Introduction
There were once a number of beech trees which had formed a wood; they had all fallen to the ground through a storm. The fact was they leaned upon one another to a great extent, and the thickness of the wood prevented each tree from getting a firm hold of the soil. They kept each other up and also constrained each other to grow up tall and thin, to the neglect of root growth. When the tempest forced down the first few trees, the others readily followed, one after the other. Close to that same spot there was another tree in the open, bravely defying the blast, in solitary strength. The hurricane had beaten upon it but it had endured all its force unsheltered. That lone, brave tree seemed to be better rooted than before the storm. Is it not so with professors? They often hold together, and help each other to grow up, but if they have not firm personal roothold, when a storm arises they fall in rows. A minister dies, or certain leaders are taken away, and over go the members by departure from the faith and from holiness. I would have you be self-contained, growing each man into Christ for himself, rooted and grounded in love and faith and every holy grace. Then when the worst storm that ever blew on mortal man shall come, it will be said of your faith, “It could not shake it.”
Transition
If we are to live in holiness we must become firmly rooted in Christ so that the temptations, the storms, the ravages of the Devil and this world cannot uproot us.
CIT: Come out of the world.
CIS: You must no longer live like unbelievers.
Exposition
Speaking to believers, the Apostle Paul says we must no longer live as the unbelieving world, the Gentiles, live. (vv.17-18) “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15-16 NIV84)
What is holiness? A.W. Tozer rightly defined holiness thusly: “Holy is the way God is. To be holy he does not conform to a standard. He is that standard.
He is absolutely holy with an infinite, incomprehensible fullness of purity that is incapable of being other than it is. Because he is holy, all his attributes are holy; that is, whatever we think of as belonging to God must be thought of as holy.”
Holiness is rightly understood as an attribute of God but there is more to holiness than merely something which God possesses or measures in accordance with His own being and His own nature.
Holiness is both a requirement for and a consequence of salvation. Holiness has a twofold operation in the life of the believer and in salvation because there are two main ways that holiness is to be properly understood and discussed for the Christian believer – the holiness of Christ and the holiness of the individual.
(1) There is at the outset and most importantly the positional holiness of the believer when he receives the holiness of Christ by faith. Holiness was a requirement for Jesus to pay the penalty of sin and that holiness is transferred to us in salvation. God’s mercy is not Him “overlooking” sin.
The requirement for Heaven is not to be free from sin it is to be holy. Entrance into the Kingdom is not predicated upon moral neutrality but positive holiness.
We were in the airport the other day on our way back to Virginia and for the sake of not missing the flight by being stuck in Chicago traffic, we intentionally gave extra time and arrived at O’Hair Airport early. There is a nice play area with a complete pretend airport play set for the kids and they played there for an hour or so. At one point I was playing the cargo hold of the wooden airplane with my children and a little girl. Now, she was very sweet and very nice and was talking to me and the kids were playing so well together that it was almost like she was one of the family. However, even though she was saddened when it was time for us to leave, she couldn’t come with us. She wasn’t one of us. She wasn’t part of our family. We liked her. She had not done anything wrong. In fact, she was very pleasant. The fact remained, she was not my child.
Friends, salvation is so much more than becoming morally neutral, being without sin. It is about receiving the very inheritance of righteousness from the first born Son of God. In Christ we are positionally holy; making us family.
(2) Then there is, and this is harder to attain, but no less costly, the propositional holiness of the believer when Christ empowers him to live out salvation.
For the Christian who has received the righteous holiness of God through faith in Christ, it is not enough to be saved from the consequence of sin. He or she also rightly desires to be freed from the power of sin.
Pastor Thomas Manton, the English Puritan of nearly four centuries ago, preached that “A sensible and compunctionate [repentant] sinner is trouble do not only with the guilt of sin, but the power of sin.”
“May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.” (1 Thessalonians 3:13 NIV84) We will never achieve perfect holiness in this life. We will only be completely holy in the life to come. However, only a fool says that he will attempt to accomplish nothing because he cannot accomplish everything! Not to mention that the genuinely converted believer will never be content with a mediocre walk with their Lord!
There are many who mistake the grace of God as having come unto sinners in order to free them from the Law. No! Grace has come unto sinners into order to free us from sin. That is, grace frees us from our inability to keep the Law and the consequence of death which comes through the transgression of the Law.
Grace is not God being lenient upon sin. Were the Jews lenient upon Christ as they handed Him over to the Romans?! Were the Romans lenient to Jesus as they beat Him savagely?! Was the crowd lenient as they mocked and spat upon Him?!
Surely not! The distinction that I am making here between positional and propositional holiness is the distinction between what God does for us and then what God does in us. Positional holiness is me being placed into Christ and propositional holiness, me living out a holy and fitting lifestyle, is Christ in me.*
The trouble is that sin sears the conscience. (v19) Giving in to temptation to “satisfy” it is a lie of the enemy. Feeding sin increases our appetite for it, dulling our sensitivity to it. “A sin repeated seems permitted.” (Jewish Proverb)
The trouble with much of the Church in our time is that we have gotten it backwards from the beginning. Evangelism is calling men and women to repentance, not calling them to a banquet of prosperity.
Evangelism is the work of the Church proclaiming and living out holiness in the face of the sinfulness of the world and by her actions and deeds, her words and song, putting the beauty of God’s nature upon display.
I vividly recall the initial receiving phase of Marine Corps basic training. New recruits barely sleep for the first few days. They are ran from place to place, have their hair cut… poorly and painfully… and they are generally given the very distinct impression that their old life has passed and a new, more disciplined life has arrived… loudly and in many ways violently!
We fail new converts in the same fashion that you and I are likely to have been failed by the modern Church when we fail to impress upon them that adopted children are expected to behave in accordance with the rules of the house!
We are good about letting them know about the inane rules of the house. Don’t sit in that pew, ol’ so and so has been sitting there since the depression and her parents sat there before the Civil War! You may not want to dress that way!
There is a terrible fog which has settled over the Church in our day which blinds the eyes, deadens the senses, and stupors the mind the need for personal piety and real, actual, holiness in the lives of saints of God.
We have traded fear of God for fear of seeming unseeingly in the world’s eyes. We have traded love for God for love for self. In the process the Church has made of holiness an antiquated concept best reserved for only a few souls.
Free grace is not cheap grace and friends, His grace, His love, His mercy, His fatherhood and compassion compel us toward a life of received and displayed holiness in response to so great a salvation as this. What has happened to our understanding of Ephesians 4:30? “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30 NIV84)
Sin grieves the heart of God! Grace doesn’t free us from obedience!
In Luke chapter six of Luke’s gospel, Jesus says “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:43-46 NIV84) You call Him Lord? Bear some fruit! I proclaim His message? I better be busy living it as well! No pastor, missionary, evangelist, Christian worker, or any Christian who claims Christ has the right to call Him Lord if he or she is not actively engaged in doing what He says!
Perhaps you think me unsympathetic to the misfortune of sin? Perhaps you think me unfeeling toward the plight of the sinner or a hypocrite for standing in front of you as an imperfect sinner calling for holiness?
Friends, the truth is what will set the caged bird of conscience and soul free. (vv.20-21) I recently opened a fortune cookie after eating Chinese food and I was so struck by the message it contained that I framed it. It reads: “A clear conscience is usually the result of a bad memory.” I would have none of your blood upon my coat. When Ephram pretends to preach he shouts “You need Jesus! You need Jesus!” His theology is entirely Christo-centric and true!
Positionally, because of the enormity of the sacrifice of Christ, we are saints, shining with the radiance of the beauty of Christ alive in us through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. Propositionally, that is, based on how we actually live, think, speak, act; we are moral lepers.
Speaking of sanctification, that is the doctrine of the process of believers being transformed into vessels of holiness, Arthur Pink, the divine of the past century, writes, “There are various subsidiary difficulties in sanctification… such as whether sanctification itself be a quality or a position, [propositional or positional] whether it be legal or experimental, whether it be absolute or progressive; all of which need to be cleared up in any satisfactory treatment of this theme. But far more intricate is the problem itself of how one who is a moral leper can be fit to worship in the Sanctuary of God.”
We shall never be free to worship completely, to experience the power of God completely, or even to a partial portion of the promise of His presence, until we properly diagnose our own horrible state of inadequacy to even be in His presence in worship! Freedom from the present power of sin will not be afforded to those who refuse to look upon its ailment and in so doing seek a remedy!
Friends, there is a remedy! There is a way! Confessing our sin sets us free from covering our sin. I am desperate for holiness in my life and in the Church! Cease with prideful excuses! Demand of ourselves that for which Christ died; to secure for Himself a people of obedience and worship.
I am broken by my brokenness and long to see God pour out His power in our lives. I am not content with a ticket to Heaven. I long to see Heaven descend in our midst; to break into our homes; to flood our community; to fill my life and yours! That won’t happen until we get real, get right, and get on our knees.
Conclusion
I would preach an hour more but alas, we must not be content to discuss holiness, we have to get out there and live it out. Consider the contrast that the Apostle draws between the past and present life of believers in Jesus Christ. Put off the old self. (vv.22-23) / Put on the new self. (v.24) Get rid of former sins. (vv.25-31) / Gain the right attitude. (v.32)
Sin is high treason against the very God who saves us. We will do it imperfectly, and thank God for grace which covers sin and mercy which is God giving us good things out of love rather than the wrath our sin deserves. “Without holiness, no one shall see the Lord. Jesus didn't die to save us from hell. That's a fringe benefit! He died to get total occupation of us. To be holy in speech... in actions... in everything. We want to give God our lousy sins. What do you think He does with them? He wants your will... He wants that career of yours ... He wants that selfish heart not to live in selfishness.” (Leonard Ravenhill)
In a certain Clint Eastwood Movie, his character tells a sort of bad guy that “deserve’s got nothing to do with it,” just before he exercises vengeance upon him. He’s right, only in the opposite way. What we deserve is wrath for sin, but praise be to God He showers mercy and His mercy compels us not toward casual Christian living, a laze fare faith. Grace working in us, produces holiness. Amen.
