Bible Talks - Family Church (9:45am)
Series: Christian Calling · Talk No. 4
Called to Holiness
Sunday, 31 July 2005
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It’s 8:30am. I’ve just kissed Margaret goodbye as she leaves for work. I sit at my desk and boot up the computer to start writing this sermon on holiness. Muffin barks as she hears the gate being opened. The doorbell rings and standing there is one of those people whom I believe God has placed on this earth to try the patience of the saints, particularly his ministers. Arrogant, impatient, demanding. I deal with the incident, say goodbye and return to my desk seething with anger, resentment, perhaps even hatred.
If you think that my caller was you, you’re wrong, I made the incident up. I have a saying about the perks of ministry. About three times a week I want to perk. This was one of them. I look at the computer screen and the title I’ve put up mocks me. “Called to Holiness”. My anger and resentment give way to discouragement. It’s not even 9am and my day is ruined. I’m not only discouraged, I’m confused. I’d been reading the Apostle Paul’s statement in Romans 6:24 “sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” And here I am, locked yet again in the grip of anger and resentment.
Does the Bible really have the answers for my real life. I desire to live a holy, obedient life but time and again I find myself blowing it.
Perhaps for you it’s a different sin; anger with your children, resentment of another person’s promotion over you at work, a besetting sin that you just can’t seem to overcome. We read in the bible that God expects us walk in obedience, to live a life of holiness, to have mastery over sin in our lives.
By this time you’ve probably worked out that this sermon is titled “Called to Holiness”. The concept of holiness is perhaps a bit archaic in our present generation. It evokes images of hair in buns, long skirts and sensible shoes over thick stockings. Or perhaps ascetic monks contemplating their navels and chanting “Om” sitting on a mountain top. Or perhaps people in long, multicolored robes, with haloes around their heads on stained glass windows.
The idea of holiness is surrounded by many false concepts. In some circles it’s a whole bunch of prohibitions – no drinking, no smoking, no swearing, no dancing – and we see holiness as being like the Pharisees in Jesus’ time with endless lists of do’s and don’ts and a self-righteous attitude. Perhaps it means a level of spiritual perfection, unattainable by us normal mortals, discouraged as we are by the reality of sin in our lives.
All of these ideas have some element of truth but they miss the main point. To be holy is to be morally blameless. It is to be separated from sin and consecrated to God and committed to the conduct befitting that consecration.
Perhaps it’s helpful to see how the New Testament writers used the word:
- In 1 Thessalonians 4:3-7 Paul says, “3It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; 6and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. 7For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.” The term sanctified means to be made holy. So Paul contrasts holiness to a life of immorality and impurity.
- In 1 Peter 1:14-16 we read, “I4As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” Peter contrasts holiness with living according to the evil desires we had when we lived outside Christ.
- In Rev 22:11 John says, “1Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy.”
To be holy then is to live your life in conformity to the moral precepts of the Bible in contrast to the sinful ways of the world. As Paul puts it in Ephesians 4 we are “to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
If holiness then is basic to our Christian lives, why then do we not experience it more in our daily living? Why do so many Christians feel constantly defeated in their struggle with sin? Why does the church of Jesus Christ seem more conformed to the world around us than to God?
The answers to these questions can be grouped into three basic problem areas:
The first problem area is our attitude towards sin is more self-centered than God-centered. We’re so often more concerned about our own victory over sin than we are about the fact that our sins grieve the heart of God. We are so success oriented that we are more concerned about our failure to succeed in defeating sin than we are that God finds sin so offensive.
In the final analysis all sin is sin against God. The prodigal son who treated his father so badly never-the-less returns and says to him, “I have sinned against heaven and against you.” In the psalm King David wrote after he was confronted by the prophet Nathan about his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband he said to God, “against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.”
God wants us to walk in obedience – not victory. Obedience is directed towards God, victory is directed towards self. Out of obedience may come victory as a by-product but we must concentrate on living an obedient, holy life.
The second problem area is that often we misunderstand what holiness is. God through Jesus Christ has declared us holy in the sense that our sins are no longer counted against us but then we are instructed to be holy as God is holy. That is we must work at actually being holy. As J.C.Ryle who was Bishop of Liverpool, England, from 1880 to 1900 wrote in the introduction to his famous book on holiness “Is it wise to proclaim...that the holiness of converted people is by faith only and not at all by personal exertion?... faith in Christ is the root of all holiness ....But surely the scriptures teach us that in following holiness the true Christian needs personal exertion and work as well as faith. The very same Apostle who says in one place, ‘The life I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God,’ says in another place, ’I fight – I run – I keep under my body;’ and in other places, ‘Let us cleanse ourselves – let us labour, let us lay aside every weight.”
The Apostle James tells us that “faith without deeds is useless”. That popular notion of “Let go and let God” often misguides people into thinking that personal holiness does not require them to work at it at all.
Our third problem area is that we do not take some sin seriously. We have mentally categorized sins into those that are totally unacceptable and those that may be tolerated a little bit. Many of us, if we were to examine ourselves carefully, we find that we actually use a sliding scale of sins ranging from absolutely abominable to hardly matters. Are you committed to calling sin, “sin” not because of its magnitude on some such scale but simply because God forbids it.
Of course none of us, leastwise I think none of us, are guilty of being axe murderers, or serial rapists or notorious gangsters but it is the compromises on the little issues that lead to greater downfalls. Taking a bite out of an apple wasn’t such a big sin but it represented an attitude of the heart in which God’s clear command was not obeyed.
I like the “3 sins a day” illustration. It goes like this:
What would you call a good person. Someone who commits 100 sins a day? Not really. 10 sins a day? Still a bit much. Let’s say only 3 sins a day. That’s one in the morning before you get your act together; one in the middle of the day when you’re busy with other things and you forget to watch what you’re doing; and one in the evening when you’re too worn out from trying to be good all day. Let’s see – 3 sins a day multiply by 365 days in the year –let’s be generous and call it 1000 sins a year – multiply that by 75 the average life expectancy of an Australian male and you get 75,000 sins. You rock up to the pearly gates and God says “why should I let you into my heaven?” You reply “I’ve been good.” “How good?” “I’ve only committed 75,000 sins in my life. Ladies of course live about 5 years longer so a good lady would only commit 80,000 sins.
So what do we do with the problem we all have with holiness?
When we examine the scriptures we find that we are both made holy by God and called to be holy in our lives. In Hebrews 10:10 we read, “we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” And in Hebrews 12:14, “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” Scripture speaks of two complementary aspects of holiness: the holiness we have before God in Christ and the holiness which we are to strive after. If you like it is the difference between status and reality.
Our status is that through the death of Christ, his paying on the cross the penalty for our sins our status before God is holiness. “As far as the east is from the west our sins have been removed from us”, says the Psalmist. This imputed holiness then has to be worked out in practice. A yearning is placed in our hearts to be the people God declares us to be. At the beginning, at conversion, it may only be a spark but that spark grows until it becomes a flame. The desire to live a life wholly pleasing to God. True salvation brings with it the desire to be holy. When Christ saved us he saved us not just from the penalty of sin but from the dominion of sin. Paul tells us in Romans 6 that we are no longer slaves to sin and death but slaves to God and righteousness. J.C. Ryle again, “I doubt, indeed, whether we have any warrant for saying that a man can possibly be converted without being consecrated to God. More consecrated he doubtless can be, and will be as his grace increases; but if he was not consecrated to God in the very day he was converted and born again, I do not know what conversion means.”
The whole purpose of our conversion was that we become holy and blameless in God’s sight. Holiness is not a prerequisite or condition of salvation – that would be salvation by works – but it is part of our salvation that is received by faith in Christ. When we come to faith in Christ and the Holy Spirit creates a new heart within us that heart contains a desire for holiness. In Ephesians 2:8-10 we have that wonderful statement of justification by faith, “8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Notice that first comes the salvation then comes the works. In our salvation we are imputed the righteousness, the holiness of Jesus Christ and because of our salvation we are enable to actually work at achieving some measure of righteousness or holiness by being enabled to actually overcome the sin in our lives and do the good works God has planned for us.
God does not require a perfect, sinless life for us to have fellowship with him. But he requires that we be serious about holiness. That we grieve over the sin in our lives instead of justifying it and pursing it. He requires that we earnestly pursue holiness as a way of life. When God speaks to us about some sin, whether it be though our consciences, through his word, or by a loving word of another Christian, we need to heed and take action. To fail to deal with that sin is to risk incurring God’s hand of discipline which Hebrews reminds us may not be much fun.
Holiness is necessary for effective service of God. Holiness and usefulness are linked together.
Holiness is necessary for our own assurance of salvation. The only sure evidence that we are in Christ is a holy life.
And the greatest thing of all is that we have, at our conversion, been given, God’s Spirit of Holiness. The Holy Spirit himself has come and taken up residence within us. We can be holy. We can achieve holiness because we are not trying to do it alone. The Holy Spirit is actively working within us to help us be what God already counts us to be. Holy and blameless in his sight.
Let us pray.
