SET APART TO FALL IN LOVE
IAN JOHNSON www.papelim.org.nz
When Satan, tempted the woman in the garden, (Gen 3:6) it wasn’t with great theological issues or points of doctrinal difference that he spoke to her about. Rather it was an appeal to her senses.
Look! Doesn’t that fruit look good! And the taste! Surely a loving God wouldn’t keep something this good from you! You must have misunderstood his instructions!
He used that strategy then and he uses it today!
Satan knows that Sin is pleasing to our senses and it is very foolish for us to pretend otherwise.
The Lord commands us to be Holy and the truth is, we have made doctrines around being holy! Abstaining from things that are pleasing to our senses to gain a level of holiness or to live a holy life seemed the right way to go.
But we have seen even the great fall into temptation and sin! And we wonder, will any one make it?
There is half a truth in keeping ourselves apart from the things our senses desire
It’s true some things are displeasing to God!
We know that God thinks a lot about Holiness and sanctification and it is very important to him. But how do we attain holiness?
Isa 35:8 And a main road will go through that once deserted land. It will be named the Highway of Holiness. Evil-hearted people will never travel on it. It will be only for those who walk in God’s ways; fools will never walk there
The Hebrew word translated Holy is Qodesh it means a sacred place or object set apart consecrated and dedicated to God
The Altar of Incense was Holy because it was set apart for a very specific use.
The moment a priest used it for any other purpose, even to warm his hands it was defiled and made unholy!
There’s a hint, set apart for a purpose!
In your cupboards you may have some fine China and crystal glassware! You don’t use it every day, but on special occasions you bring it out and use it.
Its set apart for special use, and to use it for any other purpose would negate its “special status” it would loose its glory and value.
So to be Holy before the Lord is to be set apart to Him. Not set apart from an object or influence!
Bear with me it may change your thinking and transform your life
In the Church we have viewed Holiness as a defensive act against!
But really it is an offensive action towards.
I’m not holy because I don’t sin, that’s called purity, and purity is about cleansing and purging and refining our lives into the image of Jesus Christ!
Holiness is higher than this. It’s about being set apart for a purpose.
God the Father is worshiped in heaven & earth, not for his ability to remain sinless that is part of who he is anyway. He is worshiped because He is Holy, being set apart to be God. Yahweh means self existent one. He doesn’t need anyone or anything to make him who he is. He can exist alone apart from any other influence. That’s why we worship him!
Jesus is awesome! Because he came to earth and walked in sinless ness, He is the only one to have ever done that.
But He is also holy, because he is set apart before the foundation of the world to be the sacrificial lamb that takes away the sins of the whole world!
He couldn’t have fulfilled purpose if he hadn’t walked in sinless ness, but he did!
He was Holy before the foundation of the world because he was set apart for this purpose the Bible says.
Hebrews 10 14 For by that one offering he perfected forever all those whom he is making holy. 15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. First he says, 16 “This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts so they will understand them, and I will write them on their minds so they will obey them. 17 Then he adds, “I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.”*
Jesus made you and I perfect on the day we were saved. Set apart for a purpose!
The key to us walking in purity is for us to see that we are Holy ~ Set apart for a purpose! Set apart to walk in purity.
Right from the beginning the enemy has tried to steal our vision of who we are in Christ! Because in doing so he can make us ineffective, always striving to become holy! The truth is you are holy!
When Satan tempted Eve in the Garden he was tempting her with something she already had! Because God made man in His own image (Gen 1:26)
Satan is still using the same strategy! You need to be more Holy he says!
You can’t get any more holy! Jesus has made you perfect.
You can make some adjustments in purity, but you can’t get any more holy than Jesus has already made you.
HEBREWS 10:10 And what God wants is for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.
This tells me I am Holy! What transpires from this point, is that I am Changed from Glory to Glory into the image of Christ! The Holy Spirit is working in me to change me!
If Holiness is being set apart,. Then Holiness is not a growing list of things I can’t do. It’s about being released into the whole purpose of God, the thing that I am set apart for!
We grow in Holiness as we actively pursue the plan set out for us!
When we see the purpose of God in our lives, we have little desire for Sin
Because our fulfilment is not in worldly pleasure but in Godly pursuit.
The best defence against sin is a Pursuit of the purpose of God.
I need to reiterate here that it’s a pursuit of God, and not a pursuit of works that please God!
In doing this we see that we cant live an immoral life and pursue the purpose of God
It’s written on our heart. We know what’s right and what’s wrong instinctively. We must forget the past, put it right with God and move on in Holiness! (Set apartness)
1 JOHN 1:7-9 But if we are living in the light of God’s presence, just as Christ is, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from every sin.8 If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.
That’s why Paul said in Philippians 3:14 Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus. 13Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, 14I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 15Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you: 16only, whereunto we have attained, by that same rule let us walk. 17Brethren, be ye imitators together of me, and mark them that so walk even as ye have us for an ensample.
Here is the key, press on! Don’t let the enemy fool you into a works mentality, press on! The Holy Spirit will show us the barriers just remember 1 John 1:9 and move on!
“and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you:”
This is the key Let the Holy Spirit be your guide. Let him continually set you apart for the purpose for which you have been called. He will reveal the things that need to be put right, just push on!
Being Led into purity, not being driven into it by condemnation
Those who are led by the Spirit of God, are truly the Sons of God!
Romans 12:1
And so, dear brothers and sisters,* I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.
Can you see what Paul is really saying here!
Be Holy! ( Set apartness)
He will change the way you think
He will tell you what to do
You will know his goodness and his will!
We spend so much time trying to do the right thing; we end up not doing it!
Paul says set yourself apart to the purpose of God
Let him led you
Let him tell you how to deal with issues
We start serving the Lord out of our heart and not out of our heads!
Enter into the rest of the Lord. Set yourself apart and you will grow in purity!
Gal 2:20 I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I am not one of those who treats the grace of God as meaningless. For if we could be saved by keeping the law, then there was no need for Christ to die.
Hebrews 4:8 This new place of rest was not the land of Canaan, where Joshua led them. If it had been, God would not have spoken later about another day of rest. 9 So there is a special rest* still waiting for the people of God. 10 For all who enter into God’s rest will find rest from their labors, just as God rested after creating the world
Romans 4:4-5 When people work, their wages are not a gift. Workers earn what they receive. 5 But people are declared righteous because of their faith, not because of their work.
If you believe your evil works can disqualify you from Gods blessing, then you must believe that your good works qualify you! And nothing can qualify you! Jesus has made the way for you, not one bit of your work will stand on the day of judgement,
Its not about works its about faith in what Jesus has done for us!
God will ask only`, what have you done with the gift that Jesus has given you!
HEBREWS 12:2
looking unto Jesus, the 1author and 2finisher of our faith, dwho for the joy that was set before Him eendured the cross, despising the shame, and fhas sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
He started the work in us, lets trust him to finish it!
If we spend our time working to please him, we will not fall in love with him!
If we rest in his love, we will be undone by his grace and fall deeply in love with Him!
