Session Two – Pursuing Holiness

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GROW 2012-13 Session Two – Pursuing Holiness

Semester Two – Spring 2013 Instructor: Andy Farmer

Session Two – Pursuing Holiness In February Bill kicked off our semester talking about how to be a follower of Christ we need to be followers of Christ. Jesus has a will, he makes it known and we are called to obedience. Tonight we’re going to talk about our pursuit of holiness. You might think this is basically the same thing, and there is some overlap. Those who obey Christ will be pursuing holiness. But there is an important difference. Maybe the best way to say it is that obedience comes from a heart that loves Jesus. He said ‘If you love me you will obey me’. Obedience is relational and involves hearing the word and submitting to the word. Quote Bill. The desire for holiness however, is rooted not so much in our relationship with God as in God’s character and what it means to belong to him. Here’s a very poor sports analogy. If you’ve ever played sports you know the difference between a great coach and a mediocre coach. Its more than just what a coach knows; lots of people know a sport but couldn’t coach it. A great coach is committed to the success of the team – he pours himself out for the good of the team. But he also posesses this uncanny ability to get his players to trust him, to want to follow his plan. He knows the right amounts of discipline and encouragement and understands how to speak to each player so he is not just heard but understood. Players don’t want to just win – they want to win for the coach. They’ll do whatever he tells them. That’s obedience. But a great coach also embodies qualities that make a mark on players. Long after they quit playing for him his mark on them is profound. They want to be like him. They want to promote the values they got from him. That’s holiness. If you love Christ you want to obey him. If you worship Christ you want to be like him. Both are necessary motivations for the follower of Christ. To be a disciple of Christ is to pursue a life of holiness. Let’s look at our primary text for tonight. 1 Peter 2:4-12 4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture: "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." 7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," 8 and "A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

GROW 2012-13 Session Two – Pursuing Holiness

Semester Two – Spring 2013 Instructor: Andy Farmer

To Be Holy is to Be Set Apart - 2:4-8 Are you holy? Did you come tonight as a holy person? Have you been holy all day? So what does it mean to be holy? If I said, how would you tell a holy person, what would you say? Somebody is good all the time? Somebody who obeys all the rules. Somebody who is very religious. Somebody who is better than non-religious people? Peter gives us a vivid picture of the essence of holiness. It is to be set apart for a purpose. The image of a great building being built with choice and precious stones. Now before we can think about holy stones we have to consider – who chooses the stones? Who sets them apart. God does. And who gave him the right to determine what stones are holy and which aren’t? Nobody God alone is Holy – He alone is Set Apart in Himself. When we think of holiness we start with God – the Holy One. Isaiah 6:1-3 Isaiah 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" We can be made holy by God. Only God is Holy, Holy Holy Lord God Almighty! The only way to understand that which is holy is to view it in reference to God. Because God is holy, he can decide what is holy. Nobody earns holiness. Nobody is holy within themselves. Only those things that God calls holy are holy. You see that in the meticulous descriptions of the tabernacle and the temple in the OT? Why that detail? Certainly not to get people to read the Bible. If I were writing a book that I wanted everyone to read that could literally bring them life I wouldn’t include endless details about spans and cubits and acachia wood. But that’s what God wants us to see. Because God wants people to get the point that he determines what is holy. So when Peter says, 4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ., The only proper response is ‘Lord, why me? Why have I been chosen to be a living stone?’ And the answer to that is, ‘I’m holy because of Jesus Christ!’

GROW 2012-13 Session Two – Pursuing Holiness

Semester Two – Spring 2013 Instructor: Andy Farmer

We have to deal with the truth that only those who receive Jesus Christ are holy. Those who reject Jesus Christ are unholy – have no place in God’s great holy building. There is no ‘almost holy’, no ‘on my way to holy’, no ‘holy lite’. There is only holy and unholy. So let’s go back to our question; Are you holy? If you have been chosen by God you are holy.

So how does this affect you and me? Peter has already made that clear in the previous chapter of the letter. 1 Peter 1:15-16 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."

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He’s just quoting Leviticus Leviticus 19:2 "Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy. Be holy for I am holy. Not be holy like I am holy, but be holy because I am holy. How do we ‘be holy? 1. Be Holy as a Community . 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. We tend to think of holiness primarily on an individual basis. That’s why its so hard to think about. That’s what makes it so easy to compare ourselves with others. But that’s not where it starts. The dominant emphasis on holiness in the Bible is not personal holiness but community holiness. The book of Deuteronomy is the holiness calling book for God’s people. Deuteronomy 14:2 2 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. The book of Acts is the Deuteronomy of the New Testament. It is where God’s people are set apart for his holy purpose. But there’s a big difference. In Deuteronomy holiness comes from obeying the law. In Acts Holiness comes from being filled with the Spirit. Acts is God’s Holiness Empowering Book for God’s people. The rest of the NT is essentially the

GROW 2012-13 Session Two – Pursuing Holiness

Semester Two – Spring 2013 Instructor: Andy Farmer

instructions to God’s people on what Spirit empowered holiness looks like. As Paul says in Galatians 5, if you walk by the Spirit you will not carry out the works of the flesh. God desires holiness to characterize his people. Holy people. The church isn’t just a gathering of people who believe generally the same things. It is a holy community, set apart for God’s purposes. This is so important if we’re going to realize the joy of the Christian life. There is never a moment when you or I can say ‘wow, I was just holy’. Even if we do have that moment, theoretically, a minute later we’ll say, ‘wow that was really a proud and unholy thing to say’. But we can always say ‘I am part of God’s holy people!’ Illustration: Like in Remember the Titans. Its this holy people concept we need to understand if we’re going to see the importance of some practices in the church. Church membership Church membership is the agreement between individuals called to be holy and God’s appointed overseers of his church that is to be identified with God’s holy people. We don’t think like that in our culture. Church is a place I go to, its something I get things from; something I do. But that’s not the church. And there isn’t a category for someone who claims to be one of God’s holy stones to be sitting around not being built into something. Stones are set apart to be added – to be built. Church Discipline Church discipline is the process God has given the overseers of his church to bring into question whether or not a person can be identified as a part of the holy temple of God. Someone who habitually pursues unholiness, resists the help of God’s holy people and demonstrates with their lives that holiness doesn’t matter cannot be built into the holy temple. Sometimes this has to happen to real Christians to help them see the cost of intentional unholiness. But the church is God’s holy people, made up of people pursuing holiness according to God’s grace.

2. Be Holy as People 11

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Peter then brings it down to the individual level (Your soul). Because we are part of God’s holy people we want to live in ways that are consistent with that holiness. We don’t pursue holiness to earn holiness. We pursue holiness because we are holy. True holiness begins with our position in Christ and and extends into our lifestyle.

GROW 2012-13 Session Two – Pursuing Holiness

Semester Two – Spring 2013 Instructor: Andy Farmer

2 Corinthians 7:1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-7 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. This is why Jesus went after the Pharisees. Pharisees were judged because what they did to look holy masked what really motivated them. Jesus was all over that. In this sense, holiness is a battle of desires. We can’t give up and we can’t cover over. We have to fight for holiness. We don’t fight to become holy. We fight because we’re holy.

Definitive vs. progressive sanctification (holiness). It is a work of grace and of effort. The book we’ll be reading will help you think through this. Careful with over emphasis on either one. Most people tend to view holiness as our work. But if we over-correct and make it all about God’s work – let go and let God – we fall into just as serious an error. B. B. Warfield: The muscles of holiness must grow by practice.1 

Sometimes holiness will feel like grace (my struggle with lust)

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Sometimes it will feel like work (my struggle with laziness)

Gal. 5: Fruits of the Spirit. All have a command attached to them. Why? So that we pursue and express them in ways that are consistent with the holiness of the Spirit. The fruits of the Spirit are not contrasted with effort, they are contrasted with the works of the flesh. Whether we overcome dramatically or progressively this is the work of the Holy Spirit. Kevin DeYoung: The same Spirit who was present at creation and caused you to be born again is at work to empower your inner person (that is, your will or heart) so that you might resist sins you couldn’t resist before and do the good things which would otherwise be impossible2

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B. B. Warfield, Faith and Life, 133 Kevin DeYoung, The Hole in Our Holiness, Kindle Location 1189

GROW 2012-13 Session Two – Pursuing Holiness

Semester Two – Spring 2013 Instructor: Andy Farmer

3. Be Holy in the World 12

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. What does this mean? Here’s an example of what it shouldn’t mean: Tullian Tchividjian: Most people inside the church give most people outside the church the impression that Christianity is all about observing certain codes of behavior and abstaining from others. It’s all about rules and standards and good behavior and cleaning up your act. We’re really good at communicating that to the world.3 We are called to live lives that mark us as belonging to the Lord. What should that be like? Four Short Quotes that motivate me to live holy in this world

John Owen: The chief duty of faith and love is to lead us to prefer Christ above ourselves, and his concerns above our own.4 

I’d rather do God’s will than what I want

John Flavel: Everything is well, and shall be well, when all is well between us and God.5 

My relationship with God is the most important thing about me.

John Newton: It is not necessary for me to live long, but it is highly expedient that while I do live I should live to Him.6 

I want most of all for my life to bring Him glory

J. C. Ryle: “Let us hold fast what we have already, and continually seek to have more. Let us labor to be unmistakable Christians.” 7 

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I want people to have no doubt where I stand in the world

Tullian Tchividjian: Jesus Plus Nothing Equals Everything, Kindle Location 1605 John Owen, The Glory of Christ (Abridged), 68 5 John Flavel, The Mystery of Providence, 183 6 John Newton, The Voice of the Heart, 210 7 Ryle, J.C.: Holiness : It's Nature, Hinderances, Difficulties and Roots. electronic ed. based on the Evangelical Press reprinting, with new forward, 1995. Simpsonville SC : Christian Classics Foundation, 1996 4