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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
Jerry
Varnado,
pastor May 5,
2002 Again
this week we're dealing with
subject of God's grace -- and the
opening of our hearts to His
grace. 4-Trusting
Grace
and
Grace
Alone Today,
I want to talk with you about
God's "sanctifying" grace, or how
God's grace relates to our
holiness. I
won't be starting with a single
Scripture passage today as I
usually do. Instead, I want to
begin with six passages, all of
which relate to the issue of
grace and holiness. Let's
look at the first three -- and
I'll emphasize the things I want
you to notice in particular.
First, look at 2 Corinthians
7:1: Next,
1 Peter 1:14-16: And
Hebrews 12:14: What
is the focus of these three
Scriptures? They're about us --
us
perfecting holiness;
us
being holy,
us
making every effort. The
focus is
what
we
do
to be holy. Now,
let's look at the next three
texts. First, Hebrews
13:11-12: First
Corinthians 1:30-31: And
finally, Ephesians
5:25-27: What
is the focus of these three
texts?
Jesus
making us holy;
Jesus
being our holiness;
Jesus
making the church holy. The focus
is on
what
God
does
in Christ to make us
holy. Well,
which is it: Does God make us
holy or must we do it ourselves?
That's what I want to talk with
you about. The
first question we must address is
this: What does it mean to be
holy? What is holiness
anyway? To
some holiness has to do with how
we dress, how we wear our hair,
if -- or how much -- makeup the
ladies use. To
others it has to do with what we
believe, the doctrines to which
we hold. To
still others it has to do with
personal piety (how much we pray,
go to church, or fast), and our
level of commitment to Christ and
to the work of His
Kingdom. And
for yet another group of people,
it has to do with if we take
action to alleviate human
suffering. Now,
any of these things that I've
mentioned may give some
indication of a person's
holiness, but they don't define
holiness, nor do they establish
the limits of what the word
holiness implies. And we can't --
let me be clear about this -- we
can't by doing any or all of
these things, be made
holy. As
it pertains to us, the word
"holy" has a two-part meaning.
This first has to do with purity.
Look at the definitions on this
PowerPoint slide: Now
the second part of the meaning of
"holy." A verse from the Old
Testament book of Leviticus will
help us with this one. If
you have the New International
Version of the Bible, you'll see
a that the word "devotes" carries
a footnote. The footnote says:
"The Hebrew term [translated
'devotes'] refers to the
irrevocable giving over of things
or persons to the
LORD." So
in this sense, "holiness" means
being
set
apart
for God. That implies
total
consecration.
For us it means that we give
ourselves to God fully, and in so
doing we voluntarily surrender
two things: the right to choose
and the power to vary the
consequences of that action. It
is an irrevocable giving over of
ourselves to the LORD. Isn't
that what Paul describes in
Romans 12:1? To
offer oneself as a sacrifice is
meant to be an irrevocable and
total surrender. There
is another aspect to being set
apart for God: separation.
Probably, most of us aren't very
excited about this particular
doctrine, but it's important.
Separation keep us out of
situations that would work
against our holiness. Look
with me at 2 Corinthians
6:14-17: For
we are the temple of the
living God. As God has said:
"I will live with them and
walk among them, and I will be
their God, and they will be my
people." "Therefore
come out from them and be
separate, says the Lord. Touch
no unclean thing, and I will
receive you." As
I said, we're not particularly
fond of this dimension of
holiness. We want to be accepted
and honored by the world. We want
to fully indulge in its comforts
and pleasures. We want to fit
in. But
here's the hard reality: we can't
always do that and be holy. We
can't always do that and obey
God. As the saying goes, although
we're in the world we're not to
be of the world. Instead,
we are of God. Something of His
mark has been stamped on us.
We're made in His likeness. We're
supposed to act and think like
His children. We're called to do
things God's way, not the world's
way. Now
back to our starting issue: how
do we become holy? Does God make
us holy -- or must we do it?
The
Bible makes it clear that this
isn't an either/or issue. It's
not either God
or
us that makes us holy. It is God
and
us. John
Wesley, the founder of Methodism,
talked about "holiness of heart
and life." Holiness of heart
refers to internal holiness -- a
holiness that's at the core of
our being, at the center of our
will. Remember
now, that in our own nature, our
hearts are corrupt because of the
principle of sin living in us.
We're not inclined to love or
seek God. We are far more
interested in self than others.
The pursuit of holiness is far
removed from our inclinations and
our desires. It
takes a sovereign act of God's
power to change us. That's why
Jesus said we must be "born
again" of the Spirit or we can't
even see the kingdom of God, much
less enter it. But
the Scriptures teach that God
will not exert His power to that
end without our consent and
cooperation. He has designed many
of His works of grace so that
they require our participation.
As we participate with God, He
bestows on us holiness of
heart. Holiness
of life
refers
to our observable actions. --
and, yes, that includes how we
dress. It also includes how we
relate to others, as well as our
level of participation in prayer,
worship and Bible study. It
includes our acts of kindness to
the poor and the disenfranchised
in our society. In general,
holiness of life has to do with
how we live our lives before the
world. But
let me stress again that having
all the right observable actions
won't make you holy. But if you
are holy internally, because of
the work God has done in you,
you'll be motivated to be holy
externally. God's holiness within
you will motivate you to manifest
His holiness in your outward
actions. But
God will not
make
you pray, go to church, read the
Bible, help the poor, minister to
the sick, or visit those in jail.
You
have to do it, I have to
do it. God
doesn't "possess" or "control" --
that's one of the devil's way of
dealing with human beings.
Instead, God invades our lives by
invitation only. Yes, God draws
us to Christ by His sovereign
grace, but he sets up residence
in our lives only in concert with
our human will, only when we have
surrendered our will to His love,
to His will, to His
purpose. Some
years ago a friend of mine, who's
an evangelist, was driving to a
revival meeting somewhere and saw
a sign beside the road in front
of a small rural church. And
here's what the sign
said: The
title is kind of funny, but
actually all three of three words
are relevant to our holiness.
"Holey" is the adjective form of
the word hole, which means "an
opening or perforation,"
right? What
are we talking about in this
sermon series?
Opening
ourselves to God. We must open
our hearts to His grace -- we
must give Him an opening into our
lives. He stands at the door and
knocks, but we must open the door
and let Him in. I
would submit to you that if we're
to ever be holy, we must first be
holey. We must respond to God's
overtures by opening ourselves to
receive His grace. Being
sanctified, or being made holy,
is a work of the Holy Spirit on
the basis of Christ's atonement
-- a work that calls for obedient
submission from those who are
being saved. Christians
are holy because of our calling
in Christ, because of His
atonement for our sins, and
because of the continual
ministrations of the Holy Spirit.
We are holy inasmuch as we
receive and submit to the saving
and sanctifying grace of
God. God's
grace is available to make us
holy, but we must open our hearts
to that grace and receive it by
submitting ourselves totally to
God and His sanctifying
work.
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
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of the
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A
GATEWAY SERMON
God's
grace and our holiness
(Fifth
in the series, Opening Ourselves to
God)
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
Thus far, we've talked about the
fact that God
takes the
initiative
in our redemption through
"prevenient" grace -- and also
that it is by God's sovereign act
of mercy that we
can receive His "justifying"
grace
that entitles us to participate
in the coming Kingdom of
God.
In
this
series
Since
we have these promises, dear
friends, let us
purify
ourselves
from everything that
contaminates body and spirit,
perfecting holiness out of
reverence for God.
As
obedient children, do not
conform to the evil desires
you had when you lived in
ignorance. But just as he who
called you is holy, so
be
holy in all you
do;
for it is written: "Be holy,
because I am holy."
Make
every
effort
to live in peace with all men
and to be holy; without
holiness no one will see the
Lord.
The
high priest carries the blood
of animals into the Most Holy
Place as a sin offering, but
the bodies are burned outside
the camp. And so Jesus also
suffered outside the city gate
to
make
the people
holy
through his own blood.
It
is because of [God]
that you are in Christ Jesus,
who has
become
for
us
wisdom from God -- that is,
our righteousness, holiness
and redemption. Therefore, as
it is written: "Let him who
boasts boast in the
Lord."
Husbands,
love your wives, just as
Christ loved the church and
gave himself up for her
to
make her
holy,
cleansing her by the washing
with water through the word,
and to present her to himself
as a radiant church, without
stain or wrinkle or any other
blemish, but holy and
blameless.
Holier
than thou?
Defining
'holy'
At
first glance, we would say that
definitions such as these apply
only to God, not to us -- and
certainly that's true. But I'm
reminded of a quote by
Presbyterian pastor and author,
Fredrick Buechner. from the book,
Wishful Thinking. Here it
is:
What
Mr. Buechner saying is that -- as
people who know Jesus Christ --
we have something of God's mark
on us. Something of His
transcendence, something of His
purity has been stamped into the
very core of our being. We're not
perfect yet, but perfection has
touched our lives -- and changed
us."But
nothing that a man owns and
devotes to the Lord -- whether
man or animal or family land
-- may be sold or redeemed;
everything so devoted is most
holy to the LORD." (Lev.
27:28)
Therefore,
I urge you, brothers, in view
of God's mercy, to offer your
bodies as living sacrifices,
holy and pleasing to God --
this is your spiritual act of
worship
Holiness
and behaviorDo
not be yoked together with
unbelievers. For what do
righteousness and wickedness
have in common? Or what
fellowship can light have with
darkness? What harmony is
there between Christ and
Belial? What does a believer
have in common with an
unbeliever? What agreement is
there between the temple of
God and idols?
Cooperating
with God
Holey,
wholly, holy
Amused
and taken by the inadvertent
misspelling, this friend of mine
prepared and preached a sermon
titled: "Holey, Wholly, Holy."
The title was catchy and I
"borrowed" it for a sermon I
preached in 1994.
The
second word in that sermon title
is "wholly." It means "entirely
and exclusively." As I said a few
minutes ago, quoting from the NIV
footnote in Leviticus, holiness
involves the
total,
irrevocable giving of ourselves
to the Lord -- giving ourselves
wholly to God. So if we are to
ever be holy we must be wholly
His.
Putting
it all together
An
audio tape of this sermon is
available
free of charge (U.S. requests
only).
Request
a tape by calling
or writing the Gateway Church
office.
Please specify tape number
020505a: God's Grace and Our
Holiness.
©
2002 Gerald R.
Varnado