A CALL TO HOLINESS
A Sermon By Pastor Ed Decker
Today I want to share some thoughts on How to live a full and sanctified Life within yourself. To be all that Christ has asked you to be. Scripture quoted is NKJV.
[my notes are partly from a book I read some time ago, A call to holiness, J.C. Ryle, written at turn of the century…]
The Cost. There is a cost involved.
Not the cost to save a man's souls we are already bought with a price (1Cor 6:20)
Christ Himself was the ransom for All. 1Tim 2:6
We need to look at what we must submit to – the cost of a life in Christ -
that amount of self we must give up if we are to be one with Christ. To be His hand extended, to be His ambassadors in Bonds, to be the ones to whom the Holy Spirit goes when one of those divine appointments is needed..
But we need to count the cost…..
For want of counting the cost, many of our Lord's disciple left him and" walked no more with Him" (John 6:66)
For want of counting the cost, King Herod went back to his sins
and destroyed his soul – Yet, he loved to hear John the Baptist preach. He did "many things that were right and good but when he found out he must give up Herodias, his darling, his religion broke down.
For want of counting the cost, Demas forsook the company of Paul, Christ and Heaven, even after journeying with the Apostle as a "fellow laborer" - But when he discovered that he could not have the friendship of both the world and God, he went the way of the world (2Tim 4:10)
For want of counting the cost..... New babes in Christ, often carried away with extravagant zeal and joy in their new salvation....when they realize that there is a cross to be carried, a holy life to live, they cool down and return to their old sins.
It is just easier to blend into a contemporary, non-challenging Christian lifestyle of feel-good faith…. Blending together the carnal life and Christ…
What is our own cost???
1. IT WILL COST OUR SELF RIGHTEOUSNESS
Cast away all pride and high thoughts, our trust in our own goodness, morality, respectability, praying, Bible reading, church-going and good works. All the things we can “do” must be Christ-centered and not us-centered.
2. IT WILL COST US OUR SINS
We must set our face against every habit and practice which is wrong in God’s sight. We must quarrel with sin, become its arch enemy.
There can be no special, separate truce with any special sin which we love...no excuse that if you don't do this one sin, you would be driven to do some greater one...sinning to save yourself from greater sin doesn't work. Only when we are the enemies of sin, can we be the friends of God.
3. IT WILL COST US OUR LOVE OF EASE
This sounds easy but it's hard. We must stand guard, like a sentry on the front lines of a battle.
We must guard our behavior every hour of every day, in every company, in every place, public and private, with strangers as well as in our homes..
Guard our time, your tongue, our temper, our thoughts, imagination, motives, and conduct. Oh Lord, help us!
No pain, no gain until we automatically become one with Christ (John 17).
20 "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
4. IT WILL COST US THE FAVOR OF THE WORLD
Eph 6: A slave to Christ will be the enemy of the world
You must be content to be thought ill of, willing to be mocked, ridiculed, slandered, persecuted, and even hated and despised.
Willing to be made a fool, even called mad (John 15:20) Remember, the servant is not greater than the master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
This list is hard, but what would you remove?
Our self righteousness, our sins? Our laziness, our love for the world?
If your leg was poisoning you, you would hurry to have it amputated. If the plane was going down, you would jettison the valuable cargo. Surely a Christian should be willing to give up anything standing between us and heaven.
Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: Hebrews 12:14
How stands the account between our souls and God?
Not our husbands, wives, and families, not our pastors, not our friends, but God....where every secret is made open.
Remember…..
Holiness is not knowledge, Baalim had that
Holiness is not a great profession of faith, Judas had that.
Holiness is not great zeal for religion, the Pharisees had that.
Holiness is not keeping company with godly people, Joab and Demas had that.
Holiness is!
1. Holiness is the habit of being of one mind with God, hating what He hates, loving what he loves, measuring everything by the standard of his word. A love for all his ways.
2. Holiness is to endeavor to shun every known sin and keep every known commandment. A Greater joy is pleasing God than pleasing the world.
3. Holiness is striving to be like our Lord Jesus Christ in every way.
- To be conformed to His image. (Romans 8:29)
- To bear with and forgive others.
- To be unselfish, walking in love, a humble person.
- To be a faithful witness of truth.
- To be bold and uncompromising in denouncing sin.
4. Holiness is to follow after meekness, long-suffering, and let gentleness govern our tongue.
5. Holiness is the exercise of temperance and self denial.
6. Holiness is to demonstrate charity and brotherly love.
7. Holiness is to show mercy.
8. Holiness is to have purity of heart.
9. Holiness is to have fear and awe of God.
10. Holiness is to follow after humility.
11. Holiness is to be faithful in duties and relationships.
12. Holiness is for a man to love his wife as Christ loves the church. A wife to submit to her husband as to Christ.
13. Holiness is to be spiritually minded.
14. And Holiness is to take those great steps of great faith, to grasp onto the call of God in our lives, knowing that He who calls us will work in us to achieve that goal before us!
Can you say AMEN???
Why all of this? For each of us today, It is
1. The voice of God in Scripture clearly commands it.
2. Because this is the end and the purpose of why Christ came into the world.
3. Because it is the only sound evidence that we are one with Christ.
4. Our only proof that Christ is our priority, that we love Him in total sincerity.
5. That we are the true children of God.
6. Because this is the way we will draw others to Christ.
7. Because without Holiness on earth we shall never be prepared to enjoy heaven, to be in the company of David, Paul and John, to walk in fellowship with Christ.
Are you ready to do that? Are you Holy, this very day?
Ready to enlist in the green berets of the Christian world??
Are you ready to take your testimony of Him in you
and you in Him ……………………………….to the world today???
Mark 13:9-12 God’ Promise to His green Berets…
…. and you will be beaten in the synagogues. You will be brought before rulers and kings for My sake, for a testimony to them. 10 And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations. 11 But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.
Acts 25:13-16 Paul’s Fulfilment of that Promise…
13 And after some days King Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea to greet Festus. 14 When they had been there many days, Festus laid Paul's case before the king, saying: "There is a certain man left a prisoner by Felix, 15 about whom the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, when I was in Jerusalem, asking for a judgment against him.
Acts 25:22-23
22 Then Agrippa said to Festus, "I also would like to hear the man myself." "Tomorrow," he said, "you shall hear him."
Acts 26:1
26:1 Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You are permitted to speak for yourself." So Paul stretched out his hand and answered for himself:
Acts 26:16-20
16 But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. 17 I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, 18 to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.'
19 "Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,
John 1:14-16 John The Baptist in Action…..
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.' "
Acts 4:32-34 The Apostles in Action!
32 Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. 33 And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.
John 15:9-10 Our Call to Action by Christ…
9 "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
John 15:15-17
16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
John 17:15-24
15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
20 "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
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3 年Powerful!!