Holiness and the 'S' Word

Holiness and the ‘S’ Word

A Sermon by Pastor R. D. Johnson Preached at the Ann Arbor, MI Free Methodist Church

Scripture Text: Galatians 5:16-26 July 13, 2008 Sermon #0117 (based on #0100)

“In 1729 two young men in England, reading the Bible, saw they could not be saved without holiness, followed after it, and incited others so to do. In 1737 they saw, likewise, that men are justified before they are sanctified; but still holiness was their object. God then thrust them out to raise up a holy people.” - John Wesley, speaking of himself and his brother Charles.

What does it mean to be holy? What do Free Methodists mean when we talk about the ‘S’ word ‘Entire Sanctification’? These are the questions I hope we will understand and be able to answer by the end of our time together this morning.

Last week I spoke about impressions and how we want others to see us and how we must see them in Love. Today I intend to point us in the only direction that will make that possible. We must Seek the Spirit.

In 1976, Paul McCartney wrote a song called Let ‘Em In (Capo 1 A7 A) Someone's knocking at the door Somebody's ringing the bell (2x) (E7 D A) Do me a favor, open the door and let 'em in

 This sounds inviting. Someone’s out there so let ‘em in! But then in 1981 Terri Gibbs wrote the song Somebody's Knockin' (Capo 2 Am D7) Somebody's knockin' should I let him in, Lord it's the devil would you look at him (F C F E7) I've heard about him but I never dreamed, he'd have blue eyes and blue jeans

 Fear takes over. What if that someone out there is bad news. We can’t let HIM in! So I ask what would Jesus do? And I remember a song that goes like this: (Capo 2 A D A E) Ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find ( A D A D A E A) If you knock, knock, knock the door will open up for you every time.

 But we aren’t talking about people outside the church today, were talking about all of us in here right now. God called to you, to each of you here today, to be saved. Then you responded to that call, you began to seek Him out, asking about Him, until you found His door. And everyone here today has found his door. You’re here!

Now we all fall into one of three groups.  First, some here have found His door but haven’t knocked  Second, some here have knocked on His door and have entered into a relationship with Him, And now He is knocking at your door.  Third, for some here, God has opened His door to you, you have opened yours to Him and you walk in the Spirit. If you’re in this third group, this sermon isn’t for you. In fact most sermons aren’t for you because you already know what you need. You can spend this time praying for the rest of us.

However I think it is safe to say that most people fall into one of the first two groups. So for most of you, either you need to knock, or Somebody’s Knocking at your door, and you need to answer this question: “Should I let Him in?”

Shortly before King David died, he gave Solomon this counsel. He said know God and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts: if you seek him, he will be found of you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off for ever.” (1Ch 28:9) Then David gave him instruction to build the Temple.

This is an Old Testament picture of New Testament salvation. David said seek the Lord. Then he told Solomon how to prepare for the Spirit of God to dwell in the Temple.

To Him Who Knocks, The Door Will Be Opened It doesn’t matter who you are, what you have done, or where you find yourself right now. God loves you and EVERY time responds to EVERY knock by telling Jesus: Someone's knocking at the door Somebody's ringing the bell Do me a favor, open the door and let 'em in

In Luke 11, Jesus said, “Ask and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened.” (Luke 11:9-10)

* God Calls – If you seek, He will be found * God is ready to give but we must ask in prayer.

That is how we knock. Prayer. But David said we must have a perfect heart and a willing mind. He told Solomon you can’t fake it! 1-He searches hearts 2-He knows your thoughts How many today are faking salvation? Sadly, Barna tells us that less than half of those in the church actually believe what the Bible teaches about God, Jesus, and salvation.

Oh, you can fool people. Just be kind, act rightly, say you agree, be giving, and be in church every week and many people will believe you are a Christian. Then you can pretend you are ok without all that work of seeking and serving God, sacrificing to be obedient. But God knows and you know if the Spirit of the Living God really lives in you.

In Deuteronomy 4, Moses prophesied that the people would wander away from God but said, “If from there you shall seek the LORD your God, you will find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deu 4:29)

And indeed they did wander away, and in 2 Chronicles 15 we read how they were brought back. When they heard this promise of God to be found they sought Him earnestly! Here’s how you too can be sure God lives in you:  They found courage and put away idols  They renewed what was sacred to God  They gathered together and made great offerings to God They entered a covenant to seek the Lord God with all their hearts and all their soul; that whoever would not seek Him should be put to death!  They rejoiced in their desire to seek Him and He was found, and He gave them rest.

* God offers Grace – “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)

But this is only the first seeking. In his book, The Pursuit of God, A. W. Tozer spoke of salvation saying, “It is, however, not an end but an inception, for now begins the glorious pursuit, the heart's happy exploration of the infinite riches of the Godhead.”

Salvation is not crossing a finish line, but is rather when we finally get up to the starting line and begin the race.

In Acts 17, Paul stood on Mars’ hill and told the people of Athens that God determined the time “That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being;” (Acts 17:27-28)

It’s when we find Him that we begin to live. So why do we continue to see that inception as the destination? We say “I’m saved!” like that was God’s goal for us. An Illus. that makes this point clear is marriage. Many pursue in dating then feel like they have won when they get married. That attitude ruins more marriages than anything. Behold, I Stand ant the Door and Knock Revelation 3:20. How many have used this verse to witness to the lost? I have.

But did you know that’s NOT the context? Jesus is not speaking to the unsaved who need Him, He is speaking to the saved who ignore Him. Many who believe think I am saved and so I’m ok when God has and wants so much more for us than simply living.

Illus. Parents, do you or have you had dreams for your children? To see them built up in Christ? To be successful? Happy? Etc. Why? Isn’t it enough that they are alive? No, and God isn’t satisfied with that either.

In Acts, Jesus told the disciples that they must wait upon the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. The word translated “power” here is the Greek word dunamis.

This word dunamis entered the English language when the Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833-96) made his discovery of a power stronger than anything the world had known up to that time. He asked a Greek scholar friend of his what the word for ‘explosive power’ was in Greek. His friend answered, ‘Dunamis”. Nobel said. ‘Well, I am going to call my discovery by that name.’ So he called his ‘explosive power' dynamite..

If the Spirit can fill us with His power, why would God not dream of that for his children? A holy power to overcome the power of sin! Supernatural explosive power to overcome the world and to seek out the Lost! A Power that the gates of Hell can not prevail against!

And still He stands and knocks. We often don’t let him in because another power is at work in us that lies to us. It claims to be more powerful than the Spirit of God, and what’s worse - we believe it! We are persuaded to believe that we can live the Christian life under our own power. When our own power is under the control of something else.

(However much he ‘tries’ to be like Christ) If a man is filled with anger, then anger controls his life. If a man is filled with greed, then greed dominates his life. If a man is filled with lust, then lust governs his life. If a man is filled with love, then love influences all he does. * But If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you are controlled by the Spirit (It is, if you will, "control by consent." If you open the door when He knocks)

I believe Terri Gibbs was wrong when he wrote: Somebody's knockin'. He writes, ‘Lord it's the devil would you look at him’. But if it were the Devil, He wouldn’t be knocking. He would be the one crawling in through the window as Jesus stood patiently outside the front door. Knocking. Open the Door Why? He opened His door for you. The Bible says we love because He first loved us.

There is a phrase that occurs more than 10 times in the New Testament and never in the Old. The faithful before Christ longed for it and could only taste it in part, while many today never bother to seek it. But the disciples lived it, and that phrase is “In the Spirit”. To make it clear, Being a believer does NOT mean living In the Spirit.

The book of Revelation begins, “I came to be in the Spirit on the Lord’s day…” (Rev 1:1)  Paul purposed in the Spirit (Acts 19:21)  We are called to Pray in the Spirit (Eph 6:18)  In Christ, we are built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit (Eph 2:22)  We are made alive in the Spirit (I Peter 3:18)

And Galatians 3:3 asks us, “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, do you now perfect yourself in the flesh?”

If we tend to live under our own power, and end up controlled by some selfish or sinful attitude, how do we make that change to live in the Spirit?

This brings us to the Scripture I would have us apply today, Galatians 5:16-26 (read)

 Walk in the Spirit. Why? Because your flesh is at war with God’s Spirit.  We are no longer under LAW! So sin’s power is no match for the Dynamite Power of the Holy Spirit!  Crucified the sinful nature! – So we can live and walk In the Spirit!

Here is the answer. If we haven’t opened the door to Christ to Live In the Spirit, there is a sin Power blocking the door. But through Christ, we have the power to overcome any obstacle in the way of that door!

* Christ enables us to open the Door! This is what we Free Methodists call Entire Sanctification. That point of total surrender, throwing the doors open wide to let our lives be under the Spirit’s control.

David wrote, “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.” (Psalms 27:4)

* David longed for moments he could be In the Spirit, but because of Christ you can be all the time! Most of you have repented of your sins and have asked God to forgive you and you were saved. The Spirit of God lives in your heart. Good. FIRST STEP

If you haven’t done that, why not now? If you have never asked, or God has convicted you this morning that you have been faking it, all it takes is this moment and a confession between you and God. I challenge you to be honest with God, He already knows all about you and loves you still. Let Him restore you to eternal life, fill you and recreate you.

If you are here and have taken this FIRST STEP, but find yourself continuing to walk in defeat, unable to crucify your sin nature to say nothing of overcoming the world, then isn’t it time to step up and throw the doors wide!

Jesus lives in you, in those little areas you have allowed Him control, and He has been knocking. Let this be your sanctifying moment! Let Him further in. Give up everything to Him. Complete surrender. No terms.

To live in the Spirit is to look inward. Not to yourself but to the Holy Spirit who desires all of you. This is the personal aspect of our faith. What it means to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Not doing but being. Listening and praying and obeying.

Let me close with this thought from A. W. Tozar on personal holiness (or what we Free Methodists call Entire Sanctification):

In His book, “The Pursuit of God” A. W. Tozar says, “Someone may fear that we are magnifying private religion out of all proportion, that the 'us' of the New Testament is being displaced by a selfish 'I.' Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshippers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified.”

How many Christians today are out of tune with one another because they have not tuned themselves first and only to Jesus? How many churches in disharmony? We say we want unity but continue to walk to a tune that is more dogmatic than Christ-like.

I pray that any time this congregation recognizes that we are walking that road, that God would change our tune. I pray that each of us here would not try to tune ourselves to one another or even to the Free Methodism that we have in common, but humbly tune into Christ. Only then will we truly live in the sanctification that God raised up the Wesley’s to lead us into. Let’s pray.