Last week, I preached a sermon on one word. And that word began with the letter ‘H’ and it was on the subject of hope.
Today, I am going to do a similar thing, and that is to preach a sermon on another word that begins with ‘H’ and that word is holiness.
In fact, the scripture passage that we’ll be reading has to do with hope and holiness. So if you have your Bibles, please turn with me to 1 Peter, Chapter 1. There’s a heading in some of your Bibles that may read “Be Holy.” We’ll be looking at the first part of that: verses 13-16.
As you’re turning there, I have a couple of quotes on holiness. You know that one of my favorite authors is C.S. Lewis. This is what he said.
“How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing, it is irresistible.”
I’ll be quoting him again later in this sermon.
D.L. Moody–I also quote him a lot–said, “A holy life will make the deepest impression. Lighthouses blow no horns, they just shine.”
Scripture: So let’s take a look at that scripture. 1 Peter 1:13-16
Be Holy
13 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.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.”
I know, that scripture is impossible to live up to. The way it reads, it’s as if God wants to put holiness all on us. But the way it really works is, that holiness is a tag-team effort. It is a growing, maturing relationship between us and God. Holiness isn’t a checklist of rules. It is a lifestyle–it’s a way of being–it’s something that comes naturally through the renewing of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Yes, you bear responsibility. You bear the effort and the desire to become holy. But we become holy as a result of our growing relationship with Christ. It is a constant supernatural maturing process, and it is something that happens to us. Not something we just do one day. And like the C.S. Lewis quote, it is something that we discover to be an irresistible way of life.
Before we get too far along, I want to rightly define holiness. If it isn’t just adhering to a bunch of rules about faithfully going to church, sitting in the right pew, saying the right prayers, tithing our ten percent, memorizing scripture and reading the Bible for so-many minutes a day, and making sure our church membership is up to date and volunteering and making sure we visit the Christian bookstore every week (back when they had those), and listening to the right radio stations and the right preachers, and avoid any fun at all costs–especially on a Sunday, then what is it?
Holiness is mentioned a lot in our churches, maybe not as much as it used to be–even in the Bible it’s mentioned quite a lot. But in any case, it’s rarely defined. And I think that’s why the true practice has been so skewed for generations. I think I’ve defined it before, but here are a couple of good definitions of holiness.
From Biblestudytools.com:
“Jesus proclaimed a new view of religion and morality according to which men are cleansed or defiled, not by anything outward, but by the thoughts of their hearts.”
Kay Arthur, writing for billygraham.org, said:
The word holy means “sacred, set apart from the profane (unholy) and for God.” Baker’s Encyclopedia of the Bible says, “The primary Old Testament word for holiness means ‘to cut or to separate.’ Fundamentally, holiness is a cutting off or separation from what is unclean, and a consecration to what is pure.” In the New Testament the word for holy, hagios, is the same root word for saint and sanctified.
So holiness is an inward cleansing of our spirit by God that takes intentionality on our part to draw closer to Him and to want to be made holy. It is a will and a desire on our part to have a separate worldview from what we once had or what secular society currently has, and it comes through a process that only The Holy Spirit can provide. Once you understand it, then it seems rather obvious, doesn’t it? Only The Holy Spirit can make you holy. How can we be holy, set apart for God when our spirits are still filled with grime?
We can try as we may to become holy ourselves by going through the motions and checking off that to-do list of things I mentioned before about going to church so-many times a month and sitting in the right pew and reading our Bible for so many minutes a day. But we will fall short of true holiness and only frustrate ourselves and live out of a false sense of holiness. What does a false sense of holiness boil down to? It boils down to pride–how we think we look to other people in the church.
Like the definition I gave about Jesus’ look at holiness from the inward vs. outward appearance, we can fake it outwardly, can’t we? All we have to do is make it through church without swearing, right? Or telling an off-color joke, or not letting them know this or that about me in private life.
And then you find that the gauge for holiness ends up being something not gauged by The Holy Spirit, but gauged by mankind. Here’s what I mean by that, and I might get myself in trouble here, but let me tell you a secret. Don’t tell the pastor I said this, but the results of a life becoming more holy is not necessarily based on what the preacher says you need to do. Here’s what I mean by that. Have you ever been to a church where one preacher demanded you to do things or not do certain things (do you like that word, demanded?)? But then, if you went to another church, the preacher there was different.
For example, there was a preacher from Australia who came to the U.S. to preach and forgot his wedding ring. When he went to the first church they said, “Brother, we’d like you to preach, but you’re a married man and we see that you’re not wearing a wedding ring. Any married man who preaches here must wear a wedding ring.” So he went and bought a wedding ring. When he got to the next church they said, “Brother, we’d like you to preach here, but we don’t believe in wearing jewelry and you’re wearing a wedding ring.”
What is holiness then?
Holiness is an inward lifestyle that naturally becomes more Godly. Jewelry has nothing to do with holiness.
So how do we obtain holiness? How do we make that first step or that 1,000th step?
It’s like I said. It’s a growing, maturing process. It depends on our walk with God. And our walk is going to be different than someone else’s. We will be in a different place–maybe ahead of someone, maybe behind someone, but at any rate, it will be our own walk with God on our own path. It’s a process that will be different for everyone, yet at the same time, very much the same because we will all be walking with Christ in the same direction, and in many cases, we will be walking this walk together, as a church family.
We still need to read the Bible, we still need to come to church and do all the things that will draw us to Christ.
But it’s not a contest.
When I was going through Bible college and doing my internship at our church in Lima, I remember something my care pastor said. He said that people have to own their faith. That means, when pastoring, we can’t carry a person’s faith for them. That leads to legalism and that leads to dependency. They have to get to a point where they make their faith their own. Disciples have to eventually get to a place where they can go out on their own and make disciples.
Our faith is our own. Our road to holiness is our own. Our walk with God is our own. Where we are is where we are, and where we’re heading should be constant progress from where we’ve been.
We shouldn’t be looking around and comparing ourselves with others–that’s where we get into trouble. We can either be down on ourselves because we’re not where so-and-so is, or we can be braggish because we’re way ahead of where such-and-such is. I’m reminded of the words of Jesus at the very end of the Book of John. Do you remember this?
John 21:18-22:
18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”
20 Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) 21 When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?”
22 Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.”
And that is how it is with us. Yes, we have a responsibility to encourage and love one another and walk with them in friendship, brotherhood, and prayer. But our responsibility is to follow Christ and let them follow Christ, not drag someone along our path.
So, where do we start? Notice, that it was Peter that Jesus was reprimanding. And our scripture verse today is from that very same Peter.
And going back to our scripture, Peter said:
“do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.”
Conform. What does that mean?
Merriam Webster defines it as “to give the same shape, outline or contour to: bring into harmony or accord”
In other words, our effort and desire are to not mold back into what we once were. You could say, we should break the mold, right? But the Bible tells us in Romans that as Christians we should conform to Christ.
I said I was going to go back to C.S. Lewis; this is what he said in his book ‘Mere Christianity.’
“You may remember I said a first step towards humility was to realize that one is proud. I want to add the next step is to make some serious attempt to practice the Christian virtues. “A week is not enough! Things often go swimmingly for the first week. Try 6 weeks. By that time, having, as far as one can see, fallen back completely or even fallen lower than the point one began from, one will have discovered some truths …about oneself. “No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie.
“Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in.”
Holiness is a walk. It is a lifelong process. We’ll stumble and fall, but with grace and forgiveness, The Holy Spirit will pick us back up again.
Romans 9:16
“16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.”
In other words, as G. Campbell Morgan said, “Even if, of our service, we can ever say we labored abundantly, we shall have to add: Yet not we, but the grace of God which was with us.”
We just read from The Book of John a few minutes ago. Here’s another verse I’m sure you’re familiar with.
John 6:39-40
39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
So the race that we run is not run on our own. The holiness that we pursue is not a single-person effort. As I said, it’s a tag-team effort. With the power and help of The Holy Spirit, with the brotherhood of the saints, with the prayer and effort, we make to draw ourselves closer to God, we see The Holy Spirit begin to change us and conform us into His likeness.
Regarding conforming us into Christlikeness, Matthew Henry said: “Persons, when converted, differ exceedingly from what they were formerly. They are people of another fashion and manner from what they were before; their inward frame, behavior, speech, and conversation, are much altered from what they were in times past. The lusts and extravagances of sinners are both the fruits and the signs of their ignorance.”
Asbury Bible Commentary says: “To be reborn is to be set free from former futile ways of life to a life of faithfulness to God.”
The Bible Panorama says: “Holiness is the hallmark of real conversion, and must be the priority of each Christian.”
As Christians, we shouldn’t be living in ignorance of God’s ways anymore. The evil desires that we had were desires that were natural to us. We are born with this thing in our system that we don’t want. But it’s there. We seek God’s forgiveness, but then what? We ask our spiritual surgeon to take it from us.
When Christ died, he did not die just to forgive us, but to make us holy.
So Peter does command us to be holy. We are faced with a choice to follow Christ and make a commitment, just like Jesus said to Peter. Follow me.
Going back to our verses again, Peter concludes with:
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.”
If we are to be called God’s people, his sons and daughters, his ambassadors on earth, and his bride, then we must be like him. We must be separate from this world and unto Him. We must learn who He is. We must learn his ways. We must be imitators of Christ. It should be a passionate desire to be Christlike. It should be a great desire to be Godly. It should be something that wells from within us to be holy as God is holy.
Of course, we can never obtain full holiness on this earth, but when He comes again, we shall be like Him in that sense.
In the meantime, we are to still pursue holiness. We are to be people who are, in our actions and deeds, separate from this world. But true holiness is not from the outside in, it is from the inside out. It is born out of an honest and sincere desire to be holy–not an honest and sincere desire to look good in front of other Christians. Holiness is a surrender to the Holy Spirit, and it is a process by which He then begins to work in us, and we yield to that process. And we find that we become a new creation.
The path of righteousness is not easy. It’s not the most natural. It does require us to sacrifice our evil desires. It does require us to live according to scripture regardless of how unpopular and politically incorrect it might be. But as C.S. Lewis said, once we get a taste of the real thing, it’s irresistible.
Has anyone ever heard of an ermine? It sounds like vermine, and it is essentially that. I’d never heard of it until I came across this illustration from Our Daily Bread this week. An ermine is a type of weasel. And I had to Google a picture of it to see what it was, and they’re actually quite cute.
In the forests of northern Europe and Asia lives a little animal called the ermine, known for its snow-white fur in winter. He instinctively protects his white coat against anything that would soil it.
Fur hunters take advantage of this unusual trait of the ermine. They don’t set a snare to catch him, but instead, they find his home, which is usually a cleft in a rock or a hollow in an old tree. They smear the entrance and interior with grime. Then the hunters set their dogs loose to find and chase the ermine. The frightened animal flees toward home but doesn’t enter because of the filth. Rather than soil his white coat, he is trapped by the dogs and captured while preserving his purity. For the ermine, purity is more precious than life.
How are you seeking purity? Not an ought-to purity that is based on religionism or legalism. But an honest purity that comes from the leading and cleansing of The Holy Spirit?
Have you been seeking purity, holiness, and a way of life that starts from the inside out? Have you been seeking a lifestyle that is separate from this world and a lifestyle that God intended for you to have?
Holiness isn’t something we must stress about. It is a promise of God. It is a place where we need to live from and seek with a greater intention no matter where we are on our journey.
Prayer: Lord, I pray for everyone here this week. I ask that you nudge them a little, prod them, and help them to seek the greater holiness that you have to offer them.
I know that each and every one of us is on a different path, the holiness and the work in which you need to perform in us is individual and unique to who we are and where we are, and what we need. So Lord, today, we surrender to you and ask for your will to be done within us. We surrender our hearts, minds, and will to yours. Make us holy. Purify us.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on First Baptist Church of Watkins Glen
Featured Image by Miriam from Pixabay
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