It's time now for the chapel hour coming to you from the campus of Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Following the introduction by Dr. Dick Stratton, our speaker will be Dr. Greg Mazak, Chairman of the Division of Psychology at BJU. He brought this message during a recent Bible study luncheon held on the university campus. The title of his message is, Is Holiness an Option? Our speaker today is Dr. Greg Mazak. He is the chairman of the Division of Psychology here at the university. He is a student favorite. Students love to take his classes. I hope it's not because he's really easy in his teaching. No, I think it's because of the substance that they get and the presentation and how he gives the truth. And I am always happy to have Dr. Mazak speak to us because He presents truths that are very important to us, but also in a very interesting way. So I'll ask him to come now, Dr. Mazak. Certainly a privilege for me to be here again. I've been coming to this once a year for a number of years, and I'm thankful for the opportunity. It's always a mixed blessing. I sat down to eat today and got to meet some new friends, as I always look forward to doing. And one of them looked at me and said, well, how come there's so little on your plate? And I said, because I'm speaking. And, you know, to come to something where the food is so good and to speak is kind of a mixed blessing, because you'd love to just fill your plate up and have a lot to eat. And then you're realizing that that's probably not the best thing to do. But you should have a handout at your table, I hope. And I brought some handouts with me. And the front of that is called Is Holiness an Option? And I'd like to just spend a little bit of time here today talking about that very important question. And maybe a way to introduce this would be to talk a little bit about baseball. How many of you consider yourself Major League Baseball fans? You've been following spring training a little bit, OK? I consider myself a Cleveland Indians fan, OK? And I've been a Cleveland, some of you are jealous, all right? I consider myself a Cleveland Indians fan. And if you knew me real well, you probably know that I'm a little bit of an Indians fan. I don't consider myself incredibly much so, but I like to follow the tribe. And in fact, if you knew me real well, you'd notice that I have some things around the house. For example, I have a starter jacket. It's a Cleveland Indians jacket, which I never wear, you know, to work in the yard or something. I only wear it when I'm going someplace and I want to look nice. I have a couple of Cleveland Indians t-shirts, and I never paint in those t-shirts. I never work on my truck in those t-shirts. Those are shirts that are strictly for when I go out, you know, for a fun time when I visit Home Depot or someplace like that. I put on my Cleveland Indians t-shirt. I have a Cleveland Indian sweatshirt and I like to wear that. I like to sleep in my Cleveland Indian sweatshirt. Again, I don't wear it around the yard or anything because I do that with my non-Cleveland Indian sweatshirts. I have two Cleveland Indian ball caps. One's just a regular Chief Wahoo hat. One I got from the, when they were in the series a couple years back in 95. Okay. So I have a number of things. I have a rug. It's about four by four that has Chief Wahoo on it. But I have it under my bed because I'm afraid if I put it on the floor, people will step on it and then you won't see the cheap Wahoo, you know, and it'll be dirty. And so I'm waiting actually till I find the place and I'm going to hang it on the wall once I find a good place for it, because I don't think it's the kind of rug that should be on the floor. Now you say, well, what's your point? I got other things, too, but I won't bore you. Now, what's my point? If I said to you or let me if I said I'm a Cleveland Indians fan and you said, Greg, you're an Indians fan. How did they do last year? I don't know. Who's your who's your favorite player? I don't know. How do you think they'll do this year? I don't know. Do you have a hat? No. T-shirt? No. Sweatshirt? No. Rug? No. You have anything with Chief Wahoo on it? No. Who's Chief Wahoo? You'd say, now, wait a second. You're telling me you're a Cleveland Indians fan. And yet there's absolutely no evidence of it. How can that be? And I am greatly troubled as a youth pastor and a college professor. I am greatly troubled by the number of people who will stand up and say, I am a Christian. It's very clear. I have put my faith in Christ. I can give you the day. I can give you the moment. I can tell you who I prayed with. I can tell you whose hand I shook. I can tell you the card I filled out. Buddy, I have it down to a date. I've done it. And yet there's no evidence. Or maybe evidence just for a small period of time. And that's a dilemma. Because I think most of us who attend church, most of us who would consider ourselves Christian, we know people who will say, yes, I'm a Christian. But there's absolutely no evidence of it. If I could put it this way, there's absolutely no holiness in their life. The question then becomes, is that person really a Christian? Well, many people would say, yes, they're Christians. But here's some typical explanations. They're Christians, but they never grew. They're Christians, but they're just not disciples. See, there's Christians and there's disciples, and they've never become a disciple. They're just a Christian. Others would say, well, they're really born again, but I've just never really lived like it. And you say, well, how do they justify this? Well, generally, the alleged basis for this will be some type of what I'll call two step Christianity. And many people believe that there's two steps to Christianity. Step number one is come to Christ. And if you come to Christ, you'll be a Christian, right? And so we'll give a verse, something like Romans 10, 9. If you'll confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. So you say, OK, I'm saved. And then they'll say, OK, are you ready for step two? What is step two? You call it anything you want. You could call it sanctification. You could call it holiness. People from a charismatic background will call it the second blessing. People from non-charismatic backgrounds typically call it entering the deeper life or the victorious Christian life or surrendering yourself to God. And this is frequently how people talk. And you say, what is the result? Well, the result of that, I think, is really quite unfortunate. And a number of things happen when we teach this that I think are a real problem. For example, number one, it gives those who claim to know Christ but really don't false hope. I remember vividly the time I was down in the Greenville Detention Center talking through the glass over the microphone to a young lady who was an inmate there at the center. And I had my Bible open up to the glass and I was holding it to her and I was reading verses through the speaker to her. I know her parents and her very well. And I read verses to her and she listened because, see, if you're down there, visitors are only allowed to come a couple of days a week. But if you're so-called clergy, you can come any time you want. And it's a treat for them to get out of their cell. So even if they don't want to listen to you, they want to go for a walk. So they'll come. So I'd go to speak with her and she never turned me down. She would come and I would read the Bible right through the glass, right over the little microphone to her. And I would read it to her and I'd say, what do you think? She'd say, I don't believe it. I say, but this is Jesus Christ here. And she would say, that's fine. I'm glad you like it. I'm not interested. And so I go home and I talk to her parents on the phone and they would say, Greg, how's it going? And I'd say, I'm praying for your daughter's salvation. I'm praying that your daughter would come to know Christ. And you know, her mom actually got mad at me. Who do you think you are to say she's not a Christian? In fourth grade, she got saved. And I still remember the day. Just because she was living with the guy she wasn't married to, just because she has no desire to pray, go to church, read her Bible, just because she's in jail on a felony charge, just because she says the Bible is not the Word of God, and just because she doesn't care about Jesus Christ, you can't tell me she's not saved. I saw it. And she was angry with me. You say, what was her assumption? That basically there's two steps to Christianity. that you get saved, you become a Christian, and then if you're really into it, you know, like if you're really serious about it, you can become to live a holy life. But you don't have to. You can go on and live your same old sinful life, but you still have a ticket to heaven in your pocket and you'll be fine. And that's what many people teach. And that's a problem. A second problem is that those who are serious about living for Christ develop a sense of pride. Are you a Christian? Buddy, I'm not only a Christian, I'm a disciple. You're only a Christian. I surrendered. You only know Christ. I'm in the deeper. You ought to be like me. I'm a second step Christian. I'm serious about this thing. And we walk around with the sense of pride. I mean, hey, I must be a second step Christian. I even speak at business luncheons. Right. I mean, I must be way up here, you know. And you say, how about other people who don't live for Christ? They're probably saved, but just never hit step two or number three on the sheet there. You see, it implies that the same Lord who is powerful enough to save a sinner from hell is not powerful enough to change the person he saves. And I think that's an insult to the Lord Jesus Christ, that somehow he's strong enough to save me from having to spend eternity in hell. But he's not able to change my life in the meantime. Finally, a fourth unfortunate result, it teaches that holiness is not required of Christians, reducing it to the category of what I like to call nice, but not necessary. Kind of like leather seats in your car. How many of you have leather seats in your car? Is that too personal to ask? Is that okay? Okay. Some of you do. How many of you don't have leather seats in your car? Now, I don't have leather seats in my truck. Okay. I don't have it. All right. Do I still have a truck? Yes. Are leather seats necessary? No. Nice. Not necessary. How many of you have a Bradford pear tree in your yard? I think half of Greenville does. All right. How many of you don't have a Bradford pear tree? Raise a hand. OK, some people do. Some people don't. And you know what? Either way, you can still be a homeowner. And for many Christians, that's what they believe holiness is. I've come to Christ. I know I'm saved. Are you going to lead a holy life? It's kind of like planting a Bradford pear. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. It's kind of like leather seats. Maybe one day I'll get them, maybe I won't. Either way, I'm fine, because holiness is not an option. You say, is that true? Well, if you flip over to page two here, obviously the key has to be not what do I think, not what does your church teach, but the key must be what does the Word of God say? And here's what the Word of God says, and I'm reading Hebrews 12, 14 from the sheet. Follow peace with all men and holiness. And notice what comes next. Without which no man shall see the Lord. You must evidence holiness if you hope to see the Lord. The Bible says follow peace with all men and holiness. You say, what does holiness mean? Well, holiness is talking there of sanctification. You say, what kind of sanctification? Well, for those of you, I know many of you do read a little bit of theology. You know, there's basically three types of sanctification. There's positional. That's when a person gets saved and they're declared righteous. There's practical. That's as you grow through your daily life. And there's final ultimate. That's when we see Jesus Christ and we shall be like him, for we shall see him just as he is. John writes in 1 John. OK, you say, what is the author of Hebrews referring to here? He's obviously referring to our practical sanctification, our everyday life. You say, how do you know that? Well, look at the verse. Pursue or follow peace with all men and holiness. You can't pursue positional sanctification. It's a declaration of God. Either God declares me righteous or he doesn't. Either I've accepted Christ or I haven't. You can't really pursue that. It's certainly not talking about glorification because that happens at death. If you tell me pursue glorification, that's like saying commit suicide, right? I mean, obviously that can't be it. So what am I left with? Positional sanctification, which means Hebrews 12, 14 means follow peace with all men and the practical everyday holiness without which no man will see the Lord. The clear teaching here is only those who evidence holiness will see the Lord. I think of the words of Jesus. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. You say, what about those who are not pure in heart? They shall not see God. That is the clear teaching of Scripture. Holiness is not an option. Now, some people are thinking, are you saying that some Christians who don't have holiness will not go to heaven? No, I am not saying that because there's never been a such thing as a Christian who didn't have holiness. You say, what do you mean? Well, let's look at the second point here. And my second point is based on Second Corinthians 517. You will evidence holiness if you are in Christ. Second Corinthians 517, my guess is a number of you could recite it from heart. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. If any man is in Christ, Now, what does it mean to be in Christ? That's just another way of saying being a Christian, being saved. I give you a reference here from Ephesians 1 that I won't read because of time. But what I'm simply saying is when you're saved, you're put in Christ. When you become a Christian, you're in Christ. What does this verse teach? Three things. If any man is in Christ, he's a new creation, a new creation. You say, Greg, I know people that have come to God, come to the Lord, profess Jesus as Lord, and they've never changed. I would say, no, you don't. No, you don't. You know people that have prayed a prayer. You know people that have made a decision. But my Bible says, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. You say, you think that applies to everybody? My Bible says it's true of any man. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. I was at breakfast once with the father of one of the girls in my youth group, unfortunately. And I was talking to him about his wayward daughter. And I basically closed and said, how about if we pray for you, your daughter, and let's pray that she would come to know Jesus Christ. I'm buying the guy breakfast and he got mad at me. Greg, how can you say she doesn't know Christ? If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. I said, sir, does your daughter show any... I don't mean she has to be perfect. I'm not perfect. You're not perfect. Sir, has your daughter changed at all since she's come to Christ allegedly? Well, no. Does she show any evidence of being a new creature? Well, no, but that doesn't mean she doesn't know Christ. But my Bible says if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. But then it even says more. All things are passed away. You say, what does that mean? Well, not to bore you with Greek grammar, but there's something called an heiress, which talks about a point action. And this verse can be translated, if any man is in Christ, once upon a time, at the moment he came to Christ, all things passed away. There was a change. You say, what happened in its place? It then says, with a perfect tense, referring to something that happened in the past and continues to the present, new things have come. And I can paraphrase this verse, if any man is in Christ, He not only became a new creature, but all things passed away and new things continue to come. If I could say that differently, all Christians will evidence holiness. There was a young lady that was expelled from our high school here, and I knew her family very well. And at her parents request, I would come and visit her because she was engaged in alcohol, engaged in various types of drugs and engaged in various illegal activities, very immoral life. And in the living room there, I basically pleaded with her to come to Christ. And she got mad at me. She said, who do you think you are telling me I'm not a Christian? And I would pray and leave, come back, the same thing would happen. Finally, one day, I said, how do you know you're a Christian? She said, because once I was at a camp, and at the camp I prayed with a guy, and the guy told me, never let anybody tell you you're not a Christian because you prayed this prayer. And I said, I'm sorry he told you that, but that was incorrect advice. Well, she really got mad at me and said some things that were very unkind. Now this story has a wonderful ending. This girl, living with her boyfriend, Using drugs involved in illegal activity, one morning gets out of bed and just completely out of the blue dropped to her knees and cried out to God and said, Dear God, please forgive me for my sin. I need to become a Christian. She got off her knees. She walked right out of the apartment. Went to a girlfriend's house. Stayed there for a night. Girlfriend's dad called me. Came and lived with us for a little while. And is to this day leading an exemplary life of a person who's been born again by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what she told my wife? She said, can you... My wife's here, by the way. She said to my wife, can you help me get some new clothes? I don't want to dress that way anymore. Christ is in my heart and I know I need to be different. You know what she said to her parents? Can I live someplace else? I don't want to be with those old friends who are always committing sexual sin and using drugs. I want to find some new friends. And I'm afraid if I'm with the old friends, I'll go back to my old ways. Can I maybe move someplace else? You say, what's that called? That's evidence of a changed heart. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. All things have passed away. New things have come. Now, some of you might be thinking, You're trying to tell me if a person doesn't have holiness, they're not a Christian. That is exactly my point. And if you look at Roman numeral three, you'll see that those who lead a lifestyle that is consistently unrighteous shall not inherit God's kingdom. I give you a quote from First Corinthians six, nine and ten. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God." That's what Paul believed. 1 Corinthians 6. You say that's only 1 Corinthians 6. Let's go to the next one, Galatians 5. The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanliness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, Emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, endings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like of which I tell you before, as I have told you in time past. Now look at what the Bible says. They which do, the idea continually do such things, shall not inherit the kingdom of God. You see, that's just Paul. Let's go to the next reference by John. And hereby we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I knoweth him, and keepeth not his commandments as a liar. And the truth is not in him. Two months ago, there was a university student that was expelled. They say shipped. I like to say non-voluntarily disenrolled. And so he was no longer a student here. And I met with him. And I said to him, let's just start with one thing very clear. We'll just call him Johnny. That's not his name. I said, Johnny, are you a Christian? He said, absolutely. I said, how do you know you're a Christian? He said, well, because I got saved when I was such and such. OK, I say, Johnny, you ever read your Bible? He says, no. Johnny, you ever pray? No. Johnny, do you even want to do those things? He says, to be honest with you, I don't. I know I should, but I just don't want to. Johnny, you want to go to church to hear preaching? No. Johnny, do you enjoy the kind of things that you're doing? He said, yeah, I do. And you know, you're saved. He said, yes. I said, can we look at some verses together? He said, sure. We looked at the verses when we're all done. I said, Johnny, are you a Christian? And basically, he said, it depends whether the Bible is true or not. If the Bible is true, I'm not a Christian. I prayed to get saved, but what those verses say clearly means that I'm not a Christian. I said, do you believe the Bible is true? He said, to be honest with you, I do. I said, what are you going to do? He said, I need to ask Christ to save me. And I said, listen, don't you know, I said, don't do this for me. I said, obviously, you know, that's what I'd love to have done. I said, please don't do it. He said, I want to do it. I said, why don't you think about it? I'll call you tomorrow. And if you want to tomorrow, we can. He said, no, right now. I said, well, not not just to please. He says, no. I believe the Bible's true and it's very clear. There is absolutely no evidence of holiness in my life. I cannot be a Christian. I need to become one. And we prayed. And he called upon the name of the Lord to save him from a life of sin. Holiness is not an option. Not an option at all. Now I've been teaching this over the years. It's kind of a nice thing to be a teacher because you can teach the same thing year after year and you get a good feel for what kind of questions your students have. But one of the first questions a student will ask me is, Dr. Mazak, you're trying to tell me that a Christian can lose his salvation. And I don't believe that at all. I personally believe the Bible is very dogmatic. A Christian can't lose his or her salvation. But I'm going to drop down there to an illustration that my pastor, Dr. Custer, uses. Let's say there's an animal. that lives in the mud, enjoys the mud, and has no desire to get out of the mud. He's at home in the mud. What kind of animal is that? That's obviously a pig. Let's say there's an animal walking down the path. Let's say that this animal walking down the path is a sheep. It sees the mud. It's attracted to the mud. It will even jump in the mud. But once it jumps in the mud, what will that sheep do? Will that sheep stay in the mud and say, hot dog? That's kind of bad, huh? Hot dog, this is where I belong. Will a sheep say that? No. A sheep will get out of the mud. A sheep will always get out of the mud because a sheep is not a pig. A sheep is a sheep. Now let me change it a little bit. An animal that lives in the mud, enjoys the mud, and has no desire to get out of the mud, that looks like a pig, lives like a pig, and loves the pig lifestyle, yet says, meh. That's nice. What kind of animal is that? I would submit to you that is a pig that has learned sheep talk. OK, that is a pig that has learned sheep talk. OK, now let me make the application to people, a person, listen, a person who lives a consistent lifestyle of sin. enjoys his sin, has no desire to get out of his sin, that looks like a non-Christian, that lives like a non-Christian, that loves the non-Christian lifestyle, yet says, Jesus is my Lord. What kind of person is that? I wouldn't dare to pass judgment. I'll simply quote the Lord Jesus Christ. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity." I had a young man go through my youth group. never has shown the slightest spiritual interest, never has shown any desire to live for Christ at all, has been involved in things that simply a Christian should not be involved in. I pretty much figured he wasn't a Christian. I certainly am not his judge. Christ is his judge. It was such a blessing that about six months ago, he called me up out of the blue. He's been in college for a while and said, Pastor Mazak, can I come over and talk? And I thought, wow, I wonder what this is about. What a blessing to have him sitting in my family room and saying, I need to talk to somebody because I'm not a Christian and I need to come to know Christ. What am I saying? Holiness is not an option. I have a second question there that I'm not going to address because of time. But if you find that interesting, please look at that, because I'm certainly not saying that you have to become holy before you can become a Christian. And if you're here this afternoon and not knowing Christ, I'm in no way saying that you need to clean up your life and come to Christ. I guess what I'm saying is this, people. Christianity is not a ticket that says, admit one, come as you are. Christianity is a ticket that says, admit one and be changed on the way. Because a salvation that will save you from hell is a salvation that will change your life in this world as well. And I am greatly concerned that when we come across people who show no evidence of holiness, even though they know the right things to say, that we lovingly and kindly reach out to them with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, a gospel that not only saves a person from hell, but changes the life on the way to heaven. And I'd even suggest this, and I certainly don't mean to be impolite or disrespectful at all, but if you would be here today, and you would say to me, you know, Greg, I'll be honest with you, if you asked my spouse, if you asked my children, if you asked my co-workers, my boss, my neighbors, if you asked all the people who know me, is there any evidence of holiness in my life, they would probably laugh at you. Because there's absolutely none. My life is consistently a self-centered, sinful life. Then the words of Scripture are true for you, that if you would confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, then you too can be saved. Holiness is not an option. Thank you. You've been listening to the Chapel Hour, coming to you from the campus of Bob Jones University. Our speaker was Dr. Greg Mazak, Chairman of the Division of Psychology at BJU. If you'd like a cassette copy of today's message, send a check for $7 to Campus Store, Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina 29614. Be sure to mention the name of the speaker and today's date. The Chapel Hour has been sponsored by Bob Jones University.