We shall now turn to the chapter which we read together, Hebrews chapter 12. And our text for this morning is the second part of verse 14. Hebrews chapter 12 and the second part of verse 14. Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Particularly these words, holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. No holiness, no heaven. That's what this verse is saying. no holiness, no heaven. We find a similar verse in 1 Peter 1, verses 15 and 16. As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy. Be holy, for I am holy. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. So the implication of that verse is if you're not pure in heart, you won't see God. So it's only the pure in heart who get to heaven. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Are you pure in heart? Are you concerned about having a pure heart? Do you search your heart and conscience before God? It's a good mark of the Christian that we are concerned and troubled about purity of heart. There are two kinds of holiness, holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. There's two kinds of holiness. First, there's an external kind of holiness, the kind of holiness that the Pharisees had. Remember the rich young ruler who came to Jesus. What good thing, he said, good master, what good thing shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said, keep the commandments, which thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not tell lies, thou shalt not covet. And he said, all these have I kept from my youth up. but he hadn't really. He'd kept them externally, but he hadn't even kept the first commandment because his money was his God. Jesus said to him, go sell all that you have, give to the poor, come and you shall have treasure in heaven. But he wasn't prepared to part with his riches because he loved his riches more than he loved God. So his riches were his God. So there's the Pharisees. The Pharisees who prayed long prayers, who prayed at the street corners to be seen of men. The Pharisees who performed their almsgiving in front of people, who did their charity work so that people would see them. The Pharisees who fasted publicly so that people would see them fasting. Pharisees, Pharisee type of holiness, the kind that is concerned about the eye of man. Is that the kind of holiness you have? Very worried about what people will say about you, what folk think of you. how they describe you, how you appear before them. Well, there's a bit of the Pharisee in us all, isn't there? But then there's the other kind of holiness, that inner holiness. When you pray, enter into your chamber, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who is safe and secret, shall reward you openly. When you do your alms, let not your right hand know what your left hand doeth. When you fast, wash your face and anoint your head so that you will appear not to men to fast, but to your Father who is in heaven. You see, there's got to be that inner holiness. And our concern must be not with the eye of man, But God's eye, God is watching. God is seeing. God's seen behind the screen. He's seen into the darkness. He's seen the thoughts and the intents of the heart. Man looketh on the outward appearance. God looketh upon the heart. In Revelation 22, we're told that nothing unclean shall enter heaven. Nothing but defiler shall go in there. No holiness, no heaven. So what then is holiness? What is this real holiness? This essential holiness. Well, this morning, I'd like us to think of nine distinguishing features of this holiness. Briefly, I'd intended yesterday to speak of eight, but then through the night, I was convinced of another that I should add to the eight that I had listed. Let's look at them, these points in turn. The first essential ingredient of holiness is the fear of God. Fear of God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fool who says in his heart, there is no God. The fool has no fear of God. Wisdom begins with fearing God. That's where we have to start really. What is the fear of God? It's an awe, a reverence, a sense of the greatness and the majesty of God, how mighty and glorious and magnificent He is, how small we are, how holy He is, how unholy we are, and so our unworthiness. our sinfulness before him. So it involves reverence, recognizing God as our creator, our owner, our ruler, our judge. Remember your creator in the days of your youth, not just in the days of your youth, Remember every day you've got a creator. Look at the end of this chapter. Let us have grace, verse 28, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Serving God without reverence and godly fear is not acceptable. Reverence. It's so missing today. Reverence in the churches. Reverence in approaching God. Reverence in the face of God's commandments. Reverence in the face of life and in the face of death. The fear of God. Reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. He's not some old grandfather up there in the sky, as many people think God to be. God is awesome. God is frightening. Think of the pictures that we have of heaven in the book of Revelation. All the inhabitants of heaven, the holy angels, the elders, falling on their faces before the throne. And not some posturing, but in real reverence. The picture we have in Isaiah 6, I saw the Lord high and lifted up his train filled the temple. And the holy seraphim crying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. And Isaiah cried out, woe is me, woe is me, for I am a man of unclean limbs and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean limbs. Do you know that sense of nakedness and shame in the presence of the awesome majesty of God. He is the one that sitteth upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are as graspers. You and I are like little spiders before this great God. On this man will I look, says the Lord, the one who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at my word. When did you last tremble at the word of God? Trembles at my word. Are you of a contrite spirit trembling before God? Do you have great views of God? Low views of yourself and great views of God. That's where holiness begins then with a great view of God. We need that. Nobody who has a small view, a trivial view of God will get into heaven. Our God is awesome. Our God's a consuming fire. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah discovered that. Second point that I would mention is holiness is obedience. Obedience to God's revealed will. God has given us a Bible. He's given us a law. Sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. Sin is not meeting the standards of God's word or transgressing it. God's given us a law. There are three uses for the law. First use is as a rule for society. The second use of the law is to convict us of our sins so that we cry out to Christ to save us. The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The third use of the law, denied by many Christians today. The third use of the law, is for the Christian to show us how to live. And it's only by grace and by being a Christian that we can start to keep the commandments of God. The law is so important. The law marks out for us what holiness is. Christ told us to pray. Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. How is God's will done in heaven? It's kept perfectly by the angels. May we be like the angels, perfectly keeping God's commandments. Holiness is the opposite of sinfulness. Sometimes it's defined as separation from sin. That's a good way of defining holiness, separation from sin, separation to God. So holiness then, It's the opposite of sins, sinfulness, it's obedience. Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Do you have holiness? Does sin trouble you? Are you struggling against it? Are you concerned and passionate about living for God? God's word being a guide in your heart and life. Lord, what will thou have me to do? How do you want me to live? The third point that I would mention is holiness is love. Love to God. If you love me, you keep my commandments. So your keeping of God's commandments demonstrates your love for God. Love in the Bible is not a sentimental thing, superficial thing. It's not a mere emotion. Love is doing, serving, pleasing. If you love me, you keep my commandments. And we love him because he first loved us. And he wooed us with his love. And by his love, he drew us to himself. And we fell in love with him. And becoming a Christian is essentially falling in love with Christ. Have you fallen in love with Christ? Do you really love him? How does it show? We have two great motives for obedience. First motive is wrath. Flee from the wrath to come. Hell is a motive to holiness. It's a motive for the sinner. Turn from your sins or you will perish. But it's also a motive for the Christian. We've been reading in this chapter, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Whom the Lord loves, he chastens. He corrects. And if you be without chastisement, you're not the children of God. Now, no chastisement for the present is joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward, it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who are exercised thereby. Chastisement. Does God chase in you? If you're not chastised, you're not a son of God. God has no spoiled children. When you sin, and we all sin, you get chastised. And that chastisement is a mark of God's love. But at the same time, who likes being chastised? What child likes being smacked? So chastisement, the wrath of God in that sense is a motive, a motive for obedience, for holiness. But the greatest motive is love. Whom the Lord loves. And the love of Christ constraineth us to new obedience. This is the great force in our life. Paul said, the love of Christ constrains me. That's why he went across the ancient world, preaching the gospel, despite the beatings, the stonings, the imprisonments, and eventually the martyrdom, because he was constrained, impelled by the love of God. Loving God was a great motive, the great motive. And the love that we have for God, for our Lord Jesus Christ, should be our great motive to holiness also. And if we love him, then we'll strive to be holy. We love him and we desire to please him. And we want to enjoy his felt love ourselves. pleasing him, being blessed by him. Do you love God? How much do you love him? How do you show your love for him? Fourth point, hatred for sin. Holiness is detesting sin. You hate it when you see it in others. You hate it when you see it publicly paraded. The Pharisee does that. But you hate it particularly when you see it in your own heart. And that's the Christian, hating the sin within. hating the flesh within us. The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these two are contrary, the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would. The good that I would, I do not, but the evil, which I would not that I do. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Wretched man, is that your cry? The cry of the Apostle Paul as he looked into his own heart, saint that he was, he was also a sinner. And every saint in this world is a sinner. Indwelling corruption. The Christian is somebody who's always at war. There's a fight going on, battling against the flesh, battling against the world around us and its enticements, battling against Satan. We love Christ and we hate the devil. Do you hate the devil? With a passionate hatred? and long to see him destroyed, crushed under your feet. Hating sin, longing for sin to cease. Surely it's one of the great things about heaven that there's no sin there. For me, that's one of the big things. I'm sure it's the case for every child of God. Remember an old elder who's now in heaven, saying how he longed to get to heaven where there would be no pride, no envy, no showing off, no hypocrisy, no idols. no flesh within. To be holy, to be perfectly holy. So there's another feature of holiness. And then fifthly, I mentioned this one that came to me very much through the night. Holiness is humility. Pride is natural. There's nothing more natural to man than pride. We think of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, you know, the first sin was essentially pride, wasn't it? You'll be like God if you eat this fruit, getting carried away with our own importance. Pride, it's always been there. Doesn't really bother the unconverted. But when you become a Christian, you become very convicted of pride. And it's something you have to fight to the very end of your life. You know, the stories told about John Knox when he was dying, seemed to be in a coma. in a deep sleep. And then they noticed how he seemed to be struggling, his body seemed to be writhing. And then he woke up. And they asked him, was there something troubling you? And yes, Satan had come to him and said, you've done something great for Scotland. You're so important. with this reformation that you've brought about in Scotland. There was an old man, a godly old man, who had suffered for the faith and who was going to heaven. And even on the very banks of Jordan, he had to wrestle with pride. I remember hearing an old man speaking on the question many years ago. And he said, the Christian is like a cow's tail. growing downwards. Someone else said the Christian is like ripening corn. The head bends over, the more ripe it becomes. Just the other day I was speaking to a woman, a woman who's been housebound for many years. She spoke of how sin troubled her now more than ever. You might think, well, living, as it were, such a restricted life, how could sin be troubling her like that? But there she is, an old Christian, troubled by sin. And that indeed shows growth, growth in humility and growth in holiness. Humility is part, a vital part of holiness. And then a sixth point, fellowship, fellowship with God. James Parker, many years ago, wrote a very important book, a good book, very good book, Knowing God. As Christians, we have to know God, not just know about him, but know him and get to know him more and more. Know him in the sense of experiencing him, entering into a relationship with him. Do you know God? Are you getting to know him more and more? Holiness is knowing God. Experiencing Him, getting close to Him. Have you experienced God as you read your Bible and God speaks to you from it? As you pray in the secret place, sometimes God draws near and there's liberty. Have you known God draw near at family worship time, as you join in worship with God's people in church, and the sermons blessed to you, and the prayer meeting, the prayers and the singing blessed to your soul at the Lord's table, the felt presence of the Lord. Holiness. is knowing God, experiencing God, fellowship with God, constantly relating to him. A seventh point is loving and serving your fellow man, your brethren. You know, this point is greatly emphasized by Christ. Here's the mark of a true Christian. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you have love one for another. That's the mark. Not the way you dress, not your language, not your attendance at church or whatever, but that you love the brethren. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you have love one for another. A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another. The new commandment, love. And you know, John says certain terrible things. He says, if you don't love your brother, you're a liar. In fact, he says, if you don't love your brother and you claim to be a Christian, you're a murderer. A murderer, yes. So important to love one another. We have been brought from a world of conflict into the Church of Christ, into fellowship with one another, to be the family of God, bearing one another's burdens, caring for each other, supporting one another, praying for one another, concerned about every suffering of a brother or sister in Christ, concerned to help in any way we possibly can. And as we grow in holiness, we grow in love, one for another and the holiest Christian is the most loving Christian. You're a loving Christian. Is there any Christian you wouldn't speak to? Is there any Christian you find it hard to be civil and kind to? He who does not love his brother is a murderer. So loving, loving the brethren is very important. Huge stress laid upon it in scripture. An eighth point is witnessing, evangelizing, speaking to others about Christ. Telling forth the good news, having a compassion for men and women around you, your neighbors and your relatives and your friends and your workmates who are on the way to hell. What will they say to you if they end up in hell and you in heaven? Have you showing concern for them, compassion, trying to reach them with the gospel. Think of Acts chapter eight. After the death of Stephen, the church was scattered due to persecution. And they that were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. Now that word preaching there It's not heralding. It's not proclamation from a pulpit. It's evangelizing. It's gossiping the gospel, telling people about Christ and their need of Christ and how Christ can save them. Jonathan Edwards gives us one of his marks of at a time of revival, a mark of a Christian, mark of somebody who is converted. It's not so much conviction of sin. But when they come to the point where they start telling others about their need to be to be saved. That shows that they have passed from death unto life. They've been born again. and they have the heart of Christ who wept over Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that stonest the prophets, how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not. And then the final point. that I would mention in holiness. The final point is heavenly-minded. A heart set upon the things that are above, looking forward to being with Christ. I've heard the saying, maybe you've heard it yourself, so heavenly-minded that they're of no earthly use. Did you ever come across somebody like that? I've never found anybody who's so heavenly minded that they're no earthly use. But I've certainly found plenty who are so earthly minded that they're no heavenly use. The more heavenly minded we are, the more useful we are on earth to God and to man. Set your affections on things above. Seek those things that are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God, for your life is hid with Christ in God. Mortify your members which are upon the earth. Set your hearts upon heaven, upon the things above. Blessed are the pure at heart, for they shall see God. We want to see God, don't we? We want to be with him to see him as he is. And when we shall see him, we shall be like him, or we shall see him as he is, we shall be transformed by the vision of God. To see him is to be made like him. Holiness is to be heavenly minded. It's to be lifting your heart above the things of this world, seeing the things of this world as superficial, as trivial, as temporary. The best this world has is so small, so insignificant, but setting your heart on heaven, on eternity, to be with Christ, my beloved. My beloved is mine. My beloved, he's like the apple tree among the trees of the wood. I sat down under his shade with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me into his banqueting house and his banner over me was love. Is this your desire? To be with Christ, which is far better. I am in a straight betwixt two, said the apostle. To remain in the flesh is more needful for you, but to depart and to be with Christ is far better. Holiness. There we have some of the features of holiness. No holiness, no heaven. Are you a holy person? Have you begun to be holy? Well, if you haven't, it's time to begin. It's time to seek the Lord. Time to set your heart upon heavenly things. It's time to repent and be converted. And if you turn from your sins and put your faith in Christ, you'll be saved. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins. and you shall receive the Holy Ghost. Wonderful words of Peter. So if you're unconverted today, you need to be holy. But if you're a Christian, maybe you feel, well, I hope I'm a Christian. I feel I come very far short of what I should be. But Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you. I strive after holiness. Strive to be Christ-like. Let this mind be in you, which was in the Lord Jesus. Be followers together of Christ. Be holy. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Use the means of grace more and more, Don't be missing from the church services. Don't be missing from the prayer meeting. Don't be missing out on your daily reading of the scriptures. Don't be missing out on daily prayer, secret place prayer, and family prayer. Don't miss out on the sacraments, their means of grace too. the means of grace, they help us in our pursuit of holiness. Be ye holy, for I am holy. Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Let us pray. O Lord, our God, we thank Thee that Thou hast made provision for us in the Gospel. We thank Thee that we have a great God, a loving God, and a God who gives us His own Son to be our Saviour. We thank Thee that the Son of God is given to us, the Holy Spirit, shed abroad to apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ. We pray, O Lord, that the Spirit would work mightily in us, sanctify in us, preparing us for heaven, sanctify us through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Pardon all our sins for Jesus' sake. Amen.