Holiness and Closeness
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What is holiness?
What is holiness?
Holiness is ultimately being set apart and something that we are called to do as Christians. This means that we
but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
This is a command in believers that we must follow.
We are told multiple times in scripture that we must put to death our sins, the things in our lives. To change who we were to who Christ has called us to be! We have to.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
Why is this so hard?
Why is this so hard?
First, because our flesh has a sin nature that we are drawn to sin
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
Even Paul experienced this. He even knew the nature of the flesh and he even said that he experienced the same things. He didn’t want to sin, but still found himself struggling with sin.
How do we walk in holiness?
How do we walk in holiness?
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?
First thing that we need to talk about is who James is talking to. This book was written to Jews who had become Christians. What do we know about the Jews? They were very hard on the law right? They have 613 different laws that they have to follow, and the law was given by God to set the people apart right?
The law was created before Jesus so that God’s people would be set apart. That they would see the things in their life and know that they need to follow God. But, it failed because no man could follow the law. There is no way that anyone, apart from Jesus, could follow every part of the law.
James address this first. The reason that people sin and fight, and fallow the ways of the flesh is that our passions, our fleshly desires, wage war against us.
As Christians, if you have been with us on Sunday, know that we have the Spirit of God within us, and when we look back at the verse in Galatians, the Spirit and flesh are against each other.
So James goes hard into this problem with more examples here.
We covet, but cannot have what “we want” and so we fight with one another.
We ask for things, but we ask wrongly, meaning that we ask for things that we want, not asking what God wants in our lives and then get mad when we do not get what we want.
Then he gives this hard word. That friendship with the world is enmity, or hatred towards God.
The two are polar opposites. The ways of the world, what our flesh wants, is against what God wants.
The Bible teaches two identities…Friend or Child of God, and Enemy of God. There is no in between, and to give yourself to the ways of the world, to follow the ways of the world is to be an enemy of God plain and simple.
But there is a cool promise that comes right after this…There is good news here tooJ
But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
First, I love what James starts with…He gives more grace. God is a gracious God, and gives it more and more to people. He does not hold back His grace. This is evident in Jesus. That we did not deserve it, but He still gave it and still gives it.
So then, when we talk about walking in holiness, how to be holy, we have to start here
It starts with humility and grace
What is humility?
What is humility?
Humility is not thinking of yourself as garbage, but rather seeing who we are compared to who God is. We have to know that we deserve death because of our sins, and God is a holy God. We cannot live up to this holiness, but God is full of grace! Those two are the first step in walking in the holiness that we are called to live
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,
Titus here talks about that. That is the grace of God that He send Jesus in our lives, and it is that grace that is what drives us to live the way we are called to live.
It starts with humility and grace
We must submit ourselves to God
But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Submit to God and flee from the devil. It starts with submission. It starts with saying “God I give my life to you, I submit my ways, thoughts, actions to you” we are told to flee from the devil, but James starts with submission.
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
We have to submit ourselves to God and what He is calling
What does submission look like?
What does submission look like?
It starts with humility and grace
We must submit ourselves to God
Draw close to God
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
James put this here, we must draw near to God, and in turn He will draw near to us. That is not a maybe, but a promise. That as we draw closer to God, He will draw closer to us. Then he says to cleanse your hands from sin.
There is a direct connection to how close we are to God and how far away from sin we are. Again, we cannot serve two different masters, but the closer we are to God, the easier it is to walk away from sin.
Why do you think it is so easy to not sin when we are at camp, or mission trips, or something like that? Because you are walking closely with the Lord. Because you have removed everything in your life that could pull you away from Him and are drawing close to Him
How do we draw close to God?
How do we draw close to God?
Well, like any relationship, you spend time with them. You talk with them often, you plan hangouts whenever you can. You ask questions to get to know them as much as you can. Really it is not much different with God.
We have to spend time with Him. So first, your devo life. God can speak to us in any way that He wants to, but His primary way is through His word. We talked about when we went through Genesis that the Bible is about who God is, not about us. So if we want to draw close to Him, you have to be in the word.
Second we have to spend time in prayer. Prayer is the most underutilized weapon in our Christian lives, but it is another prime way that we can communicate with God.