Hold Onto Holiness
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13 Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
Today the title of my message is, [Hold Onto Holiness].
What is holiness?
If we had been alive in the 1830s and 1840s, we would have heard a new teaching emphasizing the need for holiness. The teaching was simple, yet profound.
The word holiness comes from the word holy, which is found 611 times in scripture. The word holy literally means, “to be set apart.” Other ways to describe holiness is sanctification or consecration.
Therefore, people were taught the importance of living a set apart life. The idea of holiness gained traction until the Civil War when all of American civilization was placed on hold.
At the end of the Civil War, America entered a national moral depression. Many military men returned home from the battlefield with a new and immoral way of living.
Therefore, remnants around the nation began to call for a revival of holiness. There were holiness camp meetings, where people would meet in open fields to sing and hear preaching.
There was a passion for holiness. An earnest desire for God to set them apart for His glory. Toward the end of the 1800s and into the early 1900s, another revival broke out, a Pentecostal movement that accompanied speaking in tongues.
Many “holiness” people were attracted to the Pentecostal movement and many groups meshed with a message, Jesus wants to saved, sanctify, and fill with the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, holiness became a backdrop in many Pentecostal churches. However, over time, holiness moved from being a heart issue, a desire for God to set us apart and make us holy, and it became a head issue.
Holiness was less of an experience and more of a list of dos and donts.
I had a friend whose family preached holiness. They were against everything in the name of holiness. Men couldn’t wear shorts or have beards. Women couldn’t wear pants, cut their hair. And they were against watching TV.
But when I went in their home, they had a bigger TV than my parents. I asked them about it, and they answered, that is not a TV, that is a monitor.
Holiness became a head issue, follow the rules and you will be holy. Here is the problem, when holiness is a head issue, we will do everything we can to appear holy without living a holy life.
Instead, holiness is a heart issue. God is holy. There is no one like Him. He is set apart in every way. When we get saved, He wants to make us holy. He wants to set us apart, leaving nothing untouched by the holiness of God.
Why do we need holiness?
We read in our text the words of God, be holy, for I am holy.
So how do we hold onto holiness? How do we live a set apart life? Peter recounted the words God spoke to Moses by establishing the importance of being holy, for He is holy.
If we want to see holiness in action, we need to look at the life of Christ. Jesus reveals to us how to live a set apart life. This morning, I want us to see, we must hold onto holiness.
People should see an obvious difference, for when God works on our hearts and transforms us, He wants to SET US APART, so that we might be HOLY unto Him.
How do we hold onto holiness? Let’s look at three areas of Jesus’s life that was set apart, He had a [Set Apart Schedule], [Set Apart Speech], and [Set Apart Spirit].
Let’s begin
1. A Set Apart Schedule
1. A Set Apart Schedule
19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.
Jesus reveals how we can live a holy life. First, I want us to see how His schedule was set apart. While on earth, Jesus stands in contrast to the Pharisees.
The Pharisees made holiness a head issue. They had over 600 rules they expected people to keep. In their minds, if people followed the rules, they would be holy.
Jesus made holiness a heart issue. At the beginning of John 5, Jesus healed a man who was at the pool of Bethesda. The man was sick for thirty-eight years and Jesus told him, RISE, take up your bed and walk.
The man was healed and the Jewish leaders were furious. To them, Jesus broke one of the rules, He healed on the Sabbath. That went against their schedule.
Jesus explained, I do not work on my own initiative. Instead, I do what I see the Father doing. In other words, My schedule is set apart.
The Father saw this man was sick and He determined it was time to heal them. Furthermore, Jesus prepared for the day when God’s people would set apart the Sabbath to draw closer to Him.
Who is thankful Jesus heals on the Sabbath. He has set apart His schedule to meet our needs.
This was not the only time Jesus had a set apart schedule.
-He set aside time to be in God’s house.
Luke 2:49— At twelve years old, His parents found Him at the temple. His reason? He had to be about His Father’s Business.
Luke 4:16— tells it was His custom to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath.
-He set aside time to pray.
Luke 6:12— He went to the mountain to pray all night
Luke 9:18—when the disciples wanted to find Him, they knew where He was praying
Luke 22:41—He prayed in the Garden before His crucifixion
-He Set aside time meet people’s needs
Luke 8:43-48—As He rode through the crowd to get to the home of Jairus to heal His daughter, He stopped to heal the women with the issue of blood
John 4:4—He went out of His way to go to Samaria to reach the woman at the well
Jesus watched the Father. Everything He did, He did in obedience to what the Father wants from us. Jesus prioritized God. Therefore, His schedule was holy.
His time to go to God’s house, pray, and meet people’s needs was holy and could not be disturbed.
Be holy for I am holy. HIs schedule was holy, and He expects the same from us.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
If we want to know what is important to us, look at our calendars. Each week we must set aside time to worship God with other followers of Christ.
Each day we must set aside time to pray and stay ready for God to use us to meet people’s needs.
Jesus had a set apart schedule, but He also had...
2. Set Apart Speech
2. Set Apart Speech
49 For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.
Notice the progression, Jesus did what the Father did. He followed the Father’s schedule. Then He said what the Father gave Him to say.
His speech was set apart. His communication was holy. People who listened to Him could tell there was something unique in the way He talked.
29 “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”
His relationship with the Father spilled over into His dealings with people. No one could mistake that there was something holy about Him.
He revealed His holiness in speaking calm to difficult situations.
Matthew 8:23-27—What happened when the disciples were in the boat and the storm began to blow? The disciples spoke in fear and worry. They just knew they were going to die.
However, Jesus was holy and He brought calm to the storm. With Spiritual authority He rebuked the winds and there was a great calm.
With three words, PEACE BE STILL everything changed.
Matthew 21:21—Jesus spoke with authority. As He taught His disciples on how to speak to the enemy, He was clear, they had to speak in faith, not doubting, and the mountain or obstacle will be removed and cast into the sea.
John 8:1-12— Jesus also spoke as a voice of reason. Remember the story of the woman caught in adultery.
The Pharisees, who were focused on outward holiness, were ready to stone the woman. With rocks readied in their hands, Jesus stooped to the ground and rote with HIs finger, ignoring their gossip.
Then He looked to them, speaking with authority, bringing calm to the situation, as a voice of reason and instructed, he who is without sin, cast the first stone.
Can we see how His speech is set apart from others? Therefore, if we are to be holy as He is holy, we too must have set apart speech.
We must speak calm to troubling situations. We should speak with authority over spiritual attacks. We should ALWAYS be a voice of reason in conversations dripping with gossip.
We must follow Jesus’ example and:
8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.
6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.
29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
We cannot have church speech and home speech.
We cannot have church vocabulary and work vocabulary.
When people use words that are unholy, we should not join them.
When people discuss topics that are unholy, we should end the conversation or leave the conversation.
When people complain all the time, never seeing anything good, we should season our speech with salt and include God’s grace.
We do not see Jesus as a negative person, always looking at the worst case scenario. He did not speak death into situations. No, He spoke life.
He had a pattern. His schedule was set apart, making God a priority. Therefore, His speech was set apart, because He was in close relationship with the Father.
How did He accomplish all of this? He had a...
3. Set Apart Spirit
3. Set Apart Spirit
33 I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’
At the beginning of Jesus’s earthly ministry, something supernatural happened. At His baptism, the Holy Spirit descended on Him.
But notice the last five words, AN HE REMAINED UPON HIM.
The Holy Spirit was an active part in Jesus’s life. Think about this, why did Jesus, the Son of God, need the Holy Spirit to remain with Him?
When Jesus came to earth, He was 100% God and 100% Man, fully human and fully divine.
The God/Divine side of Christ was the part that saved us from our sins. The Human side of Christ was the part that needed supernatural power from heaven.
Peter explained it this way in:
38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
Jesus did what He did on earth because God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power. Jesus displayed the holiness of God through the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, Jesus modeled what how WE can live a holy life. Remember, He said, BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.
He is holy, we are unholy. Therefore, our holiness comes from Him, through the Holy Spirit.
33 I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’
John explained, God told me that the One on whom the Spirit descends and remains, He will baptize with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus depended on the Holy Spirit so that we might realize how important the Holy Spirit is for our lives.
We will live a life of HOLINESS when we allow the Holy Spirit to have an active role in our hearts and lives.
Paul explains it this way:
14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.” 17 Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.” 18 “I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” 1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Upon our salvation, following Jesus’s example, we become temples of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, my spirit is to be HOLY. My life is to be set apart.
Light and darkness cannot coexist.
Righteousness and spiritual rebellion are incompatible.
Christ and satan will never live in harmony.
The believer cannot look and live like the unbeliever.
We must hold onto holiness. We do this by following Jesus’s example. God cleanses us through the Holy Spirit, and develops holiness in us.
Living a life of holiness is supernatural. We cannot do it on our own. No, we need the help of the Holy Spirit.
That is why Jesus breathed on the disciples and said, receive the Holy Spirit.
That is why Jesus told His disciples to WAIT for the Holy Spirit.
Close:
When Peter wrote to the New Testament church, He admonished them with God’s words, BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.
Think about Peter for a moment. His life shows us the importance of salvation and Spirit baptism. Before Jesus changed Peter, he was an unholy fisherman.
His schedule was all about him.
His speech was unclean, even cussing to show people he did not know or follow Jesus.
But once the Holy Spirit came upon Him, he held onto holiness.
Holiness is NOT an outdated concept. I would say it is more important now that it has ever been. We see an erosion of Godliness in our society.
Sundays used to be set apart. Stores and restaurants were closed. Now, Sunday becomes a day where we schedule whatever we need to get done before Monday, and if there is time, we will make it to God’s house.
People’s speech is not holy. People will say anything and voice any opinion, because they have the right too do so.
But these are symptoms of deeper problem. The problem is not busyness or conversations. It comes down to a need for holiness. Our lives must align with the Holy Spirit.
Let’s read these passages together.
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.
And here is the big one.
14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:
Without holiness, we will not see the Lord. When that settles into our spirit, we will make holiness a priority. But we will realize, holiness comes from an inward transformation.
It is not about following a set of rules. Instead, we must submit to the rulership of Jesus Christ, and give Him free reign in our lives.
When pursuing holiness becomes a priority, we will partner with God and ask for Him to transform us and make us more like Him. For true transformation does not happen from the outside in, but from the inside out.
I can look the part, act the part, and say all the right words, and still not be holy.
But when our desire is, Lord, make me more like you, set me apart, make me holy, His schedule will become our schedule, His speech will become our speech, and His Spirit will overtake our Spirit.
Jesus watched the Father. We watch Jesus. And we will hold onto Holiness, allowing the Lord to remove what does not belong and make us more like Him,.