from that pit, he saved me from the eternal pit.

Because the alternative to holiness is hellishness. Now, Paul here again is praying for this church, the very God of peace, sanctify you wholly. I said the first chapter is a portrait. Would you look at it for a minute?

What kind of people are these people for whom he prays? The very God of peace, sanctify you wholly. Were they a back-slidden bunch? Were they heretics? Look at the first chapter of this epistle. Chapter 1 of 1 Thessalonians.

We give thanks, verse 2, to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, verse 4. Let's make this number 1. Knowing, number 2 rather. Because in verse 1 he says knowing of your labor of love, your faith, your labor of love and patience. Verse 4. Knowing your election of God.

Verse 5. Our gospel came unto you not only in word but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. They could have sung blessed assurance with joy because they had assurance. They had faith, they were the elect of God, they had assurance.

Verse 6. Ye became followers of us and of the Lord having received the word with much affliction and joy in the Holy Ghost. You see, we sing about joy because we want our little spirits to be lifted a bit.

We talk about the miraculous power of the Holy Ghost. Can you tell me one miracle that the disciples did after Pentecost they didn't do before Pentecost? They cast out devils before Pentecost? They healed the sick before Pentecost?

They rejoiced and said, listen Lord, devils are subject to us in that. That was before Pentecost. And people say, you need the power of the Holy Ghost, Action 8 to be witnesses. That's a very bad translation.

Do you know what that word there is, that Greek word there is? Ye shall be martyrs unto me. Witness by martyrdom. There are people, oh, it wouldn't be too bad to be put up against the wall and somebody shoots you like that.

But you get saved in South America in some cities and the priest goes round and says, don't sell her groceries, don't sell her meat, don't do this. And they shrink everything you have and you die, die, die gradually.

Be martyrs. You can be martyred in an office and you can't be the but, I was the button joke in a factory where I worked. Men kick me sometimes, they abuse me sometimes. When I told them I had been baptised, they called me John the Baptist and they did all kinds of skits.

The miracle of Pentecost to me, though the stress today, is power. And God knows we need it, but the emphasis of the New Testament is not power, it's purity. They have power before Pentecost. They raise the dead, they heal the sick, they cast out demons.

But Peter could do that and then backslide and say, I don't know the Lord. He could get terribly ugly, but you don't find after Pentecost he got that way because in Acts 15, 8 and 9 he's reporting what happened to the house of Cornelius.

He's reporting that to the big shots in Jerusalem and he says of these people in the house of Cornelius, that God who knows the heart. I could stop there and preach a long while. He knows your heart. He knows that little area that you've buttoned up, that little closet where you've got some uncleanness, some grudge, some unforgiving spirit, that malignancy.