The Purpose of Holiness
Set Apart • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 7 views* Focus: Holiness is not an end in itself but part of God’s greater purpose for our lives. * Big Idea: God calls us to holiness so that we reflect His nature and fulfill His mission. * Application: Commit to living out God’s purpose through holy living in your relationships, work, and ministry.
Notes
Transcript
Good morning and welcome to Living Faith Church. I am so excited to be able to worship Jesus Christ with you on this amazing Sunday. If we have never met before, my name is Aaron. My wife Stella and I are honored to be able to serve on the Pastoral team at LFC. Today we are going to start a brand new series called “Set Apart” a series on holiness.
In 1 Peter 1:15–16 we read these words:
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.”
Now, you will notice that I have emboldened a section of this Scripture. This quote that Peter makes here is found in three passages of the Old Testament. Leviticus 11:44, Leviticus 19:2, and Leviticus 20:7
7 ‘You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the Lord your God.
Over the years, the term holiness has often been a source of frustration, even contention within the church, with the practice of behavioral holiness being confused for the surrender of holiness. Calling for greater and greater legalism, a life of strict asceticism, to the point where even simple pleasures of life such as shorts on a sunny day, a date to the movie theater, or laughter in church are considered worldly and sinful. Yet, it was this very behavior that we find Christ rejecting. In Matthew 9 when some of John the Baptists disciples asked Jesus, why are you and your disciples not fasting, Jesus responded with these words.
15 And Jesus said to them, “The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
So, holiness is not so much a static list of do’s and don’ts, even though there are clear behavioral values that Scripture calls for. But the essence of holiness focuses on obedience to Gods voice. So, if you’ll allow me to, Id’ like to speak this into your life for just a moment. To have fun is not sinful, and to be Holy is not to be an alien to the 21st century. The word Holiness in the Greek and Hebrew dictionary is defined as “set apart, consecrated, or dedicated”. Where the Holiness movement has often errored in their approach to holiness, is, by-in-large, by using behavior to mask heart issues. Or, using the words of the New Testament author, Paul.
5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
Paul lists 18 descriptors to profile the behaviors and character of such people. Things like loving money, being boastful, arrogance, and the list goes on,. Then he wraps it all up by stating, these people actually look as if they are godly, yet, the power of God is not in them. Why? Because behavioral holiness can never match true holiness. Acting as if you are holy will never produce the authority that is resident in one who is set apart and surrendered for the Lord. So, what changes someones nature from unholy to holy? We can get a glimpse into this by looking at the birth of Jesus.
35 The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.
Holiness begins with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and is actualized by the agreement to it’s work and will. The difference between the Holiness of God and the holiness of the believer is that Christ is intrinsically Holy, while we have to work at it. And we need to work at it. So over the next several weeks, we are going to talk about holiness in the believers life by looking at topics such as the purity of holiness, perseverance in holiness, and the lastly the power of holiness. Today, I want us to look at just a couple of thoughts regarding the purpose of holiness.
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The Purpose of Holiness
The Purpose of Holiness
In the Old Testament, the word holy and its various word forms, including holy, holiness, and holies, is found 11,752 times. 4,538 of those uses are penned by the hand of Moses in the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, what we call the Books of the Law. A great many of these instances are in Exodus. A great place for this word to be located since the meaning is “set apart”, and the work of the Exodus was God setting Israel a part from the rest of the nations of the world. After God lead the nation of Israel safely through the Red Sea, and defeated the entire army of Egypt, Miriam Moses older sister, sung a song that Moses transcribed in Exodus 15. Part of that song is here in verses 11-13.
11 “Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?
12 “You stretched out Your right hand, The earth swallowed them.
13 “In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom You have redeemed; In Your strength You have guided them to Your holy habitation.
To understand holiness, we must begin by looking at God, as the perfect essence of holiness. When looking at this passage, we can find two key purposes to holiness, or we could say “set apartness”.
1. Set Apart In Wonder
1. Set Apart In Wonder
11 “Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?
As we look at God it is obvious that He is different from all of creation. People wonder about God a lot. Wikipedia’s most edited topic is that of Jesus. With wikipedia pages dedicated to His name, including:
The myth of Jesus
The bloodline of Jesus
The crucifixion of Jesus
and many more accumulating. Collectively these 10 pages have amassed 49,174 page edits, the most of any other subject on the wikipedia platform. God is so different that people cannot stop looking, wondering, gazing and considering. Who is like God? Who can part the waters, who can defeat the nations, who can heal the blind, who can make the lame walk, raise the dead, command the winds and waves, and forgive sins? But God’s will is to share His glory in you, that you might become His mirrored reflection attracting the wonder of the nations.
22 “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;
When asking the question; what is the purpose of holiness, I would begin with this response. The more set apart I am for God, the more my life becomes a revelation of his Glory. This causes the nations to stand in wonder of God, to consider Him, to ponder His nature.
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.
12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look at what the Apostle Paul says about our behavior.
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—
Too often Christians are ashamed of our separateness from the world. And we are separate. We don’t fit in because we have behaviors that are unique and individual to that of a Christ follower. Maybe you don’t laugh at the same jokes, maybe you don’t entertain gossip like the others, or fudge your time card. Maybe you do weird things like correct the waitress when she forgets to charge you for your desert. These things attract the attention of people whose lifestyle is different. But Jesus says to you today - that’s the point. And this is not a 21st century, seeker sensitive Christianity issue. This is a “from the beginning of time” issue. Adam and Eve dealt with this in the garden, Israel wanted a king so that they could be like the other nations. And so, Jesus talked about this in Luke 9.
23 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
Three verses later Jesus sharpens the point of this pencil just a bit finer.
26 “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
Hear what Jesus is saying loud and clear. Never be ashamed to look like Jesus! Holiness looks good on you! So what if everyone else doesn’t get it! “Own your drip—let ‘em rock that burlap if they want!” Royalty always draws attention, and criticism, and skeptics, but it is jealousy that is provoking the eyes of the world.
2. Set Apart In Power Over the Enemy
2. Set Apart In Power Over the Enemy
Miriam goes on in this epic praise of Gods goodness by saying:
12 “You stretched out Your right hand, The earth swallowed them.
What Miriam is referencing in this song is Exodus 14. When the nation of Israel escaped Egyptian slavery, God divided the waters of the Red Sea allowing them to cross on dry ground. Exodus tells us that the entire Egyptian army chased after them. They were far enough behind that about the time Israel reached the other side of the Red Sea, Egypt was in the middle of it. Now let’s read what God did.
27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state at daybreak, while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it; then the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.
Now, I’ve read this story many times throughout my life, but it was not until I was preparing for today that something profound stood out to me. See, in order for this miracle to work, Israel had to be fully on the other side of the Red Sea. I’m going to say that again, because I know that at least one person didn’t get that the first time. In order for this miracle to work, Israel had to be fully on the other side of the Red Sea. Otherwise, God would have wiped Israel out along with Egypt. God couldn’t wipe out Egypt until Israel was separate from them. And for some of you in this room today, the reason your enemy is still on your tail, the reason you haven’t seen God destroy your enemies, the reason you are still hounded by the same tormenting spirit is because you have yet to separate yourself from your enemy. You are still in the Red Sea with your Egyptian army. You want a little Egypt, and you want a little of Gods promises. A little witchcraft, with the Bible. A little extra marital sex and a little Jesus. A little of the party life and a little of the church life. Too many people are just like what Paul was talking about, they have all the visible signs of godliness but they are denying the power of it.
Listen to me. It is holiness that gives us power over our enemies! To be separate from the world is to have authority over the world.
4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
4 I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues;
For Israel, crossing the Red Sea was the ultimate commitment to Gods promise, because it was God who divided the waters, and without God’s permission, there was no going back.
Message Response
Message Response
And there are some of you today, your next step is to once and for all make a choice to be separate. You’ve prayed and asked Jesus into your life, but are two timing and living a double life. It’s a little of Jesus and a little of the world. The call to you today is to cross over and choose the promises of God available to the one pursuing holiness.
Salvation Response
Salvation Response
Maybe you do not have a personal relationship with God; maybe you are still carrying the anxiety, guilt, and pressure that sin induces in your life. Maybe you are stressed out by trying to navigate life all on your own. Can I assure you; today all of that can end, and you can walk out of this room with hope in your heart? The Bible tells us:
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
Many people have told me, I don’t want to become a Christian because I can’t keep up that goodie lifestyle. But this verse says nothing about your lifestyle. God is more interested with your heart. Israel crossed the Red Sea, and in time God dealt with their behavior.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We know that sin leads to death – you’ve felt the sting, and pain of sin. The good news is this, Paul calls God’s gift of life a “free gift”. I want to pray with you right now to receive this gift. If you would say, I want God’s forgiveness, I want to accept this gift of life, I want Jesus to live in my heart, raise your hand so I know who I am praying for.
KEEP YOUR HANDS RAISED HIGH - I HAVE A PRAYER PARTNER COMING TO PRAY WITH YOU
“Heavenly Father, I trust You to save me through Your Son, Jesus. Forgive me for all of my sins. Make me brand new. Because You died for me, I want to live for You. Fill me with Your Spirit, so I could follow You. Jesus, You’re now my Lord and the Savior of my life. Take my life. It is Yours. In Jesus’ name, I pray.”