This is the sermon I preached on holiness on November 18th. It's long, so proceed with caution. Thanks to all of you who helped me work through this subject.
I don’t think I would make a good full time preacher because I can only preach about something I feel strongly about. Fortunately for all of us, I am very passionate about this morning’s subject, and I truly believe God has guided me through the preparation of this sermon, and I truly believe that what I have to say to you this morning is a word from God.
I say that very hesitantly, because I am always afraid that what I share from the pulpit is more from me than it is from God. You see, we all have our hang ups and pet peeves, and if we aren’t careful, we can preach those rather than sharing a word from God.
With all of that said, this morning I will be speaking on holiness. Last week, when I told Sarah that I was going to speak on that subject, her reaction was, “I don’t want to hear that, I already know I need to be better.” If your response is similar to Sarah’s, then be encouraged, this is not going to be a fault finding sermon. To be honest, I think I was leaning in that direction when I first began working on this lesson. I asked myself what this congregation needed to hear. After thinking about it for a while, I decided this church needed a call to holiness. Which at the time meant to me, a call to stop sinning- a call to stop getting drunk, a call to stop gossiping, a call to stop any sexual activity with anyone other than your spouse, to stop viewing pornography…and the list could go on. This attitude was in large part due to my recent study of the prophets and particularly the exile, but was also due to things that I had feared was going on among our congregation. And while God most certainly wants us to put those sins behind us, I was missing the larger picture. I began the process wanting to preach about your sins, but the more time I spent with God, in prayer and in His Word, the less I saw the faults of others and the more I saw my own sinfulness and brokenness. You see, all the sinful things I listed before, are all things that I have been guilty of- on numerous occasions in some instances. And in each instance, I knew that what I was doing was sinful, I didn’t need a preacher to tell me that, and my guess is, neither do you, especially a fill in preacher.
What is Holiness?
As we get started, we need to refine our understanding of holiness. I used to think that holiness was the measure of how well you obeyed God’s commands. I thought that being holy was the same as being righteous or godly. It’s not. If you look at this verse, you will notice that holiness in this case is a result of their obedience.
Exodus 19:5-6
“Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession, although the whole earth is mine, 6 you [a] will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
Now if you viewed holiness like I did, then that would sound pretty redundant…and repetitive…and as though it was saying the same thing over again. (Did I miss any synonyms, Bill?) It would be like saying, “If you go home and take a nap this afternoon, you will go home and take a nap.” But righteousness and obedience are not the same thing as holiness. This verse is more of a cause-effect statement like, “If you go home and take a nap, you will enjoy peaceful dreams.”
This verse comes right before the 10 commandments, and God is inviting the people into a relationship with himself. The commandments and the laws were the conditions of that relationship. “If you obey me…then you will be a holy nation.”
So if holiness is not the same thing as righteousness, then what is it? Well it literally means set apart. It doesn’t mean that you have a halo around your head, or that your face glows from your godliness. It just means that you are set apart from the rest.
Over the months leading up to our trip to NYC, Sarah and I would set apart some of my paycheck to save up for the trip. It didn’t get used for Los Portales, it didn’t get used for bills, it didn’t get used for anything that we typically use our money for. It was set apart for a special use. And now as we approach the holidays, we have started over, setting apart some of our income to use for special gifts and expenses. The twenty dollar bills that we set apart aren’t any greener than the ones we use to pay rent, they aren’t worth more than the ones we use to pay our gas, they are just set apart for a special purpose.
That is the first thing I want you to remember, we are holy, first and foremost, because God set us apart as holy. Now the main difference between money and us, is that we have the choice as to whether we want to be used for the special purpose or not. That’s where the if comes into play. “If you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then… you will be…a holy nation.” Again, in II Timothy 2:20, Paul says,
“In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.”
Money has to do what we tell it to. That is what Dave Ramsey has been teaching us in that
And THAT is what Satan wants us to choose. Since the creation of the world, God has been calling us to an extraordinary life full of honor, praise and contentment; meanwhile, Satan has been trying to get us to settle for a cheap imitation of life full of pain, regret, sorrow, shame and loneliness.
How do we choose holiness?
We talked earlier about how to be holy, just means to be set apart. But now we need to ask, set apart for what? What is that special purpose that God has gone through so much trouble to set us apart for? Is our purpose in life to follow rules? No! Is our purpose to be active in the church? No! Is our purpose to get to heaven? Not really. The purpose for which God has set us apart, is to have an intimate relationship with Him! That is why He created us. That is why He called Abraham. That is why He gave us the law. That is why He came in the flesh. That is why he destroyed the barrier between us on the cross. That is why he conquered death. That is why he is preparing a home for us in heaven.
The ALMIGHTY creator of heaven and earth, He who formed the
How do you accept an invitation like that!!!?
First, humbly. Anyone who looks at a relationship with God as something deserved or earned, either has no idea who God is, or has no idea who they are. We need to have the attitude of David in II Samuel 7 when he God reveals His plans for blessing David and His family.
"Who am I, O Sovereign LORD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? 19 And as if this were not enough in your sight, O Sovereign LORD, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your servant. Is this your usual way of dealing with man, O Sovereign LORD ? "What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Sovereign LORD. 21 For the sake of your word and according to your will, you have done this great thing and made it known to your servant. "How great you are, O Sovereign LORD! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears.
And also in Psalm 8
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
Second, do things that bring you closer with God. These are things like reading the bible, spending time in prayer, following the example of Christ. I have said it before and I will say it again, if you are reading the bible to discover rules and how to follow them, you have missed the whole point of the Bible. The Bible was given to us so that we may know God. If you are praying in order to get your will accomplished, then you have missed the whole point of prayer. Prayer was given to us as a means to bring our wills more closely in line with God’s. And if you are truly following the example of Christ (loving the unlovable, forgiving the unforgivable, giving selflessly, living a life of self-sacrifice), then you need to be preaching instead of me. Following the example of Christ is the ultimate way of knowing God and knowing how to have and intimate relationship with God.
Third, avoid things that will separate us from God. Sin is a departure from God’s will, and therefore a departure from walking with God. Anytime we choose to go our own way, it strains our relationship with God. With guilt comes shame. With shame comes secrecy, and with secrecy comes separation. Anyone who has watched kids going through adolescence understands this. Elementary kids will tell you any and everything. But somewhere between that age and High School, they start becoming more withdrawn. They are more selective about what they disclose and what is kept secret. This is nothing more than guilt taking a hold of their relationships. In elementary school, they know right and wrong, but if they do something wrong, it doesn’t alter their self perception. This is primarily because they draw their self worth from their parents. When they become adolescents, they begin to care more and more about what others think of them, and if they have done things they are ashamed of, then they will wall themselves off.
This transition is obvious in the garden. Adam and Eve were naked and had no shame, but as soon as they sinned, they ran for cover and hid from God. When we sin, it is easy to think that God turns His back on us in disgust. But what really happens, is that we hide from Him, so that we don’t feel His presence. Shame is one of the most effective tools of Satan. When we feel ashamed, our prayer life suffers, our Bible reading suffers, and our fellowship with other Christians suffers. And so when we need God and godly influences, we find ourselves alone and helpless.
It is very important to remember that failing does not terminate our relationship with God no more than it would a marriage. If Sarah and I got divorced every time I treated her poorly, we would have Dr. Phil breaking down our door, or more likely, Jerry Springer.
So, What happens when we fail?
We are forgiven completely! And then we can stand Holy and Blameless in God’s sight.
Hebrews 10:10-18
“And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. 13Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, 14because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
15The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
16"This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds."[b] 17Then he adds:
"Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more."[c] 18And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.”
We are forgiven, and there is no longer any need for sacrifice. Jesus paid the price and with his sacrifice made us perfect forever, as we are continually made more holy. That is good news. In fact, that is The Good News, the core of the gospel: sinners like you and I can stand before God with our chins up, because Jesus has made us perfect in God’s sight.
But even as I say that, some of you are probably thinking, “Then why are we put through the ringer and made to suffer for our sins?” That is not an easy answer, and I don’t want to oversimplify it, but we are ALLOWED to suffer the consequences of our sin, because of God’s unfailing love for us. If that seems backwards, then just hear me out. I gave this example to the Middle School class Wednesday night and they seemed to understand so I’ll use it again. If my dog Buffy goes and plays in the street, I will discipline her. She doesn’t like it, it hurts. But if by allowing her to feel that pain, I can keep her from getting run over by a truck, then I have saved her from much worse. In the same way, if I never discipline Jude for the things he does wrong, then his life is likely to be filled with much more pain and frustration than spanking or grounding could have ever caused. And if my sin is never exposed so that I can continue in secret, I am not likely to turn to God so that I can be healed. One of the things that has blessed my marriage with Sarah the most, was the exposure of a sinful area in my life. It was a painful event to go through, but the exposure brought healing and intimacy that we had never known before. Looking back, I can see God’s hand in bringing my shameful deeds into the light. David, the man after God’s own heart, went through the same thing. He had some terrible skeletons in the closet, sins that he thought he had gotten away with. On the outside it seemed as though everything was going well for him, but as we read in Psalm 32, David was anything but happy.
1 Blessed is he
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
2 Blessed is the man
whose sin the LORD does not count against him
and in whose spirit is no deceit.
3 When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night
your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was sapped
as in the heat of summer.
Selah
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, "I will confess
my transgressions to the LORD "—
and you forgave
the guilt of my sin.
Selah
6 Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you
while you may be found;
surely when the mighty waters rise,
they will not reach him.
David says that when he hid his sin, “ my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Anyone who has been in his sandals knows exactly what that is like. But God loved him too much to allow him to continue in this way. God took the initiative and exposed his sin for him. He sent Nathan the prophet to confront him with his sin and free him from the agony that he was going through. There were probably countless Jews in David’s day who had committed adultery and murder and were not exposed, but God loved David and was willing to put him through the ringer so that he could come clean and begin life anew. David still had some very painful consequences to go through, but God remained faithful and blessed him through it all. Throughout the Bible you can see God pouring out great blessings while delivering punishments. Adam was told that he would have to work the ground, the good news is that the ground would indeed produce fruit and that Adam would get to enjoy the satisfaction of a hard day’s work. Eve was told that her pains would increase in childbirth, the good news is that she would indeed have children and be the mother of many nations. Moses was told that he would not enter the promised land, the good news is that he was finally relieved of the burden of the Israelites and was given a personal funeral by God and taken home to the real Promised Land. David was told that his child would die, the good news is that immediately afterwards, Bathsheba gave birth to his heir, the one who would build the temple.
Hebrews 12:5-11 reads
"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Finally, What happens when a brother or sister fails?
Remember, we are all under sin. None of us is righteous. The only way we can look righteous, is by comparing ourselves to others that we view as worse than we are. For instance, when the majority of us fill out a form that asks for our race, we check the box that says, “White/ Caucasian”, because, compared to the other races of the world, we are comparatively white. But even the palest of us would look brown against freshly fallen snow in the sunlight. In the same way, the holiest among us, and the most righteous acts, appear as filthy menstrual rags when seen in the light of God’s holiness (if that grosses you out, don’t blame me blame Isaiah, he is the one who said it in chapter 64).
If we are to truly be holy, it will be seen in the way we treat those whose sins are exposed. If we are to truly follow Jesus, then you will hurt with the broken, you will comfort those who are suffering, you will lift up those who have fallen; for Jesus came to save the world, not to condemn it. In Revelation 12, Satan is called the accuser of our brethren. So if you find yourself pointing the finger when a brother or sister falls, it is not Jesus’ footsteps you are following, it is Satan’s. Mercy, humility, love, and hope are at the core of what holiness is all about. I am afraid that our church has not demonstrated these qualities very well, or at least we are not perceived as having these qualities. In the three and a half years I have been here, I could count on one hand how many people have come forward in public confession. That either means that we are a remarkably sinless congregation, or we have not nurtured a loving, accepting environment where people feel free to confess their sins. Until we are willing to admit our brokenness and help each other struggle through their sins, this congregation will not grow as God intends.
This morning I am going to do things a little differently. In a moment Clay will lead us in an invitation song, the difference is that we are going to break it into two parts and offer two invitations. This first invitation, is for those who view themselves as holy. There was a group in Jesus’ day that viewed themselves as holy. In fact, that is what they like to be called publicly, Holy Ones, or Separate Ones. The Hebrew word for that is Fae-rus, what we call today Pharisees. They saw themselves as holy. They were quick to point the finger and condemn. They loved their reputations more than they loved the children of God. They would do nothing to help those struggling with sin, and in their arrogance would even make it harder for them to come to God. When sin was exposed they were the first to pick up a stone. If this describes you, then you are in the greatest need of repentance. And I beg you, come forward now, confess your sins, and lay down your stones as we stand and sing these first two verses.
Vs 1-2
Now, I take it that there are none among us who are still holding stones. Before we offer the other invitation, I want to ask you a few interactive questions. I am going to ask you to make a few promises so that we can all be on the same page. After each question, if you can, I would like you to respond with “I Do”.
Do you promise to do your best to build up the body of Christ? I Do
Do you promise to love, accept and encourage those who are struggling in sin? I Do
Do you promise to pray for each other? I Do
Do you promise to avoid talking about your brother or sister in an ungodly manner? I Do
Do you promise to keep yourselves holy to God and strive for deeper intimacy with Him? I Do
Now, all of you who are wasting away with hidden sin, you have heard the promises made by this congregation. We are a broken people. We are a people who want to do what is right, but too often find ourselves tangled in sin. We want to help you with your burdens. We want to give you the opportunity to start anew. As followers of Jesus Christ, we ask that you let us walk beside you as we all strive to grow closer with God. If there is any weight that you need to get off your chest, any sin that is tearing you down, come out into the light, and let us love you for who you are…a child of God.
