The Doctrine of Holiness

Introduction

Over the last few messages, we have discussed the topic of ecclesiastical separation. With the rise of New Evangelicalism, Christianity began to make a shift away from the doctrine of personal separation. Personal separation involves an individual commitment to a godly standard of behavior and avoidance of ungodly behavior. Being a Christian used to mean something about how we would behave and people knew a Christian because of how they lived. Today, that line of distinction has been blurred because Christians are less consumed with living in such a way that brings glory to God and more consumed with fitting in with the crowd.

These days it is just as easy to find a Christian who

1. Lives with their girlfriend before marriage. The world has taught them they have to try before they buy. That you need to make sure you are compatible. Sleeping with their girlfriend is just something everyone does these days.

2. Struggles with pornography- Latest statistics say that 69% of men view porn online and 40% of women do. Those numbers are staggering. That number is only slightly better among evangelicals at 64%.

3. Is consumed with looking like an NBA star or a Pop star- Many of our children have become consumed with looking, acting, talking like popular men and women in our culture from sports, music or movie culture. These men 99% of the time do not love God and their life styles do not reflect a love for God. Even the greatest of them have glaring holes in their christian walk.

4. is consumed with seeking after a high paying job- Others are consumed with something else: the almighty dollar. They have no time for their families, church, or personal devotions because they are consumed with making more money. God is not in all their thoughts.

5. Struggles to spend time with God even one day a week outside of Sunday- But the biggest evidence that something is wrong in Christianity is that we don’t even have time to spend quality time with God and if we do its just to check off a box.

While both Fundamentalists and Evangelicals talk about personal separation to some extent; fundamentalists have held onto a moral and cultural conservatism because of our belief in the doctrine of Holiness. God tells us in:

1 Peter 1:16 “Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”

As a Christian, we believe that God is Holy; so God commands us to also be holy, but what does that mean. Tonight, we are going to look at what Holiness is, how we become holy and what that looks like.

What is Holiness

Exodus 15:11 “Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises, doing wonders?”

If we want to know what Holiness is, we must first look at God who is the standard of Holiness. In the verses, it says that God is glorious in holiness meaning that his glory is seen in his holiness. But what does it mean that God is Holy.

The main word for Holiness in the OT is qadosh which means to cut. Think of this illustration of holiness. My wife and I love to cook. I usually do the big meats, but when I have a pork loin there is this thick layer of fat, we call the fat cap. It is so thick that if you don’t trim it down the meat won’t cook evenly, the seasonings won’t get into the meat and the pork just won’t be quite as good. But when I trim that fat cap, I am cutting away the fat from the pork and separating it. So at the end I have this big pile of separated fat that I am going to throw away. The most essential meaning of holiness is separatness.

Take the fact that this word was used of the utensils in the temple. 1 Kings 8:4 “And they brought up the ark of the Lord, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle, even those did the priests and the Levites bring up.”

A Holy vessel was something that was set apart only for God’s use. Thing that were holy, were consecrated, separated for a particular use and because of that they were free from contamination. You could not use a holy vessel as a wash basin in your house or to scrub the floors of the horse stables. It was to be dedicated only for the use of the temple and kept clean.

So when we talk about God’s holiness, how is it that he is separate. God is not like man in all the ways that make him distinct. Holiness is not just another aspect of his character; rather it is the essence of who he is. Everything he does is holiness.

Amos 4:2 “The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness, That, lo, the days shall come upon you, That he will take you away with hooks, And your posterity with fishhooks.”

Amos 6:8 “The Lord God hath sworn by himself, saith the Lord the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: Therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein.”

When we think of Holiness, we often think of moral cleanness and it includes that but Holiness is more than that. Holiness starts with who God is before it branches out into what God does.

God is not Holy because he is separate from sin. Rather, He is separate from sin because He is Holy. - Randy Jaeggli

The concept of Holiness includes:

Otherness

Separation

Greatness

Moral Purity

Otherness- Hosea 11:9 “I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: For I am God, and not man; The Holy One in the midst of thee: And I will not enter into the city.”

set apart- Matthew 6:7–9 “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.”

Greatness- Ezekiel 38:23 “Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord.”

Righteousness- 1 Thessalonians 4:7 “For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.” Holiness in this verse is used as the opposite of uncleaness; so its implied meaning is moral purity.

So what is personal holiness. Holiness is being distinct from the world, separated from all the sin or the world and pursuing after righteousness. But at its core Personal Holiness is no longer belonging to yourself but belonging to Him. It is being dedicated to God in your thoughts, your feelings and your actions.

How do we achieve Holiness

With this in mind, many Christians have mistaken how a person actually becomes Holy. There really are two extremes that we must avoid in the Christian life and it is like walking on a tight rope. If we step tot he right, we will fall and if we step to the left we will fall.

Errors to avoid

self-sanctification- Galatians 3:3“Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” We often call this legalism and some bristle at being called legalists because it is often used just for someone who is more conservative than you are in your practice. That is not legalism. But legalism is self-righteous efforts focused on externals to become holy. Paul deals with those who try to earn salvation by works, but also those who try to be sanctified by works. A person is not a legalist because they are stricter, but they are a legalist if they think a certain set of exteriors makes them holy.

You see here is the problem with legalism: it starts at the wrong place. Mark 7:18–23 “And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” Holiness begins in the heart.

The legalist is like a kid pretending to be a soldier. He puts on the clothes and picks up a gun, but he does not have the training to be a soldier, he does not have the courage to stand when someone is shooting at him, he does not have the experience of being a soldier. He just looks like one on the outside.

Since holiness must begin in the heart our hearts must be purified. Purity only comes from God purifying us 2 Corinthians 3:18 “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Holiness is not the way to Christ; Christ is the way to holiness.

Joel Beeke

Holiness begins with a look at the Savior, the transforming of our hearts by God’s word and the changing of our lives by dependence on the Spirit of God.

license- Romans 6:1 “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?”

The other extreme is to think that I am accepted by God just the way that I am so therefore it doesn’t matter how I live. This can be the danger of Come just as your are. In Revelation, we do come just as we are. The Spirit and the Bride say come, but no one who truly comes, leaves unchanged. This is the whole point Paul has been making in Romans 6 on Sunday mornings.

The holiest Christians are not those most concerned about holiness as such, but those whose minds and hearts and goals and purposes and love and hope are most fully focused on our Lord Jesus Christ” (Keep in Step with the Spirit, 134 JI Packer

What does Holiness produce?

Back in 1 Peter 1:16 “Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” We are told to be Holy, not do holiness. The focus of holiness is on being transformed into the image of Christ, in dwelling in him and dependence on the Spirit for that transformation. But it would be inexcusable to think that being holy does not produce practical, personal holiness in our living. That being holy does not do holiness. Consider the following examples:

2 Corinthians 7:1 “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

According to Paul, perfecting holiness involves cleansing ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit. Flesh refers to the things we do with our bodies. Our outward actions are going to be pure. Spirit refers to the inward attitudes of the heart. How we feel and think are going to be Christlike.

Titus 2:3 “The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;”

In this passage, Paul describes holiness in the older women as not false accusing, not being drunken, actively teaching good things to the younger women. Without these fruits of holiness cant hey really say they are holy women of God.

It is going to impact areas of our lives:

Entertainment choices

clothing

your words

your thinking

your values

As a caution, Randy Jaeggli in his book More Like the Master says:

I must not measure holiness on the basis of whether my list of personal standards matches yours exactly. Holy people can differ over such things as preference in clothing styles (if they are modest), methodology in finding a spouse (if purity is preserved) and pursuit in recreational interests (if they do not hinder service for Christ). Least someone misunderstand me, I am not arguing that standards of Christian conduct are not important. Rather, I am making a pleas for the proper order and emphasis in holiness. Of first importance is inner character transformation and then outward actions will manifest the true condition of the believer without any hint of hypocrisy.

Here is his point, godly Christians can come to differing conclusions on where they draw the lines on the practical application of the bible to daily living as long as those lines do not disagree with the clear lines drawn by God in his word. But the point is that while we can disagree on some of these things, every good Christian will be transformed and will live out his faith in a practical way in his daily living.

Conclusion

New Evangelicalism wanted to change and engage culture, but progressively, they became just like the culture they were trying to change. Jesus said:

Matthew 5:14–16 “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

How can we be a light to draw men to Christ if our live show no difference between us and them? Brother, God is calling you tonight to seek after true holiness, to be that light that shines in the dark. If you have been living just like the world, you have not been pursuing holiness. I challenge you tonight, to come down and rededicate your life to pursuing holiness.