chapter 6 live

8/14/2019 Chapter 6 Live

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Beloved Believer

Chapter 6

Live

Oh! For a beautiful soulI will give all things

For a beautiful soul

I will do all thingsFor a beautiful soul

I would kill this fleshFor a beautiful soul

I will cling to youMy beautiful one

That you may make meA beautiful soul

I will weep to youWalk with youLive for youDie for you

If I may but haveA beautiful soul

Beautiful Jesus:

How extravagantly bright is the beauty of Jesus Christ! His holiness and Hisperfection are dazzling beyond compare and can barely reach our tiny imaginations.

The thought of one day being perfect in holiness as is Jesus is our motivation andour endurance and our extreme hope. The church and Christs bride will bespotless. We will be made beautiful together forever. My! What awesome gifts andpromises God gives to men. The beauty of cleanness and perfection and total,undefiled allegiance to the one and only creator, God our Father through JesusChrist is a glorious gift that no gratitude could even touch.

There are no words in any language to adequately describe the beauty of ourLord Jesus. He is the exact representation of the Father. He is perfect in obedience,love and humility. When He walked on the earth he showed abundant compassion tothose who sought His favor. We know from personal experience His loving care andfaithfulness. Only Jesus was able to be our lamb because He is the Holy God


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incarnate. To sacrifice Holy Jesus in a mans lowly body to satisfy the justice of aHoly God for an unholy bunch of people, is the epitome of beauty. The bearing of

The Holy God with his unholy people by way of the Holy Jesus, is a most beautifullove. The working in the unholy people to make them holy for Our Holy God to beone with Our Holy Jesus forever; what perfect and beautiful intelligence and power! Igrasp for a description of holiness like grasping air. It can be felt, known, seen,

tasted and talked about but it is all the same indescribable. Holiness is the beautyof God. Holiness is God and God is Holiness. Holiness is much, much more that theabsence of sin. Perfection seems a cold word to describe holiness although itcertainly applies. Holiness is the perfection of all that is good. Since ourunderstanding of perfect good is limited because of our humanness, holiness is hardto fully grasp intellectually.

What would keep us from this precious beauty of Jesus Christ? What couldwe possibly want above the holiness that He promises and is working in us and thatHe shows us in Himself?

Ex 15:11Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in

holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

Psalm 27:4One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwellin the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty ofthe Lord and to inquire in his temple.

Psalm 50:2Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.

Psalm 96:6Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in hissanctuary.

In Jesus is all that is good. Without Him there is no knowledge of good. InJesus is all true beauty. How could we know any beauty in this life or the nextwithout Him? The beauty of His creation, created perfect. Even tainted by sinGods creation takes our breath away in its beauty. Jesus is perfectly perfect, holy,worthy and able for all good and no evil. God alone is holy. He offers Himself to usin Jesus and accepts us in entirety. He gives us all of Himself in Jesus. We mustyield to Him all of ourselves to see his beautiful holiness to the utmost and to see itin us.

Necessity for Holiness:

1 Chron 16:29 and Psalm 96:8-9


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Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and comeinto his courts! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremblebefore him, all the earth!

Psalm 29:2Ascribe to the lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the

splendor of holiness.

Both men and angels are directed to worship the Lord in the splendor ofholiness. The splendor of holiness in all three verses may also be stated holyattire. Without holiness there is no worship. The need for holiness is repeated inthe same way in these verses, giving strength to the directive. There are manyother places in the Bible where we are directed to cleanness and rightness beforethe Lord. Jesus is our cleanness and our rightness but holiness not an unseen thing.Holiness is to be evidenced in our lives; proving Gods glory to mankind. Ourholiness ascribes to the Lord the glory due His name. We need it. We ought todesire it more and we ought to reject the idea that it is pass since we are soevolved and tolerant. God demands holiness for right fellowship with Him and

eternal salvation. God provides what He has demanded. Let us receive and pursuewhat has been given, namely Jesus.

Mighty God, you are holy. You call us to be holy. Give us a fresh mind with respectto our hope in your Son and in all He has done for us. Give your people a zeal foryour name.

1 Peter 1:14As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your formerignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all yourconduct, since it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy.

In general conversation among Christians there is not much talk of holiness.We should talk more about holiness. We should expound more to each other theholiness of Jesus with a little less emphasis on how He loves us as we are. He doeslove each one of His children to the utmost this moment. Let the realization of Hisgreat love draw us to Him to be holy as He is holy. Gods love is absolutelynecessary and wonderful and beautiful. But it is the holiness of Jesus that gives usour only hope. Without holiness no one will see the Lord. (Heb 14). Our holiness tosee God is Jesus. Without Jesus holiness, we have no reason to think about seekingGod because we would not see Him. We would have no place before His throne toask anything. Without Jesus holiness we would have no right to ask God to acceptus. We could ask if we knew to ask (which we wouldnt) but it would not be granted.Without holiness no one can have audience with God. Not me, not you, not a singleperson ever born or to be born or who was not born. Jesus sits at the right hand ofGod and has full access to God the Father at all times. In Jesus, because of Hisholiness, we too have this access to the Father.

Jesus holiness seen in his children is displayed by the obedience of the wholeperson. It requires cleanliness of the mind, heart, and soul. Holiness is not merelyan outward act but outward acts will be its evidence. As faith is to works, soholiness is to obedience. Obedience is the bending and stretching to Gods ways,


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not mans ways. Holiness is the cleanness that allows obedience to be present.Holiness is freedom to desire and to act in obedience. There seems to be a generaldisregard for holiness in the lives of many Christians. This disregard signals unbeliefand lack of hope. We have a great hope in Jesus. May God grant us grace to hold itclose and to build on its foundation.

Raising the Standard:

Are we dumbing down Christianity? Most of us have heard of the termdumbing down with reference to schools and to our society. Our schools havelargely lowered the standards of students. They send a message that the studentswill not attain to a higher standard so it is unfair to expect them to. In our society ingeneral; little is demanded from the public and little is given from the public in theway of true concern and involvement. We rely more and more on the governmentto care for us. By doing this we change the very nature and purpose of ourgovernment. We forget that one is a slave to the one who keeps him.

Our churches in America too clearly reflect this attitude of our society. Thosein the congregation seem to think that the leadership is required to provide

something for them in the way of services and a production line of activities andministries for the members to pick and choose from according to their mood andcurrent life situation. There is little interest in the average person to be involved inbuilding the body with regard to holiness or love or the many other great things Godhas for His temple. We are so accustomed to being consumers that we treat ourchurch leadership as employees. Why do we think that because we write a checkthat nothing more is required of us? Our tithe is not to be a payment for servicesrendered. Possibly this is why many people cannot bear to hear a message thatactually convicts their heart of sin. They obviously did not intend to purchase thatkind of message.

Leaders of churches also fall into this trap of thinking they are providing aservice to be purchased by the church member. Many will go to great lengths togive people want they want as would any good business man. The music mustappeal to those they want to attract and they must provide all the right activities forthe family. They are at the beck and call of those who financially support the churchbut may have lost sight of actually loving them and serving them in Gods power.When leaders fall to trusting themselves to men, they will not preach or teach thatmen must be holy to see God. Hope dwindles and lives fade. How many are lostforever?

We must raise the standard of our Christian lives. The members and theleader must look to the Bible to assess their lives and ministries. We should haveno lack of understanding and tenderness when a person falls to sin or fails in theirfaith and hope. We should be faithful to build in peoples minds the compassion andforgiveness of God. But this should not be done and really cannot be done withoutthe expectation of the person to desire and live in holiness in Christ if they are trulya child of God. Forgiveness and compassion without the hope and expectation ofholiness is a lie.

We must put work into our lives to make our calling and election sure. Wemust work to believe, we must fight to drive lies from our thinking. We work andfight in the power of God in the Holy Spirit and we must put our hands to this workfor holiness and the great hope we have in Jesus. In our churches today, it seemsthat work is a dirty word when applied to holiness. We who labor intensely for


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temporary things barely put forth effort to eternal things. The idea of training onesmind is unpopular and it is unacceptable to speak as if one expects others to do so.

John 6:27Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures toeternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the

Father has set his seal.

Romans 12:1-2I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present yourbodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is yourspiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformedby the renewal of your mind, that be testing you may discern what is thewill of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Our minds need to be cleansed. The mind feeds the heart. What comes intothe mind will fill the heart. Worship of God is not mindless activity or mindlesswaiting on emotional inspiration. Does not all training begin and stay with the

mind? We must train the mind and submit the body to God. Our work is to believe.The work of the Christian is to train the mind to reject what is false and hold to whatis true. It is the work of faith to holiness. Gods living word tells us what is true andreveals to us the one we trust personally so we know what and who to believe. Inprayer we are given perfect place to be cleansed by and spend time with Jesus, sothat we may know the one we believe.

Holiness is not an option. As we were called to believe we were called to beholy. Jesus made it all possible for us in His work. The Holy Spirit makes us able,reminding us of all that has been done, and of Gods promises and of what we canlook forward to when Jesus is revealed. We do not attain to be God holy in ourown right. We do attain to be like God in our behavior in the sense of representingwho Jesus is to the world. Jesus makes us clean before God and the Holy Spirithelps us to live that out here on earth.

Jesus Alone:

The desire to be holy is a good desire. As with any good desire from the Lord,we can get sidetracked in pride and miss the point. The point is always in Jesus. Weneed to want Jesus for the sake of Jesus. We need to seek Him for the end of findingHim and being with Him and resting in Him. We can see every sin and desire everygood attribute God has to offer and fail to make progress in holiness if we are notafter the person of Jesus Christ.

We are given a multitude of instruction on how to live a holy, God honoringlife.

Rest / WorkBe Still / RunFight / The battle belongs to the LordBe childlike / Grow up in the faithSeek / WaitPursue / AskGo / Abide


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Be strong / Glory in weakness

Only in Jesus can these perplexing commands and exhortations make perfect senseand make us holy and like Jesus. We strive hard against the pride of our flesh torest in the One who saves us. We are still before God and He shows us and movesus and teaches us and grows us and uses us. We look eagerly for Jesus and for

signs of Him in us and others as we wait for the day of His coming. We pursue allGod has promised us by laying down every doubt that comes against them and thenthey are for our asking. We cannot go anywhere in terms of doing Gods will, if wedo not go in Christ. In seeing all we are not; we take joy in all He is. We cannothave patience for the sake of being patient. We cannot have strength simply for thesake of being strong. We cannot have wisdom or love or hope or endurance for oursake. We can have no good thing apart from Jesus Christ. If we have Jesus, wehave everything for the sake of His name. All our goodness and holiness andbeauty are in Jesus. We will not be made holy apart from Him.

Disciplines and habits are good if they are godly disciplines. Our disciplinesand habits will only benefit us toward holiness to the degree that they draw ustoward Christ. Tricks to tame the flesh will only be effective if the goal is to die to

the flesh and see Jesus as the only true power for holiness. Jesus is holiness and Helives through us. We have a responsibility to bring our bodies and minds andemotions in to subjection to Jesus. It is the reality that He lives in us that makes thispossible. We dont just act right and then offer ourselves to Him. We offerourselves first and then He motivates and empowers us to act right. All of ourobedience is through Jesus Christ. To be in obedience is to be found in him. Wehave to go to him to be found in him. We go to Jesus at the cross. He comes to usat the cross; to live through us. There is death on both sides. He has died to bringus in. We must die to bring him in.

Seeing is Believing:

1 John 3:2Beloved, we are Gods children now, and what we will be has not yetappeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him,because we shall see him as he is.

1 Cor 13:12For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know inpart; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

When we see Jesus as He is we desire to be like Him. The more we beholdHis beauty in our hearts. The more we long to be made holy as He is holy. The morewe hold on to the promises purchased for us by Jesus, the more we believe them.


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The closer we look into Jesus eyes, the more we are able to realize His ability andwillingness to do all that God has promised. Below are some references made toGods people. These serve to remind us of how God sees us in His Son. They tell uswhat God has planned and of His love and care for us.

Rivers of living waters will flow from us God will rescue us

We will be like Trees planted by streams We will have honorWe are called a Holy priesthood We will bear much fruitPromised abundant life We will have what we askforWe can be full of joy God will be with us introubleWe will eat of the tree of life God will answer when wecallWe are called conquerors No evil shall befall us

Promised to sit with Jesus on his throne We will not havefear

We will be pillars in Gods temple God will deliver usClothed in white garments In the book of lifeConfessed before the Father Given the morning starPromised authority over the nations We will live foreverGiven the crown of life Given a new nameGod will command His angels concerning us Given hidden manna

Each of these is a short reminder of what God has promised to those whobelong to Him in Jesus Christ. What is it that keeps us from believing thesepromises? One can pick them apart all one wants but God has promised thesethings and much more to those who are his children. Why do we struggle to believeeven a few? It may be we dont believe because we are not seeing Jesus. We arenot seeing him in scripture; we are not seeing Him in prayer. We are not seeing himin our hearts and everyday lives. Why do we not see Him? We are not seeing Jesusbecause we are not looking to Him. We look at everyone and everything but Jesus.

Jesus is not hiding Himself from his sheep; we have only to read the Bible to see Hisheavenly and earthly life. Many are not looking in the Bible and so will not see him.Gods word is living and active. The Holy Spirit has been given to guide us to alltruth. We need to set our eyes on Jesus, continuously. God has not denied us ourneed. Jesus is ours for the seeking. The more we see of Him, the more we willbelieve the promises he gave and bought with His blood for us. The more webelieve in his ability and desire to fulfill his promises, the more we will desire to beconformed to his image. The more we desire, the more we will ask and the more wewill receive.

God is with us! Jesus is among His people and daily cares for us. We need tolook to Him and admire and enjoy Him. We have been given fellowship with the oneand only Living God. We have the privilege of knowing, personally, the One whocreated the universe. We must look to Jesus and know Him! Failure to do thisresults in profaning Gods name because we simply give lip service to believing Himand others cannot see the testimony of His greatness in our lives. Believing God isnot only to meet our needs but it is how we magnify His greatness. Believing God


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in all situations. God is merciful and kind and He knows we can be easily confusedand turned and He knows the power of the deceptions of the enemy.If we will be willing to be honest about the desires and capabilities of our flesh, wewill more readily heed the warnings of the Holy Spirit and follow His way of Holinessin Jesus.

It is the person of Jesus who steps into our longing for holiness. He does not

just hand us a tool so we can continue our work. He does the work the flesh mustdie. There is no point at being dismayed at the evil of our flesh. The flesh isdestined to perish. Dont waste time or divert your attention in worrying over whatyour flesh will never be. Grieve over sin when you obey your flesh yes! But thereis no point in grieving over the fact that the flesh will always be evil.

We cannot go off chasing a virtue or ability. We cannot collect Godsgood ways and carry them around as if they were our own. No, all is shattered onthe Rock, Our Lord Jesus. We have nothing; we do not amass knowledge or pile upvirtues. Jesus has all knowledge and righteousness. We cannot own a single partbut we must continually cast ourselves on Him. We are called to fellowship with Godby His Spirit through Jesus. So when we seek to be good for the sake of just doingthings right we miss the point of fellowship and what it means to glorify God in our

bodies. In Jesus is sweet desire for His desires. Let our part in loving one anotherconsist in our clinging to Jesus. We cannot seek Jesus for His gifts or virtues orknowledge but for Himself. There is no good apart from Jesus. We will find no goodin anything or anyone other than Him. This also means that good is not separatedfrom Jesus. If we want anything good it comes in Jesus. We take Jesus, for Himselfor we do not receive good. We dont need to know how but whom. God is notreaching in from the outside to change who we are. He has come to live within hispeople to show the world who He is.

John 14:23If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him,and we will come to him and make our home with him.

1 John 2:23bWhoever has the Son has the Father also.

It is in learning and believing who God is and trusting who He is in us that wehave faith for holy lives. We can believe all good things about God but if we dontunderstand that he is within us in His Spirit we will not have the hope to be holy. Wewill continue to try to work in ourselves. Apart from Jesus we can do nothing. With

Jesus, we can do ALL things. God has given himself in Jesus. That is the Great Newsof life we have!

We can be in sin in our effort to stay out of sin. If we are seeking a method orability to use when temptation comes, we may be trying to work our ownsanctification. We may grieve when God shows us the ugliness of our sinful fleshand we should. But we should not then rely on that flesh to eradicate its' ugly self.How much of our grief is our flesh crying over what it cannot attain for itself andhow much is from the Holy Spirit showing us our need of Jesus and how His namehas been profaned? It is good to mourn and weep over our sinfulness and depravitybefore God. It is good to be grieved about not treating Gods name as holy.However, it is easy to be grieved over ourselves only with no regard to Gods glory.


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When we are only upset over a failed attempt to control our flesh with the power ofthe flesh, we have a false repentance.

False repentance brings a despair over what we are not and do not have.The flesh desires and cannot have. Satan tempts us to hopelessness in remindingus of what we arent doing what we ought to do and what we cant do. We seekGods help to alleviate this hopelessness but often we are seeking to satisfy the

flesh in asking God to give it the power to do godly works. We work hopelessnessinto our hearts when we seek an earthly holiness. Trying to work a pretense ofrightness for the sake of soothing our conscience will always bring hopelessnessbecause we will fail and lose sight of Jesus in our pursuit for personal rightnessbefore others.

Godly repentance comes when God shows us the desires and works of ourflesh and gives us the GIFT of repentance. We recognize, by His Spirit, that what Hehas shown us is against Him and His word. He brings hope and a joy in it because itis brought by His Spirit. The repentance comes when we turn from the flesh and itsdesires, whether those desires are evil or good, and we turn to Jesus. We ignorethe flesh and turn to the person of Jesus. We have freedom in that we are notexpected to bring the solution or cleansing or any power to sustain. Jesus doesnt

give us holiness; He is holiness. He gives us Himself. We have helplessness nothopelessness. We know Jesus will and can obey all His own commands so we canrest in His ability to live them through us. We need only be quiet and turn from thecondemning thoughts of the flesh and devil.

Fight with Hope:

Psalm 78:32In spite of all this, they still sinned; despite his wonders, they did notbelieve.

In our fight of faith; we must have and hold to the assurance we have in JesusChrist. We need to have assurance in His ability and willingness to find us, claimand cleanse us so that we can become children of God. We must believe and lookforward to being with him forever in perfection. Assurance in our past and futuregives us assurance for today. We have assurance that God is for us and that hedoes not want nor intend for our lives to be torn to pieces by sin, marring histreasure and making his bride ugly. Unbelief is the great barrier to holiness. Theouter life will reflect the inner life and in order for the inner man to be clean in hearthe has to have faith. We are all prone to thought patterns that breed unbelief. Wesometimes tend to rely too heavily on our experience or the experiences of othersand not heavily enough on scripture. We must fight against the barriers in ourthinking that keep us from the reality that God is with us and for us and will and ismaking us holy for the sake of His great name. Our thinking can get twisted withregard to truths. Some common barriers to belief for holiness are thoughts likethese:

I wont really know the Lord until I get to heavenI cant be perfect while on earthI will always sin the pull of the flesh is strong


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While these statements are true, we tend to focus too much on them in thenegative sense. Gods word repeatedly makes emphasis on Gods power over eviland on His ability and willingness to save. Most Christians do not really doubt theywill be saved on the Day of the Lord but there seems to be much doubt in the areaof sanctification. Partly this is cop out and partly this is a pattern of unbelief.

In the realization that God is too vast and too holy for us to fully know while in

our earthly bodies, there ought to be an awe that brings joy, not an attitude thatsettles for less. We can be thrilled that in seeking to know Jesus, we will never bebored, never have enough and never run out of new discoveries and joys in Him.Satan can get us thinking it is just too hard to spend time seeking God andmeditating on His word so we just fall on the not yet side of our salvation andhope it will all come together in the future. We have an invitation in Jesus from GodHimself to come and taste and see that He is good. He does not tell us simply towait but to pursue Him. In being content with what we know of Jesus, we makeGods gift small. We can always have more of Jesus. There is never a time when wewill have all we can have. God is inexhaustible in treasures of joy and peace andwonders. God is pleased when His children ask for more of Him in Jesus. Let us askand expect and receive and keep asking.

Only Jesus is perfect and only God is pure and holy. We are being made inthe image of Christ. We can enjoy godly attitudes and godly desires and the powerto live them out. God provides for us to love in fellowship that is not constantlytainted and broken by sin. God desires for us to have this kind of fellowship. Whenwe act as if overcoming sin is not possible, we make the sacrifice of His only Son afoolish act on His part. We do struggle with the flesh, the world and the devil but

Jesus offers us real hope and power to overcome in every instance. We too easilyput up with inner turmoil because we have taken suffering to mean that of theinner man. God does not teach us with discouragement and despair. This is not Hisschool. God gives us hope and it is our hope in Jesus that will make us holy. Wehope in cleansing for our sins, past, present, and future. We can also hope for helpin temptation and hope for strength to do good today and tomorrow. Let us seekGods power to eradicate all sin form our minds, heart and lives to enjoy Jesus more.

The Holy Spirit is given to speak to our hearts regarding sin and if we will depend onHim, he will help us to have the attitude God desires for us to have. The personwho recites to himself, I cant be perfect may not see sin as seriously as God seesit and may not see the danger of it. It is not a question of being perfect but amatter of not hiding a favorite or particularly difficult area of disobedience.

Our flesh is well practiced at enticing us to sin against God. Our flesh is notstronger than God. We are just more in tune with it. We need to get out of tunewith it. When our thinking gets stuck on the pattern of I will always sin, we almostconvince ourselves that the power of the flesh is stronger than the power of theSpirit. If that were true, then God has not properly equipped us to live the life Hehas called us to. We have been properly equipped. We have more than we need.Wallowing in false humility masked by an eagerness to share our weaknesses willnot get the job done. Belief in Gods power over sin and the flesh and Satan will.We would be foolish to underestimate the deception of our fleshly desires. But to beprepared and already defeated are not the same. Be prepared with Gods promisesand the gospel that saves us. Do not be defeated before the battle by declaring toyourself that there is not victory and that you are subject to every evil thought thatcomes your way. Jesus Christ has defeated the corruption of the sinful flesh and weare not slaves any more to it.


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Unbelief can take a general truth and twist it into ones heart so that itbecomes all one can see.Unbelief is not to be defended or abided with. Unbelief must be destroyed withinus. Unbelief must be defeated if we are to have eternal life. God will not put upwith it. Many have been destroyed and many more will perish because of unbelief.God is zealous for His name and He will secure its reality on this earth. We cannot

display who God is if we do not believe He is who he says. He is our savior. Hesaves us from sin.

1 Pet 4:2So as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for humanpassions but for the will of God.

To live for the will of God requires holiness, which we have and gain by faith.We are called to live holy lives for the rest of the time here. We are given Jesus andgiven to Jesus so we have holiness available to us to live by. We believe what hasbeen given, we look to what we will be given and we live out what we are.

1 Thess 4:3aFor this is the will of God, your sanctification:

John the Baptist talked about repentance and the coming Messiah. He waspreparing the way. We must prepare the way for Jesus return also. We needrepentance and the hope of His coming. It is the hope in repentance and the futurewith our Lord that will lead us to holiness. We were given hope when we wereinitially saved. We realized, by the power of God, that we could have a relationshipwith God. We hoped and were saved by faith. We know by Gods word that we canbe made holy. We hope and by faith are made holy. The enemy is eating away atour assurance in the power of God and at our trust in Gods desire to make us holy.Many people have given up the idea of holiness because it is seemingly out ofgrasp. There is little trying or effort. There is a lack of effort in the sense of seekingGod with any expectation of change. Many dont ask with expectation of reallyliving and being different. Some have lost faith in God for sanctification. They areunder the delusion that they will see God without holiness. Much of this lack isblamed on God. Because God is absolutely sovereign some will become lazy in thefight of faith. God is in control and He will change me at His will, they say. God issovereign but God does not force us to believe Him. He may bring us to thebanquet room, but He wont force us to eat. We have a part in our sanctification.We err in failing to take our privileged place in Gods work. We either think it is allabout our outward activities and make our lives a legalistic prison or we leave it allto God and just feel sorry for our sinful selves.

Holy and majestic Father in heaven, forgive us for our disregard of your requirementfor holiness. Have mercy on us. We have made your name small and your holyways secondary to our emotions and experiences. You are the God who makes Hispeople righteous for acceptance into your kingdom. You are the God who makesyour people clean for good works. You are the God who made a people for yourself;the inheritance of your perfect Son. You are merciful and compassionate. Makeyour mercy and compassion known among your people in renewing the hope of


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sanctification among your people everywhere. Let your name be known first andforemost as holy, holy, holy.

God will not sanctify our works. It is not helpful to exhort each other to worksif we are not using faith as our means to work. If we are not taking hold, actively to

Jesus, given to and for us, we wont strengthen our grip by works. Works come after

our faith is solid and secure. We cannot make it solid by our works. This solidity offaith can come days after we give our lives to Christ. It is not a matter of time;although time should strengthen it. Faith is belief. We are given it and it willproduce works not the other way around. We cant produce the works but we musthold to the faith already given. If there is no evidence of faith by works, faith islacking. We must strive for our faith. Isnt it a work to strive? Yes, it is the firstwork of faith. If one has faith it will produce the work of striving for faith. People arenot lazy in their works but lazy in their faith. The striving and holding is to faith.Strive to believe. Strive against the lies of the enemy and for the truth of God.

Heb 10:19, 22-23Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by

the blood of Jesus,

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with ourhearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed withpure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,for he who promised is faithful.

Heb 4:11Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the

same sort of disobedience.

Heb 4:14Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through theheavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

If we do not enter into the rest from our works into Jesus work, we will fall intothe sin of disobedience. To strive for faith is to hold on to what weve been givenand what we know. When we come against Gods word and He causes us to see wedont believe it we need to strive against our flesh with God until we do believe. Westrive for holiness in being cleansed of unbelief so that we can be prepared to dogood works. How can we do good works if we do not believe in Jesus power tocarry it out and through? How can we believe He will carry it through if we do notbelieve in what He has already done for us?


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1 John 2:24Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heardfrom the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and inthe Father.

John 15: 5

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, forapart from me you can do nothing.

Abiding in Jesus is required for fruitful lives and holiness. Holiness must bethe place of abiding. Our holy God will make Himself a suitable home in us. Thiswill be a holy place where He dwells in us. We are exhorted to hold to what wehave heard and what we have received. When we go to God for our salvationinitially, that is not the end of the conversation. It is only the beginning of Godstransforming of us. This is more than a small concept of I was saved. It is thehuge reality of all that Jesus is in us and through us and who He has called us to beand what He has called us to do. Jesus has purchased for us access to all of God!Gods promises are as sure as the sun rising even behind the clouds. To have

confidence in Jesus for our salvation is an awesome thing! We need to rememberand hold this confidence for every day of our lives.

We do not need to try to stimulate each other the works but to believe so thatwe can work. Heb 10:24 tells us to stir up one another to love and good works. Itis, of course, necessary that we stir each other up. We are to stir up one another byhelping one another to believe what we have received, namely Jesus. It is inhelping one another to overcome unbelief that we stir up one another. Thisexhortation to stir up one another comes AFTER many pleas to hold to our originalfaith given by God. The problem is we read the book of Hebrews and skip right tostir up one another without seeing the true directive in the letter to strengthenones faith in Jesus by meditating and discovering what has been given throughHim.

Hebrews 11 gives us many examples of what belief looks like. We considerthose listed in this chapter as holy people. They were Gods people. They belongedto God and were used for His purposes. We are Gods people to be used for Hispurposes. Without holiness they would not have been able to stand in their faith.

They would have been eaten up by the enemy. Without holiness we cannot stand inour faith and some of us are being eaten up by the enemy. We admire those listedas faithful in Heb 11. We admire them as if they were athletes and accomplishedsome man powered feat. It is the gift of faith and the giver of faith that is to beadmired. The examples are to show us what faith can do, not what men and womenof the past accomplished. They were given faith. We have been given faith.

Why is it usually assumed that those in the past in the sense of biblicalaccounts - received a larger portion of faith than those in Christ today? Godassigns the portion of faith to each of His children according to His wisdom. Is itpossible that the problem is not that we dont have enough faith to gain holinessbut that we dont use what we have? Faith must be practiced. If your child asksyou for more potato salad when they have a plate full, would you not tell them toeat what they have? Let us examine and adore and hold and see clearly what wehave received in Jesus. What exactly have we been given in Jesus? That would takeanother book in itself. The wonder of who Jesus is and all he does for us is for useach to discover. We all have our own book of wonders on this subject. How does


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yours read? Let us know and hold to what we have to press on to the future of livingfor God.

We are called to fight the fight of faith. What are we fighting for? We dontfight to gain entrance into heaven. We have already been given access. We dontfight our old nature to bring it into obedience; the old nature has been sentenced todeath and we live in the new nature. We fight for faith with faith. We are fighting to

believe every word of God. We fight unbelief in God promises and in what he hasdone and will do. We fight unbelief with belief. This is why it is crucial that werenew our minds. When doubt and unbelief come; we fight the unbelievingthoughts with the truth we have stored up in our hearts and trained our minds with.We bring every thought captive to Christ. We fight the unbelieving thoughts withtruth about God before they turn into unbelieving actions. When we dont fight welland we sin, we continue to fight more unbelief with more truth. We fight with thetruth of forgiveness and with the knowledge of Gods strength to help us in our timeof need. We fight with the assurance of Jesus words and actions. We fight with theassurance that He is with us and will never leave us but will continue to keep us inHim.

Jesus is our rest. Strive to enter into His rest. True restfulness is not when

our minds are turned off but when they are turned onto something else. Sleep is aphysical necessity. Our bodies must be down for a little time to be able to function.But restfulness of the soul and mind comes in a different way. To rest we seek thingsthat are calming and soothing. We do things like fish, hike, read or quilt. Weprepare to do activities that are restful. To rest in Christ in all of our lives, we needto set our minds on Him; not turn them off. Since Jesus is our rest, we shouldprepare and make plans to be with Him. We make elaborate plans for vacations sothat we can get in a position of rest from work. We also need to make a habit ofmaking and keeping plans for seeking Jesus so we can learn to rest in all things andtimes. We need to put ourselves before Jesus in prayer, we need to be prepared towait on his presence and take time to read His word so we can hear Him. Beingwith Jesus will work for our holiness and cause us to long for it more and more.When we spend time with Him, we see ourselves and others through his eyes. Andthe more readily we agree with him on the desires of our flesh that do not belong inHis temple.

Looking Forward:

1 Peter 1:3-4According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a livinghope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to aninheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heavenfor you,

We are born again to a LIVING hope, not a sleeping or dying hope.

1 Peter tells us a little of the past, present and future. God has caused us tobe born again (1:3), to an inheritance kept in heaven (1:4). We are being guardedfor a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1:5). We now have trial so thatour faith may be found to result in praise and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.(1:6-7). The prophets of yesterday searched for those in the future. (1:8).


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It is hard to imagine Peter writing about trials and how they will glorify God inthe future without thinking of his temptation and failure when he denied Jesus. Hemust have known great pain in this. Did he ever wonder if God would continue tokeep him? Having denied Jesus once, did he fear he could do it again? His faith wasguarded, even though he stumbled. All that was past, serves us today, all that ispresent serves others tomorrow. So when we see our present days as not shining

too bright or if they seem especially hard, we can know and set our hope on the factthat all that is today will be for the result of praise, honor and glory at the timewhen Jesus returns. The praise will be full as it ought to be. Today does not servetoday, today serves tomorrow. We can look at others yesterdays and our own andbe assured of Gods faithfulness and know He will keep us. If we have failed likePeter and most of us have on some level, we can look to our yesterdays to takestrength for tomorrow. God has worked in and for us. God will continue to do so.

1 Pet 1:13-14Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, setyour hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelationof Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions

of your former ignorance,

We look at the past and gain strength, we hope in the future. What is todayfor? Today is for holiness. We are to look forward and live in obedience to Jesus.

Today we abide in Him and we endure. We look to the past and are served by it.We look to the future and to the fullness of Our Blessed Jesus, the revelation of thegroom. We build and we are guarded. We stand all for the joy of others in thefuture so that Jesus will be met with the fullness of His people. We will be full innumber, full in Spirit. Jesus will reap the fullness and the completion of the faith Hebought and gave to us and perfected in us. Let us be kept by and use the faithgiven us today, looking not to our own tomorrow but to the future present days ofothers. For the faith of others shall be our true and full joy of our tomorrow.So we have an already and a not yet but we also have a now. Now is forholiness.

1 Pet 1:15But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct

1 Pet 1:22Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincerebrotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

2 Tim 4:8Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which theLord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only tome but also to all who have loved his appearing.

We are told to be holy in all our conduct. We see that we are purified byobedience to the truth. All our holiness is in our hope of Jesus. We hope in what Hewill do. We hope in his appearing and by this our souls are purified. Holiness isattained by looking forward to seeing Jesus. We trust that we are cleansed inwardlyby Jesus blood which was for us. We bring our bodies into line with this knowledge


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Do angels have faith? They must believe God and trust Him to be able to doHis work. They must believe God to have allegiance to Him. The angels who werecast to the earth with Satan did not believe God but believed Satan. Since it waspossible for some angels to turn from God to Satan, there must be a willingallegiance to God from those who did not follow Satan. There is no allegiancewithout faith and there is no holiness without allegiance. We know that the angels

are holy and can see in scripture that they are committed to Gods glory, and thatthis is willful. They are not robots. So they must have faith. It would have beengiven to them by God.

While Satan was deceiving the angels to follow him instead of God, was Healso attempting to deceive those angels who did not fall? It would not be out ofcharacter for him to do so. If he is brazen and proud enough to try to deceive Jesusin the dessert it is reasonable to think He would have tried to deceive all the angels.Does this mean that the angels were tested in their faith as men are? This, ofcourse, is speculation but the point is that if even angels can be deceived and theydo not carry sinful flesh, how much more are we susceptible to be turned away fromGod at every turn. We have the entire world, Satan and his demons and our ownflesh fighting to get us to disbelieve God.

Adam and Eve were deceived before they had sinful flesh. If those who have nopull of the sin in flesh or a past of sin can be deceived away from the living God,how much more in danger are we? What an awesome testimony to the grace givento keep us!

God requires allegiance. We are called by God to forsake every affection andallegiance of our hearts that conflict with our allegiance with Him. We need loyaltyto keep us from wondering off to serve false Gods, mainly our own selves. Trustand belief in Jesus and in Jesus alone for all our needs will build a wall of allegiancearound our hearts. As we trust Him and call on Him for all things necessary forsalvation and life and see Him act, we will be increasingly more aligned with Him inthought and deed. We will be increasingly holy as we are more aligned with His zealfor His glory and all His purposes to promote the knowledge of His glory.

When we dont believe God, we sin. In 2 Peter, chapter 1, Peter lists qualitiesthat ought to accompany our faith. In verse 9 he says, For whoever lacks thesequalities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansedfrom his former sins. We must remember that we have been cleansed and believethat Jesus blood will cleanse us still. The moment we fail to believe God, our loyaltyis turned from God to Satan. This is not holy living. We must always protect theallegiance to God in Christ by continuing to fight for faith and against the lies ofSatan.

This fighting for faith seems like a big task but all has been provided for us inJesus. Because of Jesus and His work on our behalf, we have been givensupernatural ability to believe in all God is and says along with the understanding ofHis word through His Spirit. God has equipped us with the wisdom of His Spiritwithin us to lead us away from deception and into Gods truth. The Spirit of God inus also gives us comfort and strength and inspiration. We are given help from Godby his angels. Jesus intercedes for us always. All of heaven is for us. The elect ofGod cannot possibly fail to enter Gods kingdom forever!

Whats in a Name?


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It is the name of Jesus that is given to every child of God. His identity is whatgets us into heaven. It is in Jesus, that we go to the Father. Without permission touse His name, we have no access to Gods throne.

John 3:5Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he

cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Our identity changes when we are born again in Christ. Where we onceidentified with our flesh and its desires and with the world, we now identify with

Jesus. We must identify with Jesus in our inner spirit, in our desires andsubmissiveness to Him. And we must identify with Jesus publicly and outwardly, inwhat we say and do. Both are necessary to enter the kingdom of God. The outwardlife will reflect the inward life, or the lack thereof. One could say our name, beforewe know Jesus is one who belongs to Satan. This is the identity of those who donot belong to Jesus.

Before one knows Jesus, he belongs to Satan. He is a child of the Devilskingdom, awaiting destruction and eternal punishment. When one is under this

awful father, sin is his friend. He does not know any other way but the way of sin.He uses the worlds system of taking care of the things of life and takes fulladvantage of the pleasures of sin. His method of living makes perfect sense tohim because not only is it the way of everyone else, but it is the whole of his innerman. Through sin, Satan owns the whole person.

When by Gods grace through faith, one is saved by Jesus. Sin becomes hisenemy. He is able to see how fully cooperative he is with sin and Satan and He isable to hate it and to want to be free from it. He is given faith to believe in and holdto Jesus for his salvation. He begins to war in the power of the Holy Spirit. He isgiven the assurance of things not seen (Heb 11:1) concerning Jesus and himself andall the promises purchased with Jesus blood. This assurance, his faith, gives himthe necessary belief in who he is as a new creation and more importantly, who Jesusis as His savior and King and God. It is in believing God that he is able to see thedestroying nature of sin and want to be no part of it.

One who is saved by God is in the process of being sanctified by God. God isworking to make him holy. This is a sure work that is promised and is taken by faithas all other promises. He has a part in his sanctification. His work is to believe andto obey by believing. God desires that His children grow to more and more fullnessof assurance in all that He is in Jesus Christ.

When one has a full assurance in Jesus, sin becomes and evil imposter. As heis more bold in his pursuit of righteousness and more thorough and unyielding in hisfight of faith against the lies of the enemy, sin is seen in a more realistic light. It isviewed in the light of God. It is seen in the light given by Gods word and shone byHis Spirit. Sin is seen more as an unwanted intruder than an old friend or even afamiliar enemy. He who is growing in faith and moving in sanctification begins toidentify more with Jesus than his own flesh. Sin is not simply a few bad habits thathe needs to give up but is now seen as a defilement of the holy place of God, as ittruly is. Because he is able to see himself as holy, in process and in promise, hisview of sin is serious and rooted in faith. He is quick to take full advantage of everymoment of conviction, in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. He does not take mans


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He who cares for me has all the power and lovethere ever was.

The next time God is gracious enough to give you a look at the ugliness ofyour flesh, look long and look hard and do not look away until you know totaldesperation for the cure of your disease. Dont leave the show early with the sour

comfort that you are in the company of many sinners. Dont close your eyes withthe uneasy belief that God somehow loves you anyway. God does not just love youanyway. The Father loves the Son, Jesus, and you belong to Jesus. God loves youwith that kind of love and its not just a pushing aside of your sinful state that allowsHim to love you. Revel in the view of your sin and struggle with the urgency of yourneed until you are completely limp in the arms of Jesus. Does all that make theugliness go away? No and yes. No, it is still there but the one to whom you belongwill deal with it surly and in His time and in His way. It will be done. Look forward toHis coming and rest in His work today. And yes, because in your position before theFather, you belong to Jesus. He is pure, beautiful and full perfection and His namecarries all you need and you have been given His name. He is pure light so all yourdarkness is dispelled by Him. You are one with Jesus; you are found in Him. It is as

good as done because He has promised. Find rest in His holiness.

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