Holiness, Part 2, What We Believe, Part 35

Andrew Rappaport's Rapp Report

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00:01

When you start talking about pursuing holiness and how you should live and conduct yourself, their response is

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Well, that's just legalism. You're just trying to be a legalist and I'm like, no, no

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No, I'm just trying to be biblical because what you're describing as legalism isn't legalism

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This isn't anything to do with adding to the Word of God in an attempt to secure salvation

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This is what God says I should do. I should be obedient Welcome to the rap report with your host

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Andrew Rappaport where we provide biblical interpretation and application This is a ministry of striving for eternity and the

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Christian podcast Community for more content or to request a speaker for your church go to striving for eternity org

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Welcome to another edition of the rap report I'm your host Andrew rap report the executive director of the

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Christian podcast community and striving for eternity We are glad to have you with us. We are wrapping up our series on salvation doctrine of salvation in our continuing series and this is

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The 35th part or episode in this series on what we believe

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I'm joined by the brilliance Okay, half the brilliance of matter of theology

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I will let you guys go listen to matter of theology and figure out which one has the real brilliance

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Chris Hough or my guest today drew Vanita, but drew welcome back

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Thank you. Glad to be here and display. What could possibly be brilliance or maybe just a facade of brilliance

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I guess we'll see what comes out. What would I come up with? Essentially if at the end of this

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I look good. That means that it's really not Chris Hough who's brilliant It's you making him look brilliant.

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That's that's what we're saying, right, right. I have that gift Yeah, just to elevate the person that I'm with, you know

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Well, we're glad to have you with us and drew is as we've mentioned before is a podcaster on matter of theology podcast

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Which like this podcast is one of the members of the Christian podcast community You can go to Christian podcast community org and check out all of our 50 -plus vetted podcasts and when we say vetted

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We only accept about 30 to 40 percent of all the podcasts that apply we are not easy on folks

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We reject very quickly. We want quality Podcasts and so you're gonna get some good podcasts when you're listening there

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So what I've been doing is switching up co -hosts here so that you guys get to hear different voices

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And this is the last week that we're gonna be having drew Vanita joining us But I hope that you'll enjoy what he has to share and I hope you'll check out matter of theology

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So with that, let's get to our topic today. We're talking about separation So if you go to striving for eternity org

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You are gonna see there under the about section a tab that says what we believe and that's what we're going through We're going through a doctrinal statement at striving for eternity get to that page scroll down to where it says

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Salvation or soteriology. That's the fancy name for it and Expand that go down to the bottom where it says separation.

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That's the last section. That's the section we are covering today And as we cover that today

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Would encourage you to go back to last week's episode because last week we started this topic of separation.

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We talked about the Separation of sin that we see in both Old and New Testament We talked about the motivation and we're halfway through that and we're gonna pick that up this week and finish up so what

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I'm gonna do is ask my brother drew if he would not mind reading the three paragraphs there in the section of separation on separation

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Separation from sin is clearly called for throughout the Old and New Testaments and The scriptures clearly indicate that in the last days apostasy and worldliness shall increase out of deep gratitude for the undeserved grace of God Granted to us and because our glorious God is so worthy of our total consecration all believers

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Should live in such a manner as to demonstrate their adoring love to God and so as not to bring reproach upon our

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Lord and Savior Separation from all religious apostasy and worldly sinful practices is commanded of us by God Believers should be separated unto the

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Lord Jesus Christ and Affirm that the Christian life is a life of obedient righteousness that reflects the teaching of the beatitudes and a continual pursuit of holiness

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So we're talking about holiness and holiness Means to be separate the the word holiness is the idea of to be

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Separated and so in this sense, we're saying that to live a holy life

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We are to be separated from sin now. We're gonna talk in this episode what we're separated unto

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But just as a recap we talked in the last episode about the fact that Separation is clearly taught both

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Old and New Testament That we end up seeing that in the last days there's going to be an apostasy because the church instead of being separate from the world will be

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Basically increasing the worldliness by giving themselves over to the world with itching ears that they want to be tickled

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They want tickled and so we talked about that. We talked about the motivation. What should motivate us to a holy living?

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Well, we talked about it. We should have a deep gratitude. That should be the attitude the deep gratitude because you and I as believers those of us who are regenerate have an

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Undeserving grace. We have been giving a grace. We Totally and utterly do not deserve and because of that it's been granted to us

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But that motivation alone is not enough the other motivating factor is the glorious God Who did this is so it's not just what he did for us in his giving us this grace, but it's who he is

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Making him totally worthy. There's nobody more worthy To be separated to than God and so it's not just the fact that we've been regenerated

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But it's also the fact of who he is That should motivate us to live a life as believers that Demonstrates that love in everything we do now

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That means that what we do is we do things that are pleasing to God That's the positive but the negative is that we don't do things that would bring a reproach to the name of God So both positive and negative that we saw last week

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And so we talked about that in length about the idea that we want to do things because we love

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God We want to be pleasing to him not to try to earn something from him But because we want to just make him happy We want to please him in Everything we do and we don't want to tarnish his reputation.

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No care for our own This is not about us the notice that we talked about last episode

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We talked all about God the focus is on God that is also going to help us for holy living

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Because when we're living with that mindset where we're so focused on who God is what

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God has done and how worthy he is How unworthy we are Suddenly, we're not worried about our reputation

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We're not worried about how people think of us. Oh, but that person he was slandering me Okay, but if you're slandering you in the name of Christ Okay, as long as Christ's name wasn't slandered can you handle your name being slandered as long as Christ's isn't

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That's the thing. So we don't want to bring a reproach Upon the name of God. And so let's pick up there now

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So this is if you if you're in the section on separation paragraph 2 in the second sentence

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It says Separation from all religious apostasy

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Now let's just stop there Someone's gonna say Andrew. Can you define religious apostasy?

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Joelstein, I think I can Benny Hinn. I wonder if there's a good definite, you know this is not one of those things like the the when a

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Congressman was asked to define pornography and he goes I don't know how to define it, but I know it when

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I see it This is one. We know it when we see it and we can define it. Okay Religious apostasy is when you have people that are claiming to be religious claiming to live for God and Yet They're living a lifestyle that is completely opposite of God that is completely for self

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So you could look at any of the word of faith guys They're all living a lavish lifestyle and they're trying to live that lavish lifestyle while they tell you they serve

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God And God would condemn Their lifestyle Andrew. Are you saying you can't have a lavish lifestyle?

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No, I'm not saying that at all But what I am saying is you can't have a lifestyle saying that I'm gonna take money from poor people

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So that I can live wealthy and I'm gonna prey on them and manipulate them for their money

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Okay. Now this becomes a thing when we think about It's the issue of how they want to get their money.

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Mm -hmm. I have a guy that I used to go to church with Love the guy dearly and I'm obviously not gonna give his name because people would have differing views with this but he's a professional poker player or at least he was now it's interesting because When you look at the way he approaches poker

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People go. Oh, that's gambling. That's wrong. But see he doesn't view it as gambling He views it as no different than what someone playing stocks would do.

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It's about numbers He sits there and he evaluates the people he's gonna play. He's looking at their ratings look in his ratings.

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He's looking for bluffs He's looking for different things and he's playing hands He's playing statistics and we're running numbers and he's got like when he plays he's got all these calculations.

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He he runs to him It's not what we think of we're gambling or people are spending good money

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Their rent money or something to try to get something in hopes of what this money could do for them

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Right. He looks at his Moore's. This is his career my kids They know someone that used to be a professional poker player and he actually won a million dollars in a poker game

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He's very good at that and he went to a table where he actually won a million dollar hand

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Now what actually happened is there he didn't win all million dollars because people invested in him to win

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It gave him the seed money that he had to do to so he paid them back plus You know some interest and so you look at that and go.

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Okay. Is that gambling? Well, I couldn't say I had to concede that when I looked at the definition gambling look what he did

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I said, I can't say that what he's doing is gambling But here was the question I did ask because I had to understand what he was doing

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I said in your game in the way you're playing. Are you purposely? taking advantage of people who don't play as well and He ended up realizing.

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Yeah, he was you see and then it's almost see that almost becomes what a Benny Hinn does, right? He prays on the wishes of people who want to get rich now

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When you're professional poker players, I guess they're not all doing it to try to get rich, but there are some and Those that are trying to get rich.

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Those are the easy prey Right, and so he had to realize okay I got to stay away from the easy prey because you don't want to be preying on them

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Trying to steal your money that changed who he started to play He's given it up since but a lot for that reason and so this becomes a thing

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That you have to understand that when we look at what is religious apostasy

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This is people that are preying on the innocent preying on the poor. They're using religion for their

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Ill -gotten gain as the scripture would describe it. Yeah, I would also add something in there those who claim to be

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Will say discernment ministries, but actually go after and slander

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People of truth like say a John MacArthur right people who may write articles Fabricated articles about John MacArthur that are just completely slandering him.

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I would throw them in that category as well Well, I was gonna put that under the category that we're gonna come up with soon as sinful practices

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Okay. Okay. Yeah Because see I think that when we talk about the apostasy, you know, and some of it could fit

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I mean you could make a case because Religious apostasy is people who are damning people's souls

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For the sake of their gain okay, and so there I put in the category the word of faith people the people who are

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Trying to make a living they're trying to take people and lead them astray from the true biblical message

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Okay, then that's different then as we say here separation from all religious apostasy and worldly, so the second part of is the worldly practices now

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What you end up seeing there is when we speak of worldly. This is the things of the world

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Can the world be? Alluring to us. Yes Would it be nice to have nice things?

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Yes Now I'm not against anyone that can afford those things. I have people that I know

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Who have very nice things they have jobs where they make a lot of money and I'm not against them

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Being able to have that, you know thing, you know, look we could sit here and say as religious people

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Okay There's some people that say well, no pastor should have a fancy car or a fancy watch or anything like that I would ask how do you define fancy?

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well Okay, an expensive right expensive. Okay, so and let's just name some names, right?

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You're kind of referring Julie Roy's we've dealt with her on apologetics live before she writes these articles about John MacArthur And he's really word of faith because he has an expensive watch

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Well, guess what I have a watch that is more expensive than John MacArthur's Okay, it was a gift right and Chances are when when my dad passes

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I'll have a watch that's more expensive than my first house Okay, not because I bought it not because I mistreated people to get it

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It's because it was a gift for my father just like my other so do I have a Rolex? Yes, it was a gift.

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Do I drive a Mercedes -Benz? Yes. It was a gift from my brother Do I have an

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Armani suit? Yes, my dad outgrew it. So you look at the the name, right?

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Do I have all those things? Yes So am I criticizing? Benny Hinn for having those things

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No, I'm not criticizing for having them how he got them how he got them right now.

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Here's the difference am I Seeking those things like am

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I sitting there and trying to sacrifice things for my family so that I could get an expensive car

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Or an expensive watch that's the worldliness now You see the apostasy is leading people astray the worldliness

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Now what we're covering in this section is where we're dealing with the desire that people have for the things of the world

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Yeah, so I told you in the first episode that we recorded the one about Angie Stanley I don't think

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I mentioned it at in the episode But just when we were talking back and forth that I'm doing a career change

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I'm studying for my licensing to go into specific sales and it's a sales that can be very lucrative

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It can be very very lucrative and now you do have people who take advantage of people and So just for transparency, we'll say life insurance and there are people who will take advantage of people for life insurance

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Now me being a Christian. Well before you go on let me just let's explain how I mean people can use guilt

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Guilt yes, and things like right, you know, you you wouldn't want something to happen to your wife You know, like your wife wouldn't be able to but you really should get this even if you can't afford it

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You wouldn't want to get term life. You really need the whole life even though it's much more expensive

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That would be a way of doing it, right? Right, you know and mind you the things that you could say are fine, right?

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Because it is true whole life is gonna be better in many ways than term life and it is taking care of your family

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But if you have someone that can't afford it and you're trying to talk them into it for your own gain, right

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Right, right and even then in all the pre licensing stuff I'm doing for the company that hired me

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They said if you do exactly the thing you just said That is wrong.

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It shows lack of integrity. And if we find out about it, you're gone I like this company already.

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So like as a Christian, I'm going okay Life insurance would be responsible in order to take care of your family but just got to make sure you're on the right plan, but The lucrative aspect that you can have in this industry and you can tell me if this is wrong or not

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I told my wife that it could be Something if I end up being good at it or something, it could be something that brings in a lot of money for us

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Now I'm not a materialistic kind of person. I have lots of well, I mean Except you want look let's be honest.

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You want lots of good Christian books. I want lots of good Christian books That's right. That doesn't fit in category sin.

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I don't think But I told my wife I said if we hit this dollar amount

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I'm not gonna tell you and I'm not gonna tell you because I don't want your mind to be on Materialistic things because if it hits this dollar amount

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First I want to put away for our kids I want to make sure they're set and I want to be able to give to other ministries

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I want to be able to give freely to other ministries that I believe do good work and so one of the

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I don't play the lottery but one of the jokes I always make when they get to like a Billion dollars or something is if I were to win

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I have these ministries I would give this money to and I run down the list of all the ministries that I know and I think striving for eternity's on there, you know

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But but the thing is is like Money can lead to all these sinful practices and it leads to this what you're talking about this worldliness especially in ministry this religious apostasy and now when we're talking about John MacArthur and this watch

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This was a gift From his congregation I mean the man has to be forced to take a sabbatical because the most important thing to him is preaching to his

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Congregation the Word of God on the Lord's Day. And so this congregation,

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I mean, I think they're on the fourth and fifth generation Sitting under his preaching they appreciate him so much

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They took up a separate Offering and took all that to buy this watch for him to show their appreciation for him

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Now notice the difference there. He didn't ask for it. They offered it. So that's the thing now

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He's not looking and that that's the thing we're talking about. So we're putting this in two categories We're to be separate from all religious apostasy.

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So we should not be Leading people astray for own personal gain The other thing is that we should be separate from all worldly and then sinful practices

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So this is describing the practices we do one parts worldly the other part sinful The worldliness is the desire to have the things of the world, but the sinful this is the thing you talked about the discernment ministries

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So I don't think that discernment ministries are necessarily trying to lead people astray But what they are trying to do is cause division within the body of Christ For their own either it's several things some it's money because they have their ad revenues other it's

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Popularity they either want the money They want the popularity or it's just the power they get

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Just having everyone know who they are and being able to to say, you know If I write an article about you

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I have received emails at the ministry that if I don't kowtow to certain people they are going to expose me and My response has been go ahead expose me

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Because the reality is whatever you write the truth even even though you may write something that's a lie.

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The truth is much worse Yeah Okay, so the reality is that you do have people

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That they get off on a power kick That they're gonna be able to have control over you

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So it's these several different things that you end up had the sinful practices Now this also can include like you were just mentioning with your job

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You're talking about for worldliness, but see that it's really the behavior. It may not be worldliness

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Maybe it's just you want to get more money to take care of your family But you're going to walk someone into Sun to manipulate somebody to spend money that you know

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They shouldn't spend that would be a sinful practice. So that's why it's worldly and sinful is two ways of describing these practices so The idea that we have is a separation here is we're saying that you and I as believers

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Every one of us need to be separate from all not some all Activities That would be seen as religiously leading people astray or be worldly and sinful in nature why because it's

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Commanded to us by God and and you can go through the scriptures time and time again and see that God Commands this that we are to be separate from the world so This is not something that we're saying is up for discussion like okay

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Can we kind of be worldly a little world? No, as long as we don't get a caught. Is it okay?

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No, if I haven't hurt enough people yet and stepped on enough toes Do you obey that speed limit when you drive to work?

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That is a sinful practice to violate that law Romans 13 says obey the law

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What is it that makes us just we want to go over it and you know

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It's amazing because so many people will go 10 miles over it because they think that's acceptable

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Right, because if I go 10 miles over I won't get a ticket In other words, as long as I don't get a ticket,

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I don't get caught as long as they let me do it. It's okay No, actually, it's not

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It's not it was funny we were driving to church when we were in Florida dr Anthony's Festro and I were driving he was supposed to be teaching and We made a turn

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I make this turn it was 45 miles an hour, but once you make the turn it's 30 Sunday morning, we're driving to church.

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We're on our way and we're having a discussion We were discussing this woman who we are evangelizing the night before and she prayed to receive

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Christ And we were just having a great conversation and I see a police officer walk out in the middle of the road and point

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To for me to turn Okay, I'm like I just figured it was a spot check for IDs or something

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It's way too early for you know, it's 9 in the morning. You're not checking for you know drunks or something. What was the speed trap?

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Mmm, I was going 45 Actually, I think I think I was doing 47 they said but in what

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I thought was a 45, but was actually a 30 hmm, right and When the officer told me that I said

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I was like, I mean, I think she realized a I'm from out of town But I was like, I really thought I was in a 45 and I was apologetic

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I said why I should not have been doing that and I asked forgiveness of the officer and immediately realized what

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I was doing Because here we are look we're dressed in suits. She's like, where are you going? And I'm like Church, he's gonna be preaching right, he's gonna be speaking and So all of a sudden

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I am now bringing a as we talked about last episode I'm bringing a reproach on the name of Christ and We didn't get a ticket

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And part of it I think because she realized I was more worried about the name of Christ I was like look officer.

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I'm not trying to get out of a ticket. You give me a ticket You give me a ticket, right, but we're on our way to church I was not paying attention to the fact that the speed changed.

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I thought it was a 45. I didn't know it changed It'll never happen again, you know, because I'm concerned with Christ reputation at that point

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Right that becomes the thing. I'm concerned because I just said Anthony is going to be speaking

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This is the thing now if I'm driving that way now granted. That's a good case

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Let me give the negative when I do a long -distance drive 10 miles over a speed limit makes up a long time

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I I Hate doing long drives. Can I say that I do that?

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Well, that's a sinful practice Well, some people use this as an excuse and I don't know if it's if it's the same in other places

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But where I live in Georgia in Atlanta There's some roads where they allow five miles over and then there's some roads where they allow ten miles over And so people will hit that ten miles over right and they'll say oh well

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They it's allowed because they allow five miles over now that's coming from police officers that I've known That say on this road, it's 45, but we allow 50

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So if you're going to be broke, but the thing is this is the whole thing of it, right? That's what I'm saying. People will keep it right to that Right level because they know they're allowed to get away with it.

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Right, right, but they're still breaking the law So breaking the law. I mean I admit this is my struggle when

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I do long drives is I struggle to like I know that I could keep it at 10 over that speed limit the whole way, right?

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Because it makes up that time and yet I know it's wrong And so there's times where I just I end up fluctuating because I'm I just it's a struggle for me

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But what are we saying here? Well if I'm knowingly Violating my conscience and breaking that speed limit

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That's a sinful practice and God commands me to separate from that and that's what I have to do. Is it easy?

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No, I'd love to say that. I always drive the speed limit. I do it. I'm around town locally

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I know I struggle with it on long rides The other thing though drew that some people struggle with some people struggle with a good night of sleep

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I love my pillow Well currently when people are listening to this I am in Israel without my my pillow so I'm not sleeping well because I'm limited how much weight we can take and So I think that's one of the things

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Well, you know I told you a while ago my wife always stole my my pillow my my pillow

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That was a gift from you She kept stealing my my pillow and I was like, okay

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I got her She didn't want to use because the mine was already broken in It's like You know,

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I'll tell you one thing with it. Mine is I think I want to say over 10 years old Maybe 12 years old and it is just as firm as the first day like we actually got a new one that we put for the guest bedroom and I tried it out and Mine is just as firm as as that one.

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It's like wow after after so many years We just throw it in the in the the wash throw it in the dryer and it's it's good to go

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Yeah, we throw it in the dryer fluff it out and oh, it's really good get a nice warm pillow, yeah

30:53

So let's discuss this now the last paragraph here that we have and that is We're now going to talk about what we should be separated to so we talk about the fact that we should be separated from So we're separated from is we're separated from From The things that are sinful and we listed a whole lot of those

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Now what we want to talk about is the thing that we're separated to Believers should be separated unto the

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Lord Jesus Christ Now we talked about that a lot last episode the why we should be

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But this is what we're separated to so we don't just walk away from the world and sin We turn from those and turn to Christ.

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That's what repentance means and so we're separated from those things and separated unto

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Jesus and Affirm that the Christian life is a life of obedient righteousness

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So this is now talking about how we're gonna live our life. This is what Paul says in Titus about having a conduct

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That is fitting in a right manner as a believer. So we should be living a life.

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That's obedient an obedient righteousness That reflects the teachings well teachings of Christ of God but we're saying of the

32:14

Beatitudes because that encompasses quite a bit and a continual pursuit of holiness

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So let's first start with the Beatitudes the Beatitudes is seen the reason to include that is because the

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Beatitudes is this is really seen as a high standard It kind of is an all -encompassing where what you see there is the rabbis who would say they'd have certain rules and they'd say okay

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This is this is the rule and really what they're trying to do is say, okay We don't want to go too far and Jesus would say okay.

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You heard it said of old Okay Now I'm gonna say unto you and he would keep doing that because what he was saying was he was

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Forcing upon them to say you have a very low standard in your man -made standard that they had come up with He says

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I'm gonna raise that up. So you you say adultery is wrong Well, Jesus is gonna go God's gonna judge your heart and even looking with lust he's gonna consider that adultery

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Oh, you think murder is wrong? Well, God's gonna look and say every time you're angry that's murdering within your heart

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He's gonna judge your motives not just what you do. And so all of a sudden that standard is raised

33:21

That's really what we end up seeing in the Beatitudes That's right. A lot of people today when you start talking about Pursuing holiness and How you should live and conduct yourself their response is

33:39

Well, that's just legalism you're just trying to be a legalist and I'm like no no, no

33:45

I'm just trying to be biblical because what you're describing as legalism isn't legalism this isn't anything to do with adding to the

33:56

Word of God in an attempt to Secure salvation. This is what

34:01

God says. I should do. I should be obedient and So if I'm to be obedient, that means there is a certain way

34:11

I am to live. That's not legalism That's saying I love my Lord therefore

34:17

I follow him and I do what he says and That's the whole idea that we're trying to emphasize here in this and look you said this before I came off his earlier in this episode or last week, but I'm hearing you say like the fact that we're addressing this issue

34:35

Most doctrinal statements aren't going to address the issue of holiness I mean, let's be honest.

34:41

Most churches don't want to address the issue of holiness because it's uncomfortable It's people don't like to hear it and yet it's an essential part of the

34:49

Christian life Why should we include a section on holy living?

34:56

Because brothers and sisters we need it And so it needs to be here

35:03

And so we put this in here because we want to define what it means to live a holy life and So it's not just the

35:15

Beatitudes though. It's it's we have to be in a continual pursuit for holiness

35:20

Mm -hmm We should be living a life not saying avoid avoid avoid avoid

35:27

But put on put on put on if you think about through the scriptures where you have put these things off put this thing on Avoid this do this you have that throughout the scriptures

35:37

Because that is what we need Here's a little thing that I remember someone explained to me when

35:44

I took a class in seminary a spiritual formation The professor said when you're counseling somebody

35:51

You cannot tell someone To not do not do not do not do and he said let's use the example of smoking a cigarette

35:59

You can't counsel someone don't smoke. Don't smoke. Don't smoke. Don't smoke He says this is the reason that AA you know never really works

36:08

Well, because what you're doing is going in going don't drink. Don't drink. Don't drink. Don't drink What are you thinking about all the time?

36:15

Drink drink drink drink drink Or this cigarette cigarette cigarette cigarette, right?

36:20

So the experiment I would do with people I say I'd say okay do me a favor for 30 seconds I want you to think of the number 27

36:28

Okay. All right after we 30 seconds done. What were you thinking about 27? Okay for two minutes.

36:35

I don't want you to think 27 So as I'm watching the clock don't think 27 not 27.

36:41

Nope. No 27 not 27 What were you thinking about I wanted two answers they either say sound like 5 11 12 pigs, you know

36:51

You know, they thought we're thinking of something else where they go. I kept trying to not think of 27

36:58

So what were you thinking about 27? You can't just put off Without putting on so most of what we covered last week is the and and part of this episode is the put off You put off all this sinful practices, but you put on the

37:14

Lord Jesus Christ, yes It's not one or the other

37:20

It's both You have to do both But off the sinful practices put on the

37:27

Lord Jesus Christ Now why include this in a doctrinal statement? Because quite frankly, this is putting a dividing line for us

37:36

We're saying this is the way a Christian should live We're marking that.

37:43

Mm -hmm. That also means folks That you hold us to that standard now.

37:49

Yep. That's what people don't want to be held accountable to that standard well, that's why

37:55

I think so many people don't want to talk about holiness and the reason we put this in here is to say this is the standard for all of us and Not only would

38:05

I expect to hold you to a standard I expect you to hold me to the standard

38:11

You know one of the things I've mentioned this before but we have some strict rules to get on to the board of directors that's driving fraternity and one of those rules is

38:23

You have to have demonstrated a willingness To confront even me, right?

38:30

You have to be willing to confront any of the folks that work at the ministry But we don't want a bunch of yes men who are gonna be like, oh we want to be involved in a ministry

38:39

We just want to serve and we want oh, you know I want to be close to someone because this we are people in ministry that serve in ministries because they want to they want

38:47

To be close to the celebrity person. Well, the reality is no one's getting on our board that way, right?

38:54

You get on the board by showing a commitment to being willing to Hold people's feet to the fire in holiness.

39:01

Mm -hmm That's right, you know Paul in Philippians talks about pressing on towards the upward calling in Christ Jesus and What Paul's getting at is

39:18

That continual pursuit of holiness now this when Paul says I press on I believe it was

39:26

Dr. Lawson that I heard described it this way. It's the active forward lean of a runner

39:34

It's always in that forward leaning motion That's in pursuit of the finish line of the goal and you're a runner, right?

39:44

So when you're pressing on in the forward lean of a runner, we'll say a sprinter He doesn't stand straight up right that creates wind resistance

39:53

He leans forward and he's down Cutting through the wind so that he gets there as fast and as efficiently as possible

40:02

And that's what we're to be we are to be in our pursuit of holiness

40:07

Going towards the upward call which is in Christ. We are to be actively leaning forward

40:14

Pressing in and going as fast as we can there And so when we're going that direction, right, that's that separated unto the

40:23

Lord that's that turning unto Christ and pursuing Christ and then that's the leaving behind of sin and You know, there's sins that we are to turn from and there's sins that we are to flee from Well, let's just put them all in the category of flee from it because there should be no sin

40:41

We should desire to cling on to all sin. We should desire to cast off and then flee from it towards Christ Yeah, you know

40:48

Paul in the scriptures uses the description of an athlete running a race and The way they would do the

40:56

Olympic games. There's people would run naked Because they wanted to put off he says put off all weights that would slow you up Basically, like what do you do when you run when you run you want to you want the lightest clothing you if you're gonna run

41:12

A race you don't want anything that would hinder you That's what he says put off all these things that could hinder you that could weigh you down and slow you up Because the goal of the race of Christianity is

41:24

Christ and we should put off all this sin that hinders us and weighs us down So we can run as quickly as we can to be more like the

41:33

Lord Jesus Christ And that's what sanctification is is that process and what does Paul also say that he does he

41:40

Buffett's his body? Right, wait, I thought that was he Buffett's his body I must be reading that wrong all this time.

41:50

I guess I just there I'm showing my gluttony again, right? But there's a discipline.

41:56

There's a self discipline and We don't see that today

42:01

We see laziness Lazy Christians and that thing just well if I go through the motions

42:09

I'll be you know, I went to church on Sunday Okay, we did a little Bible thing on Wednesday, you know,

42:16

I'm good. I did I did my part. I'm good I did my part. Yeah, it's checked off the list.

42:22

No, if you think that's the Christian life. Okay, we need to have a talk Yeah, I read my devotions check.

42:28

I prayed before my meal check. I'm done, right? Right? No Okay, you need to have the mind that is fixated upon Christ and then you need to be able to recognize and call out all the areas in your life that are sin and that are creating that wind resistance creating drag and Slowing you down in your pursuit of Christ.

42:55

You need to recognize those things and that comes with discipline Disciplining yourself saying you know what?

43:03

Every time I get on the computer at this time It leads to me looking to something this rabbit hole that always leads to viewing something.

43:14

I shouldn't be doing Okay, get rid of the computer get rid of the phone get rid of whatever it is or Move the computer to the kitchen and only use it when others are there, right?

43:27

Yeah, yeah do something to hold yourself accountable

43:40

You know, let me let me encourage folks. It sounds like a big chore You mentioned a runner.

43:45

I run on average a half a marathon a day So I run anywhere between 8 to 15 miles a day weird guy and the question

43:53

I always get asked. How do you do that? my answer One foot in front of the other.

44:00

I mean, that's it it's just I put one foot in front of the other and I just keep going and I just go for a couple of hours two three hours and go

44:09

Okay, I'm done and I get off the treadmill right or you know, wherever I'm running and that's how

44:16

I do it It's not very hard. But you know what? I didn't just start. I'm just gonna run a 15 mile run today

44:22

No, I was able to do a 40 mile bike ride with my father having not done Biking right now.

44:28

He's got the bike with the assist So, but how could I do that? I could do that because I already built up the endurance so I can do other pursuits

44:39

Now this is an illustration, but the point is you don't start off that way, right you start off small

44:47

Going a little bit and a little bit further and with the goal But you have that goal, but that goal is like yeah, it's there

44:54

It's I'm gonna do that eventually, but it's just a little bit further You know, I heard someone say that 1 % progress is still progress.

45:04

Yeah, so when it comes to this area of holiness, we're not gonna be perfect But just keep having progress even if it's a little progress

45:13

Just one foot in front of another because I could tell you from personal experience You turn back and look almost 40 years later and go

45:20

Wow big changes. Yeah. Yeah Looking day by day. Not that much.

45:26

Yeah, it should be like that if where I am now if I can look back

45:32

Ten years ago and go. Well, I'm the same person. I'm in the same place.

45:38

That's bad. I've got a problem I should be able to look back to a year ago and Go Wow, I've made drastic changes now.

45:48

I've been in this walk for a while, right? So it's it's more aware to myself, but even the new convert

45:54

Okay, if you're pursuing holiness if you look back on the last year of your life

46:01

You might not see a whole lot. You might be able to see like you were talking about right like the 1 %

46:06

You might be able to see something is different. Okay progress now you should be continuing to build on that as the years go by and So what are the things that do that so people are probably going okay,

46:24

I hear what you guys are saying How do I do that? Okay. So one of the most practical things and this has been lost in the church today

46:34

It's been lost the most practical thing that we need to get back to as the church is discipleship

46:43

The church does not do discipleship anymore what they do is they do fellowship that they call discipleship

46:50

Okay, so a men's group that gets together and has a pizza party and throws axes. Okay, that's fellowship.

46:57

That's not discipleship Discipleship is someone who is older and more mature in your faith coming alongside someone who is immature and Teaching them how to walk the

47:12

Christian life and That is lost. And so I did a show where we talked about What's his name

47:21

Zach knots and in the letter he did to Justin and One thing that I said to close out that show was this man

47:29

Zach knots has not been discipled and what he needs to do is to get in a solid

47:36

Bible church find the oldest man that he can that has been at that church for the longest time and Attach himself to him and say will you disciple me?

47:47

So it may not be the oldest man, but the someone with more maturity, but yeah, I just use that as an example

47:54

Well, I guess I mean, I guess I was trying to leave some toes not stepped on but you just had to step on him

47:59

So, okay, so we stepped on all the toes tonight No, I mean look that's gonna be you know, you're bringing up the issue that with Zach that's the exact issue folks can go back to listen to when

48:08

I addressed the same letter on apologetics live and The same issue is discussed is the fact that he and his wife

48:18

Lindsey and if you listen that show, you'll know I Personally told her not to do any platform building but to be discipled as a new convert

48:26

That's what you do The mess they're in now is because they didn't listen to and there she didn't listen to the advice that I gave countless times

48:35

Discipleship is important and you know, a lot of pastors claim they disciple from a pulpit. No, you don't you preach from a pulpit?

48:43

And so holiness is something that we gain from walking with other

48:50

Christians willing to Correct us, but if we want to say oh, but God is love. God is love. God is love

48:55

I don't know. Let's not talk about anything negative That doesn't do us any good then our brothers and sisters don't love us

49:01

Because they don't want us to mature they don't want us to grow they don't want us to be more like Christ What is it that Christ wants?

49:08

What is the Holy Spirit doing? He's working with us and us remember what we said about sanctification He's working within us to make us more like Christ.

49:15

That's the Holy Spirit's goal Mm -hmm. If you as a Christian are not helping with the

49:21

Spirit then guess what you're working against God's will Mm -hmm.

49:27

We need to be helping one another in that pursuit of holiness Because when we do that we are assisting the

49:36

Holy Spirit But guess what you and I are not the Holy Spirit. So when we think it's our job to convict people of sin

49:44

And we're the ones that are not in line with the Holy Spirit and need correction

49:49

You know It's so funny you bring that up and I'm really glad that you did because I can look back on instances in my life where sin was committed against me and sin was committed against others that I know and What I was trying to do and my arguing with other people

50:10

Was I was trying to convict them of their sin and what they were doing, right?

50:16

So I was trying to be the Holy Spirit for them What I needed to do and where the change came was when

50:25

I just said, okay, you know what? It's not my job to convict them like the

50:31

Holy Spirit would what I need to do is I need to live what

50:36

I say I believe and I just need to be obedient to Christ and Looking to Christ and let my life glorify

50:44

Christ and if I do that, then maybe that will affect this person and Sometimes it does sometimes it doesn't sometimes that person gets convicted and goes

50:57

Okay, I'm not living. I'm not living right, but sometimes it doesn't but I love that You just said that because it's not my job to be the

51:07

Holy Spirit There's one Holy Spirit and you're not him that's right And if I tried

51:14

I would I would fail. Yeah So I hope folks that this has been helpful for you. I hope that you see that we do need to live a holy life

51:23

Now next episode you're gonna hear an interview. We're gonna have I'm gonna say that any of you who are parents

51:30

Especially of very young children. I want you to tune in to next week's episode Next week we're gonna talk to a couple who

51:38

I got to meet and know personally I'm gonna give the story of how I know them and they're gonna have a very very

51:47

Unique way of training your children this is something I've seen it in practice and To me.

51:55

I first said this is the craziest thing, but you're gonna hear how using blue tape to correct your children

52:01

I'll just leave it at that and say you're gonna want to Tune in because it is something that will help you but it really is gonna be an episode for parents to be checking out

52:12

So check that out next week by the time this the next week

52:17

I should be in Shepard's conference enjoying that so obviously Next week's episode will also be pre -recorded

52:25

But we do thank you Drew for coming on check out matter of theology in his podcast that is on the

52:31

Christian podcast community Hope you've enjoyed having him as my co -host Are you wondering who the next co -host is?

52:39

Well, wait two weeks and you'll find out Because quite frankly, I don't know yet.

52:45

And that's a wrap This podcast is part of the striving for eternity ministries for more content or to request a speaker or seminar to your church