Holiness


 This mighty God of Salvation calls His people, "with a holy calling."  And He says to them, "Be ye
holy in all manner of conversation."  the word conversation has the meaning of all of life's relationships,
departments and aspects.  We are to be separate from sin and dedicated to God in all that we do!  There
may be no question about it whatsoever that we are indeed saints!  Not simply that we are church-goers, but
holy children of God in word and in truth!  The apostle says in verse 14 that we are to do this as obedient
children; children must always be characterized by obedience.  And since we are adopted into the family of
God, our obedience must be unto Him.  We are called to love Him and seek Him.  We are called to love
what God loves, and hate what God hates.  And the apostle warns us that we are not to conform ourselves to
former lusts, to the motions of our sinful natures, to carnal, unlawful desires.  God has called us out of that
and away from that so that we are not to walk in those lusts or in that ignorance any longer.
 Sadly it is very easy to be conformed to such things again, for those lusts are in our flesh and sin is
appealing to our flesh.  The things of which we read in the newspapers, the thins that are promoted in the
movies and the television programs, the things that we know are corrupt and displeasing, that appeal to the
old man of sin in us.  And that means we are called to fight valiantly against all sin.  The saint wants to be
holy, because God is holy and because God calls us to be holy; but he who would be holy must fight!  And
there is nothing in all this world to support you or sustain you in that fight.  The only thing that will support
you is that which God has placed in your heart, and which God nourishes with His Word and Spirit.  We are
sanctified by obeying the truth through the Spirit (Verse 22).
 Actually the Greek does not say "Be holy," but it states, "Become holy."  this makes clear that
sanctification is a process that continues throughout the Christian's life.  In Christ we are holy in principle so
that before God we are clothed in white robes of dazzling splendor.  But as long as we live on this earth we
still continue to sin and we stain our garments with the filth of sin.  Therefore God comes to us through the
Gospel trying us as by fire, chastening us with sore remedies, that the impure may be burned away and the
rebellious may be driven out.  As the all-wise, holy Father, God knows how to warn, admonish, exhort, and
threaten us even as He preaches the sweet Gospel of Jesus Christ to us.
 Thus we finish our earthly pilgrimage as strangers on the earth with our faces toward heavenly
Jerusalem, touching not the unclean thing.  One day soon Jesus will appear.  We don't know just what we
will be at that time, but we know that when Jesus appears, "we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He
is!"  That is our hope.  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure!
 
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Muckle Kate Not a very ordinary name! But then, Muckle Kate, or Big Kate, or Kate-Mhor, or Kate of Lochcarron was not a very ordinary woman! The actual day of her salvation is difficult to trace to its sunrising, but being such a glorious day as it was, we simply wish to relate something of what shone forth in the redeemed life of that "ill-looking woman without any beauty in the sight of God or man." Muckle Kate was born and lived in Lochcarron in the county of Ross-shire. By the time she had lived her life to its eighty-fifth year she had well-earned the reputation of having committed every known sin against the Law of God with the exception murder. Speaking after the manner of men, if it took "Grace Abounding" to save a hardened sinner like John Bunyan, it was going to take "Grace Much More Abounding" to save Muckle Kate. However, Grace is Sovereign and cannot be thwarted when God sends it on the errand of salvation, and even the method used in bri
Read more
  Severance from Christ is death   to the Church. A Christless Church is a headless trunk. We may retain the doctrine and ethic of the New Testament, but, nevertheless, amputation of the Head means death. Even a partial severance of connection involves paraylsis - loss of spiritual power and loss of spiritual feeling. II.  INTERNALLY, THE CHURCH IS THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST. It is filled with Christ. He is not only the Head above it; he is the life within it. He does not only teach, bless, command, and lead from without; he inspires his people and lives in his Church. Christ fills " all  in all;"  i.e.  the Spirit that was in Jesus of Nazareth is in the whole universe, inspiring all creation and all providence with wisdom and goodness, purity and grace. The same Spirit is in the Church. As yet, unhappily, the Church is not filled with Christ. Though Christ is received into the heart of Christians, every door within is not yet flung open to the gracious Guest. But in the perfect
Read more

Church discipline

Once from the pulpit, at an ordination of elders, the late Rev. M. M'Cheyne made the following declaration. "When I first entered upon the work of the ministry among you, I was exceedingly ignorant of the vast importance of church discipline. I thought that my great, and almost only, work was to pray and preach. I saw your souls to be so precious, and the time so short, that I devoted all my time and care and strength to labour in word and doctrine. When cases of discipline were brought before me and the elders, I regarded them with something like abhorrence. It was a duty I shrank from; and I may truly say it nearly drove me from the work of the ministry among you altogether. But it pleased God, who teaches His servants in another way than man teaches, to bless some of the cases of discipline to the manifest and undeniable conversion of the souls of those under our care; and from that hour a new light broke in upon my mind, and I saw that if preaching be an ordinance of Chri
Read more