Holy God

 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”  Exodus 3:5..."For it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy." I Peter 1:16...In this day of watered-down, sentimental Christianity, we have lost the sense of the holy in the church." A.W. Tozer

Holiness, whether the holiness of God or the personal life of holiness He commands us to live out, has never been a popular preaching point in the church. Even in those churches that are considered "holiness churches." Tozer, writing a generation ago, was correct when he said the church had lost the sense of the holy. I think he'd be shocked to see how much further along we are in that were he still living.

I get that holiness of life has been mis-taught, promoted gross legalism, and become a bondage to many who came under such teaching. However, His command to us is clear. We are to be holy, living lives of righteousness, because He is holy, and fully, completely righteous in Himself. True, biblical holiness is not the result of trying to keep and live up to man-made standards solely by our own effort. True holiness emanates from a heart sanctified, set apart, and made pure by the work of His Holy Spirit. This is a work of grace, and the result is a life and heart that is drawn to a Holy Creator, and has at root, a desire to live for Him, to please Him, and to bring Him glory. In your fellowship, can you remember the last time a sermon was preached, let alone a series of sermons, that centered upon the holiness of God and what holiness of life really is? Has sanctification and the sanctified life ever been explained and proclaimed? There are more than a few preachers who don't want to go there. It's dangerous ground, especially for those in the congregation whose faith lives are being lived out in the flesh and not the Spirit. Or not lived out at all.

I went to a holiness Bible College, and I had a professor named Charles Baldwin. He was the most demanding and difficult professor to please that any of us would ever have. He was a true holiness preacher. I remember his saying that in the average "holiness church," you could preach against smoking, drinking, dancing, movies, and other external behaviors, and would be greeted with choruses of amen's. But, he said, begin to preach on integrity of character, gossip, unforgiveness, jealousy, honesty in business dealings, in short, purity in our thoughts and motives, and you'd soon be getting phone calls from the flock strongly suggesting that you needed to lighten up on all of that. The flesh hates hearing of a heart calling that can only be lived out when it is crucified with Christ. We can't live in inner purity until the old sin nature that abides in our heart has been crucified, so that the new nature of Christ may rule our hearts. 

Tozer made a very "in your face" statement when he wrote, "The Holy One only allows in His presence, holy creatures, holy beings."

If we will allow Him to search our hearts and lives, just how much of our life would be allowed into His presence? I know. It's Christ who makes us acceptable to Him. But, can Christ be present, can He be Lord in lives that willingly engage in what is unclean? And yet, we come before Him week after week persisting in unrepentant behaviors and attitudes that He abhors but that trouble us little, if at all. I echo the likes of Paul and Peter in the Bible and ask, "How can these things be?"

I'm not promoting the living out of a perfect life. I don't have that either. We have fallen bodies and minds living in a fallen world. But we can have perfect hearts, fully surrendered to Him, dying daily to self, growing each day in righteousness and closer and deeper in Him. If, as you read this and you think that you don't really understand what I've been writing about, or that you've been taught or believed something different, I simply ask you to take that to Him and ask Him to reveal to you what His command to "be holy as He is holy" really means and is. I promise you, He'll reveal that to you. Can you dare to do it?

Blessings,
Pastor O