Holiness
Notes
Transcript
Prayer
Prayer
Verse
Verse
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
Review of Last Class
Review of Last Class
Joy- Was this past week a bit more joyful for you
<Speak to how your last week went. Lot’s of commitments, but God is so good!>
As a review, we looked at Joy as an attribute of God-centeredness and God-Likeness.
And to try and summarize an entire class, I boil it down to 3 questions:
Where is joy found?
In the presence of God
What are hindrances to us keeping joy and how can I be joyful?
Sin:: Repent
Misplaced Confidence:: Make God Your Treasure
Discipline/Trust:: Believe and Trust in God’s promises and Providence
Touching on that third point, I would recommend John Flavel’s work “The Mystery of Providence” as a wonderful resource. In it he exposites one verse
2 I cry out to God Most High,
to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
The book, adapted from a sermon, has three points:
The way God’s providence operates in our lives
Proverbs 19:14 “14 House and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.”
But also the Spirit’s transforming work
A Christian’s responsibility to meditate on His providence
We says it is our duty and to fail in this regard is to sin. Why? Because it is to slight God attributing to idols or self, diminish our praises, deny ourselves the benefit of advancing faith.
He has really good sections on how to handle God’s dark providence and how to properly think about it.
Necessity and Benefit of recording God’s acts of providence in your life.
One last note that Brian mentioned last week was that rejoicing is not a feeling or even a one and done thing. Continual communion with God results in a state of joyfulness. We can rejoice always.
So how much joy should we have? Like Paul mentions in several of his letters, a complete joy.
Which then segue’s into our topic for today, Holiness.
How much holiness is enough? That is a very easy question. How about this though, how much holiness do you want to see in your life? There are times when we are tested in this area. Online classes and cheating, in person classes and reusing papers. Want to remain lazy. Gluttony, Lust for money. Our pride gets in the way. Person driving slowly down the road. I got something free due to an error on someone else, but I do not want to do the honest thing because then I will lose it. Our “obey me child, because I said so” response in anger and not righteous anger.
That subtle shift in thinking is dangerous. It can lead a person from pursuing holiness in all areas to trying to figure out how much holiness is enough to get by.
Joy: Incited by something that happens to us. And some are tempted to think holiness is the same. God is working in me and the Holy Spirit is in me so I do not have to do anything. God will do it all. In one sense that is true, but it is not entirely true.
Chapter Review
Chapter Review
2 Questions
First: How to be godlike in our character?
Be holy.
Definition: What is holiness?
Definition: Without Sin.
Objection: But I will never be wholly holy in this life.
Response: It is still to be our supreme objective and the object of our earnest efforts and prayers.
Warning concerning 1 John: “Most Christians seem content not to sin very much, but John’s goal was that we not sin at all. Every sin, no matter how small it may seem to us, is an affront to God’s authority, a disregard for His law, a spurning of His love.”
Pursue Holiness
Holiness in all areas is the goal. Not accommodating for little sins. Sins that are now acceptable in the culture.
Lying, cheating, stealing is common in the business place.
Sexual immorality
<think of some other ones.>
Second, How do we pursue holiness? (Majority of the chapter)
5 ways: Conviction, Commitment, Discipline, Dependence, Desire
Conviction: Knowledge of Truth
“The only safe path is to allow the Holy Spirit to establish conviction through His Word. Even on this path we need to be careful not to build convictions upon a misunderstanding of some isolated text of Scripture.”
Commitment to Obedience
What is commitment? A determined purpose to live by God’s Word as He applies it to our lives.
To what?
Holiness as a new way of life.
Obeying His commands
Being on guard regarding specific areas of temptation
Discipline of choices
“we must learn to make the right choice in the face of each specific temptation”
Titus 2:11–12 “11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,”
Dependence on the Spirit
Not disregarding our personal responsibility, but understanding what enables us to do what is right and living in gratitude.
God-Centered Desire
“God does not give us His power so that we might feel good about ourselves; He gives us His power so that we can obey Him for His sake, this should be a by-product of obedience motivated by a desire to please God.”
Not self-centered, but God-Centered
Topic Lecture (15 Minutes)
Topic Lecture (15 Minutes)
Holiness- In practice, being without sin in our actions is one sense of the word holy. But there is another and this is with regards to who God is. He is holy by His very nature, his essence. This is more than just saying that God is holy because He never does a wrong thing. And the truth is that that level of holiness is what we are called to.
If you have a Bible, go ahead and turn with me to 1 Peter.
Peter’s first epistle is very good at providing us with instructions and examples of what holiness looks like.
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
Right here in the middle of these verses we read that it is an awesome command. We are called to be holy. In what way and in what degree? As your heavenly Father is holy.
As He is holy, for I am holy
How holy is God? Perfectly holy. Holiness is not just a description of a lifestyle, it is a divine attribute. It defines both what God is, his essence, his purity and majesty, and also all of his acts in time and towards creation. He is holy and all that He does is holy. We sometimes speak about God’s incommunicable attributes and God’s communicable attributes. God is eternal, that is not a character trait that is communicated to us. It is not something that we share with God. God’s holiness is a communicable attribute though. We can imperfectly possess this trait, but never apart from who He is.
By the grace of God, one day we will be like this. When on that day we put off the perishable will put on the imperishable. Did you know that glorification means that one day, we will be made like Christ.
18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Do we believe that? To not believe is to claim that Christ’s promise was a lie or that it will fail.
Holiness is an all-encompassing attribute. It is not merely doing the right thing outwardly, holiness encompasses the inward motive and heart as well.
As an example, consider the passage we looked at last week in the main service.
3 “He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man;
he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck;
he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers pig’s blood;
he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol.
These have chosen their own ways,
and their soul delights in their abominations;
Outwardly, are these people performing holy acts? It appears that they are, but are they really and truly performing a holy act? No. They have chosen their own way to walk. How are we to walk?
Bridges gave us 5 ways that we are to walk, to apply holiness:
Conviction: Knowledge of Truth
Commitment to Obedience
Discipline of choices
Dependence on the Spirit
God-Centered Desire
I want to expand on these.
6. Heavenly Motivation
7. Bloody Motivation
Heavenly Motivation
Verse 13 is amazing
You are called to prepare your mind for action. You bear a responsibility.
But at the same time, there is a promise. a grace that will be brought to us. What is this hope?
1 Peter 1:3–4 “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,”
That is good. We have an inheritance that is imperishable (not going to be destroyed or removed), undefiled (it is a pure and good inheritance), and unfading (it will not expire). It is kept in heaven for us.
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Salvation is secure. Eternal life with God. This is important, we do not want to confuse any acts that we perform as building up credit or building a case of evidence so that we can argue before God why we deserve to be with Him in Heaven. Yet, that does knowledge of a sure salvation does not cause a Christian to live flippantly.
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
We are not to be conformed to the passions of our former ignorance. Rather we are holy in conduct. Why? Because we have a heavenly motivation. We have an inheritance secured for us at the revealing of Christ, for those who are in fact in Christ.
Paul says it possibly best in his letter to the Philippians:
27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel,
Worthy*- Only behave as citizens worthy
Behind our English version’s “let your manner of life be” (esv) is a single Greek verb that has citizen at its core. The Greek word for city is polis, from which we get the word politics. In writing to the Philippians—and only to them—Paul bypasses the walking metaphor that he uses so often to portray the pattern of behavior that befits our faith, replacing walk with the citizenship-laden verb politeuomai (poli- te- vu-muh): to maintain a standard of conduct befitting a citizen, to behave in a way that enhances the reputation of one’s city.
Being a Roman citizen had benefits, such as exemption from taxation. But it also held duties to the empire, regardless if you were 100’s of miles from Rome. You uphold the dignity of the empire and the emperor.
Dennis Johnson-----
In effect, Paul is saying to his dear Christian friends at Philippi, “Some of you have felt patriotic pride that your status as citizens of Philippi gives you dignity and rights as citizens of Rome itself. You recognize that your behavior brings credit or dishonor not only to the city in which you live but also to the distant city in which the emperor reigns. But I am telling you that you have a connection with an infinitely more glorious city than Rome, where the Ruler of the whole universe sits enthroned. Your behavior had better show it!”
Do you love your master? Do you long for the city that you are going to? Then prepare your mind for action and do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. This is specific. Notice that he does not enumerate any specific sins here, he simply states the passions of your former ignorance. We need to be honest with ourselves. We can learn from the first sin.
1. Minimize sin- It is just eating fruit
2. Blame God- Why did God even put this tree here?
3. Reclassify sin- I can be like God!
4. Blame others- Why did Eve give me that fruit to eat?
All of those things do one thing, they say without saying, if it were just me, then I could be holy. Isn’t that the temptation? It is the culture’s fault, the government’s fault, the movie had a scene that triggered it and so its that fault, my child’s fault who provoked me.
Puritan John Milton, Paradise Lost , “The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.”
But as citizens of a heavenly kingdom....
Bloody Motivation
verse 17: They fear God. God will judge. They know their sin and they fear God.
He will judge us for our deeds.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
They recognize the cost of their redemption
18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
Objection: I am a failure, I can never make it.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
When you attempt and strive for perfection by your own efforts, yes it is in vain. But when you do it in the Lord, then it is not.
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Hugh Latimer (1530)
- Bishop of Muster? He found that the leaders would take their salary and give a portion to pay someone else to do their work and pocket the rest living in Italy or somewhere else.
- So those who were left could not read (none of the ministers) and none knew latin. That is why there was such scriptural ignorance during this time. They had to memorize all of the rites and Scriptures.
So he personally trained men how to preach, many will die as martyrs.
1530's- he told the church he is coming and would be preaching, please come at such and such a time. No one is there when he shows up. After 30 minutes he goes into the village and finds one man and asks him, did you not get my letter that I would come here and preach.
The man replies, but "Yes we did. But you must understand that today is the birthday of Robin Hood. And we have to celebrate his birthday, so we cannot come to church today."
"It is no laughing matter, my friends, it is a weeping matter, a heavy matter; a heavy matter, under the pretence of gathering for Robin Hood, a traitor and a thief, to put out a preacher, to have his office less esteemed; to prefer Robin Hood before the ministration of God's word and all this hath come of unpreaching prelates. This realm hath been ill provided for, that it hath had such corrupt judgments in it, to prefer Robin Hood to God's word. If the bishops had been preachers, there should never have been any such thing: but we have good hope of better. We have had a good beginning: I beseech God to continue it! But I tell you, it is far wide that the people have such judgments; the bishops they could laugh at it. What was that to them? They would have them to continue in their ignorance still, and themselves in unpreaching prelacy."
Most know Latimer’s end though. When they burned Latimer and Ridley, they put fresh wood around Ridley and so his was not burning as well as Latimer's. Latimer gives the famous play the man speech.
‘Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England as shall never be put out’
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7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
A proud person boasts in these things. They find value in them and are so attached to them that to lose them is to lose self. But a man or woman who is pursuing holiness is the strongest person. They can lose it all and still feel like they have everything, because they truly do. And having that recognition of the value that they possess, they can live holy, set apart from the world and set apart to love God and serve others.
What sort of obstacles do you see to be conformed to the world in...
The church (ch 2)
Use their tactics to draw a crowd
Social Gospel
Governing Authorities (ch 2)
If you are in it, compromising on certain issues just to gain support. I talked with my state rep on abortion and he voted against complete ban, because he didn’t think it would pass anyways. So he voted against it hoping to later get an incremental one.
Lying or being bribed
Husband and Wives (ch 3)
Infidelity, open marriages, pornography
Suffering (4)
Renounce my faith because this isn’t working
Maybe I need to work the system like everyone else does
Elders connect this to Teachers (5)
Abusive. I am in position of power now
Greed
You personally
Easy to find the flaws in others, but can you see it in yourself?
Solution?
Prepare your mind
Hope in Christ
This requires a bit of humility
23 Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”
