HOLY CHILD

This past week I went to the mountains to spend time in prayer and reflection in the Word.

I had a question I asked the Lord before I left - I have sensed the Lord calling me deeper into a closer walk with Him and desire to be set apart (the very definition of the word holy) for His purposes.

I asked God however, WHY? That is me with the Why? questions.

Why bother when the church doesn’t care about being holy?

Why bother when I see people seeking out the loopholes to sin and strive to live as much like the world as possible?

If the church doesn’t care about becoming like Christ, why should I?

In my time of seeking the Lord - the answer was - BECAUSE I AM HOLY!

From the Old Testament we read :

Leviticus 11:45 NLT

45 For I, the Lord, am the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt, that I might be your God. Therefore, you must be holy because I am holy.

Leviticus 19:2 NLT

2 “Give the following instructions to the entire community of Israel. You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.

Leviticus 20:7 NLT

7 So set yourselves apart to be holy, for I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 20:26 NLT

26 You must be holy because I, the Lord, am holy. I have set you apart from all other people to be my very own.

Leviticus 21:8 NLT

8 You must treat them as holy because they offer up food to your God. You must consider them holy because I, the Lord, am holy, and I make you holy.

Peter writes this in the New Testament...

1 Peter 1:13–20 NLT

13 So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. 14 So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. 15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” 17 And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as “temporary residents.” 18 For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. 19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 20 God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake.

We have officially passed into the Christmas season!

Sadly our society spends more time celebrating the celebration than the reason for the celebration - JESUS!!!

Regardless how you feel about Christmas, its origins, etc. - It is time put aside to remember the FIRST ADVENT of CHRIST --

Not the birth of a child as much as God’s plan to send His Son to the world to become the sacrifice to restore us to fellowship with God.

Fellowship and communion with the Lord was lost in the Garden of Eden when humankind disobeyed the one command given him by the Lord, and all human minds were opened to the knowledge of good and evil - and sin was introduced to the world.

The problem was and still is that SIN separates us from God.

Today people throughout the world are trying to redefine what is sin by not only allowing permissible sin, but encouraging it even through legal freedoms.

Rebellion to the very nature and person of who God is.

1 John 1:5–6 NLT

5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.

There is no sin or darkness in the Lord - He is pure holy light!

SIN seperates US FROM HOLINESS - darkness cannot come into the presence of God.

No matter how much the Lord made a way and called the nation of Israel unto Himself as a Holy God - giving them the law and commands and rules to follow, they could not, because inside their hearts had not been changed.

So, the Lord sent us a SAVIOR who could transform our hearts to follow Him in obedience.

1. BORN HOLY

Christ was born a holy child, not conceived as all humankind has been conceived,

Luke 1:26–38 NLT

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, 27 to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. 28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!” 29 Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. 30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!” 34 Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.” 35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. 36 What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. 37 For the word of God will never fail.” 38 Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.

What made Jesus holy?

His blood was not shared with man.

Romans 3:23 NLT

23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

This sinful nature passes through the man onto the child - but Christ was placed inside of Mary without the aid of man - and He grew in her womb, never sharing her blood (the blood is not shared from mother to child) the blood of the mother is alongside the child, but not running in its veins.

God gave His son - pure and holy to the world. v. 35 the angel declared the child will be HOLY.

This child was the gift of God - a second ADAM without sin to make a way for our salvation!

2. LIVED HOLY

It is one thing to be born holy, but Jesus would have to live a holy life!

HIs nature was not sinful, but that does not mean He was not tempted as we are...

Hebrews 4:15 NLT

15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.

1 Peter 2:22 NLT

22 He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone.

1 John 3:5 NLT

5 And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him.

The gospel writers wrote of the temptations of Christ and how He resisted those temptation with the word of God...

Church, we have the same ability to resist temptation through the Word and power of the Holy Spirit that resides in us.

1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT

13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

The Holy LIFE of Christ is HOPE for us to also experience holiness, to strive to be like Jesus and experience His power over sin in our lives.

There is a movie out called black Adam - its premise is you don’t need a righteous savior - but can have a disgraced and sinful man save you...

This is so CONTRARY to the truth of who JESUS was as the second ADAM who lived righteously and now imputes that righteousness toward us!

2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT

21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

Only through sinless blood are we saved from the powers of hell!!!

Because of that righteous blood - we too can know righteousness.

3. MAKES US HOLY

Ephesians 1:4 NLT

4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

Ephesians 5:27 NLT

27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.

1 Peter 1:15 NLT

15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy.

2 Peter 3:11–14 NLT

11 Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, 12 looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames. 13 But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness. 14 And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.

You see, the Lord desires for you and I to be holy like Him.

The law of Moses pointed to righteousness but did not have the ability to transform our hearts and souls - but the blood of Jesus makes us into new creations.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT

17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

This is why Paul also calls us to present ourselves to the Lord ...

Romans 12:1–2 NLT

1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Through Jesus we can be holy.

If you do not believe your life can be transformed and that you grow into the image of Christ, than do you really BELIEVE????

If you don’t want to grow into the image of Christ, have you truly been saved? Have you surrendered your life to the Lord to allow Him to reign in you?

You cannot earn salvation, or create holiness in yourself, but when Jesus lives in you He will make you into a new creation like Him.

That comes from being yielded in HIs presence and seeking a deeper relationship.

Have you ever heard how people say a husband and wife after many years even start to resemble each other physically? Certainly they do in behaviors...

Why? They have spent time in each other’s presence and allowed surrendered themselves to one another so they begin reflecting each other.

Oh, that we would discover the HOLY CHILD who Lived a HOLY LIFE and makes us HOLY!

AND ALL THE MORE as our SOCIETY EMBRACES and JUSTIFIES SINFUL AND UNRIGHTEOUS manners - we need to seek to be more like Jesus...

THE SECOND ADVENT of CHRIST --- Jesus is coming back...

He is coming back for a spotless bride, not one that is clothed in dirt!

BE HOLY FOR I AM HOLY!

CONCLUSION

The Christ child of Christmas came as the HOLY ONE ---

SET APART from the sinful unrighteousness of this world to be the sacrifice for our sins, that those who believe in Him would become new creations and have the ability to walk in holiness that the law could not help them to walk in - because He transforms us from the inside out!

Isaiah 6:3 NLT

3 They were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!”

Revelation 4:8 NLT

8 Each of these living beings had six wings, and their wings were covered all over with eyes, inside and out. Day after day and night after night they keep on saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty— the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.”

THe ANGELS of heaven declare the holiness of God -

Do we stop to recognize HIs holiness, and do we realize He sent Jesus so we too can be holy and stand in His presence worshipping Him.

The Lord wants to bring a new level of our lives being set apart from our society today - for we the church to dedicate ourselves to His righteous ways...