God is Always Watching

Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord - Jeremiah 23:24, KJV

However hard it is to comprehend this doctrine, it is one that is most useful and wholesome for our souls. To keep continually in mind that God is always present with us; to live always as in God's sight; to act and speak and think as always under His eye—all this is eminently calculated to have a good effect upon our souls. Here are three thoughts:

1. The thought of God's presence is a loud call to humility. How much that is evil and defective must the all-seeing eye see in every one of us! How small a part of our character is really known by man! "For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart" (1 Sam. 16:7). Man does not always see us, but the Lord is always looking at us, morning, noon, and night!

2. The thought of God's presence is a check and curb on the inclination to sin. The recollection that there is One who is always near us and observing us, who will one day have a reckoning with all mankind, may well keep us back from evil! Happy are those sons and daughters, who, when they leave the family home and launch forth into the world, carry with them the abiding remembrance of God's eye.

3. The thought of God's presence is a spur to the pursuit of true holiness. The highest standard of sanctification is to walk with God as Enoch did, and to walk before God as Abraham did. Where is the man who would not strive to live to please God if he realized that God was always standing at his elbow! To get away from God is the secret aim of the sinner. To get nearer to God is the longing desire of the saint. The real servants of the Lord are "a people near unto him' (Ps. 148:14)!

Adapted from Our Great Redeemer: 365 Days with J. C. Ryle

Brad Klassen on the Holiness of God

John MacArthur: The Believer’s Lifelong Battle for Holiness

 This video is audio only.

Brad Klassen and Jonny Ardavanis Discuss the Battle for Your Thoughts

Costi Hinn on the Devastating Effects of Pornography

The Gospel is the Root of Holiness

The very root of holiness lies in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and if we remove this and take a view grounded in more fruitfulness, we make the most astounding mistake. We have seen a fine morality, a stern integrity, a delicate purity, and, what is more, a devout holiness, produced by the doctrines of grace. We see people living in devotion to Christ; we see calm acceptance when suffering comes; we see joyful confidence at the moment of death; and we see these not in a few instances, but as the general outcome of intelligent faith in the teachings of Scripture.

Charles Spurgeon, The Greatest Fight

The Preservation of God and the Perseverance of the Saints

Personal assurance is not as simple as “once saved always saved,” although that is certainly true. An individual truly converted by the redeeming grace of God can never be lost to the clutches of sin and death. However, the security of salvation does not automatically grant assurance that we are saved—it only guarantees that those who believe in Christ will be fully and finally saved. There is a difference between the doctrine of eternal security and the reality of assurance in the life of a believer. Eternal security teaches that salvation is eternally secure for the one who believes in Christ. This security rests on the promise of God’s faithfulness, the securing power of God’s grace, and the sovereign glory of God in salvation. Assurance, on the other hand, is the firm conviction that God’s grace has saved you, which grows with Christian faithfulness, manifests itself by increasing holiness, can be shaken by a violated conscience, and will wane with patterns of neglect and rebellion. 

From a theological perspective, the security of the believer and personal assurance are best understood as the difference between the preservation of God and the perseverance of the saints. The Scriptures repeatedly and clearly call the believer to a faithful obedience and an enduring devotion to Christ. Behind such a call, however, is the related but distinct promise of God’s preservation of the saints. On the one hand, believers are commanded to strive in obedience if they want to enjoy the comforts of full assurance, yet security is never ultimately grounded in personal effort, but rather in God’s gracious work. God is the One who secures salvation, and, by His grace, saints are empowered to persevere in salvation. Thus, the grounds of personal assurance rest on both divine preservation (objective) and diligent perseverance (subjective).

Adapted from Free to Be Holy: The Liberating Grace of Walking by Faith by Jerry Wragg and Paul Shirley

Partaking Communion in an Unworthy Manner

All too often people are encouraged not to partake in the Lord’s Table if they have sin in their lives. The fact is that if they don’t think they have sin in their lives they should be excluded (1 John 1:8-10). Remember, the Lord’s Table is proclaiming the Lord’s death, not our self-righteousness (1 Cor 11:26). 

When Scripture says we shouldn’t partake in an unworthy manner, it does not mean we should abstain if we’re dealing with sin and weakness—no one would ever take Communion if that were the meaning. Instead, these instructions require a person not to take the elements of the Lord’s Table if they have not submitted to the Lord. 

Living in an unworthy manner refers to a heart and conduct that are unwilling to repent and are openly insubordinate to the Lordship of Christ. If you are battling sin and humbly seeking to bring every last lust under the truth, this is the fruit of God’s work in your life rather than a reason to not partake of the bread and the cup. As you battle to bring your life under the Lordship of Christ, the Lord’s Table is a means of grace to help you continue battling. 

It is designed to remind you that Jesus is sufficient for your salvation, and His work on the cross has done everything necessary for you to be saved (John 19:30). If you are truly believing in Jesus, then the elements of the Lord’s Table are a reminder of the assurance of salvation that you have in Him as you battle to obey Him.

Adapted from Free to Be Holy: The Liberating Grace of Walking by Faith by Jerry Wragg and Paul Shirley

Costi Hinn and Jeremy Voulo Discuss the Difference Between Holiness and Pietism

This video is a part three of a series of discussions between Costi Hinn and Jeremy Vuolo. The first two dealt with decision making and dating. This time around, Hinn and Vuolo discuss what are the differences between holiness and pietism:

Practical Christian Holiness

It is as certain as anything in the Bible that without holiness, no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). It is equally certain that holiness is the consistent fruit of saving faith, the real test of regeneration, the only sound evidence of indwelling grace, and the certain consequence of living union with Christ. 

Holiness is not absolute perfection and freedom from all faults. Nothing of the kind! The wild words of some who talk about enjoying unbroken communion with God for many months are greatly to be brushed aside because they raise unscriptural expectations in the minds of young believers, and as such, do harm. Absolute perfection is for heaven, and not for earth, where we have a weak body, a wicked world, and a busy devil continually near our souls. Nor is real Christian holiness ever attained or maintained without a constant fight and struggle. The great apostle Paul, who said, I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave (1 Corinthians 9:26-27), would have been amazed to hear of sanctification without personal exertion and to be told that believers only need to sit still and everything will be done for them! 

Yet as weak and imperfect as the holiness of the best saints may be, it is a real, true thing and has a character about it as unmistakable as light and salt. It is not something that begins and ends with noisy profession, for it will be seen much more than heard. Genuine scriptural holiness will make a person do his duty at home and by the fireside and will adorn his doctrine in the little trials of daily life. It will exhibit itself in passive graces as well as in active. It will make a person humble, kind, gentle, unselfish, good-tempered, considerate of others, loving, meek, and forgiving. It will not constrain him to go out of the world and shut himself up in a cave like a hermit, but it will make him do his duty in that state to which God has called him – on Christian principles and after the pattern of Christ. 

Such holiness, I know well, is not common. It is a style of practical Christianity that is painfully rare in these days, but I can find no other standard of holiness in the Word of God – no other that comes up to the pictures drawn by our Lord and His apostles. In an age like this, no reader can wonder if I press this subject also on people’s attention. Once more let us ask, in the matter of holiness, how is it with our souls? “How are we doing?”

J.C. Ryle, Practical Religion: What True, Biblical Christianity Should Look Like

James Coates: The Holiness of the King

James Coates preached at Mission Bible Church on the holiness of God from Isaiah 6:1-7:

Costi Hinn on the Holiness of God

Recommended Books on Holiness

We live in a depraved world that is against the things of God. The world wants us to conform to its image rather than the image of Christ. Christians are called to be holy. We are called to be different from the world.

Here are some books on holiness that I highly recommend to equip and exhort you:

God's Way of Holiness by Horatius Bonar

Holiness by J.C. Ryle

The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges

Free to Be Holy: The Liberating Grace of Walking by Faith by Jerry Wragg and Paul Shirley

The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification: Growing in Holiness by Living in Union with Christ by Walter Marshall

Growing in Holiness: Understanding God's Role and Yours by R.C. Sproul

The Root of Holiness

The very root of holiness lies in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and if we remove this and take a view grounded in more fruitfulness, we make the most astounding mistake. We have seen a fine morality, a stern integrity, a delicate purity, and, what is more, a devout holiness, produced by the doctrines of grace. We see people living in devotion to Christ; we see calm acceptance when suffering comes; we see joyful confidence at the moment of death; and we see these not in a few instances, but as the general outcome of intelligent faith in the teachings of Scripture.

Adapted from The Greatest Fight by Charles Spurgeon

John MacArthur: The Holiness of God and His People

Holiness is Comformity to The Word

The believer is sanctified experimentally just to the extent that he is brought under the illuminating and commanding influences of the Word of truth. Personal holiness is our conformity to its requirements. Practical holiness is separation and abstention from evil, and association with and performance of that which is good; and only from the Scriptures can we fully discover what is evil and what is good.

A.W. Pink, The Doctrine of Sanctification

A Sermon from Costi Hinn: A Life that is Holy

Book Review: Growing In Holiness by R.C. Sproul

God is holy. He is set apart from the world. He is pure. The Bible says that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). The Bible also says that God expects His people to be holy just as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16), which means we are to be pure and growing in our faith.

The Christian life does not come naturally to us because we are still in our mortal flesh and living with indwelling sin that wars against us. R.C. Sproul gives us some practical help as we mature in our walk with Christ in a book titled, Growing In Holiness. This book is based on a series of lectures Sproul has done in the subject.

Sproul addresses pressing on toward the goal of knowing Christ as we seek Him in His word. Sproul also addresses the three main opponents in our growth in holiness which are the world, the flesh and the devil. We are to wage war against all three if we want to continue in the goal of knowing Christ.

A lot times, we are doubtful that we are saved, which Sproul says the one way to have assurance is to trust in Christ. Church attendance, Bible reading, and giving are all good disciplines for the Christian but trusting in Christ not our deeds will ultimately give us assurance as we grow in holiness. Sproul addresses the fruit of the Spirit which is the evidence of Christ's work in our lives. Remember the fruit of the Spirit is what all believers have which is a contrast to the gifts of the Spirit which believers will get one or more gifts but not all the rest.

Holiness is essential to the Christian life. A lot of times Christians do not know how to pursue it. This book by Sproul is a delightful introduction to growing in the faith but also in holiness.

Thanks Baker Books for letting me review this book.

Holiness and Unity

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world (John 17:17-23).

Jesus prays for his Father to make his disciples holy, fit to minister in the world. His prayer reveals that holiness is possible only within the truth of the gospel (v. 17). Just as the Father sent Jesus into the world to save it (3:16), so Jesus sends his disciples to be apostles (“sent ones”) ministering his gospel (17:18). Holiness sets them apart from the Evil One’s realm (vv. 15–16), which is utterly opposed to God’s Word. It is precisely this setting apart that allows the church to infiltrate the world and preach the truth. Finally, the disciples cannot sanctify themselves, for only Christ’s death and resurrection sanctifies the church (v. 19).

Jesus next prays for the church’s unity, and his request teaches the profound oneness of the Trinity. When he asks for believers to be one “just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you” (v. 21), he implies that the persons of the Trinity exist in one another. Each of the three persons is fully God; the Son is not one-third God but is fully God, and the same is true of the Father and the Spirit.

Therefore, the three persons are in one another, as Jesus says here and in verse 23. Moreover, the Trinity not only indwells itself; there is also a sense in which believers and the Trinity indwell one another! Jesus prays that “they also may be in us” (v. 21). Without violating the distinction between the Creator and his creatures, believers are in the Father, Son, and Spirit.

Such unified harmony is what Jesus desires for the coming church, “those who will believe in me through their word” (v. 20). “Their word” is the testimony of his disciples (soon to be apostles, including Paul) contained in the Gospels and Epistles. All true believers know the same Jesus and share in his Trinitarian life because they have heard and trusted the apostles’ testimony about him.

As the unified church lives and teaches the gospel, it will draw the world to believe that Jesus is God’s Son who redeems the world (v. 21). Jesus’ prayer implicitly recognizes the disunity of human hearts, our unwillingness to trust God and the ones who carry his message. Consequently, he prays that future believers would share in his glory (v. 22) by submitting themselves to the humble, sacrificial glory of his mission on earth.

Believers are united across time and space when, consecrated by Jesus, they also “take up [their] cross” (Luke 9:23) in his service so that the world can know that the Father sent the Son and loves him and all believers (John 17:23). Their humble glory participates in the humble glory of the Trinity, in which each member seeks the glory of the other.

Adapted from the ESV Systematic Theology Study Bible

Holy in All His Works

All that God does, decides, and decrees is holy. His thoughts, plans, and promises are all holy. Are these things holy because He does them? Or, does He do them because it is holy? The answer is yes. Like we’ve seen already, God does whatever He pleases (Psalm 115:3). And all that pleases Him is holy. He is holy in His creation. He is holy in His election. He is holy in His justice. He is holy in His grace. He is holy in His compassion. He is holy in His mercy. He is holy in His judgment. He is holy in His wrath. All of His commands are holy.

As I write this, the United States continues its cultural battle over homosexuality being fully accepted as a norm. Several denominations have already capitulated on this issue and have sought in their minds to be more loving, welcoming, and affirming to the homosexual community. But, anything contrary to God’s Law cannot be beautiful or good. It’s never loving to affirm something God hates. All that God demands is holy. Affirming sin may welcome people into a building and an earthly fellowship, but it pushes them away from a holy God and directly toward the pit of hell. We must not condone or wink at sins which God detests (see Romans 1:32). Of course, conservative evangelicals must allow this truth to hit closer to home. When churches avoid church discipline because it seems “unloving” they are acting in conflict to God’s commands and become participants in unholy actions. Anything we do that is contrary to God’s word is not pure or beautiful, no matter how we may define beauty. Again, the reason being that all that God does, decides, and decrees is holy.

The unblemishable holiness of God means that God is free from culpability in all sin. While He is completely sovereign over the universe, He does not use men as robots forcing them to sin. God’s sovereignty is such that He is able to determine all actions after the counsel of His own will while simultaneously being free from all sin (Ephesians 1:11). We see the supreme example of this with the cross.

In Acts 4:27-28 Luke records the theology of the first Christians as they address God in prayer, “For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.” Some have tried to take these verses and make them say that God predestined the cross and that’s it. The issue is that you don’t have a cross without a crucifixion and you don’t have the crucifixion without the actions of Herod, Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples and leaders of Israel. Acts 4:27-28 is easy to understand. It’s just difficult for prideful men to accept. Many mistakenly argue God’s predestining the actions of men as logically meaning He would have to be the author of sin. In reality, this view of God is too small—as if God can only bring about His intended purposes if He uses men as robots. Instead, Scripture teaches us that God predetermines all things, even the actions of men (Proverbs 16:9), while at the same time being completely and utterly free from the least tinge of sin Himself (and that men have real moral agency).

He is the God of unblemishable holiness. Pilate, Herod, the Gentiles, the Jewish leaders and the peoples of Israel chose to do to Jesus exactly what they most wanted to do, while at the same time they chose to do exactly what God had predestined to take place. God is Sovereign, and man is responsible.

Adapted from Before the Throne: Reflections on God's Holiness by Allen S. Nelson IV