In the three week sermon series that I just wrapped up this past Sunday, Jesus Prays for His Church, we took a look at the five desires that Jesus expressed for His Church in this longest recorded prayer of his earthly ministry. Last Thursday (see April 10th posting) I referred to the first of these five desires (joy). Today a quick consideration of the second desire Jesus expressed, that of holiness. In John 17:17 Jesus prayed to His Father, "Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth." The word for sanctify here means "to set apart." Jesus is praying that God would set his followers apart ... apart from sin to righteousness, from the ways of the world and the ways of self to the ways of God. In other words, he was asking God to make us HOLY. So at the end of the day, if we are following Jesus as individuals and as a church, we must be DIFFERENT from the world around us ... a world that is living in defiance of and rebellion against God.During my message in talking about holiness, I recommended what just may be the classic work on personal holiness - at least in the last three decades. It is Jerry Bridges' book, The Pursuit of Holiness. Now, in making this recommendation I had better issue you a warning. IF you are comfortable with the status quo. If you are just cruising along, content with a form of "casual Christianity" then DO NOT READ THIS BOOK! However, if you want to be challenged to grow in your own personal holiness, then I heartily commend this book to you. Just to wet your spiritual appetites, here is a powerful excerpt from this book. Read on ONLY if you are ready to be hammered with a spiritual 2x4!
"It is time for Christians to face up to our responsibility for holiness. too often we say we are 'defeated' by this or that sin. No, we are not defeated; we are simply disobedient! It might be well if we stopped using the terms 'victory' and 'defeat' to describe our progress in holiness. Rather we should use the terms 'obedience' and 'disobedience.' When I say I am defeated by some sin, I am unconsciously slipping out from under my responsibility. I am saying something outside of me has defeated me. But when I say I am disobedient, that places the responsibility for my sin squarely on me. We may, in fact, be defeated, but the reason we are defeated is because we have chosen to disobey. We have chosen to entertain lustful thoughts, or to harbor resentment, or to shade the truth a little. We need to brace ourselves up, and to realize that we are responsible for our thoughts, attitudes and actions" (pp. 84-85).
Ouch! That hurt!
Thanks for stopping by . . .
pj
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