A Holy God & His Holy People: Demonstrating the Holiness of God cont.

Let's continue with our series, our messages on glorifying the Lord. You look up on the screen. Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do all to the glory of God. Matthew five sixteen, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven. What does God want from Missouri Avenue Baptist Church?

What does God want from the lives of his children? He wants to be glorified in us. He says so right here in his word. He desires that the life that we live shine as a bright beacon. The glory, holiness, the love of Jesus Christ, our savior.

To draw others to himself. That he might be glorified in us, that he might be exalted before others, that they might see him for who he really is and his children. How do we glorify God? Well, a few weeks ago, we looked, we glorify God by demonstrating our faith. As we demonstrate our faith in the Lord, as we proclaim it with our mouth, as we live it in our lives, as we walk by faith and not by sight, God is glorified in his church and in his children and then by demonstrating the love of God.

God is also glorified as we demonstrate the love that God has shed abroad in our hearts. Romans five five. As we show our love for the Lord and everything we do and as we love others around us, our brethren in Christ and the unsaved world as we show them that we care. We care because because he cares. He has given us a heart of compassion and love for each other and for those for whom he died.

And then by demonstrating, we started this last week by demonstrating God's holiness. How is God glorified as we demonstrate the holiness of God? In our lives. It says in Leviticus eleven forty five, I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy for I am holy.

We serve a holy God who desires to be glorified in his holy people. If you take your Bibles and turn if you would to first Peter chapter one, turn to first Peter chapter one. If you're not already there and let's read beginning in verse 13. First Peter chapter one and verse 13. I'll give just a moment.

More to find it and then we'll begin reading. Says in verse 13, wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust in your ignorance but as he which hath called you as holy, so be you holy in all manner of conversation. That means conduct or manner of life. Because it is written, be you holy, for I am holy.

And if you call on the father who without respect of persons, judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear, for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things. As silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but you have been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Let's go to prayer once more before we continue this morning. Lord, we thank you for your word. May you be glorified in it.

As your message goes forth today, may you guide and direct, Lord, I pray. I pray Lord that you would strengthen my voice as I speak and give me the words to say. I pray Lord that you would touch hearts with your word. That you would draw others to yourself, Lord. That you might be magnified, that we might be challenged.

Lord, we might learn more about you. We might be conformed into your image today and that souls might be saved. In Jesus name, we do pray. Amen. Last Sunday, we spent the majority of the message on the holiness of God.

God is holy. Well, God is holy as it says in Leviticus 11 as it says in the passage we read here in first Peter, what does that term mean? We throw around a lot of terms in churches that sometimes we have differing ideas about what those terms mean and so it's important that we define the term. What does it mean when we say God is holy? Well, the word holiness means first of all, pure.

To be holy means to be pure, to be clean, and it's used that way both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. When the when the children of Israel were to come to the Tabernacle to worship the Lord, they had to first be cleansed. The sacrifice that they brought brought was to be holy. That means it had to be without spot and without blemish, without stain, without without any kind of defect, okay? Because it represented the Lord Jesus Christ who is holy and it the sacrifice had to be holy, had to be pure, and the person coming with the sacrifice had also to be holy.

They had to be cleansed and set apart. As they as they came to worship the Lord. They needed to be pure and symbolically, they washed themselves to demonstrate that but the washings of the outside does not fix the problem of the stain within. Only Jesus Christ can do that but God, Jesus, is pure, free from all sin or stain in his nature of character in any way like as the Passover lamb was without blemish and without spot. As first Peter reminds us here, Jesus Christ was also without blemish and was also without spot.

He was pure, free from all sin. It says in Hebrews four fifteen, let's see. Did I keep that up here? Yes. For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet what?

Without sin. God is pure. He is without any stain of sin. He is untouched by it, incapable of it, and will not allow it into heaven. Thus, our need to be saved because we are sinners.

Second thing that holiness means, it means to be set apart, to be holy, also means to be set apart or to be separated. It is often used in scripture in this way. The sacrifice was not only without spot and without blemish in the Old Testament but it was set apart for a special purpose and a special use from the rest of the flock and that was to be sacrificed unto the Lord of heaven. It was consecrated. So, the people of Israel, God's children in the Old Testament, they were also what?

Separate or set apart unto the Lord. They were a holy people for they were set apart unto him. So, also, when you come to Jesus Christ in faith and you trust in him to save your soul. You too become a child of God and you are set apart. Sanctified unto his purpose.

You become his child from the rest of the world and therefore, you are also called holy. You are a saint. What is the word saint mean? It means holy one because we who are in Christ Jesus are all saints because we have been set apart unto his purpose. We have been set apart, separated from the world unto Jesus Christ and God is set apart.

He is set apart from all others. There is none other like unto our God. He is the great I am that I am. He is set apart from all others in his moral nature. Separated from sin and anything that defiles and corrupts.

He is set apart from all or anything, any corrupting influence. He is beholden to none but his own nature. He is holy. Set apart from all others and thirdly, he is pure, he is set apart, and he is righteous. He's a righteous God.

The word holy is connected to the word righteous throughout our throughout the scriptures. It means God is just and fair to his very core. He is incapable of acting unjustly or with partiality. He's not a respecter of persons as we looked at last week as men are want to be. He is impartial.

He is just. He is fair. He never makes mistakes in his judgments. He never judges one differently or unfairly from another. He is always fair and trustworthy in all his dealings.

He is our righteous God. And he is the only one. The Bible says in Romans three ten, there's none righteous, no not one, except for who? Except for God, except for Jesus Christ, our savior, who is holy and righteous as he desires for everyone of his children to be righteous also. We learned last week that holiness and love are not attributes of God that are in conflict with one another.

Often people say, well, God is holy but God is also what? Love. As though the two things are contrary one to another, as though they're disconnected, as though they're in competition with one another, and God can't, God, God's holiness is tempered by his love and his love is tempered by his holiness. No. His love is part of his what?

Holiness. God could not be holy if God was not love and God would not be love if God was not holy. The two are not contrary one to another. No, as we looked at last week, the two work hand in hand. The holiness of God extends to every area of his moral character.

God is honest. He is good. He is kind. He is merciful. He is unchanging.

He loves his children. He answers their prayers. We could go on. Every attribute of God's miracle character is all part of his holiness. Praise God.

We serve a holy God. A god who is love, a god who is good, a god who is kind, a god who is merciful, and compassionate, unchanging, ever faithful. Praise the Lord we serve a holy God. For if he were not holy, then we could not depend on him as we do. But he, we can.

Because unlike fallen humanity, our God is ever holy. And our God has commanded that his children. We started this last week. Be holy like unto him. He has commanded that we be holy.

Now, a lot of times when you think of somebody says to you, oh, you need to be holy. They think of pious, this pious person who walks around with their head up and they they they're a holy roller, okay? And they look down on everybody else and and they live just so. Now, that was the Pharisees of Jesus' day. The Pharisees of Jesus' day, they dressed different than everybody else.

They dressed in such a way that everybody would know that they were a Pharisee or they were a scribe or they were religious leader and that they were better than everybody else. They live not according just according to the laws of Moses' law but they had added a whole bunch more that they themselves judged everybody else by and they tried to live out before others not for the praise of God but for the praise of men. Jesus said in Matthew six, they have their reward. The praise of men is all they will receive. Jesus didn't call them holy.

What he called them was hypocrites. Because holiness is more than just outward conformity to a list of rules. You can conform to an outward religious lift of do's and don'ts and be anything but holy. Amen. Now, being holy is a condition of the heart As God transforms us into the image of his son that expresses itself in our character and in our actions.

What does it mean then? When God says, be you holy for I am holy. Well, let's take the three categories that we used in reference to God. We said, holiness means he is pure. Holiness means he is set apart and holiness means he is righteous.

God desires that everyone of his children reflect. Those attributes in our lives also. We are to be morally pure. Morally pure, not licentious, not living to fulfill the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Without self and spirit control, living by the adage, if it feels good, do it.

That's the way the much of the world lives even if they don't say it like that. That's how they live. If it feels good, do it. That's the way of the world, not the way of the Lord. If we to are to be morally pure, we are to be instead led by the spirit of the Lord.

By the spirit of God which he has given us thereby fleeing fornication. We're told several times in scripture. Fleeing youthful lust and all sorts of immoral behavior which brings dishonor rather than glory. To the God who created us, the God who instituted the way of life that he desires for us. Marriage in the home, and the moral laws that he has given to us and I think placed in our conscience.

That we might know right from wrong. Bringing into captivity as it says in Corinthians, every thought to the obedience of Christ. Bringing under control not just our actions but every what? Thought. To the obedience of Christ.

And for that matter, every attitude word in action also. We need to be God desires that we be holy, morally pure in our lives. While living in a very immoral society. Which sadly is growing every day. More that way.

Further from God, every day. It says in Ephesians, let me find it here. There we go. Ephesians chapter five verses three and four. It says, but fornication and all uncleanness and covetousness, let it not be once named among you as become a saint.

Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks. The world lives over here. It it lives and dwells in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, decisions are made every day and throughout the day, if it feels good, do it. Not harnessing those lusts but living to fulfill those lust and so we see this, you look on your television sets, you walk out and talk to your neighbors, you listen to the world's music, what is it filled with? It's filled with immorality.

We're told that we are ancient dinosaurs so to speak. We're old fuddy duddies. We're goody two shoes. We're holy rollers or whatever the case may be because we want to live by the standards set in the the word of God. Amen.

And the world every day is moving further and further away. From the standards that God has set, he's the creator. Does that not give him the right to set the standards? He created us. Not only does he have the right but you know something, I dare say he knows what's best for us.

If he created us, and not only that, if you're a child of God, he saved you. The Bible says, we are bought with a lot. Price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and your spirit which are his. What price?

The price of the life, the blood, Jesus Christ shed on Calvary's Cross. For you and for me. The world doesn't see it. That way. Fornication, sexual immorality is a way of life without thought and without remorse.

When I was just a kid, if you met somebody who was living together, who wasn't married, they usually didn't tell you. Why? Because that was taboo. You know, that that wasn't right. That was something to be ashamed of, to hide but is that the case today?

No. You're just as likely to meet a couple that is living together unmarried as they are married and what is that? That's a sin. The Bible says, the the Hebrews chapter 13. Let me read it to you.

It says, marriage is honorable in all and the bailed on bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. Marriage is honored. The relationship within marriage is honorable. It's good but it is not good what? Outside of marriage.

There it is called fornication. It is called idolatry. It is called many terrible things. For it is a a sin and a slap in the face of a holy God. By man who says, I will do it my way.

But that shouldn't be true of God's children, should it? It's not about our way. It's about God's way. And the moral purity that God desires to be expressed in our life as his children which should be. Extends to all areas of integrity.

The 10 commandments. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. To worship or to make a graven image to bow down to it is immoral. God calls it. If you remember, if you've been with us on Wednesday night in the book of Hosea, he called those who are bowing down to idols.

He called them what? Adulterers and adulteresses. Because they had betrayed. The Lord. They had been unfaithful to him.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. I I was I remember a year ago, we we were watching a G rated movie and I counted the number of times in the G rated movie where they took God's name in vain. The world doesn't see anything wrong with that today and I'm afraid sometimes it slips into our vocabulary and you hit your you hit your thumb with a hammer and what comes out of your mouth. If you're using God's name and you're not talking to him or about him, then, you're probably using God's name in what? Vain.

In vain. And why does it come out of your mouth when you hit your thumb with a hammer? Because it's in your mind and it's in your heart and what's in your mind and in your heart is going to come out of your mouth when it loses control. That's immoral. The world doesn't see any problem with it.

That should come as no surprise because they have not been sanctified and set apart unto the Lord. Saved, cleansed, and indwelt by the holy spirit but God expects different of his children. Thou shalt not kill. By the way, I see no reason to think that does not include an unborn baby because they are very much alive. Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Lie. World doesn't see anything with lying. As long as it's for a good purpose, lying is just fine as far as the world's concerned.

I remember watching Andy Griffith. Anybody ever watch Andy Griffith? Sure you vouch, Andy Griffith. And and I enjoy I I particularly like Don Knotts, Barney Fife. That that that's when he went off the show that just yeah, it's just not the same.

But I was, I was noticing as I was watching Andy Griffith. Every episode, you know what they're doing? They're lying. Watch it sometime and notice. How often Andy Taylor lies?

Just little white lies. In order to have a better ends. The ends justifies the what? The means and the eyes of the world. But not in the eyes of who?

In the eyes of God. People lie all the time to get ahead but it doesn't make it right and God expects different things from his children. We are not only to be morally pure but we are to be set apart. We have been set apart and separated unto our Lord. When we're saved, we become the what?

Children of God. We pass from darkness into what? Light. We have been sanctified but God wants to be sanctified in the way we live our lives and in the thoughts of our mind. God wants to conform us into the image of his son.

That we might be separated from the world and glorify his name. In first Peter 114, it says, as obedient children not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust in your ignorance. Before you were saved, you learned this, you lived a certain way and you didn't know any better and you didn't have the power to change it but now as a child of God, do you know better? Do you have the power to change? Yes, you do.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. You do have the power within you to change. God has set you apart unto himself. He has given you the example of Jesus Christ. He has given you instructions in his word.

He has given you the power and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And we are as children are commanded to love not the world. First John two fifteen, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the father but is of the world.

Before you were saved, you loved the world, that's all you had. You wonder why those who know not the Lord. They go from sexual immorality to drug addiction, to to alcoholism, back to drug addiction, to stealing, to any the list goes on and on. Why do they do that? Don't they see that it is destroying them?

That's all they know. They're grasping at straws for something in their life to make sense and to bring fulfillment. Sadly, the answer is right there in front of them but if they will not receive the Lord as savior, the world and the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is all they've got left. So, rather than turning from it, they go headlong into it more and more and more searching for something to fill that void, my friend. Brother and sister in Christ, we have that.

We have Jesus. Amen. He fills that void. He has brought us peace that passes all understanding. He has given us joy in the spirit.

Why would we want to go back Love not the world. Don't love those things. Don't don't go back to the way you live before you were saved. No. Be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, God's son.

We are told in James four four, you adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Now, it's not speaking about being friends or friendly to those who are unsaved because in order to reach them for the gospel, you have to speak to them. You have to show them the love of God. No, that's not what that's saying.

What that is talking about is the world system. The sinful, selfish, rebellious, idolatrous world. We've been separated from it. We need to live like it. We no longer belong We are pilgrims and strangers.

We have a different home. We're just passing through. First Peter two, dearly beloved, I beseech you strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lust which war against the soul having your conversation honest among the Gentiles that whereas they speak against you as evildoers that they may by your good works which they shall behold glorify God in the day of visitation. He starts out dearly beloved, I beseech you as what? Strangers and pilgrims.

Strangers to God, no. But strangers and pilgrims in this world. We're in this world but we're not. Of this world. You've been set apart unto God.

That we might be salt and light in this world. That will let our light shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our father which is in heaven. Do you look at the world and long to be like it? Do you love it? Do you try to fit in in your dress and appearance?

Are you more concerned about being modest and honoring to the Lord? I was a youth pastor for twelve years. That was always a hard lesson for teenagers to learn. Something they always struggled with. Do you try to fit in with your language?

Maybe using euphemisms for dirty words rather than the words themselves and thinking, hey, I'm okay. I use rather than saying, oh my and using God's name, I say, gosh instead. Why do you say gosh? What is that? Well, it's a replacement for what?

God, who are we trying to impress? I'm trying to impress God, aren't we? Do you think, do you drink a little, smoke a little, swear a little? Or have you forsaken it all? Is it worth it?

Do you really need it? Well, you don't. You don't need it anymore. You have Jesus. Yeah.

And why often particularly teenagers and sometimes adults get caught up in those things. We're trying to impress the world. We're trying to be like the world. Why would you want to be like the world? The world is enslaved to sin.

You have been freed in Jesus and you now serve a better master, a greater master, a master who is your savior, your Lord, and your friend. Why would you want to go back to those things that dishonor his name? Do you go to watch movies which you shouldn't because the world says, hey, it's good. Why do you care what the world says? Do you take in other types of entertainment Do you beat around the bush with your friends and your coworkers and say, well, I'll I can't go to that party or I can't go to that place or I can't do that thing.

I'm busy tonight. When you know good and well, you aren't busy, you could go but you know it's not right. Well, you just come out and tell em and bring glory to the Lord. I don't drink. I don't do those things.

Do you listen to their pop music? Do you go to their sports bars? Do you strive or do you strive to be at home with your family? And in your church every time the door is open. Are you a separated Christian?

Willing to be the salt and light that God has called you to be. Salt and light are distinctly different from those things which they come in contact in order to preserve and to guide them and to reveal things of the Lord, the truth. If we are to bring glory to God, we must be set apart. We need to be different. Not just in one aspect of life but it says here in first Peter chapter one, in all manner of conversation.

You say, well, I dress better. Well, that's great. Is that the only thing you do? Are we so concerned about our outward appearance? Have we become the Pharisees?

Is it good to dress appropriately? Yes. I think it's a good thing to dress up on Sunday. I think it's a good thing to be modest no matter where you are. But that's not the end of it.

There's a whole lot more to being holy and set apart than just our dress. I remember when I was in high school, I was going to I was going to a ball game and and some of you've heard this illustration before. So, pardon me. But I wanted to impress my worldly friends. Now, it was a Christian school but just because it's a Christian school does not mean you don't have worldly friends and a lot of them drank stuff that I knew that they shouldn't be drinking and I did and they knew that but I thought I wanted to be cool.

So, this is what I did. I went to the store and I bought a bottle of IBC root beer. Now, you might know any member of IBC root beer. It comes in a what? A brown bottle.

It looks like a beer bottle and I walked in there and before I got to the door, there were several people that said, what are you, what are you drinking? What are you drinking? Well, it was just root beer but I felt about this small. By the time I got in there, I hid my root beer under the stand where I was sitting. And then, my friend, he was playing basketball, walked up in the stands with his McDonald's cup and he saw my root beer and he thought it was cute and he smiled.

He said, here, take a whiff of my Mountain Dew. Wasn't mountain dew that was in his cup. It was something else. What did I just do? I blew my testimony.

Did I bring glory to God? No. It's too concerned about fitting in. Jesus said, Christian, if the world hates you, don't be surprised. It hated me before it hated you.

We have a responsibility to be separated Christians in every aspect and area of our life. Amen. And I'll close with this this morning. Paul said this, Galatians two twenty, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh.

I live by the faith of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Paul said, I don't have a big problem with this. You know why? Because a long time ago, I decided, I recognized that my life was no longer mine. But my life belongs to to him.

It has been set apart sanctified, called holy, unto my Lord. And therefore, I don't have a problem. Being set apart, separated Christian unto his purpose. Romans twelve one, I beseech you therefore, brethren, Paul said, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a what? A living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God, which is your what?

Reasonable service. Is it God asking too much of us? That we be holy, separated Christians, distinct from the world in which we live. That others might see the glory of God. Let's pray.

Dear God, we thank you Lord for your word. We thank you Lord for the privilege that we have to represent Jesus Christ. We pray Lord that you would help us to recognize the areas of in our life in which we are compromising with the world. For the praise of the world in order to fit in and not giving of ourselves a living sacrifice unto our savior. We pray Lord if there be one here today that's never trusted in Christ That they might recognize their need of a savior for you died for them and they might be safe today.

In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.