Holiness Is Not Optional

Well, today we are going to begin a short series of Sunday School lessons on holiness. And it's roughly taken from this book. It's called The Hole in Our Holiness by Kevin DeYoung.

And I'm not ordering books and having you guys pick those up. You can feel free to pick these up on Amazon. I'm not sure how much they cost. Because it's only roughly taken from this book.

It's not matching chapter for chapter. There's some chapters where Kevin DeYoung doesn't even talk about that we'll be talking about. But today's lesson, it's called Holiness Not Optional.

Holiness Not Optional. And I want to jump right in. We're going from zero to 60 in two seconds. So here we go. Please turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 12, verse 14.

And this morning I want to see four things for which holiness is not optional.

Four things for which holiness is not optional. And the first is that holiness is not optional for heaven. For going to heaven. For seeing the Lord.

So Hebrews chapter 12, verse 14. Holiness is not optional for heaven. And let's read it. Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy.

Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. Well, you have it there before you.

And I have a question for you. A question that I would like a response. What kind of difficulties, what kind of possible problems do we have as we interpret, as we understand this verse?

What kind of problems does this raise to your mind or to your heart about this verse? What do you guys think? Mark? It can challenge your assurance of salvation.

Alright. It can challenge your assurance about salvation. It could be a good thing. Maybe it could be a bad thing. Did someone else have their hand raised up?

Roger, did you? Yeah, it can give you a sense that, well, do I have to work for my salvation? Yeah. And then this is the effort. I've got to put out effort to be holy.

Yeah. So, do I have to work for my salvation? What's that about? Any other possibilities? Dangers?

Well, I think those are the two things that came to my mind. And I think if we have our gospel ears on, then that question really does begin to itch in our hearts.

If we really sit down and say, without holiness, no one will see the Lord. But what about justification by faith alone? What about that?

What about it's not by works that we are saved? What about it's a right? There's in the gospel of righteousness apart from the law has been made, has been revealed, has been made known.

What about that? How can we say on one hand that our justification, our being right with God, is totally of faith?

It's not of works. And on the other hand, say, well, without holiness, you will not see the Lord. Are we adding works to our salvation?

Are we saying you have to contribute to your salvation? And then related to what Marcus said, and this is important, I think, to anyone as we think about this. I'm a Christian.

I really believe in Jesus Christ. I'm putting my eggs into this basket that Jesus Christ, what he has done, is enough for me. My works can't save me.

I know that. My holiness, I know, can't save me. And I know a lot of my life is not holy. There are areas in my life where I couldn't put that stamp of, this area is holy.

No, I have sin. I'm unholy to some degree. Well, what does that mean for me? This challenges our assurance. Well, those are important questions.

And if we don't at least think of them, if they don't at least come up in our minds somehow, I would really doubt that we understood the gospel. If we didn't wrestle with it to some degree, at least at the beginning, I would wonder if you understood the gospel.

Or are you still thinking that, well, I do contribute. And of course, I have to be a good person if I'm going to go to heaven. Well, this verse does have some real questions over it.

And we need to be careful as we read it. But on the other hand, this verse is not hard to understand at all. It's very simple.

We can break it down into a command and a fact about holiness. So what is the command about holiness? Make every effort.

Pursue holiness. Make every effort to live in peace and to be holy. So that's the command. What's the fact? Without it, no one will see the Lord.

Whatever that implies, whatever that means, however we understand that, the fact is simply the fact that without holiness, no one will see the Lord.

So whatever questions we have about this verse and how it fits in with justification by faith alone, and so on, we can't end up making it mean the exact opposite of what it obviously means.

There's a simple command to do. Pursue holiness. And there's a simple fact and reason why to do it. Because if you do not, you will not see the Lord.

Jim, do you have a question? Quick question. Something else that's kind of troubling about this is it says without holiness, no one will see the Lord. I understand that part. But the part that doesn't make sense is everyone stands before them on judgment.

So do you understand? Does it make sense what I'm saying? It says without holiness, no one will see the Lord, but we have to stand before them on judgment. So you're saying? Well, we're going to see them one way or another, right?

Am I wrong in that? I think that's okay. I understand what you're saying. So you're saying, hey, if there's a sinner, they're going to see the Lord. Okay, that's true. I don't think that's what he's talking about here.

He's talking about see and live with the Lord. He's talking about living in heaven. Because that bare fact of pursue holiness or you won't see the Lord, well, we're all going to see him on judgment day.

But that's not in his mind. And that's what I thought it meant, Pastor. I just wanted to clarify. Okay. I want to understand. Very good. No, that's a perfect question. Good. So Christian, you are to pursue holiness.

And the fact is that if you don't get it, if you don't have it without it, if you don't have it, you won't see the Lord. The opposite is not true.

We cannot say that without holiness, you will see the Lord. So whatever this verse may mean, whatever it might imply, the fact is that without holiness, no one will see the Lord.

So no holiness, no heaven. No holiness, no heaven. Holiness is not optional. But let's not totally leave those questions behind.

Let's look at some of those questions that we raised at the beginning and try to figure out how this fits in with justification by faith, how this fits in with now me living my life.

Just three observations. And hopefully these just these three simple observations will clear the waters, help us to understand how this fits in with the whole gospel.

So the first observation is this verse is not telling us how to be saved. This verse is not telling us how to be saved.

It does not say be holy and you will be saved. It doesn't say that holiness will cause your salvation.

That's maybe the better way to put it. That holiness will cause your salvation. It's first of all telling us who won't be saved. Who won't go to heaven.

So it's at first a negative statement about unholy people won't go to heaven. Unholy people will not see the Lord. They will not ultimately be saved.

It's like that constitutional rule. You know, if you're going to be the president of the United States, you have to be a natural born citizen.

Now, that rule is not telling us how someone becomes the president. It's telling us who can't be the president. It's ruling out a certain class of people that cannot be the president of the United States.

Any naturalized citizens, any foreign citizens, they can't be the president of the United States. So, they're ruled out.

And in the same way, unholy people are ruled out from seeing the Lord. You will not see the Lord. Secondly, it's saying that you do have to have something in order to be saved.

There has to be something that you possess if you are going to pass final muster. If you are going to get into heaven. If you're going to see the Lord. You have to have holiness in your basket.

You have to possess it. It has to become part of you. And without it, you aren't going to be saved. But that doesn't mean, for a minute, that your holiness is what saves you.

That your holiness is something that you can lean on and rely on. And then now offer up to God and say, God, let me into heaven because I have been holy. It doesn't mean that.

So, think about maybe chocolate chip cookies. What's the essential ingredient to chocolate chip cookies?

Chocolate chips. Do chocolate chips make chocolate chip cookies? Do chocolate chips cause chocolate chip cookies to come into being? No. But without them, you can't have chocolate chip cookies.

So, that's a pretty simple illustration. It's the same thing. Without holiness, you're not going to be saved.

You don't have salvation. You won't see the Lord. So, wherever there are chocolate chip cookies, there are chocolate chips. And wherever there is true salvation, there is holiness.

They go together. They're never separate. Now, third. And I want to say this, but let me put this proviso at the beginning.

This is not to encourage anyone in being slack about pursuing holiness. This is just to clarify something in regard to assurance. And that's this.

It does not say how much holiness you have to have. It's saying that you have to have it. You really have to have it. No counterfeits.

No hypocrisy. No pretend. You have to have real biblical holiness. Not having it is not an option. But it's not putting some sort of bottom limit or top limit or anything like that on it.

But you have to have the real deal, though. Now, if you take what I just said there and say, well, whatever, I'm satisfied with it, then, first of all, you're breaking the command that says pursue holiness.

And so, if you're just willingly breaking the command, then what does that say about your heart? Have you been born again? Are you a real child of God that you could just take a command and just throw it away?

Well, I'm good. See, salvation is not hell insurance. It's a life with God. It's a relationship with God. It's a new way of living.

It's salvation from sin. And so, you can't take that idea that, well, it doesn't say how much I have to have. I just have to have it and then go live however you want.

Those two things don't go together. I just say that. It's not telling you how much to have. Just to say, you know what? I don't think we're meant to think, well, do I have enough?

Do I have enough? Those aren't questions. We need more. That's the answer. You need more holiness. You need to pursue it more. And you need to have the real thing.

You need to have the real thing. So, no holiness, no heaven. Is that true? Yes. Now, what does that mean? Does that mean that somehow Hebrews 12, 14 is undermining the gospel?

Well, not at all. He's not saying now that if you're going to be right with God, you have to obey the law.

If you're going to be justified in God's sight, if you're going to be welcomed into heaven, that obeying the law is going to cause that. Because in a few verses just after this, and if you have your Bibles, look down at it, verse 18 there, he puts this into a broader context.

And the broader context is, you have not come to a mountain that can be touched, and that's burning with fire to darkness, gloom, and storm. He's saying, we haven't come to Mount Sinai.

We haven't come to the law. And now, where even Moses said, I'm trembling with fear. We aren't going to the law to be right with God.

To say, okay, I've obeyed the law. Now I can be justified in God's sight. The writer isn't sending us to Sinai to be justified in Hebrews 12, 14.

Rather, look down in verse 24, or verse 22, well, verse 24 here. We've come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

This command in Hebrews 12, 14 is not sending us to works to be right with God, to have our assurance, to lean on.

For our salvation. It's firmly grounded in justification by faith. Now that we have been to Jesus, now that Jesus is our mediator, and his blood has sprinkled us, and cleansed us, and washed us, now the command is, pursue holiness.

Without it, you won't see the Lord. So holiness and salvation, they always go together. They always, always, always go together.

Now hopefully I didn't cause any confusion. One of the most difficult things in all of theology is the relationship between law and gospel.

Martin Luther's protege, Philip Melanthin, said, to be a theologian is to understand the difference between law and gospel. So I hope I'm not confusing that matter.

It's one of the most difficult things. But let me pause there and just ask, are there any questions or comments? Yes. Is this verse only talking about practical holiness and not positional holiness?

It is talking about practical holiness, not positional holiness. That's a good point. And I'll just say that right out front. Hebrews, most of the time, is talking about positional holiness.

We've been sanctified by the blood of Jesus. He talks about sanctification by the blood of Jesus. So we've been put into the place where now we can worship and minister and serve God.

We've been sanctified like the priests were sanctified unto the temple. He's usually talking about that. But this is different. That is something that God gives us in Jesus Christ.

This is something that we pursue. That's ever in front of us. That we need more of. We pursue it. We go after it. Does that make sense?

And I would think the positional part would be that now we are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Right? We have his holiness because we're in him. Yes.

And but I think the practical, wouldn't the practical come with the new desires now that we have? The new desires to obey his commands? And loving him because he first loved us?

Mm-hmm. And so that would be. We pursue that for all our lives. And the way I picture it is. We can pursue holiness and pursue holiness. and by the end of our lifetime only achieve just a small, itty-bitty part of what is required to come before God.

But when we die and come before the Lord, there it is. It's all there and we're complete and we're made perfect. Is that a valid picture?

No, I wouldn't picture it that way and I'll tell you why because maybe I'm just misunderstanding you. But I don't want to say that Jesus, I begin my holiness and then at my death, Jesus just adds his holiness to it.

Well, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying we're not, we'll never be perfect. Right. We'll never be perfect, but... We'll always be sin. Right. And so when we are suddenly entering his presence, all that sin is gone now.

Yeah. Gone forever. And now we can be holy as we're required to be holy in the presence of God. Mm, okay. I think, I think I totally agree with you.

It's one of the hardest things, like I said. Yes, Mickey. Well, it's actually talking about Esau and mentions him as an example.

So in his situation from birth, it was told that there would be... The older would serve the younger. And that his life would not be holy.

Right. Not even positionally or actively. Right. Well, it's... I guess in that verse, in verse 16, it is not talking about Esau's election.

It's talking about Esau's godlessness. And so, yes, obviously only the elect will become holy. I would definitely agree with you there.

But he was godless. He traded his inheritance. He didn't give two hoots about what God was going to give him. He just wanted some food. Well, my Bible just regarded...

Genesis 25, 29 through the 4th, and I went back to that. Essentially, that's what it's... That passage.

Yeah. Yeah. Well... If another question comes up, please feel free to ask myself, Pastor John.

Like I said, this could be a very difficult and tricky matter, and it's not the easiest thing in front of all of you just to come up with an answer that's just really perfect.

If that makes sense. So please feel free. Like, if you need to ask a question, please ask. So let's just put this verse on then and think about it and walk around in it for a minute.

It's quite a verse. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. It's a fact. And it's a fact that applies to us.

Without holiness, you ain't going to heaven. No matter who you are. And that should at least slam the brakes on our life.

You should feel your belt tightening. And you should be asking yourself, well, do I have this holiness? Am I holy?

My eternity depends on it. So am I holy? And what I want to do here is I want to read a long quote from J.C. Ryle, and it's from his book, Holiness.

And forgive me that it's so long, but it really must be heard. Ryle is dead, and yet he's still speaking. And so listen to what he says. For one thing, let me ask everyone who may read the pages of these pages, are you holy?

Listen, I pray you, to the question I put to you this day. Do you know anything of the holiness of which I have been speaking? I do not ask whether you attend church regularly, whether you have been baptized and received the Lord's Supper, whether you have the name of Christian.

I ask something more than all this. Are you holy or are you not? I do not ask whether you approve of holiness in others, whether you like to read the lives of holy people and to talk of holy things and to have on your table holy books, whether you mean to be holy and hope you will be holy someday.

I ask something further. Are you yourself holy this very day or are you not? And why do I ask so straightly and press the question so strongly?

I do it because the scripture says, without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. It is written. It is not my fancy. It is the Bible, not my private opinion.

It is the word of God, not man. Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Surely it is a test that ought to make us consider our ways and search our hearts.

Surely it should raise within us solemn thoughts and send us to prayer. You may try to put me off by saying, you feel much and you think much about these things, far more than many suppose.

And I answer, this is not the point. The poor lost sinners, the poor lost souls in hell do as much as this. The great question is not what you think and what you feel, but what you do.

You may say these things are hard sayings. The way is very narrow. And I answer, I know it. So says the Sermon on the Mount. The Lord Jesus said so 1800 years ago.

He always said that men must take up the cross daily and they must be ready to cut off hand or foot if they would be his disciples. It is in religion as in other things.

There are no gains without pains. That which costs nothing is worth nothing. Whatever we may think fit to say, we must be holy if we would see the Lord.

So where is our Christianity if we are not? We must not merely have a Christian name and Christian knowledge. We must have a Christian character also. We must be saints on earth if ever we mean to be saints in heaven.

God has said it and he will not go back. Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. And so I ask you just as I ask myself, are you holy?

No holiness, no heaven. Holiness is not optional. Well, we have three more points.

They're all going to be quicker. Remember the idea is that holiness is not optional. Point number two. Holiness is not optional for assurance.

For assurance. So let me ask you, what do I mean by assurance? What do I mean by assurance?

Well, let me tell you what I mean then. Hold on. Assurance. I'm talking about the confidence, the confidence that you have that you are right with God.

But even more than that, I'm talking about, I'm not just talking about just knowing that you're saved. There is an assurance, but I guess I'm talking about the whole picture and experience of assurance.

I mean, resting in and enjoying and living with, being comfortable, in the best sense of the word, with God. Where you and God live as father and son, you enjoy that relationship.

So walking with God like Enoch walked with God. Or like having that confidence that Paul had. One of the most striking things about Paul is just how much confidence that he had in the Lord.

He knew that God had done something in his life and now he was working for it. Paul, you don't read Paul and you don't see Paul wondering, did God save me?

Is God at work in my life? Does God really love me? Those questions didn't come up with Paul. At least as far as we know. He wasn't a navel gazer.

He wasn't always reassessing his situation. Am I saved? Am I right? What's wrong with me? That's what I mean by assurance. Not only knowing that you are saved, but enjoying it.

Knowing and really living like you're a Christian. Not forever laying the foundation again and again and again, but moving on, moving out. And so what I'm saying is, is there can be no assurance without holiness.

There can be no comfortable walking with God without holiness. Yes. Why? Because the God who saves us is holy.

The God who saves us is holy. Why? Because the God who saves us, saves us to be holy. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works.

Now, how am I supposed to know if I am his workmanship, if I am not doing good works? And so when I see my holiness growing, and when I see my faith striving, and moving, and loving, and hoping, and obeying, where God's law is not a burden, but my delight.

It's not something that I'm running away from, but something I'm running to. I grow in my assurance because I see that God, as I look in my life, God is really doing something here.

I am not what I used to be. Now, am I what I want to be? No. Am I what I will be? No. But I am gaining ground against my sin.

We're going to talk about this in a few weeks, but as a Christian, you have the right and the privilege to see grace in your life. That is not pride to say, wow, I am not what I used to be.

I am different now. God is really at work. I'm not standing still. I'm not enslaved. I'm not enslaved. But it's more than that. When I'm pursuing holiness, I'm walking on the paths that God walks on.

You read in the Psalms all the time, teach me your paths. Let me walk in your paths. Well, what are God's paths? Well, they're the way that he goes. They're the roads that he makes and walks on.

When I'm walking in holiness, I'm walking where he walks. And on the path of holiness, I find myself walking next to him. I find him holding my hand and having dealings with me personally, speaking to me.

So his word is not something that's about other people, but it's about me. It's about him. Psalm 119.

Remember? The law of God is my delight. The word of God, your commands. You know what the two most common words in that whole book are? Or that whole psalm is? You, me. You and me.

That's what I'm talking about. So I hear that, you and me. I have that relationship. When I'm walking in holiness, the Spirit then testifies in my heart that I'm a child of God.

Now, God isn't going to be whispering into your heart, you're my child. I love you. This is, I love being close to you.

This is so good. If in your heart, you don't care about the things that he cares about, if you don't care about holiness, if he were to confirm you and affirm you and assure you in your path of unholiness, that wouldn't do you any good.

That would actually hurt you and harm you. It would encourage you in your unholiness. But God encourages us in holiness in this, that as we are walking in it, our assurance and our comfort and our joy grows.

God encourages us in our holiness by assuring us, welcoming us, blessing us, granting us closer and sweeter fellowship with him as we pursue holiness.

And so if you ignore holiness, if you ignore obedience, if you ignore godliness, don't expect assurance.

These things God has separated or put together and man can't separate them. And if you are ignoring holiness, and I'm not speaking of anyone in particular here, but I will say this, if you are ignoring holiness and you still feel like God is with me and everything is right as rain, then that's not assurance, that's presumption.

That's the satanic counterfeit to assurance. It comes from him, it doesn't come from God. And so don't be surprised on the last day when you're pounding on the door, let me in, let me in, and Jesus says, I've never known you.

Away from me, you evil doers. No holiness, no heaven is true no matter what you think about yourself.

So you can have the greatest and highest opinion of your relationship with God, but you have no holiness, then there's no heaven for you. So, and then on the positive side, this should be a real, this should be helpful.

Are you struggling with assurance? Do you wrestle with these things where you don't ever seem to gain traction, you always seem on edge with God, you don't have assurance, you don't have a comfortable, joyful, rejoicing walk with God, then pursue holiness.

That could be the thing that is missing. You want the one, but you don't want the other, or you're seeking the one, but you're not seeking the other. Seek them both. Seek holiness.

Pursue holiness. Do you want to feel closer to God? Then pursue holiness, because holiness is where God walks. These are his paths. Do you want to be close to God? Then pursue holiness.

Holiness is not optional for assurance. So no holiness, no assurance. Third point. Holiness is not optional for usefulness.

Usefulness. 2 Timothy 2.20 In a large house, there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some are for noble purposes, and some for ignoble.

If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the master, and prepared to do any good work.

Where does usefulness and being prepared, that comes from being holy. Holiness is not optional for usefulness. God's most useful servants have always been holy men, holy women.

They set themselves apart. You know, people don't become holy on accident. You read biographies.

Read the stories of holy men. And you know what? None of them fell into it. None of them just woke up one day and they were holy. They pursued it. They wanted it.

They made every effort for it. And the result was God used them. He used them more than most because they gave themselves to holiness more than most. I'm not denying grace and I'm not denying election.

I'm not denying providence or the sovereignty of God. But God uses means. And when a man pursues holiness, God is using him, is going to use him. Robert Murray McShane, Scottish 19th century pastor.

So in the 1800s, in Scotland, he was a very useful minister. He died like Jim Elliot and several other people at the age of 29. Didn't live to be 30.

And we still talk about him. And he prayed, Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be. Do you see the wide expanse of the holiness that Robert Murray McShane wanted?

See, I think generally we want holiness in this sector and this sector of my life. And you know what? Where there is sin reigning, it's right for us to pray for particular holiness in that area.

But Robert Murray McShane's heart stretched out to the whole thing and said, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be. And then he said, it is not great talents God blesses, so much as great likeness to Jesus.

A holy minister is an awful weapon, that means an awesome weapon, in the hand of God. A word spoken by you when your conscience is clear and your heart full of God's spirit is worth 10,000 words spoken in unbelief and sin.

The Holy Spirit uses holy men and women. Holy men and women are the cleanest pipes through which the Holy Spirit can flow and work.

That's the way it has always been. It's the way it's always been. Now is no exception. You are not the exception. We are not the exception. Holiness is not optional for usefulness.

So do you want to be useful for God at work, at your home, with your children, with your spouse, in your neighborhood, on your street? Then pursue holiness.

Without holiness, you can't be useful. Last thing, very briefly. Fourth, holiness is not optional for beauty.

beauty. That might sound strange, but I think beauty is something that's very important to us if we really think about it. You ever see a little child throwing a fit and you say, that's ugly.

We don't want to be ugly. We want to be beautiful. This whole world wants to be beautiful. We're enthralled with physical beauty. So men and women, they do all sorts of things to be beautiful. They get up, they work out, they pump themselves full of drugs, they tan, they run, they read scientific literature.

I want to know what works best. What should I eat? What should I do to get the body that I want? And then, they grow old and die.

Now, physical training is of some value. I'm not denying any of that. But, this world is infatuated. Our culture is infatuated with a before and after picture.

This is what I was before. This is what I am now. You know, the only before and after picture that really matters is here's a man, a picture of a man alive, and here's a picture of a man dead.

You know what happens to physical beauty at death? It's destroyed. One of the most appalling things that you can see is a dead body about an hour after the person's died.

They take on the strangest greenish color, and that's what happens to all physical beauty. But, do you want a beauty that lasts? Do you want a beauty that God enjoys and smiles on?

That even people find beautiful? Then, be holy. Peter writes, Wives, your beauty should not come from outward adornment such as braided hair and wearing gold jewelry and fine clothes.

Instead, it should be that of your inner self. The unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful.

You know what? Peter doesn't say, beauty's stupid, doesn't serve any purpose, you shouldn't want it. No, he relies on, you know what? These women want beauty.

And you know what? We want beauty. Beauty is something that we enjoy looking at. Beauty is something that we enjoy being. Everyone wants to feel beautiful. Real beauty, though, is holiness.

It's holiness. See, death is the rack and the ruin of all physical beauty, but holiness is unfading. Holiness is a beauty that grows and grows until one day God, the holy one, will take these vile bodies and make them holy.

So he's going to do what all the physical trainers can't do. Could never do.

He'll make these wilting flowers forever beautiful. But it begins on the inside. It begins on the inside. He makes you beautiful on the inside or he doesn't make you beautiful at all.

And so are you on the same page? Are you on God's agenda? Are you listening to his path to beauty? Well, it starts with holiness. So, no holiness, no beauty.

And beauty is something that you should want. I'll close by quoting Ryle again. I do not ask whether you approve of holiness in others, whether you mean to be holy and hope to be holy someday.

I ask you, are you yourself holy this very day or are you not? not. Well, we are dismissed.