Embrace Holiness: Part 1
By Pastor Mitch Horton | February 2004 | Posted in • Archives | (0) Comments
“If Christianity is ever to be returned to a place of power in America - then the truth of God’s Holiness must once again be lifted up to its rightful place.
The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage.” - Professor Alexander Tyler (written over 200 years ago).
With the rapid spread of impurity in our culture rising by the day, we are close to losing our nation! With homosexuality being encouraged from the schoolroom to the courtroom, and with the rise of promiscuity in all ages, we stand at a dangerous crossroads.
According to Barna Research, 60% of Americans believe that living together without marriage is acceptable behavior; 59% believe that it’s ok to enjoy sexual thoughts or fantasies about someone; 45% believe that abortion is acceptable; 42% condone adultery; 38% believe that viewing pornography is morally acceptable; 30% believe that homosexuality is morally acceptable.
At the same time, we have churches on just about every street corner throughout the nation! So what’s the problem? As a whole, those who say they are Christians have forsaken the Holiness of their God! We as the church are responsible for the ills of our nation! And its time for us to accept the responsibility for changing it!
” Jesus has conferred on us the responsibility of being the ‘salt’ and ‘light’ of our generation.”
We often quote 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
The phrase “and turn from their wicked ways” is a direct appeal for believers to return to a lifestyle of holiness! Jesus has conferred on us the responsibility of being the “salt and light” of our generation (Matthew 5: 14-16).
Salt preserves, protects, and flavors! We preserve our culture from ruin, we protect our culture from total annihilation by the forces of darkness, and we flavor our culture by keeping it from totally falling into a moral morass!
We are also “light” to our generation. Light is stronger than darkness; it repels it! Our lifestyle is meant to expose the darkness around us and give others a guiding light for their lives! We have the promise from Isaiah 60:1-3 that light will manifest through us in a greater measure as the darkness of sin increases in the world!
As we embrace holiness, we allow the salt and light that we’re called to be to flow out of us. To embrace holiness, we must understand it. So let’s look a bit deeper at how holiness relates to God. First of all, God is HOLY! The Hebrew word for Holy means separateness, brightness, freshness; separation from the secular, set apart. God was not to be compared in any way to the heathen gods of other nations.
The gods of the pagan nations in the Israelites’ promised land of Canaan were worshipped through all sorts of deviant sexual behavior. In fact, the reason God commanded Joshua to kill the men, women, children, and animals of the cities that they conquered as they possessed the land was so that the terrible diseases the people were infected with would not come upon God’s people! When God said to Israel, “.be holy, for I am holy” (See Lev. 11:44-46), He was completely distinguishing Himself from these morally corrupt gods of the heathen nations. GOD was set apart.He was different from anyone they had ever known!
” The power of God and the holiness of God are inseparable.”
God revealed Himself to Isaiah in a vision in Isaiah 6:1-8. Isaiah saw God in all His glory, and heard the angels cry out, HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, as they bowed before His throne (vs. 3)!
Isaiah’s first response to the holiness of God was that of conviction of sin. “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips; And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” (Isaiah 6: 5). And God’s response to his confession of sinfulness was to cleanse him from the sin. “Your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is purged” (Isaiah 6:8). When the presence of God manifests, it brings with it a holiness that produces a deep conviction of sin! And the end result of this conviction is so that we can be cleansed and made HOLY!
John saw a vision of heaven in Revelation 4. He also saw angels before the throne of God crying out HOLY, HOLY, HOLY (vs. 8)! The majority of Greek manuscripts from which our English Bible is translated have the word HOLY in this verse repeated nine times instead of three! God is HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, HOLY! That gets the point across!
God is so pure that He can only get close to us as we are purified. And it’s the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from all sin! He wants His power and authority to manifest through us, but it will be blocked from our lives if we fail to pursue holiness! The power of God and the holiness of God are inseparable! And lack of holiness is the reason for the lack of power in the church!
The principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, and the spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12) know this, and they seek to corrupt believers with the various forms of impurity that affect the culture around them. It’s time for us rise up and embrace His holiness so that we can spread His salt and light everywhere we go. I encourage you to repent, and embrace holiness today! We’ll continue this theme in next month’s issue.
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