Welcome to affirm foundation, presented by Princeton ministries with Doctor Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

Father. We ask now that the words of my mouth, the meditations of our hearts, would be acceptable in your sight, for we ask it in Jesus name. Amen. God says, be ye holy, for I am holy. How holy are you? How holy am I? The very word seems foreign, probably to most of us. And the idea of holiness, that it’s possible for a person to be holy almost is like a phrase from another planet. Certainly it sounds like it comes from another age. There are very few times in my life that I ever, other than in the church, have heard the word holy used. And probably the most notable usage of the word holy was when Robin and Batman would find themselves in some terrible situation and suddenly Robin would cry out, holy pigs feet.

And that was supposed to be the point, to let you know they were in a bad situation. And Robin would talk about holy linoleum and all other types of things that he considered to be holy. Throughout my life, I remember people talking about holy cows and holy mackerels, but I don’t ever remember anyone talking to me about being holy. And that’s what I want to talk with you about today. Are you holy? First, I think it’s important for us to see that God wants his people to be holy. Turn with me to first Peter, chapter one, verses 13 through 16. Peter is speaking and he says, gird up the loins of your mind. Be sober. Rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all of your conduct, because it is written, be holy, for I am holy. Now, one of the problems with the word holy is that as soon as it’s said, usually we have a caricature of a holy person in mind. I know I do. When I think of a holy person, I think of a person who sits piously with their hands folded and their eyes looking to heaven, who doesn’t seem to be having a very good time. And if that’s what being holy is, I have to be honest, I’m not interested in looking like that. Being that kind of holy person. What is your caricature of a holy person?

Well, if you’re able to take an eraser, then wipe it off the blackboard, because we are going to wade deeply into scripture and look at several teachings that will give us a better perspective on what it means to be holy. First, I want you to know that being holy is not an option for a Christian. Being holy is not an option for a Christian. And I would even go further. To say, to be holy is to be a Christian. To be holy is to be a Christian. Now you may say that sounds a little strong. Then simply look at Hebrews, chapter twelve, verse 14. In this wonderful explanation of faith, we are told, pursue peace with all men and holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

You mean to say that the only people who are going to be in heaven are holy people? That’s right. Now one of the problems now becomes definition. What then do you mean by holy? And I think this is where the confusion has fallen on the church. Because if we are to look at scripture, we will find that actually there are two broad uses of the word holy. The first usage of holy is found with verses that talk about how God sees you in Jesus Christ. If you have put your faith in Jesus Christ and you have trusted in him as your savior, then the scriptures say that God sees you as holy because of the work of Christ. And we can point to a wide variety of verses that talk about this holiness. It is referred to by theologians as imputed holiness.

Imputed holiness simply means that someone gives to you a quality which is theirs. Jesus Christ, who is holy, we are told that when we become Christians, gives us his holiness so that when God looks at you, he sees you as holy. And if were to look at Ephesians one four, we would find he chose us in him, Jesus Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. The same idea is taught in Colossians 121 22. And you, who once were aliens and enemies in your mind, by wicked works he has reconciled in the body to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable in his sight. This is referred to as a positional truth.

If you are a Christian, the scriptures say that God from heaven looks at you because of your faith in Christ, and he sees you as holy and blameless. Now, most of us understand holiness, at least partially with that definition. I am holy because Jesus is holy. And positionally, God sees me as holy. And that is true. But there is a second set of verses that are spoken repeatedly through the New Testament that also talk about the word holy. And it’s on these verses that I would like to draw our attention. One of them is found in romans twelve one. In this verse, we begin to understand the partner in holiness. For we are told to present your bodies, a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to the Lord.

And this verse is representative of numbers of other verses in the New Testament that tell us that there is a holiness that is related very practically to the use of your body. Paul, in talking to young women, was very concerned that they would remain chaste and that they would remain as virgins, waiting until that day when they should first be with their husband. And in the book of First Corinthians, chapter seven, verse 34, he makes this very interesting statement. Be holy both in body and in spirit. Be holy both in body and in spirit. To understand holiness is to understand first that in Christ you are seen by God as holy.

But equal importance to the scripture is the teaching that those who have been bought by the blood of Christ, who are seen by God the Father as holy, will in fact live their life in a way that will place their physical body in places that will promote holiness. Now, the early church had a problem with this. As a matter of fact, if you were to read the book of First Corinthians, you would find that in the book of First Corinthians, at that church, there were Christians who were getting drunk at communion. There were Christians who were suing one another. There were Christians who, within the life of the church, were having illicit sexual relations. And you say, how could that be? Well, it happened this way. They understood the first teaching on holiness, that they were holy as God saw them through Jesus Christ.

But they did not understand that the result of that holiness was to show itself in their body, in the way they acted, the things that they talked about, the places they went, the things they listened to. Paul says, be holy both in body and spirit. This is the heresy that erupted in the church in the first century called antinomianism. Antinomianism was the belief that you could be spiritually holy and live your life any way you liked. And so you had Christians in the first century church who were immoral, who considered themselves Christians. And when you asked them why, they said, because through the eyes of God, I’m seen as holy, but I shall commit sin tonight. And this is a great error that has crept into the church, the idea that it is possible to be spiritually holy, but personally unholy.

And Paul addresses this in the book of Romans when he asked the question, shall we sin? That grace might abound. His answer, no, that we are not to sin with our bodies simply than to say, but God sees me as holy. So does it make a difference where you spend your time what you talk about, what you think about, what you hear, it makes a great difference. Be holy, both in body and spirit. I think what is needed today within the church is a balance and understanding of holiness. The positional truth of holiness spiritually through Christ. And the practical results of holiness. There’s probably no greater person in the scriptures to talk about as a holy person than Abraham. Abraham is the father of the Jewish people. And we learn a great deal about Abraham.

He is brought to our attention in the book of Genesis. And he is mentioned in chapter eleven. Abraham is the seed, the beginning of God’s chosen people, the Jews. And yet we read one of the first pieces of information about Abram, as he is called. Is that his wife, Sarah was barren. And that Sarah was not able to have a child. When Abraham was 75 years old, the Lord appeared to him and he gave him this promise. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you. Now, can you imagine? 75 years old. Your wife is barren. She cannot have children. And God comes at that advanced age and says to you are going to be the father of a great nation. Well, that was the promise of God to Abram. And after that, Abram leaves and goes to Egypt.

And in Egypt, he meets lot, who is his nephew. And they decide that they will leave Egypt. And Abram then says to lot, here we are. And there is land in front of us. Where shall we live? And he gives the choice first to lot who chooses to live on the more fertile, green land. And he chooses the area of Sodom and Gomorrah. And he lets Abram have the remaining land, which is called Canaan. And so Abram lives in the land of Canaan. And years pass, and the lord appears again to Abram. And he says to him, you will have a son. And what’s Abram’s response? But my wife is barren. How can this be? Well, he first received the promise when he was 75. He is now 86 years old.

And he decides, along with his wife, Sarah, that there is no earthly way that she is going to conceive. And so Sarah has a handmaiden. And she says, listen, by custom, it’s all right for you to have relations with my maiden and by her will have a son. Abram agrees. And he meets with HAGAR. And in fact, a child is born by that union. The name of that child Ishmael. But God comes. And he says, it is not through Hagar that I am going to fulfil my promise. And now, at the age of 99, God comes to Abraham. And he says to him, your wife will conceive you will have a son. Name him Isaac. Before the birth of that son, God gives this instruction. He says to Abraham, I want you to be circumcised.

Now, we don’t hear much about circumcision these days, but circumcision is a word that you find repeated throughout the New Testament and with multiple references. In the Old Testament, circumcision was the moment when God came to Abram. And he said, from this day, your name shall not be Abram, but Abraham, you’ve had a son, Ishmael, who is a son uncircumcision. And what I want is for you, Abraham, as an old man, to be circumcised. And I want you to take your son Ishmael, who is 13 years old, and I want him to be circumcised. Now you say, well, what’s the point of circumcision? Here’s the point. Ishmael was a child who was born by an uncircumcised father who was called Abram. The first child that God gave to the circumcised. Abraham is the child of the promise Isaac. And what’s the point?

The point is that God called Abram to come apart, to be holy, to believe the promise, and that Abraham would now take that most personal part of his body, which naturally was able to produce Ishmael. And God says to him, Abram, you have been a natural man. You have attempted to answer the promises of the Lord naturally, and it doesn’t work that way. I want to remind you of the promise that I’ve made and that I am faithful. And I want you to be circumcised, to take that most personal part of your body, that seed which has natural usage, which was able to raise the son Ishmael. I want you to take that which is most personal to you, and I want to give you a reminder.

And I want to produce a son named Isaac, who will be the father of a holy people in the line of holiness. Now, in the New Testament, the word circumcision is used repeatedly, but never once are we told that we are to be physically circumcised. When you turn to the New Testament, rather, you find that the use of the word circumcision has to do with a spiritual circumcision of your mind, a circumcision of your heart, a circumcision of your life. And God is asking you, and he’s asking me that we would be circumcised, that we would be set apart for a holy purpose. Your life and mine can be used for natural purposes. Making money, getting ahead, doing all of the things that the world is quickly racing to do.

But God says, I didn’t call you to use the gifts and the person that you are for natural use. Be ye holy, for I am holy. Have you seen God circumcise your life to cut away all of those things which are natural and to use those things which have a natural use, to use them for Jesus Christ? I remember in the Air Force getting my pay check on Friday afternoons and going to a drive in bank. And there I was greeted by a very pleasant woman who, I don’t know her name, and I never even spoke to her. And she was always modestly dressed, very pleasant, friendly. And I am certain that she was not provocative. She dressed modestly.

And yet, as I would drive in to cash my check at that window, as she would simply lean over to take all of the paperwork, there certainly was a change in her appearance to my eyes. And I can still remember the first time being taken back as she simply reached over and took the paperwork. Now, I don’t believe she was trying to be seductive, but a funny thing happened. I came back the next week, same window that I had always been to, and it happened again. And then it happened a third time and a fourth time. And by the time it had repeated itself, I found myself looking forward to Friday afternoons when I’d cash this check. I was a Christian, and my eyes were used naturally. And I still remember the feeling of guilt as I would drive away from that bank.

Until finally the Lord convicted me that I was looking at this woman, not as a woman who had been created in the image of God. I didn’t even know her name, but I was using my eyes in a natural way. And I remember asking the Lord to forgive me. And I still remember the turmoil as I came to the Lord and said, I have used my eyes in a wrong way, an unholy way, an unfit way. And, lord, I ask you to circumcise my eyes. Let me look at this woman in a way that I have never looked at her before. It was very interesting the next time that I went to the bank for the first time.

And I can mark in my personal life a turning event because of that event, in the way that I would look upon a woman, that no longer to look upon a woman with natural eyes, but rather to look upon all of God’s creation as having been created in the image of God. God wants us to be holy. What, what use do you make of your eyes? What use do you make of your ears? What use do you make of your body, of your purpose for living? Are you using your life to please the Lord, to be holy? For the Lord says, be ye holy, for I am holy. Let us pray. Our God and our father, we come before you as men and women who are very aware of how unholy we are at times.

And father, we thank you that we are seen by you as we have trusted in Christ, as holy and without blame. But, lord, we also know that you have called us to be holy both in our body and our spirit. Lord, I pray that you would help us not only to understand more wonderfully the holiness that is ours because of Christ that has been imputed to us, but also to understand that we are called practically to live holy and blameless lives in those places where we are not holy or blameless. Help us, Lord, not to simply accept that, but to come before you and to repent and to ask for your forgiveness. To ask, as it were, that you would circumcise our hearts for more noble use and service to you. Help us to be holy, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries Post Office box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 08543. That’s Princeton Ministries Post Office box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 08543. The Lord bless you and Doctor Smith looks forward to hearing from you.