Holy How

Holy, How?

Acts 26:18 NIV

Thesis - We are made holy by repentance and faith and consecration and faith.

Sanctification Objective - To cause people to be holy.

            We have arrived at the time, in our current series on holiness, when my last WH friend and guide takes center platform.  That friend asks, How do we become holy? 

I.  We begin becoming holy by being regenerated.

A.  Regeneration is concomitant with justification, adoption and initial (partial) sanctification.

B.  A consciousness of a personal need for salvation precedes regeneration (prevenient grace).

C.  There are two steps in the human side of regeneration.  Paul testified to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.  Acts 20:21

                        1.  The first condition is repentance.

a) In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.  Acts 17:30  

b) The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.  He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.  2 Peter 3:9

c) Repentance includes godly sorrow for our sins.  Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.  2 Corinthians 7:10

d) Repentance includes confessing our sins.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  1 John 1:9

e) Repentance includes forsaking our sins.  To open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.  Acts 26:18

(1) “... repentance is not a feeling or an emotion.  Repentance is an action, a decision.  It is the choice to have done with sin and all that would displease God, to confess sin, to forsake it, and to ‘go out of the sin business.’”  -W. T. Purkiser

                                                (2) Repentance can be spelled Q-U-I-T!

f) “Closely tied to repentance is ‘restitution,’ which means the making right of past wrongs done to others, insofar as such is possible.”  -W. T. Purkiser

                                                (1) It is a biblical teaching (Exodus 22:3 ff.).

(a) But Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord!  Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”  Luke 19:8

                                                            (b) The Philippian jailer (Acts 16:30-33)

                                                (2) It is a big issue!

                                                            (a) John Melick - a past employers property

                                                            (b) Randy Mooney - a utility company's property

                                                            (c) Kender Smith - the governments property    

                                                            (d) Betty Hollinger - a friend’s property   

2.  The second condition is faith (believing that God can and does do the work now).

a) Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.  John 1:12

b) They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”  Acts 16:31

                                    c) “The only faith which makes a Christian is that which casts                                              itself on God.”  -Martin Luther

                                    d) D. L. Moody's acrostic -

                                                F - orsaking

                                                A - ll

                                                I

                                                T - ake

                                                H - im 

3.  “Repentance, turning the back on sin, and faith, turning the face to the Saviour, are two sides to the same process.”  -W.T. Purkiser

            Having begun to become holy by regeneration

II.  We complete becoming holy by being entirely sanctified.

            A.  A consciousness of a personal need for holiness precedes entire       sanctification.          

            B.  There are two steps in the human side of entire sanctification.

                        1.  Consecration

                                    a) Repentance and consecration contrasted

(1) Repentance faces the past while consecration faces the future.

(2) Repentance deals with sins while consecration deals with sIn.

                                    b) Consecration is like marriage.

                                                (1) It happens at a definite time.

                                                (2) It is for life.

(a) Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as                                     instruments of wickedness, but rather offer

yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.  Romans 6:13

                                                            (b) Romans 12:1, 2

(3) It includes the “unknown bundle.” - “For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health; and forsaking all others ... till death do us part.”

                        2.  Faith (believing that God can and does sanctify now).

                                    a) Acts 15:8, 9 

                                    b) Acts 26:18

c) He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.  Galatians 3:14

            “A.W. Tozer in his small but significant booklet, How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit, prescribes these steps:

            “First, present your body to [God] (Romans 12:1-2).  God can't fill what he can't have.  Now I ask you: Are you ready to present your body with all its functions and all that it contains-your mind, your personality, your spirit, your love, your ambitions, your all?  That is the first thing.  That is a simple, easy act - presenting the body.  Are you willing to do it?

            “Now the second thing is to ask (Luke 11:9-11), and I set aside all theological objections to this text. They say that it is not for today.  Well, why then did the Lord leave it in the Bible?  Why didn't He put it somewhere else?  Why did He put it where I could see it if He didn't want me to believe it?  It is all for us, and if the Lord wanted to, He could give [the Spirit] without our asking, but He chooses to have us ask. ‘Ask of me and I will give’ is always God's order, so why not ask?

            “Acts 5:32 tells us the third thing to do.  God gives His Holy Spirit to those who obey Him.  Are you ready to obey and do what you are asked to do?  What would that be?  Simply to live by the Scriptures as you understand them.  Simple, but revolutionary.

            “The next thing is to have faith (Galatians 3:2).  We receive [the Holy Spirit] by faith just as we received the Lord in salvation by faith.  He comes as a gift of God to us in power.  First He comes in some degree and measure when we are converted.  Without Him we couldn't be born again, because we are born of the Spirit.  But I am talking about something different now, an advance over that.  I am talking about His coming and possessing the full body and mind and life and heart, taking over the whole personality, gently but directly and bluntly making it His, so that we may become a habitation of God through the Spirit” (pages 47, 48).

            I invite you to take the steps God has shown you today.  An altar and Christian friends are waiting to help you.

Portsmouth, RI – 08/08/99

Jackson, MS – 03/16/03

Wyoming – 05/04/08

Bangor, ME – 03/01/09