This morning, we conclude our three-part study of the doctrine of sanctification. And overarching this study, we've called it Adorning the Gospel with Holiness. And in the first lesson in the series, you may remember us saying that we can't make the gospel any more beautiful than it is. The gospel is beautiful. You couldn't have imagined better good news than what the gospel is. We can't make the gospel any more beautiful But when the Christian walks in holiness, in sanctification, in obedience, it accents the beauty of the Gospel. Whereas walking in sin and disobedience can hide, shroud the beauty of the Gospel. Before we get to where we're going to be today, I want to review, because it's so important. If you haven't been here for the last two weeks, or even if you have, have your ears perked, because the foundation that we've laid in the last two weeks We've sought to see that it was a deep foundation, because if you're going to run after God and pursue holiness, if you don't have this kind of foundation, the building that you're attempting to build is going to be shallow and it could fall down pretty easily, so to speak. You have to have a Gospel-centered, deep foundation if you're going to pursue sanctification. First thing that we considered is that it's the will of God that Christians be sanctified. We looked at 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 3, where the Scripture says, for this is the will of God, your sanctification. So, we looked at the context there, but very clearly within the text, we saw that it's God's will to sanctify Christians. In the Greek, the word used there is hagiosmos. It could be rendered, if we had an English word, it could be rendered holification, i.e., the process of being made holy. This is God's will for you, Christian, that you would be sanctified, that you would be holified, if you will, that you would be made holy. Then we talked about what holiness is and what holiness is not. Holiness is not men wearing pants and women not wearing lipstick. Holiness is not, you know, I got this amazing list of do's and don'ts and when I do the list of do's and I don't do the list of don'ts, I am walking in holiness. That's not holiness. Holiness is not shutting yourself up in a monastery, locking yourself up away from the world. We saw that holiness at the end of the day is us being consecrated, set apart from our old selves, set apart from the world system, and consecrated to God. and under the divine intention of looking more like Jesus. That is what holiness is. Being set apart from our old selves, set apart from the world, consecrated to God with the divine intention of looking, sounding, and acting more like Jesus. We saw that at sanctification, the process of being made holy begins at conversion. Scripture over and over again would use the language of you have been sanctified or you were sanctified by the once and for all offering of the Lord Jesus Christ. It happened at a moment in time. But remember, it keeps happening and it doesn't reach its completion until you are glorified. So in one sense, the moment that you are converted, you are positionally holy. You have the very righteousness of Christ imputed into your accounts. All of your sins have been forgiven. You are justified. Righteousness of Christ imputed into your account positionally. But practically, there's a lot of sanctification yet to happen. The whole process of you living day to day ought to be, and is if you are a Christian, a process of you looking less like your old self and more like Jesus. And that process does not reach its completion until the day you see Jesus face to face. We saw how last week God is the one who, Ephesians 1, verse 4, predestined his people before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame before him in love. Now we're digging deep in the foundation. God is the one, through purpose, from eternity past, I am going to have a people. I've chosen them before the foundation of the world, and part of His intention was this. Clearly, Ephesians 1-4, I'm predestining them to be holy. What do you mean by being holy? I'm going to set them apart from their old selves, I'm going to set them apart from this world, and they're going to look like my son. We see that God commits Himself to bringing this to fulfillment. In Romans 8, verse 30, the Scripture tells us that all whom God predestined, He also called. All whom He called, He also justified. And all whom He justified, He also glorified. Mind of God, it's a finished deal. That's why all of those are in the past tense. Called, justified, glorified at the foundation predestined, all in past tense, because from the mind of God, it's a done deal. He commits Himself to it. You're digging a deep foundation, because the first move that you're going to be tempted to think about, if you think about holiness, if you just came in here and you heard that the message was about holiness or sanctification, the first thing you're going to think is, what do I have to do? I have to do something to be holy. And what we're saying is, whoa, hold on, before you even go there, let's dig a deep God-centered foundation, so you're not running on shallow sticks, but you've got a deep foundation in your understanding of God. We saw also that God commits Himself to work in every believer both to will and to do His good pleasure. We looked at that verse, right? Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. And we talked about that often misrepresented verse where a lot of people would say, work out your salvation with fear and trembling and that means you better be so scared that you fail and you end up losing your salvation. You better be scared. You better work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Be very scared if you mess up because you may not be a Christian. And it's like, wow, you just totally butchered the meaning of that verse. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for, for, this is why you're going to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for, it is God who works in you, both to will and to do. The fear and trembling is based upon the fact that the transcendent God has become so imminent that He would live inside of you and work in you, both to will and to do. That should cause holy fear. You read through the Scriptures and you see when holy fear comes, it's when God shows up. Ask Job. Ask Habakkuk. Ask Isaiah. Ask Peter. When they see God, holy fear! He's holy! I'm not! I'm a sinful man and I live among a people that have unclean lips! Woe is me! I'm undone! You see things like that over and again because the transcendent holy God has become imminent and near. So Christians, as you work out your salvation with fear and trembling, i.e. as you work out what God has already worked into you, you do so with fear and trembling saying, God's motivating me. He's moving me. He's changing my desires. He's changing my will. He's working through me. He's using me. And there we get to the mystery of sanctification, which is where we begin this morning. The mysterious idea that it is God who works in us, both to will and to do. Yet, God expects us to pursue holiness. We hold up both truths. The Apostle Paul did. You remember in 1 Corinthians 15, when he compared himself with the other apostles, he said, I labored harder than them all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was in me. Both are true. He did labor harder than any other apostle. It's true. He did it in His flesh, or in the Spirit, but in His flesh, meaning His natural body. It was the apostle Paul laboring, yet undergirding his labor was the reality that it was really the grace of God working in him. So we want to hold up both truths this morning. The foundation is that God has committed Himself before the foundation of the world to make a people holy. God has committed Himself in time to work to make a people holy. But God expects His people to pursue being holy at the same time. I was thinking about this, and I was thinking of a picture of what sanctification looks like, so nobody would misinterpret anything that I'm saying. So I had to think of a picture of what sanctification doesn't look like. Well, I'm saying that God is working in us both to will and to do. And if you remember, I said last week, undergirding every one of our actions should be the confidence that God will work in us. So before you take any action in the pursuit of holiness, there should be confidence that God will work. For example, I said last week, I'm not angry right now, but there may come a time later in the day or during this week where I'll be tempted to be frustrated or angry, let's say. I have to have a confidence right now that when that moment comes, God is going to direct me and say, no, no, no, don't go there. Put to death those deeds of the flesh. Fix your eyes upon me. Be slow to speak, swift to hear. I'm not feeling given towards self-pity right now, but I believe if that temptation comes, God would give me discernment to say, hey, self-pity has masqueraded itself as legitimate evaluation, George. See it. Recognize it. Take that thought captive. Fix your eyes upon me and upon the good of others. Get your eyes off yourself. See, right now, you've got to have that faith that God has committed Himself to do those things. But while I'm saying you've got to have faith that God will do those things, I'm not saying that sanctification looks like you sitting on an express bus on the way home from work in the city and you falling asleep and knowing that the express bus is going to get you from point A to point B. That's not what sanctification looks like. I used to work in the city and go to school in the city. Some of you do. Maybe not all of you take the express bus. I used to love the express bus. I thought it was so relaxing. I would get on there, read a little scripture, do a little homework, not for too long because I just couldn't wait to fall asleep. So I'd fall asleep and I knew, carrying me from point A to point B as I slept, It was the express bus bringing me home. That's not what sanctification looks like. So I'm not saying, God does it all, sit back and relax. Point A to point B, this is what sanctification looks like. Christian, just know all these things, believe all these things, sit back and relax. That's not what sanctification looks like. It looks like Joshua battling Adonai Zedek in Joshua chapter 10. I think that's a better picture of what it looks like. If you were to look in Joshua chapter 10, you'd basically see that in the beginning of the chapter, Adonai Zedek Interesting, by the way, his name means Lord of Righteousness. Might be, might be an Old Testament picture type of the Antichrist. This Adonai Zedek, he gets this confederation of kings that live in the southern part of Canaan, and they're going to go to battle against the people of Gibeon. Now, it's interesting because shortly before that, I believe it's Joshua chapter 9, the people of Gibeon fooled Joshua and the people of Israel into a treaty. So now these southern kings, they're going to go attack these people. And Joshua, though they had a treaty with these people, he wasn't obligated, if I will, to protect them. But yet, he understood the nature and the spirit of the commitment, not just the letter of the law. So Joshua is going to go to their protection. So you've got this confederation of kings going against a small people group. And Joshua's going to go to their protection. And this is what God tells Joshua in chapter 10 verse 8. Do not fear them, for I have delivered them into your hand. Not a man of them shall stand before you." So Joshua has the promise from God. Don't fear them, I am going to deliver them into your hand. What does Joshua do next? Takes a nap. God's going to get me from point A to point B. He's going to deliver them to my hand. I'll go to sleep, I'll wake up, and there they will be, the confederation of kings tied up right in front of me. That's not what happens. If you read the text, He marches throughout the entire night. And as He marches throughout the entire night, He goes into battle all day, and then He asks the Lord to have the sun stand still, so He could finish the battle against this confederation of kings. Interestingly enough, as they're fighting this confederation of kings, God is raining hailstones down from the sky. And the text tells us that more of the enemy was killed with the hailstones than with the Israelites with the sword. I say all that to say, the battle was not Joshua's. The battle was the Lord's. The Lord says, I'm going to do it. I'm going to deliver them into your hand. Not like, we're going to work together and we'll both deliver them into your hand. It's me. I'm going to deliver them into your hands. I'll even show you. I'll make the sun stand still. I'll rain hailstones down from the sky. But this is how it's going to work. You're going to fight with everything you got. It's all me. It's me. It's my battle. I'm going to give you the victory. I'm going to work. I expect you to work. At the end of the day, I'm bringing it forth. But I expect you to pursue. Do you see the balance there? You're holding up both truths. Undergirding everything that you do in the pursuit of holiness is God. God working to will and to do. But God expects you to pursue holiness nonetheless. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 14 couldn't put it more plainly. The text says, pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the Lord. The word that is used there for holiness, when the writer of Hebrews says, pursue peace with all people and holiness, the word that is used there is the same word that is used in 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 3. Remember, this is the will of God, your sanctification, hagiasmos, the process of being holified, the process of being made holy. The writer of Hebrews is saying, pursue peace with all people and pursue the process of being made holy. Contextually, and I think this is interesting as well, if you were to look in Hebrews, shortly before those verses, the writer is saying that when God chastens His people, When He, as a good Father, disciplines His children, He is doing so to bring forth the peaceable fruit of righteousness, and that they might share in His holiness. So the context here is God chastising His people, and that can take different forms. God disciplining His people. And the writer of Hebrews is saying He's doing that to bring forth peaceable fruit. He's doing that so that you might share in His holiness. Now, pursue peace with all people. Pursue holiness. I think the writer of Hebrews has the same idea that we're talking about this morning. Hey, God's doing something in you. God, in your circumstances, in your difficult circumstances, He's bringing forth peaceable fruit. And He's doing it that you might share in His holiness. Now you, pursue peace. Pursue holiness. The word for pursue in the Greek is dioko. has that connotation clearly, run after something, go hard after something. As a matter of fact, a lot of times when this word is used, diyoko, it could be translated to persecute, based upon the context. So you could be running hard after something in a negative way, or you could be pursuing something in a good way. The context will show you what the word means. In this sense, it's not persecute, it's pursue, run hard after. You think of a hound chasing after a rabbit, or something like that, and just running after it with everything it's got. That's the idea here. I was thinking about this. I thought some of you may be able to relate to how you chased after worldliness or money or pleasure before you knew Christ. And you may have planned your life around it. I'm planning my life around the getting of money. I'm planning my weekend around the getting of pleasure. And that's what you were planning. You pursued hard after it. It's as though the writer of Hebrews is saying, pursue peace, pursue holiness. You're a new creation now. Live your new creation. You used to pursue hard after those things. Now, live hard after the things that you desire as a new creation in Christ. So, positively stated, God is expecting us to run hard after the pursuit of holiness. Negatively stated, He's telling us to get rid of those things that would contaminate us. 2 Corinthians 7, verse 1 puts it this way, Therefore, having these promises, Promises contextually most immediately the promise of having God be a father to you and the promise of you being a son or daughter of God Therefore having these promises beloved. Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God You see the balance there Beloved, we have these promises. Notice the address, beloved. It's like me talking to you this morning. If you're a son or daughter of God, you are forgiven. All of your sins are washed away. You are adopted. You are dearly loved by God. As Colossians 3 would put it, you are chosen and dearly loved. Now, you who are beloved by God, cleanse yourself of all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Filthiness of the flesh, if you're wondering what that is, I think Galatians 5 gives us a good idea of what that is. In Galatians 5, verses 19-21, the Apostle Paul writes, Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like. Of which I told you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. To practice those things is to evidence yourself as not having been changed. It's very serious. And that's why the Apostle Paul, over and over again, would tell Christians, put to death these things. These things are really bad. Don't diminish how bad they are in light of the fact that you've been forgiven. Glorify God for your forgiveness. Don't diminish how serious they are. Listen to what he says to the church of Colossae. Colossians chapter 3, verses 5 through 7. Therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth." By the way, just before this, He told them, your life is hidden with Christ and God. So again, there's the balance. You're saved. You're forgiven. Your life is hidden with Christ and God. Now, put to death your members which are on the earth. Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry. Listen to this. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. He's saying this is serious. This is in the short list, the other one on the list from Galatians 5. He's saying when you see these things, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. He's saying because of these things, the wrath of God is coming. The whole litany of sins. Because of a whole litany of sins, the wrath of God is coming. But he's telling believers. Get away from those things. You see how serious they are? Those things are accruing and building up the wrath of God for the day of judgment. Watch what he says in verse 7. In which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. Love again the balance. Your life is hidden with Christ and God. Put to death those deeds of your flesh. You used to live in them. You don't anymore. This balance of you're forgiven. You have union with Jesus. Put to death the deeds of your flesh. Live who you are in Christ. See the balance? It's a balance. It's telling gospel truths. It's not just highlighting one gospel truth. It's saying, no, there's a bunch of amazing gospel truths centered here. You are unified with Jesus. You have the power by the Holy Spirit to mortify these deeds of the flesh. And you live the new you, who you are in Christ Jesus. Concerning filthiness of the Spirit, Jesus said in Matthew 15, verse 19, Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts. I think when Paul says, to rid yourselves of all filthiness of the Spirit, I think when Jesus says, out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, which could be anything, right? It could be lust, it could be hatred, it could be envy, it could be jealousy. I think filthiness of the Spirit means not just the actions that you're doing, but the thoughts of your inner man. Cleanse yourself of these things as well. I think both of these passages, pursue holiness and get rid of all filthiness of the flesh, illustrate to us what we are to do as Christians in our pursuit of holiness, undergirding the reality that God is going to work in us, positively and negatively, but generally. If you were going to ask this morning, well, okay, George, I get that. pursue holiness, rid myself of filthiness of the flesh." I think you get more specifically what that looks like. Like if you were doing or caught in or have a tendency to any of those things that were just listed, the Scripture is telling you, beloved, get rid of those things. The person who lives in those unrepentantly for the rest of their lives, evidences themselves to never know God. If you are beloved and you're struggling, hear the voice of the Lord telling you, put them to death. You are beloved. Live the new you. In Christ, but positively pursuing holiness sounds pretty general. So you may be wondering, OK, George, what specific steps am I supposed to take in pursuing holiness? I want to mention a couple of things and try to expound upon them briefly. Some things, you know. But I hope you'll hear them with fresh ears right now. First thing I want to encourage you to do is to read the scriptures with humility and love and faith. That is key. I'm not just telling you to read the scriptures, read the scriptures with humility, love and faith. John, chapter 17, verse 17, Jesus speaking to the father said, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. Sanctify them by Your truth. Make them holy by Your truth. Your Word is truth. Once again, that happens in a moment of time when you were begotten by the living and abiding Word of God. And you are continuously cleansed and washed by the watering of the Word of God. Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 15-16, speaking to God, Your words were found and I ate them. And Your Word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. For I am called by Your name. It's what the Word of God does. It becomes the rejoicing of our heart. The Word of God cleanses us. It becomes a delight to us. It weans us away from our old desires. And it shows us exceedingly great and precious promises. that we are to believe and we are to reject the shallow promises of sin in the world system. I want to illustrate that as being one way that you can pursue holiness and fight temptation, and I want to use Moses as an example of that. In Hebrews chapter 11, verses 24 through 26, We read, By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater than the riches in Egypt, for he looked to the reward. That is such a great picture of how you pursue holiness. Moses has this promise of reward, this promise of a kingdom to come that even transcended Canaan. And so when he saw the riches of Egypt and what could be his, he was like, that's small. That's nothing compared to what God offers. What sin offers me is shallow. It's a trap. It's like the bait that is offered to fish. It looks good on the outside, and you may have pleasure for a moment, fish, when you grab onto that bait, but you're going to find out pretty soon, it is dangerous. You ought not to do that. I was thinking about that this week when we were visiting Arnold in the hospital. One of the doctors was a turkey hunter. So I don't know much about turkey hunting. Some people in this room may know more. I know Elder Arnold knows more. And he was talking about how he taught his son how to do a turkey call. and how, I don't remember the exact story, he had a lot of stories in that regard, and he would teach, his son had to do turkey call, maybe he was doing a turkey call, there was a lot of turkey calling going on, so I don't remember all the details, but I remember one part of the story of him saying that he did that, and the turkey came walking out of the bushes, and shortly after that, the turkey was no more. The turkey was fooled. The turkey thought, that sounds like a turkey call. I'm going after it. The turkey did not have discernment to recognize it was a dangerous call. It sounded good at first, but it was going to lead to destruction. And I think the promises of God help us recognize the temptations of sin as that. Shallow promises that lead to destruction. We see past them. We're not like a fish that says, ooh, tasty bait, I'm going for it. We're like, no, that's dangerous. I'm looking past that, but I have a promise of something better. It's not just that I'm resisting this temptation. I have a promise of something much better. Communion with God in the here and now. Fruitfulness in the here and now. Assurance of my salvation in the here and now. And a kingdom to come with every pleasure imaginable at the right hand of God forever. I am not choosing that shallow temptation that leads to destruction or pain or corruption of some sort or another. I choose the promise. I believe Your Word. See, I'm not just saying, get into the spiritual discipline of reading your Bible. If you read three chapters a day, I guarantee you, in six months, you will be fruitful. You may, you may end up to be a Pharisee and you may just think you're smarter than everybody else who's not reading three chapters a day. That's why it's so important that you read the scriptures with humility and love and faith. We can do a whole sermon on those three things and how important they are to reading the scripture rightly and receiving and applying the word of God rightly in your pursuit of holiness. The second thing I want to say is breathe in the air of prayer for the right reasons. The language there is chosen specifically. Breathe in the air of prayer. I'm saying that because you ever have this picture of somebody saying, just breathe in the fresh air. And what people are usually doing when they do that is they're saying, just take a moment, stop. and enjoy. Breathe in. Take a deep breath. Breathe in the fresh air. Exhale. And when I'm saying this, I encourage you, breathe in the air of prayer. Don't just be like an in-and-out prayer. God, I got five minutes. Okay, praise you for your attributes. You're amazing. Omniscient, infinite, eternal, immutable. I have a few needs. You know, I got these few things. Okay, Elder Arnold, he's still in the hospital. Could you help him get better? Can you help our church? Can we grow? I want to grow. Help my family. And help me today as I go to work. Bye. Now I know sometimes prayers look like that. I'm not diminishing the fact that you could talk to God in your mind wherever you are in a moment, that you could pray for five seconds and it is precious to God. But at the same time that we uphold that as being precious, we don't want to turn that into an excuse for not breathing in the air of communion with God and saying, I have a lot of important things in my life, Lord, but you are most important. And I'm here right now. Speak to me. You open up his word. You look at him and you just praise him. And I said, breathe in the air of prayer for the right reasons. I think that's important. Undergirding your pursuit of prayerfulness should not be, I have to be more holy, therefore I will pray more. If you're going to pursue prayer for those reasons, wrong reasons, it's not going to last. Your reason should not be, I need to be more holy, I'm going to add to my life the self-discipline of prayer. No, you want to have prayer as a priority because love is a priority to you. You want to spend time with God because you love Him. You know it's a reality, it's a necessary discipline. You see that Jesus often times in Luke chapter 5 verse 16, He often withdrew to the wilderness and prayed. But you want love to undergird you in your prayer and communion with God. Love for Him and love for His people. I'm going to give you a great picture of this right now. One of my favorite guys in Scripture, Epaphras. We don't know all too much about him, but listen to what we do know about him from Colossians chapter 4, verse 12. Paul talking to the church at Colossae. He's ending his letter. He's mentioning some people. He mentions Epaphras. And this is what he says about Epaphras. Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you. Always laboring fervently for you in prayers that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. You want to talk about a pursuit of holiness? Epaphras was pursuing the holiness of the believers in Colossae. That should drive you to prayer. You should be hearing a sermon series on holiness and sanctification and you say, I got to get to prayer, not just for me, I got to get to prayer for the body of Christ here. I want to labor so that the body of Christ here in Tottenville, and then you can go from there and go around Staten Island, around the United States, around the world, and you're saying, I want to labor fervently in prayer that my brothers and sisters would stand complete in the will of God. that they would be made holy in the will of God. I think both terminologies are paralleling one another. What a great picture. Now, all in all, there's so many other things. We can go on. Every command that is in Scripture, by the way, is exhorting you in the pursuit of holiness. I just gave a couple things that we ought to do. All in all, you want to exercise yourself towards godliness. 1 Timothy 4, verse 7. Exercise yourself towards godliness, whether it's in fellowshipping with people after service, whether it's in coming to corporate worship and singing songs to the Most High God, whether it's in being generous, whatever it is, exercise yourself towards godliness. When I was in high school and into college, I spent a lot of time exercising and working out. And nobody had to tell me to do those things. It wasn't like mom came to me in my sophomore year of high school and was like, you know, it's about time that you get in the weight room. She didn't have to do that. I wanted to do that. Nobody told me I have to go do that. I just wanted to. I didn't know the Lord at that time. It probably became an idol in my life in some degree, but I was full into it. I got gym memberships, not just one gym membership. I would get gym memberships. I would make it a priority to get Metrex and other, you know, fruit, not fruit bars, like power bars. Even though they tasted like dried up chocolate, I would eat them. I would try every kind of flavor, trying to find one that I liked. I would make sure that even if I had to do something later in the day, I'd get there early. I would bring a free weight with me in my suitcase on vacation. If I couldn't fit it in the suitcase, I'd put it in like the car somewhere. Nobody had to tell me to do it. It wasn't legalism. My mom wasn't saying to me, George, you are so legalistic with all your working out. Because she thought it was a passion. I wanted to do that. So what I'm saying to you is, brothers and sisters, when you hear the imperatives of God calling you to be holy, don't say, oh, that's legalistic, I'm hearing too much imperatives. That's legalism. That's not legalism. If you're a son or daughter of God, you're saying to God, Father, speak to me. Tell me what you want me to do. I know I'm forgiven, I am freed, but I want to hear your voice leading me, calling me, telling me what you want me to do. That, brothers and sisters, is not legalism. That's a son or daughter saying to their father, speak to me, because I want to hear. I want the full counsel of Your Word. Tell me what You want me to do. I want to pursue holiness and I want to hear Your imperatives. That's important. I think some people have the misconception that imperatives equal legalism. Some people think, and I remember, I haven't seen this person in probably over a year and a half. I do think this person is a brother in Christ, but I remember we would have conversations sometimes. Remember one time this person told me that if they were a pastor or a teacher, preacher, I forget the language that they used, they would just preach on the attributes of God. And as they preached on the attributes of God, they would expect people to be changed. You see the problem with that? It's taking something great and amazing. Yes, we ought to behold God and be transformed from image to image and glory to glory. Amen. But let's not amputate the rest of Scripture. Let's not flatten out the contours of Scripture and say, hey, I'm just going to preach on this. And as I preach on this, people will be changed. It's I'm going to preach on this and people will be changed. And I'm going to share all the imperatives that the Holy Spirit led his inspired prophets and apostles to write. See the balance? It's not either or, it's both and. The imperatives are there not to make us legalistic. This is what legalism is, by the way. Legalism is thinking that your obedience to God merits you something from God. Let's make that clear. That's what legalism is. Legalism is thinking, if I am obedient to God, I am earning righteousness, I am earning favor. That is legalism. As Christians, we know all the righteousness, all the favor we could ever want was purchased for us by the Lord Jesus Christ. But we do know that the scripture does tell us that through our obedience, we can't earn more of the love of God, but we can please God more. And that's a segue to the latter part of this message. The Scripture gives us many motivations to pursue holiness. I'm going to share with you right now, probably besides just viewing the Gospel, viewing the cross, thinking about what Jesus has done for us, probably my favorite motivation to pursue holiness is to please God. Do you know that? The Scripture says you can please God. Now, once again, I gotta qualify a lot of wrong notions that have right intentions, but they're under our minds. Because you probably have said or heard somebody say it sometimes, I can't please God. All of my righteousness is as filthy rags. Amen! When you were in the flesh, the scripture says, it was impossible to please God. And all your righteousness was as filthy rags. But now you're a new creation in Christ. You have the capacity as a new creation with the Holy Spirit living inside of you to please God. Rightly balanced. I can actually please God now. You can displease God. The Scripture says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you've been sealed for the day of redemption. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30. You can't grieve the Holy Spirit. So it makes sense that we'd be able to please God. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 1. The Apostle Paul writes, Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ that you should abound more and more just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God. The connection proper walking leads to pleasing. Proper walking does not earn salvation. Proper walking pleases God. 2 Timothy 2 verse 4, no one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. When you push back from all the things of this life that are trying to entangle you, good things, and bad things. When you get untangled with all the things of this life, the affairs of this life, when you feel like the good things and or bad things of this life have entangled you and you untangle yourself from them so that you might please Him who enlisted you as a soldier, it pleases the One who enlisted you as a soldier. Philippians 4, verse 18, Apostle Paul writing, ending his letter, indeed I have all and abound, talking about his needs being met, I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. He's telling the Philippians, you supplied my needs so I can continue on my apostolic ministry. I want you to know, Philippians, that was a sweet-smelling aroma and a pleasing sacrifice to God. He likens and harkens back to Old Testament imagery of the sacrificial system. It says, your sacrifice of giving, Philippians, a pleasing one. Thank you. Children might want to have your ears perked for this one. Colossians 3, verse 20. Children, obey your parents in all things. For this is well pleasing to the Lord. There's the command. Children, obey your parents. So what's the motivation for that pursuit of holiness? Right there in that text, the motivation is you please God when you do it. Yeah, there are other motivations. God is God, and if He says so, do it. That's another motivation. There's another motivation of, don't you see what God did in sending His Son? Oh, that's another motivation. But there's this motivation right here. Colossians 3.20 Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord. One more. Hebrews chapter 13, verses 15 and 16. Therefore, by Him, speaking of Jesus, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of lips, giving thanks to His name. But don't forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Doing good, sharing, praising and thanking are things that please God. Now you have to imagine what it looks like for God to be pleased. That should just boggle your imagination and should make you very excited. Some of you have seen me, after service, try to have Zachary, my eight-month-old son, show you how he does a high-five. Right? You've seen that. He learned it about a month ago. He does it when he feels like it and he doesn't do it when he doesn't feel like it. But have you ever noticed my reaction when he does it? I get pretty excited. It's exciting, and when he doesn't do it, I still love him. God, I love you, it's okay, you didn't do it. But when I say, high five, Zach, and he does it, it's like, yeah, you did it, that was awesome, that was great. That's just a little high five from an eight month old. How much more the God of the universe, when He says, do this, and we say, Father, I want to do it. You don't think He's pleased? You think He's just some static being who's sitting in heaven, and nothing really gets Him excited, or nothing really gets Him angry? He's just sort of static and unmoved by things? No, our God has emotions. He's perfectly balanced in every way that He enacts those emotions, but He gets pleased by things. He gets grieved by things. And when we obey Him, I can't imagine what that looks like. If I get that excited over a high five, how does God feel when He sees His sons and daughters obeying Him? Walking in love. Walking in purity. Walking in humbleness. Walking in obedience. pushing out the things of the world, pursuing Him. You, as a finite created being, one who was lost in transgression and sin, as a new creation in Christ, you have the capacity and the freedom, God working in you to will and to do. You have the ability to please God. I think that's a great motivation for holiness. I'll share two more and then list them others pretty quickly. In 2 Peter, I think you could probably find more. I think there are at least two motivations for holiness found in the opening 10 verses. You could probably find more. I'm going to mention two. In the opening verse of 2 Peter chapter 1, Peter writes this. He's addressing people who he identifies as those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. You've obtained faith. You've obtained the righteousness of God and Jesus Christ. He goes on a little shortly after and he says this, Add to your faith virtue. To virtue, knowledge. To knowledge, self-control. To self-control, perseverance. To perseverance, godliness. To godliness, brotherly kindness. And to brotherly kindness, love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of God. There is another biblical motivation for holiness. Be fruitful. Scripture is giving you a motivation. Do you want to be fruitful and not barren in the knowledge of God now a quick check here? This would be important and some of you will appreciate this in the scriptures Oftentimes the biblical writers will use metaphors in more than one way They have the freedom to do so and they do it that way For example, if you look in Ephesians chapter 4 Christ is called the head of the body the head of the church but if you look in 1st Corinthians chapter 12 you see that Paul is speaking about the members of the body as the eyes and the ears and So if you just have a literal static view of the metaphors that scripture uses, you can say, I'm confused. I thought Jesus was the head. So if Jesus is the head, how is somebody an I in Jesus? Wait, wouldn't it be like he's the head and we are the body, the members? The scripture uses biblical metaphors in more than one way. I think that's what's going on here talking about unfruitfulness. Oftentimes when the scripture talks about not being fruitful, it means if you're not fruitful, it just evidences the fact that you're not truly joined to the vine. You're not a Christian. Sometimes I think it's used in such a way to say, Christian, pursue being fruitful. You want to be as fruitful as you can be. In Titus chapter 3, verse 14, Paul writes, And let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful. So it's like, pursue this, Christian. Meet urgent needs. Pursue good works. Be fruitful. I don't know about you, but honestly, one of the Motivation is that God has used often in my life is the fear of being unfruitful. It's just like, Father, you've done so much, and I know it's you working in me both to will and to do, but I know you expect me to pursue nonetheless. I don't want to not be fruitful. I have a short vapor of a life here on this earth. However much you can leverage my life towards fruitfulness, it's what I want. I hope that's a motivation of yours. I'll give you one other motivation in that passage. Verse 10, Peter writes, Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure. You can look at 1 John 3, verse 14, 1 John 2, verses 3 and 4, and you can see that obedience brings with it assurance of salvation. So one of the other reasons that you should be motivated to pursue holiness and motivated to get rid of the filthiness of the flesh and the spirit is so that you can have a greater assurance that if you were to die, you're going to be in the presence of God. You know confidently that it's only by what Jesus has done, but nonetheless, to augment your confidence in that reality, obedience, walking in the light, helps you to see that reality more clearly. Some other motivations, I'll list these quick and then give you some closing thoughts. Colossians 3.24 gives you the motivation of the inheritance that awaits you. Colossians 3 21 tells fathers not to provoke their children so as to avoid discouraging their children. That's the motivation obey this command They won't be discouraged 1 Peter 3.7 gives you the motivation of having your prayers not hindered. Husbands, deal gently, not harshly with your wives so that your prayers won't be hindered. That's a motivation to pursue holiness. Even in the Old Testament, God would give his people many motivations for holiness. I'll just share the most common one that probably has come to some of your minds already. Honor your father and mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God has given you. In the Old Covenant, God even gave His people motivations besides just saying, I'm God. I'm so gracious. I'm good. He would even tell them, no, obey your mother and father, Old Covenant, so that you may live long in the land that God has given you. I'm just saying that to say, don't box God in. You have all these motivations to pursue holiness. With that being said this morning, I want to just close with what I think is just some pieces of pastoral counseling as you pursue this. We've laid a foundation, we've defined what holiness is and isn't, we've talked about what God expects us to do, and undergirding that fact is the reality that He is the one bringing it to completion. It's a miracle that's happening every moment we obey. But here are four things I want to share with you. First is this. I'm encouraging you this morning. If you heard this message, you know I'm encouraging you to pursue and run hard after holiness, i.e. pursuing Christlikeness, i.e. looking at the commands of God and wanting to obey them. But please remember, it takes time. That is so important. You can't put yourself in a spiritual microwave for two minutes and come out holy. It's not going to happen. I'm hoping you run hard after God, knowing the fact that God has purposed this, God is going to work this. But please understand, it's a process that takes time. So if you're not where you want to be, Know that you're never going to be where you want to be until you see Jesus face to face. It's a process. But don't let that reality stop you. That's where some people stop. Oh, it's a process. Thanks. That's what I was waiting for. No. You've got to uphold both truths. I've got to pursue hard. This is a process. It takes time. Second thing is this, you don't outgrow pursuing holiness. Brothers and sisters, please listen to this, especially you who are maturing to faith. You don't outgrow pursuing holiness. You don't say in your mind, how holy do you want me to be? You don't go there. Unless you are perfectly reflecting Jesus. Unless if Jesus were to follow you in the flesh for 24 hours a day, He would say, wow, that looks exactly like I would do. That you're doing exactly what I would do. You're living exactly how I would live. Please know you have room to go. It's not a mature thing to say, how holy you want me to be. It's a mature thing to say, I know I got to keep examining. I got to keep taking inventory. I got to pursue closer to Him. I got to get rid of these things that are entangling me, good things or bad things. I want to be radical in my own heart towards pursuing God. We don't outgrow that. Third thing, be on guard by what you're entertained by. I think this is so important. I've marveled in my short Christian life, came to know Christ around 19 years old, 31 now. And one of the things that has often made me marvel, early on in my Christian faith, I marveled at what I saw Christians being entertained by. It was interesting because at the same time that I marveled at what Christians were being entertained by, I didn't know that a few years later I would marvel at what I was being entertained by. Let me exhort you. The scripture says that the perverse person is an abomination to the Lord. God hates perversity. We should not be entertained by anything that is perverse in any way. Colossians 3, 8 shows us that God hates filthy language. Right? A little leaven leavens the whole lump. It's not like that. There's just a little filthy language in it. I can just be entertained by a little leaven. Brothers and sisters, no. You don't want to be entertained by a little leaven. You don't want to be entertained by things that God hates, and has even told you, I hate that. Ephesians chapter 5, verses 3 and 4, I think apply very accurately to what we're entertained by. Paul writes, "...but fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you as is fitting for saints." Look at that balance. Don't. Stay away from it. Don't even let it be named among you. It's not fitting for who you are. Verse 4, "...neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks." Being able to handle being entertained by sin is not a sign of maturity. It's a cloak for sin. Brothers and sisters, I say that one, that's part of my pastoral counseling right here, because I think that is a epidemic that has swept evangelicalism. That it's like a mature thing to say, I can handle the little bit of leaven that is in this. Brothers and sisters, flee it. Flee it. You don't want it. Don't be entertained by things that God hates. And finally, pursue obedience, but always be thankful for the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where we've been for the last three weeks. And I hope this sticks fresh in your mind. I've been doing studying and writing on J. Gresham Machen. I've told you that on a couple of occasions. And one of the interesting things about his life, J. Gresham Machen, I won't go into his whole history, but he was a man who started Westminster Seminary. In the early 1900s, God used him to fight the liberalism that was sweeping into seminaries and sweeping across America. He fought the fact that liberal theologians were taking Christian norms and Christian phraseology and then they were twisting around its meaning. They would say, I believe in the resurrection. But what they meant was that Jesus lived on through the ideas of his followers. So they would use these phrases and terminology, but they didn't really hold to what they actually meant. J. Gresham Machen was a man that God used to fight those things. There's a lot more that could be said about him, but I want to share with you what he said, his last recorded words, on the last day that he lived, on New Year's Day 1937. He had worked with John Murray. John Murray was a friend of his and a colleague from Wentz-Mister. And his last recorded word was sent in a telegram to John Murray. Before he died, he ended up dying around 730 p.m. So shortly before that, he sent this last word, take this to heart. He says, simple, I'm so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it. Last recorded telegram, he's on his deathbed, a man used by God, about to die. He says, I'm so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it. I'm exhorting you to pursue holiness, but your holiness merits you nothing. You just want to please your Father. You're going to say the whole time you pursue, I'm so thankful for the obedience of Christ. Obedient to His Father in that He suffered in my place for my sins. Obedient that He lived the perfect life of righteousness that I never could, so that His righteousness could be imputed to my account. Obedient in everything that He did. In His life, death, burial, and resurrection, I am so thankful for the perfect obedience of Christ. Nothing without it. You would say, like the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1.30, Jesus Christ has become for us sanctification. Undergirding all of your pursuits, your hustling, your working, your ridding of things, and your running hard after God is the reality. Jesus is my sanctification. I want to work it out in this life But him and him alone is my sanctification Amen Father, we thank you, Lord, for the great good news of the gospel and specifically the good news that we've looked at this morning that your son is our sanctification. And in light of the fact that he has merited for us the righteousness we never could, he has paid for us the punishment that we can never pay. I pray, Father, that you would motivate us with that and all the other motivations that you provide us with in Scripture to run hard after the pursuit of holiness. that we would die to ourselves daily, that we would be consecrated further apart from the world system, further apart from worldliness, and that we would more accurately reflect the character of Your Son. Father, may it be, that is our prayer this morning, Lord. We want to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is You who is working in us, both to will and to do. Make us so mindful, Father, to be people who walk in faith, having no confidence in the flesh, no confidence in ourselves, yet wanting to hear every imperative that You would speak to us, so that we might please You. Having a greater assurance of our salvation, being fruitful for every good work, so that men might see our good deeds and glorify our Father who is in heaven. Lord, I thank You so much for my brothers and sisters in this room. I thank You, Father, for anyone who would be here and not know the great news of the Gospel. I pray that in hearing about Jesus meriting for us what we can never merit, that You would stir their hearts, Lord. towards the gospel. May your sheep hear your voice afresh even this morning. And as we prepare to celebrate the Lord's Supper, Father, I pray it would be a fitting time for us just to say, oh, thank you for sanctifying me with your body and your blood. Thank you. Continue to sanctify me as I await the day that I see you face to face. We love you, Lord, and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.