Active Pursuit of Holiness in Christian Life

We've talked about several things in verse 1 about Paul exhorting and beseeching us to live in a manner that is pleasing to God. That is our great task, and the goal of sanctification in the end is that you and I please God in everything that we think, everything that we say, everything we do—that everything be brought in submission to His will.

We also learned that we are to excel. We're never to see our place in Christianity as having arrived, but that we are to continue to excel and want to do more, to want to be better, to strive to be more like Christ. We explained that this should never create in your heart the idea that you do not measure up. Why? Because you're not striving to enter God's love; you are striving in the midst of God's love, in the context of a love that you already possess because of the perfect person and work of Jesus Christ.

Verse 3: "For this is the will of God, your sanctification." We explained also here that your sanctification is not the totality of the will of God. There are many other things, many other aspects of the will of God, but sanctification is extremely important. I would say, in one sense, a lack of sanctification shuts the door in your life to the rest of God's will, whereas taking sanctification seriously opens the door to so many other opportunities and blessings that are ours in Christ.

Philippians 2:12 and 13 says, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." That really describes the dynamics, the pathology of spiritual life and sanctification. God has done a work in you; God has done a transforming work in you, and now it's your responsibility to let that inward work be manifest on the outside.

"Work out your salvation" doesn't mean "work for your salvation." It means to make manifest on the outside the salvation that God has wrought on the inside. God has done His will in you as a believer; God has done His work in you as a believer for His own good pleasure. You are regenerated; you are born again; you are transformed. Christianity is a total, complete transformation.

Now, the responsibility that the believer has is to let the inward work be manifest on the outer work, and you do that with fear and trembling. Why? Because it's not easy. It's a difficult work to do. It's hard to live a holy life; it's hard to live a godly life; it's hard to overcome the remaining flesh. But we have to remember that God is watching, and we do that with a sense of awe and a sense of trembling in the light of His chastening if we are disobedient.

So we, as believers, are called upon, having been given a new nature, having become new creations, old things passed away, and everything new, to so live to make that manifest.

Now, obviously, no one earns their salvation by works; it is a gift of grace through faith. But we are not passive in salvation; we must believe. Nor are we passive in sanctification; we must obey. True believers are commanded to obey, and this is how we work the inward work of God to the outside and make it manifest both to God and to men.

Sometimes I hear men, especially, use this excuse: "Well, all men struggle with sexual immorality." I want to take that away from you; that's not true. All men should fear sexual immorality; all men should constantly be aware of the dangers. But I want you to know not every man struggles with this. You need to understand that and not use it as a comfort for your own sin.

Now again, that's very hard, but it's very true. We all may struggle; we all struggle in certain areas. But don't think that because you struggle in a certain area, everyone else does, because that's simply not true. And you don't want to give your flesh comfort in this. There is power over sexual immorality; there is power regardless of how dangerous this sin is.

And if you don't think it's dangerous, then I would suggest you talk to three people: the pastor, the policeman, and the lawyer, because they will tell you that a great many crimes and dangers and horrible things that occur in this world flow out of this. This is not some harmless sin; this is not just a viewpoint that we ought to live in absolute moral freedom. This kills; it destroys more than any of us could ever know, and it doesn't just wreck the present generation; it wrecks generation after generation after generation.

Our Lord prays for the personal holiness of all those who are true believers. It is the holiness of God that demands the holiness of His people. Long ago, God said through the prophet Moses in Leviticus 11, verse 44, "Be holy, for I am holy." And in verse 45, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." It is incumbent upon every true believer to be pursuing holiness. Those who are not pursuing holiness are not true believers in the Lord. They may have a profession of faith, but they do not have the possession of faith. Holiness marks true believers.

In Leviticus 19, verse 2, God commands, "You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy." Unless any of us here today think that this is reserved only for the Old Testament, in 1 Peter 1, verse 15, Peter takes these very verses out of the Pentateuch and incorporates them in his New Testament epistle.

In 1 Peter 1, verse 15, Peter writes to the believers who are scattered abroad, "Like the Holy One who called you, be holy." That is an imperative command; it is incumbent, with apostolic authority, upon all of our lives to be holy, to be pursuing the holiness of God as reflected in our own lives.

Then Peter quotes in verse 16, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." Personal holiness is the one overriding desire of God for His people. We learn from the vision of God in Isaiah chapter 6 that the chief attribute of God is holiness. In Isaiah 6, verse 3, the seraphim around the throne are crying out, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty; heaven and earth is full of His glory."

The chief attribute of God is holiness, and the angels are not crying out, "Love, love, love," though God is love. The angels are not crying out even "omniscience, omniscience, omniscience," though God is omniscient. The angels are crying out that which most marks God: holiness. That God is transcendent; that God is majestic; that God is regal and royal; and that God is a cut above His creatures; that God is unlike us in every way.

If God is holy—and He is—what He requires of you and me, more than anything else, is our holiness. Abstinence from sexual immorality is one of the most essential and basic aspects or requirements of the Christian life. Keeping yourself pure from sexual immorality is one of the most basic and essential things. If you have not even accomplished this, you have not even arrived at the first rung of what it means to be a mature Christian.

Now, that sounds hard. I want to lay that before you because I am so sick and tired of hearing men across the nation whine about the power of this when I know God has given us power over it. And thinking it's almost an acceptable thing that you can have this and still do Christianity—no! If you are doing this, you've not even made it to the first rung of Christianity. You're not even walking baby steps in Christianity.

And I don't care how many books you've read; I don't care how much theology you know; and I don't care how much wisdom you think that you possess—you've touched nothing of maturity. This is extremely important to understand.

There has always been this notion that God has done this monergistic work in you, and He's done it all in you, and now sanctification is sort of in His hands. And there's this sort of quietist idea: "Let go and let God," just kick back, relax, sort of swim in grace, and don't worry about anything. Don't let anybody impose law on you, imperatives, commands—nothing could be further from the truth of Scripture.

The New Testament, as you well know, is loaded with commands, and they are commands for you based on the power that is now in you and the newness of the new creation that God has wrought in you—the new man, the new self. You are to work that to the outside so that it is manifest to all who see it.

2 Corinthians 7:1: "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." What an amazing statement! We are the ones who are called to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and thus perfecting the work of holiness. That is a responsibility for the believer.

We are called to pursue holiness, godliness, virtue, and sanctification. In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1, we are called to walk worthy. We are to be worthy of the calling to which we are called. This is what the Christian life and sanctification is all about.

In the sixth chapter of Romans, verse 19, Paul says, "I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity unto lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification." There again, a command to present your members—all your faculties—as instruments of righteousness. This is the primary pursuit of your life as a believer.

The primary pursuit of your life. Then again, in Philippians 2:12, the verb is "work out." "Work out"—that's "katergazomai," a very strong verb. It's symphonic; it's intense, and it's reflexive. That is, it reflects back on you: you be working out your salvation so that it's manifest on the outside that you have been changed on the inside.

The verb could be translated "labor," "work," "achieve," "produce," "bring about" for yourself the revelation that manifests on the outside of the transformation that God has wrought on the inside. This call to godly virtue, this call to godly behavior, is not easy because we're fighting against the flesh.

Paul even uses this same kind of language in Romans 7 when he says, "I'm trying to work it out, but the things that I want to do, I'm not doing; the things I'm doing are the things I don't want to do." There's a wretchedness in me; there's another principle operative in me that hinders me from this progress in sanctification. It is a struggle; that is why we do it with fear and trembling.

But I can assure you that some of the most twisted and perverted things that have entered into the mind of man began with something much simpler, something not as heinous. But as a man gives himself to one thing, then he gives himself to another thing, then he gives himself to another thing, and another thing, and another thing until his conscience is gone.

This is true. This is why especially young men should guard their eyes—guard their eyes, guard their eyes—because it won't stay there. Once you fed on a tiny thing, you'll want more, and then you'll want more, and then a thing that was very dark will no longer be dark enough, and then you have to go to another dark thing until finally you are consumed with darkness.

You must understand that it's like when I worked with drug addicts in Peru and even here in the United States when I was younger as a Christian. They would always say, "Your entire life as a drug addict is chasing that first high." That first high is so good, and you spend the rest of your life chasing it again because no matter how much more you increase, it's not enough. And you just keep chasing and chasing and going deeper until you are lost.

The second aspect of sanctification is what we call progressive sanctification, and that is in the present. It is our lifelong pursuit of holiness by which we are becoming increasingly more and more holy or holier experientially in the reality of my daily walk.

1 Corinthians 1, verse 2: "To the Church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Jesus Christ." And 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 3 makes it abundantly clear: "For this is the will of God, your sanctification."

So there must be progressive, ongoing growth in personal holiness. Everyone who is positionally sanctified at the moment of their regeneration will be progressively pursuing holiness. There are no exceptions to this. There is no one who has been positionally sanctified who will not be progressively being sanctified by the Spirit of God.

That is why the lifelong carnal Christian is a total myth. That person does not exist; that is a false theology because everyone who has been positionally sanctified will be progressively sanctified.

Now third, there is perfected sanctification—that is future. Positional is past; progressive is present; perfected is future, and that is our final glorification. That is the consummation of our sanctification when one day we will be perfectly blameless before the Lord.

Another point: those who habitually practice sexual immorality of any type will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. This is what you need to understand. We don't say these things anymore, do we? But the Bible most certainly does, and I'm going to read you several texts.

Now again, we're not talking about a genuine believer struggling against this sin, learning to overcome and eventually overcoming, but we're talking about someone who never gives way, who never makes headway, who never makes progress in this area, who's always enslaved to this for the rest of their life and who finally gives themselves up to it.

This is what the Bible says: 1 Corinthians 6:9: "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminates, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." They are called these things because they habitually practice them; they habitually practice them.

Galatians 5:21: "I forewarned you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things—immorality and sensuality—will not inherit the kingdom of God." Immorality and sensuality.

I think something I need to stop and point out here: one of the evidences that there are so many unconverted people in the church is that there is so much sensuality in the church. God is not against beauty; He's not against refinement; He's not against a person demonstrating in their manner, their style, in their clothing, in their speech, even grace in the way they walk. God is not against such things, but sensuality—God hates it. He hates it.

And there has been such a confusion between that which is beautiful—and I'm not just talking about women; I'm talking about men—and that which is sensual. We are to be, as limited as some of us are, a beautiful people, but never sensual people.

As an itinerant preacher, it's horrible that a man must be prayed up to go into some churches. It's wrong; it's wrong.

Also, Ephesians 5:5 and 6: "For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience."

Look how many times Paul is warning us that it is a sure word, and we should not be deceived. "For this you know with certainty that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God."

And then again, "Let no one deceive you with empty words." God makes us new creations in Christ. Now listen to this: as a new creation, you are changed. You are not who you were; you are not who you were. You are now righteous—not just declared righteous, but you have been recreated in righteousness. You have been recreated in a more God-like way.

There were ways in which you were created in the image of God in your unregenerate form, but there are ways in which you are now recreated in the image of God in your spiritual form. You are called saints; you are declared to be sanctified; you are converted. You were a slave of sin in Romans 6, and now you're a slave of righteousness.

In your slavery to sin, it was just ever-increasing manifestations of sin. Now, as a slave of righteousness, Romans 6 says it's ever-increasing evidences of righteousness. And this is the whole point of Colossians chapter 3: to command us to live on the outside what God has made us on the inside.

We are new; we need to live in a way consistent with that newness. It's very popular today to say you believe in Jesus and you trust Jesus. You might be a homosexual politician and say Jesus is your savior. You find this everywhere. You might be a pastor who says Jesus is your savior, and then people find out you've been living in adultery multiple times, and you register that to God's grace and mercy on your behalf.

You can almost live any kind of life today. You can almost live any kind of life, and if you say you believe in Jesus, that would qualify you as a Christian. True Christians are transformed people. They are transformed people; they are made righteous, and they manifest that righteousness and are commanded to continually manifest more of that righteousness.

You have love; you need more love. You have virtue; you need more virtue, and so forth. You see, sanctification is a synergistic work. It is something that is done by God; it is something that we respond to. And yet we have many great promises that He who began a good work in us will finish it.

It doesn't mean that we'll all cross the finish line perfect. As a matter of fact, none of us will until we reach that glorified state in heaven. Yet the Bible does teach that all the days of a man's life, God will work in that man, if he's truly a believer, bringing him to sanctification, bringing him to greater and greater Christ-likeness.

Colossians 3:6: "For it is because of these things—immorality, etc.—that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience." These types of sins, sexual sins, are characteristic of the sons of disobedience, and God is justified when He comes against them in His wrath.

Revelation 21:7-8: "He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be My people. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

Believers, many of them before they became believers, were in bondage to sexual immorality. But when they were converted, that bondage was broken. And of course, that freedom had to work itself out. Sometimes people were freed immediately and never had another problem; other times, people are freed by the power of God. They're given a new nature, and yet for some time they will struggle against the ingrained habits of their flesh, but they will overcome.

I am coming to believe more and more as I get older that I am not so much on this Earth to do great deeds of ministry, but I am on this Earth to overcome the deficiencies in my character. I am here to overcome that which is lacking with regard to conformity to Jesus Christ.

And I do believe that overcoming those things is absolutely essential. We're all so outward, outward, outward, aren't we? "Got to do this, and got to do that, got to help these people, got to fix them, got to do all sorts of things." And constantly in my own heart, I'm hearing, "Physician, heal yourself."

That we are to look at the sins that beset us in our own life, and we are to attack them as Phineas attacked, drive a stake straight through their heart. I'm convinced you'll be a holy man; you won't have to worry about anything else. God will use you. Even if you're dumb as a rock, He'll use you if you are a holy man and woman.