Holiness, Part 1

To start today's sermon, if you will please turn to Exodus 3. Exodus 3, what we're going to do is we're going to review the time when God first appeared to Moses. So for the 40 years prior, Moses had been going about his daily routine as a shepherd, and then he saw something that was very strange. It was a burning bush. So he thought to himself, like, I'll watch for a bit. Not much else to do, right? The sheep were grazing. Might as well just entertain myself with this bush starting to burn and burning itself out. But something strange started to happen, right? It didn't burn itself out. He thought, hmm, I think I need to walk up and find out a little bit more. Exodus 3, verse 1. Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb the mount of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn. So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, and he said, here I am. Then he said, do not draw near this place, take your sandals off. Take your sandals off your feet. Why? For the place where you stand is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. Now, we've probably read that story in those verses 100 or more times.

I'd like us to focus today on one of the words that was used in that verse.

When, as Moses approached the burning bush, God said, quit walking over here so fast and getting so close. Take off your sandals. You're standing on holy ground. Now, understand this is just normal sand, but it had been made holy because God was there.

Moses forgot that God is holy. And initially, Moses thought he could just go up to God in his own way and on his own terms. And God had to remind Moses to take his sandals off, which was a very common thing to do in holy places. Moses finally realized what was going on. And, appropriately, he hid his face and he felt afraid to look at God. Realize this is actually the first time the word holy is used in the Bible. There's actually a lot of symbolism to the first times things are used, things we should take from each time a word is used the first time in the Bible.

God was teaching something to Moses that I would argue was the key to all Moses' future success.

All this future greatness lies in the fact that he took his sandals off and hid his face in respect before God. Those are marks of reverence, of humility, of honesty, things that God asks for all of us, right, as we have our relationship and our walk with him. How do we act around things that are holy? How do we act?

God tells us when this happens, take your shoes off.

Do we treat things that are holy in that way?

I think we all too often forget there's a difference between God and between ourselves.

When we're in the presence of holy things, we're supposed to be aware of whose presence we're in. So stop and think about some of the things in the Bible you are told that are holy by God. We have, well, we have God, angels, the Bible, the Holy Spirit, the nation of Israel, Jerusalem, the holy city. But don't stop there. Other things are listed as holy, like the Sabbath, the holy days, our tithes, other fellow believers, our marriage, our children, and even all of our daily conduct. Each of these are supernaturally blessed and special because God has made them that way. Holy ground. We're not to make them common, but do we? Do we approach each of these with the gravity as if we heard this booming voice of God saying, take your shoes off, Dan. I'm convinced all Christians regularly treat casually things that God says are holy, and I certainly am guilty. I find myself doing that far too often. Mandus Gandhi famously said, I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians.

Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. Powerful statement. And many decades have passed since Gandhi lived, and I think that statement is even more true today than ever.

Many observing Christians claim to live a holy life, right? But would a random story but would a random stranger be able to tell the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian by simply observing how we live our lives, how we deal with other people, how we act at work?

Would they see that in us? So what really is holiness? The primary Old Testament Hebrew word for holiness, kadosh, I think is how it's pronounced, means to cut or to separate from everything else. So holiness is cutting off or separating from what is unclean. And it also, kadosh also has a second meaning, and that is to be entirely morally pure all the time and in every way possible. So fundamentally it represents what's pure. In the New Testament, the Greek word for holy is agios, and it signifies a state of freedom for moral fault, having relative harmony with the moral perfection of God. Now an interesting thing is you read the Bible.

Agios in the New Testament is the same word that's used for saint and sanctification, or sanctified. So if you see those words, you're seeing holy, just used in a different sense.

So the word holy in both Hebrew and Greek have basically the same meaning.

It has to do with taking a thing, a person, a place, a time, and setting it apart for a divine purpose, not a common use. And the problem is that humans presuppose the right to identify what is holy. We're an age of spiritual shoppers, spiritual shoppers, picking and choosing what resonates to people. The Barna group, and this was we're approaching 17, 18 years ago, in completed a study in 2009. And at that time, they found 71% of adults said they would personally be more likely to develop their own set of religious beliefs than to accept a comprehensive set of teachings by their church. So what we find today is that people claim to be religious.

They claim to be Christian, but they're putting together their own religion. They accept what they want to accept, and they reject the rest. And they call it Christian because they are pulling some of the pieces from the Bible. Spiritual shoppers. And realize that proclivity goes all the way back in time. If you want to look at Jewish history, Jewish history shows that the Pharisees taught holiness was related to following all the rules and regulations, right? All the rules and regulations that were set up by the Jewish leaders. In other words, to become holy, you had to follow the thousand plus laws added to the Torah.

Go forward to 300 years. Around 300 AD, people decided that they could take a pagan practice and bring it into Christianity and declare it as holy. And that's where we got Christmas, Easter, Sunday Sabbath, other things along those lines. And there are a lot of people that know Christian holidays have a pagan background. And their argument is, we have dedicated it to God, therefore it is holy. We have made it holy. Friends, it doesn't work that way.

You and I can't do that. We cannot make anything holy. Only God can make something holy because he is setting it apart for his purpose. I wasn't anywhere in that definition of how it works. And neither are you. Turn to Isaiah 6 verses 1 through 3. Isaiah 6 verses 1 through 3. Isaiah 6 verses 1 through 3. As we read through the Bible, we begin to realize that when God declares something as holy, what he's doing is actually imprinting something about himself onto that thing, that person, that object. It takes on a God-like quality of his holiness.

If you picture the holy of holies, right, it's been described throughout the Bible, but the Ark of the Covenant was the most holy thing in all of Israel. On top of it was the mercy seat covered with gold, right, the two carobim on top. And they collectively served as a replica of the very throne of God. When the high priest was to go into the holy of holies before the Ark of the Covenant on atonement, it was to proclaim the holiness of God. What was inside of it? Well, you had the Ten Commandments that were the holy law that God gave. You had the manna, which was the bread God gave as a blessing. Each was this expression, right, of who God is. All right, let's read this vision from Isaiah. Isaiah 6, verse 1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. I'll just stop there because that always makes me... that's a massive train. All I have to say is you're filled in this whole... anyway, you've been to a wedding with the bride with the train. That's a serious train. All right. About it stood seraphim. Each one had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Friends, don't rush past that repetitive emphasis that was in verse 3. It wasn't enough for the seraphim just to say, God is holy. They had to say that word three times to capture the depth, to capture the breath of God's holiness. That's meant to stretch the boundaries of our mind. You know that Revelation says there are four angels that cry out before God, holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty, who was and is and is to come. Those words are crafted on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. There's an intent to help us understand we're dealing with someone greater than we have ever experienced in our lifetime. No matter how you view God as holy, God is much holier than anything you can imagine for holiness. God's holiness is not just an aspect of who he is or what he is. God's holiness is the essence of who God is, right? God is the sum and the definition of what it means to be holy. God has nothing to do with evil. He is totally pure in his character.

His character is the standard of absolute moral perfection. So everything he thinks, everything he desires, everything he does is utterly holy in every way. And if you are like me at that point, our natural reaction can be, okay, I get that God is holy, but how should that awareness impact my life?

I would argue that God's holiness should impact our life in three different ways.

First of all, God's holiness should provide comfort. God's holiness should provide comfort for us. In a world that seems so out of control, right, where wrong seems to be rewarded, where right seems to be punished, it's vital that we remember the holiness of God. Because every situation you've ever been in, or going through now, will go through in the future, are under the careful sovereignty of the one who is completely holy. That should give us comfort. But at street level, it may not appear that way. Your Lord is ruling. What he does is always right. What he says is always true. What he promises he will always deliver. We should remind ourselves about that.

The evil is not in control. Satan will not have the victory.

God is and will always be worthy of your trust and my trust for one reason. He is holy.

You simply can't consider the holiness of God without also mourning your own sins.

When I look at this, holiness really puts in perspective that part about me.

We should think about that about us and cry out for the grace of God. Because sin is this disastrous condition of the heart that causes us to willingly and repeatedly rebel against the authority of God, to do what we were never intended to do. And it's the holiness of God that tells us that since we cannot escape ourselves, we need a Savior who can do what we can't. Rescue us from us.

God's holiness, secondly, defines our calling. God's holiness defines our calling.

Because holiness is the essence of God's character, becoming or it becomes our calling as his children by inheritance.

Because holiness is the essence of God's character, it becomes our holiness as his children by inheritance. So here's the best way I can try to help you understand that. First of all, you are holy. You are holy. If you're God's children as a believer, as a baptized Christian, you stand before him as righteous because the perfect righteousness of Jesus has been given over to your personal account. We're holy because we've been bought with the blood of Jesus and we're not our own. So to say we're holy means we've been set apart by God's grace for God's purpose. Isn't that what we're baptized for? Isn't that our conviction and belief? Our allegiance is no longer to the kingdom of our own success and happiness, but to the progress of his kingdom. But also realize you have been called to be holy. You are holy and you've been called to be holy. So the third point I would give you is we've been called to holy living. See, obedience matters. Every thought, every desire, every word, every choice, every action should be this humble surrender to the commands of God. We're to do this always, wherever we go, whomever we're with, whatever we're doing. So if we as Christians are to be holy, I encourage you, substitute the word Godlikeness. Godlikeness. And evaluate whatever you're about to do next, whatever thought you're about of an action you're about to do or something about to think about, and say, is this like God? That evaluates if it's holy or not. Turn to Leviticus 20 verses 7 through 8. Leviticus 20, 7 through 8. And as you consider the impossibility of this call, I encourage you, take time to remember that God never calls us to do a task without enabling us with the ability. So God calls us to be holy, and then he sends his Holy Spirit to live inside of us so that we have the wisdom and the strength we need to surrender to his holy call in all that we do. Leviticus 20 in verse 7. Consecrate yourself therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God, and you shall keep my statutes and perform them. Okay, why? I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Remember, set apart. This is the Hebrew word, so it's not the exact word, but they're linked. Who has set you apart for divine purpose. So, like Moses, God wants to use us in a great way. But we first have to be broken. We have to be humble before the Lord.

Okay, now some of you are going to say, you don't understand, I've got stuff. I've got sins, stuff on the bottom of my shoes that will never come off. God will never take me.

Moses killed a man, right? Holiness comes from the one who is holy. God, he gives it as a free gift and then tells us, hold on to it. That's what God is saying to you. Hold on to it. God knows every sin we've ever walked through and he tells us that if we want to come to him, we have to admit it to him and repent. Take off your sandals, right? It's all about humility and reverence.

We struggle with these things. I think sometimes some of us are so proud that if God tells us to take our sandals off, we'd say why.

But God knows if we're playing games with him. So, I would argue, he tests us by giving us holy things to see how we treat them. Things that are holy are important to God. And when God says something is holy, we're to treat it as really, really important. Take your sandals off. Important. Important. We must pay close attention to not allow it to become common, to become ordinary in our minds. Anything associated with God and his holiness should always merit our fear, our reverence, and awe and never become common. Okay, with that as a setup, I'd like us now to reflect on a couple things that the Bible has described as holy. And let's see what we can learn from them. And we will start with Israel being a holy nation, living in a holy land.

Realize this was not something that Moses or any other leader made holy. At Mount Sinai, God taught Moses and Israel what the word holy meant. If you think on the Bible, so much of the first five books of the Bible are about God going through the process of teaching Israel what is holy and what is not. Thou shalt not. The book of Leviticus, you could argue, is an entire book about holiness. They're complete chapters dedicated and focused on describing holiness. And realize God was not just being picky, directing the construction and the rules around the use of his tabernacle or holy instruments or holy garments. He was teaching about how to treat things as holy. That's the lesson we're taking from that. Holy garments were reserved for God. They were not to be used every day. Those garments were for times when select priests came into the tabernacle. They were not to be worn on nice occasions like weddings or funerals or a big fancy party.

Remember the Holy of Holies. Once a year, the high priest could go in there because it was a special place. Holy, holy, holy. Turn to Exodus 19 5 through 6. Exodus 19 5 through 6.

In the next verse, we find that God set an expectation that Israel was to be a special people. They were to be an example to all other nations. Exodus 19 and verse 5.

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.

God wanted Israel to be a special holy nation of people. They were to represent him to every everybody else, all the other nations and people around. And so God's holy law and his temple and sacrifices and rituals all set them apart from the world.

The land God promised to Israel was set apart by God, and that is what made it a holy land.

Israel was supposed to be this special beacon, this example to every nation. And the example was to be because they obeyed God and kept his holy law. God chose them. They did not choose God.

Same is true for us. We are not going to spend time to dig deep into the story of Uzzah, but I encourage you to reflect on that one. Uzzah was the one who died trying to stabilize the ark when the cart that it was on got into a rut and the ark was about to fall over.

Now, I believe in David's heart he was trying to honor God by transporting the ark on that new cart.

He was excited. He was dancing before the ark along with musicians enthusiastically playing songs to the God of Israel. It wasn't that they were overtly rebelling.

Uzzah's mistake was just this last of this series of mistakes that were by all the people involved in that whole situation. And the slaying of Uzzah was because the entire nation was not doing what they were supposed to do. Holiness isn't just about blindly following rituals. It's not about acting from a positive intention. The ark had these little golden rings on the side of it that it was meant to be carried by. It had poles that were supposed to go through those rings to be carried. There were special people, not just any Levite, who could carry it. Only a very specially trained group of men could carry the ark because it was holy. Holiness has to do with recognizing God has set something apart and is teaching something about himself by how we treat it. Turn to Deuteronomy 14 verses 2 through 3. Let's reflect on another holy thing that we may not think about in that way. We all understand the concept here about clean and unclean foods, right?

Deuteronomy 14, you know where you're going. Now, a lot of people when they're asked, why do you eat these foods? We're going to go down the path and we're going to say, primarily it's because of health reasons. Well, I would argue nay-nay. Deuteronomy 14 verse 2, For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the people who are on the face of the earth. That's the rationale for the entire chapter about clean and unclean foods. That's how it sets it up. You shall not eat any detestable things. See, there is this direct connection between clean foods and spiritual holiness, meaning being set apart. That's far above health reasons. Eating these foods is to teach us a principle about holiness. And that lesson, even, you could argue, goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve were told, you can eat from those trees, don't touch that one. You're not supposed to eat from that one. It's this concept of, do we honor what God says is holy and what isn't? Do we listen to the rules he gives us?

Ultimately, God said, how dare you come into my land and disobey and dishonor the holy things I've given you? So he told Israel, you don't get to have this anymore. He gave it to others, he punished them. And to some, that worldview seems mean. It seems unfair. But remember, God made everything, including what is supposed to be holy. They're his. And the children of Israel made it mundane. They made it common. And you may ask, why is that important? For you and I to be classified as a person that will be given honor and glory, in the kingdom of God, we need to be counted worthy of being glorified. In other words, we need to be clean, spiritually speaking, and set apart as separate from the world. Turn to 1 Peter 1 verses 14 through 16. 1 Peter 1, 14 through 16.

Since Christ came to earth, God's holy people have pivoted from the nation of Israel to being his church. God's church is holy. Everything I've read to you about treating holy things in a special way applies to us today in a spiritual sense as the church of God. 1 Peter 1 and verse 14. As obedient children, not conforming yourself to the former lusts as in your ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy. Now to make it even more complicated, in all your conduct. Because it is written, be holy for I am holy.

All. Yeah, it's one of those, oh, there's no wiggle room in the word all, is there? Remember what Gandhi said about Christ and Christians.

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.

People should see us as Christians displaying holiness like Christ our Savior.

Move forward to chapter now to 1 Peter 2 verses 9 through 10. 1 Peter 2, 9 through 10.

Remember he's talking to the church here. But you, those in the church, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness, and who was marvelous light, who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who have not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. So we in God's church are a special treasure to him. He chose us out of this world to be holy, to be his special people. And we're here to proclaim his praise and set an example to all others. And if you read forward verse 11 and 12, talk to that. But what I'd like you to do is turn back a few books and turn to 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 2. 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 2. You all know the story that a bad apple spoils a bunch. So you have to remove the rotten apples, separate them out, set apart the good apples for them to preserve. Here we're going to read two words that describe the church, you and I, which are linked to the root word for holiness. 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 2. To the church of God, which is at court, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints. Remember, the word saint and sanctified is the same, comes from the same Greek root word, holy, agios. It means they are wholly dedicated and set apart to God. What makes the church today holy is because God has separated us from the world and put something divine inside of us. Of all the people on the planet, God has set us apart and devoted us to himself as the ecclesia, the called out ones of God. Turn forward to 1 Corinthians 3 verse 16 to 17. 1 Corinthians 3, 16 to 17. A lesson to take is that God repeatedly uses physical things to teach spiritual lessons throughout the Bible, throughout history. God dwelled previously in his physical temple. Now, today, God dwells in his church through the Holy Spirit. We are the temple of God. 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 16. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you if anyone defiles the temple of God? God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy which temple you are.

God has wanted to fellowship with his people from the beginning of creation.

So why are we holy? Because there's something holy that is dwelling in us, in us, called the Holy Spirit of God. If you think back, remember, anciently, only the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies once a year. We can now go into the Holy of Holies, talk to God the Father anytime we want to, and connect with God. That is very special.

But this verse is also saying if anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. That means it's very important. Take your shoes off. Important.

Please turn to Exodus 20 verses 8 through 11. Let's pivot to another thing God calls holy. The Sabbath is called holy, going all the way back to the seventh day of creation.

You don't need to turn there. Genesis 2 says, on the seventh day God ended his work, which he had done and rested on the seventh day. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. Set it apart for a holy purpose. The Sabbath is sanctified. It's set apart. It's reserved for God.

It's God's time. It is not our time. We're about to read Exodus 20, so 10 commandments.

Exodus 20 verse 8, remember the Sabbath day to do what? To keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. Jump to the next verse. For in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth to see and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it, made it holy. So we have six days to do all we want to do within confines of the rules God says are appropriate. So play, watch TV, work on a job, whatever. But God created the Sabbath day and he set it apart from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset to allow us to honor and to worship him. It is this sign between us and God throughout all generations that we may know that he is the Lord who sanctified and set us apart.

He made it holy because his presence is in it. Lesson of holiness. And when we enter the Sabbath, we enter holy ground just like Moses was in God's presence. We are treated as something that is set apart. Take your shoes off. I will clarify right there because when I gave this sermon last week, a young girl came up to me and she said, are we really supposed to take my shoes off in church on the Sabbath? I'm like, symbolically. Because if you think about all the things that are holy, we would never be wearing shoes. But just a good clarity point along the way.

Turn to Leviticus 23 verses 1 through 4. Leviticus 23, 1 through 4. We would all say that we keep the Sabbath day, right? We're here. Do we keep the full 24 hours of the Sabbath holy? Do we sanctify all of it? Do we use the preparation day to avoid doing unnecessary things on the Sabbath? Or push the ox into the ditch and say, ah, the ox is in the ditch now.

The mindset and that understanding, properly treating things holy, should be applied equally to all of God's holy days. Leviticus 23, chapter where all the feasts are outlined. Let's see how it starts. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the children of Israel and say to them, the feasts of the Lord, all of them, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations. These are my God's feasts. Then God starts to discuss the feasts starting with the Sabbath. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest. A holy convocation. You shall do no work on it. It is the Sabbath of the Lord and all your dwellings. Then he continues to tell what's going to be foreshadowing the rest of the chapter. These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. So, during 52 Saturdays a year, Sabbath's a year, seven holy days, Passover if you're baptized. We are to come to God's holy convocations, which he has invited us to. It's not your time, my time, God's time. And we're on God's holy ground for the full period. 24 hours except for Passover, which is an evening ceremony. Take your shoes off. Holy, holy, holy. Makes you think. All right, turn to Malachi 2 in verse 11. Malachi 2 in verse 11. Let's pivot to another item which the majority of humans take part in during their lifetime, but I would argue many forget that God considers as holy.

The next thing that God considers as holy is marriage. Malachi 2 verse 11.

Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah has profaned the Lord's holy institution, which he loves. So what is this holy institution that Judah has profaned? He has married the daughter of a foreign God.

So God deeply loves marriage. He sees it as a holy institution.

God created marriage as something set apart for his purpose from Adam and Eve. Malachi was condemning Israel for marrying pagans because it pulls holy people and their future families away from serving him. Marriage is designed to be this enormous blessing for humanity, and God created it to be something unique, something different from any other type of relationship. Jesus said in Matthew 19 5-6, he said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

So then they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate. Marriage was designed to involve two people being literally joined by God. You don't just get married because you want to be happy and you desire fulfillment. That's part of why you get married. Marriage isn't just about being twitter pated.

It is especially not her and me against the world, or we'll live off of love. See, if you're a Christian, marriage is holy, ordained, and united by God. It's sacred. And that's why God has very special expectations of each party in a marriage relationship. It has to do with God taking something and imputing some of himself into it to make it holy. Sex was designed by God for marriage, and it's actually holy. And a blessing in marriage.

Having sex outside of marriage, it dirties, it breaks the holiness of marriage. And there's no place in the Bible that says, yes, you can have sex with her because you're in love with her. No? The criteria is both people are married to each other because it's a holy union. Now, we don't have time to dig deeply into marriage, not the intent of the sermon, but I'd like to look at one more set of verses to see how God sees it in relationship to holiness.

Turn to Ephesians 5 verses 22 through 33. Ephesians 5, 22 through 33. The way I look at it is this. Marriage is one of the greatest training grounds we have to learn about the relationship we are to have for eternity with God. It's this amazing training ground. And there are absolutely legitimate reasons the Bible condones for separation, for divorce, but God deeply wants us to have happy and successful marriages where both parties are modeling our relationship with Him. Ephesians 5 verse 22. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is head of the wife, as also.

Look at all these as-also's in here, and just as is. Jazz also, Christ is head of the church, and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husband and everything. Husbands, love your wife, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her. Didn't stop there. This is like, guys, get it. This keeps going. That He might sanctify her and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word. That He might present her to Himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

So, in other words, in the same way, husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. So many people get anxious. They get confused about the statement, telling wives to submit to their husbands. Remember, a man is also to submit to Christ in the exact same way a wife does to a husband, to learn what it feels like. And also realize, this doesn't say that all women are to submit to all men. No, no, no, no, nay, nay.

This is in one situation. To one person who you commit to is where this comes in. No one in this one situation, or I should say doing so, teaches both parties. Both parties. Something far greater about being Christ-like. God-likeness? Well, we're all trying to learn, right? This is about both of us learning things that are above our pay grade. Teaching both parties something far greater about being Christ-like in our collective responsibility to be married to Christ. And I would say with all confidence that if men truly love their wives just as Christ loved the church, if we always put our wives best interest above our own as Christ does, the truth or the trust that's required in the very, very few times submission may actually be required in a marriage would be an easy step.

When a husband takes very, very seriously, personally submitting to Christ, being Christ-like toward our spouse, it shouldn't sure that we're not working out of our selfish self-interests.

Guys screw this up and make it way harder. It needs to be more often than not.

We should learn something. It all frames together in verse 32. This is a great mystery. So it's speaking about what it takes for a successful marriage, but it speaks concerning Christ and the church. So are we sacrificing for our partners like Christ did for us? Notice that the whole marriage model, it's really about the greater eternal relationship between Christ and the church.

And it's that realization that needs to inspire us to take a different approach to love, to dedication, to self-lessness that we have for each other. And so think about that. When you hug your amazing partner later in the day or after church or lean over next to him and tell him how special they are, how much you appreciate them. Now, if that expectation intimidates you and makes you think, but I am not strong or qualified enough. Okay, we're human. But they are not strong or qualified enough. And then roll your head. Now, humans, we're gonna look at it both ways. Of course you're not.

Of course you're not. That was never the assumption. I'd argue we forget that marriage is to be this union of three parties. So often we think, okay, are we perfectly able to work everything out on our own strength? Are we just perfectly matched? No, no, it doesn't work that way because we're not doing it to the lesson we're supposed to learn from this. We forget marriage is this union of three parties where we are to submit to God. We're to take on His holy attributes by learning, by working with somebody. In how we treat the partner we're deeply blessed with in marriage. We're to let His Spirit and His guidelines of how we're to treat each other be our guide to our actions, and we're to rely on God. And we're going to make mistakes. Like everything else with God, we say, I'm sorry. And we show grace and mercy like He shows to us. So marriage is just as holy as the temple, as the Sabbath, as the Holy Days. And if God was extremely detailed in how priests and Levites were to build, to treat holy garments or religious objects made of wood that were covered with gold, because of their holiness, how much more is He concerned that we learn to love in marriage in the way He loves us? Not did they earn it. Not did they do something, so then I'll do something in the way He loves us. Marriage is God's perfect training ground for our eternal marriage relationship with Him. Remember, sanctification is about taking on the attributes of God's holiness. That's our journey, right? That's like our... I'm in the process. Work in progress. Welcome to Dan. Welcome to all of us. Taking on the attributes of God's holiness. And that's a goal for both parties within a marriage. Marriage is what God is using to form His people for the return of Jesus Christ. It's a true blessing. All right, let's take this the next natural step. Turn to 1 Corinthians 7, verses 12 through 14. 1 Corinthians 7, 12 through 14. And let's extend this understanding of holiness to include our children. There is this very clear link between the idea of the church being holy people, marriage being a holy sacred union, and our ability to produce holy children in the Church of God. She continues along the way. It's a continuation. 1 Corinthians 7, verse 12. But to the rest, I, not the Lord, say, if any brother has a wife who does not believe and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her. Stay with her. And a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him. Remember, Timothy's mother was married to a pagan. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified, set apart, holy, by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. Even an unbelieving partner is put into a special relationship with God through marriage. They have a special access to God because of their believing partner. Now, they're not holy in that they have God's Spirit through conversion. There is a difference there, but they have this special access to God because of you. God looks at your unconverted mate and says, you can come talk to me too. That's pretty special. To the children. Some of them are tired and they can think of it. They can be reminded by their moms and parents later. But the fact that you are here means you are holy. The fact that you are here means you are holy. You are holy regardless of your age.

And it wasn't your parents that made you holy. God, Almighty, is one who says so.

One of the reasons for marriage is so that our children can have a relationship with God.

God sees you as holy. You have access to God that other people do not because he said you are special to him. That's pretty cool. I don't think we think about that enough.

And you children, keep in mind you can also leave holiness. I think that's the other flip side that's important to keep in mind for all of us.

But you're already holy. See, parents don't decide whether you stay holy or not.

To receive God's Spirit requires a different level of holiness.

In the church, you only become part of the baptism covenant through an act of faith.

Every church parent I have ever met with children who no longer attend struggle with guilt because they try to train their child to stay in the truth.

Please understand no parent can make that decision for their children.

If a child doesn't ultimately have the faith to repent and commit, they won't be a part of the baptism covenant. No parent ultimately has the ability to do anything about that. But again, I encourage young people to understand you're here because God is saying, I want you.

God is absolutely saying, I want you. Children aren't just this necessary baggage that came along with their parents.

You may say you don't want God, but God says to you, I want you. You're already holy. You're already holy, Tom.

Now, we could certainly take another hour, go through a long list of other items that the Bible calls holy.

You know, things like God's Word, the name of God, tithes, angels, human life, on and on.

But this message isn't intended to be some exhaustive study about all things God calls holy. It's also not to get into the specifics of how we live and grow in holiness.

Teaser, that'll be what I will speak on in two weeks, so we can continue the thought from there of how we live and grow in holiness.

The focus, though, has been on us recognizing that God has given us many holy things, made holy because God is within them, which we are intended to recognize and treat in a very special way.

To treat things as holy means to recognize them as set apart for God, requiring reverence and respect and careful handling, right?

And I encourage you, evaluate all the items the Bible describes as holy for whether you're doing that. Are we treating any of them as common? It's so easy to do. I think we're all guilty at times, right? The example of clean and unclean foods, I think, is this interesting parallel.

along those lines. Think about when you go shopping. What do you regularly do? You're regularly looking at the ingredients. You're like, is there any pork in that one, honey? I don't know. I don't see any in there. In a spiritual sense, we are supposed to do the same thing in our lives. We're to continuously focus on if our thoughts, if our actions toward whatever we're involved in are holy or not. Look at the ingredients label. Look at the action label, in a sense.

We are supposed to be continuously moving from the state of uncleanness and sin to a state of cleanliness, of being saints, set apart ones, holy. If you'll turn to Ephesians 1 verses 3-5. Ephesians 1, 3-5. God says to us, I want you to be holy in all your conduct. We read that verse early on, but now you know some things to put after it. Have a holy moment. Have a holy marriage. Keep the holy and righteous law. Keep the Sabbath and holy days in a special way. Proclaim my holy name. Treat other people in a way that reflects my holiness.

Are there sandals in any of these areas that we should take off?

Are there sandals in any of those areas that we should take off?

Properly honoring things with holiness is meant to keep us on the right road. It's all part of us being separated and considered by God, people to be given eternal honor and glory. Ephesians 1 verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame. Before Him in love, having predestined us to the adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. Spiritual gifts. One of the spiritual gifts that God gives His Church is the gift of holiness. And we've been blessed with it here. That's very, very special. We were chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy, to be without blame. It's fundamentally the gift of a special identity. It talks about us being children of God. It reflects holiness. That's what we're called for. Holiness means we're being set apart from ordinary and we're being placed in God's presence. It's about becoming like God. It's about reflecting His values, His instructions, His nature. Remember, He's totally pure, totally holy. It means our thoughts and our actions reflect who God is. Not a better version than the person next to us or the person in the streets. You know, we go to work or wherever. We're reflecting who God is and God has given us every spiritual blessing to help us achieve this. So think about that. Are you having clean thoughts? Are you having clean words and clean actions? Are we producing godly fruit? And God tells us the key is to observe carefully what He commands us to do and to never treat casually what is holy. Symbolically, take your shoes off in how you treat holy things.