For the past few weeks, we’ve been talking about seeking God. What it means to pursue God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And why it’s necessary to do so; why it’s not only desirable and beneficial, but even essential, that we continue striving for God throughout our lives. Last week, we looked at the need for personal holiness in our quest. We saw that in order for us to know the Lord, we must be committed to a life of obedience and purity, in our thoughts, and attitudes, and actions. Our minds, and hearts, and hands must all be dedicated to serving God rather than sin. As the author of Hebrews tells us, we must,
"Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord." – Hebrews 12:14, NIV
"Without holiness no one will see the Lord." Now listen carefully. It doesn’t say, "Without holiness, only the people who go to church, and teach Sunday School, and work in the nursery, and sing on the worship team will see the Lord." It doesn’t say, "Without holiness, no one will see the Lord, unless they’ve been baptized, or unless they’ve made a profession of faith. Then they can see the Lord without holiness." It doesn’t say that. Nor does it say, "Without holiness, no one will see the Lord unless they are convinced that they are saved; unless they’ve had an experience which they believe was a conversion experience. For those people, the holiness requirement is waived." No. It says, "without holiness no one will see the Lord." Period.
And just in case you think this is referring to positional holiness; that it refers to our legal standing before God, rather than to our own conduct, look at the verse again: "Make every effort to live in peace with all men." "Make every effort" to be holy. It’s something we have to do.
In contrast, the righteousness of Christ, which God credits to us when we believe, doesn’t require "effort." All it requires is faith, belief, trust. Our salvation, our justification, in which God declares us legally just and righteous on the basis of faith in Christ, does not require effort. It is not by works. All it requires is that we acknowledge our sin before God; that we confess it, and repent of it, and turn to Christ. That’s all. It is an instantaneous, one-time, never-to-be-repeated transaction. A changed life is not a prerequisite. All that’s required is faith and repentance – agreeing with God about our sin and coming to Him for forgiveness and eternal life. That’s what Paul is referring to when he writes, in Ephesians 2:8-9,
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast." – Ephesians 2:8-9, NIV
If all that’s so, then why am I beating the drum for personal holiness? If all that’s required to be saved is faith, then why do I say that holiness is necessary and essential? Because of the very next verse in Ephesians, verse ten:
"For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." – Ephesians 2:10
That’s the purpose for which God called us to Himself – to do good works. And God’s purpose will not be thwarted. Those whom He has remade and recreated in Christ will live holy and obedient lives. Those who don’t are showing that they have never experienced this fundamental change. They have never experienced the new birth. They may have responded emotionally to the preaching of the gospel; they may have gone forward in an evangelistic meeting; they may have professed faith in Christ; they may have been baptized; they may have joined a church, and attended every Sunday for years and years, and served on the missions committee, and tithed their income – but if there’s no personal holiness, then there’s no genuine faith. And they are not saved.
That’s what the Bible means when it says that a tree’s fruit gives evidence of what kind of tree it is, and of whether it’s alive or dead. Listen:
"In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." . . . People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." – Matthew 3:1-2, 5-8 NIV
"Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." What is John saying? That the fruit of our lives reveals whether our repentance is genuine. Just the fact that we have come forward to be baptized, as the Pharisees and Sadducees did here, is not in itself a sign of spiritual life. The evidence that genuine repentance has taken place is the changed life that flows from it, "fruit in keeping with repentance". Let me give you two passages from the gospel of Matthew, both of them the words of our Lord:
"Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. . . Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." – Matthew 7:15-19, 21, NIV
"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit." – Matthew 12:33, NIV
When Jesus says that "every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire," what is he talking about? The fires of hell. We know that because of the verse that follows it: "Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." If you call Jesus, "Lord," but do not do what he says, you will not enter heaven. If you call yourself a Christian, and even believe yourself to be a Christian, but your life is not full of the "good fruit" of holiness and righteousness and obedience, but instead is full of thorns and thistles, then you will not be welcomed into God’s presence. Instead, you will be cast into the fires of hell. Why? Because "a tree is recognized by its fruit." That’s why Paul wrote these words to the church at Colossae:
"And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God," – Colossians 1:10, NIV
Paul prayed these things – that they would live lives worthy of the Lord; that they would please him in every way; that they would bear fruit in every good work – because they are not optional. This is what Christians do. This is what disciples of Jesus Christ look like. What Paul is praying for is not that they become really good Christians; unusually mature Christians. What Paul is praying is that, by their lives, they will prove to be genuine Christians, rather than self-deceived hypocrites.
Now, if you’ve been attending this church for very long, you’ve probably heard these things before. And although you may be a little uncomfortable; you’re probably not really uncomfortable. Because most of us equate the holiness without which "no one will see the Lord" with the kind of life we’re living, as fine, upstanding, Christian people. And what I want to do now is chip away a bit at that sense of safety and security. Why? Why try to make you uncomfortable? Because it is better to be unsettled for a little while, even if in reality there’s nothing to worry about, than to risk continuing in false confidence and false assurance, right up until the day of judgement, when you hear God utter those terrible words, "I never knew you . . . Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." (Matthew 7:23; 25:41). I’m willing to risk giving offense, and raising concerns which may prove to be groundless, in order for you to avoid eternal torment. So let’s proceed.
I think most professing Christians separate sin into three categories, none of which cause them any particular difficulty. In the first category are the really bad sins; those which you have no intention of committing. Sins like adultery, or murder, or theft. Those are no problem, because as I said before, you are a fine, upstanding Christian person who would never dream of doing any of these things. Well, you might dream of it, but you certainly wouldn’t do it. It’s just not within the realm of possibility. In the second category are those sins which you may indulge in occasionally, but which you don’t consider to be really serious. A temper that flares up from time to time. A habit of stretching the truth. A tongue that’s a bit too sharp. A difficulty in letting go of grudges. An excessive concern for money, which you refer to as "being frugal," rather than being "greedy" or "covetous" or "idolatrous". You don’t call them sins; you call them "mistakes" or "character flaws". And if anyone points them out, or if your conscience is troubling you a bit, you say, "well, nobody’s perfect". And besides, you’re saved, right? So even if you do make a mistake here and there, God will forgive. It’s no biggie. Nothing to be concerned about. It will all come out in the wash.
In the third category are sins, not of commission, but of omission. Things which Christ commands us to do, but which we tend to neglect. And the way we rationalize this is by thinking of them as ideals, similar to "truth" or "beauty" or "justice". They’re not actually attainable; they’re just something that God places in front of us to inspire us. He doesn’t really expect us to achieve them. And so, since perfect attainment isn’t possible; we can pretty much ignore them. Yes, we may admire them, like pictures in a museum, and talk about how lovely and admirable these qualities are, but we don’t take them seriously. They aren’t something that we study, and struggle with, and strive after. They don’t really matter, not as much as – showing up for work on time, for instance, or going to the doctor when you’re sick, or eating three meals a day. They’re not essential; they’re not central to life.
And so, by putting our sins into one of these categories, they can’t disturb our peace of mind; they don’t threaten our happiness. At worst, they’re a minor annoyance, a reminder of our imperfection. But they won’t occupy our thoughts for very long, or keep us from enjoying our favorite TV show. Well, let me tell you something. You can be at peace with your sin, or you can be at peace with God, but not both. Because God is not at peace with your sin. He is at war with your sin. And if you choose to abandon the field of battle; if you refuse to engage the enemy of your soul in mortal combat, then the result will be destruction, and not salvation. Do you think that kind of imagery is exaggerated or overblown? Peter didn’t. Listen:
"Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul." – 1 Peter 2:11, NIV
Sin is at war with your soul. That isn’t just rhetoric; it’s reality. Therefore, if you aren’t experiencing the struggle against sin as a war, a fight for your spiritual life; if you’re not engaged in a battle against sin, then something is wrong. Perhaps you were never on God’s side to begin with. You may be wearing the uniform. You may have taken the oath of allegiance. But underneath, your loyalty is not to God, but to your own lusts, and desires, and pleasures. Or perhaps you think you can sign a peace treaty with sin, an armistice, a cease-fire. Like the U.N. sending inspectors into Iraq to verify that they’ve destroyed their weapons, you think you can come to terms with sin, contain it, neutralize it. But there can be no peace with sin. It is a deceiver, a murderer, an enemy. It wants to kill you. The only posture for a Christian to take with regard to sin is one of unyielding, unceasing, unwavering hostility and hatred. We must hate sin as the enemy of our souls; we must do everything in our power to eradicate it from our hearts and from our lives. Does this degree of intensity seem unnecessary to you, perhaps even a bit ridiculous? Then listen again to the words of Christ:
"If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell."
– Matthew 18:8-9, NIV
Is Jesus speaking literally here? Well, yes and no. He doesn’t mean that we should start cutting off body parts. That wouldn’t cure the problem anyway, because sin flows from the heart. Our physical bodies are merely the instruments through which we express what is inside of us. But Jesus is speaking literally, in the sense that this is the kind of attitude we are to have. This is the kind of intense hatred, and absolute intolerance for sin, that we are to possess. This is the kind of seriousness, and dedication, and radical commitment we must bring to the task of purging sin from our minds, and hearts, and lives. This is not a game, Christ is telling us. This is not something we can afford to play at, any more than a U.S. soldier marching on Baghdad can afford to think of his mission as some kind of war game, or field exercise. Not when he may be facing biological weapons like anthrax, or botulism toxin, or smallpox. Chemical weapons like mustard gas, sarin or VX nerve gas. Or even battlefield nuclear weapons. This is deadly serious. Again, the words of Christ:
"I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him." – Luke 12:4-5, NIV
Don’t fear what man can do to you, Jesus says. Fear God instead. Because the torments of hell will be far worse than anything you could experience in this world, and they will go on for ever and ever, with no hope of relief. Year after year, century after century, for millions upon millions of lifetimes, those in hell will suffer unbearable pain. Their suffering will be so great that they will weep and gnash their teeth in agony [see Matthew 25:30]. That’s what we should fear, if we are not committed to holiness, and purity, and righteousness; if we are not engaged in warfare against our sin.
But you say, "None of that applies to me. I’ve been forgiven. I’m saved. I’m in no danger of being condemned to hell." And that’s true. If you have genuinely come to faith in Christ; if you have experienced the new birth, then you have nothing to fear. God will preserve your soul to the end of your life, and he will keep you safe in his arms throughout eternity. But what I’m saying is this: the way we know we’ve passed from death to life is that we have this attitude of intolerance toward sin that Jesus described. Our faith is genuine because it produces holiness, and righteousness, and good works, and because we long for those things, more than we long for the things of this world. And so the way we confirm to ourselves that we are in a state of grace, that our hope of heaven is reasonable and solid, is by examining our hearts and examining our lives in light of the Scriptures. Not by looking back at some experience we may have had years ago, but by looking at what we are doing, and saying, and thinking, and feeling today, here, now. As John wrote:
"This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. . . . Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them.” – 1 John 2:5-6, 3:24
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not arguing against assurance of salvation. I’m just arguing that it must be based on Biblical grounds. As John himself states, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." (1 John 5:13). He wants us to have assurance. But as you read through First John, you realize that this assurance is not based simply on the conviction that we have believed, or on the memory of some conversion experience. The basis for our assurance is a changed heart – new desires, new attitudes, new values – and the result of those things, which is a life of obedience and holiness.
And so, with that in mind, let’s go back to those categories of sin we mentioned earlier. Because in reality, those three categories are all figments of our imagination. Let’s take the first one – really bad sins that you are in no danger of committing. Are you sure? Are you absolutely certain that there are sins you are incapable of? The prophet Jeremiah warns us that,
"The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?" – Jeremiah 17:9, NLT
Perhaps there are basements and sub-basements in your soul, the depths of which you haven’t yet plumbed; chambers of darkness that have never seen the light of day. As Paul warns us,
". . . if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall." – 1 Corinthians 10:12, NIV
And even if you never do commit any heinous crimes, you aren’t out of the woods. Because Jesus says that you are guilty, nonetheless.
"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ’Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ’Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ’You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell." – Matthew 5:21-22, NIV
Where, then, is your cherished distinction between "bad" sins, the kind of sins committed by other people, the kind of sins that condemn one to hell, and the sins that you commit? It’s gone. There is no distinction. If you harbor anger and bitterness in your heart; if you speak contemptuously of a brother or sister in Christ – even in private – then in God’s sight, you are just as guilty as someone who takes a knife and plunges it into someone’s back. Because the root of both these sins is the same.
How about the second category of sins, those which we admit to being guilty of, but which seem unimportant; minor transgressions that we’re confident God will overlook? For example, holding a grudge; failing to forgive completely; hanging on to a remnant of resentment and ill-will. Surely that won’t keep someone out of heaven? Well, in the parable of the unmerciful servant, we read this:
"Then the master called the servant in. ’You wicked servant,’ he said, ’I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." – Matthew 18:32-35
And just so we can’t miss the force of this parable, Jesus says, in Matthew chapter six:
"For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." – Matthew 6:14-15
Now, perhaps you’re used to reading this as, "God won’t forgive your sins if you do not forgive the sins of others – unless you are a Christian" But that’s not what it says. It says that God won’t forgive our sins if we do not forgive the sins of others, period. How can that be? Because forgiving others is the evidence that we are Christians. Forgiving others "from your heart," that is, forgiving completely, without holding onto bitterness or malice, is the fruit that proves the reality of our faith.
And now the third category of sins; those words of Christ which we pay little attention to, because we view them as mere statements of ideals, rather than as commands we’re actually expected to heed and obey. But again, the Scriptures tell a different story. What were Jesus’ closing instructions to the apostles in Matthew’s gospel?
". . . go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." – Matthew 28:19-20, NIV
"Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." There are no optional commands, no unimportant or merely interesting instructions. Christ intends for us to obey all of his commands, which are contained in the gospels and the rest of the New Testament. You say, "Well, that’s a lot of material. I don’t know what’s in all those books." Then you’d better start reading!
Now, I know this has been kind of a heavy sermon. I wanted to impress upon you the seriousness of this issue; the absolute necessity for us to be struggling against sin; to be striving for personal holiness in our thoughts, and heart attitudes, and conduct. We can’t ignore God’s call that we be holy, even as He is holy [1 Peter 1:15-16]. But I also don’t want you to become discouraged, or be thrown into despair. And so let me close by reminding you of three things:
First, the reason for holiness is the desire to know God, who is our greatest treasure, and joy, and satisfaction. He is the "pearl of great price;" knowing Him is the one thing in the universe that is worth everything we possess. No price is too high to pay, and no sacrifice too great to make, in our pursuit of Him. Again, as Hebrews 12:14 tells us,
"Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord." – Hebrews 12:14, NIV
Second, God does not require a perfect faith or a perfect obedience; but rather, a genuine faith which produces a genuine, heartfelt obedience. He is willing to forgive anything, if we come to him in repentance. John assures us that,
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." – 1 John 1:9
His love and forgiveness are not conditioned on our obedience, but are freely given to all who repent and believe in Christ. He is a God of compassion and mercy. Psalm 103 tells us that,
"The LORD is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. For he understands how weak we are; he knows we are only dust." – Psalm 103:13-14, NLT
The third thing I want you to remember is that God does not expect us to obey out of our own ability, but He himself provides the power for obedience, through the Holy Spirit. All we have to do is ask in prayer, and He will give us all the strength and wisdom we need. It may not be easy. We may have to struggle, as Paul did. But his grace is sufficient. As Paul prayed for the Thessalonians:
"May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. 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 3:12-13, NIV
"May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word." – 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17, NIV
It’s God who strengthens us for holiness. He’s the one who strengthens us for "every good deed and word." All we have to do is ask, believing, and we will receive His power, all the power we need, every day of our lives. Let’s pray for that power, together, right now.
(For an .rtf file of this and other sermons, see www.journeychurchonline.org/messages.htm)
