H.O.L.Y.
Text: 1 Peter 1:15-16
Title: An introduction to Holiness
Would you join with me by opening your Bibles to 1 Peter 1:15-16. Our scripture reading this morning is short and sweet. It will take us longer to find the page than it will to read it. However, it packs quite a punch. Entire denominations have either been started or changed because of this verse or its meanings. Let’s read it together.
15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”a
Our denomination is a Holiness denomination as you know. Striving towards Christian perfection, entire sanctification, or holiness should be our goal both as a denomination and as individual Christians. It needs to be our goal; in fact here we read that Peter, the Rock of the Church, commands it to be our goal. However, I believe many people get weighted down by the jargon surrounding holiness. We make it harder than it actually is. Words like legalism, justification, consecration, regeneration, and sanctification don’t seem to clear up exactly what Christian holiness is. I am not knocking our denomination here, but our definitions, although correct, don’t seem to clarify things for us very well. Let me read to you directly from our Manual.
“We believe that entire sanctification is that act of God, subsequent to regeneration, by which believers are made free from original sin, or depravity, and brought into a state of entire devotement to God, and the holy obedience of love made perfect.
It is wrought by the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and comprehends in one experience the cleansing of the heart from sin and the abiding, indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, empowering the believer for life and service.
Entire sanctification is provided by the blood of Jesus, is wrought instantaneously by faith, preceded by entire consecration; and to this work and state of grace the Holy Spirit bears witness.
This experience is also known by various terms representing its different phases, such as “Christian perfection,” “perfect love,” “heart purity,” “the baptism with the Holy Spirit,” “the fullness of the blessing,” and “Christian holiness.” (Manual, 30-31)”
Did everyone get that?
I would like to give you a one word definition for Holiness that I think will make more sense to all of us. Holiness is Christ likeness. Becoming Holy is to become more like Jesus Christ. Our lessons about how to become more holy come from none other than Jesus Christ Himself. Although, Christlikeness may be a little easier to understand I would like to break this down into four areas of application for our lives. We are going to take the word HOLY and use each letter to represent a characteristic of Christlikeness or holiness.
H. Humbleness
The first letter in HOLY is obviously “H” and I think this could represent humbleness for it is impossible to become Holy without being humble.
Some people go through their entire life and just never get the need for humility. A newspaper reporter was interviewing an old rancher and asked him to what he would attribute his success as a rancher. With a twinkle in his eye the man replied, "It’s been about 50 percent weather, 50 percent good luck, and the rest is just pure brains."
Others will get a dose of humility whether or not they ask for it. Muhammad Ali was in his prime, and as he was about to take off on an airplane flight, the stewardess reminded him to fasten his seat belt. He came back brashly, "Superman don’t need no seat belt." The stewardess quickly came back, "Superman don’t need no airplane, either." Ali, now humbled, fastened his belt.
One way or another you will be humbled, either you seek it out yourself and honor God through it or sooner or later you will be humbled. The ways of this world are not the same as God’s ways. Our society teaches us to always be strong and never show any sort of weakness. God’s ways are different. In this world if you want to really live you must seek out everything you can get your hands on no matter who is destroyed in the process, but to live in God’s world you must first die. In this world to succeed you must walk over others to get where you want to go. In God’s world you must first get on your knees if you want to succeed. In this world if you want to become strong you must pump yourself up. In God’s world if you want to become strong you must first become weak. Because this world operates on a different set of rules than does God’s world.
I found this quote while studying for this sermon. I have no idea who said it but it is so true. ““Humility is probably the most unpopular virtue demanded by the gospel, yet until man is humble, no good thing can come from him no matter what he may do. The Lord can do such great things for us if we are humble and so very little for us when we are proud.”
Luke 14:11 says “For whosoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.” Either you do it or God will do it. We can not expect to be set apart for God’s holiness if we come with prideful hearts.
The “O” in HOLY could mean obedience.
A few centuries before Christ a man named Alexander conquered almost all of the known world using military strength, cleverness and a bit of diplomacy. The story is told that Alexander and a small company of soldiers approached a strongly fortified walled city. Alexander, standing outside the walls, raised his voice and demanded to see the king. When the king arrived, Alexander insisted that the king surrender the city and its inhabitants to Alexander and his little band of fighting men.
The king laughed, "Why should I surrender to you? You can’t do us any harm!" But Alexander offered to give the king a demonstration. He ordered his men to line up single file and start marching. He marched them straight toward a sheer cliff.
The townspeople gathered on the wall and watched in shocked silence as, one by one, Alexander’s soldiers marched without hesitation right off the cliff to their deaths! After ten soldiers died, Alexander ordered the rest of the men to return to his side. The townspeople and the king immediately surrendered to Alexander the Great. They realized that if a few men were actually willing to commit suicide at the command of this dynamic leader, then nothing could stop his eventual victory.
The Bible tells of another story about obedience. For a lot of the disciples’ time they spent with Jesus they just didn’t seem to get it. After the feeding of the five thousand the disciples were faced with the exact same predicament, how were they going to feed a large crowd of people, this time four thousand people. They totally missed the opportunity as they forgot how Jesus had just turned some bread and a few fish into a feast. We learned last week about James and John, the sons of thunder, who arrogantly asked Jesus for prestige and power. Peter, the disciple who’s back the church will be built on denies Jesus three times, and Judas sells Him out all together. But there is one time after Jesus returned from the dead where they were obedient and they got the message. We owe our church to that one act of obedience. Acts 1:4 says “On one occasion, while he was eating with them, He gave them this command, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father has promised, which you have heard me speak about.”
We know later what they were waiting for. They waited for the Holy Spirit to come upon them on the day of Pentecost. Can you imagine how history would be different if the disciples disobeyed that day, if they continued not to get it? What would have happened if Peter skipped out on the rest of them?
Rev. Covington, when he was here for revival services, said you will never have more of the Holy Spirit than the day you were saved, however the Holy Spirit may get more of you. We can see through our acts of obedience we give a little more of our trust and thus a little more of ourselves over to God. By obeying Jesus we give Him a little more of ourselves and become a little more like Him, Holy.
Are you willing to be as obedient to the ruler of the universe, Jesus Christ, as those soldiers were to Alexander the Great? Are you as dedicated and committed to your King as they were to theirs? Think how much power Christ could have in our area with just a portion of such commitment.
The “L” could mean we are to be loving.
A young soldier was going off to fight in World War II against the Japanese. As his father put him on the train and waved good-bye, he turned with bitter tears and said, "If my son is killed, I hope every Jap in the world is killed!" Yet the fact that the father was a Christian made it difficult to feel that way in reality. He had a fierce struggle with himself and finally realized that it was not Christian to hate, whether his son lived or died. He declared rather, "I will not hate. I refuse to be destroyed by hate!"
A year later his son was killed. Soon life insurance money arrived. The father did not really need the ten thousand dollars so he sent it to the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board and designated it for missions to the Japanese.
How could the father do that? Only by the miracle of Calvary. Only God can change bitterness and hate into love.
Love like nothing else changes us into the holy people that God wants us to be. When questioned about what the most important commandment was, Jesus said we must love God above everything else and love each other. That’s it, we are to love. Everything else falls under the heading of love. If we love like Christ, every other Christ like character will fall into place.
Jesus also spoke to the church at Ephesus. Now they were a great thriving church reaching out to others but Jesus tells them, so what, you have lost your first love. If you don’t love God first then everything else you do is for nothing. We are to love God with all of our heart, all of our mind, and all of our soul. We are also to love one another. Do we search out ways to help one another, do we look for areas to pray for people, do we hunt for ways to make each others lives easier? Or are we looking out for ourselves all the time?
How do we expect to become holy people if we don’t represent God with love?
A house is a house is a house--until love comes through the door, that is. And love intuitively goes around sprinkling that special brand of angel dust that transforms a house into a very special home for very special people: your family.
Money, of course, can build a charming house, but only love can furnish it with a feeling of home.
Duty can pack an adequate sack lunch, but love may decide to tuck a little love note inside.
Money can provide a television set, but love controls it and cares enough to say no and take the guff that comes with it.
Obligation sends the children to bed on time, but love tucks the covers in around their necks and passes out kisses and hugs (even to teenagers!).
Obligation can cook a meal, but love embellishes the table with a potted ivy trailing around slender candles.
Duty writes many letters, but love tucks a joke or a picture or a fresh stick of gum inside.
Compulsion keeps a sparkling house. But love and prayer stand a better chance of producing a happy family.
Duty gets offended quickly if it isn’t appreciated. But love learns to laugh a lot and to work for the sheer joy of doing it.
Obligation can pour a glass of milk, but quite often love will add a little chocolate.
And finally the “Y” could mean being yielded.
I read recently how Americans are on guard all the time. When the phone rings we wonder who is calling to try and sell us something we don’t need. When the doorbell rings we wonder who is at our door trying to disrupt our peaceful family time or what religion they are representing. When we are spoken to out in public we begin to think of the motives of the person speaking to us and try to keep them out of our personal space. We have such high walls built up around us that it is virtually impossible for anyone to get inside. I heard once that we have such high walls up trying to protect us that Satan doesn’t even have to work very hard at keeping God out, we do it ourselves fairly well.
Have you ever heard that the altar is a place to clean your shoes? We need to leave our dirt at the altar. But all to often we think we can get through whatever situation we are in by ourselves. Before long we are weighted down by all of the dirt and mud that we have accumulated. Before long every step we take gets harder and harder. Sin and burdens are like that mud. Eventually they get so heavy they hinder our walk with God. Instead of taking it all with us every Sunday why don’t we get rid of it? Why don’t we surrender it over to Him?
We have to ask ourselves, if we desire to become holy people are we surrendering everything over to him? Are we yielded over to His plan in our lives or are we still trying to do it our way?
Just how much of us does the Holy Spirit have? 10%, 40%, 75%, or is it more like 99% we want to give over everything to Him but there is just one or two things we keep taking back. Do we clean the dirt off our shoes at the altar only to put it in our pockets when we leave?
A committee of ministers in a certain city was discussing the possibility of having D. L. Moody to serve as the evangelist during a city-wide evangelistic campaign. Finally, one young minister who did not want to invite Moody stood up and said: “Why Moody? Does he have a monopoly of the Holy Spirit?” There was silence. Then an old, godly minister spoke up: “No, he does not have a monopoly of the Holy Spirit; but the Holy Spirit has a monopoly of D. L. Moody.”
Does the Holy Spirit have a monopoly on your life?
Are we representing Jesus Christ in a holiness capacity?
