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Light Of His Word The Sermons of Pastor Mike Walls Freedom Baptist Church Used By Permission Psalms 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. |
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Light Of His Word The Sermons of Pastor Mike Walls Freedom Baptist Church Used By Permission Psalms 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. |
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PLAIN,
PRACTICAL PREACHING ON BIBLE HOLINESS Message
#3 2nd
Corinthians 7:1 Introduction:
We looked at holiness from these two
points of view previously. We spoke on desiring holiness.
You will never do anything that you do not desire to do.
In preaching a message like that I wanted you to get a greater
desire for holy living. Holiness can be viewed from the
nation of Israel crossing over the Jordan River from the wilderness.
Life in the wilderness is like the carnal man as described in
1st Corinthians chapter three. You will not
grow into holiness. You will have to take that step of
faith and step into the water like those Levitical priests did
with the Ark of the Covenant. If you have not read this
account recently, you must be reminded that the Jordan River
was swollen with the winter snows melted and was at flood stage.
But God will reward those who take that step of faith. “But without
faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to
God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him.” The question is this: do you really desire to live a holy life that
pleases God or not? What you do with God's Word on every
area of your life is His business and not yours. “What? know
ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which
is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For
ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body,
and in your spirit, which are God.” Then the second message of this series dealt with the definition
of holiness. We looked at what holiness was and was not.
Personal holiness is not sinless perfection. I know I
used this illustration previously but it fits with these thoughts.
Oliver Green preached all over the country. He was a tent evangelist.
He would set up a tent in town in accord with a local church
and preach to get sinners saved and saints right with God.
To keep water from outside of the tent from coming in the middle
of the tent, there was always a shallow trench dug. He
was a place where there was lots of red clay. He was working
on the trench getting his hands muddy with this clay when a
man walked up to him in a clean, starched white shirt.
The man told Brother Green that he wanted to straighten him
out on something that Brother Green had said in the meeting
the night previously. Brother Green stated the night before
that it is impossible to live a sinless life that we need to
go to the Lord daily and confess our sins. The man told
Brother Green that he had been saved for forty years and had
not sinned since that day. Brother Green stopped the digging
and took his hands and rubbed up and down the man’s back.
The man got upset and was almost got into a fit of anger demanding
to know what Brother Green was doing. Brother Green told
him that if he had not sinned in forty years, he must have been
an angel and he was looking for his wings. The man went
away fussing and cussing over Brother Green getting his clean
white shirt dirty. So you see this shows that living the
life of holiness is not a one-time deal. You constantly
have to walk anew each day in the path of holiness. Galatians
2:20 “I am crucified
with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by
the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself
for me.” It is a daily task. I am finding that it is an hourly and minute
by minute task in my life. G. Campbell Morgan asked this question in such a way that I knew
I could never improved upon it. “Is holiness
an instinct of the soul in some, and therefore forevermore impossible
to others? How can I get into such “living, patient, and confident
communion with the unseen Good” as to enable me in the spirit
to purify myself of earthly appetites and worldly passions,
and so live in the power of that unseen grace?” Let me go back to the text verse for just a few minutes before getting
the directives for holiness. Paul tells us that “Having
therefore these promises”. Several thoughts are
seen in those four words. The word “therefore”
makes us this question: what is the therefore therefore.
It refers to the promises that are the fourth word. What
promises? You have to look back in chapter six to find
the promises. 2nd Corinthians 6:16-18 “And what
agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the
temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in
them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall
be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye
separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and
I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall
be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” There are seven promises found in those three verses. They
are as follows. Time does not permit us to go into those promises, as I would like.
These are promises that God will be resident with His people.
He will be active with His people. This is not the Lord
opening an orphanage and acting like our Father. He is
taking an active role in our lives. Since He does, we
have to consider the last part of our text verse. “Dearly
beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the
flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” Having three boys, I understand filthiness. Boys and probably
girls can get dirty so fast. You can have them dressed
for church and if you don’t watch them carefully, they will
figure out how to get dirty quickly. You notice that the
Lord did not tell Paul to write I will cleanse them. He
cleanses us in the initial step of our new life in Christ.
He cleanses us from sin when He saved us. He expects us
to keep clean. When we do not, then He expects us to come
to Him for cleansing. 1st
John 1:9 “If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Adam Clarke explains part of this verse in this way. Let
us apply to Him for the requisite grace of purification; and
avoid every thing in spirit and practice which is opposite to
the doctrine of God, and which has a tendency to pollute the
soul. When we go to Him
for cleansing, He gives the grace to help us in this painful
exercise. If you think this is easy, then it is obvious
that you have never took the time or effort in this part of
the Christian life. We need to be like David. Psalms
139:23-24 “Search me,
O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And
see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way
everlasting.” So we are going to look at the directives for holiness. These
conditions must be seemed in order to see holiness perfected
in our lives. Our indwelling God is the secret of holiness
in human character and is also the energy of righteousness in
human conduct. I. CONCERN
ABOUT YOUR LIFE This is the first step to the life that pleases God. When you
view your life from the eyes of the Lord, what do you see?
There is the potential within every one of us to any thing
that is evil and wicked. I don’t care how much you try
to hide it or dress it up or cover it up; you have sin in
your life. Paul understood this very well in Romans
seven. “For that
which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but
what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not,
I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no
more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know
that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing:
for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which
is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but
the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I
would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil
is present with me.” Are you satisfied with your life? Are you satisfied with the
level of spirituality that you have now? If you are
you living like the carnal man. This is never a life
that pleases God. Life in the wilderness has neither
the pleasures of Egypt or the Promised Land. It is a
life of real misery. It has the memory of the onions,
leeks and garlic of Egypt. This lingers on the mind.
It renders him strangely reluctant to sample the grapes, milk
and honey of Canaan. So the first step of perfecting holiness in your life is have a godly
concern over your life. This leads you to step two. II. CONVICTION
OVER YOUR LIFE Conviction over your life is a gift from God. That sounds strange
but if you want to perfect holiness in your life you will
have conviction over the way that you are living. Perfecting
in the Greek implies that you are bringing your holiness to
perfection. It is not merely negative goodness (cleansing),
but aggressive and progressive holiness, not a sudden attainment
of complete holiness, but a continuous process. I have
found that a sudden attainment of anything in the spiritual
realm is rarely a long lasting thing. Conviction can come like a flash of lightning to the soul of man,
unsought, unexpected, uncompelled by mental activity. The
great conviction comes in the midst of a service, comes in
the silence of our own home, comes when and where we least
expect it. Since it is a gift from God, then we ought to thank Him for it.
Why? Let me give you a few reasons. I
heard Dr. Eric Redmocker make these statements that fits with
this message. “What I know and think about deeply will
affect how I live.” This is exactly what conviction
will do for you. It makes you think more deeply and
seriously about this life of holiness. He also said, “No man will walk higher than he thinks about God.
You can not trust God if you don’t know Him.” Conviction
will lead you to step three. III. CONCENTRATE
ON AREAS OF YOUR LIFE This concentration for holiness will lead you back to the Bible.
Since we have already been in 2nd Corinthians then
I will go back to this in reference to concentration for holiness.
Before giving these verses, I want to say that many people
tend to overlook them. Why? They shine the spotlight
of God's Word on our lives. But when conviction comes
and leads you to concentrating on your life, you will have
to use these verses as a guide to understand if you have or
trying to have holiness in your life. “Be
ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what
fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what
communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath
Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with
an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with
idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath
said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be
their God, and they shall be my people.” This is where the rubber hits the road so to speak. It starts
with a frank statement and then contains several strong questions. First we will look at the bold statement. God said, “Be
ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers”.
Why is this important? Look back in the pages of your Bible
and you will see how this important. This statement
is really imprinted over and over again in the Bible.
When Israel came out of the wilderness, He commanded that
they kill their enemies. This includes the children.
That seems harsh. But if you don’t have the inhabitants
to live among you, you will not be corrupted by them.
In Jericho, this included destroying every the garments.
But one man hid away one change of clothes and a little bit
of money and hid it in his tent. It was his disobedience
in this seemingly small way that cost Israel thirty-six men’s
lives. Achan was just as guilty of murder if he had
taken a sword and killed these men himself. But not
only that, his wife and children died as a direct result of
his sin. Another illustration of this was when Saul did not kill all the Amalekites.
In a few years, an Amalekite will stand over his body and
gloat. In a few years, an Amalekite would try to utter
wipe the Jewish people off the face of the earth. That
man’s name was Haman and his story is found in the book of
Esther. If Saul had not tried to get yoked with unbelievers,
then this account of attempted total annihilation of the Jews
would not have occurred. Are there some unbelievers that you are yoked to in your life?
You cannot totally cut yourself off from unbelievers but you
don’t have to be chums with them. If you don’t have
contact with unbelievers, you could never lead them to Christ.
But you don’t have to do what they do for friendship.
The statement is a military term. It means you are to keep
rank. Stay with your group. There are several questions in these verses that you can help you
concentrate on your life and your journey of faith to holiness.
What are these questions? I
will not be able to go in to depth with these questions but
I want to comment some on them. What is fellowship? It is a mutual interest in something.
Unrighteousness is never interested in righteousness.
Unrighteous music has not place in the life of a righteous
person. Unrighteous dress does not have place with a
righteous person. Some people cannot tell the difference
between the saved and lost. But modesty should be the
apparel of the righteous. I could go on and on.
If conviction has sent you to concentration on your life,
you will have to deal with these questions and many more. What is communion? It is in the sense of what Christ does with
His people. If there is light, there is no darkness.
If there is darkness, then there is no light. Can we
have true communion or fellowship with the lost? They
are walking in darkness. We have to bring ourselves
so far down that it is compared to hide your light under a
bushel. What is concord? It is an agreement. It can be seen in
the harmony that comes from instruments. Can you imagine
what would sound like if a group of musicians would decide
they were go to play for us and every one of them had a different
piece of music in fount of them? It would not be harmony;
it would be a mess. Can you agree with the world on the things of God? Not really
is the answer. If you want to live the life of holiness,
you will not finding that you are in agreement with Satan
and his crowd. Christ and the devil had nothing in common
and they found no ground in order to have an agreement. The question in the fourth question is not part or believeth but
the word “infidel”. What is an infidel? It is
a man who does not believe--whether a heathen idolater, a
profane man, a scoffer, a philosopher, a man of science or
a moral man. They don’t believe on Christ. Neither
do they believe in Christ. The fifth question can be illustrated like a museum. Can you
imagine a room full of idols and Christ in the midst of them?
That is exactly what happens to when a person does when he
or she has when they try to play both sides of the fence. You need to take these questions to the Lord and ask Him to reveal
the real you to you. He can and will but it will not
be done without concentrating on your life before God.
Let give you a few questions that you might ask yourself as
you are trying to concentrate on holiness in your life. This concentration
on your life leaves to step four. IV. CONFESSION
TO THE LORD ABOUT YOUR LIFE It
is honesty before God. It is not a general confession.
It means calling your sin exactly what God calls it.
What God points out a sin in your life, don’t call it a mistake
or a fault, call it sin just like the Lord pointed out. “If
we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” It
means that we humble ourselves before God, acknowledging our
iniquity, his holiness, and our own utter helplessness, and
implore mercy for his sake who has died for us; he is faithful,
because to such he has promised mercy. “He
that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth
and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” If
you try to candy coat your sin, then you are confessing them.
You are trying to play games with God. But if you confess
them, then you must forsake them. Psalms
32:5 “I
acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not
hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD;
and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.” Once
you have made confession unto the Lord, you need one more
step. V. CONSECRATE
YOUR LIFE Remem “I
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that
ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed
to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable,
and perfect, will of God. Short Conclusion:
This does mean that we are watching our lives in such a
way that honor and glorify the Lord. Let me make these final
comments that will help us. Do we really want to enjoy
that fellowship as sons and daughters of God? This is
not my imagination. This is the word of inspiration. If I am told that I am to perfect holiness, that I am to have no
fellowship with sin and evil things, in order to become the
temple of God, I am filled with fear because I am so weak and
frail. That, however, is not the apostolic method. He reminds
me, first, of the strength, which is mine, and then urges me
to Holiness. Because we are temples of God, we are not to desecrate
the temple. God is in us. We are not to insult the Indweller
by the retention of things that are unlike Him. This is the
groundwork of appeal. Because of these facts we are called on to put away all the things
we know to be wrong, in our friendships, in our habits, in our
inner thinking. These things must be put away or there can be
no perfecting holiness. The threefold definition of sin
is very familiar. Sin is transgression of the law. Sin is neglecting
to do right. The questionable thing is sin whether it have the
appearance of good or evil. We are to decide by that threefold
definition of sin what things need to be put away. The things
we know to be wrong. The things we have neglected to do which
are right. It is also the things about which we are doubtful.
May
God lead every one of us not merely to conviction, but to the
concentration that leads to confessing all the things He disapproves,
and surrenders to Him all that is His by the indwelling of His
Spirit. Next time we will be looking at the delights of holiness. What
will holiness do in our lives?
THE
DIRECTIVES FOR HOLINESS
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