Fruit of Unholiness — Joe Focht

We were sitting there talking and just for some reason out of my mouth came you know the way of the transgressor is hard. And Chuck said why don't you teach on the fruit of unholiness, and I thought to myself Why did you say that?

Why did you say that? Let's pray Father we settle our hearts as we continue. Lord it is a Miracle to have 700 pastors here Lord committed to teaching your word. When there is a famine of the Word of God in the land Lord we look at Our policy makers and our nation and Lord we believe what you say that we alone are the salt of the earth in the light of the world that America's only hope in one sense is here at Murrieta.

These days and father if there is unholiness our lives and in my life father if there is That which would keep us from being ineffective. That which would or grieve your spirit as he desires to work through our lives in a nation that is in darkness Lord we We lift that to you Lord.

We pray that as we are here these days Lord that We would leave change that we would love Jesus more when we leave and when we came. And we believe we're praying according to your will father. We commit this to you in his name.

Amen, if you want to open to Psalm 51, that's where we will be to kind of recap talking about God's holiness, and I was thinking as I'm listening to the studies and as the the theme of the conference kind of evolves.

The Holiness of God and the Source of Our Holiness

As I think of the cherubim around the throne of God going holy holy holy Lord God Almighty Who is and who wasn't is to come and as I realized that? Holiness, and I heard Don McClure say this years ago, and it always Stayed with me.

And if it's wrong I heard it from him. That There is that which is God and there is that which is not God. That's all that exists anywhere. There is the Creator and there is the creation. Those are the only two things that exist the cherubim are part of the creation.

The angelic realms are part of the creation the spiritual realms of the physical realm part of the creation. What makes him holy is that separateness the only things that exists are that which is God and that which is not God that?

Which is holy that which is God and that which is not holy which which is the fallen creation. The Creator and the creation are all that exists so as they ascribe that to him. He is separate than from all else.

His love then is a holy love. It isn't it what sets it aside from all other loves. The love of God towards us is that it is a holy love. It's a separate love, and it's sometimes what makes us Hesitate because we judge him on a human level as we go to receive his love and yet.

There's no Increment to measure it's nothing to weigh it against his mercy is a holy mercy and His calling is a holy calling because of who he is and There can only be holiness in our own lives as we are in Fellowship with him because holiness comes from him in association with him as as Lewis said as Chuck said to walk close to him is to be holy to Enjoy the fellowship that he intends for us that he paid for in the blood of his son is is holiness.

The Fruit of Unholiness in the World

The further we go away from him then we begin to see the fruit of unholiness and of course ultimately that's hell. I mean we see all around us in the world. We live in the fruit of unholiness. We see 34 million abortions in the last 20 years.

We see the atrocities in the Sudan today and around the world. I read before I left the East Coast that adult bookstores outnumber McDonald's restaurants in America at a three to one ratio and That 70 of the printed material will end up in the hands of children.

I read there's over 200 children every 30 minutes that become the victim of broken home. So while we've been here this last 24 hours over 10 ,000 children. And become the victims of a broken home and a broken marriage.

And I I don't have to tell you about the fruit of unholiness. It's all around us and as we look at Psalm 51 we're looking at territories Bible teachers that we're all familiar with so maybe Just to share my heart or to put certain things in remembrance or an Exhortation because as we look at Psalm 51 we're looking at David after the fact He's fallen and he's crying out to God for cleansing and for restoration not as a king.

He's still king. So often I think when we think of restoration as as pastors we think Lord if I ever fell could I ever come? No, David is still king. He's asking for restoration in his spiritual relationship with the Lord.

David was also a prophet and at the end of his career He would call himself not king but the sweet psalmist of Israel and the thing that made David a great king was his relationship with the Lord and it's as he moved away by increments as he took to himself wives and as he Transgressed the Word of God and his sin finally to have God say through Nathan you have despised my ordinances.

It's not something that we think of David and David is now in the position of having fallen now. I don't believe that we have to fall or get into this position to appreciate these things. I believe if we if our heart is towards the Holy Spirit towards God's Word and we're willing To be obedient and to listen we can understand the tragedy and and I think enough of us have seen that around us.

I've had two assistant pastors that have gone and I have watched their families. I've watched an 11 year old son of my One of my assistant pastors stand at the window every night saying when his daddy coming home, and I know he wasn't coming home.

I have an assistant pastor now that no matter how much we say no matter how much we talk to him. He seems bent on a course away from the Lord. I Talked to someone right before I left the East Coast whose marriage is falling apart.

And I know you're seeing more and more of it too, and he said to me. I have considered the consequences. I know what I'm doing and I said you have considered the consequences. You know them by concept.

You have no idea what it will be to live them out and that will be left with the pieces of your broken home and your wife who's pregnant and your children and David is at that place. He's on the backside of the sin.

And he's kind of he's woken up to what's taken place after a year of burying that I think of Lewis Neely saying you know I wash my hands every day just because it feels dirty. I couldn't stand to go through all day without washing my hands.

And he said that's why we should come to the Lord to the cross every day and and be cleansed and be Current with the Lord, and I think how could David go a year? How could he bear up under that for a year before finally it comes into the light?

David’s Cry for Cleansing and Restoration

But that's where we find him in this place now. We'll read the psalm together, and then we'll back up and we'll look at it for several moments. Have mercy upon me. Oh God. According to thy loving-kindness according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgression wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and Cleanse me from my sin where I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me and Against thee and the only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.

That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judges. Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold thou desirous truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness. That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart of God and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Then will I teach transgressors thy way and Sinner shall be converted unto thee. Deliver me from blood guiltiness. Oh God Thou God of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. Oh Lord open down my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.

For thou desirous not sacrifice else would I give it. Thou desirous not thou the lightest not and burn offering the sacrifices of God or a broken spirit. A Broken and a contrite heart of God thou will not despise.

Do good in thy pleasure unto Zion build out the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness. With burn offering and whole burn offering. Then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

I find David here at this time face to face with his sin and I think often as we see somebody by the time they're at that point. There's been so much destruction wrought in their family or in the church already.

It is so difficult by the time they wake up. They're almost like I don't know how this happened. I feel like you know, I'm waking up from a nightmare. I'm waiting every day for this to be over and it's never over.

I don't come out of it and David in that place is crying to God. He's not standing before God as a king. He's standing before God as a man. And he's saying Lord first of all cleanse me. We hear him cry to God.

Sin as Rebellion, Twistedness, and Missing the Mark

I need to be cleansed of first of all of my transgression. The words that he's using transgression is a word that means to be in rebellion to revolt and David had done that. God had drawn a line and said don't step over this line.

It's called thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife and David stepped over it. God drew a line said David don't step over this. It's thou shalt not commit adultery and David stepped over the line. God drew a line and said thou shalt not commit murder and David stepped over it.

God drew a line and said thou shalt not bear false witness and David stepped over it. And he says at this point Lord my transgression my rebellion Lord. Please God take it away. Mine iniquity he holds it up before God.

No one else is his own and it means to be bent to be twisted. He's acknowledging Lord. There is some thing within sight of me. That is not straight. It's twisted Lord it's become twisted. And then of course his sin missing the mark.

We're all familiar and it's David lays those things out before God. He feels a desperate need he says To the Lord in regards to those things blot out my transgressions Lord I have sinned against you. My nature has become twisted.

I have rebelled and I have stepped across the line and has left me Lord in this place and my crown means nothing to me. Because Lord I can no longer pick up my harp Lord I I used to see you in the trees and in the stars and Lord I saw you all around my life and I find myself now unable to pick up my harp Lord.

I'm able to worship you. So Lord blot out my transgression my rebellion against you has been recorded in a book and he says Lord Obliterate that strike it from the record, please. He says wash me. From mine iniquity and it means to wash thoroughly over and over and over the way clothes would be whitened then Lord.

Thoroughly continually wash me remove this crookedness this iniquity. And he says cleanse me the word of the priest cleansing the leper Lord cleanse me. This sin has been a disease that has eaten away and has made my spiritual my spiritual.

Confession, Forgiveness, and the Need for Renewal

Senses have become atrophied Lord. Please cleanse me from my sin. And he's in that position as we look at him crying out to the Lord now. He isn't just satisfied. Nathan would say to him Lord, you know, David the Lord is not requiring your life and David.

David is not content. He is asking for that but he goes beyond that. He'll say we're Lord restore me. He knows that yes, I can come to the Lord for cleansing. I can come to him for forgiveness, but there's more.

I was not the man that I used to be Lord. I want to be the man that I used to be crying out to God again. He says in verse 4 against thee and the only have I sinned the best. Sheba had not written the law.

Uriah had not written the law. Ultimately his sin against them was a sin against God and certainly it touched their lives, but against thee and the only have I sinned and Done this great evil in thy sight Lord that you might be justified when you speak and clear when you judge.

He's confessing in the New Testament. John tells us that if we confess our sins homily Gao to say the same thing. David is an agreement with God now. He isn't hiding any longer. He's not covering. He's an agreement with God.

You are justified when you judge me Lord for these things and then in verse 5 and 6 There are two beholds that he sets in counter distinction to one another. The first one is behold I was shape in an iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Then he says again behold thou desire is truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. He says consider or behold. First of all, I was born in sin. I was conceived in iniquity.

There is part of me that is drawn to that which is wrong. There is part of me that is drawn to forbidden fruit. Now, that is true of all of us. All of us have that traitor within. All of us have to deal with the flesh.

The Flesh, Spiritual Capacities, and Gradual Drift

And when I say that I'm not just talking about the physical body I'm talking about a nature that is insatiable that you can't Negotiate with you can't Satisfy it with bits and pieces so that it'll leave you alone.

There's no way. I think one of the ways I'm often reminded of this is there is a restaurant in Philadelphia that we like to go to not necessarily because of the quality but because of the quantity and 22 ounce sirloin steak 1199.

Yeah, I know and it looks like a roast beef. I mean everything on the menu is like that so you sit there and the and the first thing they do is two different kinds of bread three different kinds of butter and You start there laughing talking, you know, it's it's a blessing.

It's Christians. We can still eat and. And the salad comes and then you're getting full and you're talking and you're saying boy when the main course comes I don't even know how I'm gonna eat it. I don't know how I'm gonna get now.

You know exactly how you're gonna eat it when the main course comes and then the main course comes and the whole table gets quiet. Because everybody's everybody's going and they're eating and people are laughing and you get to the point where non-discreetly.

You're trying to unloosen your belt under the table. Nobody will see. You're thinking why I wish I was home with my sweatsuit on laying on a living room floor. I can hardly breathe and you're sweating and and and then people get giddy because you do these little you laugh you go.

You can't take a deep breath because the food has pushed your diaphragm all the way up against your lungs. So there's like these little breaths you're taking everybody's laughing. Goofing around the table and then the waitress will walk over and say With a plate full of desserts, would you like dessert now your way past sin at this point?

You're you you're you're you're glutted and and. You look at the tray your physical body has no need of any more food. In fact, the food is up your esophagus now. You're swallowing mechanism saving you and you're and you're looking this tray full of food and you you know.

Then you say to your wife, honey. Do you want to split one, you know? And you're ready to split and you're at this point your flesh is tired of your flesh your body's saying do you go on? Eat it. I hope you die and this stops.

I can't stand it anymore you know and and the thing that you see there is the the flesh is not Physical because you can't even fit any more food in and there is something that is a part of us. That's still once more and you can apply that to physical pleasure.

You can apply that to money. You can apply that to power. There is a part of us the flesh the fall of nature. Charles Manson's flesh and Jim Bakker's flesh and my flesh and all flesh. It's the same and David at this point is saying behold Lord consider I was born in iniquity.

I was I was shaped in iniquity. I was born in sin. There is part of me. That is a constant traitor and a constant struggle Lord that is drawn to that which is forbidden fruit. But he says behold you desire truth in the inner parts.

He knows that something else needs to take place and He sees that he doesn't just want to come to God and say forgive me and believe that God has done that he wants to Be restored there are things that now have atrophied and that are dead.

He says that here He says Lord my sin is ever before me. I can no longer see the things that I used to see. He says my mind Lord make me know wisdom in the inner part. I don't understand anymore Lord.

Make me to hear joy and gladness. My ears have been stopped up by my sin. I can no longer Here I hear discord. I hear I hear dissatisfaction Lord make me to hear the sounds of gladness and joy. Once again my bones or the broken part of me needs to be mended not just forgiven.

Lord my eyes Lord. My mind my heart is no longer tender. Lord Created me borrow something from nothing do a miraculous work Lord creating me a new heart and renew a right spirit. Lord I'm vacillating.

I have changed. There's no joy. Open down my lips and my mouth shall so forth. I praise Lord. I can no longer sing. I can no longer say the things that I used to say and and I think it is in that Confession that we see at least to a degree that he how he felt no one.

Sin’s Incremental Progression and the Call to Holiness

I don't believe anyone is doing great spiritually prayed up in God's Word. Going along enjoying the relationship with Christ and just decides. Oh today. I'm gonna commit murder or today I'm gonna commit adultery.

There is a process that's involved with it and God in his Calling us to himself and making us holy. Drawing us to himself has given us Capacities that we did not have before the Bible says to us taste and see that the Lord is good is not talking about the pallid.

The mouth it's something that happens in our heart or that we would take hold of the promises of God. It's not with our physical hand or that we would behold Christ and be changed into his image not with the physical eye.

There are spiritual capacities. He's given us as we have been born again. And he has drawn us to himself and what happens as as we begin to sin and see we can do that. There are certain sins in good standing like envy or easier thing, you know things that are not so noticeable here I am.

I'm Pastor Joe and certainly I have my pastoral persona and and. But there are things sometimes that I struggle with and and Lewis said, you know. One of my struggles is I want to be the same person Outside of the pulpit that I am inside the pulpit and I understand that I wouldn't say Lord I want to be the same person in the pulpit.

I am outside the pulpit because I'm still changing. But there's a process as is if we shut one thing off. It's the heart being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. It is drifting from our moorings. It is by increments that somehow we no longer measure.

When I was a kid, I was born in 1950. I remember nobody burnt the American flag then. There was a bit of honor and patriotism in our nation. You may not have agreed with the president, but he was honored.

I Didn't grow up in a Christian home. We would go out on Halloween we would go for blocks on end and my parents wouldn't worry about somebody putting a razor blade or LSD on our candy or Somebody stealing us.

And I remember a society that was vastly different than it is now. I don't let my kids out of my sight. I look at what's going on in Washington and the nation and I Think Lord what in the world is going on a little article out of US News and World Report, it's Public school teachers and you've heard this before but I'll make a point with it the things they were most concerned about in the 1940s were these talking out of turn.

Chewing gum. Making noise. Running in the halls. Cutting in line dress code violations. Littering now, you notice we still worry about a lot of those things around here. This is public school 1990 the same questions and these were the answers.

Drug abuse. Alcohol abuse. Pregnancy suicide rape robbery. Assault. And the point is as I look at that is how in the world did that happen? How did that change? I didn't notice a particular day when it changed and when it was worn away.

And the nation is not what it used to be and I look at that if the if the most terrible thing in 1940 1950 was chewing gum in school and the first thing on the list today is drug abuse. What that tells me is we known no longer even measure the increments are no longer there to measure.

Things that are not right. It is right to respect someone else and it is right. For children to honor their parents and things that were important then are not even measurable anymore because of assault and rape and pregnancy and.

And that same world is the fruit of unholiness that is moving away from the Lord and the question is how. How much of that would we allow ourselves to be part of how? Would we allow ourselves possibly to slide in that direction and is there a temptation sometimes for us maybe to do something?

That we wouldn't do in front of the entire congregation a couple years ago. My wife and I decided we'd try once in a while to get away overnight at a hotel on a Friday night get away from. The kids one night just spend time together talking having a great time about the dinner and we did okay for a while.

It's spread out a little again somehow we were going away to the Holiday Inn on Friday night and we were there and We ordered breakfast in bed. We never do that. We never sleep in we got four kids. Well, we went to sleep and forgot all about breakfast in bed.

So eight o 'clock in the morning. There's something on the door now I jump up. I've got a bathing suit on so I get on. I jump up. She's oh, what's that? And I look around I'm somewhere. Oh, yes breakfast in bed.

So I run to the door my you know, my hair sticking up. I haven't pushed my face back where it belongs yet. And I open the door and the guys they were the tray full of food and it's a hotel. So you have to take the tray full of food?

There's always a coat rack on one side and then there's the doorway with a bathroom. So I kind of I kicked the door shut and went to turn around and I hear I say, oh man. So I I turn around I put it down.

On the the sink and I come back to the door and open the door. I said what? He said well, you didn't sign you have to sign but I said, oh, I'm sorry. So I signed the thing. I said, okay. Have a great day and I kick the door shut again boom turn around pick up the tray and I go to turn around.

I hear again, I Say oh, yeah. So I I go and I put the tray back down. I open the door and this time I kind of say what? What do you want? And he said well, it's always so crowded after church. I never get to say hello to you.

I never get there's always so many people. And I said, oh praise the Lord, how are you there and I said meet you. You know. And he walks away and I'm thinking oh boy and my wife's saying did you tell him I'm your wife?

He's gonna think you're in a hotel with a strange woman. I said, it's okay, honey. We're married not to worry not to worry. But you know on Sunday morning after the service when I'm up front praying with somebody come up and they asked me something I don't say what?

Is it that you want and see it's a bit of hypocrisy on my part. Now I'm don't worry about me. I'm not out doing the big bad stuff, you know. But that is I look at that. I say Lord I want to be the same outside the pulpit as I am in the pulpit Lord.

Can I let these little things? You know go you know, it tells us at first John that if we Say we have not sinned that we're not walking in the light that we're lying. That's hypocrisy that when we rely.

And I think there's some of that in all of our lives. We are not yet Perfected and we're working on that and I think in hypocrisy. You can at least know what you're doing. I Think it says that if we say we have not sinned we deceive ourselves.

That's duplicity. That's lying to yourself. And certainly the problem is beginning then when we are Believing our own story and how often I've had somebody in my office and the family's falling apart and they're giving me this mumbo-jumbo of twisted Bible verses that just if I'm thinking what in the world are they thinking and Then finally it says if we say we have not sinned that we make God a liar.

That's apostasy and and and to see and how often we've seen someone go off in Black and white sin that it should be recognizable to a new Christian and they've justified it and said it's okay with God and They're gone.

Restoration, Influence, and Finishing Well

David is crying not just for forgiveness. He's saying Lord restore me from this process Lord Bring me back again make me the man that I used to be. Let me once again see your work in creation. Let me hear your voice father.

Let me hear your spirit speaking to me. He's crying for that because it was in that step-by-step, you know, you almost without increment Compromise hypocrisy little by little that we come to the place where the fruit of we're moving away from God and that fruit of unholiness is being produced in our lives and For everyone who does it they find themselves standing saying this is my transgression Lord restore me and And ultimately use me and how many of us have known pastors that have fallen and The question is Lord use me again.

The brokenness is there. David says Here Lord make me what I used to be. He says then Lord, I will teach transgressors. Look at verse 13. I will teach transgressors thy ways Lord. Use me again. Forgive me restore me then I will sing he says in verse 14 verse 15, then I will praise you again Thou desirous not sacrifice.

There is no thing that I could offer. I'd offer a thousand bullocks. There was no offering for murder and adultery. It was a capital offense and David is looking at God saying there is no thing that I can do.

It's a broken and a contrite spirit that you won't despise. He's looking to God for his mercy and ultimately I think he's saying Restore Zion rebuild Jerusalem. He's realizing I had been a foot soldier and I had fallen Lord the the repercussions would not have been so great, but Lord, you know as King as Someone that had great influence in the lives of other people Lord.

I've fallen you restore Zion you rebuild Jerusalem Lord. The repercussions are far-reaching and they went on for years. Yes, God forgave him. Can someone fall and be restored? Certainly will they ever be what they were before?

I Don't know. I don't know the answer that question Spurgeon said when our repentance is as widespread as our sin. There's a chance. I think Redpath said that It's like a bird having its wings clipped, you know, it might fly again.

But never as high and I look at David I think what might his life have been now the death of Uriah the death of the baby the death of Death of a hippo fell all of the repercussions that were connected with The one act where a man is standing on the front side of it saying I've considered the consequences.

That's insanity. That's insanity as I as I look at this and I think of The the weakness in myself. I say Lord. I want to be a good finisher. I want to be able to say what Paul said. I'd finish my course.

I've kept the faith I I want to finish well where I just want to do this now. I want to be a good finisher whenever that time is and however it happens. I want to finish well had opportunity to go out with Cliff Barrows the other week not because Cliff Barrows calls me at home and asked me to go out to lunch with him but because the Harvest Crusade is in Philadelphia and the Graham organization is involved.

So Cliff Barrows was there and Just I had in wonder I sat and told him he said we've been together for 51 years working together. And he talked to me about the Modesto manifesto. I thought Damian would be something has happened in Modesto.

That's wonderful the Modesto Manifesto we've heard them talk about that years ago. We decided we prayed that we would For things he said that we would always Tell the truth. We wouldn't exaggerate for God.

There would be no Evangelistic news we wouldn't stretch the truth. We wouldn't have to hype for God we would. We would tell the truth. 100 people got saved and the paper said 400 we'd go back to the paper and say reprint that only a hundred were saved.

We decide to reckon the beginning. He said we decided that we would be accountable with finances that we would there would be accountability in our lives. We wouldn't do it ourselves, but we wouldn't give an opportunity for the enemies of God to blaspheme.

He said he said we did our first crusade. It was just Billy and I just Billy and I Atlanta for eight weeks the last two nights. We took an offering and he said don't you know the press showed up? Just as we were loading the car and guys were putting the buckets of money in the backseat, and that's all they printed.

He said we decided that we'll never give him a chance. He said thirdly we decided because we were away from our families and our wives sometimes for nine months at a time. But Lord, we would we would look to you Lord strengthen us and keep us love.

Let us be good finishers and. Lastly they decided they'd support churches. Whatever the domination when they went into a city they would Support the body of Christ across the board if they could as best they could.

You know and I and I listened to him talk and I thought to myself, you know, I kind of have that I mean it was you and Billy and Sterling. That's a those guys and I thought I've cut this fraternity. That means more to me Than anything in this world, but my wife and my kids and I would be destroyed.

Pastors as Salt and Light

I love Don and G McClure. If he fell it would break my heart. I'm like in Sandy or Leo. I could go around the crowd and I could name so many of you by your first name and say I've loved you enough. And you crossed your past and I'm not at this point in time, you know.

It would kill me. It would break my heart. And I think in my own life and my kids the church in Philadelphia and Chuck. I know I just think Those that would be broken-hearted if I fell. And all of that is only a reflection of God he is the one who's taught us to love One another and I think as we are here.

This is hopefully some kind of a Calvary Chapel. Modesto Manifesto we have three days to spend together. You alone are and it's in the emphatic and the Greek you alone. No one else not the Buddhists not the Muslims.

You alone are the salt of the earth. You alone are the preserving Factor in America today you alone are the light of the world. Right here. Look around. This is the only hope for the nation that we live in.