INTRODUCTION:
Illustration/Story/Quote/Statistic- Several years ago my wife and I volunteered along with some helpers from the church to go clean the house of a family in need. I'd never been in a house like this before. There was so much stuff, you could barely see the floor. Roaches filled the woodwork. We sprayed and sprayed, but nothing could kill them off. Trash was left untouched everywhere. Dishes left unwashed for days. Holes in the floor in bathroom and in the shower. The shower was held together with duct tape and a dingy curtain. The father was blind and the mother was depressed. Their one child slept in a room with no light on a soiled mattress in the middle of the floor. They lived off of the government, disability insurance. It was hard to be there. I had to keep stepping outside to catch my breath. And we tried to help but honestly, I think all of us knew that we were fighting a losing battle. No amount of cleaning that we could do would fix the problem and we knew it. A new house and a new lifestyle was what needed to happen and that old house burnt to the ground.
You see it wasn't that their lives had somehow become too cluttered through carelessness or lack of maintenance. It was a disastrous situation that was extremely unhealthy and destructive. What needed to happen was a miracle.
That's the way our lives can become where every area of our life is affected by sin. Where no amount of cleaning on our part will fix what is wrong. What needs to happen IS CHANGE! The old life must be destroyed and a new life discovered.
The Bible speaks a lot about clean and unclean if you read the Old Testament. Jesus told the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law, “You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.”
We clean the outside when the heart and mind are really the problem. God wants to change your heart, your mind, your life and make you holy… wholly His!
Spoken Need-
“Holy!” The Bible is saturated with the concept of holiness, yet we live in an age where holiness is misunderstood and foreign to us. The word “holy” according Webster's New World Dictionary means something (or someone) dedicated to religious or sacred use as belonging to or coming from God. The word holy means to separate from the world and to consecrate or dedicate to God. So, if something is sanctified or holy, it is separated from the world and dedicated to God.
And the Bible talks a lot about that – you either belong to the world... to the kingdom of this world or you belong to God and the kingdom of God. You cannot be both! You cannot have two masters. One devotion will give way to the other. It's like having a wife and a mistress; how can you be faithful to both? Because as long as you give yourself to both, you are not faithful to either one. We are either faithful to God or to sin. We either belong to God or sin. We are either possessed by sin or possessed by God.
We who profess to be Christians are called to holiness. We are here because God is making us holy through our daily surrender and His indwelling Presence.
Transition- Today I want to talk to you about the word “HOLY.”
BODY:
Please Turn in your Bibles to... 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (NASB) there it says…
Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the [b]temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.
The Temple according to the OT was made to be the dwelling place for God among His people. And God filled the Temple Courts with His presence on its dedication. Israelites from all corners of the Kingdom would come to the Temple to worship and sacrifice to their God. The Temple was a place of holiness, dedication, consecration, and worship. Nothing unclean was allowed there. Sacrifices were to be spotless, flawless. Everything was to be done with reverence and fear. Ritual cleansings were done to ensure that the worshiper was ceremonially prepared to meet with God. Blood sacrifices atoned for the sins committed. Walls of separation stood between each level of holiness leading to the very presence of God – the courts of the Gentiles, the courts of the women, the courts of the men, the Holy Place, and finally the Most Holy Place (or the Holy of Holies). The priests could only enter the Holy Place beyond the courts of praise and the High Priest could only enter the Holy of Holies and that only once a year on the Day of Atonement. This was arranged this way to help the people understand the separateness of God, His purity, His sacredness, and the fear and respect that He deserved.
But God allowed His Temple to be destroyed because God's people had forgotten Him and worshiped other things, committing evil in His sight. The Temple itself was desecrated when idols and pagan symbols came to replace the God of the Temple. God removed His presence and His protection, and God's people were taken into exile – the Temple burnt to the ground, it's treasures lost to the enemy.
That's a picture of what can happen to the church... for we are the new temple of God. That's a picture, honestly, of what IS HAPPENING to the country, because we have forgotten God, we worshiped other things, and we have committed evil in His sight.
And listen, even though we are called to be God's light among the nations and His representative of love to a world lost in sin, there still must be separation. Not from us and God. That wall is taken away since Jesus died in our place and the veil was torn into. But separation from the things of this world so that we can be holy.
Look at what it says in… 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 (NLT)
Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever? And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said:
“I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people. Therefore, come out from among unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord. Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you. And I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God.
We are to be (as Jesus prayed) in the world but not of it. We tend to want to ride the fence and have the best of both worlds. I doesn't quite work that way.
You see this is where I think we have come up short in the church. We have misunderstood that separation. We are to be separated and dedicated to God, surrendered to Him wholly (completely) … so we can be Holy (pure, untainted by sin). We must separate ourselves from the philosophies and concerns of this world, from the desires and pulls of this world, so that we can be truly consecrated to God.
Only then … only then can we be the witnesses of salvation that the world needs so desperately. Only when we separate ourselves to God.
As the Psalmist pointed out in Psalm 24:3-6 (NIV)
Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god. They will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God their Savior. 6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, God of Jacob.
There's a song that sings a prayer about this scripture. It says, “Give clean hands. Give pure hands. Let us not lift our souls to another. Oh God let us be a generation that seeks… Seeks Your face, O God of Jacob.”
Are we going to be the generation that seeks His face?
It is God who makes us holy. We cannot sanctify ourselves any more than I could make that house clean and whole again. We need a change that can only occur through the power of the Holy Spirit in us.
1 Peter 1:14-16 New International Version (NIV) says...
As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 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.”
When you think of God as being “holy,” what does that mean to you? Sinless? Perfect? Pure? Spiritual? Divine maybe? Holy and God kind of go together, don't they?
1 Peter chapter one tells us that God wants us to be holy as He is holy. How is that possible? How can we be “holy?” God by definition is holy. So to be holy is to be godly. You say, “Is that possible, Preacher? I mean, I can ask God for forgiveness for my sins, but for me to be godly, that's a tall order. I can't imagine myself as holy or godly.”
Holy means that you separate your life from its common use and you dedicate it for a particular purpose, a sacred use as belonging to God.
What is this talking about? It's talking about your relationship with God.
It has been said... The holy man is not one who cannot sin. A holy man is one who will not sin. Their love and commitment to God is rock solid faith. They will actively protect their relationship with God so they can remain faithful.
I've heard so many couples talk about how divorce is not an option because of their commitment to each other. But then things come and test that commitment, test what that marriage is built upon, either the house stands or it falls.
What is your relationship with God, your Christianity, your commitment to Jesus Christ built upon? Is your life built on the rock or on sand. It's interesting that parable of Jesus was in reference to obedience. He said, “This is what it's like when someone obeys my teaching. It's like someone building their house upon a solid rock foundation.”
Is your life on the solid rock to stay?
The Bible says in Leviticus 20:7-8 New International Version (NIV)
"‘Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God.
Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the Lord, who makes you holy."
Folks, we do not become holy simply by being in a church building or coming to services or by being around the things of God... anymore than standing in a garage does not make you a car. Holiness happens when we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us in cleaning up our lives so that we can be all that God wants us to be. Holiness happens when we offer ourselves to God to be slaves of righteousness in obedience to Him.
Conclusion:
Summary-
What are you building your life upon? The wise man build his house upon the rock. And the house on the rock stood firm. But the foolish man built his house upon the … You can build your life upon the solid foundation of Christ, on faith in God or you can build your life upon the sinking sands of sin and folly.
As difficult as it might be, I want you to picture that house I helped clean. Disgusting isn't it? Makes your skin crawl.
May we be as disgusted by the sin which we have allowed to remain in our lives keeping us from being holy, godly, and belonging to God.
And let us confess these things to God and repent so that He can help us clean house and become the Temple of the Living God.
Invitation-
Please stand
