Nice to be able to minister the word this morning. And I invite you to the book of Leviticus chapter ten and verse ten, where we're going to begin this morning. And while we're turning, let me just quickly say that the next meeting in this place is not on Wednesday night, it is tonight at six o'clock. Tonight at six o'clock. We'll be here Wednesday night at seven again. But keep that in mind. We're continuing our study on the subject of cultivating holiness. Two weeks ago on Wednesday night, I started a series on the subject of cultivating holiness. How necessary it is, and the purpose of these Old Testament references that we're going to read is to show that God commanded Israel to be holy, and God commands us to be holy and holiness is very, very important. Leviticus chapter ten and verse ten where we read, and that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, between unclean and clean. Chapter nineteen of Leviticus and verse two where we read, Speak unto the congregation of the children of Israel and say unto them, Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. Deuteronomy chapter seven. Deuteronomy chapter seven. Verse six. For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself. above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you, and because you would keep the oath, which he hath sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of Bundaman from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. First Peter, chapter one. First Peter one, verse fifteen and verse sixteen, where we read, But as he who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. One more passage, Hebrews chapter twelve. Hebrews chapter twelve, verse fourteen, where we read, follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. That fourteenth verse of Hebrews chapter twelve is a very important verse. I think it is a verse that needs to be pondered very definitely in the age in which we live. You and I are living in an age when people profess to be saved, but there's no change in the life. There is no outward evidence of holiness. And we have to question where is the fruit of the indwelling spirit of God? The Holy Spirit has been given to everyone who believes And he gives the Holy Spirit in order to make us like Christ. In order to make us holy. And our holy life is commanded in both the Old Testament and the New. And the last time that we looked at this subject of holiness, we looked at the command to be holy. God says, Be ye holy, for I am holy. And we looked at the call to holiness. For he who hath called you is holy, therefore be holy in all manner of life. This is very important. A.W. Tozer, that great preacher, he said this about holiness. He said, when God declares a sinner to be righteous, that's justification, beloved. For we read in Romans four, verse five, to him that worketh not, But believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. God declares the sinner righteous. Tozer said, when God declares a sinner righteous, he instantly starts to make him righteous. And that making a sinner righteous is that gracious work of sanctification, that work of holiness in the life. I like what John Blanchard said. John Blanchard said, the best way to prepare for tomorrow is to seek God's kingdom and righteousness today. And in light of what we read in Hebrews chapter twelve, verse fourteen, follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. So the best way to prepare for tomorrow is to seek God's righteousness today. Let's pray together. Our Father, as we bind our holy presence, have we sought to read your precious word? And now as we multiply words upon the sacred text, we pray that the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart will be indeed acceptable in thy sight. And it will be used of these to bear fruit in the life. And we pray, our God, that You will cause thy word to question ourselves and to examine ourselves relative to this matter of holiness before thee. For thou hast commanded us to be holy, and thou hast called us to this very thing. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. In our continuing study on the subject of cultivating holiness, This morning we want to look at the what of cultivating, and then we want to look at the how of cultivating. So as we examine the what must be cultivated, number one, we would say we must imitate the character of Jehovah. First Peter one, sixteen says, You shall be holy for I, the Lord your God, and holy. The holiness of God must be the foremost stimulus for the cultivation of holy living. The God who saved me, the God who quickened me to life when I was dead in sin, is holy. And that's the stimulus for holy living. In other words, we should seek to be like our Father is in heaven. How is he? He is righteous, he is holy, and his integrity never fails. In other words, God's people should be a people who love righteousness, who seek holiness, and whose integrity is a very real thing. This means, beloved, that we must, through the Word of God, think God's thoughts after him. God has revealed his thoughts to us. And to the prophet Jeremiah, God said, I know the thoughts that I think about you. They are thoughts of good and not of evil, to bring about a desired end. And God's thoughts of us are good. And God expects us to study his word and in studying his word to think his thoughts after him. Now, you and I don't glorify God with eloquent expressions or pompous services that we do for Him. We're not glorifying God in that. We glorify God when we do what the sisters sang this morning, when we converse with God. How long has it been since you talked to the Lord? You see, that's a searching song. It's a song of questions. And it's a song that reveals the heart to us. In other words, we must talk with him with unstained spirits. For he says, Be ye holy. For I the Lord your God is holy. We must imitate the character of Jehovah. But second, we must be conformed to the image of Christ. This is one of Paul's favorite themes. In Romans chapter eight, verse twenty nine, we learn that we're predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ. And in Philippians chapter two and verse five we read, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. And then it speaks of his coming to earth. What kind of a mind was it? What kind of a mind was it? Paul is saying, if you would be holy, be like minded, be like Christ. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Now we don't aim at a condition, we don't aim at conformity as a condition of salvation. We're saved by grace through faith plus nothing. I cannot earn salvation. Salvation is a gift. But because we are saved, holiness is the fruit. of salvation. In other words, I must continually look to Christ for holiness. Our blessed Lord is a fountain, but He's also the pathway of holiness. And we can seek no other path. There is no other way. Now there's unending space in holiness for growth. Oh boy. Why so? Because Christ is an infinite well. If he's a fountain of holiness, his well is infinite. You cannot go to him too often or too much for holiness. Christ merited holiness for us, and he sent the Holy Spirit to apply that holiness to us. Colossians chapter three, verse eleven, tells us that Christ is all in all. First Corinthians one, verse thirty says that of him are we in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, even righteousness, that's justification, and sanctification, that's holiness, and redemption. Those three things are ours. In the New Testament we have two expressions, continuously the words in Christ, And then we have the counter-truth, Christ in you. You see, Colossians two, Colossians three, excuse me, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Did I say Colossians three? That's Colossians chapter one. I was wrong there on two counts. It's in Colossians chapter one, the end of the chapter. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now, when we take these two expressions, And think about them. To be in Christ, that's justification. Christ in us, that's sanctification. So that brings us to the third thing that we want to look at. We must submit to the mind of the Holy Spirit. Not only does it mean to imitate the character of Christ, and be conformed to the image of Christ. We must submit to the mind of the Spirit. There are two categories in Romans chapter eight. The mind of the flesh, the carnal mind, which is enmity against God, and he's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. And then there is the mind of the Spirit. To be carnally minded, we read in Romans eight is death. In other words, they who follow fleshly desires, continuously following fleshly desires. And then, of course, there is the other truth. There are those who follow the mind of the Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit indwells us in order that He might bring us into submission to His mind. When God set about to make me holy, having justified me, as Tozer says, he then immediately sets about to make us holy, and he does something in doing that, he gives us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was given to make sinners holy. Romans eight, verse nine says, Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. He's none of his. It doesn't matter how much we talk. It doesn't matter how eloquently we say it. We don't have the Holy Spirit. We don't belong to the Lord. I didn't write the Bible. And the Holy Spirit has been given for a purpose. He hasn't been given to us that we can live any old way we like. He's been given to make us whole. He's been given to make us holy. And if there's no desire for holiness, we better question whether we ever were truly born of God. Now, we can ask a question. How does the Holy Spirit work this holy grace of submission to his mind? How does he do it? You see, He shows us our need for holiness by convicting us of sin. I thank God that when I get off base, He tags me out. He tags me out. And my friend, if you can get off base and never get tagged out, you better ask yourself the question, have I the Holy Spirit of God within? God saved me to make me holy. When I get off base, he tags me on. And more than that, he plants a desire in us for holiness. You see, the saving work of Christ never leads to despair. It never leads that we need to bite our fingernails and worry about the things of God. It doesn't lead to despair. It leads to a sanctified life. It leads to holiness of life. Sanctification. In other words, it is he, the Spirit of God within, the mind of the Spirit, who grants Christ likeness in holiness. He works upon our whole nature, molding us like Christ. And of course, he provides the strength to live a holy life. To live by the Spirit is to live in obedience and dependence upon him. And there's that humble feeding upon the word of God, a desire to know him. And then, of course, there's that command in Ephesians five, eighteen, to be filled with the Spirit. Cultivating holiness. And we looked at three things this morning, the what of cultivation. What is it? It's threefold. It's the imitation of the character of Jehovah. It is conformity to the image of Christ. It is the submission of the mind. Oh, we sing sometimes, don't we? May the mind of Christ, my Savior, live in me from day to day. How important that is. There's submission to the mind of the Spirit. And now we want to look at the what or the how of cultivation. How do we do this? And I'd like to leave you with five principles this morning that are so important. How can this be done? We are commanded, be ye holy for are the Lord your God and holy. But how is this accomplished? And by the way, tonight, we're going to look at encouragement to holiness. We all want to be encouraged, don't we? and the Word of God gives us some great encouragement to holiness. Well, the first principle is know and love the Word of God. Know and love the Word of God. You see, the Word of God is God's primary road, the holiness and the spiritual growth. We're commanded to meditate. Psalm, the first Psalm. And verse two says that the blessed man meditates day and night in the law of the Lord. And we're commanded in John five, thirty nine to search the scriptures. For they are they, our Lord says, which testify of me. Do you want to know about Christ? Read the scriptures. That's where you'll find it on. Don't expect growth in holiness. If you spend little time alone with God and you fail to take his word seriously, don't expect to grow in holiness if you don't take the word of God seriously. My friend, God means what he says. We're living in a day where people don't believe that. But God means what he says. You know, we talk about Christ as prophet, as priest. and as king and he's reigning now where do you expect his reigns what do we pray in the Lord's Prayer we pray thy kingdom come is he reigning over you do you obey his word do you have a desire to obey his word oh don't talk about the kingdom the millennial age to come And I believe in the millennial age when Christ is going to reign on earth. But you see, what about his reign now? The mediatorial reign of Christ, he's reigning over his church. Am I submissive to it? Do you think he's going to reign contrary to the Word of God? Or do you think he's going to reign according to your wishes? You see, and he's he who says, Be ye holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. And we can't expect growth in holiness if we spend little time alone with God, and if we fail to take his word seriously. In other words, you and I, as the people of God, must develop a formula for holy living. We can ask ourselves a question as to the things we do. We should ask ourselves a series of questions. Number one, does it glorify God? For the scripture says, whatsoever you do, do it all for the glory of God. It's what I'm doing, bringing glory to God. V, the second question, is this consistent with the lordship of Christ? Jesus is Lord. Is what I'm doing consistent with His Lordship? And the third question we should ask ourselves is, is this lawful or beneficial for me? Does it benefit me spiritually? Does it benefit me mentally, enabling me to think in a more clear way? Does it benefit me physically? Very important. This is how we develop a formula for holy living. The second principle I would like to leave with you is the one in Romans six in verse eleven. Regard yourself as dead to the dominion of sin and as alive to God in Christ. Now that doesn't mean that you no longer sin. For we all do. In thought and word and deed. but sin no longer reigns over us. That's what word dominion. And we need to fight against sin. As believers, we must seek to have a growing hatred of sin. Ye that love the Lord. Hate evil is what the word of God says. It is the hate sin as God hates sin. ever remembering that the word of God tells us in first John chapter four what we learned with the boys and girls in Bible school those of you who went to Bible school and those of you who taught in Bible school we learned that verse greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world there's a third principle In other words, pray and work with God in dependence for holiness. No one is sufficient. As we read in Job chapter fourteen of verse four, no one is sufficient to bring a clean thing out of an unclean. Only God. Only God can do this. I can't do it on my own. And as we pray, we work holiness and prayer. have much in common. They go hand in hand. How long has it been since you talked with the Lord? I did not know what they were going to sing this morning, but I sure thank God for it. I believe that's how the Spirit of God moves and works. I'll say this, they get a good job. We must work. And we must pray. Holiness and work are closer related. And we talk about work. What do you mean? I'm talking about persevering in personal discipline. You see, this is a hard work. It's easy to preach. Preaching is easy. Holiness is hard. Praying is hard work. It's one of the hardest works that anyone can ever do. It calls for personal discipline. Calling upon the Lord out of a pure heart calls for personal discipline. And I said preaching is easy compared to praying for an hour. It's easy to stand in church when the song leader says, let's all stand together and sing. And then we sing, oh, the pure delight of a single hour that before I do and I spend when we don't spend ten minutes there. We can be hypocritical in our singing. You know, in my personal life, in my personal discipline, for years, I would not sing that third stanza of that hymn, or the pure delight of a single hour, because I could never recount a time when I spent a single hour in genuine, fervent prayer. And I tell you, I'm being honest when I say that. And I can say now, for years, I can sing that hymn, and I can sing it with joy. And it came to personal discipline. Don't be afraid of that word. Discipline. It's one of the best things that can ever happen in your life. A personal disciplining of yourself. You see, we're not partakers, friends, of cheap grace. We're not partakers of cheap grace. We're partakers of costly grace. In order for God to save us, it costs the best that heaven had. And the grace of God in Christ is not cheap. It's exceedingly costly. There's a fourth principle. And the fourth principle says, seek fellowship in the local assembly and seek fellowship with those who walk in holiness. Do you want fellowship with holiness? You see, this is what's important. See, the church, the local assembly of God's people, ought to be a fellowship of mutual care and a community of prayer where we pray together. We should converse and pray with those who walk in Holiness. The fifth principle that I want to leave you with is this. Live, and that's a present tense, in total commitment to God. Don't fall prey to the one-time syndrome. What do I mean by that? Lord, tomorrow I'm going to start walking with you. Today, I'd like to do this one thing yet. One more time. I'd just like to do this one more time. And then tomorrow. You see, tomorrow's holiness is today's sin. If you say, well, tomorrow I'm going to be holy. That's sin today. God commands us in the present tense to be holy. The same as he commands a sinner. He says today is the day of salvation. And he commands a saint to be holy, not tomorrow, but today. You see, the scriptures indicate something. And what the scripture indicates is that our thought life determines our actions. Book of Proverbs says, as a man thinketh, in his heart so is he as he who have called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of life be ye or it is written be ye holy for are the Lord your God and holy and the serious part of this is Hebrews for twelve verse fourteen follow peace with all men and holiness apart from which no man shall see a life. The evidence that you've been born of God is a holy life. That's what it is. Oh, may God grant us to search our hearts and to walk in love and righteousness. For his name's sake. Let's pray. Father, we thank you this morning that we can speak to you. And speaking to you, we can answer that question. How long has it been since I talked with the Lord? Father, as we leave here, may all thy people be able to say, I've talked with the Lord this morning. For he met me here as I listened to the subject of cultivating holiness. Take this word then and bless it through every heart. For the Lord Jesus' sake, amen.