Gospel Holiness: Elements, Part 2 (positive)

Recap: The Foundation and Purpose of Gospel Holiness

0:04 Now, for the sake of the few who are with us this morning who have not been with us prior to this last in my contribution to this general theme of gospel holiness, it will take about five minutes to catch the main pivotal issues that we have sought to hold forth from the scriptures and then move on to the last two principles that we want to consider together. And the text that has been foundational to all our consideration is Hebrews 12 and verse 14, where the writer to the Hebrews says, Follow after, as the RSV translates it, strive for peace with all men and the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. And with that text before us, we try to lay the two foundational principles that gospel holiness is...

1:01 is an essential element of true salvation. For the writer to the Hebrews reminds his listeners and his readers that without this holiness, no man shall see the Lord. John Orr, the prince of the Puritan preachers and theologians particularly, has a statement that I think is as relevant today as when he made it back several hundred years ago. There is no imagination wherewith man...

1:31 where man is besotted, more foolish, none so pernicious as this. That persons not purified, not sanctified, not made holy in their life should afterwards be taken into that state of blessedness which consists in the enjoyment of God. Neither can such persons enjoy God, nor would God be a reward to them. Holiness indeed is perfected in heaven, but the...

2:01 but the beginning of it is invariably confined to this world. And yet John Orr found in his day that there was no imagination wherewith man is besotted, more foolish, more pernicious, than that there was a salvation in which holiness was not an essential element. This was the great cry not only of John Orr and the prince, the Puritan theologians, but it was the continual utterance of those servants of God, Joseph Eilean in his classic work On the Call to the Unconverted, again and again reminds his listeners, reminds his readers, that unless they are pursuing holiness, they have no grounds to claim that they are partakers of the salvation of God. And then the second great principle that flows out of this, if it is an essential element of salvation, that every true Christian will be pursuing and following after that gospel, holiness. Then we sought to see the purpose of God in grace being a purpose that focused on this matter of making men holy from eternity in his electing purposes to the glorification of his own. God's purpose is to have a holy people.

3:20 Then we considered the source of this holiness being the Lord Jesus Christ, the agent who actually imparts it unto us, the Holy Spirit, and then the way of its impartation is in the full conscious activity of the child of God. Though it is Christ's holiness made real to us by the Spirit, it does not come to us in a way of passivity, in a way of inactivity, but it comes to us in the full employment of all the faculties of our humanity. And now we are trying to discover from the Scriptures what is the actual substance of that holiness, of which Christ is the source. The Holy Spirit, the agent which all the true children of God pursue as part, an essential part, of their salvation. And Saturday night we considered that it involves a heart-rooted desire and a serious effort to be cleansed and delivered from all sin. The foundation of God stands, it's sure, having this seal, that the Lord knoweth them that are his, and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ continually depart from iniquity. And so an essential element in a negative sense of gospel holiness is that heart-rooted desire,

Positive Element 1: A Heart-Rooted Desire to Do God's Revealed Will

4:44 giving expression in serious effort to be cleansed and delivered from sin. Now we want to move this morning to the positive aspect of this, and in a real sense this principle encompasses the first, and so there will be some overlap, but for the sake of clarification I want to divide it in this way. The second and third aspects comprising the substance of true holiness are these. A heart-rooted desire and serious attempt to do all the revealed will of God.

5:20 And then last of all, a heart-desire and serious effort to be made light unto Jesus Christ. Now I will not spend the time this morning that I did Saturday night exegeting the words honest or heart-rooted desire and serious attempt simply to say this much. Gospel holiness involves something to do with the revealed will of God, and that something is nothing less than a heart-rooted desire to perform the will of God. And by a heart-rooted desire I am simply rephrasing the testimony of the psalmist when he said, in Psalm 40 and verse 8, I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart. One of the two great blessings of the New Covenant as laid out in Hebrews 8 and Hebrews 10 is this. God says in this New Covenant, ratified by the blood of Christ, I will do two things. There are sins and iniquities.

6:30 I will remember no more, and I will write my laws upon their hearts, so that whenever a man is brought in the effectual call of God into possession of the blessings of the New Covenant, he always receives the full and complete part of his sin and the inscribing of the law of God upon his heart, so that there is a heart-rooted desire to do the will of God. Now he may lack much. As we heard in the testimony of understanding what the will of God is. And there is need for increased knowledge.

7:07 He may not know how to perform the will of God. He may have to learn what his spiritual equipment is, positionally and experimentally. But nonetheless, there is in his heart this deep-seated desire to do the will of God. The New Testament expression of this is found in Romans 7 and verse 8.

7:29 In verse 22, where the Apostle Paul, in the midst of this confession of the consciousness of spiritual conflict, can say without any reservations of conscience in verse 22, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. Whatever he is saying about the conflict, one thing is sure. He is not excusing an attitude of indifference to the law of God. He is bemoaning the fact that he has a heart-rooted desire, for he has problems in the performance of that desire.

8:05 But the problem was not the absence of desire. For you see, as a regenerate man, he delighted in the law of God after the inward parts, in contrast to the unregenerate. And again we heard this in the testimony, the passage in Romans 8. The carnal mind is enmity against God.

8:22 It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. But the renewed mind is one described here that delights in the law of God. And so an essential element of gospel holiness is a heart-rooted desire that will give expression in a serious effort to do all the revealed will of God. Now if that statement is true, we should expect to find it clearly supported by Scripture.

Scriptural Support for Obedience as a Mark of a Christian

8:55 And the only reason I've made it is that I believe it's a synthesis of what the Scripture teaches. And so let us first of all consider the words of Scripture concerning this fact, that a Christian is someone who is not only trusting in the blood and sacrifice of Christ for acceptance with God, but he is someone who has a heart-rooted desire and is making a serious effort to do the will of God. Now if we can find a description of a Christian, then we are warranted in assuming that obedience is optional. If a true Christian is that he is strict to the will of God, then we must never think of a Christian in any other way than as a man who is not only aware of the blood of Christ, but who is always listening to some of the assertions of our Lord Himself. And then we'll look at some of the other inspired penmen of the New Testament. In the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 7,

10:14 of his discourse that we have dubbed the Sermon on the Mount, in which there is a very deep application and some exhortation, but mostly instruction, principle. And now he wants his hearers' instruction, and so he says in verse 21 of Matthew 7,

11:04 Everyone that's a low man's unless he was not dying says in verse,

13:34 But ye believe not. He says, By thee in my Father's house are many dwelling places.

15:19 If it were not so, I would have told you. And if I go, I will come again. But that where I am may be also his. Into those, when the heart's limpid and broken,

17:08 is to claim their his sheep.

17:55 This good sound deduction is for the followers of the Sabbath

18:53 to not believe on the essential elements of true biblical sanctification. And on it, Jesus says next from the words of our Lord, an expression of the teaching of our Lord. Notice what he says in John 15 and verse 14, or back up to verse 13,

20:05 Greater law you want so,

21:32 if you are not willing to submit to the implications of the veracity of his word in John 15, 14. To do so is to rest the scriptures as those as some of the statements of the other inspired writers. Hebrews chapter 5, we're trying to see the principle that an essential element, and we're looking at those verses which, to the revealed will, we've looked at several of the statements of our Lord, now we're looking at several of the statements of the inspired penman.

22:50 Hebrews chapter 7, speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ, when he had offered up prayers to save his suffering, and those experiences through which we must pass,

23:39 and give some semblance of living the Christian life for a year, but for the next 20 years of the word of God. He became the author of eternal salvation on that day. The salvation in the path of suffering

24:44 is a salvation which would happen in the word of God. The author of eternal salvation. And that's a clear statement of John in 1 John chapter 2, that necessity be selective, driving down this morning, and listening to 1 and 2 Peter, and some of 1 John, and the little tape recorder I have, there are some tremendous sections in Peter, dealing with this whole concept, but we must, as I mentioned, be selective. 1 John chapter 2, notice carefully verses 3 and 4, And hereby do we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments,

26:00 to the revealed that that obedience is for John. If anyone says he's without sin, he's a liar, and don't keep his commandments. We lie,

27:16 and we must never make, possess, an essential element of holiness. Is this hard-rooted, to the revealed will of God? Now, I want to build on that a second principle,

The Objective Standard of God's Will, Not Subjective Impulse

28:15 in our evangelical churches in our day at this point. It goes like this. If you have love in your heart, is possessed with a desire to please him, well then what you do, is you just follow the dictates of your renewed heart. For Jesus, to come for a moment, establish this reality, outworking of gospel holiness. Not only, we see in the child of God, to the will of God, that that did not,

29:13 from the words of Christ. Then of course, in verse 21, He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he will keep my words. 24, He that me not, keepeth not my sayings. But you see, our Lord immediately takes this whole matter, of gospel holiness, in its area of obedience, out of the realm of the subjective, and puts it into the realm of the objective. And he says, that which is to guide your renewed desire, is the objective standard, mine.

30:39 Now we see in our Lord Jesus Christ himself, a most beautiful example of this. Here was God incarnate, and yet when he walked amongst us, his conduct as the man Christ Jesus, was not governed by inner impulses. But was governed by the explicit statements of the word God, derived from the word. This is the whole meaning, of his use of scripture, and his conflict with the devil.

31:14 This idea that you find in many little books, on how to grow as a Christian. One of them is, memorize the Bible, and quote the Bible to the devil, and it will make him run. And they use Matthew 4, and Luke 4 to prove it. No, you don't quote verses all day to the devil.

31:27 He won't run, he just put them back to you. You see, what the Lord was doing was this. Satan came to the Lord Jesus, and he said, now if or since you are the son of God, these stones into bread, demonstrate that you are what you claim to be, by turning these stones into bread, and since you're a true man, it's only right that you gratify your natural God-given appetite for food. You've been fasting for 40 days and nights.

31:56 But somehow, the Father had revealed to Christ, it was not yet time, to break his fast. And having revealed to him, that it was not his will to break his fast, what did the Lord Jesus say? He said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, until the Father makes known that it's time to eat. I am bound by his faith in your word.

32:11 And on through the temptations. Cast yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple. Christ says, no, I cannot do this, for to do so, I would have to go back to the temple. He says, no, I cannot do this, for to do so, I would have to go back to the temple.

32:29 He says, no, I cannot do this, for to do so, I would have to go back to the temple. Christ says, no, I cannot do this, for to do so, I would have to go contrary to the express word of my Father. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. So what our Lord was doing, was not chasing away the devil by quoting scripture, but declaring to the devil, that he as the God-man was submissive, to the principles of Holy Scripture, and that his guidance in that situation, came by the word of God, and the right application of it.

32:48 Now this was true, and this is true, and this is true, and this is true, and this is true, and this is true, and this is true, and this is true, and this is true, and this is true, and this is true, and this is true, and this is true, and this is true, and the right application of it. Now this was true, of the Son of God, who was best fitted, to, follow inner impulse. So much more, those of us, who are still, plagued, with the remains, of our sinful corruption, with darkness of mind, and perversity of heart, we need the objective revelation, of the word of God. Well, you say where does one discover, that objective revelation.

Sources of God's Revealed Will: Law, Commands, Epistles

33:28 May I suggest very quickly, that, Three of the main sources. First of all, the Ten Commandments.

33:37 Summarized of the will of God. That's why the Apostle Paul could say, as he does in Romans 7, that his heart and his mind delighted after the law of God. Inner delight in the embodiment of the revealed will of God as expressed in those ten words of Moses. He says of those words that they are spiritual, holy, just, and good in Romans 7, 12, and verse 14.

34:11 Spiritual, holy, just, and good. Paul recognized the simple principle that the grace of God had no power to change what's good and what's right. You see, all the grace of God can do, and blessed be God it does that, it can change your relationship to that law that is just and holy. And good, if you've broken it, that law cries out, condemn that sinner, judge him.

34:39 Now what the grace of God can do is make provision that the demands of the law may be satisfied in another. And that's precisely what Christ did. He redeemed us from the curse of that law by being made a curse for us in our room instead. The grace of God can provide power to keep that law which we do not have of ourselves.

35:01 But you see, the grace of God cannot. It can't change what's right, can't change what's good, can't change what's holy, and Paul says the law is good, and just, and holy, and spiritual, so that it remains as the standard for the child of God fallen before that law's condemnation in the hands of Moses, now receives that land of his forgiving Savior as a guide for his conduct.

35:35 That's why the Apostle Paul had, no qualms about using the law of God to instruct Christians. In Ephesians 6, verses 1 and 2, and Galatians 5 and verse 14, he uses the holy law of God to instruct the children of God. Then secondly, there are the specific commands of Christ. It's interesting that in the Great Commission, as found in Matthew, one of the great tasks of the Apostles was this.

36:02 Make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. The great task was to evangelize with a view to seeing men brought into a relationship of submission and trust in the Lord Jesus. That's a disciple. Baptize them, see them brought into visible communities of God's people, establishment of churches.

36:35 Then the third great task is this. Teaching them, now notice, not all the mysteries of my prophetic utterances, that's not the main task, not all the profanities of some of my declarations, no, he said, teaching them to observe, to do whatever I have commanded you. Make it plain to people that when they come into saving relationship with me, they embrace me not only as their priest, but as their prophet to teach them and as their king to rule them. And so as we turn to the specific commands of the Lord Jesus Christ, we know what it is. We know what is the will of God. And part of sanctification is by the fullness of Christ appropriated through the person and ministry of the Spirit to do what he has instructed us to do. And then thirdly, the third area from which, we discern the revealment of God are the detailed instructions of the epistles.

37:47 Now there are principles in many of the Old Testament sections when Paul tries to, not tries, but when Paul proves that preachers ought to live up the gospel, he takes a text way out of the ceremonial law and he uses a principle of the ceremonial law to prove a New Testament duty. And so there are scattered throughout many of the other sections. I'm trying to give you the main areas in which the will of God can be most clearly discerned. And I'm calling this third area the detailed instructions of the New Testament writers, such as Paul gives in 1 Thessalonians 4.

38:23 He says, this is the will of God, even your sanctification. Then he tells them what he means. And he gives some very clear instruction as to how husbands and wives are to regard each other in their sexual responsibility one to the other. He does the same in 1 Corinthians 7.

38:39 What does it mean to be sanctified? What does it mean to be holy? What does it mean to pursue gospel holiness? It means that I learn what my responsibilities are in this most personal area, an intimate area of my married life.

38:54 That's what it means. It means that when I turn to passages dealing with the responsibility of husbands to wives and wives to husbands, children to parents, the elders, the ministers of God to the flock of God, the servant to the master, the master to the servant, the servant to the wife, the relationship to magistrates, the New Testament is filled with detailed instruction as to how the people of God are to conduct themselves in all these relationships. Well, what is it to pursue holiness? It means that with a heart-rooted desire and an honest effort, I come exposing myself to those areas where the will of God is revealed and then I say, Lord, by your grace, what I really hear is the standard shall be true, my life, and we set our hearts, our minds, our wills, and cry to God for grace to be what he said we should be. And, Lord, the greatest proofs to me that our churches are filled with people who entertain false hopes that they're Christians is that such a paltry amount of what they know of their duty is actually performed in experience.

The Practical Acid Test: Exposure and Implementation of God's Word

40:12 Ninety percent of the problems we have in our churches are problems that were faced in the early church and clear directions are given as to how to handle them that we couldn't care less. Couldn't care less. It's as though God never spoke the word.

40:29 You come to offer your gift. You come Sunday morning to pray, to worship, and you know that you've got something against your brother. You know it. Maybe you've been coming for weeks and months and years and everybody in the church knows there's friction between Sister George and Sister Smith.

40:44 And even though Christ has said, leave your gift before the altar, I want no worship heavenward until you're right with your fellow man. We asked His Lord, but even there, He says, leave your gift. First be reconciled to thy brother, then come offer thy gift. We couldn't care less.

40:59 We like nursing the blood, so we're going to nurse it. Who cares what Christ said? You're a Christian, you care.

41:07 Or He says, you're my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. The clear instruction in Matthew 18, thy brother sinned against thee, go tell him his fault. If he hears, you've gained him. If he won't hear, you take the witnesses.

41:21 If he won't hear them, bring him before the church. If he won't hear the church, let him be excommunicated, be counted as a heathen, an apocalyptic. We don't do that.

41:30 Clear words from Christ. Anticipating these problems, He gave us instruction. He said, you're my friends if you do what I command you. What is sanctification?

41:40 Setting out to do what He said in those areas. He's thought very clearly about the relationship that we're to have to those over us in the Lord. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit to them. Granted, their rule is not to be tyrannical.

41:56 It's not to be pompous and pulperish. But those words obey and submit are strong words. The concept that every man's a law to himself, we have and are blighted with in our assemblies, is an unscriptural concept. The will of God's revealed in the word of Christ, in the Ten Commandments, in the detailed instruction of the epistles, and we have seen that a Christian is someone who has a heart desire and is making a serious effort to be conformed to the revealed will of God.

42:31 Now the practical acid test of whether or not that's true of us is this. If my heart desire is to do the revealed will of God, it will evidence itself by a continual exposure to the place where that will is revealed. That's why a Christian is inseparably tied to his Bible. As I've never mentioned, nobody had to stand over his head with a whip and say, you ought to read your Bible, you ought to read your Bible.

43:02 When God genuinely saves a man, he instinctively turns to this book to give his direction. That's why coming to church is not a duty to be performed primarily, but it's the delightful exposure to the words of my Savior whom I love and I want to please Him. And He said, He that hath my commandments and keeps them, I can't keep them unless I give them to you. That's why a Christian is inseparably tied to his Bible.

43:18 That's why a Christian is inseparably tied to his Bible. That's why a Christian is inseparably tied to his Bible. He keeps them, I can't keep them unless I have them. I can't have them unless I know them.

43:27 So I come to the prayer of David. Open thou my eyes. Lead me in the way of thy commandments, and I shall keep them unto the end. I shall run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart.

43:44 If you can live in the perpetual indifference to the precepts of the Word of God privately in its public exposition, you have little grounds to claim you are a sheep of Christ. For a sheep hear His voice. They love His voice. And there is not only exposure to the Word, but there is implementation of the Word.

44:04 David said in Psalm 119 and verses forgive me the exact text because they are so helpful in giving us specific direction as to how we obey. He says in verse 59, I thought on my ways and I turned my feet unto thy testimonies. Verse 60, I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments. He said what I heard in the standard and what I saw in my experience was different.

44:39 Here's what I was doing. Here's what God said I ought to do. So what did I do? Did I simply bow to my pattern of thinking and doing and acting and cast off what God said?

44:52 He said no. I thought on my ways and seeing the discrepancy between my ways and the revealed will of God, I turned my feet to the testimonies of God. That's how you follow after holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. That's how the Word is a sanctifying instrument.

45:12 There is no magical power in being exposed to the preacher's words day in, day out, week in, week out, year in, year out. It may be a damning influence. It may be a harming influence. Sacramentalists at heart, we want to think there's some magical power in having the words of the Bible float through our ears.

45:37 There is no magical, awful power in the Bible. It's only as the precepts are held forth and embraced in faith and obedience and then our feet are turned to the testimonies of God that the Word is a sanctifying influence. God says the Word preached did not profit the blind. It was not mixed with faith.

45:59 Oh, beloved, would to God that we would come to our church services with the attitude, God, whatever you say to me today that finds a contradiction in my life by your grace, I'm going to do like David. I'll make haste and delay not to keep thy commands. Oh, the degrees of sanctification that we would begin to see in our public assemblies.

Positive Element 2: A Heart-Rooted Desire to Be Christ-like

46:26 And then I can only state the last principle. Time is gone. Honest desire and serious attempt to be Christ-like in all manner of living. Let me just give you the text.

46:37 God's purpose in eternity, Romans 8, 29 and 30. Whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. How is that worked out here in time? 1 John 2, 6.

46:53 He that saith he abideth in him ought to walk even as he walked. 1 Peter 2, 21. Christ also hath suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in his steps. Paul says of the Thessalonians, he became imitators, literally mimics.

47:12 He became mimics of us and of the Lord, having received the word of God with much affliction and joy of the Holy Ghost. 1 Thessalonians 1, 6 and 7. Sanctification involves this heart-rooted desire and serious attempt to be Christ-like in all manner of living. How do we find how to be Christ-like?

47:34 We read the Gospels and we behold his light. And then there's that blessed process described in 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 even by the Lord, the Spirit. John Owen again has a beautiful statement on this matter.

47:57 Let me read it to you in closing. Christ in the Gospel is proposed to us as our pattern and example of holiness. And as it is a cursed imagination that this was the whole end of his life and death, that's the liberal, Christ just a nice example, and no one calls it a cursed imagination, namely to exemplify and confirm the doctrine of holiness which he taught, so to neglect his being our example in considering him by faith to that end and laboring to be like him is generally evil and pernicious. Wherefore let us be much in the contemplation of what he was and what he did and how in all duties and trials he carried himself until an image or idea of his perfect holiness is implanted in our minds and we are made like unto him thereby. How can I walk as he walked unless I know how he walked? And how can I know how he walked unless I saturate my soul in the Gospels to see his light in all the relationships thereof until I have an image formed not by my fancy but by Scripture and by the Holy Spirit and the grace of God pressed to the attainment of that image. People say, I can't imagine the Lord preaching like you preach.

49:23 He was soft. I've had people tell me that. I can't imagine the Lord lifting his voice. Well, you see, their image of Christ is one that's been drawn from the stuff of their own minds, not from the Scripture.

49:37 For in the Scripture we see our Lord in his denunciation of evil as well as in his gracious tones of invitation. I can't imagine Christ with damned people. Well, you see, that imagination is not Scripture where he spoke those terrible words of either darkness, weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth. And so this image of Christ must be formed from the Scripture and then part of our sanctification is pressing after that likeness by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Conclusion: The Purposeful Pursuit of Holiness

50:09 Follow after holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. And that holiness involves a heart-rooted desire and serious effort to be cleansed and delivered from all sin. It involves a heart-rooted desire and serious effort to be conformed to all the revealed will of God. It involves a heart-rooted desire and serious effort to be made like unto the Lord Jesus.

50:44 That desire and effort are not perfect. That obedience is not perfect, but it's purposeful. It's not perpetual in the sense that there are never any flags or lines in it. No, there are.

50:59 But it is the gradual, basic, ascending desire that looking back over any period of time we shall see that he who began a good work in us is carried on until the blessed day of Jesus Christ and we shall be made like him when we see him as he is. Beloved, don't expect to go to heaven without being holy any more than you'd expect to get there without the cleansing of the blood of Christ. For without holiness no man shall see the light. Let us pray.

51:37 Our Father, be pleased by your grace to confirm your word to the hearts of us who have been exposed to it today. O Lord, forgive us. Forgive us, we pray, for galleying with the Scriptures so often. Give us hearts that will be determined by the grace of God to turn our feet to the testimonies of the living God.

52:11 Sanctify us, O Lord, in the way of practical conformity to your revealed will in every area of life to the praise of our Lord Jesus and to the blessing of our own hearts.