God's Purpose in Saving

Take your Bibles if you would please and turn to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 1 is where we're at. And if you do not have a Bible, there's one in the back. You can go get one if you would like and follow along. We go verse by verse through books of the Bible. And sometimes we back up and get a little bit more. And today we're going to capitalize on the subject of holiness. And I'd like to give you the title of the message up front, and that is God's purpose in saving. In Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4, we're going to see God's purpose and why He saves. Why He saves us is done intentionally. And I don't want to miss this. We want to mine these scriptures today and capitalize on God's purpose in saving. In Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4, you're going to see the reason why He chose us is that we would be holy and that we would be blamelessly living before Him. Before Him means that He is omnipresent. And then as we live before Him, He is always in our presence. He is always aware of what we're doing.

And so in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 4, you're going to see God's master plan unraveled here. God's master plan in His sovereign grace through the doctrine of election. You're going to see God's master plan in His purpose for us, which is first of all holiness and living before Him in a blameless way. And then you're going to see the why behind the what. Why does He do all of this? Well, He does this because of who He is. He is love. First John 1, 8 says, "God is love." And so from whom He is, He does this out of His loving kindness. And so we should know, 1 John 4:10 says that not that we loved God, but He loved us. And so this first action of love and sovereign grace is from heaven. That is the original source of it, Jesus in heaven. So His actions start in heaven and come down to us. Not that we first loved Him, but He loved us. So because of Him loving us first, we then reciprocate that same kind of love, which we live in a day and age, like Phil Johnson recently said at the Founders National Conference down south, that love is one of the most skewed ideas today.

So let's look at Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4 together. The Bible says, "Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love." Let's pray. Father, thank You for these concepts. Thank You for the arrangement of them. Help us to understand their chronological order. Help us to understand how it reveals more to us about You. Help us to understand the purpose for which You have saved us and how to be faithful to it. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.

On the subject of holiness, I'd like to mention to you up front that 1 Timothy 4:7 says to train yourself for the purpose of godliness. And so we have a duty to be training ourselves for the purpose of godliness. This is something that you need to figure out how to make you better. The Bible gives you what to do. Now it's a matter of discipline to do it. Revelation chapter 4 verse 8 says, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come." Romans chapter 12 verse 7 says, "To abhor what is evil and to cling to what is good." And if you were to discern that which is evil, then you will run from it and you'll cling to what is good. We are ones who are discerners. We discern what is right and wrong. We discern what is pure and what is not pure.

The Bible says in 1 John chapter 1 verse 5 that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Now that we have been saved and brought in Him in Christ, we are to live holy lives because there is no spot in us, no blemish, no unholiness in Him. We are to be reverent in our behavior. And like we and some men who prayed this morning, we ought to slow down in the things that we say and be careful with our tongue because James chapter 3 talks about how we can easily err with our tongue. It's a small vessel that guides a lot like the rudder of a ship. It's a small vessel that can cause a lot of painful problems like a spark that can cause a forest fire. It's a small vessel within us that can be like the poison in a snake's mouth that can kill something as large as an elephant. We need to bridle our tongue and how do you do that except to know what is true and to memorize scripture, to get it lodged in your heart so from the abundance of your heart the mouth will speak the things that are right. And Matthew chapter 12 verse 37 helps us to see that a lot of the things that we say simply come from the heart.

And so today as we study the subject of holiness, it's your responsibility to refine your thoughts according to the Word of God, to purify your heart according to the Word of God. And the way you are from the inside, holy, holy, holy, and then your outward words and actions will be representative of the one whose image you have been made in. God's image, you're God's child, if you've been saved by His glorious grace, live holy and blameless lives. First Thessalonians 4:3 says, "For this is the will of God, your sanctification." Sometimes we get called up on what is God's will for my life. It's not a destination. Okay? It's a process of becoming more holy. And as you are walking in Christ, His will will automatically unfold for your life. That's what the Bible wants you to do is to be focused on your personal holiness in Christ. That's God's will for you. And so 2 Timothy 2:22 says, "To flee from your youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, discern what is right and pursue it, discern what is wrong and flee from it." This is the basics of Christianity. And if you would apply these things, you will become more and more pleasing unto God our Savior.

Here in Ephesians, Paul is writing to the church. And his first priority here is to help us not to get plugged in and serving in children's ministry or serving in parking cars or serving in the kitchen or assisting or greeting or anything like that. Those things are very important. Your service under Christ our King in the local church is indispensable. But his first, may I say, point for you to pursue is not service. It's sanctification. And so salvation is one, number one. Sanctification is number two. And then service is out of your love for Him and what He has done for you. But you must grow in your faith and then for the right reasons you serve Christ.

We live in a day when church growth permeates the land and that is an abuse of people. And I'll prove it to you. Have you ever been a victim of this process where you come in the door and automatically they want you to say a prayer and get plugged in serving? Well, that's skipping from number one to number three. They've totally missed number two, which is the main point for which you live before God. Sanctification is God's will. And so Bible study groups, not shallow hangout groups, right? We actually study the Word of God and we yield to it. We abide in it. This is what we do. This is the why behind the what. But if you've ever been a victim of a church growth philosophy in a church that just simply wants you to attend and give, then you've been burnt. You've been perhaps abused. Your soul and your heart has agonized because years you've dedicated to what you felt like was right and true because it's the church. It's what the preacher said. But now you've learned a little bit more and you thought, man, we've completely missed the main thing. And I constantly repeat to us around here that making disciples is the main thing for our service unto Christ. After His death, burial and resurrection, Christ said, "Go ye therefore into other nations," and what? Make disciples. But we're really good at taking the main thing and moving it out of the way and replacing it with what we want to do. What makes us happy instead of submitting to God.

In order to be able to do all of this correctly, you must know what the Word of God says. "Thy Word is truth," John 17:17. And then from the truth of God's Word, it sanctifies you. John 17:17 says, "Sanctify them in the truth, thy Word is truth." Here Paul comes out of the gates and he is not like your Andy Stanley church-driven growth models. He is not laying some malnourished, weak sermonette before the people. He's giving them strong substance. He's giving them righteousness, holiness. He wants them not to hear shallow, fluffy songs that are repetitive or he doesn't want them to go and just hang out in some so-called fellowship groups and make more friends. He wants them not to follow a trend or a fad or be entertained by some moving lights or some color schemes. Yes, color can scheme you. It can trick you. The heart is a deceiver among all things and desperately wicked. Who can trust it? Jeremiah 17:9 says, "In the way that you can be tricked or schemed is through emotional manipulation." If there are pastel colors flying around, it's massaging you, making you feel all lovely and they give you some heartwarming story and they make you cry and then take up an offering. It's just repetitive, over and over and over. It's no more spiritual than a plot line for a movie. It's a scheme, but we believe in the sufficiency of God's Word.

If it says it, we do it. If it says it, we believe it. God is. And when we simply abide in His Word, His will wins. If we simply abide in Him, then it happens. He wants you — God, through the Apostle Paul, wants for you not to be a number. He doesn't want you to feel like a chess pawn in a big game. You're a person. You're a soul. You're made in the image of God. And you are to be saved by His grace, not for yourself, but for Himself. There's a purpose why you've been saved. And it starts with sanctification. When you are saved unto Him, it starts with holiness. In verse 4, the Bible says that you are saved to be holy and blameless before Him. His omnipresence is evident here in this text. And you live on display daily. He sees everything visible and invisible. And then in verse 5, read it with me. Ephesians 1:5, "By predestining us to adoption as sons through Christ Jesus to Himself." You see purpose behind your salvation. It's not so that you can live your best life now. Sorry, Joel Osteen.

It's so that you can live before Him. You've been saved unto Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, not your will. It wasn't your will that had anything to do with salvation. In fact, your will is bent towards evil. It takes the grace of God to bring you out of that depraved state. And so by His goodness and by His grace, He has saved you. He made the first action. He made the first step. You've been chosen by Him and brought out of darkness and into the glorious light. And now that you have been saved, you are saved for a purpose. And that starts in holiness. And then in verse 6, it says that you are saved to the praise of His glory, of His grace. This brings a lot of glory to God. This brings a lot of praise to God when you recognize these things. Verse 6, "To the praise of the glory of His grace, which He graciously bestowed on us in the beloved."

Holiness, then, is not something that you can take lightly. In fact, it is the only attribute of God that is raised to the third degree. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And when you have anything that's repeated in Scripture, it's repeated to bring more weight and emphasis to it. And so holy, holy, holy is the only attribute — by the way, it's the first attribute of God that's mentioned. You must take note. 1 Peter 1:16 says, in all caps to remind us that it's a reference from the Old Testament, it says this, "You shall be holy, for God is holy." And so as we recognize the gravity of the situation, that we are not, but He calls us to be, we need then to put emphasis upon it. We need to train ourselves for the purpose of godliness. We are not naturally spiritual. In fact, it's not natural to be holy. It's natural to be sinful. And so if you just wake up and just flippantly go throughout your day without training yourself or yielding to God or harnessing that tongue or correcting your bad character or reading Scripture and praying, if you are not intentionally abiding in Christ and submitting to Him, then the overflow of the fruits of the Holy Spirit are not going to be happening in your life. You're going to have to fake it. Nobody likes fake fruit. Have you ever tried — I've been fooled before — I've tried to take a bite of fake fruit and found that it was plastic. We really were upset about that. Nobody likes fake fruit.

Listen to this. "Holy is God entirely, until glory let us strive bodily. Holy is God Almighty, progress we make submissively. Holy is God everlastingly, in folly and sin we fall regularly. Holy is God justly, repenting His key, especially for eternity. Holy is God now extending mercy, yet overuse it not, walk humbly and faithfully, ye who are saintly."

And so holiness is our first priority. After we get saved, we need to start learning what God's Word is so that we can not only study ourselves to know what God's Word says but to be able to practice it and then teach it. That's what Ezra 7:10 sets forth as a priest for his people to be able to not only study God's law or His Word but to figure out how to put the truth into practice. So you must train yourselves for the purposes of godliness. Put it into practice. Find out what it says. Find out how to practice it. And then once you figure out how to live it out and practice it, you are able then to have something to share and teach with others. The process of sanctification needs to be moving through you. It's not like the Dead Sea where you get information and it stops there, otherwise you'll be dead like the Dead Sea. It's like the Sea of Galilee that receives water and gives water through the Jordan River. So you're constantly receiving the Word of God. You're constantly living the Word of God and you're constantly living out or giving the Word of God. And as it flows through you, it refines you. This is being made holy regularly. This is a process for which, I'm telling you, you should not be too busy for. If you're too busy, you're too busy.

If your job is too demanding, pull back. God will honor it. If you don't have time to study the Bible, you're too busy. This is God's priority for us. Fathers, lead your children spiritually. Think of them as individuals. Where are they in their walk with Christ? Where are they in Christ? Lead them. And if they're in Christ, where are they at? Do you know as a leader of the family where each of your children are struggling? Do you know where they're thriving? Pray in those areas and lead them individually. Come alongside them and be a father to them individually. That's the reason why children need a father. They need parental and spiritual guidance. They need to be able to have a safe relationship to where they can confide and say just about anything and just know that they have a father that loves them, that will listen to them and guide them according to the scriptures in grace and in mercy. Children must know that they have a father that loves them enough to listen to them, to ask them good questions. And if you do not have a father in your own home, seek out a spiritual trusted mentor like Titus and Timothy did in Paul.

This is how it is in the first level of sanctification here. The first level of growth in Christ is sanctification. So fathers must be acutely attuned to leading their wives and their children according to God's Word. You know, to not do this is sin. To not lead your families spiritually is to be pulling back from what the Lord has ordained for the father to do in the home. And so the sin of unholiness is the same as if you take your eye off the ball in baseball. Have you ever been caught right in the eye with a baseball? It's probably because you took your eye off the ball. Have you ever been smacked really hard by a ball in sports and you're like, man, I lost sight of the ball. If you lose sight of holiness, it's just like getting smacked in the face with a baseball. Not only will it eventually become visible, but it's been painful. Right? God sees that sin is not neutral. He's full of grace. He's full of mercy. But if you continue in your sin, it will rise to the surface. Numbers chapter 32 and verse 23 says, "Be sure your sin will find you out."

The context of Numbers 32:23 is that the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben were in their heart rebelling against all of their fellow kindred and they wanted to go and establish where to farm and wanted to build their houses. And they didn't want to war against all of the Canaanites anymore. They wanted to abandon their brothers and let them fight. And that was selfish. And so Moses had to correct the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben and say, "No, you're going to stick together here. We're going to see God's will all the way through to the end. Discipline yourself. Do this. Be a man of God." And so he actually told these two rebellious ones that they were like their forefathers and their cowardness when Moses instructed the forefathers to spy out Kadesh Barnea. And rather than being obedient and coming back with a favorable response, they came back with a negative and they swayed the hearts away from God. And he said, "Don't do this, brothers. If you sway your tribe and your people away from God's will, it will be for you sin." And they agreed. They said, "Okay, we will stick with you till the end and fulfill all of these mandates from God." And then the reply from Moses was, "You better do it because if you don't, be sure your sin will find you out." It's very clear and it's a principle that we can take home. Take it to heart. Be sure your sin will find you out. This scriptural principle says what is done in the dark will be revealed in the light. And so if the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben rebelled against God's will, they could be sure that their sin will be found out. Luke 12 says, "But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed."

And so my advice is to not cover up sin. Don't conceal sin, but confess sin regularly. The key is regular repentance. So we live like Martin Luther did in a state of prayer in regular repentance. He prayed and he was one who would just confess his sins. I think it was a little bit too hard on himself, by the way. But nevertheless, he was mightily used by God because purity and holiness was a priority in his life. His usability, I'm convinced, was because of how much he pursued God in righteousness and in holiness. And so Proverbs chapter 28 verse 13 says, "He who conceals his sin will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will receive compassion."

Back to Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4, "Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world." The word chose means to select for oneself. And again, you've been saved not for yourself, but you've been saved for Him, right? And so the idea of chosen from the very beginning helps us to understand that we've been selected for oneself. And by the way, the Greek does not imply rejection of what is not chosen. So God is not to blame for anyone rejecting Christ. Personal responsibility is a truth in the scriptures. You cannot evade that truth. So God confers then, according to verse 3, which is before everything that we're studying, spiritual blessings upon those whom He chose. And so in order to get in the gates of spiritual blessings — that which verses 3 through 14 are unraveling, some of God's spiritual blessings — to get in the gates, first of all, it's salvation. Okay, He chose you in Him as redemption. When you get saved, now you can get in the gates. Now to continue to enjoy these spiritual blessings, it is only through Him and He is holy. And so now Paul is talking about in Him is to be holy and blameless. And so His bestowal of blessings, they come from His grace and His kindness and His purpose that we would be holy and blameless.

I like to say it like this: we are not chosen because we are holy, we are chosen to become holy. It's a huge difference. We're not chosen because we are holy, we are chosen to become holy. There's nothing in your intrinsic worth that calls God to look upon you and say, wow, I want to save that soul. We're all depraved at birth, we're all stained by sin's depravity. And yet in His goodness and in His kindness, He saved some. And so He's reaching out and bringing you — if you feel drawn to God through the Holy Spirit, I'm telling you, respond to that drawing. It is God who is convicting you of sin, showing you your sin. And if you would yield to the Holy Spirit's drawing of your soul unto Him and confess your sin, He is faithful and just to forgive you of your sin. That verse is for believers, but it also applies in the grand idea of the fact that you now feel sorrowfulness for your sin because it caused a holy one, Jesus Christ, to have to endure all of the punishment, all the payment on the cross for your sake. He is a propitiation, the Bible says. And so as He died for your sin, to pay the penalty that you owe — your sin causes you to have a sin debt and that debt you cannot pay. There's no amount of money that you can pay. There's no amount of good works that you can do. There's no Catholic system that can earn you righteousness. There's no Jehovah's Witness system of knocking on a certain amount of doors in God's economy that doesn't exist. There's no Mormon-like purpose of trying to work your way into Godhood. Those systems don't exist. Okay? It's by God's grace that He sent His Son. So everything comes downward. Anything that makes you feel like you have to work your way up for salvation is a false religion. And now we see that this is coming down and now His purpose in saving us, not because of who we are, but because of who He is, now is to produce holiness. Read with me again. You've got to get this. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4, "Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world." Here's the purpose.

Separation. And so you must think of yourself as a holy one who is set aside for a purpose unto God. You can't participate in the deeds of the darkness of this world. You can't watch it on television and be at peace. Your conscience will be violated if you're watching sin. We cannot be entertained by the evils of this world and laugh and carry on like someone who is getting drunk and cursing and is living this world up. We can't do that. It violates our conscience. The Holy Spirit inside of us goes absolutely crazy. We're separate from that. We are to be separated from sin and therefore consecrated to God. This is what this verse is helping us to see. To be chosen of a holy God means that we are to be holy and that is inwardly to be being made clean. Inwardly you are working on this deceiver. Inwardly you are purifying your heart. Outwardly you are then living clean. When it starts at the right source, the right place, then outwardly it's easy. Otherwise it's fake. If you live clean, it doesn't work because God is omnipresent. He's omniscient. He knows everything. You can't fake this. It's got to be real. It's got to be an internal thing.

Holy ones in the Bible are called hagios, which means saints. And the sainthood is not an attainment. It is attaining. If you're a saint and you're being made holy, it's not that you have attained that. John Wesley got it wrong in sinless perfectionism. To get it right means that you are going to be attaining this and once we get to glory, we'll have it. But this side of heaven, we're going to be like the Apostle Paul who has sin like a dead corpse on his back that he is fighting and trying to get away from. And so we're constantly living up to this high holy calling.

What this produces in the believer is humility because you know that you have not measured up. Those who are most spiritual, who know the Word the best, are the humblest. Those who really truly know who they are and where God has brought them from are very humble. They're not prideful. They know it's by God's grace that they have been saved and that they have anything. And in fact, they continue to mess it up, but yet through God's mercy, they are so humbled by His mercy. He extends forgiveness. God doesn't have to forgive you and cleanse you. But the Bible says in 1 John 1:9, that if you confess your sin, He is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. That's two different things. For the believer to be made holy, you need to be forgiven. You could be forgiven of your sin. Okay? Like if you do something terrible, God could forgive you, but leave you in your guilty state where you just feel dirty and awful. But by His mercy and by His grace, He not only forgives you, He also cleanses you. To be at peace with God is a blessing.

And to sin against God, He removes that peace until you confess. And He wants you to confess so that not only He can forgive, but He can cleanse. Okay? You need this. But I don't want you to abuse God's mercy and grace. His punishment escalates as you do that. You know that. And so be being cleansed. Be being made holy by God. 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 9 encapsulates all of these ideas. 2 Timothy 1:9, "Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity." This verse has all the same ideas as Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 4. And so God's holy calling produces a holy life, and that holy life produces a blamelessness.

Back to Ephesians chapter 1, I want you to see that it's not only holy, but it's also blameless. Ephesians 1 calls for us that we would be holy and blameless. And blameless means to be without blemish. You have a life that is without a blemish. Okay? You've not only been forgiven, but you've been cleansed. You have a life that when somebody looks at it, they can't fault-find it. You actually are living above reproach. You're clean. You are free from sin's grip. Pornography, gambling, adultery, drunkenness, whatever can grip you needs to be cut off. You can't flirt with sin, right? Sin is equated to as something way more powerful than you in the flesh can deal with. And if you try to handle it yourself, you'll be made a fool.

But if you handle it according to God's Word and dig it up by the roots and get rid of it and put some separated distance between you and your temptation, then you will be safest. Unlike Alistair Begg's last recommendation, it's sad — if you are asked to go to a gay wedding, just by attending you're approving. And everybody around is going to see that you perhaps would agree with this wedding because you were there, and it calls confusion. You don't want a brother to stumble because of where you are. Romans 14:21 says that it is good not to eat meat or to drink wine or to do anything by which causes your brother to stumble.

You know that someone agrees with something by where they go and what they do. And we need to separate ourselves from that which is sinful, especially when it comes to a homosexual union. That is not marriage. The biblical definition of marriage is not a gay marriage. We need to be kind enough to be able to share the truth in love with someone who needs to understand what holiness is, God's holiness, because this is detestable in Romans chapter 1. And so for us not to attend would be able to say that hey, we're separate from these types of ceremonies because this is not a holy ceremony. This is not honoring to God. And so when you separate your presence and yourself from something like that and you remain holy, then you are communicating a lot to everybody. Not that you would be aggressive and fault-finding and pointing a finger, but you cannot approve. It's been said like this: to permit is to promote. And so if you go, you're promoting these things. And so I pray like you are praying that Alistair would correct his latest statements in this area, repent from this allowance for Christians to approve gay marriages by being there. I don't believe it's his heart. And I pray it's not. And I pray that we would remain steadfast and unmovable and always abounding in the work of the Lord. We must be holy. God says be holy for I am holy. This is non-negotiable. And so I don't want anybody to stumble by the words that I say or the places that I go. And so I encourage you like me that we would not go, but we would be very kind to them to show them true love is to tell them the truth.

And so holiness is not only an inner consecration to God, but it results in an outward blameless life. We don't want to be blameless in any way, shape or form. We want to take it slow through this world and make right choices. We've been bought with a price and it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And so if we are truly living in Christ, you cannot do things that are displeasing to the Lord. You have been bought for an eternal purpose. This eternal purpose, according to God's will, starts with your sanctification, for this is the will of God, your sanctification. First Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 3.

And so this is important. All right. The phrase that we would be holy and blameless — it's never applied to our complete justification by God. Okay. You get that so far. The completeness there is going to be made in heaven. We have sin that remains to be a struggle, but we're not shackled to it. One by one, you have been released from these sinful shackles and that is what it means to be living a blameless life. And so for those who are recently saved and perhaps you are shackled by a lot of different bad habits — let's just call them that — God is so gracious and so kind to put His loving little finger of conviction on one at a time. And then as you feel conviction in that area and you yield and you confess and you are forgiven and cleansed, the shackles are broken by prayer and by pursuing Christ. He does it. He breaks the grip of sin on your life and He sets you free little by little by little by little. You'd be amazed at how much God can do in you in just five years. If you stick to this process of being very intentional about your sanctification, you would be made into a complete new person. It's incredible.

So I like what J.C. Ryle wrote in 1877, "A holy man knows his heart is like tinder." Now you know what tinder is for a campfire. It's what you use — little pieces of like hay and stubble to help light it. It's easily lit. "So a holy man knows his heart is like tinder and will diligently keep clear from the sparks of temptation." Yes, we know that we are fallible. And sometimes being tough as a man means that you will make the tough decision and not put yourself in temptation's way. To be a strong man is to make the right choices. The military says it like this: it's the hard right over the easy wrong. You're going to make the hard decision that's right over making the easy decision that's wrong. That's good.

He also goes on to say, "A holy man will be in constant war with sin, the world, and the devil." And so we are not neutral in this pursuit of holiness. You have to be at war with your personal sin. You have to be at war with the things of this world that are trying to encroach upon your life. And you have to be at war with the devil because he's at war with you. You do not have a choice. And so we have to fight the good fight. We have to be soldiers that endure suffering. We have to work hard in all these areas. In fact, we have to hate. Psalm 119 verse 128 says, "I hate every false way." And if you can see clearly what God hates and you hate it, you will be holy. But if you muddy the waters, it's like Sinclair Ferguson said the other day, "You'll be a muddle head."

I had to think about that. What does muddle head mean? I talked with my wife and we determined that muddle is to kind of muddle it up or to confuse it or to twist it. So don't be muddle-headed on these types of subjects. Be clear-minded as to what is right and what is wrong and pursue righteousness. We don't live on the cliff so that we could easily be knocked off. We're close to Christ. We're close to the mountain. We're close to the rock. We pursue and stay with Him. You know, J.C. Ryle, a pastor in England and around the same time as Charles Spurgeon, he said that our union with Christ is the root of holiness.

Our union, our connection, our being brought into Christ is the root of holiness. And so holiness is then therefore not only a standpoint from which we live but an effort that we pursue through self-denial, through scripture memorization, through adhering to God's Word, through knowing the extent of our unworthiness and being dependent upon the Holy Spirit of God. We must be deep in humility and then yielding ourselves to God. 1 Thessalonians 4:7 says, "For God did not call us to impurity but to sanctification."

Now, all of this living and all of this pursuit and all of this fighting the good fight of faith, all of this is before God. He truly can see all, unlike Santa Claus. He truly, truly is watching and rewarding every work. And so to be before Him in Ephesians 1 verse 4, "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before Him." So Paul in his passage is praising God in this doxology for bestowing every spiritual blessing upon them all so that they can live holy and blameless before Him. This is pleasing to Him. And so it causes us to praise the glory of His grace. So salvation being from above, sanctification is then evidence of our salvation because then we return His love and return living before Him in the right ways.

Just again, to drive home the truth so that it's crystal clear: "God did not look through the sands of time to try and foresee who would be holy and then upon your holiness grant you salvation." That's not by God's design. We are chosen to be holy. James 1:21 says, "Therefore, laying aside all filthiness." Here's what saved people — it says, "Therefore, we lay aside all filthiness." Period. Enough said.

And now as we start to wrap up, the tail end of this verse is talking about how it's in love. And so the source of all of this action, the source of all of this being, is God's love. God is love. What causes you to desire holiness? It is the love of God that is in you. 1 John 4:8 says, "God is love." Verse 9 says, "The love of God was manifested in us." Verse 10 says, "Not that we love God, but He loved us." Verse 11 says, "God so loved us." Verse 12 says, "God abides in us. His love is perfected in us." In verse 19, "We love because He first loved us." And then in 1 John 5 verse 3, it says, "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome." It's not a heavy and weighty thing to obey God. We actually have the desire to do that. And when you pursue God and obey His commands, it produces a joy unspeakable. It produces a prayer life that's regular. It produces the willingness to be scorned or forsaken or rebuked, and yet reply with blessings and prayers and gifts and joy and love. It's okay. You can be scorned. You could be rejected. You could be persecuted in Christ and through the fruits of the Holy Spirit. You would be enabled to bless those who curse you. And you would know that vengeance is mine, says the Lord. When you are holy, it gives you supernatural empowerment. You can actually be at peace when people are warring against you.

Does it bother you when people say things about you? Work on your holiness. Does it throw you off in life when people say all kinds of things about you? Join the club, Christian. Work on your holiness. Work on your security in Him. Work on who you are in Christ. And this emboldens you because you know who you are. You know who God has you. And you're not going to be shaken.

Psalm 119:97 says, "Oh, how I love your law." Psalm 119:97, loving God's law, is going to produce holiness in your heart. And so as I close, salvation and holiness — they're not able to be separated. It's a fact. In the Scriptures, sanctification will be something that is progressively happening in your life if you're saved. Because the Holy Spirit of God will convict you of the sin that you have and you cannot go on sinning.

In fact, for us as a church, as a body, when we see one of our brothers and our sisters in sin, the first thing that you should do is just go to the Lord in prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to help guide. Ask the Holy Spirit to help them yield to the Holy Spirit and be aligned because you know that they're saved and being saved, that God's going to guide them so you don't have to be a fix-it at all. Right? You don't have to walk around with your finger pointed. You just know that, "I'm humble because God has helped me and God help us all." The more that we are in Christ, the more that we are holy, the more harmonious it truly is. Salvation and sanctification are inseparable. You can have confidence in that. That is the bedrock for unity among the brethren. And as we pursue Christ, we are made better, and better, and better, more in the image of God. So God does the saving and God's Word does the sanctifying.

And so I would encourage you to be in God's Word. Be in God's Word. Have a regular diet of consuming the Word of God. Study God's Word. Learn what it is to be holy. It's your job now to do the work of application. You have to self-assess where you are and where you're not measuring up and thank God for His grace and mercy. His grace in saving you and now His mercy in not ending your life because you've sinned. Right? Thank God for that and say, "Okay, in honor and respect of You, I now yield and ask You for help in the areas that I need help." This is John chapter 15 when it comes to abiding in the vine. This is submitting yourself to Christ, He being the source of all righteousness. This is being refined until you die. We must really truly be accustomed to being refined. This refining process, it's beautiful. It's tough, but it's beautiful. There's nothing better than for us to be being sanctified. It produces a real true joy.

In Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 14 is the verse that I'm going to conclude with you now. This is sobering because it says that without holiness, no one will see the Lord. So holiness is a part of your life and without it, you won't see Christ. Those who have been saved have been also brought into holiness. His righteousness covers you from God's wrath, okay?

But you cannot separate salvation from sanctification. If someone perhaps said a shallow prayer with good intentions as a kid, perhaps in VBS early in age and was not truly saved by the grace of God, and they have lived apart from the church, apart from reading God's Word, apart from prayer, apart from conviction, and they enjoy their sin, they are not saved. They need the gospel. Salvation and sanctification are hand in hand. They're inseparable. And so without holiness, no one will see the Lord. I think that we need to be flaming evangelists to go after those whose lives do not match the Word of God and be winsome and loving and kind and share the truth and grace and love and sit down and read the Word with people and let the Word do the work, but go after them, snatch them from the flames. Jude says, we need to be evangelizing even our own. We have to start even with our children with evangelizing our children because they're not born saved. They're born sinners. They prove it every day.

And then the same thing with our family and our friends. We have to be about the business of God and making disciples. And the more you submit to God in your holiness, the more you are going to be about His purposes. And as this first purpose is refined and established in your life, you will have an insatiable desire to evangelize and disciple and to pray and to praise Him and to hear the Word of God and study God's Word. You will have these desires because you're delighting yourself in the Lord. He will give you the desires of your heart. These given desires cause you to do different things in the world. And so you live differently. Holiness cannot be separated from your sanctification. And I pray that we would see this so clearly that it would give us unction and conviction and purpose in Christ to do His will and not our own. Oftentimes our comforts are our enemy. And if you're pursuing your own comfort, constantly arranging your life to where it meets the needs that you have, you're not denying yourself and taking up the cross and pursuing His will and His purposes.

Purification comes through being heated up. Purification comes like gold being refined and melted so that the impurities can rise to the surface. Your life being heated up and the stress and the strain and the sacrifice and the service, going through these things causes you to see your imperfections because when you are going through it, you see those sinful inclinations and those sinful calls, they come to the surface and now you know what to work on. And so when your cage gets rattled, when life gets rough, how you react tells you what you need to do in your life. If you need help, just ask your wife. If you need help, just ask your husband. If you need help, just ask your children. Ask for a short list to start. I guarantee you this is the path to being able to rejoice evermore.

Pray with me if you would. Lord, thank You for this time. And I pray, Lord, as we submit to You in Your Word that You would help us to see our great need of being refined by You. Thank You for being gentle. Thank You for being so kind as to help us to become more and more like You so that we can please You, Lord. We have been bought with a price and that purpose is not for our own, but it's for Your grand plan. Your master plan is unfolding and dear God, for those who may be here who do not truly believe that You sent Your Son to die on the cross, to be tortured, beaten, battered and bruised, to take the payment of Your wrath, Lord, Your righteous anger, the anger, the righteous wrath that You have is being stored up against sin. How would You be holy? How would You be just unless that which has been done wrong was not made right? God, we know as sinners that we have done a lot wrong and we know as feeble human beings that we cannot right those wrongs. We cannot go back into the sands of time and identify everything that we've ever thought and everything that we've ever done and pay You off. There's no amount of money that You would accept. There's no amount of deeds that You would accept. There's no amount of burnt sacrifices that You would accept. The only thing acceptable, Lord, is by us believing by faith that Your Son took on our punishment and He was able to pay for it all because He's both God and both man, the God-man. Thank You, Jesus, for dying on the cross and rising again for our sin. For it's in Your name we pray. Amen.