Sermon Tone Analysis

Preliminary:

I seen a sign the other day that brought a stark reminder of the fact that this world is changing:

“If you think you are smarter than the previous generation…50 years ago the owners manual of a car showed you how to adjust the valves.

Today it warns you not to drink the contents of the battery.”

Oh the world may change - but Jesus never does - The writer of Hebrews says “He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever!!!”

I invite you to 1 Peter chapter 1 tonight.

Thank those who sang the special

Sometimes it is tempting to take a pen and scratch out the word “faith” in Romans 1:17 “The just shall live by faith” and write in “feeling” because its sometimes easier to live by feeling than by faith.

If I went by my feelings tonight I’d play back brother Albert’s message from yesterday morning and just say “ditto”

But by faith, I’m going to preach what the Lord has laid on my heart for tonight -

1 Peter 1 :13 )

When you’ve found it would you mind standing in honor of the Word of God

I want to talk with you tonight about our privilege of being Called to Holiness

Ask Brother Jerry Schenck to pray - Last year as Sister Becky Schenk mentioned in testimony earlier today, she was pushing him in a wheelchair.

This year he has been all over this campground working and doing things - he even came down to my cabin and fixed an electrical outlet.

I Praise God!!!

Read: 1 Peter 1:13-16

I have asked Bro.

Jerry Schenck him to pray for me tonight!!!

Introduction:

It is so easy and yet so tragic that important and valuable things can be looked over or missed.

Once-in-a-lifetime opportunities missed simply because we weren’t paying attention or grasping the need of the moment.

On February 6th Queen Elizabeth the monarch of England celebrated her 70th year as queen.

There were all kinds of celebrations and speeches and activities, but one of the most interesting was the stories.

One article I read shared perhaps one of the funniest and greatest stories

... told by the head of her security detail.

He recounts that one time when the Queen was in her 80s, he and she were picnicking in the countryside near Balmoral, her Scottish residence.

Two American hikers came along, and stopped for a chat.

They asked “the old lady” if she lived nearby, and she remarked that she lived in London, but had a place up here too, and that she had been visiting here for some seventy years.

The hikers made the observation that they were near Balmoral and that the Queen’s residence was there.

The inevitable question was then asked, had either of the two picnickers met the Queen.

The Queen assured them that she had not met her, but her gentleman friend had indeed met the Queen and on many occasions.

Cue gasps of surprise and “wows”, and questions about what the Queen was like, to which he replied that she could be a bit gruff, but was actually quite nice.

Following the obligatory photographs with the “man who knew the queen” and a final last photo of the old lady, the two hikers were on there way, at which point the Queen turned to her employee and remarked, “Imagine what their friends will say when they show them their photos!”

Imagine indeed.

Imagine failing to see the real before you.

There you were gushing and oohing over the man who said he had met the Queen, but you don’t appreciate the fact that you are standing there in her presence.

It is a privilege for me to stand here tonight an Ordained minister of the Bible Holiness Church

It is interesting we have to qualify the term “holiness” isn’t it

the reason we qualify it as Bible Holiness is there are so many ideas as to what holiness is perceived or thought to be.

The danger is - not all of it is true

Paul obviously had this problem too because he instructed the church at Ephesus to

Eph. 4:24 “And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

For “true holiness” to be specified there must be some “false” or “artificial” holiness out there.

Bro.

Mike Avery wrote: The subject of holiness desperately needs to be rediscovered and reintroduced into the culture and values of America.

That process should begin in the church.

I believe in Bible Holiness

A holiness that is Biblical!!!

A Biblical Holiness means a life that is ordered by God’s Word

Walking just as Chirst walked leaving us an example to follow

1 Peter 2:21 “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:”

Peter both begins and ends this epislte with a call to growth in Christlikeness to walk in holiness.

Being called to holy living isn’t only for the entirely sanctified.

If you aren’t progressing in holiness wherever you are on your walk with God, you are backsliding

This passage covers all that God wants to do for us including entire sanctification, but also all of the growth in grace that comes before that and after that.

Dr. W.T. Purkiser answers that in Biblical usage, holiness embraces the concepts of “separation from the profane and unholy and devotement to God,” stressed in the Old Testament, and “moral purity,” predominant in the New Testament.

Thus, the basic meaning is “separated, consecrated and/or purified; made free from sin.”

Oswald Chambers makes the bold claim that “The destined end of man is not happiness, nor health, but holiness.”

A call to holiness is a call to relationship over ritual

Someone said, “Holiness is not the way to Christ, Christ is the way to holiness.”

Oswald Chambers later comments: “God has one destined end for mankind, viz., holiness.

His one aim is the production of saints.

God is not an eternal blessing-machine for men; He did not come to save men out of pity: He came to save men because He had created them to be holy.

The Atonement means that God can put me back into perfect union with Himself, without a shadow between, through the Death of Jesus Christ.”

I’m so thankful for the day that Jesus called me and I answered and he brought me into a relationship with Him

I want to cultivate that relationship with Him

I want to constantly be taking that relationship to the next level as the songwriter said

Lord, lift me up, and let me stand

By faith, on heaven’s tableland;

A higher plane than I have found,

Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

I’m thankful that this relationship isn’t just one sided

As another songwriter put it:

“And he walks with me and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own.”

We can have a vibrant, close walk with God and following the call of holiness will bring that.

A Call to Holiness is a call to Purity over profession (reality, not just facade)

We don’t have to settle for a form of godliness - we can have the Holy Spirit in us leading us in holy living.

Called unto holiness means we live differently (1 Peter 1:14)

1 Peter 1:14 “As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:”

1 Thess 4:7 “For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.”

1 Thess 4:3 “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:”

Those who are in Christ have a different worldview

Worldview: A comprehensive description of the way that human existence fits into the larger material world of our sensory perception, including the origins of that world of experience and ourselves, any meaning or lack thereof that our existence has.

An explanation for why the various features of our self awareness exists, and the nature of the good life, and how we can deal with issues such as evil and guilt.

Understood in this way, there are religious worldviews that are self-contained worldviews and there are non-religious views that back comprehensiveness but are really related constellations of views that must work together.

Ultimately every worldview entails and requires a “story” of some kind into which a person can encounter a description of the meaning of their lives, how they should live, and why.

Christianity as a whole has a worldview it should be, it is expected to be a Biblical worldview

While those who call themselves “Holiness People” however they define that are still expected to follow and have this Biblical/ Christian worldview

A worldview that is going to be different from those who are not Christian and who do not follow the Bible

It is a worldview that is all-encompassing and totalizing - by that everything is to be under it not just a part of our thinking and behavior

Some scriptures to show what I am talking about:

2 Cor.

6:17 “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,”

1 John 2:15 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

I could go on but I trust you are getting the gist - when I speak of being called to holiness, I’m talking about an all-encompassing life

Romans 12:1-2 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

1 Thess 5:23 “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”