And so this morning I want to talk about holiness within the constraints of revival, within the parameters of talking about personal revival, what it means to have a heart on fire for God. Part of that, or one of the tenets of that I want to look at is the subject of holiness. Holiness is a unique word. It is a word. I think we would agree, and I hate to say this, we’re in a culture and a mindset and a social aspect today where everything is misused and misappropriated. The word Holy, I think we would agree, has been reserved for at least religious reasons, at least religious things.
The word holy is probably imprinted on the front of your Bible. It’s on the front of mine. We talk about holiness in regards to church and I’m sure it gets, we would agree it, it’s misappropriated sometimes even within Christian circles, but it’s a word that is reserved for primarily godly things or church related things, but what does it mean to be holy? If God tells us to be holy as he is holy, what then does it mean for us to be holy? It’s like short definition. We could go into some detail and I’ll go into a little bit, but conforming to the character of God. God is holy. Every aspect of his character is holy conforming to his character. Listen, holiness is going to be at a polar opposite to sin, and so as we’re talking about holiness, we’re going to be contrasting that with things like the flesh and my sinful nature, the way that I am or the way that I lean or the temptation that comes my way. We need to contrast that with living a holy lifestyle, thus conforming to the character of God, the character of God without sin, far from sin as far as that is possible from sin.
One John one, if you want to go back just a couple pages there in the Bible, one John 1, 5, 1 John one, five. This then is the message which we have heard of him and then declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. There is no sin. There couldn’t be anything farther from sin than the character of God, and so therefore God has established for you and I a very high standard. I think we would agree looking at this, it’s a difficult standard. God says, I’m holy and therefore my expectation for you, mankind, believers, Christians, my expectation for you then is to be holy, is to live holy. That’s not easy. That’s difficult. There’s a problem there that is we’re going to fall short of that mark, and yet the rule is there, the standard is there. The level that we’re supposed to live up to is there.
If you follow the stuff we do at TAP Ministries, we got some new stone in our driveway this week, and along with that, someone’s given us a shed to put there and I took a skid loader and leveled out the stone. I am not a very well experienced skid loader operator. That may surprise you, but that’s not exactly something I do a lot of, and so I leveled out this stone, especially where this little building was going to get placed, and then the guy who’s coming to bring the building came over and he’s like, did you level it out? I’m like, yeah. I said, I gave it the old eye test. It looks pretty good. He’s like, I don’t think so. And so we got out a level, we got two posts and a string and put the line levels on the line, and then we added more stone to the one side. That was a little low, right?
That rule, that line, that level, that rope that we put up that told us what was right and what I had done. Nick fell a little short it a little saggy on one side. It wasn’t quite enough stone over there. We needed to level it back up. We understand that Desi jokes all the time that her favorite tool for me to use is the level. No matter what I’m doing, make sure you take a level and check it because we tend to eyeball it. No, I think it’s close enough. I think it’s okay. No, no. It’s that way in the Christian life too, right? Jesus Christ is the standard. He’s the level. He’s the rule. Be holy as I am. Holy. He’s established holiness and I think we start to do what we think is good enough or close enough or that should be okay, and then we level it up against his level of holiness and we find out what we fall short.
We got work to do. We have things to work on in our life, so that’s the standard. Conforming to the character of God is the standard we’ve been given. It’s the rule. It’s the level if you will, that we’ve been given to compare our life to, so we have a standard. We have something to compare to when we talk about holiness. It’s commanded of God, but however we have a sin problem. We have a sin problem. That flaw is ever present with us. The flesh is there, and so we have that obviously a task of attaining to holiness, which we’re going to fall short of and please understand, I don’t think this would be a secret to anybody here, but we’re not going to attain holiness until we’re with him, right? There’s always something to work on, but we’re supposed to be heading towards that goal. We’re supposed to be working our life. That’s the process of sanctification in a Christian life is being changed into the image of Jesus Christ, so it’s a constant struggle. It’s constant work and what’s the problem? Well, the problem is sin.
Sins the problem. James one 13, James one 13. We’re staying close here in scripture right now, James one 13. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempt if he any man. So verse 14 gives us the answer, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed then when lust, hath conceived and bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death. We have this, and I talked about this a couple of weeks ago. We have a tendency to say real quickly, well, the devil made me do it, but the Bible I think goes a step farther than that, not the devil. It might just be my own flesh. There is temptation and that Satan wants to destroy us and his demons real.
They are no matter what is being perpetrated. In some church circles today, demons are a real thing, and so the demons and Satan himself bring temptation to trip us up, but the bottom line is most of us without Satan or demons ever attacking us have no problem falling into sin all by ourselves. Why? Because of the flesh. Verse 14 told us that every man, when he’s tempted, he’s drawn away of what His own lust he wants to. The flesh drives him into it, and because of the lure of sin and the lure of that temptation, mankind follows his heart and does that which is in disobedience to God, and so we’re not conforming to the character of God. We’re following sin and there’s sin in my life. That’s the problem. It’s commanded, be holy for I am holy, but we have a sin problem. We know what the standard is. We talked about that and now we have an issue. We have something to overcome. We have something to war against and something to fight against all the time. Don’t turn to this one, but the book of Zechariah, chapter eight, verse 17 tells us that God hates sin.
One John chapter one told us He’s light in him is no darkness at all. He doesn’t tolerate sin. He hates sin. There is no sin within the character of God. Our goal is to follow the character of God, but we have a sin problem, so there’s a challenge. It’s not easy, right? We don’t flip the switch, make the change. It’s going to be a process and there’s work to do. Being holy is not optional. It’s required for a few things in our life. Bible tells us that holiness is required for fellowship. It’s required for effective service. I believe we find holiness is required for assurance of our salvation. Again, we’re not attaining perfect holiness here. We’re always going to be battling sin, but I need to listen. I need to get the sin out, walk in the spirit and walk closer to God and live a holy life in order for some of these things to take place. Let’s look at these. Psalm 15, we’re going back to the Old Testament here.
Psalm 15 is just five verses, but it gives us this character, this character of holiness and the requirement for fellowship. David is the psalmist and David asks the question in verse number one, and then he answers it in verses 2, 3, 4, and five. The question, Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? Who the answer is verse two, he that walketh rightly and work with righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart, he that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor, in whose eyes a vile person is condemned, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord, he that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth, not he that putteth not out his money to usury nor take its reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.
Wow. So much to take in from Psalm number 15 who dwells with thee, the book of John chapter 15 parallel, Psalm 15, the book of John chapter 15 is the story of the true vine abiding in the vine. How do we abide? How are we close? How are we close to you? God, we talk about that. That’s our common vernacular of the day. How do we walk with God? Why do I feel close to God anymore? Why don’t I feel as close to God as I used to? Why aren’t my prayers being answered? How do I draw close to God? The psalmist asks that Lord, who abides with thee, who abides in thy Holy hill? How do I walk close to thee? Well, he that walk us uprightly and liveth, righteously holiness is a requirement for fellowship. I want to walk with him. I want to feel close to him.
I want to be in step with him. We talked about that a lot with last year as we were going through the book of numbers, we talked about Moses, Moses, God called Moses, his friend. Moses understood what God’s expectations were. Maybe more than any other character that we see in the Bible based on the information we’re given, we see that Moses really understood what God’s expectations were when there was sin. Moses knew God was going to judge it and how to deal with it when God was displeased. Remember Moses telling Aaron to take the incense from the altar and go among the people, stay the plague? Some of those stories that we looked at last year, Moses understood what God’s expectation was because Moses dwelt with God. He was close to God. It was Moses who got to go up on the mountain, was given the 10 commandments. I mean, he was so close to God that when he came down, his face was glowing that people couldn’t even look at him because the Shekinah glory was so much a part of Moses’ demeanor that it was evident to everybody that saw him. I mean, Moses was close with God. I think you and I struggle. How do we walk with him? How do we get close to him?
David asked that question, right? Here’s David asking that question. Who abides? Who’s there? Who’s in your holy hill? Who’s in that place with you? Well, the person who is walking up rightly worketh righteousness, speaketh truth, verse three and four. He talks about the things not to do, not backbiting, not being vile, verse five, being careful where you use your money and helping the poor, and he the doeth, these things he says shall never be moved out of the presence of God. Holiness is a requirement for fellowship. Number two, there holiness is a requirement for effective service, effective service. Hebrews chapter 12, I’m jumping back to where we were just a few minutes ago there, that portion of scripture, Hebrews chapter 12, tell you what. We’re going to look at that one in a second.
Second Timothy, chapter two, second Timothy, chapter two, verse 21. We’ll go to Hebrews in a minute. Second Timothy chapter two, verse 21. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel, honor sanctified and meet for the master’s use and prepared. Under every good work, there are things that we’re supposed to be mindful of, to clean ourselves so that we can be a vessel under honor, something that can be used for the work of God so that we’re prepared for the work that needs to be done.
Think about that with the, here’s an example, and I’ve come full circle. I can give the end of the story now, right? Here’s Paul Harvey, the rest of the story. I talked as an example. I’d given an illustration I’d given I think even last year about my generator. Remember my big generator that sat in the garage? I hadn’t used it. I hadn’t used it in probably a couple years. There was, there’s a generator, sad. It was dirty. It had stuff piled up on top of it hadn’t started in forever. A generator can give me power when the electricity is off, but only if it’s running. It doesn’t do any good. Sitting in the garage, dusty, dirty and covered up with stuff, and so I hadn’t told you this, but two months ago I pulled it up, I cleaned it off. I put fresh fuel in.
I had taken care of it. I had emptied the old fuel out of it before I stored it, so I put new fuel in it. Second pool fires right up, work good. Plug stuff into it. Now. It’s a useful I item. I’ve kept it out. I’ve kept it clean. I’ve kept it handy. I’ve kept it working so that when I need it, it’s ready to be used. Are we ready for the master’s use or not? We may well be a child of God’s, a child of God. My generator was one of my, it was my possession. It was in my garage. It was safe and sound. Nobody was going to steal it. Let’s say broke into the garage. I guess it was safe. It just wasn’t really being used because it had kind of been neglected, hadn’t been primed and hadn’t been. Oil changed and none of that stuff had been done to it. It was just kind of sitting there. I wonder how often in the work of the Lord, we’re a believer, we’re a child of the king. We know that there’s a place prepared for me. I am in the house that I’m supposed to be in. I’m a child of the king, but if God came to me today and said, Samuel, Samuel, I have a job for you. We’d go, oh, right, I’m not ready.
If we were Nehemiah and the king said, oh, your countenance is sad. What is it that you need? We’d go, well, first I need to get some things right and then I’ll put in my request. Are we ready to be used as the master deems us ready for a job at hand or are we like my generator was sitting in the corner collecting dust, not really being used? I could give you a hundred examples like that, right? We understand that. I was walking up the steps last night and I’m like, man, my leg is aching me. I think I need to exercise more. There’s a bike in my garage somewhere. Flat tires. It looks like that generator did chain’s probably rusty. Wonder why I haven’t exercised. Wonder why my legs aching because I’m not using it. How often does God come and say, I have a job for you to do, and we go, wait, wait.
I’m not ready. That’s what second Timothy two 12 was talking about, purging ourselves, getting ourselves cleaned up so that we can be a vessel under honor, sanctified, and meet or fit, fit for the master’s use and prepared unto every good work. You don’t want to be Pastor West’s bicycle, right? Because when someone needs to go somewhere, there’s some work that needs to be done. First, we want to be ready, fit, usable, set and prepared, and so listen, if I’m living a life where I’m walking, holy, listen again, please understand, not sinless, but where I’m walking in the spirit and in the best of my earthly natural ability. I’m walking for God and I’m dealing with sin and I’m getting things right and I’m forgiving people and I’m not holding on to bitterness. I’ve dealt with those sins and the sin that does so easily beset me that besetting sin.
I’ve dealt with it, I’ve confessed it. I’ve got it right and I’m walking with the Lord and when the Lord comes along like he did to Samuel or Nehemiah or Esther or Joshua or any one of other characters in this great book and he says, all right, I’m ready for you. Are we ready? Are we ready to go? Are we prepared or we need some work? Do we need a tuneup first? I hope that my message today in these series of messages is prompting us to get the tuneup right, to go get that generator out of the garage like I did. Clean it off, put the new fuel in it, get it working, plug it in, make sure it’s working, make sure it’s doing everything it’s supposed to do so when the challenge comes and the problem comes, we’re ready to go. We’re ready to do it.
So holiness. It’s required for fellowship. It’s required for effective service. I believe it’s also effective and necessary for assurance of our salvation. If I’m living a holy life, listen, I’m not doubting my salvation. We had a whole series on assurance of salvation just a few months ago and I know so many struggle with that, but I wonder if I’m, can I give that same illustration, right? I wonder if I feel like I’m not saved because I am neglecting my spiritual life and I am like that rusty bike hanging in the garage where I’m not really being used by God. I’m not really fit and prepared and ready for the master’s use as the contrast.
Two Timothy 2 21, my vessel is not purged, not honored, not sanctified and not fit for the master’s use. I’m just not ready. I need to fix some things. I need to change some things. No wonder we feel like we’re not saved. No wonder we begin to question our salvation. I know some of you turned there a minute ago, so don’t turn there. Hebrews 12, six whom he loveth? He chasteneth, right? He wants us to get on track. We already looked at John 15 as we talked about the parable of the vine, the picture he gave that he’s the vine we’re the branches and what does he say? Those that aren’t giving fruit, he purge it. He works on it. He picks some up. He ties them back on the trellis. He gets ’em back to functioning and working Once again. He loves us.
He doesn’t neglect us. He’s working in us and he loves us enough that he chastens us and works in our life. The holiness. It’s not optional. In fact, it’s required for many of these things. Romans seven. Romans seven. Let’s look at a verse here real quick as we’re wrapping up. Romans chapter seven, I am going to take the time to read some of this. It’s one of my favorite passages of scripture. Verse 14, and we’ll work down to verse 21, verse 14, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I’m carnal, sold under sin. This is Paul talking to the church at Rome for that, which I do, I allow not for what I would that do, I not, but what I hate that I do. If then I do that, which I would not, I can send unto the law that it is good now, then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me for I know that in me that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing for to will is present with me, but how to perform it, that which is good.
I find not for the good. I would I do not, but the evil, which I would not that I do now, if I do that, I would not. It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwell within me. I find that a law that when I would do good evil is present with me. Each month. I usually pick a passage that we try to memorize some verses, should we do this one? No. That’s got to be one of the toughest, right? It’s hard enough to read. It’s hard enough to read, but Paul, as Paul does under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul is making the point, right? He’s making the point that as listen, as difficult as it is to read is as difficult as it is for him to live it, right? I want to do, which is right, but I always do what is wrong and I know what to do, but I’m not doing it and the desire to do good is there, but then I fail anyway and I mess up.
It’s a struggle. Holiness is a struggle. It’s a battle in our Christian life. It’s a daily battle. We know that sin has been dethroned, but yet it remains right? Bible tells us Nieman be in. Christ is a new creature. Praise the Lord. Sin has been dethroned. Unfortunately, it’s still hanging around. The heart is deceitful. There’s that indwelling sin nature that works through our desires and it will deceive our understanding. That’s what Paul’s talking about here in Romans chapter seven, so the fight is ongoing. It will not end. It’s why in other passages put on the whole armor of God that we can defend ourselves against the wiles and the arrows and the attack of the devil. It’s a daily fight. It’s a daily battle.
Go back to chapter six. We’re in Romans chapter six, verse 11. Chapter six 11. Likewise reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. We are to daily reckon ourselves. That means daily take account of that daily. I think we have to put ourselves in that spot and that perspective where every day we wake up, we put on the whole armor of God to defend ourselves and remember once again, I am dead to sin. I don’t have to live there anymore. I am alive in Christ.
The sin is defeated. Satan wants it to destroy me. It’s a defeated foe, and so daily we have to reckon ourselves daily. We have to look at the numbers there and figure out, make it balance. Years ago, we would’ve used an example there of balancing our checkbook. Nobody does that anymore, right? It doesn’t seem like it. It’s all online now, but when you balanced your checkbook, you took what you had versus what the bank had and you reckoned it out to make sure it came to the same amount. Make sure you didn’t mess up or miss something. Make sure the bank didn’t mess up or miss something. You balance that out somehow. You need to reckon your finances. The Bible tells us daily, we should reckon ourselves. Listen, alive in Christ, dead to sin. That’s the numbers that we need to play in my spiritual life.
That’s what I need to understand. That’s what I need to know. I need to look at that and say, wait, wait. I’m letting sin get ahead. I need to reckon this. I’m alive in Christ and I’m dead to sin. I need to get this sin back down to a zero balance because it’s starting to work its way in into my life. Once again, we now have the spirit of God within us. Romans eight talks about that. I’m staying right here in this area and we’re going to wrap up here. Romans eight verse nine, Romans eight, verse nine, 10 and 11, but you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the spirit of God will in you. Now, if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.
But if the spirit of him that raised you up, Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies. We have the spirit of God. I ended with that one point because next Sunday I want to talk about walking in the Spirit once again. I do that once or twice a year. As I look back through my notes about once or twice a year, I zero in some message on the subject of walking in the spirit. I’ve done that a number of times, so if you’ve been here, you’ve heard me preach on that subject, though you have not heard me preach the sermon I’m going to preach next week, but we’re going to talk about that once again. The importance of walking in the spirit. What does that mean? That is an easy thing to say, but a hard thing to incorporate, a hard thing to do. So we’re going to talk about that. We have the spirit of God. We’re talking about holiness. We have help from the spirit to do the job at hand. I concluded with this, we must express our dependence upon the spirit by a humble and consistent intake of scripture, by prayer and by doing it.
Don’t turn here, let me turn here, and I’m not even telling you where I’m turning till I get there. I heard this years ago from a preacher, and it was so good. Deuteronomy 28 verse, it shall come to pass if thou shalt harken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all of his commandments, which I command you this day, that the Lord thy God will set the on high above all the nations of the earth. Verse 15, same chapter. It shall come to pass if thou will not harken under the voice of the Lord to observe and to do all of his commandments. Verse 45, same chapter verse 45 says, moreover, all these curses shall come upon thee and shall pursue thee and overtake thee until thou be destroyed, because thou harth not unto the voice of the Lord thy God to keep his commandments and his statues, which he commanded thee.
You didn’t do it. You didn’t keep it. Then chapter 29, verse 29, the secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed, that would be the word of God, those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever. Listen, and this is where we have a tendency. We have a tendency to say, God gave us the Word of God. Pastor reminded us this morning, we’re a Bible preaching church, so it is our job to defend the word of God, but the Bible doesn’t tell us to defend it. It shouldn’t be a secret. I just read all of chapter 28 sporadically. There, he tells us those things which are revealed belonging to us and to our children, that we may do all the words of this law. Our job is to do it.
I don’t think I can overemphasize that God’s given us his word. He’s given us his commandments. He’s given us his law. He’s given us the things that we’re supposed to do, and we have a tendency to learn it, know it, memorize it, teach it, defend it all. That’s fine. But his primary command was, I want you to do it. Do it. And so this morning or text in one Peter, he said, be ye holy for I am holy. And so I think excuses go out the window. We’re supposed to do it, enact it. Live it easy. No, we talked about that. It’s not easy. It’s a daily battle, but we’re supposed to do that, which he commanded.
- Pastor Wes Gunther May 14, 2023
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