Holiness Then and Now       Kelly Durant 2-19-12

Whenever I announce I will preach on holiness, most people’s eyes glaze over because most people do not know enough of what it is or how to define it to appreciate it. If I ask you what is holiness, some of you have a general idea. You might reply, it is God’s purity, God’s love, God’s grace but you & I are a part of a “Holiness Movement”, the Salvation Army, so really how do we understand it better? The dictionary defines “Holiness” is the state of being holy or sacred. Holiness is being clean or pure, to be holy is to be like God.   

Well, this doesn’t really tell us much, does it? Tell me how do we discern what is holy and what is sacred? The Egyptians had holy cows! And how do we know what God is like except by looking at his past interaction with people? What we do know is what God says is holy “is holy”, right? As in Exodus Moses was on holy ground because God was there in the burning bush. Exodus 3:5 And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

God created the world pure, and His love was pure & holy but after the sin of Adam and & Eve there was a separation of God from people because sin cannot be near what is holy or someone dies! Let’s go back to where holiness made its first appearance after the garden in Genesis then in Exodus.

Adam was holy and talked directly to God but after Adam’s fall God established a system to allow a only a few holy men, or prophets to communicate with Him. In the case of today we are looking at Moses. And why him? It must have been that he had a love for God, a purity of life, an obedience to God’s principles, an outstandingly strong spirit and dedication that even though he was weak in is old flesh, he pleased God above everyone else and he was therefore holy & chosen from birth.

As Moses leads God’s people on the next focus of the verses we read in Leviticus 18:4,5 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God. 3After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.4 Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God. 5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.  

These verses cause us to conclude that only following God’s ordinances will please him by separating ourselves from sinful others in the world. Leviticus 20:26 And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine. So holiness is a type of separation from the world and it’s customs so you can be used for God’s purpose. The implication is that the people of the world are so corrupted and condemned in darkness that God will not show himself to them.

In the verses in chapter 18 the Lord is basically saying, everything you use to know from your past culture, Egypt, and everything you will learn in the future about in the cultures in Canaan you must never accept, follow, conform to nor obey. What was being communicated was that all people of God in order to be separated and holy must follow and obey God’s commands only above any culture, nation, or people!

Why are we reviewing all of this? We must answer the question is: Are these principles still at work today for us as Christians?  We know we are “in” the world but not to be “of” the world!  We coexist in our world but still the implication is we bring God’s holy culture with us by non-conforming!

John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.18As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

Don’t forget that all the nations & cultures back then, as they are today, are full of people corrupted by self-serving-ness, and man-worshipping, material- idol worshipping-ness, being sexually perverted, arrogant, liars and even murders to gain what their objectives to serve their inordinate passions.

To be able to make yourself become holy was a complicated process before Jesus came. You would need to read and fully memorize all the commands in Leviticus to know what rites to practice to achieve a temporary purity. The 10 Commandments were only just a few of the these (and most people think they were the only laws), but there are several hundred more in the list with detailed processes and you had to live obsessed in the Torah, the law of God, to try and fulfill them from day to day and in seasons.

Holiness then, nor is it now, something that you could bring on yourself just by having lawful behavior or by having a spiritual life, and eating certain foods and praying in a certain way. Holiness then was what the priest would intercede for you to temporarily obtain through him.

The priest’s intereceding was a process of soul cleaning, the which was always getting dirty week to week, but by the sacrifice and suffering of bleeding to the death lambs and other animals you could temporarily buy God’s tolerance. And then you would repeat this over and over all your life. You had to suffer with the animal’s loss of life by a blood sacrifice to know how God felt about how He was suffering over your sins!

Imagine if you had to buy a lamb on your way to church today and really hope that God would be pleased enough with it, because if not you feared His severe judgment!

Divine holiness you could never get for yourself personally either, only the priest had the high status of being worthy of the real holiness. It was up to him to intercede for you in the collective group in the church synagogue asking God to accept the sacrifices as atonement for all the sins.  But if the priest had sin God would kill him right then!

But in the end, the priests were the judges and police of the land and any person were not obeying God, he or she would be brought to the priest for the punishment outlined in Leviticus.  39 ordinances required the death penalty. Thank God I do not have that job responsibility of having to execute judgment on those of you here in the Corps that fail God! Today, it is done by conviction of the Holy Spirit!

Imagine, back then, if someone were judged for committing a certain sin, then all of us in the synagogue would need to punish them and if it was a capital offense we would all go outside, pick up stones, and stone the person to death as guilty without any consideration that we are friends with their family, children, or if they were a relative! God’s law was strict & harsh to maintain holiness in the camp. The fear of God before kept the order of the law. And today, the fear of the law maintains order in society.

Before Christ, you being able to get enough purity, or holiness was a fearful process and it was enforced in the community by the religious law legislating authorities. Today we may compare this type of governing, or Theocracy, somewhat to certain Arab nations today where the spiritual authority also serves as the ruler and judge and executer of the law. Early Pilgrim settlements colonies in the US were like this as well.

How was the system changed with Jesus being the atonement?  Consider this, what is holy and what is not to God has not changed in essence. We must as Christians pursue holiness and promote our own pure holiness culture, our separated-ness, or non-conformance to conforming to the dictates of the corrupted culture around us.

And it seems in our society today the culture war is more intense and people want to make it that way so that you are either say you are with me or you are against me! And as in Joshua 24:15

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

So as Christians in our current world, how can we become holy without severe enforcement from the Captains or the leaders?  Today with Jesus, we are in the world but not of the world, which means we are like oil in the vinegar that never mixes, not like milk in the coffee that you cannot separate once mixed together!

2 Corinthians 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. This makes it clear, God’s people back in the OT time and today under Christ grace, are to live in a manner that is separated from the dirtiness and contamination caused by sin as the people of the world live.

But your holiness which is your salvation is your personal responsibility. Philippians 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

What is amazing, what is wonderful, and what is a real gift of the Holy Spirit is that now each of us, each individual person, you and I, can with Jesus Christ obtain holiness and purity without animal sacrifices and have it so much of it that we live guilt free with peace and happiness with our hearts full of love for the lost dirty ones in the world. That is why we are called “priests”, because we are as holy as they use to be!

Each person’s growth in holiness can be observed by you and I and we see it by how much love for Jesus you have. Love is manifested in attitude and good works done inside and outside the Corps. It is manifested in holy living and dedication, and you know your own holiness state better than anyone. Many of you have come a very along way and grown a lot in holiness in just a few years! And Jesus said Matthew 5:8

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

What concerns me and all Christian leaders, and what concerned Generals Booth of the beginning of The Salvation Army, and what should be of most important concern to you is:  Are you and I living holy enough lives to be used by God as He would like?  

Hebrews 12:14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

The proof of a holy life is evident in spiritual maturity, the ability to live in peace with others as you grow in love having love for others to win them with Jesus gospel of salvation. Our ultimate job is evangelism and copying Jesus, the preaching and winning of others to Jesus by our love and concern for them. To win people to Jesus we can do it best as He did it by being inclusive of all sinners with gentleness, forgiveness, and love as was shown to Mary Magdalene, Matthew, Zacharias and others. Basically Jesus’ purity convicted these people’s hearts to want to leave behind their sins of abusing others to satisfy their own greed.

So how will you obtain maturity to the point that you are in holiness as you should be? Is it just by the conviction you have to be separate from the vices of the world? Holiness is in its most part a full submission to Jesus in obedience to the truth revealed in His word. Jesus is THE example of what a “Holy person” should look like! Loving, forgiving, yet fighting against injustices! And preaching salvation all the time by deeds and words!

To know if you have real holiness in you, ask, do I have a heart full of love for God and others that is as passionate as Christ that I no longer have any pride or will but my desire is to do anything and everything possible to gain a lost soul for Jesus?

Holiness is about a connected-ness with God’s love and passionate about being obedient to Him, and His passion is new souls in His kingdom! Want more holiness? Ask God how to dedicate yourself in manner that is more pure, more dedicated, and more loving!

Thank God today that each of you can have holiness for yourself contrary to how it use to be before Jesus came!