Nobody's Perfect

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This is the 4th message in a series of messages regarding sanctification. This message addresses the topic of Christian perfection.

Written Excerpts:

Matthew 5:48 (NKJV) Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. 

Introduction:

We’ve been speaking for a few weeks now about the matter of sanctification and what it really involves. I have been sharing ideas that I have gleaned from a book titled, “Called to Be Holy” by Dr. John Oswalt.

We have been trying to show that the NT call for Christians to be holy and to be sanctified is firmly grounded in the message of the OT and the record of God’s work with the people of Israel through the use of the covenant.

Covenants were very familiar to near eastern cultures.

The covenant God established through giving the law to Moses reveals important truths about God’s character as well as the people’s character.

Things that covenant revealed:

·     God is completely separate from the world that He created and He stands apart from any other being.

He can’t be manipulated through the world as a source of power and magic.

·     He is sovereign

Just like a king, He as legitimate authority to require strict allegiance.

Can stipulate how humans should conduct their lives in order to exhibit His own character.

·     God is gracious and faithful.

The Israelites did not deserve His offer or His choosing of them.

God repeatedly maintained His faithfulness and offered them forgiveness when He had every “right,” according to the terms of the covenant, to completely destroy them.

·     Covenant was never intended as an instrument for starting a relationship with God, but it was intended to teach the people of God how to live in a way that confirmed they belonged to the Lord.

In last week’s message we learned…

·     Covenant also revealed that humans have an essential defect in their hearts.

We are naturally inclined to rebel against authority and insist on having our own way.

God promised through the prophets to take away the stony heart and replace it with a heart of flesh.

In other words, He would do a work of grace in them that would remove their rebellious, self-centered heart and replace it with a submissive and compliant heart.

Today, we want to take a deeper look at this gift of grace that God wants to provide for His people.

We will be looking into the issue of perfection that is addressed in both the Old and New Testaments.

Title = “Nobody’s Perfect.”

Cliché - universally accepted as absolutely true.

Often used as a “catch-all excuse” for behavior that we know is wrong.

However, I believe we can find evidence in the Bible that the phrase, “Nobody’s perfect,” is not always true. I also think we can discover that there is a “Christian perfection” that God has made available through grace and desires for His people to achieve.

Proposition:

The Bible repeatedly describes people that are in a committed, “covenant” relationship with God as being perfect.

After looking at some references where people are described as perfect, I want to explore the answers to two questions:

What does it mean to say something or someone is perfect?

What is the scriptural expectation for Christians regarding perfection?

I.                    Examples of people who are described as perfect

Gen. 6:9 – Noah was a just and perfect man.

Ps. 101:2 – I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way… I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.

Job 1:1 – … that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.

1 Kings 15:14 – …Asa's heart was perfect with the LORD all his days.

2 Kings 20:3 – …O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart….

These are some examples from the OT of men who are described as perfect or having a perfect heart.

All of these examples I’ve read from KJV, but newer versions almost always use different words other than “perfect,” probably due to our modern aversion to thinking that any kind of perfection is possible.

If you are like most people, you’re probably thinking, “What does the word perfect really mean in these contexts?” We know that it is impossible for anyone to live an absolutely perfect life, with zero mistakes, so it’s got to mean something different, doesn’t it?

I glad you asked that question. Let’s take a look at the meaning of the words that are used.

II.              What does perfection mean?

OT Words & Meanings

A.  One of the primary words in Hebrew is the root “tmm” (consonants only). (By adding various vowels around those consonants we can form nouns, verbs and adjectives.)

(Oswalt) “Five different forms of this root are used to refer to human behavior that is without fault…. Most occurrences of the verb [form] have to do with the completion of an object or a process…. But there are four places [regarding Job and David] where the verb is used of human behavior, and these show that the kind of completion being talked [about] is of a moral and ethical nature.

“In other words, Job’s behavior toward God is not partly obedient and partly disobedient; it is wholly [completely] obedient. In the same way [David’s prayer in Ps. 19], the person who is delivered from [presumptuous sin] will be completely obedient. Rebellion will have no part in his or her life.”

This same root word is used in an adjective form most often to describe sacrificial animals that are complete in the sense that they are everything they are expected to be; unblemished; with no defect.

(Oswalt) Does not mean they were “show animals.”

i.e. – it doesn’t mean that they could not be better in some way, or improved upon in some way, but they were entirely without defects.

We tend to think, “If it doesn’t win a blue ribbon, it’s not perfect.” Or, “If it wins a blue ribbon in a local fair, but not at the state farm show, then it’s not really perfect.”

But that’s not the meaning of the word. If it is all that a lamb is supposed to be, then it’s perfect.

Other uses and forms of this word indicate the idea of a faultless attitude or integrity and uprightness.

When Elihu tells Job that he speaks with perfect knowledge (Job 36:4), he is claiming to speak without false motives or deceitfulness. He is claiming a quality of knowledge, not a quantity of knowledge.

When David says that God’s way is perfect and it is God who makes his way perfect (2 Sam. 22:31, 33), David does not mean that he has done everything right, but he is serving God with the same quality of integrity as God has.

In other words, David is not serving God for deceitful or base motives but out of a pure heart of integrity.

B.  A second word used in the Hebrew is the root word containing the consonants “slm”. This is the word that the Hebrew word “shalom” comes from and is often translated as “peace.” It also has to do with idea of completeness, but rather than stressing lack of blemish or defect, it carries the idea of “all parts being present,” or “wholeness.” So “peace” carries the idea of complete well-being; everything is present as it should be.

This word is used many times to describe the heart of someone.

Since “heart” describes the center of personality, including discernment, will and affections, then a “whole heart” or “perfect heart” is someone that is undivided in their thinking, their will and their choices.

If you read about the kings of Judah and Israel, you will often read one of two descriptions about each of them.

1. “His heart was perfect toward God as was that of his father David.”

2. “His heart was not perfect toward the Lord his God as was the heart of his father David.”

King Asa (1 Kings 15:14) is described as a man whose heart was perfect toward God, even though we are told in the same verse that he did not perfectly perform everything God required.

How is that possible? Presumably because his knowledge or understanding of God’s requirements was limited.

In this specific example we find that being complete or perfect in one’s devotion to God and in one’s obedience to Him does not necessarily imply perfect performance.

So we’ve seen in the OT that the word perfect primarily means wholeness / completeness / undivided; or unblemished / without defect / all it was meant to be.

NT Words & Meanings

Don’t want to take a lot of time here, because the Greek words in the NT are very similar to what we have already described in the OT.

Two Grk words are used to translate the 1 word for perfect that was used in the Hebrew. The basic idea is the same, i.e. wholeness, completeness. It carries the idea of being mature as adults rather than infants.

But, it goes beyond the mere idea of maturing to adulthood. It also implies having become all that can be expected.

James 1:4 admonishes us to let patience have its perfect work so that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

(Oswalt) Here it shows that it means more than just becoming an “older” Christian, it means becoming all that can rightly be expected of a follower of Christ.

The word often translated as “perfect” also carries the meaning of being finally brought to the appropriate end for which it was created.

There is so much more that can be stated here, but to save time, let me just say that it completely agrees with what we have already seen in the OT. = wholeness, completeness, brought to the intended level for which we have been created.

So we have seen that the meaning of the words used in the Hebrew and the Greek do not require us to think of perfection in the absolute sense, where no more growth or development is possible, but rather it’s a standard of motives and behavior that is completely what God intended it to be.

III.        Are Christians expected to be perfect?

This brings us to the second question.

Are Christians expected to be perfect?

Well, first of all let me say that many of the examples I gave when I was trying to explain the word meanings were people that were described as perfect. If God can do it for them, I believe He can still do it for us, and wants to do it.

We also have specific commands like the one in James 1:4 that we referred to, as well as the words of Jesus that was read earlier in the service, from Matt. 5:48 – “Therefore, be ye perfect as your father in heaven is perfect.”

Jesus is obviously not demanding absolute perfection to the same degree as God. No, (understood in the context) He seems to be emphasizing the fact that God’s love for people is not mixed, diluted, or polluted. So our love should be the same kind.

One thing seems obvious, Jesus is not merely saying, “You must be mature as God is mature.”

Conclusion:

So many American Christians think that God is completely satisfied for us to just live our lives any way we please, and we are entirely comfortable to use the cliché, “Nobody’s perfect,” as an excuse to keep living a life that shows little resemblance to the Lord we profess to love and serve.

What I am hoping we all take away from this message today is that this modern thinking is totally unscriptural.

God has something far better for us.

(Oswalt) Such a life [of perfection] is still possible and it is still expected by God. It is possible to be perfect – whole, complete, undivided – in our devotion to Him, and if our obedience is … unintentionally limited by matters beyond our control, such as ignorance or imperceptions, it is nevertheless possible for a person to give an obedience which is perfect, that is, flawless, utterly without blame. However, that kind of heart and that kind of a life are never merely the result of human effort…

As we emphasized last week, we need the work of God’s grace to give us a new heart; a heart of flesh in place of a heart of stone.

How can He do it? By the power of His Holy Spirit. This will be the focus of our message next time.

In closing, let’s stand and sing the song that is printed on the insert in your bulletin:

Holy Spirit, Living Breath of God      

Spirit of Holiness and Power

(To download an MP3 file of this message, click on the title above. To listen now online, click on the play button of the audio player shown here.)

This is the 5th message in a series of messages regarding sanctification. This sermon addresses the need for humans to experience a transformation in heart and spirit.

Written Excerpts:

Introduction:

We’ve been speaking for a few weeks now about the matter of sanctification and what it really involves. I have been sharing ideas that were presented in a book by Dr. John Oswalt titled, “Called to Be Holy.”

Last week we were discussing the fact that many Christians use the cliché, “Nobody’s perfect,” as an excuse for attitudes and behaviors that are completely inconsistent with the life and spirit of Christ.

Some even excuse behavior that is clearly condemned in God’s Word, but they somehow think God will exempt them from judgment because one day they prayed for forgiveness and claimed faith in Jesus Christ, and… “after all, nobody’s perfect!”

We shared some biblical examples of individuals who were described in the Bible as “perfect.” We pointed out that these individuals were not absolutely perfect, nor did they live with zero mistakes, but their hearts were totally submitted and committed to loving God and doing His will as they understood it.

They may err unintentionally, but they faithfully attempted to live pleasing to God at all times, and they operated from a heart that was totally devoted to the Lord, i.e. their motives were pure.

We ended up last week by referring to Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:48 – “Therefore, be ye perfect as your father in heaven is perfect.”

The verse is structured as a command, but Jesus is obviously not demanding perfection in our performance to the same degree as God. No, (when we understand the statement within its context) He seems to be emphasizing the fact that God’s love for people is not mixed, diluted, or tainted, so our love for Him and for our fellow man should be the same kind.

It should be a love that is not divided or diluted with self-centered or rebellious motives.

Before we continue today, I want to repeat a quote from Dr. Oswalt that I read at the close of the message last week because it fittingly introduces the point of the message today.

(Oswalt) Such a life [of perfection] is still possible and it is still expected by God. It is possible to be perfect – whole, complete, undivided – in our devotion to Him, and [even] if our obedience is … unintentionally limited by matters beyond our control, such as ignorance or imperceptions, it is nevertheless possible for a person to give an obedience which is perfect, that is, flawless, utterly without blame. However, that kind of heart and that kind of a life are never merely the result of human effort…

Human efforts will fail every time. We who have trusted in Christ, yet find ourselves in dire need of a “heart transplant” (from a stony heart to a fleshly heart); we must have a supernatural work of God’s Spirit within us to perform what we cannot do for ourselves.

So, in the short time we have today (because of sharing communion today), I want to begin exploring what the Bible says about the work of the Spirit in our hearts and lives.

I.                    Uses of the word “spirit.”

The word “spirit” has various meanings and uses in the English language.

“spirit of the meeting” – the general trend of a group of people; the atmosphere prevalent in the meeting.

“a lot of spirit” – the particular energy of an individual or group or even an animal; expressing life, liveliness and vitality.

“the human spirit” – that something that makes a human alive and is radically noticed when it’s gone, i.e. when the person dies.

“good food and spirits” – reference to beverages that have the capability to bring someone under its influence; to alter the mood and behavior.

Brings us to a text that was read earlier in the Scripture reading for this morning:

Ephesians 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

Paul is urging the Ephesian Christians to avoid allowing themselves to come under the influence or control of mind-altering spirits, but to submit themselves and allow themselves to be controlled and influenced by the Holy Spirit.

Additional Hebrew meanings:

“breath” – similar to the “human spirit” i.e. something that leaves for the last time when a person dies. “God breathed into Adam the breath of life and he became a living soul.”

“wind” – invisible power that moves things and can do great damage. You can’t see it, but you can sure see its effects or impact.

We have already used the word “heart” to describe the part of us that is the center of the personality, the will and the affections, but the spirit of a man is that which gives us life, vitality, and the ability to communicate with or be influenced by the spirit world.

II.              Problems in the spirit of man.

The last couple of weeks we have spoken often about the problems we humans have in our hearts.

We naturally struggle with divided hearts, stony hearts, rebellious hearts, etc.

The Bible reveals that the spirit of man is also defective.

Notice how some of the OT writers characterized the spirit of man centuries ago.

A.Spirit of prostitution

Hosea 4:12; 5:4 My people ask counsel from their wooden idols, And their staff informs them. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, And they have played the harlot against their God. ⁴"They do not direct their deeds toward turning to their God, For the spirit of harlotry is in their midst, And they do not know the LORD.

The prophet is talking about a general spirit of faithlessness that exists in the people of Israel.

A tendency to decide for themselves where their true pleasure lies and refuse to be “bound” to only “one true husband.”

This a spirit that abandons the one true love and insists on expressing its “freedom” to find pleasure wherever it pleases.

(Oswalt) The result is that our gifts are squandered on those who do not care for us, who only wish to use us.

How unspeakably sad it is when we witness this literally in a man or woman who continues to chase one lover after another.

It is equally sad when a person that professes to know Christ refuses to remain faithful to Him, but seeks to find spiritual pleasure and satisfaction in other “lovers.”

B.      The spirit of impurity.

Zechariah 13:2 (NKJV) "It shall be in that day," says the LORD of hosts, "that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they shall no longer be remembered. I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the land.

God seems to be saying that there is such a thing as an unclean or impure spirit that prevailed in the people, which was evident in their worship of idols, and it needed to be purged from the land.

Just note that in the NT, esp. the Gospels, the use of the term unclean spirit most often was used to denote the activity of demons or demonic spirits.

I can’t say for sure whether this is implied in the references in the OT.

III.        Help from the Spirit of God.

(Oswalt) The Hebrew people realized that their problem was one of the spirit. If … they were ever to fulfill the spirit of the covenant and serve God with perfect hearts in flawless obedience, then something was going to have to be done about the human spirit. This is nowhere more clearly revealed than in Psalm 51.

Psalm 51:7-12 (NKJV) ⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. ⁸ Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. ⁹ Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities. ¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. ¹¹ Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. ¹² Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. [or, sustain me with a willing spirit.]

After his fall into grievous sins, King David realized that he needed and wanted God to do a radical work in his heart and to his spirit.

He prays for God to create in him a clean / pure heart, which would coincide with what we talked about last week – a heart that is whole, unmixed or undivided by other affections.

But, he also prays for God to give him a “right spirit,” or a “steadfast spirit.”

(Oswalt) The sense of the Hebrew word is of being solidly fixed or established. David realized that the only hope of having a genuinely pure heart, [i.e.] one which belongs to God through and through, [it is only] if something fairly radical is done to his human spirit.

David not only prays for God to give him a spirit that is fixed and steadfast in God, but he prays for a spirit that is willing and generous.

He wants a spirit that is free to give himself away in God-inspired generosity precisely because he is supernaturally fixed upon God.

We said earlier that this change that is needed clearly cannot be achieved by mere human effort. God’s Spirit must do a supernatural work in our lives and that can only happen as we submit completely and unconditionally to the work of the Spirit.

Conclusion:

We are going to continue further on this matter of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives at a future service, however, we’ll be taking a break from this series for a couple of weeks as we do our VBS program and then we’re going to have a group from New Destiny here.

But, after that we’ll come back to this subject and explore more of what the Bible has to say about experiencing God’s grace in changing our spirit to be loyal and faithful to Him.

May God’s Holy Spirit convince us of our need for a radical transformation of our spirit in order for us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect.

 

A Heart for God

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This is the third sermon in a series of messages on the topic of sanctification. In the previous message we had been describing the character of God as revealed in the Mosaic Covenant. This message takes a look at what the covenant reveals about human nature or human character.

Written Excerpts:

Ezekiel 36:24-29 (NKJV)

24 For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.  25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.  26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.  28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.  29 I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. I will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you. 

Introduction:

It has been two weeks since our last message in the series we have been doing on the topic of sanctification. I just would like to summarize some of the things we have already covered before I go on.

We mentioned that by God’s marvelous grace He chose specific individuals with whom to establish a binding covenant. And, He also entered into a covenant with an entire nation, purely because of His grace. None of them had done anything to earn or deserve being chosen by God to participate in the covenant with Him.

By choosing to use a covenant, God utilized a practice that was very common to the people of the ancient near eastern culture. So the familiar tenets of the covenant could be used to teach the people vital truth concerning the nature and character of God.

We have learned that He is completely separate from the world that He created and He stands apart from any other being. Since He is the creator of the material world, He cannot be represented by a material object that is part of the creation He made.

We have learned that He is sovereign and has the rightful authority to require strict allegiance and to stipulate how humans who want to live in covenant with Him should conduct their lives in order to exhibit His own character.

We have learned that the covenant exhibits His grace and His faithfulness. The Israelites did not deserve His offer or His choosing of them. He rescued them and delivered them purely by His grace and His faithfulness to the promises made to their forefathers.

Even after the covenant was established, God repeatedly maintained His faithfulness and offered them forgiveness when He had every “right,” according to the terms of the covenant, to completely destroy them.

We learned that the covenant was not a mechanism for entering into a relationship with God, but it was for those who were already in a relationship by the grace of God and needed to know how to maintain that relationship, or how to demonstrate that they belonged to the Lord.

The last time, we finished the sermon by stating that there was one more important truth that was revealed to the people through the use of the covenant.

That truth is going to be our focus for the message today.

The purpose of the covenant was not only to reveal the character of God and His intention for human life, but it also was intended to reveal true human character.

With the help of God’s Spirit, I want to point out the human problem that the covenant revealed, and use various Bible texts to emphasize God’s remedy.

Proposition:

The covenant revealed that human beings by nature are incompatible with God’s nature and God’s plan for living our lives.

I want to focus on the nature of our problem, some examples of the problem and a brief glimpse at God’s solution.

I.   The nature of the human problem revealed by the covenant.

We have mentioned already that the covenant was never intended to be a means whereby people could enter into a relationship with God.

When the covenant was offered, God had already initiated the relationship and called them to be His own purely because of His grace. This was true for Abraham, and it was true for the nation of Israel.

The covenant was not meant to be a means for us to make ourselves acceptable to God.

Dr. Oswalt explains that the covenant was also not intended to be used like a ladder to achieve greater levels of sainthood. The Apostle Paul in Romans 7 shows how that scheme can actually turn out to be a curse instead of a blessing.

The covenant defined how life would work if they lived the way they were supposed to live.

When Moses asked the people if they were willing to obey the Lord and if they were willing to enter into this binding covenant, they eagerly responded in the affirmative.

I read to you the other week where they said to Moses, “You go speak with the Lord and all that the Lord has spoken we will do.” (Ex. 19 & 20)

God had graciously delivered them from slavery, so they would do all that God instructed Moses for them to do. In fact, they willingly called death down upon themselves if they failed to live up to the terms of the covenant.

However, when they made such drastic promises they apparently didn’t realize they had a problem that they inherited from Adam and Eve.

Even though they had bound themselves to obey God’s will in the strongest terms possible, they very soon and very often violated the terms of the covenant that they promised to live by.

The covenant was the means for revealing to them that they couldn’t live up to God’s requirements, nor had any deep inward desire to do so.

They discovered again and again that they wanted their own way and were constantly drawn to the very things God forbade.

II.  Some examples of the human problem.

Ps. 51:5 – Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time that my mother conceived me. (NIV)

Jer. 17:9 – The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (NIV)

The Bible indicates that when we commit acts of sin we are just doing what comes natural to us because our nature is corrupt.

You’ve heard me say frequently that we were born with a nature that is inclined against God and bent toward evil.

Even today, when we hear the message of God’s gracious salvation and respond to the invitation to become a child of God and enter into a relationship with God, there is a joy and happiness to know that our sins are forgiven and we have been accepted by God on the benefits of Christ’s death on the cross.

We are happy and thrilled with the hope of eternal life.

If we are asked whether we intend to live for God and fully obey Him after all He has done for us, we respond with an immediate “yes.”

However, in a short time we discover that there is still a spirit or motivation or desire within us that works against our best intentions to live the life of God, even though we have trusted Christ and know that we have received a new life.

Usually Satan tries to convince us that nothing really happened and there is nothing to this life of faith and salvation, after all. Everything is just like it was before.

But, new converts need to be reminded that something did indeed happen when they believed the gospel, but they haven’t yet received all that God has provided for them.

(Oswalt) The Israelites apparently thought it would be easy to serve God in the ways He ordered so they blithely entered the covenant with its oaths to be faithful or die.

But, they soon broke the covenant, but it was not just a one-time freak incident. No, they broke the covenant again and again. In fact the entire history of Israel is an ongoing cycle of faithful obedience then rebellion and waywardness.

Finally, at a point when the nation had been punished repeatedly for their unfaithfulness to the covenant, God reveals through His prophets what He intends to do for His people.

III.  God’s solution for the problem.

This brings us to the passage of scripture that was read earlier in the service, as well as the similar passage in Ez. 36:24-29 (see above).

See also Jeremiah 31:31-34

God’s remedy for this glaring problem in the heart of men and women as revealed in the covenant is defined in these passages. God offers each and every one a brand new heart.

He offers to remove the heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh (i.e. stubborn/rebellious vs. yielded/ compliant).

When we earnestly seek God’s purifying grace, His Spirit can give us a new heart that is completely yielded to His will rather than continuing to seek our own will.

There is no greater happiness or greater peace than that which is enjoyed when the deepest motivations of one’s heart is surrendered and totally consecrated to the will of God.

Conclusion:

Various methods and philosophies have been offered to rectify the problem that exists among the human race.

Some have insisted that ignorance is the primary problem of society and education is the remedy, but as much as education is needed, it will merely provide more efficient and more devious ways to achieve one’s selfish desires, if the deepest spiritual problem is not addressed.

Some have proposed that poverty is the problem, but forced economic equality has not eliminated the problems. In fact, it has historically produced even more undesirable results; more complex problems and more intense suffering.

No, the only true solution for the human problem that was so vividly exposed by the covenant is the solution proposed by God Himself – giving a new heart and a new spirit.

That is the essence of sanctification and holiness. It is not only living a life prescribed by God for His glory, but it is to possess a heart that has been radically changed by God’s Spirit so that the law of God and the mind of Christ has been internally written on the heart and produces Christ-like actions.

I would like to close the service today with the chorus that is listed in your bulletin:

Change My Heart, O God      

Who Is the Lord?

(To download an mp3 file of this message, click on the title above. To listen now, click on the play button of the audio player shown.)

This is the second sermon in a series of messages regarding the subject of sanctification. This message focuses on the character of God as revealed through the Mosaic Covenant. Most of the ideas expressed in this sermon are adapted from the writings of Dr. John N. Oswalt in his book, Called to Be Holy.

Written Excerpts:

Exodus 5:2 (NKJV) And Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, nor will I let Israel go."

Introduction:

I stated last Sunday that we were going to be doing a study on sanctification for several weeks.

Last week we chose the topic, “God’s very own possession” as our emphasis for the first sermon in the series. We tried to present the truth that is emphasized in 1 Peter 2:9, which indicates that God not only chose us before we ever cared anything about Him, but He chose us to be in an exclusive relationship with Him – a relationship that does not tolerate any competition, a relationship that is characterized as a holy relationship.

The next theme we want to explore in this progression of revelation is the question, “What kind of God is this One who chose us and wants an exclusive relationship with us?”

The verse that I read a moment ago, quoting the words of Pharaoh, makes a good beginning point for our discussion today. You might recognize the context of this verse – it was the occasion when Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him that the God of the Hebrews was calling His people to go out into the wilderness to hold a feast to the Lord.

Pharaoh responds to them by asking, “Who is the Lord?” He had no prior knowledge of God, and he wasn’t about to obey just because Moses said so. This question posed by Pharaoh expresses the same question that was present in the minds of the Hebrews themselves, and it is the same question that plagues most people – even until the present day. “Who is God?” “What is He like?”

I mentioned last week that I would be using a good bit of material from OT scholar and author, Dr. John Oswalt. Dr. Oswalt shares that when God chooses to reveal His own character, His intentions for His people, as well as the nature of the people whom He has called, He uses a commonly used mechanism called a covenant.

In the OT and even in the pagan world of the ancient Near East, the covenant was a “solemn agreement between two parties. Each one accepted certain obligations to the other and in return received certain benefits from the other.”

The people who had been chosen by God had been surrounded by and immersed in a pagan religion that was utterly wrong on every important point. (i.e., the nature of God [the gods], the origin and purpose of the world, the origin and purpose of humanity, etc., etc.)

If God was going to succeed in teaching His chosen people the truth about Himself, He would need to go outside of the well-known religious forms and use something that the people would still be familiar with but would be separated from the religious corruption and misconceptions that existed.

The covenant was ideal for this purpose. It was primarily legal rather than religious in nature, but it would serve as a vehicle to teach important truths about this God who had called them to be exclusively His.

For example, the ancient covenants contained several aspects that closely corresponded with the truths the people needed to understand about God.

·     The concept of monotheism over polytheism could be easily explained through the common knowledge that any emperor who entered into covenant demanded that the subjects recognize no other king than himself.

·     A covenant between a great king and the people began with a brief historical prologue that reviewed the historical circumstances that led up to the covenant. This feature aligned with the history of the patriarchs and God’s involvement with them. (I am the God who brought you up out of Egypt…)

·     After the stipulations had been enumerated and other details finished, there commonly were a list of gods called upon to witness the agreement, but in Israel’s case this was substituted by the erection of stone pillars or memorials as a witness and to remind the people of the covenant.

·     In an ancient covenant the bulk of the content had to do with the stipulations the people agreed to follow, but there was also a designated part where the king made promises or commitments to do certain things for the people. This also was parallel to the fact that the Creator God was obligating Himself to His people – something that was totally unheard of in those times.

·     Finally, the additional benefit of a covenant was the part where the king could stipulate absolute ethics, (i.e. require certain kinds of behavior and prohibit other behavior) as long as they were in covenant with him. (This would be totally impossible in a polytheistic “world” because the gods have too many competing desires.) But, since God is the only God, then He can require ethical behavior from his subjects. (Ten Commandments)

We read in the OT that God entered into a covenant with various individuals such as Abraham. We also learn that God entered into a covenant with a nation of people – Israel. Moses is the primary figure in the formation of this covenant, but the nation of Israel is involved.

So with the Lord’s help today I want to share with you some of the truths that God taught His people about Himself through the use of the covenant that was instituted at Sinai and the giving of the commandments.

I.   The covenant teaches us that God is holy.

A.  Holiness means “otherness.”

The term “holy” was used among the pagans and for them it primarily distinguished anything that pertained to the gods from everything else that did not pertain to the gods. In this sense, the word did not imply any moral behavior because the gods had no higher morals and ethics than humans did.

However, in the establishment of the covenant, God begins to show the people that He is the only One that the term may be justly used.

Unlike the pagans who believed that the gods were part of the creation (world order, cosmos), the Hebrews were to understand that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was wholly other than this world; completely separate from this created order and in control of it.

And God demonstrated this fact by completely over-ruling virtually all of the Egyptian gods in the plagues that He sent upon the land. Each and every plague was an affront to a particular god that was worshiped by the Egyptians. While those gods were not holy (other than the created world), the God of the Hebrews was, as demonstrated before their very eyes in Egypt.

This is the point of the 2^nd commandment re: graven/ crafted images. God cannot be represented by anything of this world, because He is completely and wholly separate and above this world order. Cf. the same emphasis in the prophets (Is. & Jer.): a piece of wood that is used to cook your meal and also carved to make an idol cannot rightly be called “holy.”

The tragedy of the golden calf incident was the people created an idol out of “this world” material and claimed it represented the God that is totally and completely apart from this world.

B.  Holiness means ethical righteousness.

God’s ethical character is revealed in the parts of the covenant that are contained from Exodus 19-Numbers 10, and Dr. Oswalt summarizes the content as pertaining to “Exodus, Covenant, Tabernacle, Sacrifices and Priesthood.

After defining the divisions, Dr. Oswalt asks, “What is the significance of this organization?” [i.e. record of Exodus followed by, covenant, then sacrifices and priesthood.] “First of all, it tells us that the reason God gave the people the covenant was so that he might live in their midst.”

By His grace and grace alone he delivered them from slavery in Egypt, but now there must be some way for God to live among the people he has delivered. The author argues that the sacrificial system is not designed for those who want to enter into a relationship with God or those who intentionally sin and then later repent. Instead, it is for those who are already in a relationship with God and are committed to living a life like his.

But this relationship is not possible without a continuous atonement. “Without it, the purity of his perfection would melt us as the noonday sun melts butter.” The covenant was not the “way to God; it was the means of walking with God.” “Holy living is the intended consequence of gracious salvation.”

By living according to the stipulations of the covenant the people will learn that their God is not at all like the gods of the pagans. They must treat one another with love and honesty and faithfulness because that is what He is like. Those who belong to God must act in these ways because that is the kind of God he is.

To live in defiance of these stipulations while insisting that one is forgiven is to do the very thing which the Hebrews did and it eventually brought destruction.

II.  The covenant teaches us that God is gracious.

The covenant further reveals the holiness of God by showing the grace of God. As I stated earlier, God entered into covenants with specific individuals before He entered into covenant with Israel. Noah was chosen; Abraham was chosen; Isaac was chosen; & Jacob (Israel) was chosen.

None of these did anything to merit or earn the favor of God. He chose them and bound Himself to them without any initiation on their part.

At the burning bush incident God reveals Himself to Moses by saying three things about His character.

A. He identifies Himself as One who made gracious promises and undeserved blessings to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

B. He reveals that He is sensitive to the suffering of His people.

C. He announces that He intends to deliver His people through Moses in spite of their fear and unbelief in order to fulfill the promises He made to the patriarchs.

III.  The covenant teaches us that God is faithful.

The covenant emphasizes over and over that God is choosing them because of His promises to their fathers. God makes promises to them of His ongoing faithfulness to them even in times of apostasy and departure from His covenant.

The covenant was sealed with serious oaths where both parties “called down death upon themselves” if they should ever break it. (This was typical language used in any covenant between two parties.) Then a short time later the people of Israel violated the covenant.

God was entirely just in threatening to destroy them, but Moses, “reminds” God of his own nature and unfailing promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses knows that God is not that sort of God. Moses knows that God is the kind of God that shows love to a thousand generations who love him and keep his commandments.

The word for “love” is the Hebrew word “hesed” for which there is no one English word that captures the full meaning. The word connotes the earnest, undeserved, and unexpected generosity of one who does not have to give it. (loving kindness)

Oswalt – “When we ask the Israelite people what their God is like, they do not, as some Christians would expect, speak of him as a God of wrath. Instead they tell us of a God of incredible patience, who extends undeserved generosity to thousands of those who love him and keep his commandments. It is as though they say to us, “It is not surprising that God got angry at us. We broke our covenant, the one in which we called down death on ourselves a thousand times. What is surprising is that God would not give up on us. He continued to hold us, to believe in us, to hope for us, it invite us to start over again. He kept his side of the covenant when there was no earthly reason whatsoever to do so.”

“So the covenant, which revealed the holy character of God, revealed that his otherness was not merely in grace, nor in ethical uprightness, but also in undeserved and unexpected faithfulness."

Conclusion:

There is at least one more truth that was revealed to the Israelites through the use of the covenant, and we will get into that in our next sermon.

I just would like to summarize our emphasis today by saying that God graciously chose specific individuals, and eventually an entire nation, with whom He would enter into a binding covenant.

The use of the covenant answers the question posed by Pharaoh, “Who is the Lord?”

We have learned that He is wholly and completely separate from the world that He created and He stands apart from any other being.

We have learned that He is sovereign and has the rightful authority to stipulate how humans who want to live in covenant with Him should conduct their lives in order to exhibit His own character.

We have learned that the covenant exhibits His grace and His faithfulness. The Israelites did not deserve His offer or His choosing of them. He rescued them and delivered them purely by His grace and His faithfulness to the promises made to their forefathers.

We learned that the covenant was not a mechanism for entering into a relationship with God, but it was for those who were already in a relationship by the grace of God and needed to know how to demonstrate that they belonged to the Lord.

This same God still desires to have relationships with whosoever will today. He will save us and deliver us from sin, then give us the presence of His Spirit to enable us to live up to His character.

Let us close the service by singing:

# 552 – I Am Thine, O Lord

Do you know that you belong to the Lord?

Have you been forgiven of your sins and transgressions, and have you been living in covenant with Him in a way that exhibits God’s character to the world around you?

If not, you certainly can. God is constantly inviting everyone to know Him and bind themselves to Him in a commitment of love and service.

God's Very Own Possession

(To download an mp3 file of this message, click on the title above, to listen now, click on the play button of the audio player shown.)

This is the first message in a series of messages on sanctification. A significant portion of the ideas and material used in these messages are adapted from the book, Called to Be Holy by Dr. John N. Oswalt.

Written Excerpts:

I want to read several verses of Scripture to complement the passage that was read earlier in the service. The earlier passage from Hebrews spoke specifically about the new covenant that God has established with His people.

This next passage is 1 Peter 2:1-9 and it describes the character and behavior of those who are in covenant with God.

I’m going to read from a newer translation of the Bible because it seems to clarify the real meaning of some of the words that are used. Upon reading this passage I discovered that verse 9 includes a phrase that I had chosen as the title for this message.

1 Peter 2:1-9 (NLT) But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

Introduction:

Dr. Oswalt’s book that I mentioned a moment ago, Called to Be Holy, is a book that explains the biblical call to holiness for the people of God. I am deeply indebted to his book for much of the content in this sermon today and in the upcoming sermons to follow.

I remember making a statement a few years ago during a sermon that went something like this, “In spite of everything that is now possible in our world because of science and technology, there is one thing that is increasingly considered impossible – that is, living a pure and holy life that is issuing from a holy heart.”

Dr. Oswalt makes some similar statements in the introductory chapter of his book that I feel are worthy of quoting, so I trust that you will grant me tolerance as I read about 5 paragraphs from his introduction.

Oswalt – “… the importance of the Bible’s teaching on holiness is not comparable to its [secondary] teachings on [church structure] or [end time events].

“If a person constantly reads the NT in light of the Old, which the Church Fathers clearly intended by their joining of the two in one [collection], then it becomes unmistakably clear what the purpose of the Gospel is. It is the same purpose that God has had from Genesis 4 onwards: the transformation of human behavior in this world with the consequent possibility of living with God through all eternity. The OT show us what that transformation is, and the NT shows us what God has done to make the transformation possible.

“This means that unless Christians are truly transformed into the character of God, the whole purpose of the Church’s existence becomes blurred and confused. The world looks upon hateful, self-serving, undisciplined, greedy, impure people who nevertheless claim to be the people of God, and says, ‘You lie!’”

After speaking about the problem in today’s church of minimizing the concept of God’s grace, he continues by saying, “The problem with ‘cheap grace’ is that it does not go far enough. It fails to understand that the goal of God’s grace is nothing less than Christlikeness. We want to believe God to escape the consequences of our sin, but we do not want to believe Christ to deliver us from our sinning. We want to enjoy the pleasure of sin while escaping its bitter consequences. But the Scriptures call us to a life which is radically Christlike….

“The Church which has lost sight of the biblical doctrine of holiness tries to market the gospel as a solution for life’s difficulties, a source for personal fulfillment, a means of achieving one’s desires for significance and status and power. In other words, it is not a means of escaping the [control] of [our] desires, it is a means for fulfilling that [control]…. It is a Church that expects to go down the aisle to meet its Bridegroom in a dress as filthy as the one in which He first found her in the gutters of life….”

These challenging words by Dr. Oswalt point to the real need for a revival of understanding and experiencing the grace of God that produces a life of holiness which reflects the true character of our heavenly Father.

As a beginning point in this series, I want to draw your attention to the thoughts expressed in verse 9 of 1 Peter 2.

1 Peter 2:9 (KJV) But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:

There are three brief observations that I wish to focus on from this verse.

God chooses us.

God chooses us for Himself.
God chooses us to be holy. 

I.    God chooses us.

“… a chosen generation…”

One of the most precious truths of the Bible is the fact that God has chosen us! Jesus said, “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit.”

God is the one who has done the choosing. The message of the Bible from Gen. to Rev. is that we had no inherent ability to choose God and suddenly decide to be like Him; like “turning over a new leaf.” Yes, we do have to “make a choice,” but the very capacity to choose is a gift of grace from the God of heaven who has come searching for us, and He bridged the gap to bring us to Him.

“When I could not come to where He was, He came to me!” – Squire Parsons

I have nothing in myself, outside of His grace, to make me want Him and to make me choose Him. All I wanted was to satisfy my own selfish desires and inclinations. But while my mind and heart were set on finding satisfaction for physical and sensual desires, God’s Holy Spirit penetrated my heart and created a yearning to know Him and to live for Him.

Hallelujah! I’m so thankful for “the love that drew salvation’s plan,” “the grace that brought it down to man” and “the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary!”

I know I would be lost in hell this morning if it wasn’t for the marvelous fact that God chose me.

And, the Bible makes it clear that God didn’t just arbitrarily and capriciously choose some of us to be saved and then condemn everyone else to an eternal hell; lost forever. No, God chooses all of us, then He wonderfully gives us the grace as well as the freedom to choose whether we accept.

“God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

II.   God chooses us for Himself.

“… a peculiar people…”

This second point builds on the first one. God not only was the One who did the choosing, but He chose us for a specific reason – to be in an exclusive relationship with Himself.

The KJV uses the phrase, “a peculiar people.” This does not mean that all God’s children are supposed to be weird! The NLT uses the phrase that I had chosen as a title for this message: “God’s very own possession.”

God never intended to share our devotion and affection with any other deity. He expects to be the only object of our love and worship. He expects us to be committed only to Him, and not allow any other object or person to divide our affection.

This theme is illustrated so beautifully in the OT through the use of the covenants that God had with individuals, as well as an entire nation. As we quoted from Dr. Oswalt earlier, the NT was meant to be understood in light of the OT. So, the whole idea of holiness and what it involves is beautifully illustrated in the use of OT covenants.

God enters into covenant with Abraham, for example, and chooses him purely by grace, then commits Himself to Abraham and requires Abraham and his descendants to be committed to God.

In the book of Exodus God enters into covenant with the nation of Israel through Moses and the law. God made specific commitments to Israel because of His previous promises to the fathers, and He requires Israel to make specific commitments back to Him.

These glimpses of covenants provide insights into the character and nature of God. We won’t go into details today, but through the use of covenants, God reveals to humans what His holiness is all about and why He requires them to be holy. But for right now, we want to use the OT covenants as an example of the truth that God desires and planned for exclusive relationships with mankind and He truly want us for His own special possession.

That is an awesome truth to contemplate: that the God of the universe; the Creator; the sovereign ruler of nature desires an exclusive relationship with each and every one of us!

III.   God chooses us to be holy.

“… an holy nation…”

1 Peter 1:15 (KJV) But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;

We’ve already mentioned the fact that God wants us to be in an exclusive relationship with Him; just like He did with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, etc. However, there is a grave problem. How can evil, selfish, sensual, and polluted human beings be in an intimate and meaningful relationship with God?

God is holy!

We don’t have the time today to explore all the meanings of this fact. We will probably start with this the next time, but for now we only need to understand that God’s holiness is what separates Him from us.

God’s purpose all along has been to transform us into His likeness and provide the means whereby we can enter into this exclusive relationship and survive. For, without the intervention of His grace, we would be consumed by the awesome holiness of an almighty God.

Conclusion:

God has chosen us to be His very own possession. God has completed the necessary provision for us to share in His nature and character. It is an affront to the very nature of God for us to refuse His ultimate purposes and essentially say, “I’m okay God, I prefer to remain in my bondage to self-centered motivations and sensual desires.”

I believe it truly is the natural and normal response for every child of God that has really been born again and has become a new creature in Christ Jesus, to desire to have all that God’s grace has provided, not only for our salvation, but for our transformation.

Let us close the service today by singing the song:

Take Time to Be Holy       # 656