Be Holy For I Am Holy Saith The Lord

Introduction

We want to thank all those who have participated thus far in the worship service this morning. We’ve had very good song leading, very good prayers, and very good scripture readings. And I’m grateful and thankful for all those of our members who are here this morning to study from the master’s pages to learn what the scriptures teach us in regards to holiness and regards to the life the Christian is to live. Also very grateful and thankful for those who are here this morning that may be visiting with us. And as I look out, I see there are some that are visiting with us that are from our community. There are people here this morning that are from the greater Central Florida area, and we’re glad that you are here this morning.

If there’s anything that we do or say that would uh pique your interest in a further Bible study or class, you may get with me after services, and I’ll be happy to exchange information so that we might study together or lead you uh to the scriptures that would guide us into a better understanding of your inquiries. Also, if you’re visiting with us from out of town and you’ve joined us from uh various places around the uh the world or the country, we’re very glad that you’re here as well. We strive to do and teach and preach and say those things that are only within the confines of the holy writ, the holy word of God, the holy Bible. You’ll notice I just used the word holy three times.

It’s interesting that we look at the word holy, and we sometimes think of that in the realm of religion. We sometimes think of that in the realm of the Bible as the terms that are given in the first page of the Bible before you get to Genesis, where you have that opening page that says the holy Bible. What’s interesting about the word holy and the idea of holiness in the Bible is that it is a condition that God enjoins upon all people to manifest within their life. When we look at the manifestation of holiness in our life, it is the idea of having a special characteristic that is developing within our hearts and that therefore creates from our hearts and our mind that holiness that is within, and then that relates in our life to actions, to thoughts and deeds that we have based upon that holiness.

It’s interesting that the Bible uses the word holy in frame of reference, not just to how we are, but a frame of reference to understanding who God is. That in referencing holiness, we’re actually enjoined in a great battle and a challenge of transformation that is perhaps the most difficult of all transformations that the child of living has to endure. Because we are children of life.

Which is why in 1 Peter as well as Leviticus and Deuteronomy and a number of other passages from the Old Testament to the New, God makes this phrase evident to us through Scriptures Be ye holy, for I am holy, saith the Lord. One of the hardest things that we can do in our life is transform and change. It is a challenge not just because it involves actively choosing good, it is a challenge because it is an example for modeling and imitating God Himself. We’re looking at a really big task before us. And the evil one, Satan, the destroyer, that sly, sneaky snake, he wants us to not be holy. He wants us to form and fashion our life after the ways of this world. He wants us to live in such a way that is of a lesser station.

1. A Kingdom of Priests

In Exodus chapter 19 and verse 6. We read of the transformation of the people of the Hebrew people that were once enslaved and then were transformed to a new nation. They were really molded and guided and translated, if you want to call it that, into, I think a best word for this is the word assimilated. They were assimilated together into the way that God would want them to be, and he calls them to be a kingdom, but he doesn’t just say, I want you to be kingdom like the kingdom type of people of the nations round about you. He doesn’t just say, I want you in Exodus 19, 6 to be a kingdom that is like the Ammonites or the Amorites or the Hittites or the Jebusites.

I want you to be a kingdom of priests.

No longer an enslaved people, but a people that are holy. The priests were recognized as people that were striving to do things in their service to God that were holy. And when you look at the people of the Hebrew people, when they left Egypt and were at the foot of Mount Sinai, and then developed into gaining the promised land, when they go to the various regions where they were and they set up camp, you would have in the central point of the camp the tabernacle, and within the central point of the tabernacle, the holy of holies, the most holy place of all, and the presence of God by day would uh have a cloud by day where they would see the presence of God in a symbolic way, and by night they would have a warmth and a light with them, a pillar of fire to guide them and tell them where they would be.

But in the holy of holies rested the Ark of the Covenant, and the priest, the high priest, would go there one time a year. But it’s a representative of God’s holiness. And so we say now it’s time to give a definition. What is holiness? What’s separation? The idea of holiness is something that’s different. The idea of something that’s distinct. And so here in the Holy of Holies, there was God dwelling with his people, tabernacling with his people, to show that the way they were to be in their holiness was unlike any other nation, but like a people that would be close to God, tabernacling with God, but also understanding they were a kingdom of priests. And so the high priest was representative of holiness. The priests were representative of holiness, and the people themselves, it says also in Exodus 20, in reference to the Ten Commandments that were given, were also holy people.

We are to be today a kingdom of priests as well. But holiness is about transformation. Historically, the change of kingdom and nationality that they had was there. So what of us for a moment? We see historically that the Jews had a change in nation, that they changed from being enslaved and in bondage to Egypt, and that in times past they started out in the journey towards the promised land and eventually settled in the promised land, and eventually tried the experiment of holiness, and sometimes miserably failed, other times had some good victories, like under Joshua. But how do we change? How do we change and transform our minds today? The battle of the heart and the battle in the inner mind is something that is ever present every day with every one of us.

2. Change Our Mindset

It says in 2 Corinthians 7 and verse 1, if you’ll turn there, having these promises, blessed children, or having these promises beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from the filth of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Well, that’s kind of a challenge, isn’t it? We’re trying to transform our life, we’re trying to do the things we need to do, but then he says, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. That idea of perfecting holiness in that context is twofold. One is it’s perfecting maturity, and the other is becoming complete. When you look at perfecting holiness, the idea there is he’s saying you’ve got to mature, you’ve got to grow up. I think the Hebrew writer worded it best when he says, For do not be children that are immature, but be ye mature.

The idea of complete holiness or complete perfecting of holiness in the fear of God is recognizing that we respect God to a great degree. The scripture readings were read by Brother Folk’s, very important readings for us, and good readings for us to help us understand that if we fear God and keep his commandments, as the Proverb writer tells us, that is a grand and wonderful thing. Ephesians 4.24 says, put on the new man. Ephesians 4.24 says, put on the new man, which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Okay. So God understands something about people that sometimes we’re not willing to admit. And that is we should have put to death the old man. Or we should have put to death the old person.

But he reminds us over and over again that we need to put on true righteousness and true holiness, and that the new person that we’re supposed to be is supposed to be created according to God. Supposed to be created in the form of the way that would transform our life. When we recognize who we need to be, we need to be Christians who are putting God’s mindset in our hearts so that we duplicate his mindset. What God doesn’t like, we don’t like. What God doesn’t view, we don’t view. What he would not like, we do not like. What he does like, we do like. Where he goes, I go. Where he leads, I will follow, as we sometimes think. It’s a hard task, it’s easier said than done.

The battle of the mind is the battle of everyday living. The battle of the mind is a battle that Satan likes to get into our thoughts and tries to tempt us to figure out ways to get us to not be holy. I remember an old saying. It’s kind of like a fortune cookie saying, but I like it a lot. And it tells us some little some little nuances about Satan. It says, Don’t give Satan an inch. He’ll become your ruler. That’s kind of what happens, though, in life is that we give him a little foothold, and then he his ways are the ways we duplicate in our life. And so to be holy, we need to change our mindset and transform our life. As he says in Romans, we need to be ye transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we might prove what is that good and acceptable will of the Lord.

3. Change Our Vision

We also have to change our vision.

In our outlook of life to be holy, yes, we need to change our mindset. We need to change our perspective on life and say, well, whatever’s evil, I’ll say, get out sin, I’ll stop doing that and do what’s righteous and good. And I need to recognize that holiness is duplicating the pattern of God and trying to reach up to his level and say, I know I’m not God, I know I’m not perfect, but I know he’s got a standard, so it’s better to be like him than be like uh the world. But here in the context of Hebrews 12 14, he says, pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no, and he says, if you don’t have peace and you don’t have holiness, then your vision is blurred.

He says, the vision that you have has to be twofold. It has to be holy and peaceable. Holiness is the idea of separate and unique and and specifically godly. So that entails with it the idea of the preaching and teaching of truth. Yes, we need to be peaceable people, yes, we need to be kind-hearted people, but we should not shy away from teaching and preaching the truth. In the world in which we live in, in the society in which is surrounding us, people don’t always like to hear what is right. They like to hear what their perception of right is. You might call it a sense of uh postmodernistic thought unto which the person in mind says they want to be able to give a definition that’s their definition because they want to say what they want to say about it.

Well, that’s not the way you interpret the scripture. The way you interpret the scripture is God set forth a book that’s from his mind, that’s from his design, from his ways, and it’s the holy Bible. It’s not just the Bible. And the if we called it the Bible, just a book of collection of books or a biblioth or a great library, we might go to the great books of the world in which we live in and say, well, that’s a library, but this library is the holy Bible. It’s separate from every other types of books anywhere because it comes from the mind of God, is derived in the mind of God and given to us, given to we, the people that discern the things that we read, and from that discernment comes a change of vision.

Comes the idea that yes, we pursue peace with all people, but we also pursue holiness. Okay, someone says, so what is that pursuit of holiness? Is it just the pursuit of truth? No. It’s the pursuit of truth enjoined in such a way that the manifestation of truth is in the hearts and souls of people that are behaving wholly, that are living holy, and that are speaking that which is true. And then the other part is important too, peaceable. I’ve met some people that they tell me what’s true, but they’re not very peaceable. How’s that supposed to help convert somebody? If they’re just antagonistic, pessimistic, angry, frustrated, it’s gonna be difficult. And we all fall into that category from time to time as well. And so we need to recognize that we need to pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

4. A Change in Role Models

And a parallel passage of that will be uh in the Beatitude portion of the Sermon on the Mount. Being holy requires a transformation of mind, a transformation of vision, and a change in role models. In the Bible class that we’re teaching in the middle school class, co-teaching with Elijah Morris, Elijah’s doing a great job. He’s working uh here, doing uh good teaching in that class, and he he had made some comments that I thought were very interesting regarding role models. He says, we need to change who our role models are, but yet at the same time recognize many of the Old Testament role models, gave us specific role model ideas and concepts for us. We often talk about people in the world in which we live in as being influencers, or people in the social realm of technology that are influencers or game changers, or people that get a lot of people to listen to some of the things they wish to say.

Noah was an influencer of preaching righteousness in a wicked world. When you think of the guy who built the ark and eight souls were saved, he was an influencer to his family. All of his sons were on the ark. And his wife was on the ark. They were saved. But Noah was holy because he was an influencer, and he preached and taught people, even though they didn’t listen. They thought he was strange because he said a flood will come and destroy the world. And you need to repent. He taught that. He was a preacher of righteousness, but Noah was holy. And the point we want to make from that is he was a holy role model because he was separate. Another role model would be Abram, who is an influencer of great faith.

The idea is that role models are often imitated, and we need to recognize in his great faith, we need to have a similar great faith. Third, Moses, an influencer or a role model of humility, who time and time again said things that just showed so much his meek and mild nature. Jesus, the influencer of love and sacrifice. God’s holiness is grand. And God is so far removed from sin that God is in heaven, and he sent Jesus, and it was asked why Jesus was not brought up for questioning. And in response was, no man ever spoke like this man. Do you remember that in the New Testament? They bring up Jesus, they say, why didn’t you bring him to us and bind him up? Nobody in the world’s ever spoke like this guy.

He doesn’t sound like a prophet that we’ve ever heard. He doesn’t sound like a Pharisee or a Sadducee or a scribe.

I mean, this guy’s different. That’s how we need to be. Recognizing him as a role model, that wherever we go, whatever we say, whatever we do, we live forth the holy transformation that we need in our life to show us in our hearts what Jesus is trying to show us through his word, because that’s really what we need. We need someone to show us. And as we live and as we move and as we do the things we do, we need someone to guide us and be with us and be our role model. No matter how old we get, we always have someone older to refer to, the ancient of days, the one that is and who was and who is before us. What was that we read in our scripture reading?

That the Lord uh has uh actually, this is the meditation part where you have searched me and know me. You know my sitting up, my rising up, my understanding, sitting down, you comprehend my path, and when I sleep, you are acquainted with all my ways. There’s not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you know it all together. He’s been there, he’s been forever and ever. We need to recognize our holy God. Be ye holy, for I am holy. To be holy, we change our role model. In the world in which we live in, the role models often are ourselves. We get into this uh this struggle. We say, we want people to see us, we want our point to be heard, we want our thoughts to be known, because this is America, and we let our thoughts be known our way.

But listen, who is the one that we’re conveying? We conveying us, or we conveying someone else. If we want to be holy, for he is holy, we’re gonna be different from everybody else. And life’s not all about me. Life’s not all about you, but life is about learning who we can learn from. Life, let me repeat myself. Life is about learning from whom we can learn from. Life is about studying the will of the Lord and living in such a way where we project holiness, just like when they were in the tabernacle. They’re all getting closer and closer to the presence of God. Can they touch holiness? No. If they were to get that close, they’d die. But they can see holiness. They can see God’s manifestation before them.

5. Gird Up the Loins of Your Mind

He says in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 13, to prepare your mind. In the first century, many years later, after the tabernacle, first century, time when Jesus lived, the Roman people would have these long flowing garments, and they’d sash them up when they got ready to run. They’d gird them up when they got ready to take a foot race, and they would gather up the garments. He says here in 1 Peter 1 13, gird up the loins of your mind. It’s the idea of prepare your mind and be serious about holiness. He says in verse 13, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, that’s serious, and rest your hope fully on the grace of God, which will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The unveiling when Christ returns, will be showing his perfect holiness. And so we need to be serious about it because one day he will be revealed to us. And then he says in verse 14, as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance. He says, Don’t ignorantly go with the flow regarding lusts. He says, Don’t ignorantly just do what everybody else is doing. Don’t ignorantly just do that. He says, in times past you were ignorant. In other words, you didn’t know you shouldn’t have done that, so you did it anyways, but now you know better. He says, Don’t ignorantly go with the flow regarding that. He says, You’re supposed to be obedient, children, not conforming yourselves to the ways you used to be.

I don’t know. They said long time ago that Al Gore invented the internet. I don’t believe that, but I do know that algorithms mess up a lot of people’s life. People in the world in which we live in are inundated with the internet. And it’s designed in such a way, not only to draw you in, but to figure out who they think you are and to try to lure us into either buying something or into doing something or behaving in such a way that would be in their interest of whoever is with that algorithm. And so we need to recognize very carefully and very diligently that when we study the scriptures, we need to be obedient and we need to recognize the next verse, verse 15, that he who called us is holy, and then he says, You also be holy in all your conduct.

What did Jesus do when times got tough and surrounded by temptations and surrounded by challenges? For he in every way was tempted, just as we are, yet without sin. What did he do?

What else did he do? He walked away from the crowds to go to a place to meditate. What else did he do? He enjoined himself with other types of people that had faith in God and was with them, the twelve, the apostles. What else did he do? He preached and taught. What else did he do? He studied the scriptures. So that when they would go before the temple places or the in one place, the tabernacle, not tabernacle, the synagogue, they said, Who can this be? Uh he hasn’t, he’s the carpenter’s son. How could he know this? How could he have studied the scriptures? And so when we look at this, we recognize that Jesus did many things to curtail some of the temptations that he had.

I don’t think that he was only tempted in the three ways Satan tempted him in Matthew chapter four. In fact, the ways he tempted him in Matthew chapter four are not temptations of you and I. I mean, aside from being in the desert and wanting something to eat, I think that would tempt all of us to say, yeah, if I could turn that rock into bread, I’d eat it if I hadn’t eaten for 40 days. Yeah, I get that. But cast yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple and the angels. What was that all about? That was something that was related to Jesus Himself. But yet at the same time, a lot of the temptations that we have, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, those were all still temptations to the Lord, and yet he was victorious over them.

But then he writes in verse 16, because it is written, Be holy, for I am holy. There’s your standard. And if you call on the Father who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves through the time of your stay here in fear. Have a prayerful and a fearful outlook. Nobody is perfect. Okay. But we all can recognize where we need to go, where we need to be, and what we need to do. Where we need to go is heaven. What we want to do is behave holy in righteousness. And where we need to be is in the scriptures, so that we are able to understand that each one of us is going to be judged not by somebody else here, but by the standard God is judging each one’s work with, verse 17.

Each one without partiality, according to each one’s work. Thus we are to conduct ourselves throughout the time of our stay here in fear. Kind of interesting the way he words that uh the the time of our stay here. There’s another way of wording that this way. It is this. We don’t know how long we have here. We don’t know if we’ll live one more week or ten more years. We don’t know if we’ll live 50 more years, unless we’re over, well, we won’t go there. But we don’t know how long we’ll be here. But he’s basically saying, whatever your time is here, it needs to be conducted with fear as well as prayerfulness, conducting with prayerfulness as well. He says, know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold from your aimless conduct received by the tradition of your fathers.

In other words, he’s saying this is valuable, valuable point. This is a valuable. He says, A child uh uh of God died for you. It says you were you were you are redeemed because the precious blood of Christ is a lamb without spot or blemish died for you. This was God’s eternal plan. So don’t think in your heart, don’t think, well, he doesn’t love me. Instead, believe you can resurrect your life as he did. Believe that you can you can do something that he wants you to do. Don’t think you’re you’re you’re you’re too in in a way that you cannot do what he wants you to do. He says here, he indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you, who through him believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Conclusion

He’s not leaving you empty, he’s not leaving you void, he’s not leaving you without hope. He’s giving you help through Jesus that can change us all. And so he says, Be holy, for I am holy, saith the Lord. Like I said, perhaps being holy is one of the hardest transformations of all because in that we are trying to get as close to behaving like Jesus as possible. So really, when we look at changing our mindset, our vision, our role model, we’re really also looking at essentially changing everything. If you look at verse 11 in uh 2 Peter 3.11, it says, Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, this is 2 Peter 3.11. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.

You know what that means for us? Well, that means if we’re holy, don’t get discouraged. If you’re striving to be like God and you’re trying to do what’s right, don’t get discouraged. Look forward and hasten the day of the coming of the Lord. That means you’re going like this, He’s coming back one day. I don’t know when it is, but I’m hoping he’s coming back. I want to be holy, and I want to grow in my holiness, because I know I’ve not always been as holy as I need to be. And I hope that’s the case for everybody here as well. We want to grow in our holiness, develop where we need to be, look at our past and leave it there. There’s a story that was told regarding baptism.

Person said, the scriptures say, hear, believe, repent, confess, and be baptized, and live faithfully. They say that. So that’s the plan of salvation. And I believe it. But it also says that we die to the old man and bury the old man in the water and be raised to walk in newness of life. And a lot of times what happens is we become Christians and we fall back into the ways of the world because of the deception of the devil. And so while I can’t prove it, but I do believe in theory, it’s right there. That there’s a sign right there when you are baptized, and you bury your sins in the water, that there’s a sign there that’s kind of in your mind that says, no fishing allowed.

You don’t go back, go beyond. You look up and don’t go back to the ways of the world. It’s a hard challenge. Not something everybody lives every day, but it is what God says to do. Be ye holy, for I am holy, declareth the Lord. Repent and be baptized. For there is a type which now saves you. Baptism, 1 Peter 3.21. I don’t know how much more clear that is. Baptism doth now save us. 1 Peter 3 21. And now why are you waiting? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sin. Calling on the name of the Lord. Acts twenty two sixteen. If we can help you do that, please come forward as we stand and sing.