But For The Grace Of God, Part 3
Scripture: Eph. 2:8; Heb. 4:16; Exo. 3:5; 15:11; 1 Peter 1:6-7, 13-16
When I was a child, a church group held open tent revivals up the street from my home during the summer. These tent revivals were conducted by the “holiness” Church denomination. I am not 100% sure which denomination they were a part of but what I do know is that they praised God with songs and shouting and the preacher preached on holiness. In his messages he preached that everyone who was not a part of them (their Church) and not living holy was going to hell. He would yell out things that people were doing that was sending them to hell – often targeting people on the street who were not attending the revival. If you smoked, you were going to hell. If you consumed alcohol as a beverage, you were going to hell. If you had or were having sex outside of marriage, you were going straight to hell. If you watched the “one-eyed devil” (the TV) you were going to hell. If you skipped Church – next stop hell. If you sinned and died before you repented – you woke up in hell. All of these things according to that preacher gave you a first-class, non-stop ticket to hell. And I did not mention the dress code and makeup requirements. Men could dress however they chose but the women had to dress modestly so that men wouldn’t lust after them. You see, it was believed that if a man lusted after a woman based on how she was dressed it was the woman’s fault.
Let me say up front that the Bible supports some of what they were teaching as it relates to sin, but there were also a lot of “man’s requirements” included in that would put a person on the “train to hell.” As a young person I just knew that either they were wrong or a lot of people I knew and went to Church with were on their way to hell – me included. Imagine a child looking forward to Saturday morning cartoons (which were very popular when I was a child) and hearing the preacher shout through the amplifier that if you watched TV you were going to hell and then hearing people clapping and shouting “Amen!” Can you see how scared and confused that child would be? This is the point of my message this morning. I want to clarify what it means to live and be holy because of the grace of God. You see, we can sound holy and look holy on the outside but be unholy on the inside. However, when we are holy on the inside, the outside takes care of itself.
This morning we’re going to look at Grace and Holiness. This will be the third and final message in my brief series “But for the Grace of God.” In the first two messages, we looked at how grace impacts sin, our justification, our salvation, our righteousness and our faith. The reason we are talking about the “impact” of grace is because what grace actually is. While most define grace as God’s unmerited favor to those who don’t deserve it, others, as we’ve seen in this series, define it as God treating some in a special way when others are not. However, what we’ve seen in this series is that God’s grace is more than that. God’s grace is like an empowerment to help us deal with the challenging situations and circumstances that we face while living on this earth. If you recall, we saw an example of that last week when we looked at Paul’s thorn in the flesh. When he prayed to God three times for God to remove it, God told him that everything he needed to deal with the thorn was found in His grace. And the point that I emphasized over and over again was that God’s grace is always flowing. As Christians we just need to learn how to tap into that grace and the primary way we do that through our faith. Ephesians 2:8 says “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Paul tells us that the salvation we received was available only because we put our faith in God’s grace.
As I closed last week’s message, I said that in order for us to have access to God’s grace, we need to understand that access to God’s grace is not automatic. Access to God’s grace is granted or given to His children whose lives reflect them living by His standards and not their own. And, New Light, that is so critically important. Christians cannot live according to what they believe is right and wrong and expect God to give them, as Hebrew 4:16 says, “mercy and grace to help in time of need,” if what they believe disagrees with what He believes. There is a lifestyle that we are called to live by and that lifestyle is one of holiness. I want to mention First Peter 1:15-16 which says, “But as He who has called you is holy, so be holy in all manner of conduct. Because it is written, ‘You will be holy; for I am holy.’” (1 Peter 1:15-16) We will dig deeper into these verses later, but I want to set the expectation for what is coming – that God commands that we be holy as He is holy! In other words, we should be living a life that is dedicated to God and set apart (separated) from the world!
Before we continue, let’s define the words “holy” and “holiness.” In both the Hebrew and the Greek, they mean “a place that is sacred, consecrated or dedicated.” The word “sacred” means “physically pure and morally blameless.” The first time the word holy is used is in Exodus 3:5 which says, “And he said, ‘Draw not near here: put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.’” And we find the first use of the word holiness in Exodus 15:11. It reads, “Who is like unto You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” (Exodus 15:11) These verses tell us that if we are going to have a true relationship with God, it has to be based on God’s standard of holiness and not our own.
As I mentioned a few minutes ago, our focus this morning is going to be on First Peter chapter one, verses 13 through 16. But before we read these verses, we need to read verses six and seven. “In which you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold trials. That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:6-7) Peter is talking about rejoicing in our salvation and the inheritance that await us in Heaven. It is understood that we will experience various trials that will test our faith and hopefully our faith will be found to be genuine and thus we will be rewarded. Peter said that our faith will be “tried with fire…” I want you to think about gold for a moment as it is purified by fire. The fire only separates all the foreign and impure materials from the gold but the gold itself loses nothing of its nature, weight, color, or any other property. Gold has been kept in a state of fusion (or its molten state) for months without the smallest change to its character. New Light, what Peter is saying is that as we go through our trials, if we access the grace of God, it will burn off the impurities from our faith as our faith is proved by the trials (fire.)
But let’s consider how their faith was being tested? Let’s read verses 13 through 16. Verse 13 says, “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:13) Let’s pause here for a moment. Peter is telling us that the trials were not physical, but mental. The believers, because of what they were seeing around them, were being tempted to once again return to the sinful things they used to do – the things they had previously enjoyed doing. But at this point, they had not acted on those temptations. Peter tells them that, in the face of those temptations, how they (and we) were to act – “keep sober in spirit…” The first thing he says is to be morally alert – to “gird up the loins of your mind.” The only way we can be morally alert is by knowing what the Bible says when we’re faced with temptations (reading James chapter one is a very good place to start.) When I read the last part of the verse, Hebrews 12:2 came to mind which says, “Looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter (finisher) of our faith...” I am reminded that no matter what, I am to look to Jesus, who not only authored my faith, but perfects it. How? Through the grace of God! Let’s continue.
Verses 14-15 says, “As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance. But as He who has called you is holy, so be holy in all manner of conduct.” (1 Peter 1:14-15) Today, Peter would say, “Child of God, obey your Father and don’t allow yourself to be drawn back into the life you used to live before you were born again.” New Light, God tells us to be holy in everything we do – even when there is no one around watching us. And, the thing we must understand is that we cannot be holy until God makes us holy. God makes us holy when we’re born again. We never have nor will we ever be able to make ourselves holy!!! Holiness is not something we do (i.e. dress up the outside and talk religiously) as anyone can act like they’re holy. The holiness God is talking about comes from within. Holiness is now part of our nature because we now have God’s nature. If you recall from Bible study, we have been studying the book of First John. In verse five of the first chapter it says “This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5) What this means Church is that the darkness that used to live in us is now gone – it is no longer present in our lives. The darkness of the old sin nature has been replaced by the light of God’s life. We are just like our Father. We are full of His light. But that doesn’t mean we’re living like it, does it? And this is why verse 16 says, “Because it is written, be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16) Did you notice how God says be holy? He is not giving us a choice. He can say this because He knows we have His holiness on the inside of us.
The verses we just read in First Peter about God being holy are first found in Leviticus 11, verses 44 and 45. What we’re about read paints a picture of what living holy is to God. “For I am the LORD your God: you shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall you defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. For I am the LORD that brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: you shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” (Leviticus 11:44-45) What I want to focus on is the phrase “neither shall you defile yourselves.” In First Peter and here in Leviticus, God says we must be holy if we’re going to have a relationship with Him. In other words, we have been set apart from a profane use to a sacred use. In Leviticus, men were to consecrate themselves, but in reality they could not do for themselves what Jesus did for us. They could not truly cleanse themselves from sin, but Jesus did that for us. When that happened, we became holy, separated from everything that was unclean. As was seen in Leviticus, we own the responsibility to live holy – separated for God’s use. Now, here’s the question we must answer: “How do we defile ourselves or make ourselves unclean?” Let me ask it this way: “How do we hinder and prevent our access to God’s grace, which is always flowing?”
Turn with me to Ephesians chapter four. We’re going to see how we can stop God’s free flowing grace in our lives by living unholy lives. We’re going to read verses 17 through 24. It reads, “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind. Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto licentiousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ. If so be that you have heard Him, and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off concerning the former way of life the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (Ephesians 4:17-24) Do you see how walking by our holy nature is a choice? The Gentiles were not born again – they had heard the gospel message and rejected it. Next Paul describes the lifestyle of the person who is not holy. He says those that “…practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.” Then he says that we will learn Christ’s way if we hear what He says and do what He says. When Paul says we need to lay aside the old self, he’s not talking about us struggling with a sin nature. He’s talking about laying aside our old way of thinking and our old way of doing things. Remember he just said that the things the Gentiles are doing is not what we learned from Christ. Paul tells us how we are to lay aside the old self and “…be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” We’re not going to read the rest of the chapter, but I highly encourage you to do so because you’ll find the non-holy behaviors that we sometimes do that hinder the flow of God’s grace in our lives: lying, being angry, stealing, using corrupt words (saying things that God wouldn’t say), bitterness, clamor and malice. Paul closes the chapter by telling us what holiness looks like in verse 32. “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ sake forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32)
Let’s close with the first three verses of chapter five, which flow very well with this verse. “Be you therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, and has given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling fragrance. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becomes saints.” (Ephesians 5:1-3) Paul says that we are to imitate our Father, we are to do what we see Him doing. Didn’t Jesus say something like that in John 5, verses 19 and 30? New Light, when we imitate our Father, we will live a life that’s holy. We will live a life that pleases Him. We will live a life that taps into God’s free flowing grace, not only in our time of need, but for others who need God’s grace in their time of need. That is why we must be holy. God’s grace only flows through the holy. And He needs holy vessels if He is going to reach the lost in this world. I want to be a vessel He uses New Light. What about you?
When I delivered the message “But for the Love of God” I told you that in our society today it is difficult to determine who is a Christian and who is not. I told you this is because Christians are living and acting the same way non-Christians. In other words, Christians are living in this world and being a part of it. When you think about what it means to be holy, I want to leave you with a visual picture that most of us can relate to. When Nikki and I got married thirty-eight years ago, the most common wedding present was fine china. The bride-to-be would go to the store and pick out the set she would like and then the people who knew them would purchase pieces of the set as a wedding present. Once the bride received her “fine china” it was treated as such. This china was kept separate from the everyday plates. This china was only brought out on special occasion and used for specific dinners or celebrations. This china was never used everyday dinners or cookouts. Why? Because this china was special, it was unique. This china was separated from all the other dishes in where it was kept and in how it was used. That separation, being held back for a special purpose, is a good way to think about being holy. We are chosen by God for a special purpose and being separated from the world and the things of the world is part of the package. New Light, I want to remind you that we are to be holy because “…..you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own; that you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9)
May God bless and keep you. Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
(At this present time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are broadcasting live on Facebook Live at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings. Please tune in to "New Light Christian Fellowship Church" and like our page if you wish to watch our broadcast and be notified when we go live. If you are ever in the Kansas City, KS area, please come and worship with us at New Light Christian Fellowship, 15 N. 14th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102. Our service Sunday worship starts at 9 a.m. and Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. Also, for use of our social media, you can find us at newlightchristianfellowship on FB. To get our live stream services, please make sure you “like” and turn on notifications for our page so you can be notified when we are live streaming. We also have a church website and New Light Christian Fellowship YouTube channel for more of our content. We are developing more social media streams so please stand by and we will notify you once those channels are up and running. We look forward to you worshipping with us. May God bless and keep you.)
