Understanding Holiness
Notes
Transcript
Understanding Holiness
Understanding Holiness
This morning we will be looking back at Matthew 5:48 the last verse of our text from last week that we closed with, I mentioned that God started to work on me through that verse.
God has continued to work on me this week and this morning we are starting a sermon series titled: A Journey to Holiness.
Last week I asked that you would start to pray and seek God for cleansing in your individual lives and I hope that you have been praying about this journey that God is going to take us on over the next couple of weeks or months as journey/drawl closer to Him and strive to return to Holiness in our individual lives and in our church.
I say journey because this is a journey and not a one time process, this is something that take times, takes effort, commitment, and dedication.
A journey to holiness also takes each and everyone of us being vulnerable to God and allowing Him to have access to every area of our life, our home, and being willing to let go and repent of the things that He convicts us of.
First, we must begin by understanding holiness.
Many believers readily confess they are not sure what holiness is or how to become thoroughly cleansed and filled with God’s Spirit.
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short
That it cannot save;
Nor is His ear so dull
That it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.
We must understand that sin separates people from God, even as Christians, if we do not confess and repent of our sins, they bring separation between us and God.
No we do not lose our Salvation, but they will clog our path of communication with God so that He cannot hear our prayers, as God cannot be near sin.
Therefore, God calls us to be holy as He is holy. In Matthew Jesus used the word Perfect in our main text from last week, if you will look at it with me again this week.
48 “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Pray
Pray
Jesus uses the word perfect there in Matthew 5:48. What Jesus was suggesting there is completeness, maturity, as the children of God.
Jesus was not placing some unachievable goal on us in this verse, but rather challenging us to grow in obedience to God’s will - to become more like Him.
God did not lower His standards to accommodate humans; instead He set forth absolute holiness as the standard.
I. Be Holy.
I. Be Holy.
13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance,
15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;
16 because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
Here Peter is quoting from Leviticus 11:44 and Leviticus 19:2; in 11:44 God is giving the things to avoid then tell the Israelites, I am the Lord your God. Consecrate that is set yourselves apart as holy, for I am holy.
Then in chapter 19 God is speaking through Moses again this time about idolatry, to all of the congregation, that is all the people, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord you God am holy.”
To be holy is to separate oneself from what is evil. The injunction to holiness embraces all of life (in all you do). No sphere of life is outside of God’s dominion.
The command to be holy indicates that as children of God, we are to live differently from the ways of the world. we are to live separate from the evil desires of the world and live in a way that pleases God.
God is holy and therefore, His very being is completely absent of even a trace of sin. He is high above any other, and no one can compare to Him.
God’s holiness pervades His entire being and shapes all His attributes. His love is a holy love. His mercy is holy mercy, and even His anger and wrath are holy.
These concepts are difficult for humans to grasp, just as God is difficult for us to understand in His entirety.
When telling the Israelites that they will take position of the Promised Land in Leviticus 20, God tells them you will possess your land but I am the Lord your God, then in verses 26 He tells them.
26 ‘Thus you are to be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine.
You are to be Holy to Me, I have set you apart.
God is calling us to be Holy like He is holy - Yes, we cannot be perfect, sinless like God, but we are to strive to be as much like God, like Jesus as we can, why because, God has set us apart.
II. A Holy Nation.
II. A Holy Nation.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
10 for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.
12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Here Peter drew on Exodus 19:6
6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”
In Exodus we see that the title applies to the nation of Israel, with whom God enacts His covenant at Sinai.
Israel’s priesthood was such that they were to mirror to the nations the glory of Yahweh, so that all nations would see that no god rivals the Lord.
Unfortunately, Israel mainly failed in this endeavor, as they continuously would follow false gods of the nations around them.
Now God’s kingdom of priest consist of each and every believer, it to is our job to bring God’s blessings to the nations, as we proclaim the gospel.
God has chosen believers to be His people, established them as royal priesthood, appointed them as a holy nation to be His special possession, so that they would declared the praise of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.
Peter probably alluding to Isaiah 43:21
21 “The people whom I formed for Myself
Will declare My praise.
As God formed Israel to praise Him, now the church has been established to praise His wonders. the declaration of God’s praise includes both worship and evangelism, spreading the good news of God’s saving wonders to all people.
In verse 11, Peter address believers as aliens and strangers, as we are a holy nation we are not citizens of this earth, but citizens of heaven.
He goes on to tell us to abstain from fleshly lusts - that is he urges us to stay away from fleshly lusts or sinful desires, these are natural desires that human beings have apart from the work of the Spirit.
Then in verse 12, Peter says as the Gentiles, that is those that are sinners, the lost observe you, they may see Jesus in you and because of it, glorify God because of it.
As they watch your life to point out your failures, they will see Jesus in you, God’s holiness, be drawn to God for salvation, and God will get the glory.
III. Purify Yourself.
III. Purify Yourself.
2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Here we see that we will not be totally and completely like Jesus until He appears that is comes back for His bride, the church in the rapture.
As believers we have that hope, that He is coming back for us, and because of that hope we should purify ourselves, that is we should cleanses ourselves to live a holy life as God is holy.
As believers we are to be set apart from the world unto the Lord. We need to be living by God’s standards, not the world’s.
God is not calling us to be perfect, but to be distinct or different from the world.
1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Holiness only results from a right relationship with God by believing in Jesus Christ as Savior (accepting His gift of eternal life).
If we have not placed our faith in God’s Son alone to save us from our sins, then our pursuit of holiness is in vain.
We must first make sure we are born-again believers.
Our position in Christ automatically sets us apart from the world, we have a relationship with a living God.
Then we must daily live a set-apart life, not trying to blend in with the world, but instead living to God’s Word as we study the Bible and grow in it.