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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Luke Chapter. 1. If you would Luke chapter.
Number one, this morning, if you are a guest with us today, we're
in a series this year looking at Christ is all Colossians 3 verse
11, that Christ is all and in all.
And we've been looking at some of the characteristics of who
Jesus Christ is. And we have looked at the fact
that he is omnipotent. We've looked at the fact that he
is healer. We've looked at the fact that he
is servant. We've looked at the fact that he
is meek. I'm not going to be able to do
that the longer the series goes. I won't be able to name them all
from memory, but it's been exciting to be able to look at
these different characteristics and I am so excited to be able
this morning go to Luke chapter 1.
And I know some of you think of Luke chapter 1 is only for
December. Say what's in what's Luke
chapter 1? It's account of the.
Virgin birth. It's the account that brings us
to the birth of Jesus Christ. But I would submit to you, this
is a 12 month text, not just a text that only applies in
December. And we're also going to see in
this text the fact that Jesus Christ is.
Holy. And that's why I want to present
to you this morning, You know the world does not consider
Jesus Christ to be holy. In fact, they consider it more
to be a punchline at best and problematic at worst.
Entertainment has lampooned and mocked the holiness of Christ.
You can go back to whether it's Jesus Christ Superstar or The
Life of Brian or even more recently, the Da Vinci Code that
takes, slurs and blasphemes the very name of Jesus Christ, who
we know Him to be from the Bible.
You can see the halls of academia today that do not lift
up Jesus Christ for who he is, but rather belittles Him as well
as those who are the followers of Christ for many Jesus.
Christ isn't the. Name for many use a curse word
to be able to take His name and to be able to exclaim because
they have hurt themselves or because they have had some great
calamity in their life to take His.
Name in vain, you know, the world does not believe in the
holiness of who Jesus Christ is. And this shouldn't startle us
because the world is the world, you know, I'm not saying that
it's correct. I'm not saying that it should be
something that we applaud, certainly quite the opposite of
that, But it shouldn't shock us when the world acts like the
world. It shouldn't surprise us when
those who do not know Jesus Christ would mock or even
blasphemy the very name of Jesus Christ.
But for those of us that are children of God this morning,
for those of us who know Jesus Christ as our Savior, the
holiness of God should be one of the most precious
characteristics of all of his precious characteristics, the
fact that Jesus Christ is holy. And so as we get to Luke chapter
#1 this morning, we see the announcement of the Christ
child. We see the announcement of this
holy one, this holy thing that is mentioned in verse #35 I
really want us to focus on not just the holiness of Jesus
Christ, but what that holiness means to you and I today as
well. Would you stand pleased for the
reading of God's Word? We're going one verse.
So stand up quick. All right?
Luke chapter #1 verse #35 It has been our habit.
We will expand upon that initial reading as we focus on the word.
Then we want to see why this word was spoken in reference to
Jesus Christ. And then we finally look at what
this all has to do with us in a personal application.
Luke chapter one, verse 35 says this.
And the Angel answered and said unto her, and that her there
would be Mary. The Holy Ghost shall come upon
thee, and the power of the Highest shall over shadow thee.
Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee
shall be called the Son of God. That's so quick.
I feel like we should read it one more time.
So you read it to yourself out as I read it out loud.
And the Angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall
come upon thee. The power of the Highest shall
over shadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing
which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
Will you be seated as we pray together this morning?
Heavenly Father, I do thank you for this time and I thank you
for your blessed word. I thank you that we get to
meditate to consider the fact that Christ is holy.
But I thank you that that has great application to us today as
well, when we take it seriously or maybe something that we truly
consider for ourselves and not just to walk away this morning
and realize a theological truth and be no different for it.
But may the holiness of Christ compel us to be holy people, for
we are to be holy, for you are holy.
Thank you for this time and again your word, and we ask it
in Christ's name, Amen. Thank you brother.
When we think of this passage, it's not typically with the
exclusive thought of the holiness of God.
In fact, as I just mentioned a few moments ago, we think of
this passage truly, we're thinking about the birth of
Jesus Christ. And there's nothing wrong with
that because, well, that's what this passage is about, the very
birth of Jesus Christ. But it is not December, it is
February, and it is still time for us to be able to look at
this text and still consider who Jesus Christ is.
So before we get too deep into it this morning, we have to ask
ourselves, what does this word holy mean as we found it in
verse #35 therefore also that holy thing, what shall be born
of these shall be called the Son of the highest.
What does that word holy mean? Now again, in the world, the
word holy is often used, but it's never used in conjunction
with what the word actually means.
I mean, how many times in the world do people actually use the
word holy? I mean, they use it a lot.
You think of a child that's causing trouble.
What do we call him? A holy terror, something that's
big, that's happening. We would say somebody.
Some people would say holy cow. I remember growing up watching
baseball and WGN and there was Harry Carey.
If somebody hit a home run, he would say holy cow.
Now, what's holy about that cow? Nobody knows.
Why was a cow even at the baseball park?
Nobody knows, but he would say holy cow.
There are weird sayings like holy moly and holy guacamole.
I mean, what is holy about guacamole?
I like it as much as anybody does, but there's nothing holy
about it. People say holy Toledo, which I
don't know what Toledo has anything to do with anything.
Holy smokes. Sometimes people use words after
it that are certainly not holy. But this is what the world says
about the word holy, and in fact, it almost desensitizes us
to what the true holiness of God is all about, because we can use
it in conjunction with a. 1000 things.
And none of those thousand things have to do with the
holiness of God. So what does that word holy
really mean? Well, it comes from the Greek.
Word which is. Hageos and that word hageos
means something that is set apart for or by God, and
something that could be brought near or into God's holy
presence. So really the fundamental idea
of holiness is twofold. One, it's sharing in God's
purity, and two, abstaining from the filthiness of the world.
One, sharing in God's purity and #2 to abstain from the
defilement of this world. There are many different
entities in the Bible that are recognized as holy.
The first would be God himself. Of course, we know Jesus Christ
being God is called this holy thing in verse #35 But even as
you get down into the conversation that Mary has with
Elizabeth, who is carrying John the Baptist, look at verse #49
in the Magnificat where it says in verse 49, For he that is
mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is His name,
and that's Speaking of the Father.
But yet we understand that the holiness of the Father, Son, and
yes, Holy Ghost, Holy Spirit, it's in the name that three and
one, one and three, they are holy.
So the very first example is God Himself.
Because we truly cannot know holiness if it is not for God.
Because God is not just the embodiment of holiness.
His very essence is holy. It's not just a characteristic
that he carries around like other things and puts up and
puts down. No, no, He is holy in his very
essence, some other holiness or rather holy items or holy
entities that we find in the Bible.
The temple and its furnishings were often called as holy.
They were set apart for a particular use.
By the way, this is one of the reasons that Jesus was so
indignant when he went into His Father's house and found that it
was not a House of prayer, but what a House of merchandise.
And in his righteous indignation turned over those tables.
You say, well Jesus, I thought he was meek.
He was meek. That's why He turned over those
tables. Remember, it's power under
control. He sinned not in righteous
indignation. He says this, this is a holy
place and what you are doing here is unholy.
It needs to be removed. The sacrifices that were made in
the Old Testament, they were to be holy, meaning you couldn't
just take something out of your flock and just take whatever and
offer it up to God. What are you to do to give a
lamb that was without blemish and without spot, whether it was
a lamb or a goat or whatever it was that you were offering, what
it was meant to be holy, that meant that it was to be without
that blemish. You go back to Malachi and what
were they doing? They were giving the halt, the
lame, the things that they didn't want.
You know, I don't want it, but I guess it's good enough for God.
There's nothing holy about. That the nation of Israel was
called to be a holy people. Exodus 19 verse 6 And ye shall
be unto me a Kingdom of priests and an holy nation.
They were to be a holy nation. Why?
Because Isaiah 49 verse 6 says, I will also give thee for a
light to the Gentiles. They were to be holy so that all
the world would be able to look at the Jews who had the oracles
of God and say these are the people who have the truth about
who God is and the world or was to come.
And we even saw a partial fulfillment of that or maybe a
partial illustration of that in Solomon's reign when the world
came to Solomon, while he was living the way he was supposed
to live and he was, the world would come like the Queen of
Sheba and others. And they say there's something
about you that's different. Even the queen of Sheba had hard
questions to be able to give to Solomon, But when she saw it
says of all the things of his Kingdom, but especially his
ascent into the House of God, that she realized there was
something different about him and something different about
the Kingdom. Israel was to be a holy people.
So sure, we can get a biblical understanding of what holiness
is and it has nothing to do with either Toledo or guacabole or
cows in its present sense. But the question is this, what
does it have to do with Jesus? Well, again, as we have made our
habit over the last few weeks and to expand our view of the
text and we don't just want to focus on a word and just go off
into our own direction. But why is the word holiness, or
rather the word holy, found in verse #35.
Well, to understand that we should go to verse #26.
So go up just a page, probably away in verse #26 and it says,
in the sixth month the Angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a
city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin espouse, to a man
whose name was Joseph of the House of David.
And the virgin's name was Mary. And the Angel came in unto her
and said, Hail, Thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee,
Blessed art thou among women. And so the Angel gives a
threefold commendation, a threefold greeting.
Mary, you are highly favored. Mary, the Lord is with you.
Mary, you are blessed among women.
And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying.
Cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be, she
was confused by why an Angel would be coming to her and speak
to her in such a manner. And the Angel said unto her,
verse 30 Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God,
and behold that thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring
forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus.
He shall be great. She shall be called the Son of
the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne
of his Father. David, that phrase there verse
#232 He shall be great. Has there ever been a greater
name in this world than Jesus Christ?
Literally everything in our world revolves around Jesus
Christ. Even our calendar revolves
around Jesus Christ. They may take BC and turn to BCE
and try to take away the fact of what Jesus is marked on the
calendar, but you could still say why is that zero there?
And I don't believe Jesus was actually born at 0, but the idea
is that even our very time is marked around who Jesus Christ
is. He shall be great.
There's none greater. He shall reign over the House of
Jacob Forever. Of his Kingdom there shall be no
end. And Mary said unto the Angel,
verse 34, How should this be, seeing I know not a man the
question of her virginity. How could it possibly be that I
would have a child? Now I do think it's interesting
that Zacharias earlier would ask a question of the Angel as well,
and he ended up not being able to speak for several months
because of his doubt. But yet here Mary is not taken
to task in the way Zacharias was or the way that Sarah would have
been in the book of Genesis. And I would say the reason why
is because Mary's question here is not one of doubt, but rather
one of wonder what God is doing. It's not one of doubt.
I believe it was she would be taken to task, but rather the
wonder of what God was doing, the wonder of the salutation of
what she received. She couldn't wrap her head
around the fact that she knew not a man and she was still
going to be with child. And so the answer in verse 30. 5
Was the Angel said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come over thee,
and the power of the Highest shall over shadow thee.
Therefore also that holy thing which I'll be born of thee shall
be called the Son of God. First Timothy 316 says, and
without controversy. Great is the mystery of
godliness. Consider that phrase, the
mystery of godliness. Could we also say holiness has a
great deal to do with godliness, because it is the very essence
of who God is? Great is the mystery of
godliness. God was manifested in the flesh.
And we see right here that this is what is being presented.
Many mythologies and many false religions have legends about a
God who had sexual relations with a woman and produced off
string. But the idea of a virgin birth
is unique to Christianity. This is not a lewd or crude type
of account that we have here before us today.
It's different from any other religion from any other time in
any other place. Why?
Because God is different than any other religion in any other
time in any other place. He.
He is 1 God, and there are no other gods, and we see here that
he is that holy thing. I mean, that term bothers you.
They're a holy thing. Well, pastor, he's not a thing.
We'll look at that in just a moment.
But consider that when it talks about Jesus Christ being the
Holy One, the Bible presents the fact that Jesus was holy in four
different. Ways.
First of all, he was called the Holy One before his birth.
In fact, it says in verse #35 that he shall be called the Son
of God. It doesn't say that he will
become the Son of God, meaning that he became holy once he was
born. You know he will be called the
Son of God, meaning this, that the world will finally recognize
who he always has been. It was not that he was holy the
moment he was born, but rather he is holy before time began
because he's always been in existence.
So we see that Jesus is holy before he was born, but then we
also see that holy at his birth because it says the holy thing
which shall be born of thee. Now I'm not going to go too deep
in the weeds this morning about this, but the fact is there are
many newer translations that instead of using the term holy
thing, we'll use the term holy one.
Now at first that would maybe be understandable because if you're
like me, you read holy thing there and you thought well.
Jesus isn't a thing, right? And so maybe that's bothersome
to you at first, but the idea there, particularly when you go
into the Greek, and I won't say that I understand all the
intricacies that are there, but when you go into it, the
emphasis is not on what title he will bear, but who he is.
It's not the emphasis on what title he will bear.
If the emphasis on the title he would bear, then he would be the
Holy One, but rather. It's who he is.
He is the holy thing. No, no, it's not calling him a
thing like we would call a random object or element a
thing. It is literally recognizing who
he is in his character that he is that holy thing and that when
he was born he already was that holy thing and he would continue
to be that holy thing. His Holiness was directly
related to a supernatural conception.
He had to be holy to be our Savior.
He had to be born differently to be our Savior.
He had to be born of a virgin, born outside of the fact of the
sin that was passed from from from the man, from a generation
to generation. What's different?
A different birth unlike any other birth in history.
He was holy before his birth. He was holy at his birth.
He was holy his entire. Life Hebrews 415 For we have not
an high priest, which cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are,
yet without sin. This isn't my message and I
don't have time, but I'm going forward anyway.
You say Pastor Jesus doesn't understand what I'm going
through. Pastor, I'm going through some
deep waters right now. Pastor, I'm going through some
temptations. Pastor, I have some
difficulties. And sure, there might be people
who can understand, but how could Jesus possibly understand
that which I'm going through? Well, the Bible tells us that he
was tempted at all points, as we were and as we are, yet without
sin, that he lived this life. And one of the things that he
accomplished in this life was that in his humanity that he
experienced the temptations of which we experienced, yet is
without sin. So when we look at the idea of
Jesus and say, well, could Jesus know what it was like to go
through loss? Jesus knew it was like to go
through loss because he lost people.
Jesus knew it was like to go through temptation because he
was tempted. You say, well, he was tempted 40
days in the wilderness. If you think in his 33 years he
was only tempted 40 days, that's not like we were tempted.
We're tempted every day. I don't know about you.
I'm tempted about every hour. I'm being tempted right now.
It's like, stop this thing right now.
Do we move on as everyone's hungry?
What's going on? I'm not going to give him that
temptation. We're always tempted and he was
yet without sin. Are you weary?
Are you heavy hearted? Tell it to Jesus.
He's a friend that's well known. You've no other such a friend or
brother. Tell it to Jesus alone.
He was holy during his life. You know what?
Since his death, burial and resurrection, He's still holy.
Before his birth, At his birth again, his life and the way that
he died, was buried and resurrected and lives again,
He's still holy. Romans 1 verses 3 and 4
concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the
seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the
Son of God with power according to the Spirit.
Of. Holiness by the resurrection of
the dead. The spirit of holiness involved
in the very resurrection of Jesus Christ, Yes.
How does that all work together? I don't know that I understand
other than the Bible says it and I believe it.
Is there any resurrection without a holy Savior?
The answer is no. There's no hope for Christ, and
there's no hope for us today as well.
First Corinthians 15 makes it very clear.
Without the hope of the resurrection, we're as old men,
most miserable. If there's no hope for Him, then
there's no hope for us. Christ is holy.
He always was holy. He was hole in his life.
He'll always be holy. He is the holy God.
So, understanding that Jesus is indisputably the Holy One who
has been set aside for us, we ask ourselves this question as
we move. Through our message, we asked
ourselves, what does this word mean?
Well, we saw the word holy means that it's to be part of the
righteous of God, but also to separate ourselves from the
filthiness of the world. We saw how Jesus was the
fulfillment of that by looking at our text, the announcement to
Mary of the virgin birth and why it was necessary.
We could spend a whole message on why the virgin birth was
necessary, but yet we see that it only emphasizes the very
holiness of Jesus Christ. No, we're not worshipping Mary
this morning. That's not what we're talking
about. We are admitting exactly what is
said in the Word of God in that threefold commendation that was
given to her. She was highly favored.
The Lord was with her where she's blessed among women.
That doesn't mean we pray to her.
That doesn't mean we have shrines to her, That doesn't
mean that we make her into a Co redemptrix as is taught by the
Catholic Church. No, what are we saying?
That she was blessed among women?
But her blessing came not because of who she was.
Her blessing came because of a who Jesus Christ was.
And even she recognized that she was going to give birth to her
own. Savior even she recognized, but
we see that. But then we ask ourselves this
question. Pastor, what does this mean to
me? You might say, I understand what
holiness is. It has nothing to do with
avocados and onions and garlic. OK, guacamole, just some of you
painted. I understand, Jesus holy.
But what does this have to do with me?
Well, two things. First, only the Holy Son could
make us holy so that we could avoid the penalty of sin and
judgment in our life. The call of the Old Testament
was this. Be holy, for I am holy.
The problem with that call was this man on his own can't
fulfill it. Well, Pastor, if I just live by
the law, then I will be able to achieve eternal life.
In theory, yes, but the law was there not to show us the path of
righteousness, but as much to show us this is how unrighteous
we are and to push us to to show us that there is a better way.
And that better way is not us following the law, but that
better way is Jesus Christ. The law doesn't show you that
you're innocent. It shows you where you've
transgressed. It shows you where you're guilty
and that's what he was be holy for I'm holy.
And they sacrificed in the Old Testament.
They sacrificed those bulls and those goats.
And I just read about Solomon, who, who, who at the opening of
the temple sacrificed so many animals that it it, you can't
even comprehend it in your mind. And yet that wasn't enough to.
Forgive the people their sin and we covered the sin, he said.
Why wasn't it enough? Well, if it was enough, then
Jesus Christ would have to die on the cross and we'd be having
a BBQ after every Sunday and we wouldn't be.
Some of you like that idea, but not what I'm talking about.
You wouldn't like it because back in the Old Testament you
brought a sacrifice. You killed it yourself.
Sometimes we think, well, you handed the priest.
The priest takes care of the work.
No, you had to handle that blood yourself.
You had to be able to take care of.
So I don't think I could do that.
Mankind's never been able to take care of their sin problem.
Only Jesus Christ hand and only a holy Savior with his precious
and sinless blood on the cross could ever save a soul.
Hebrews 10 verse 4 says the sacrificial system was not
enough for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and
goats should take away sin. But Second Corinthians 521 says
for he has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him.
The only way that we can be saved is with a righteous God, a
holy God, one who never sinned. Only he could make the sacrifice
to pay the penalty. We couldn't.
Pay on our own. Amen.
And if you don't know Jesus Christ today and you're hoping
to be able to do something on your own, say, pastor, you say
this every week. I'm going to say it every week
until God takes me home because this is what we do.
This is why we're here. Why do we meet in this building
here with no parking and all this stuff?
I know we got no party. The snow, it's not, it's part
of, it's the snow part of it's where we are.
It's OK. So are you saying should we even
come here? I go to a church, they tell us
to park in an insurance company and maybe I'm parking at a
warehouse. Some of you probably parked over
at the at classy canines back there or or pickleball.
Like, I'm sorry, all right, but why don't we put up with all
this? Because there's a message that
needs to get out there. That's right.
That only Jesus Christ will save you a holy savior.
That's why it's so important. If you don't know him today,
it's not about you getting baptized.
It's not about you joining this church.
It's not about you giving us money.
It's not about taking a sacrament.
It's not about any of those things.
It's not about becoming a Baptist and.
I'm a Baptist. From the top of my head, the
bottom of my shoes, you'll know what I'll say.
But I'll tell you this, it won't get you to heaven.
That's right. Jesus will get you to heaven.
Amen. Call upon him.
So there's other ways not at work.
There's plenty of ways. None of them will work, Only
Jesus Christ. He's holy.
So how does the holiness of God apply?
Well, if he's not holy, you can't get saved.
But he is, and you can be made the righteousness of God through
him. He can do in you that which you
cannot do yourself. Call upon the name of the Lord
and thou shalt be saved. That's the first thing.
The second thing deals with us who are believers here today.
Only a holy Son, first of all, could make a people holy so they
could avoid judgment and receive eternal life.
But the second thing is this. For the believer today, the
holiness of God holds great application to us as well.
For the sake of time, I'm not going to have you turn there,
but we did just read during the worship time, Isaiah chapter #6
it's one of the most beautiful accounts of the holiness of God
you'll see anywhere in the Word. If you're in a place where you
don't know where to read in your Bible, one day.
I don't know what to read. Isaiah chapter 6 could be a good
go to for you because when you see the Lord high and lifted up
and you see that angelic scene that surrounds him and the only
thing that perhaps is of its equal in the Bible in showing us
the scene would be Revelation chapter 4 and Revelation chapter
#5 but as you see this scene, what's.
Cried out. Holy, holy, holy.
And we can look at that two different ways.
The first is that in the Hebrew that we would maybe say in
English, we would say that someone is very, very holy.
They wouldn't use it in that way.
They would use the same word three times, and the three times
in a row would be the highest form of that word.
So saying holy, holy, holy means there's none more holy than our
God. But we can also look at it this
way, that it's the holiness of the Father and the holiness of
the Son and the holiness of the Holy Ghost, who are all involved
with that scene that is there. You say, Pastor, I didn't read
about Jesus in that scene. We just read Isaiah chapter #6
and it seemed like the Father was there.
But I don't see anything about Jesus.
Again, may I remind you, if the Father is there, the Son is
there. If the Son is there, the Holy
Ghost is there. But I do want to take you
somewhere else, So turn to. John chapter 12, very quick.
You can you can leave Luke chapter one.
You're safe. All right, I will make you go
back. John chapter 12.
I kind of want to get Mexican for lunch now.
I'll be honest with you. I've been talking about
guacamole so much. Everyone's going to El Mariachi
for lunch. That's a it's a problem.
John 1237. You want to see a sad verse in
the Bible? Start verse 37.
But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they
believe not on him. That's a pretty sad state of
affairs, isn't it? Jesus did so much I didn't
believe. Now look at verse 38, that the
saying of Isaias. Now Isaias would be Isaiah, that
the saying of Isaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he
spake, Lord, who hath believed our report, and to.
Whom hath the arm of the Lord revealed?
Therefore they could not believe because that Isaiah said again,
he had blinded their eyes and hardened their heart that they
should not see with their eyes nor understand what their heart
and be converted and I should heal them.
Stop right there. You say, where did Isaiah say
this? In Isaiah chapter 6 in the
verses that just followed what we read in the time of worship,
and we're not going to go there for study, go there later, but
you'll find that they said who will go for us?
By the way, when they're saying who will go for us?
The Lord. The Lord is talking to himself.
His lawyer's talking to himself. That would be father, Son and
Holy Ghost who will go for us. And Jeremiah, who had already
recognized his sinfulness, said this here am I send me.
And the message that was given is the message that we just read
right here. And that message by the
inspiration of God said applied to what took place in John
chapter 12 when people didn't believe.
And the kicker is verse 41, these things spake Isaias when
he saw His glory. Now who was His glory?
The glory that he saw in chapter 6 and spake of him, Well, who's
him? Well, this chapter's about
Jesus. Isaiah chapter #6 is as much
about Jesus Christ as it is the Father.
When they saw the holiness of Christ, when he saw the holiness
of God, they have brought him to a place that he recognized even
as a believer, his sinful state. He says, I may think I'm doing
well, but compared to him I'm a man and I'm done.
I'm a man of unclean lips. But then understanding that
Jesus, I think I'm not taking this out of context here.
Father, Son and Holy Ghost all present, but he's given this
heavenly call by the Savior. Go and preach the message and
that very day that very event is given application.
Speaking of Jesus Christ here in John chapter #12 the pastor that
that's that is really awesome. But I don't have anything to do
with me. Well has everything to do with
you. Christ was holy and this allowed
him to be used by his Father. Christ was used as a.
Father, because He was holy. When we takes holiness
seriously, He'll use us as well. I'm not saying that you'll never
be used of God if you live in a way that's apart from the Lord.
There are people that in their flesh can serve the Lord for a
time. But I will say this, you can't
truly be the servant of God that He wants you to be unless you
take holiness seriously. Well, you're some kind of
Pharisee pastor. You try to tell us how to live.
I'm not telling you how to live. The Lord is the one who's
telling us how to live. The ward is that He is the one
that is holy. We have called upon Him to save
us, and if we're believers, then we ought to live in a way
there's befitting of that holiness so that we can be used.
Isaiah couldn't be used as God wanted to.
He was used before. He was used in five other
chapters, but he couldn't be used for that which God totally
had planned for him until he came to recognize the holiness
of God and the unholiness of Himself.
And once he took the holiness of God seriously, God was able to
use him in a way that he never imagined.
And I would tell you this morning that God believer wants
to use you in a way that you never imagined.
And maybe he has used you before and maybe you thought that he's
used you before and so that's good enough.
No, no, the more we dial into, the more we recognize, the more
we take seriously the very holiness of God, the more God
will use you with your friends, with your family, in your
church, in your life. Once we take him seriously, if
God used the holiness of Christ, then he's looking for you to be
holy as well. Oh, so I got to well, I got to I
got apart from I don't even know that wasn't in my mess in my
notes here. How am I going to do this?
Philippians 39 and be found in him not having my own
righteousness, which is of the law.
Do you remember this? But that which is through the
faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by
faith, that we receive His righteousness and salvation, but
then we are to live in that righteousness with His power and
help. Ephesians 5424 you put on a new
man which after God is created in righteousness and true
holiness. I've mentioned this before
second Timothy 35 where it says having a form of godliness but
denying the power thereof from such turn away.
It talks about Timothy and Paul and some of his last words to
Timothy makes clear that unholy living.
In fact, the verses previous to that name all hosts of unholy
types of living, but they were people that still had this
outward veneer of godliness. But he says those people have no
power. He says turn away from them.
But I would also take that and use this application.
If with ungodliness comes no power, then with godliness and
holiness comes power. The opposites would be true
here. If with unholiness comes no
power, because God. Is not going to use you in the
way that He wants to use you because you are not right with
him. Then when we are right with him,
as we should, and we keep close accounts with him, and we
confess our sins to him on a regular basis and we know who He
is and we want to live for him, He can use us in ways we can't
even imagine. Brought a coffee cup with me
this morning and got this cup. This nice cup right here, isn't
it? We got this in North Conway, NH
we love. In North Conway and yeah, this
is this is nice, isn't it? It's one of several coffee cups
that I bring here to the church and usually break after a few
weeks. I've broken quite a few coffee
cups here over some time. And you know, this cup's pretty
useful, isn't it? I mean, put coffee in it.
I can't really come up with anything else.
Coffee because that's what we want.
We want coffee. That's what we're looking for.
You could put liquids in it. This is this is what it's built
for. It's made for that.
There's only one problem, this coffee.
It looks good on the outside, doesn't it?
There's one part I didn't show you that's the inside doesn't
look good, does it? In fact, it looks pretty gross
on the inside. You know, I'm not going to tell
you what it is, but it might rhyme with molasses.
The interesting thing about this is you can still use this.
I mean, I could go out in the garden in the spring, scoop up
dirt with it. I had a fight, a workshop.
If I was handy, I could maybe put screws or bolts or something
like that in there, put little knickknacks.
But a leaky faucet I could put underneath, catch some drips.
Oh, yeah, you can use this. Here's the problem.
Is this what the Craftsman intended it to be, do you think
A Craftsman says, you know what? I want to build something that
could catch drips. I need to build something that
could scoop up soil. It'll look like a cup, but it's
not a cup. It's a it's a soil scooper.
It could be used for that, but that's not what it's for.
That's not what it's for. The Craftsman has made it for
one purpose, and while it may have other lower purposes, it
will never fulfill its highest calling until it's clean.
What did holiness have to do with you?
Everything. Amen.
God wants to use you. God wants to use you.
But when you see this, you realize He will not use you the
way in which He intends to because there's people He
doesn't want you to meet. Let me repeat that again.
There are people He does not want you to meet because you
will not truly show them Christ as you want.
There are people you will not come in contact with.
There's messages you won't preach.
There's classes you won't teach. There's songs you won't sing.
There's influence you won't have.
We'll look at that tonight. You won't have those things
because you. Are a very useful soil.
Digger, a very useful faucet, drip catcher, a very useful nut
and bolt holder. But you are not what the Master
intended. So how do I get clean, pastor?
But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Christ Jesus His
Son cleanseth us from all sin. And John, as he continues to
speak to believer, says this. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
But if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive our
sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
What do we need to do? Once you're saved, you have to
confess the sin that you have every day.
So wasn't that a Catholic thing? No, that's a Bible thing.
We get it in the right order, though.
And the idea is that you don't have to come to me to confess
that the door has been way too laid wide open.
The veil has been torn in two from top to bottom.
Only God could do that. Why?
To show that we can go directly to the Lord for the forgiveness
of sins. God wants to use you.
And he might use. You here and there, but He may
not use you as you as He intended.
In fact, I put it to you this way.
A holy God uses holy people to fulfill a holy calling.
If you wrote one thing down from today's message, it would be
this. A holy God use the holy people
to fulfill a holy calling. Why would a holy God use unholy
people to fulfill a holy calling?
So, Pastor, what are you saying I need to do?
I'll give you an application that we would teach the
children. Oh, be careful little ears what
you hear. Oh, be careful little lies what
you see. Oh, be careful little feet where
you go. Say, pastor, I'm beyond those
kind of things now. Well, then you are beyond the
holiness of God and you're in a place we can't help you.
That's. Right, that's.
Good. Make a swing of this first.
We're almost done. You say you're meddling, pastor.
Call it what you want, but I'm going to help you.
What you watch on TV matters. Don't think it does have an
influence on you. The violence, the sex, the
language. You would never take the name of
Jesus Christ uses a curse word, but you'll allow someone to come
into your home and do that from Hollywood.
Be careful what you listen to, music that glorifies drugs, sex,
all kinds of different things that you wouldn't do yourself,
but you listen to someone else talk about it and sing about it.
Be careful little ears what you hear.
We have so many ways to get information.
It's scary how much information we can get from this.
I asked Siri a couple days ago. I'm talking like Siri's a
person, but I asked Siri, can you find out such and such and
such information? And it just pulled it up.
Now, 9 times out of 10, it'll pull up something a lot
different. Say what's the closest Mexican
restaurant you know to Liberty Baptist Church and it'll say,
oh, if you were looking for the nearest Indian cuisine in
Huntsville, AL, I'll help it. I didn't say that, but you can
pull up anything on this phone. And by anything I mean anything
I would suggest you. Mankind wasn't created in a way
to have to know what everybody's doing all the time on social
media, what all the news is all the time, what everything to be
able to think a thought. I wonder what the answer that is
and to find it in five seconds. I don't think God necessarily
wanted our brains to be able to handle all that because what we
do is we take all of that in and guess what?
We don't think about the holiness of God.
Hey, pastor, you're telling me what to do?
Well, somebody ought to. No, I'm not trying to be cute.
What I'm saying is I want you to be confronted with the holiness
of God. And you say I'm not giving you a
list of shows not to watch, but don't come with me after church.
Say, pastor, give me, give me your shows to watch and not
watch. Say you pray about it, you go,
you go compare what you're watching to God's Word.
No, I'm not. I'm not going to spoon feed you
with that. Well, Pastor, is this a movie I
should be watching? Compare it to God's Word and you
go to that. This is not a ministry where I'm
going to go around and just start handing you a list.
Don't go here, don't do this, don't watch this, don't go
there. Boycott this.
Don't go here, don't. There's no end to that.
And by the way, the issues of life, they keep changing.
What's a hot button issue this week?
We'll not be out by the issue next week.
The issues keep changing. You know it doesn't change.
Get with that and you'll know if God's people took holiness
seriously. And in case you're concerned,
I'm preaching to myself first. If God's people took holiness
seriously, a holy God could use a holy people for a holy calling
to do more with us than we could ever imagine.
But we can't just have this idea that we love our little Jesus on
Sunday, but we'll live the way we want to the rest of the week.
That's not what Christianity is about.
That's not what he saved you for.
That's not the calling upon your life.
He saved you for something higher and more noble and more
glorious than just rolling around in the mud.
In this world. God's holy God uses the holy to
let a holy God use you as His holy servant to fulfill a holy
calling. Thank you for listening to the
sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.
If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we
can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at
info@mylibertybaptist.org. Or you can visit us this Sunday
at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.
May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.