Our Vision for These Days #2 Return to Biblical Holiness

Q: What does the Bible say about holiness?

The Bible teaches that holiness is central to God's redemptive purpose for His people, aiming to make them holy and without blemish. According to the Scriptures, holiness is not merely an optional characteristic of a believer but it is integral to God's plan of redemption. Ephesians 1:4 states that God chose us to be holy and without blemish, underscoring holiness as central to our election and purpose in Christ. Throughout the Bible, God emphasizes the necessity of holiness both in the life of believers and in their relationship with Him. God's intent is for His people to reflect His holiness, as seen in passages such as 1 Peter 1:15-16, where believers are called to be holy because God is holy. Therefore, holiness is foundational to our identity as children of God and is an essential aspect of our spiritual growth and transformation in Christ.

Q: Why is holiness important for Christians?

Holiness is crucial for Christians as it reflects the transformative work of God in their lives and is essential for their relationship with Him. Holiness is important for Christians because it signifies a life that is set apart for God's purposes and is reflective of His character. In Ephesians 5:25-27, Paul explains that Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it to sanctify and cleanse it, intending to present a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, but holy and without blemish. This demonstrates that holiness is not just a personal aspiration but a requirement for being part of God's community. Furthermore, pursuing holiness is part of the believer's response to God's grace and love, as expressed in Titus 2:14, which indicates that Christ redeemed us to purify for Himself a people zealous for good works. Therefore, living a holy life is indicative of genuine faith and transformation that God expects from those He has redeemed.

Q: How do we know that God requires holiness?

The requirement for holiness is established in Scripture, as God calls His people to be holy in response to His own holiness. God's call for holiness is evident throughout Scripture and is foundational to His relationship with His people. In 1 Thessalonians 4:7, Paul states that God has not called us to impurity but to holiness, which highlights God's standard for living among His followers. Additionally, in the Old Testament, God's command to 'be holy because I am holy' (Leviticus 11:44) elucidates that holiness is a reflection of His nature, and therefore, it is required of His people. The New Testament reiterates this emphasis, particularly in 1 Peter 1:16, where the call to holiness is rooted in God's character. These scriptural directives provide a clear understanding that holiness is not a suggestion but a divine mandate for all who belong to Him.

Q: What is the relationship between grace and holiness?

Grace empowers believers to pursue holiness, as true grace leads to transformation and a desire to live righteously. The relationship between grace and holiness is profoundly interconnected, as grace is the means by which God transforms believers and empowers them to live holy lives. Titus 2:11-12 teaches that the grace of God instructs us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, encouraging us to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age. This implies that grace does not give a license to sin but rather equips believers with the desire and ability to pursue holiness. Furthermore, in Romans 6:1-2, Paul argues against the idea that grace allows for sin, proclaiming that those who have died to sin cannot continue in it. Therefore, true grace results in a vigorous pursuit of holiness as the believer responds to God’s love and redemptive work in their life.

This message was delivered at
the 6th Annual Trinity Pastors Conference held at the Trinity
Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. This is the second
in a series of messages entitled, Our Vision for These Days, and
the title of this message is, A Return to Biblical Holiness.
Now let us again seek the face of God in prayer, particularly
praying that God will give to the men who this day have given
very careful and, according to one brother I spoke to, exhausting
attention to the ministry of the Word. We are thankful that
God has been near to us, as Pastor Lamar mentioned, but we have
the treasure in earthen vessels, and I'm sure not a few of us
are beginning to feel the wearing effect of the hours of sitting
and concentration And the scripture tells us, our father knows our
frame, he remembers that we are dust. And even when youths fail
and young men faint, they who wait upon the Lord, even us old
duffers shall renew our strength and mount up with wings as eagles
that we may run and not be weary and walk and not faint. So let
us wait upon God to give us the strength we need to attend with
carefulness to his holy word. Let us pray. Our Father, we are indeed grateful
that we come to one who knows us all together. We thank you
that we need not be ashamed of what we are as creatures of the
dust. For you have told us that you
give to us life and breath and all things. And we acknowledge
that we could not draw our next breath were it not given. And
therefore we come in the sense of our utter dependence upon
you, and plead before you your own word of promise, that if
you spared not your own dear son, how shall you not with him
also freely give us all things? And our Father, because we believe
you sent your dear and only begotten Son to all of the shame and all
of the horror and the hell of the cross, that it is not brash
for us to pray for that measure of strength we need, that we
may attend with carefulness and alertness to the preaching of
the Word. O Lord, may your servant know
your strength in the inner man and in all the faculties of utterance,
and may every hearer know the quickening grace of the Spirit.
O Father, come and speak to us, we pray, as together we cry to
you for that which we need to profit from this hour, through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Now in planning the pastor's
conference last year, the elders requested that I speak on that
occasion on one of the evening sessions on the theme, Our Vision
for These Days. And it was their intention that
I should seek to bring into sharp focus the distilled essence of
the concerns which in a very real sense are the rationale
for the particular and unique fellowship of this pastor's conference. On that occasion I had every
intention of fulfilling my task in one sermon and intended to
preach last year at this time on our vision for these days
in terms of three very broad but basic categories of biblical
truth and experience, namely the recovery of the biblical
gospel, the renewal of biblical holiness and the return to biblical
churchmanship. Well, as a number of you know,
I was only able to get as far as the first heading, namely,
the matter of the recovery of the biblical gospel. And while
I have no intention of re-preaching last year's message, let me simply
give the heading so that you will sense something of the cohesion
in what has now become a series of sermons. I began with a two-fold
disclaimer. In speaking of our vision for
these days, I disclaimed any extraordinary revelation. We
have had no visit from an angel nor troop of angels. None of
us has claimed a prophetic revelation. And when we speak of our vision
for these days, that vision is rooted in an attempt to be sensitive
to inscripturated revelation and its peculiar application
to the state of the professing Church in our own day. And in
the light of whatever sensitivity to biblical revelation God has
given us, and to the extent that we accurately assess the conditions
in which we are called upon to minister, I asserted that, first
of all, we needed desperately a recovery of the biblical gospel. And one of the major purposes
of this conference is to seek to pursue that recovery and to
do so in three areas. In its essential doctrinal content,
in its appointed means of communication, namely preaching, and in its
efficacious power to transform lives. Now tonight, I take up
with you the second element of our vision for these days, namely,
a renewal of biblical holiness. In addressing this vast theme,
I can only hope to be what I am calling selectively suggestive,
in contrast to any effort at being comprehensively exhaustive. In other words, I will not be
touching on all of the major components of the biblical doctrine
of holiness or sanctification, and even on those that I touch
selectively, I can only be suggestive and not comprehensive. And what I purpose to do in the
time allotted tonight is to speak of our vision for these days
with reference to a renewal of biblical holiness under these
three headings. First of all, the centrality
of holiness in the purposes of redemptive grace. Secondly, the
indispensability of holiness in the application of redemptive
grace. and then a sketch of the theology
of holiness in the outworking of redemptive grace. First of
all then, I address myself to this heading, the centrality
of holiness in the purposes of redemptive grace. According to
the Word of God, man's condition, and that means your condition
and mine, since the fall of our first parents Adam and Eve, is
a condition of universal guilt, that is, culpability before the
court of heaven, extensive depravity, that is, pollution in every faculty
and department of our humanity, and wrath-deservingness, that
is, what we have done and what we are deserves nothing less
than the unleashing of the righteous, holy, pure wrath of God upon
us. So true is this that the Apostle
says in Ephesians 2 and verse 3, We were by nature the children
of wrath, even as the rest. Therefore, any remedial intervention
on the part of God Either to change our culpability in the
court of heaven or to rectify the depravity and pollution of
our natures must be wholly gratuitous. That is, it must be all of grace. It must be, in total, God's undeserved
favor to the ill-deserving, to the hell-deserving. And it is
for this reason that I have used the terms redemptive grace, for
we are considering that undeserved favor of God that has effected
a redemption of man the sinner from his state of hell-deservingness
as both guilty and defiled. Now this remedial or redemptive
grace which God has extended and will infallibly apply to
a vast multitude out of every kindred, tribe, and tongue, and
nation, finds its fountainhead in divine purpose and in divine
procurement. When we think of God's purposes
of redemptive grace, that brings us immediately into the orbit
of the biblical concepts of election, foreordination, and predestination. When we think of the operations
of redemptive grace in the procurement of our salvation, that brings
us into the orbit of the biblical concepts of redemption, atonement,
propitiation, reconciliation. Now when we consult the Word
of God with respect to the purposes of redemptive grace, When we
ask the question, when God in His own infinite love, in the
mystery of His own eternal mind, purposed that He would save a
specific number of specific sinners, that He would set His love upon
them, purposing actually to deliver them from sin and its consequences,
What place did making them holy have in that sovereign, eternal,
gracious, electing purpose of God? You see, we are considering
under this heading the centrality of holiness in the redemptive
purposes of God. And that purpose is taken for
us back into the very womb of eternity in terms of the biblical
concept of election. divine sovereign selectivity
of certain sinners from the mass of equally hell-deserving sinners,
that some should be the recipients of that remedial grace. Well,
when God then chose a people for himself, where did this whole
matter of holiness fit in the scheme of God's redemption at
the point of his own electing purpose? Well, I want you to
consider two texts of Scripture. And these again are only selective
and specimen passages. Time will not permit an exhaustive
list, let alone a detailed exegesis of any of them. In Ephesians
chapter 1, in which the Apostle Paul spills out a marvelous system
of divinity in the form of eulogy, in which his systematic theology
burst from a glowing heart in the form of this great hymn of
praise to the Triune God. He writes, verse 3, Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. even as He chose us in Him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blemish before Him. As the Apostle, under the inspiration
of the Spirit, breaks into this great theology in the form of
eulogy, he blesses the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, who
has endowed us with every single spiritual blessing in the heavenlies
in conjunction with His Son, in union with His Son, And the
first of those blessings that he addresses is the blessing
of God's sovereign selection of certain sinners to be the
recipients of this redemptive mercy, and he says, Central in
that very choice is not only Christ. There is no contemplation
of the redemption of hell-deserving sinners apart from the person
and work of His Son. We are chosen in Him, but then
second only to the central truth that we are blessed in Him with
every blessing and therefore chosen in Him is the fact that
we were chosen in order that we should not be merely safe
from the wrath that our sin deserves that we should be brought back
from a state of fragmentation to one in which our humanity
is integrated and all of the other blessings of salvation,
but these are the words used, that we should be holy and without
blemish before Him, so that it is not an overstatement to say
that our salvation in Christ was never contemplated in the
misty, and at times we might say even mysterious, subterranean
depths of electing love. Never was it even conceived in
the mind of God without an intention to make us holy and without blemish
before Him. So in the gracious electing purpose
of redemption, holiness is not secondary, it is not peripheral,
it is not ancillary to God's purpose salvation. It is central. And the same emphasis comes through
in the parallel passage of Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Having stated in the well-known
verse that His comforted God's people in ways that only God
can measure, verse 28, that His people are those who are called
according to purpose, that is, they are affectionately brought
out of their state of nature and wrath and into a state of
grace, according to purpose, divine intention, And having
mentioned that divine intention, the apostle goes on to write
in verse 29, For whom he foreknew those that he loved beforehand,
he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he, that is his son, might be the firstborn among many brethren. And here, using different terminology
that takes us into the same orbit of God's own purpose in eternity
with reference to the salvation of sinners, we are told that
those whom He loved beforehand, those who are called in time
according to divine purpose, are those whom He foreordained
ordained to be conformed to the image, that is, to the moral
likeness of his own son, that Jesus Christ the Redeemer might
be the firstborn, the rightful heir, the one to whom all of
the inheritance belongs, and we with him as his brethren fully
sharing in the family likeness. And so, according to this text,
the holiness of the people of God is not a secondary or tertiary
issue. It is not a peripheral matter. It lies at the very center of
God's gracious electing purpose of redemption. And then, with
regard to God's efficacious purchase of redemption, In the space-time
history of Jesus of Nazareth, the incarnate God, the God-man,
where does this matter of the holiness of those for whom He
lived and died fit in the divine purpose and purchase of redemption? Again, two texts, very familiar
to all of us, I'm sure. Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians
chapter 5 and in this section in which the apostle is giving
practical counsel to husbands and wives using Christ and his
love to the church and the church's relation to Christ as the great
reality of which marriage is but a shadow we read in verse
25 husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church
and gave Himself up for it, a reference to His laying down His life as
a substitutionary sacrifice for sin. And what was the end in
view? In order that He might sanctify
it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the Word,
in order that he might present the church to himself, a glorious
church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it
should be holy and without blemish. And if this text teaches us anything
with reference to the issue before us, it is this. That when we
squeeze into those words, Christ gave himself up for the church. All of those realities that many
of us in our own assembly have been studying in recent months. the mystery of the bloody sweat
of Gethsemane, the shame of the spittle and the blows in the
house of Caiaphas, the high priest, the mockery and the jeering and
the blindfolding, and the being treated like a common criminal,
leading them to his being impaled upon an instrument of Roman execution. the shrouded heavens, the mystery
of a darkness rivaled only by that darkness in Egypt, in the
midst of the plagues that wrought, ultimately in the deliverance
of God's people. Take all that is bound up in
the words. He gave Himself up for it. The reality of vicarious sin-bearing,
vicarious bearing of the wrath of God, the inundation of our
Lord in all the billows and waves of the Father's fiery indignation
against sin. And He went through all of that
for what purpose? Not to have places that have
church buildings, where people come and sing their foot-tapping
choruses to get a little religious shot in the arm, and live giddy,
careless lives, indifferent to God's claims upon them, indifferent
to His law, indifferent to being like His Son. Oh, no. He went
through all of this in order that he might sanctify it, in
order that he might present it to himself wholly and without
blemish in all of his travel. The holiness of those for whom
he traveled was central to his self-giving love. Titus chapter
2, Titus chapter 2, having given very detailed ethical
instruction on very practical issues, of what it means to be
a holy man, a holy woman, a holy mother, a holy old man, a holy
young man, a holy old woman, a holy slave, a holy master. Now the apostle tells us why
he's giving all these detailed instructions about holiness.
Verse 11, for, for the grace of God has appeared bringing
salvation to all men, or have appeared to all men bringing
salvation, and we don't need to make a decision on that rendering
for our purposes, but the grace of God has appeared. It has appeared
in space, time, history, in the life and death and resurrection
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The grace of God has appeared. And appearing, it teaches us,
verse 12, instructing us to the intent that denying ungodliness
and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously
and godly in this present world, looking for the blessed hope
and appearing of the glory of the great God and Savior Jesus
Christ. Here is all this practical instruction
on practical godliness and holiness. Paul, why have you given all
of this? He says, because the grace of God has appeared teaching
us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
soberly, righteously and godly. And since that's what grace teaches,
I have been giving some of the details of what it is to deny
ungodliness and worldly lusts. what it is to live soberly, righteously,
and godly. Well, Paul, why are you both
so concerned about that? Verse 14, Who gave himself for
us in order that He might redeem us from all iniquity
and purify unto Himself a people for His own possession, zealous
of good works. These things speak and exhort
and reprove with all authority. Titus, what is to be one of the
dominant notes in your ministry? It is to be the note that grace
has come with a fixed body of instruction, and central to that
body of instruction is not only that the only ground of the sinner's
acceptance before God is found in the doing and the dying of
another, but that on the basis of our acceptance on the grounds
of the work of Christ, We are to give ourselves heart and soul
to living soberly, righteously, and godly, continually denying
ungodliness and worldly lust, and for this fundamental reason,
Jesus Christ died to have a people who would live that way. And he says, because this is
so central to the very revelation of grace and the redemptive intention
of Christ, these things speak and exhort. Don't assume that
people will automatically know what it is to live a sober, righteous,
holy life. Don't assume that they will automatically
understand what it is to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts.
No, chapter 2 and verse 1 speak the things which befit the healthy
doctrine, and then he gives detailed ethical and moral instruction. And he says that detailed ethical
and moral instruction has its taproots in the very cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He died in order that He might
redeem us from all iniquity and purify to Himself a people for
His own possession, zealous of good works. What do we say then
before the witness of these four texts? We see the centrality
of holiness in the purposes of redemptive grace. As that purpose
is revealed in terms of election, the divine, sovereign, gracious
selection of a multitude of sinners to be the recipients of saving
mercy, holiness is central to that glorious and mysterious
yet wonderful choice of God of particular but undeserving sinners. And when the Lord Jesus in space,
time, history, lays down His life for His own, that He might
not merely make them savable, but that He might actually save
them by cleansing and presenting them to Himself. central to his
purpose in the procurement of redemption was the securing to
himself of a holy people and the presenting of himself in
the last day of a people who will be spotless and without
any blemish. Now I ask you, my ministering
brethren, would you get the slightest idea from the plethora of gospel
preaching on the airwaves and the TV waves, from the majority
of the preaching in the best of our evangelical churches,
that central to the very purpose of redemptive grace is the making
of a holy people. Let me put the question this
way, were you to come an unannounced stranger and simply mingle among
the church members in the average evangelical church in our land
that claims to believe in plenary verbal inspiration in the essential
deity of our Lord Jesus Christ in the doctrine of the Trinity,
substitutionary atonement, were you to simply come as an unannounced
guest and live and move and mingle with people and see them at the
shop and in their living room and what they did and did not
watch on the TV and how parents related to children and children
to parents and how families related to the neighborhood and to the
environment around them. Would you get any notion that
somebody died to make them consumed with zeal to live a holy life? to deny everything that was unlike
God, and everything that was contrary to His law, denying
ungodliness and unrighteousness, solicitous with a sensitive conscience,
seeking in every facet and detail of life to live soberly in touch
with spiritual reality, righteously and godly in this present age. My friends, I think we would
get precious little impression that the death of Jesus had anything
to do with people living like that. In fact, in most evangelical
churches, when someone begins to live that way, you know what
he's immediately labeled as? A legalist. The word legalist is synonymous
with a man or woman committed to serious universal holiness. What a tragedy! That's the mark
of evangelical grace, not perverted legalism. And so our vision for these days
is to see a renewal. of biblical holiness because
of the centrality of holiness in the redemptive purposes of
God. But then secondly, I want you
to consider with me the indispensability of holiness in the application
of redemptive grace. We've seen the centrality of
holiness in the purposes of redemptive grace in election and in the
procurement of our salvation. But now, where does it fit in
the application of redemptive grace? My heading already has
tipped my hat. We're going to consider the indispensability
of holiness in the application of redemptive grace. When elect
sinners are actually conceived in their mother's wombs, born,
and then grow and arrive at that point when God purposes effectually
to call them into union with His Son by applying with power
the gospel of His Son, and there is in the purpose and work of
God the conversion of a sinner, what place does their actual
moral and ethical transformation have? That's what we mean by
the application of redemptive grace. Election never took anyone
to heaven. If God only elected sinners,
they'd all go to hell. And may I say it reverently?
The procurement of redemption upon the cross never took a sinner
to heaven. It has to be applied. And now
we're in the realm of the application of that which was purposed by
the Father and purchased by the Son. And though the Father is
primarily the one set forward as the agent in calling, In that
calling it is uniquely the prerogative and activity of the Holy Spirit
to effect those changes which bring a sinner out of a state
of wrath into a state of grace, out of death into life, out of
condemnation into glorious acceptance in the Beloved. I want us to
note again, just looking at several of the biblical witnesses, at
the indispensability of holiness in that application of redemptive
grace to elect sinners. And the simplest way I know to
divide up that application is to divide it up in terms of calling,
that's the front end of it, the Christian life, and consummation,
that's the back end. And in the application of redemption,
that's what God does to sinners in the revealed method of grace. What God may do with imbeciles
and infants is not revealed in Scripture. We are concerned with
what's revealed, with the people sitting here and with the preacher
standing here. Well, in the application of our
salvation, it will be applied to all of us who are saved in
terms of a beginning, which the Bible calls calling. And then
in the Christian life, which is set before us under a vast
array of images and biblical concepts, and then consummation
or glorification. Well, in terms of that whole
spectrum of the application, is holiness optional? Is it desirable? Or is it indispensable? So indispensable, that to claim
that I am an elect sinner, loved and purchased by Christ, called
by the Father in the way of the Christian life, hoping for its
consummation at the coming of Christ, and yet I am not in the
way of holiness. Am I a well-instructed believer
or am I a self-deluded hypocrite? Well, let's look at the biblical
witness. First of all, calling. Here I direct your attention
to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13 here's a man who has a conscience
feeling the pressure of duty and notice the great apostle
of grace is never ashamed to talk about feeling bound to do
things see we live in an age when anyone says I feel bound
people say uh oh he doesn't know his liberty in Christ are you
going to say that of Paul? He said, even with regard to
giving thanks for other Christians, he felt himself under obligation. We are bound to give thanks to
God always for you, brethren beloved of the Lord. Why? For that God chose you from the
beginning unto salvation. You see, election is unto salvation,
it is not salvation. He chose you from the beginning
unto salvation in sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. whereunto he called you through
our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a marvelous distillation
of rich theology in these verses. Let's start back at the back
and work forward. He said, we're bound to give
thanks for you. Why? Because he says, here are
a people who will infallibly obtain the glory of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He's confident that their salvation
will be consummated and they shall be in the language of Romans
8 glorified together with Christ. Well, who are those people that
will obtain the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, they
are those who have been effectually called through the gospel. The word calling, with but perhaps
two exceptions in the New Testament, never means a mere summons. It
means the divine summons that effects the sinner's response. So that to be called is a unique
designation of the people of God. In the book of Revelation
it says, and they that are with him are called and chosen and
faithful. And so when the Apostle says,
He called you through our gospel, it's not everyone who's merely
summoned that obtains the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Would
God it were so, then the way would be wide and many find it.
But he's saying you were actually brought by divine power into
union with Christ. 1 Corinthians 1.9 is the best
exposition of that. God is faithful by whom you were
called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. So here's a people who are going
to obtain glory. Who are they? Those who have
been called. Called through what? Through
the gospel. Well, when they were called to
the gospel, what actually happened in them? What were the dynamics
of grace at work in their hearts? He says, you were called to the
gospel in the realm of the sanctifying work of the Spirit and the belief
of the truth. And why were they, and only they,
called in the realm of the sanctifying influence of the Spirit and belief
of the truth? It's because they were chosen
of God. And why were they chosen of God?
Because, as he says in the first phrase, they were beloved of
God. So you see, he traces, if we do it in reverse, glorification
calling, calling through the gospel and belief of the truth
and the sanctifying work of the Spirit, and all because they
were chosen and chosen because they were loved. But now for
our purposes, what I want you to notice is this. Dare we extract
out of this string of rich experimental divinity any strand of that for
which Paul gave thanks? Do you think he would have given
thanks for a people who claim to be saved and chosen? who claim to believe the truth
and be called, in whom there was no evidence of that radical,
powerful, definitive work of the Spirit, sanctifying them
on the threshold of Christian experience. that He is setting
them apart from the dominion and lordship of sin unto the
dominion and the lordship of Christ and of righteousness. Never would He given thanks for
people who claim to have a salvation like that, for such a salvation
was never conceived in the heart of God and purchased by the Son
of God. The salvation conceived and purchased
is the salvation applied. And if He chose us to be holy,
and if Christ died to make us holy, then the Spirit, in applying
that salvation in the context of the proclamation of the gospel,
does what? He sanctifies the one whom He
brings to belief of the truth. and He does it in conjunction
with their calling. Not some second work of grace,
not some optional surrender, not some higher life, no friends,
that is of the very essence of possessing life. And into that whole category
we can bring the whole biblical doctrine of the terms of the
New Covenant. We are saved under the terms
of the New Covenant. Hebrews 8 and Hebrews 10. And
what does God commit Himself to do in the New Covenant? Upon
all whom those benefits come, He says, I will take out the
heart of stone. I will give them a heart of flesh.
I will put My Spirit within them. I will write My law upon their
hearts. I will put My fear in their hearts. I will cause them to walk in
My statutes and My judgments. We bring the whole category of
Romans 6, dying to sin in union with Jesus Christ, and this notion
that that is, quote, positional. What kind of nonsense is that?
Sin sure isn't positional. When he says, as you presented
your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, was that
positional or experimental? You presented your members unto
sin. That's experience. But he said,
having been made free from sin, ye now have your fruit of the
holiness that's experimental. All of this nonsense position,
what's that mean? Just a convenient way to bleed
the obvious truth out of the text from all these people that
claim to believe in Christ, who've never been freed from the dominion
of sin. No, in our calling, the whole
doctrine of the New Covenant, the whole doctrine of faith,
union with Christ, in which the virtue of His death and resurrection
for sin effects in us a death through sin and a resurrection
to walk in newness of life, the whole doctrine of Romans 8, in
those opening verses, the realm of the flesh and the realm of
the Spirit, He that is in the realm of the flesh is described
as possessed of the carnal mind. It is enmity against God. It
is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. Excuse me, but ye are not in
the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that you've had the
baptism, no. If so be that you've claimed
your inheritance, no. If so be that you've entered
into the higher life, no. He says, you are not in the realm
of the flesh as the basic circle of moral orientation, but in
the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of
God dwell in you, and if any man have not the Spirit of Christ,
he is none of His. And to have the Spirit of Christ
is not some positional, mystical pie-in-the-sky notion. It's to
be graciously and radically wrenched from the dominion of the flesh
and pervasively and fundamentally implanted into the realm of the
Spirit. And that all happens at calling.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born
of the Spirit is Spirit. So it's indispensable. Holiness
is indispensable. in the application of redemptive
grace in calling. Or what about in the Christian
life? And here I sat at my desk and was embarrassed. I said,
Lord, what text shall I choose? And in the interest of time,
let me just quote them. First Peter 1, 13 to 15. Where Peter exhorts in the climactic
part of that passage, but as he which hath called you is holy,
so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, that is all manner
of your life. because it is written be ye holy
for I am holy and then he goes on to say and if you pass the
time of your sojourning he says in fear if he call on him as
father who judges without respect of persons pass the time of your
sojourning in fear knowing that you were redeemed not with corruptible
things such as silver and gold but with the precious blood of
Christ You see, a spirit-wrought perception of the price of my
redemption and the certainty of my redemption never leads
to a flippant, indifferent attitude to holiness. It leads to a solicitous,
intense, godly fear, lest I should, by my carelessness, treat lightly
the Redeemer and the redemption that He purchased for me. 2nd Corinthians 7 1 after giving
a marvelous demonstration of the privileges of the people
of God in adoption at the end of chapter 6 Paul says having
therefore these promises dearly beloved that is Taking into our
bosoms all of the rich promises that God will be to us a father
We shall be his sons and daughters that he will dwell among us and
walk among us that we shall have covenant fellowship with the
living God. Having therefore these promises,
dearly beloved, let us click our heels and go happy, happy,
happy all the time, time, dime, never being too concerned about
how we live since it's all fixed up and in the bag. Having therefore
these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves of all
defilement, of the flesh and of the spirit, perfecting holiness
in the fear of God. I didn't write that, a legalist
didn't write that, the great apostle of grace wrote it on
the heels of underscoring the apex of redemptive grace, the
privilege of adoption and covenant fellowship with God. And to use
the privileges of grace and the apex of the privilege of grace,
fellowship with God as an excuse for a careless and light and
flippant life is to show that one is at best pitifully ignorant
of the very ABCs of grace and probably devoid of a gram of
saving grace in his heart. Holiness is indispensable in
the Christian life. In calling, in the Christian
life, and then in consummation. What is the consummation? But
our being perfected in holiness. Whom he foreknew, he called.
Whom he called, he justified. Whom he justified, he what? Glorified. What's glorification? It is being
made in the totality of my redeemed humanity after the pattern of
my glorious Lord. Every last vestige of sin extricated
from my spirit. The Bible speaks of the spirits
of just men made perfect, those who have gone before us whose
bodies lie in the earth. But at His coming those perfected
spirits will be joined to bodies that in the language of Philippians
3 shall be fashioned like unto His own glorious body. And then the words of John will
be fulfilled. Brethren, beloved, now are we
the sons of God, 1 John 3, and it doth not yet appear what we
shall be. But when we know that when He shall be manifested,
we shall be like Him. For we shall see Him as He is. That's why the book of the Revelation
says, nothing shall enter that is unclean. Only those who have
been the recipients of this redemptive grace that from its very first
application radically wrenched them loose from the dominion
of sin and in the Christian life saw them in varying degrees and
stages with greater or lesser success at any given point but
increasingly made more and more like unto their Savior, and who
in the consummation of the application of grace will be constituted
one of the many brethren who shares perfectly the family likeness
in body and in spirit. Now, if the Bible teaches anything,
then it teaches us that holiness is indispensable in the application
of redemptive grace. That's why the writer to Hebrews,
who's taken all the pains to show these Jewish Christians
and these who are tempted to go back to forms and ceremonies,
redemption is complete in Christ. Look only to Christ. Trust only
in Christ. Rely only upon Christ. Doesn't bother him at all at
the end of such an epistle to say in chapter 12 in the imperative
with the verb Translated all the way through the New Testament
persecute track it down with earnestness with seriousness
be ye continually pursuing the holiness without which no man
shall see the Lord He saw no contradiction between
the tremendous unfolding of the objective work of Christ for
sinners and saying to these who were harassed and persecuted
and weary under divine chastisement, Press on! Don't turn back! And he brings as a powerful motive,
pursue that holiness without which no man, he doesn't say
no man shall get a full reward, no man shall be fully joyful,
no man shall, no he does not in any way indicate that this
is a matter of reward. or standing in heaven, he says
it's a matter of life or damnation. Follow after the holiness without
which no man shall see the Lord. Jesus stated it in pictorial
language when he says, enter ye in at the narrow gate. For
wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction.
The gate of surface, shallow religious experience is wide.
Nor repentance, nor humiliation, nor self-loathing, nor abandonment
of works, righteousness, and flesh-withering confession, nothing
in my hands I bring. You can go tripping through,
loaded down with self-sufficiency and self-righteousness and complacency,
and it leads on a broad road of convenient religion that may
have tons of Christ and Jesus and the cross and heaven in its
language, but it's a broad road in which there is no sensitive
conscience about sin, no careful regard to be cleansed from all
defilement of flesh and of spirit, no plucking out of right eyes,
no hacking off of right hands, No pursuing of universal holiness. It's a broad road and it leads
to hell. Even though the echo of the name
of Jesus is all along it. But he said there's a narrow
gate that leads right in to a compressed way. And that way leads to life. There's no other way that leads
to life. But the way of serious spirit
wrought gospel holiness, it is indispensable in the application
of salvation. And brethren, no little part
of our vision for these days is that contrary to all of these
God dishonoring notions, that most Christians are just carnal
Christians that will make it by the skin of their teeth. Lose
a few rewards and after a few years in heaven, we'll forget
about the whole business anyway. And there are a few serious disciples,
but they're all going to the same place. My friends, that's
heresy. that denies everything from the
eternal intention of God in electing grace. It denies the purpose
of the bloodletting of the incarnate God. It denies the power of the
Holy Spirit in regenerating grace. It denies everything integral
to the scheme of redemptive grace as revealed in the Scriptures. You can say all you want to your
people, oh, I wish you'd take seriously the word of God as
husbands. I wish you'd take seriously the
word of God as wives. Oh, I wish you'd take seriously!
You can give them all kinds of entreaties and appeals. And they'll
sit there as comfortable in their carnal security as though you
were babbling in Hindustani. But when you begin to tell them,
unless you are pursuing holiness, you'll burn in hell. Then you
see what happens. Legalist! You're teaching salvation
by works! You're denigrating the work of
Christ! Who's denigrating the work of
Christ? People who say the only reason I'm pursuing holiness
is because I love my Savior. And my Savior has worked in my
heart and changed it from a sin-loving heart to a heart that loves the
things He loves. That works? We don't believe
salvation by works, but we sure believe in the salvation that
works. And what it works is the divine purpose! And he thoughts
the divine purchase! And any other salvation is not
in his book! It's been concocted in men's
brains and in their perverse hearts, never mind out of a careful
exegesis of the Word of God. Well, thirdly and finally, in
the few minutes that remain, and here I can just give you
the heads, I want to speak briefly about not only the centrality
of holiness in the purposes of redemptive grace, the indispensability
of holiness in the application of redemptive grace, but I want
to give you something of a little overview of the theology of holiness
in the outworking of redemptive grace. Our vision for these days
not only brings within its scope these first two headings, which
are broad, and in a sense touch the very biblical theory, if
I may use that terminology, the very biblical theology of salvation. But now under this third heading
on the theology of holiness in the outworking of redemptive
grace, what I'm trying to say by those words is this, that
in this period called the Christian life between calling and consummation,
our vision for these days is that we be called back to the
old paths. away with the novelties that
have been spawned upon the church in the last three centuries in
the area of this matter of the outworking of redemptive grace
in the Christian life. And if you and I are responsibly
to teach our people, then surely we must touch upon these aspects
of the theology of holiness in the outworking of redemptive
grace. We must touch upon the essence of biblical holiness.
And when you boil it all down, and the old Puritans saw it clearly,
it comes down to two things. It is a process of mortification
and of transformation or conformation. Romans 8.13, If you by the Spirit
do put to death the deeds of the flesh, that's the negative.
2 Corinthians 3.18, But we all with open face beholding as in
a mirror the glory of the Lord are transformed into that image
from one stage of glory to another. That's the whole motif of Colossians,
put off, put on. It's the whole motif of Ephesians
4 that we read today. That's the essence of biblical
holiness. And in the midst of that, there
will be the reality of Galatians 5.17, the flesh lusting against
the Spirit, the Spirit lusting against the flesh, these two
contrary the one to the other, so that you may not do the things
that you would. And we won't debate about the
meaning of Romans 7, we'll be too busy echoing its language
on our knees. crying out, Oh God, when everything
in me wants to love you with all the passion of my heart. My heart is so cold and when
I would do the good of worshipping you with all of my being, I have
to drag a dull mind and a distracted spirit, wretched man that I am. I really wonder when anyone debates
the meaning of Romans 7, where a man is in the secret place
we need to teach the essence of biblical holiness that it
is the constant mortification and constant confirmation in
a context of real and at times agonizing and acutely painful
struggle and yet wonder of wonders interlaced with joy in the Holy
Ghost. What a conundrum a healthy biblical
Christian is to himself as well as to others. Then we need to teach something
about the scope of biblical holiness. And as I meditated upon it and
said, Lord, how can I state it in the simplest terms possible?
I hope this is not simplistic. The scope of biblical holiness
is the whole man in the whole of his life. That's it. The whole man! His motives, his
intentions, his perspectives, his mind, his judgment. Romans
12, transformed by the renewing of the mind. Don't be like the
Gentiles who in the ignorance of their mind, let this mind
be in you which was in Christ Jesus. Oh, we could multiply
text. It's the whole man, the deepest
recesses of motive. Whatever you do, even when you're
doing the things that make you most like your dog, you're eating
and drinking. Do all to the glory of God. It touches the inner springs
of motivation. Whoso looketh to lust, it touches
my wandering thoughts. He that hates it touches the
deepest springs of my emotions and dispositions to others. You
see, the scope of biblical holiness is as deep as the deepest fibers
of the soul and all of its motions. But then it extends to the farthest
reaches of my external deeds. Do all things without grumbling
and grousing, that ye may be blameless and harmless, sons
of God, without rebuke, shining as lights in the midst of a crooked
and perverse generation. It's the whole man in the whole
of his life. That's why the Bible gives detailed
ethical instruction. It doesn't simply say, Titus,
tell ye all men to be godly. It tells them how to be godly. It doesn't say, tell ye all women
to be godly. It tells them how to be godly. It speaks to slaves, to masters,
speaks to widows, speaks to singles. It speaks about our money and
the rich and the poor. It speaks about our bodies and
the sanctity of sex. It touches all of these things. The scope of biblical holiness
is the whole man, in the whole of his life, living all of it
in the presence of God. I recently read a choice treatise. It's three sermons preached by
Matthew Henry, six o'clock in the morning, near where Pastor
Blaze labors in Bethnal Green. And the three sermons are, Beginning
the Day with God, Continuing the Day with God, and Ending
the Day with God. And when I finished reading those
three treatises, I said, Oh God, this man lived in a different
universe from us. And he was talking to common
laborers and ordinary people who were up at six o'clock in
the morning to hear how to begin the day with God. And he talks
about such things as make every night when you lie upon your
bed, bring near the last time you will lie down in your coffin.
And if you were lying down to lie down for the last time, what
issues would you want to settle with God? He said, he who thus
dies every night when he goes to sleep, will find no great
trauma when he actually comes to die. And the book is full
of things like that. How to begin the day with God.
How to continue. How to end it. And he wasn't
some mystic off in a tower somewhere. He's talking to people who work
12 hour days. That's what we mean by good old
rock-ribbed puritanic divinity on the subject of holiness. living
all of life in the whole of our humanity unto the living God
by the grace of His Spirit. And then we need to say much
about the standard of biblical holiness. If we're going to set
forth a theology of holiness that is biblical, not only the
essence of it, the scope of it, but the standard of it, The character
of God, be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect, Matthew 5,
48. The law of God, Romans 7, 12. We know that the law is spiritual
in the commandment, holy, holy, and just, and good. Then we need to see that it is
the moral image of Christ as seen in the scriptures. He that
saith, he abideth in him aught himself so to walk, even as he
walked. 1 John 2, 6. And it is the whole
of the perceptual will of God in the scriptures. I have respect
unto all of thy commandments, therefore I hate every false
way. Who is the blessed man? The one
who meditates in the law of God day and night. The whole revelation
of God's will of precept, that's the standard of biblical holiness? Not subjective healings, not
men's rules and regulations, but that comprehensive standard
made up of these biblically revealed components. And then we need
to say much about the method of biblical holiness. In Philippians
2, 12 and 13 is our pivotal text. It is co-action. Work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work
in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Well,
does he work or I work? If I work, does that suspend
his working? Does his working negate the necessity
of my working? Paul says no. Work out! Not playing games, but with the
whole engagement of your whole being with fear and trembling.
Why? Because you're not on a fool's
erring, God's at work in you, on your willer and your doer.
And when you've been able to will what was right and do it,
you don't reach around and pat yourself on the back. You say,
thank you Lord, you worked in me both the will and the power
to do. It's all of grace. But He doesn't
work bypassing our will or our doing. He works in us to will
and to do. You say, that's all double talk.
Well, it's Bible. Tell God you don't like his double
talk, but teach it to your people anyway. And then we need to tell
people about the source, ultimately, of biblical holiness. It is by
the Spirit that we mortify Romans 8.13. It's by the Spirit we are
conformed into His image, 2 Corinthians 3.18. It is in feeding upon and
living in union with Christ who said, without me ye can do nothing.
He who eats of my flesh, drinks of my blood, lives by me. It is in living union and communion
with Christ, and in dependence upon the Spirit, this is the
source of strength and grace for biblical holiness. And then
you better say much about the context of biblical holiness,
which is the church of Jesus Christ. Ephesians chapter 4 is
the classic passage. God knows nothing of freelance
holiness. A lot of people as holy as the
archangel Michael. If you put him on an island all
alone with nothing but a monkey and a coconut. That's right. But you put a second
island dweller with them. And if they had the raw materials
in five years they both have a nuclear bomb pointed at one
another. and they'd sit there glowering saying who's going
to move first the Bible knows nothing of holiness that is limited
to marvelous feelings in the closet where you don't have a
wife that has strong mood swings with her monthly cycle and goes
from being sweet as an angel to being as unreasonable as only
the Lord knows what and you've got to love her when her hormones
are making her very vulnerable to being an unreasonable witch. And you gotta love her. Because
when you see her at her worst, that ain't nothing compared to
what God saw you to be when he loved you. You love as Christ
loved. That's different isn't it? And
you take all of the precepts. I'll never forget the day it
hit me like a ton of bricks. Having no church background and
no churchmanship. First time I read in the Reformers
that ordinarily outside the Church of Christ there is no salvation.
I said, uh-oh. That's a big remnant from Rome.
They never cut off. Now I understand what they meant.
The New Testament epistles with but few exceptions. They weren't
written to individuals so they could have devotional material.
They were written to churches. And communities of believers!
And they are told to work these things out in the living context
of living saints with all of their ugly remaining sin and
all of our quirks and idiosyncrasies. And I say, my dear brethren,
our vision for these days is one that encompasses not only
setting forth the centrality of holiness in the purposes of
redemptive grace, the indispensability of holiness in the application
of redemptive grace, but something of a comprehensive theology of
holiness in the outworking of redemptive grace. Well, that's
what I wanted to say to you tonight. That's part of our vision. That's
what burns in our spiritual gut, if I may say it without being
coarse. And I ask you as you sit here
tonight, Are these the truths that burn in your heart? And
do they regulate your life? If you've never been accused
of being overly scrupulous, having a hyper-sensitive conscience,
being somewhat legalistic, I doubt you know anything of a serious
pursuit of holiness. Because you see, people that
live this way are a rebuke to giddy, shallow, either very immature
believers or self-deceived hypocrites. Rarely have I met a man that
put his hand on my shoulder and said, my brother, I appreciate
everything I see of your efforts to walk in universal holiness,
but you could do better. The men that have done that,
I can count on one hand. But I don't have enough hands
and feet to count the many that said, Brother, just take it easy. Don't be quite so serious. Don't be quite so intense. Don't be quite so persnickety
about those little details. Why do they do that? Because
you know and I know the moment you get in the presence of any
man or woman who takes God's ways more seriously than you
do, there is a light that exposes your own darkness. And you either
need to cry that God by grace will bring you up to that standard
or you try to lower the standard to your own level so you feel
a little more comfortable. I tell you, it's serious business
trying to be holy. with the tinderbox of remaining
sin within, a seducing, bewitching world without, and a powerful
and wise old devil going about as a roaring lion. But blessed
be God, if he's put us in the way, he's going to keep us on
the way and bring us home safely at last to glory. and all the
struggle be over. Won't it be wonderful to praise
him not just for an hour without a distracting thought, but through
the endless ages of eternity? To have a body, this is what
excites me about heaven. To have a body that can respond
to every impulse of a perfectly redeemed mind and soul. Think
of what you would desire to do for Christ if you had no remaining
sin in your mind, in your emotions, in your motives. Oh, you see,
it would take a glorified body to contain such a soul. And blessed
be God, that's just what we'll have. And with all of the energy
of such a perfected soul, housed or fused, whatever term you want
to use, in a glorified body, you'll be able to do all that
and won't even need to sleep or take a nap. There shall be
no night and they have no need of rest. Does that excite you
when you think of heaven? If so, maybe the root of the
matter is in you. Press on, press on. Amidst the groans, the sighs,
the times when you feel you're just about to go under, take
out your old pilgrim's progress and read it again. It'll do you
a lot more good than the modern claptrap coming off the press's
six little steps to a happy Christian life. Old Bunyan was in touch
with reality. Yeah, he got sights of the celestial
city that made him dance, but he had encounters with Apollyon
that almost did him in. That's where I live. I want Bunyan's
old way. Leave the claptrap to those who
know nothing of the reality of biblical holiness. Well, you've
been very patient. May God write his word upon our
hearts. Let us pray. Oh, our Father, we have spoken
of very weighty matters tonight, and yet we feel that in the very
speaking of them we defile them. For there is so much sin that
yet clings to us. Lord, wash even the preachment
of your word in the blood of your Son, that it may not be
anything other than a sweet savor before you. Wash our hearing
in the blood of Christ. We confess we cannot even hear
your word as we ought. We cannot receive it and obey
it as we ought. Oh, look upon us in our weakness
and in our remaining perversity and dullness and work in us to
will and to work. of your good pleasure. We pray
for any who sit here tonight and know nothing of what it is
to be in the way of holiness, for any who deceive themselves
that their shallow attachment to the name and ways of Christ
were enough. Lord, may the arrows stick in
their hearts and give them no rest. until in laying hold of
your son they know they've been placed into the way of biblical
holiness. Help your dear servants who come
from churches that have been lulled to sleep in a ministry
or under a ministry which has told people that holiness was
optional. Holiness was something only a
tangent to your saving purposes and an optional one at that.
O Lord, give them wisdom to know how lovingly and patiently to
instruct their people. Give them a discriminating ministry
that knows how to invade the conscience as we heard last night. O our God, will you not in our
day raise up an army of preachers whose own lives validate your
purpose to make men holy through the death of your Son. And then
may they be enabled to preach the doctrine of biblical holiness
with the credibility of a holy life and in the power and in
the demonstration of the Holy Spirit. O God, hear our cry and
may the blessing of your grace continue upon us and remain and
abide with us as we leave this place and go to our rest. Hear
our cry. Receive our thanks for this day
in your presence. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Our Vision for These Days #2 Return to Biblical Holiness

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about holiness?

Why is holiness important for Christians?

How do we know that God requires holiness?

What is the relationship between grace and holiness?

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About Albert N. Martin

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Our Vision for These Days #2 Return to Biblical Holiness

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about holiness?

Why is holiness important for Christians?

How do we know that God requires holiness?

What is the relationship between grace and holiness?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

Comments

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