Sermon Tone Analysis

*Holy, What?*

*Part 1*

*2 Corinthians 6:17-7:1 NIV*

 

Thesis - To be holy is to be separated, dedicated and filled.

Sanctification Objective - To cause people to be holy.

I couldn’t believe my ears.

I had slipped up on an altar conversation between our guest preacher and one of the members of the church.

He had just preached a sermon on the subject of holiness, a subject which I’d preached on, in that church, frequently and systematically.

The member said to the preacher, “I’ve just never heard anything like this before.”

After suppressing my sudden urge to smack her side of the head, I began to reflect on her words.

She didn’t say the subject matter hadn’t been preached.

She said she hadn’t heard it before.

I realized then that just because something is preached it isn’t necessarily heard.

I bring that realization to this pulpit today.

I’ve preached on this morning’s subject, to this church, on several occasions already.

However, I’m not sure you’ve heard it.

I come now in the hope that a different approach and another time can effect your hearing.

My goal this morning is to provide you with the answer to one question.

That question is, what does it mean to be holy?

It means to be

           

I.

Separated

A.  The scriptural usage of the Hebrew and Greek words translated holy and sanctified (synonyms) confirm this meaning.

1.  “The idea of separation is first suggested in the account of                                             creation.”  -A.

B. Simpson

                                    a) God separated the darkness from the light.

b) He also separated the land from the water.

c) Further, God separated the seas from the sky.

2.  “We see Him in the spiritual realm, immediately afterwards,                                            separating His people.”

-A.

B. Simpson           

                                    a) God separated Seth's family from the worldly race of Cain.

b) He separated Noah and family from the ungodly world.

c) “He separated Abraham and his seed from an idolatrous family.”

-A.

B. Simpson

d) “He separated Israel from Egypt and the surrounding nations.”

-A.

B. Simpson

                        3.  We see separation in the sin-offering.

a) “The old sin-offering could not be laid on the altar—it was unclean, because the sin of the people had been transferred to it.”

b) It had to be burnt outside the camp.

4.  “The very meaning of the word church is /called out or separated.”/

-A.

B. Simpson

            B.

We are called individually to separation (2 Corinthians 6:17-7:1).

1.

Holiness is our voluntary separation from evil.

a) “It is not the extinction of evil.”

-A.

B. Simpson

b) “It is the putting off, the laying aside of evil by the detaching of ourselves from it and placing an impassable gulf between us and it.”

-A.

B. Simpson

                                                1) From past sins

                                                2) From sin as a principle of life

c) We are to separate ourselves from evil as a wife is divorced from her husband and as the soul is separated from the body at death (Romans 6:11).

d) “We separate ourselves; God makes the separation good.”

-A.

B. Simpson

                        2.  Holiness is our voluntary separation from the evil world system.

a) /You adulteress people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?  Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God./  James 4:4

b) /Do not love the world or anything in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him./  1 John 2:15

                        3.  Holiness is our voluntary separation from the earthly.

a) Things you might not call sinful which aren’t helpful to His life and will!

b) “Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things, whatever increases the authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.”

-Susanna Wesley                      

c) “The 1982 movie /Chariots of Fire/ ... told the story of the rivalry between two legendary runners, Harold Abrahams of England and Eric Liddell of Scotland.

As the movie tells, Eric Liddell's convictions kept him from running the 100-meter race at the 1924 Olympics in Paris.

The qualifying heats for the race were held on a Sunday, and as a result, Eric made a decision that was viewed as tantamount to treason by the world's standards: He gave up his chance for an Olympic medal because of his belief that he was not to participate in such an activity on God's day.

Instead, Liddell was allowed to compete in the 400-meter race, an event that he had little or no likelihood of winning.

He was further handicapped when he drew an outside lane where no other runners would help him set his pace.

Despite the odds, he raced to victory, winning by five meters...  The year after his Olympic victory, he chose to turn his back on fame and commit the rest of his life to serving Jesus Christ.

Following in his parents' footsteps, Eric became a missionary to China...  In his spare time, Eric did continue to run, but running for sport made no sense to the Chinese ... so he stopped his daily running routine.

When the Japanese invaded China, Eric chose to stay...

He was soon rounded up with other foreign missionaries and business people and spent the rest of his life in an internment camp...

He died of a brain tumor just a few months before liberation in 1945.”

-/God's Hall of Fame/ (pages 51, 52)   

 

            To be holy means to be separated and

 

II.

Dedicated

            A.

“It is not only to separate from but to separate to.”

-A.

B. Simpson

            B.

This meaning answers to the burnt-offering of the Old Testament.

C.

“The radical idea of the word is to be set apart to be the property of      another.”

-A.

B. Simpson

1.  /Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship./

Romans 12:1

2.  /Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?

You are not your own; you were bought at a price.

Therefore honor God with your body./  1 Corinthians 6:19, 20

                        3.  “Holiness is being sold out to---not for---Jesus.”

-Robert Goldenberg

            D.