Holiness...

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The burden of this Sunday clearly was on holiness. In time past, holiness has been an important topic. It was an important issue in the early Pentecostal churches. Then the believers got the idea that the old-fashioned holiness of dress and behaviour was not required under "grace," so the entire concept was discarded. Today the doctrine of holiness is not expressed as commonly as one might wish.

(3/11/07) Holiness is a major topic of both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Probably most of us are familiar with the expression, "Without holiness no one will see the Lord." This is the same as, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

But what exactly is Bible holiness? We understand that Christ Himself is our holiness. This does not mean that because we profess belief in Christ we are as holy as He is, it means that the Holy Spirit continually applies Christ to us until the sin resident in our personality is cast out and Christ is formed in us. The extent to which this transformation is taken place can be gauged by our behaviour.

Holiness is freedom from unclean spirits and the formation of Christ's Character in us. God is holy. He is without spiritual darkness of any kind whatever. We are to be created in God's image. This means we are to cooperate with the Holy Spirit of God until there is no spiritual darkness of any kind whatever in us, and we have become a new creation in Christ.

God requires of all human beings that they be righteous in behaviour. This means they are to be kind, forgiving, truthful, faithful, merciful, honest, possessing integrity, and so forth. This is true of saved and unsaved people alike. There is to be no unrighteous behaviour in the Kingdom of God, either in the governing priesthood or in the saved people of the nations.

Holiness, however, is a calling. The nation of Israel was a holy nation because God had called the people of Israel to Himself in a manner not true of the remainder of mankind. God required of Israel particular food, particular clothing, and a number of other unique cultural aspects. Also, God placed the Tabernacle of the Congregation in their midst. The presence of the Tabernacle and the priesthood were not given to the other people of the world.

The Nazirites were holier than the remainder of Israel. Thus we see that holiness, or closeness to God, exists in degrees. There is the holy, the more holy, the most holy.

We Christians, those whom God has chosen out of the world, are not to compare ourselves with unsaved people. They and we have to behave righteously, or we will suffer for our unrighteousness. But in addition, God's elect are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God that we may prove His will for our life.

In the present hour, God is calling out from among His elect those who will obey Him completely. We are to work with the Holy Spirit as He cleanses us from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Filthiness of the flesh would include watching pornography, telling dirty jokes, body piercing, tattoos, drinking beer, wine, liquor, taking drugs, smoking cigarettes or a pipe or cigars, chewing tobacco, sexual perversions, homosexual behaviour.

Filthiness of the spirit would include a lying spirit, a devious manipulate spirit, self-centeredness and self-love, a man-pleasing spirit. A complete list of inner spiritual darkness, attitudes which are not of God's image, may be found in my book "Perfecting Holiness," located in the Library on the WOR site.

The result of becoming holy is that we can have fellowship with God. We can serve in the various roles and tasks of the Kingdom of God. We can live righteously. It is the inner spiritual darkness in us that results in unrighteous behaviour.

The forming of Christ in us provides the basis for righteous behaviour. But in addition, if we are to be pleasing to God, we must be delivered from unclean spirits.

The work of the Holy Spirit delivers us from the spiritual darkness in us that causes us to be spiritually unclean. If we, through the Holy Spirit, put to death the sinful actions of our body, we will grow in eternal life. Eternal life always results from holiness of personality.

If we choose to be a slave of God we will grow in holiness. As we grow in holiness we grow in eternal life.

To love God with all our heart is to be holy. To love our neighbour as ourselves is to be righteous.

It is not enough that we behave righteously. If we have been called to be a saint (holy one), we must listen to the Holy Spirit. As the Spirit points out to us the unclean spirits that dwell in us and motivate us we must confess to God that a particular unclean spirit is in us. We then must vigorously denounce this spirit, calling it by name, such as self-pity, self-justifying, seeking pre-eminence, lust, pornography, alcohol, drugs. We must announce that it is fit only for Divine judgment and the Lake of Fire.

Then we are to renounce this spirit, declaring that we want no more to do with it for eternity.

After this we are to draw near to Christ that we may receive more of His Presence and resume our fellowship.

The above actions will remove the life and fire from these evil spirits so we always can overcome them, resisting Satan at every point.

"Be holy for I am holy." Our God is holy, without darkness of any kind. He has given to us His Holy Spirit that we might become holy as He is holy.

The current misdirecting of Divine grace is preventing spiritual growth in God's people. When they are convicted of sin in their behavior, instead of dealing with it and overcoming it, they say, "I am saved by grace so God cannot see my sin." This destructive notion is, as I have stated preventing spiritual growth in God's people. Spiritual growth is growth in being able to distinguish between good and evil, and strength to embrace what is good and drive from us what is evil.

If we are to proceed into God's Kingdom we must maintain a clear conscience. If there is any point at which we sense guilt, we then are to go to prayer to find out what the problem is. If we continue in known sin, we will lose our eternal life. Christ will not be offered again so that we can regain our standing with God. At one time we were walking blamelessly as far as we knew. Now we are continuing in sin. Our conscience is defiled. We are not walking in the Light. Therefore cannot have fellowship with God and the blood of His Son is not cleansing us from all unrighteousness.

If you as a Christian have become convicted of sin, deal with it as I have described above. Get rid of it. Take enough time out of the American frenzy of buying and selling and seek God until you regain right standing with Him.

I do not know how long it will be before serious judgment falls on our country. Right now we have a window of opportunity to go to the Mercy Seat and get the help we need so we can live in holy fellowship with God.

Let each one of us take full advantage of this opportunity so we can save ourselves and our loved ones.

You can hear the morning sermon at morning. http://www.wor.org/audio/audio.htm

You can hear the evening sermon at evening. http://www.wor.org/audio/audio.htm

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