Am I Holy
Am I holy ?
Text: 1 Peter 1:3 – 2:3
Theme: Character Development/ Holiness
· We’re talking about character. God’s dream for you is that you would be Christ-like. God’s dream for me is that I would be Christ-like. Christ-likeness is really encompassed by what we’re focusing on this morning – holiness. The word shouldn’t scare us. Holiness (or Christ-likeness) is what God desires, It is what He is up to really as He develops, polishes, and fashions our character as we follow Jesus.
· There’s just no question or debate. Clearly, from the Scriptures, because God is holy, we are called to be holy and live holy lives. Peter said it well here in 1 Peter 1:15-16. . . Paul said it like this in 1 Cor. 1:2 – “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Again in Col. 1:21-22. 1 Thess. 4:7 – (Remember this) “For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life”.
· So I’d like to answer the question “Am I holy?” by asking a few questions of my own. I’m taking the “let’s answer the question with some questions” approach.
1. (Ask yourself) Am I dressed in the righteousness of Christ?
Paul made his confession: He desires above all else to be found in Christ, “not having a righteousness of [his own] that comes from the law, but [a righteousness] which is through faith in Christ” (Phil. 3:9). Paul declared: “I am crucified with Christ, therefore I no longer live, Jesus Christ now lives in me”. Listen. If you are in Christ you have been made holy by the blood of Jesus. As Peter said here: “the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” vs. 19. We are fallen as a race. Sons of Adam and daughters of Eve are not by nature holy. God is by nature Holy – intrinsically holy. Fallen human beings have to be made holy. God knew this and sent forth his Holy son Jesus. I love the conversion story of Eustace in one of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Eustace, a beast of a boy was literally transformed in the story into a creature that reflected his character – a dragon! Listen to what happened when Eustace was “undragoned”. . .
So in answering the question, “Am I Holy”, if you are in Christ the answer is “YES”! This is why I asked you to consider “Am I dressed in the righteousness of Christ”? Have I understood that I within myself have no righteousness to offer to God? Have I yielded to Christ? Submitted to Him? and allowed Him to save me, to cleanse me, to wash me, to “undragon me”, to shower me with His grace and mercy as I receive the gift of righteousness and holiness. I hope you understand that any further discussion of holiness or holy living must begin here. And so if you are here this morning and feeling dirty, and feeling stained by sin, rest assured the price has been paid for your cleansing and forgiveness. You can start again. The slate can be wiped clean. Cry out to Jesus and simply ask him to wash you. His precious blood spilt some 2000 years ago is enough to wash away the stain of any sin, anything that you’re carrying or feeling guilt about or ashamed of.
What can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus! What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus! Oh precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow! No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus! I can offer you no other source of cleansing. This church can offer you no other way to forgiveness and righteousness. Nothing but the blood of Jesus!
The second question I have to ask this morning as we seek to live Holy lives and answer the question “Am I Holy” is this:
2. Do I hate sin? Do I hate the stuff my Savior came to die for? Does my heart break over the sin that breaks God’s heart? Do I hate the stuff that pollutes my life? Like an alcoholic that has to come to a point of hating the stuff that is killing them! Once again, if you do, that is evidence of your conversion. Hating sin, not desiring to live in it any longer is evidence that Christ has “undragoned” you. God always desires and longs for a people who will fear him and fear sin – a people who will love him and hate the stuff that he hates. Being lovers of God and haters of sin is the sure way to living pure and holy lives. Yet there is an honest question that often troubles the believer doesn’t it: If I am Holy in Jesus and if I have been made holy by his blood, Why is it that I do not always act holy, think holy thoughts, speak holy words. Why are my motives, even as a Christ follower not always holy? Why is it that I still sin and can even choose to sin? I offer up a few reasons in response:
1) The first reason is quite obvious: We’re not home yet! We still live in Paradise Lost. We have been redeemed and set apart and called out of this world by Christ. We’ve been made holy, yet at the same time we are being made holy and we still live in a fallen world and are still susceptible to it’s decay, it’s weaknesses, it’s temptations. Steve Camp’s lyric: “I know someday I will be free, this weight of sin shall be released, but for now He covers me”. The fact that He covers me does not give me license to sin nor should it give me reason to be complacent about sin, or excuse sin in my life. That’s not what Steve Camp is saying in his song, what he is saying is, if one does stumble, if one does sin, if one is feeling the weight of sin or even reaping the consequences of sin, we have one who has paid the price already and isn’t it good to know that Christ’s blood covers it all!
2) I don’t always act holy because of the reality and existence of the flesh. It’s true, we have a new nature in Christ Jesus, we have been made holy through his spotless blood, but there remains in me the echo, the residue of the old Adam. The old way of thinking, the old way of living, the tendency to be selfish, the tendency to sin still lingers within us this side of Heaven. Paul calls it the flesh. And we battle with it as believers. Again, the fact that we battle with it, the fact that there is a war within us between the Spirit of God and the flesh is evidence once again of the regenerating and sanctifying work of the Spirit of God.
3) We don’t always act holy because we fail to yield to the Holy Spirit at work within us. At work within our members. Am I yielded and still? (Words to Have Thine Own Way Lord”. I think the “yield” road sign needs to constantly be posted on the road of the Christian life. Yield to Christ! Yield to the Spirit! We’re not robots. Yielding doesn’t happen automatically. We need to choose to yield.
3.Do I daily desire and seek the fellowship and work of the Holy Spirit – the “Spirit of holiness”?
We cannot make ourselves holy. This is the work of the Holy Spirit – God’s power at work within us.
An American with an English gentleman was viewing the Niagara whirlpool rapids, when he said to his friend: “Come, and I’ll show you the greatest unused power in the world.” And taking him to the foot of Niagara Falls, “there,” he said, “is the greatest unused power in the world!” “Ah, no my brother, not so!” was the reply. “The greatest unused power in the world is the Holy Spirit of the living God.
—A. J. Gordon
And I’m sad to say but I think it is true that the greatest unused power in the Church is the Holy Spirit of the living God! Yet yielding to and plugging into this power does take our willingness and discipline. We are jars of clay, fragile, easily cracked, easily lead astray, we leak! How much we need to daily yield and seek the fellowship and ministry of the Holy Spirit. It’s the Spirit ministry to convict us, to teach us all things, to produces Christ-likeness within and through us. The source, the power, the fuel of holiness is the Holy Spirit of God. He will always move us towards purity. If there is a force moving us toward impurity or sin, I guarantee you that this is not the Spirit of Christ. It is the flesh! And the flesh yes can be strong and persistent but it is always countered by life in the Spirit.
DL Moody once illustrated it like this (empty glass). How can I get the air out of this glass?” One suggested he should suck it out with a pump. That would only create a vacuum and shatter the glass. (Pour water into the glass). “There,” Moody said, “all the air is now removed.” He then went on to show that victory in the Christian life is not gained by “sucking out a sin here and there,” but rather by being filled with the Spirit. [1]
We’re going to wrap up this series on the Character of the Christian next Sunday by teaching on Keeping in Step with the Spirit – not just the need for this, but how we can daily live by the Spirit so as to not gratify the desires of the flesh!
But as we close this time in God’s word this morning, I want you to take a few minutes of quite reflection, just you and God and reflect on your life and on these three questions this morning.
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[1]Tan, Paul Lee: Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations : A Treasury of Illustrations, Anecdotes, Facts and Quotations for Pastors, Teachers and Christian Workers. Garland TX : Bible Communications, 1996, c1979