Perfecting Holiness

Q: What does the Bible say about perfecting holiness?

The Bible instructs believers to cleanse themselves from filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2 Corinthians 7:1). In 2 Corinthians 7:1, Paul exhorts believers to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, which emphasizes the importance of a holy lifestyle. Holiness is not simply about outward behavior but stems from a heart that is transformed and focused on Christ. This command to perfect holiness pushes believers to understand that true holiness is rooted in a relationship with Jesus, who is our sanctification and righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30). Thus, any effort to be holy must be accompanied by a deep reliance on Jesus to be effective.

Q: How do we know that holiness is possible for Christians?

Holiness is possible for Christians because it is achieved through Jesus Christ, who is our righteousness and sanctification (1 Corinthians 1:30). The concept of holiness is often misunderstood but, through the Gospel, it is clear that holiness for Christians is not about personal achievements but about being united with Christ. Scripture teaches that Jesus is our holiness, suggesting that believers are already considered holy in God's eyes due to their union with Him (1 Corinthians 1:30). Holiness comes from understanding what Christ has done for us, empowering us to live in accordance with His will. Thus, the path to holiness lies in faith and reliance upon Christ rather than self-effort.

Q: Why is fearing the Lord important for Christians?

Fearing the Lord is vital for Christians as it fosters a proper reverence and love for God's holiness, leading to a life of obedience and worship. Fearing the Lord involves having a profound respect and reverence for His holiness, as well as a love for His perfection and truth. This fear is not a paralyzing dread but a deep-seated recognition of God's authority and majesty, which motivates believers to worship and obey Him. When Paul speaks of perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2 Corinthians 7:1), he underscores the transformative power of this fear—it leads to a lifestyle that honors God and reflects His character. Moreover, the healthy fear of God provides comfort, as believers realize that they are in a relationship where God desires their good.

Q: Why should Christians seek to cleanse themselves from filthiness?

Christians are called to cleanse themselves from filthiness to maintain their communion with God and reflect His holiness in their lives. Cleansing oneself from filthiness of the flesh and spirit, as instructed in 2 Corinthians 7:1, is essential for Christians because it is a demonstration of their commitment to God. This process involves turning away from behaviors and associations that stain and pollute, thus enabling believers to uphold the purity characteristic of God's people. The motivation behind this cleansing is based on the promises found in Christ and the understanding that such efforts are expressions of trust and obedience to God. While believers may struggle with sin, the call to cleanse is tied to a relational aspect of purity obtained through faith in Jesus, who empowers them to live a life that glorifies God.

Q: How does legalism conflict with the concept of holiness?

Legalism conflicts with holiness by proposing that personal effort or adherence to rules can achieve righteousness, which undermines the grace found in Christ. Legalism represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the Gospel, as it suggests that holiness can be attained through human efforts or compliance with a set of rules. This view becomes problematic because it separates the believer's actions from their identity in Christ, creating a false dichotomy where one’s standing before God is contingent on personal performance rather than on the finished work of Jesus. True holiness cannot stem from the flesh or human ability and must be rooted in the grace provided through Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30). Thus, when believers recognize that their holiness is based on Christ’s righteousness, they are free to live obediently without the burdensome weight of legalism.

Alright, our next speaker tonight
is Pastor Tim James. Glad to have Debbie came with
Tim. And they have been friends of
ours for two or three years. And we go back a long ways. And we're thankful to God for
their friendship. faithful servant of the Lord,
Sequoia Baptist Church in Cherokee, North Carolina, since 1978, or
you went down there. And we're glad to have you, Tim. You come preach the gospel of
Christ to us. Well, it's a delight to be back
up here among all y'all pretty Michiganders. I always look forward to this
time of year to see Jim and Nancy, to see
y'all, tell you how much I appreciate you, how kind and merciful and
generous you've been to me over the years, and I certainly do
appreciate it. I told Gary I was going to preach a legalistic
message tonight. I thought I would. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
7. Verse 1 says, Having therefore these
promises, dearly beloved, Let us cleanse ourselves from
all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in
the fear of the Lord. I can see by some of your faces
you are already saying, I wish he had shut up. Several times over the years,
after preaching the gospel in different places, and even occasionally
after preaching it at home, I've been confronted with this passage
of Scripture by someone who is put off by the truth of the pure,
sovereign grace of God in the salvation of sinners. The fact
is, one cannot preach grace without, on occasion, being charged with
antinomianism. It's an impossibility. If you
preach grace, somebody's going to call you an antinomian. I'm
always amazed that a person can think this one verse is the standard
for all others, when just the opposite is true. Several years ago, I was in Louisville,
Kentucky, before Pastor Daniel Parks took over as pastor of
that church, of Redeemer Baptist Church. But there was another
fellow there that had invited myself, Donnie Bell, Don Fortner,
and Todd Nybert to preach up there. And it also invited some
preachers from a very legalistic church up in New Jersey, and
they'd come down too. Well, we didn't know anything
about these other guys, but they had already been told about us,
because the preacher who was there at the time, was going
to leave being a Baptist pastor and was going to be ordained
a Presbyterian pastor, and he gave this Bible conference to
see how he could split the church, and how many he could take with
him, and how many he could leave behind. That's what was going
on. We didn't know any of this stuff. We didn't know any of
this stuff. Well, after I'd preached, and
Brother Donnie and Don had preached, this fellow got up, I can't remember
his name, he was from Owensboro, Kentucky. I probably could remember
his name, but I don't want to remember his name. And this preacher got up and
compared the life of a Christian to walking a tightrope. You see, he said a tightrope
walker needs a rope. He also needs a long pole for
balance. So this preacher said the balance
pole was righteousness. He went on further to say that
on one end was the righteousness of Christ, and on the other end
was our personal righteousness. I was angry. Don Fortner was
sitting behind me with Shelby, and she saw that my ears were
turning red, and my neck was turning red, and I was just sitting
there gritting my teeth. And she leaned up and touched
me on the shoulder and said, You want some gum? And I said, Do you have a gun? That man, in his sad, flawed,
ersatz logic, which was born of the delusions of mediocrity,
implied that if our personal righteousness was not equal to
that of Christ, that we would be out of balance and fall off
the wire and suffer loss. Now, after he had finished his
gospel according to the Cirque du Soleil, He ended his tirade
with a challenge to anyone who would presume to disagree with
him by de-double-daring them to preach the message from 2
Corinthians 7 and verse 1. Having therefore these promises,
dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. He firmly believed that this
verse supported his carnival hawker, freak show definition
of balanced righteousness before God. He could not account for
the fact that the believer is decidedly unbalanced. We go all the way one way. We just fall clean. We're unbalanced. Brother, that was a very unbalanced
message. You don't have a balanced ministry.
You have an unbalanced ministry as every man who stands and preaches
the gospel is. And the believer simply cannot
abide to of anything. We can't. Concerning salvation,
one way, one truth, one life, one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God overall. Singular, and therefore easily
understood. You got two things, you'll be
confused. Nobody's confused about one thing. How can you be? Think about it. If it's just
one thing, what can you be confused about? Now you might not like
the one thing, But you're not confused about it. After our
brother just preached, you'll go out here tonight, and if you
don't believe him, I know this, you'll know what you don't believe.
Because he made it clear that our only hope was the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's just clear as a bell.
This is one thing. Well, preacher, can't you tell us something else?
I just got one thing. Like the old fellow that had
one string on his guitar. He just plucked it and plucked
it. The fellow says, ain't you got no other strings? I found
the note I've been looking for and I'm just going to keep on
playing it. This fellow who made this statement about the balance
pole, his error as well as all errors of legalism is to divorce
a spiritual admonition such as this one found here in this passage
from Christ and lay it at the door of human responsibility
or human capability or human merit. And since all the Word
of God is about Jesus Christ, he said to the finest religious
people on the earth, go lost as geese in a snowstorm, he said,
you search the Scriptures, for in them you think you find eternal
life, but they are they which testify of me, and you will not
come to me that you might have life. You'll go everywhere but
to the Lord Jesus Christ. This passage of Scripture is
about Jesus Christ. It's that simple. When we read
2 Corinthians 7 and verse 1, it's about Jesus Christ. When
it talks about perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord, it's
talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. All things that we are
admonished to do in Scripture are based upon and centered in
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are told to forgive. Others. How? On what basis? From what place? As Christ has
forgiven us. We're told to love others as
Christ has loved us. We are commanded to give because
God has freely given us all things in Christ and withheld nothing
from us. We are commanded to pray without
ceasing because Christ ever lives to make intercession for us.
It's all about Him and nothing else. Genesis 1-1 to Revelation
22 is all about him. This is his book. It's his story. It's all about him. Now, in this
context, the translators started a new chapter with verse 1 of
chapter 7. Perhaps they did so to connect
it with the verse that follows. Verse 2 says, Receive us, we
have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded
no man. People like to say things like
that, and Paul was telling the truth. Receive us because we've
not done that. And I suppose they attached verse 1 to verse
2 because it sounds like that's where it ought to be. That's
not where it ought to be. It's not about verse 2. It's
not about verse 2. These are gospel imperatives
that every believer is to follow. We are to not defraud men. We're
always to be honest and upright and not to corrupt men. Those are gospel imperatives.
Read Romans chapter 13. Paul gives us several things
that we are to do. To owe man nothing but to love one another
when this is the fulfilling of the law and so forth. These are
gospel imperatives. But character and conduct, they
do matter. They just don't count. Did you hear that? Character
and conduct do matter. They just don't count because
character and conduct flow from a revelation of an understanding
and appreciation of how our Lord has graciously dealt with us.
We love Him because He first loved us. We love each other
because He loved us. That's why we do it. There's
no other reason for it. The first two words of verse
7 connected to the previous verses. Having therefore. Now you don't
throw things in like that unless they connect to something else.
Having therefore these promises. These words address the promises
declared in the last few verses of chapter 6. They say, verse
17, 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 I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my
sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Those are precious
promises. Having therefore these promises,
and whatever the meaning of the remainder of this verse 1 of
chapter 7, is inextricably married to, and is without any possibility
of divorce, is inextricably married to, and is based on and centered
in the fact that those who are spoken of and spoken to and admonished
and warned, they have something. All of that is based on therefore
having therefore. These folks have something. They ain't looking for something. They're not on a scavenger hunt
for it. They don't have to eat the fish
and spit out the bones to get it. They have it. Paul says, having therefore. These promises, we've got these.
That's the basis for this. They possess it, and therefore
they believe the aforementioned promises. They are not looking
to gain or progress in any way, shape, or form concerning these
promises. Why should they? They have them.
They have them. Do you want these promises? No,
I don't want them, I've got them. Would you like to have them?
No, I wouldn't like to have them, I have them. These are possessed
promises. They are possessed promises.
Every last cotton-picking one of them is possessed by the child
of God. The word promise is throughout
Scripture linked to Christ. It's always linked to Christ
and is understood and embraced by the gift of faith. All the
promises of God are yea and they are amen in Christ to the glory
of the Father by us. All of them, all promises of
God are found and realized in the Lord Jesus Christ and nowhere
else. We are called the children of
promise. We are called the heirs of promise. You read about Isaac. Paul says in Galatians, as Isaac
was, we are the children of promise. Just like Isaac was this promise. It follows then that the remaining
words of the admonition are not accomplished in the flesh, but
rather in the Spirit through believing the promise of God.
Or believing Christ. Verse 1 of chapter 7 is actually
the last verse of chapter 6. Actually, the last verse of chapter
6, the last word of warning and promise that is contained in
chapter 6 in verses 14 through 18. Now, let's read them. Verse
14 says, Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
And that's not just talking about marriage. I think you can make
a real good application there. But that's not what that's talking
about. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for
what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what
communion with light and darkness? Christ is righteousness, Christ
is light, everything else is unrighteousness and darkness.
And what concord hath Christ with Belial, or the devil? Or
what part hath he that believeth with an infidel, or an unbeliever?
Or what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are
the temple of the living God, and God has said, I will dwell
in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. That's the promise of God. But
you see what he's talking about here? This is important. Verse 7 is about that. It's about
being unequally yoked together with unbelievers. It's about
having fellowship, or what fellowship after righteousness was unrighteous,
and so forth, and so on. Our text has to do with, and
must be viewed in the light of this context, unless we find
ourselves sucked into the airless vacuous black hole of legalism.
Now that's not hard for any of us, because we are all legalists
by nature. We are born legalists. I myself
am a legalist in recovery. That's what I am. It doesn't
take much for me to become a legalist. I try to get myself out of fixes
all the time, and you do too. Get yourself in a fix, what's
the first thing you do? Try to figure out some way to
get out of it. Well, I'm going to pray more. No, you ain't. I'm going to read my Bible more.
No, you're not. But it sounds good and it feels
right because we're legalists. That's what we are. We think
we can undo our problem. Where's the problem? We can't
undo it. Cleansing can never be attributed
to the power of the will of the flesh. The very words of this
passage declare that we are to cleanse ourselves from filthiness
of the flesh. So how would we apply to the
flesh to cleanse ourselves from the filthiness of the flesh?
To cleanse ourselves from the filthiness of the Spirit. We
are not admonished to go to the flesh to cleanse ourselves from
the filthiness of it. That's oxymoronic. It is. Cleansing is not a thing that
we can do at all. Job said, if I plunge myself
in snow water and make myself never so clean, God will throw me right back
in the ditch and make me abhor the filthiness of my own covering. Malachi chapter 3 describes Christ
as the one who sits as the purifier of the priesthood. The purifier,
the fuller, the one who washes people. In 1 John, John said,
we walk in the light as He is in the light. We have fellowship
with the Father and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from
all sin. Everywhere in Scripture that
the children of God seek cleansing, they do so at one place. They
seek it at the door of mercy. That's where they seek it. The
fact that their cry is, cleanse me, and I'll be clean. Don't
help me cleanse myself, or give me some soap, or give me a way
to clean myself. Cleanse me! If you'll cleanse
me, Lord, I will be clean. That means they know that cleansing
is not something that is possible by their own power or their own
ability. Cleansing was accomplished on
Calvary by the blood of the perfect substitute. And Paul declared
this fact to this very church. Look over back at chapter 6 and
verse 11. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 11. After he says that no drunkard,
or fornicator, or idolater, or adulterer, or effeminate, or
abusers of themselves, or mankind, or thieves, nor covenants, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the
kingdom of God. He says, some of you are that
way. Such were some of you. That doesn't
mean all of you did all these things. It means all of you did
some of these things. But you're washed. You're washed. You're sanctified
and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the
Spirit. Paul says the same thing to Titus in Titus 3, verses 4
through 8, if you have time to look at it. What is being said
here is that cleansing is spiritual. It's spiritual. The flesh is
neither quickened nor renewed. It never is. And cannot be made
anything other than what it is. Legalism's desire is to make
Adam look better, smell better, do better. That's religion's
desire. To make Adam better. But let
me tell you, Adam ain't getting no better. You can put a bow
on a pig, it's still a pig. It's still a pig. A snake sheds
its skin once a year, but he's still a snake. He's still a snake. Flesh is flesh and always will
be flesh, and thus it is carnal, sensual, earthly-minded, ever
minding the things below and never the things above. Why did
Paul groan in the Spirit after what he said in Romans 7, verses
14 through 24? Why did he groan to be released
from the influence and death of the flesh? Who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? And then he just simply said,
I thank God for Jesus Christ. He didn't give a great theological
thing, did He? He didn't enter into a theological,
I'll tell you who's going to deliver me. Let's go back to
eternity. And let's start here. Let's move
all the way. I thank God through Jesus Christ. And my dilemma
will be the same until the day I die. Therefore, with my mind,
with my desire, I will serve the Word, the law of God. But
with my flesh, I will serve the law of sin. And that's what it
means to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. To know through
the Gospel that with your mind, your inner man, you serve God. Yeah, that's what you want. That's
what you desire. But with your flesh, you'll always serve sin
and death. So what a dilemma. For us. Not for God. He fixed it. So what He sees
in His children is perfection. Experimentally, experientially,
they see nothing in themselves. But He sees His Son in them. He sees His Son. The flesh is
neither quickened nor renewed. We need to always remember that. To apply to the flesh for perfection
of holiness is a twisted kind of necrophilia. It's utterly
absurd as going to the graveyard to find life. This admonition has to do with
the spiritual. Having our minds stayed upon
God by His grace. The Bible does say, mortify your
members which are upon the earth. The Bible does say, mortify your
deeds, the deeds of the flesh. But there is only one way that
our members which are upon the earth can ever be mortified.
This mortification is certainly not within the purview of our
aptitude. Why? Because they're upon the earth. We're upon the earth. They're
down here. So we can't do nothing about it. This mortification.
Our Lord said, set your affection on things above and not on things
of the earth. You see, there is an above and
below in this situation. Our members on earth cannot mortify
themselves. That's the flesh. One does not
apply to the disease, embrace the disease, revisit the disease,
or come reinfected with the disease in order to cure the disease. We are cleansed one way. And
this will make no sense to you unless you know Christ. We are
cleansed one way. The deeds of the flesh are mortified
one way. Our members upon the earth are
mortified one way. Only one. Are you ready? Look to Christ. That's it. Fix your eyes upon Him. That's
the only way. The old hymn says of this wonderful,
singular manner, Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His
wonderful face, and the things of the earth will grow strangely
dim. They won't disappear, but they
will get dim. And this is it, in a nutshell,
is the answer. The believer looks to Christ
for the appearing of Christ. The believer will be looking
for Him because the believer has set his affection on Him,
and not on things of the earth. With affection on things above,
the natural consequence is that the things of the earth are not
attended to. It's not that you say, oh, I'm
doing bad. I'm going to look at the bad
things I do. Why do you want to do that? What good is it going
to do? Well, I've been doing this. I've
got to stop doing this. Stop looking under. That's your
problem. Look to the remedy. It's so simple
and yet impossible apart from a work of grace. Set your affection
on things above, and the things of earth will not be attended
to. Mind the things of the Spirit and not the things of the flesh.
The principle of one's inability to serve two masters here applies.
The members that are on the earth are mortified by looking for
the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look to Christ. Look
only to Christ. And religion, ever about making
the old man better and applying to the flesh to do so, will never
be able to grasp that mortification of our members on the earth is
accomplished with a look. But it is. Promise. suggests hope. And we do not
hope in our flesh. We do not hope in anything that
we can see. You're looking horizontal. You
ain't never going to have no peace in this world. Not a lick. Not a lick. A hope that is seen
is no hope. Well, I believe you've got to
have some evidence of salvation. Why won't you show me yours?
Huh? What's your evidence? Well, I
pray. So does billions of people upon the face of the earth. Well,
I love. Do you really? How well do you
do that? Do you do it perfectly? Well,
I'm afraid then it's unacceptable. Well, I go to church. Everybody
goes to church, at least twice a year. What are you going to
show? Do you know there's only one
evidence of salvation in Scripture? Faith is the evidence of things
hoped for and the substance of things not seen. Hoped for, not
seen. We can't even prove we have faith. Would you like to prove to me
that you have faith? You can't. I can't prove to you
I have it. In fact, I can't know you have it and you can't know
I have it. Only I can know I have it and only you can know you
have it. It can't be proven. That's the beauty and the glory
and the wonder of this thing, is that the world sees this as
utterly stupid and foolish. Why come you say you're a believer?
Well, because I believe. How can you say you're a Christian?
Because I believe. That don't make it so. It does
if God gives the faith. The only way the flesh is ever
subdued is looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. I know it's unlikely,
and it's as wonderful as it is unlikely. It is subdued, the
flesh is subdued only one way. It's starved for affection. It's the only way it's subdued. It's not subdued by the flesh.
It's subdued by not paying attention to it. And the only way it's
not being paid attention to is to look to Christ. You know this
as children of God. When is your joy and peace complete? When you see Him. When does everything
fall apart? When you take your eyes off Him.
That's our life. With our mind we serve the law
of God. With our flesh we serve the law of sin and death. Looking
unto Jesus the author and finisher. Now notice those two things.
He's not just the author of it, He finishes it. That's because
He controls everything in between the authoring of it and the finishing
of it. Looking unto Jesus the author
and finisher, our faithful, who for the joy said before Him,
endured the cross, disregarding, despising the shame, and has
sat down on the right hand of the Father. Holiness. That's one of those words that preachers like to talk about.
Holiness. Sometimes we can't even say it
without lowering our voices a few octaves so we'll sound somehow
holy. Holiness. Let me tell you something
about holiness. It is never attributed to the
power and the will of the flesh. Never. Holiness is the work of
God, and as our brother just read in 1 Corinthians 1.30, it
is Jesus Christ. He is our sanctification. What holiness have we but Jesus
Christ? A very holy man once said, Our
righteousness is as filthy menstrual rags. And he used that language,
that terminology, which makes especially most American people
feel kind of uneasy when people talk like that. But he used that
because a woman's menses, when she had her menses, she had to
go outside to camp. She couldn't come back in until
an offering was made for her, and she was atoned for, and she
was accounted as cursed. That's why women call that time
of their life the curse. They call it that because it's
a biblical term. She couldn't come back into camp
unless an animal was slain and blood was shed. And Isaiah said,
I'm going to hand you that which is accursed and must be atoned
for as my righteousness. Well, if you know anything about
your righteousness, you know it must be propitiated. Our righteousness
is as filthy rags. is our righteousness." What does
that mean? Just exactly what it says. Jeremiah
23, verse 6 says, "...the Lord our righteousness." Jeremiah
33, verses 15-16 says, "...this is the name by which she shall
be called, the Lord our righteousness." This is the name by which he
shall be called. This is the name by which she
shall be called. We've taken His name evidently.
We must be married to Him. Don't you reckon? The Lord our
righteousness. Christ is our holiness. God has
made Him to be unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Holiness is a state of being.
The only time you find the word holier in Scripture is a smoke
in God's nose. The only time you find the word
holiest is speaking of that inner place, that 15 by 15 foot cubicle
where God met with one man one time a year over a bloody altar. called the Ark of the Covenant.
Holiness is a state of being. Be ye holy, not act holy, or
try to act holy, but be. It's a state of being. And let
me tell you something here tonight. You're sitting here and I know
what you know about yourself, because I know that about myself.
But you, right now, At 8 minutes to mine, in the month of July,
in Almont, Michigan, are as holy as you will ever be. You're as holy as you will ever
be. You and I are not going to gain
anything when we get to glory that we don't already have. We're
just going to leave some things behind, thank God. This flesh. This carnality. This wicked heart. We're going to leave that in
the grave and let it rot and let the worms have it. Christ is our perfection. Our brother quoted this also.
In Him dwell the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are
complete in Him. You don't lack anything. He hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. Fearing God is also
the work of God. Jeremiah 32.40 says, I will put
my fear in their hearts. They will not depart from Me.
Fearing God. That's what this talks about.
Perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. Fear of God for
the believer means reverence for His holiness and His perfection
Fear of God has to do with worship and love and honor for God. And I know that those who hold
that our text is a treatise on progressive sanctification play
the fear card as it refers to punishment or loss. They always
do that. You mean if you mess up, God's
not going to punish you? That's exactly what I mean. He's already punished me in my
substitute. Now, He may chastise me, but
that ain't punishment. That's loving correction, and
I need it. And so do you. But Him never
punishes children. God's not mad at you. God's not
waiting around the corner to thump you on the head. God is
not Don Corleone. God's got a smile for you. The holy, infinite, The thrice
holy God commands you, come into my house. Tell me what you need. Doesn't
He? Boldly approach the throne of
grace to get mercy for your time of need. Boldly. Come into my
house. God always has a smile for His
people. He's not mad at you. What if I fell up? When? Men who believe in that sort
of notion that God will punish His people. They themselves openly
and usually with a frowning face because they are the sourest
bunch of people in the world. A vow that they will never attain
perfection, so they live in a constant slavish fear of the wrath of
God falling on them. They speak of His sovereignty,
but believe Him kind of impish, lurking behind every corner waiting
to thump them for their wrongdoings or because they are slacking
their rectitude. But the believer operates from an entirely different
position, you see. We have the promises. We have
them. They're ours. God dwells in him
by the Spirit of Christ. And the believer does not anything
to gain anything. He does not do anything out of
fear of loss or gain of station. He does what he does out of reverence
and thanksgiving and praise for what has been accomplished for
him. The believer does what he does
not to be righteous or to be holy. He does what he does because
he is righteous and he is holy. Perfecting holiness in the fear
of the Lord then plainly is believing the promises of God by faith
in Christ. There's no doubt that that's
connected. That's what it means. Having said that, let's look
again at our text quickly. The admonition is to cleanse
ourselves of all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit. The word filthiness is an interesting
little word. It means an action by which anything
is defiled. or doing something that defiles
you. And we know from the mouth of
our Lord Jesus Christ in Mark chapter 7 that that's not where
defilement comes from on the outside of us. It comes from
inside of us. But there's no contradiction
here. This defilement or filthiness comes from a root word that means
to pollute or stain. A thing is stained or polluted
by coming in contact with something of a staining and a polluting
nature. In this case, something religiously
icky or nasty. This mangy filthiness that is
spoken of here has to do with contact or proximity or association
with something corrupt and polluted. Clearly, this filthiness is in
opposition to the promises in Christ and to the Christ of the
promises. Such language is not foreign
to Scripture. Our Lord spoke that way. When His disciples
said, don't you know you've offended those really holy fellows? He
said, they're blind. Watch those people they're leading.
They're all going to end up in the ditch. Leave them alone. Leave them alone. Don't have
anything to do with them. Don't have anything to do with
them. Paul said to the Galatian church, I'm horrible that you're
so moved from Christ to another gospel, which is really not another,
but it's a corruption or a pollution of the gospel. A pollution. The believer is not stained by
association with Christ. He's stained by association with
something else. Is he stained by association
with sinners? No. Paul, when he talked about that
brother who was having an affair with his father's wife in 1 Corinthians
chapter 5, he spoke of that man, but he said, you're not supposed
to have fellowship with adulterers. Then he quickly caught himself
and said, but not all adulterers, because then you'd just have
to go live outside the world. You'd have to go be a monk or
something. He said not have association or fellowship with one of the
brethren who is committing adultery. But not of the whole world. We
live among sinners. We are sinners. We have a message
for sinners because we were sinners who heard a message. One beggar
telling another beggar where the bread is. That's what we
are. We're sinners. We are commanded to preach the
gospel to every creature. And our Lord set the example
for associations, being the friend of publicans and sinners. He
was their friend. He's the friend of this sinner. He's my best
friend. On earth, I say that about Jim.
We've been together since 1970-something, way back when. We've never had
a fight. I can't even say that about my
wife. Never had a fight. I can say
on earth he's my best friend. But he's really not. My best
friend is my Savior. He's my friend. My real friend. And we're to be friends of publicans
and sinners. Legalists can't do that. They
just can't. No, we can't be there. Don't
go near that guy. He's a bad influence. Everybody's
a bad influence. But the fact is, we'll probably
be a bad influence on him. Remember that when the Lord said
of that guy who's carrying that offering in that apron? He says,
if you touch somebody and you carry something unclean in your
apron, will they become unclean? He said, yeah. He says, you're
right. He said, well, what if you carried something clean?
And you touch them. Will that make them clean? No,
it won't. We probably don't have that much
good influence on anybody. But the message we preach does.
The message we preach does. The epistle to Galatians and
Colossians were written in warning against the very thing that we
have examples of. That stain. That stain, that
pollution. We see that in the act of Peter,
James, and Barnabas at Antioch. They got stained. They got polluted. How'd they do that? They changed
tables at a church social. That's what they did. Didn't
seem like much of a thing. There were these fellows that
came down from Jerusalem, and they said, all you've got to
do is tell these Gentiles who've only believed Christ, If they'll
be circumcised, if they'll keep the law, everything will be okay.
We'll get along just fine. And they kept harping on it.
And these were religious people. And these Gentiles, they didn't
what much as over the table as eating pork chops. You know,
they didn't care. They were just happy because
God had saved them by His grace. And they were free. They were
at liberty. And they were happy. And these
Jews come up and say, you can't be happy. That ain't right. You've got to be sad like us.
So we're going to circumcise you. We're going to cause you
some pain, bud. And Peter stood there and listened
to that for a while, and then he sort of just sat down with them Judaizers.
And what Paul said, you despise the grace of God. Peter, you despise the grace
of God. He didn't say you formed another
opinion and we accept you on that basis. He said you mock
the gospel and you despise the grace of God because if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead and vain. It's no small
thing, he. We are to cleanse ourselves from
that which would pollute us or spot our garment. This cleansing has to do with
the flesh and the spirit. It says, filthiness of the flesh
and the spirit. And this does not refer to the
old man and the new man, or the spirit and the flesh that are
always contrary to one another, or the war that goes on in our
members to bring every consideration to the obedience of Christ. This
is quite simply, since it has to do with this filthy contact,
Our body and our mind. We are to cleanse ourselves from
the filthiness of our bodies and our minds by keeping ourselves
from that which would rub off on us and contaminate us. That's
what this is talking about. We are to present our bodies
as a living sacrifice unto God, wholly acceptable, it's a reasonable
thing. We are to present our members as instruments of righteousness,
and mind not the things of the flesh, and look not at things
on the earth, but things that are in heaven. And this Paul
declares is perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. This
word perfecting settles it all. It means separate. Perfecting means, actually holiness
means to separate. Perfecting means to to finish
or to bring to an end. And the word holiness finds itself
in separation. So he's saying it's a matter
of separation. Let's get it over with. Let's
get it final. Let's get it done. Let's get
it done. Separation from what? Be not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. What fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with
darkness? What concord hath Christ with
Belial? Or what part hath the believer
with the infidel? What agreement the temple of
God with idols? With idols. In order to perfect holiness,
we have to do just what our brother said, to reject the holiness
than anybody's spouses that is other than Jesus Christ. That's
perfecting holiness. Get it over with. That's what
Paul is saying. Let's get it over with. We are not to be yokefellows
with those who believe there is a righteousness other than
Christ, or fellowship, or have communion with them, or be in
concord or agree with them. We don't separate from them by
paying attention to them either. Paul would not give them an hour
of his time. In Galatia, he said, I wouldn't
give them an hour of my time. We separate from them by separation
unto something else. Remember the principle. Things
above, not the things of the earth. So we separate from them
that despise the gospel of grace by being separated unto something
else. Paul says it in Romans chapter
1. And I'll quit. Just hang on for a second or
two. I'm sorry I've taken so long. Romans chapter 1 and verse
6. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle separated unto the gospel. What does that mean? The gospel
is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You're separated unto that. You're
not going to have to worry about this other stuff. We was riding
by the pickle factory today, glorying in these wonderful pickles
that were going up and down those slides in their future to become
classic pickles, these cucumbers. And there on that same road,
I think it was, we ran across a church. What an amazing sign. You know,
churches have signs. We have a good one out here,
Sovereign Grace Conference. This church was different. This
sign was different. Here's what this sign said. It
was at the Church of the Sacred Heart. This is what it said,
The knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by Mary's obedience. I've only got two words to say
about that. Nuh-uh. Nuh-uh. Your obedience, my obedience,
changes nothing. We separate to the gospel and
everything else just simply It doesn't matter. That is perfecting
holiness in the fear of the Lord. Thank you. Let's thank you, Tim, for that
excellent message. Number 17 in the red folder. This would be a good one to close
the service with tonight. Number 17, complete in thee. Let's stand and sing. Take me forth to the place of
light. A brother's heart is love for me, Which I am bound from day
to day. Take us this night, oh bless this heart, When speaking words salvation
calls, The heart and mind are one for Thee. And glorified I will be. He and me may not survive, And
our good name may not be denied. Thou my portion, Lord of me,
I am no more, Thou place in me. May Christ be mine, O blessed God, May faith
be mine, salvation brought, ♪ I'll be by your feet ♪ ♪ And
you'll be mine ♪ ♪ Mine you shall be ♪ ♪ You saved your way before
my God ♪ ♪ Now that it's done, I'll circle on to you again ♪
♪ Will I be ♪ ♪ And on my death
♪ ♪ I'll breathe deeply ♪ ♪ For it comes to pass ♪ ♪ O blessed
love ♪ ♪ And every heart ♪ ♪ Shall reach the ground ♪ ♪ For as I
left mine ♪ One for me, one for God, and
you shall be.

Perfecting Holiness

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about perfecting holiness?

How do we know that holiness is possible for Christians?

Why is fearing the Lord important for Christians?

Why should Christians seek to cleanse themselves from filthiness?

How does legalism conflict with the concept of holiness?

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Perfecting Holiness

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about perfecting holiness?

How do we know that holiness is possible for Christians?

Why is fearing the Lord important for Christians?

Why should Christians seek to cleanse themselves from filthiness?

How does legalism conflict with the concept of holiness?

Sermon Transcript

About Tim James

Comments

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