You Shall Be Holy
Lately during my normal Bible reading, I’ve been reading in the book of Leviticus. Yes, this is one of those books where a lot of people start out strong reading the Bible through Genesis and Exodus, but they get bogged down in Leviticus. This book names several sins and the sacrifices the Israelites were to offer for those sins, to atone for their sins. But what struck me recently was where God says, “You shall be holy” and “I am the Lord your God.”
God told the Israelites that they were to be holy because God is Holy. “You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them.
But I have said to you, ‘You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples (Leviticus 20:22-24). In verse 26 God continues You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.
You Shall Be Holy And I Am The Lord Your God
You shall be holy and I am the Lord your God. Oh, if people could (or would) understand these two things. God is Holy, so we are to be holy and God is Lord. But without the power of the Holy Spirit, men and women cannot understand this. The Scriptures are foolishness to those who are perishing. You can’t understand biblical truth unless God reveals it to you.
Oh, but if He would do so tonight. If God would reveal your unrighteousness to you and show you His Holiness, you would cry out, “What must I do to be saved?” Salvation is of the Lord and may the Lord in His mercy and grace, grant some poor lost soul salvation tonight.
We are to be holy because God is Holy. If Jesus Christ is not your Lord and Savior, then I dare say that you have never thought of this. It’s probably never entered your mind that God is Holy and your sins are offensive to our Holy, righteous God. If you are still lost, still spiritually dead in your trespasses and sins, then being holy is not even in your thoughts at all. Most unrepentant sinners are living for the pleasures of the flesh and how you can satisfy your lusts.
Those Who Are In The Flesh Cannot Please God
Romans 8:5-8 states: For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
If you are an unbeliever, an unrepentant sinner then you are hostile toward God. You are at enmity or you have made yourself God’s enemy. Furthermore, you are living for the flesh and not for God. This should bother tonight being Gods’ enemy. Please listen to James 4:4: You adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Unholy people are unrepentant. They have not bowed the knee to Jesus Christ. They have not confessed Jesus Christ as Lord. All unrepentant sinners have made themselves God’s enemies. Those who are living for the flesh cannot please God. God tells us to be holy. How can you be holy when you are unholy? How can you live for God when you are living for yourself? The answer is you can’t. You can’t please God and worse yet, you have made yourself God’s enemy.
Are You God’s Enemy?
Being God’s enemy should bother you. Do you see how foolish it is for the created being to fight against the Creator? You can’t win against God. You will be crushed if you are not broken over your sins. And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder (Luke 20:17-18).
Oh, I’m pleading with you, fall broken over your sins upon the Rock. Jesus is the rock. He is the sold rock on which I stand tonight. I have nothing to brag about tonight except for Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior. Of myself, I have nothing to brag about. I am a sinner that has been saved by grace. Once I was lost, but now I’m found. I was blind (spiritually blind), but now I see. I was spiritually dead in my trespasses and sins, but now I am alive in Christ Jesus.
Recognize that you are a sinner. We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sins, it shall die. Be sure your sin will find you out. God already knows that you are a sinner. Confess and forsake your sins. Cry out for God to have mercy upon you. Repent from your sins and surrender your life to Jesus. Do this and be saved.
We Are To Be Holy Because God Is Holy
God says that we are to be holy because He is Holy. But we are not holy in and of ourselves. The only way you can be holy is through Jesus Christ alone. When Jesus saves you, He will convict you over your sins. God takes away your heart of stone gives you a heart of flesh. He gives you His thoughts and desires which are higher than ours.
Jesus said if you love Me, keep My commandments. Oh, do you love the Lord tonight? Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He came to save His people from their sins. Are you one of His? Have you repented and put your trust in Jesus? If not, if God is convicting you over your sins, do not reject such a great salvation. Repent and believe the Gospel.
Then surrender your life to Jesus. He is the great I AM. Jesus is the Lord our God. He is Lord of all. You don’t make Jesus Lord, He is Lord! Lord of all. But do you recognize this? Is Jesus on the throne of your life or are you still trying to be in control? You and I are not in control. Put your trust in Jesus. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths (Proverbs 3:5-6).
Trust Jesus Christ The Lord
Trust in the Great I Am – Jesus Christ the Lord. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Oh, do so in this life. Do so while you still have breath in you. Do not harden your heart. Repent from your sins and surrender your life to Jesus.
Followers of Christ are called to be holy. Apart from Jesus Christ, we have no holiness. All our righteousness is of and from the Lord. Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
Your Faith And Hope Are In God
And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God (1 Peter 1:13-21).
Jesus is the Lord God, the only Savior of mankind. He said I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me (1 John 14:6). Repent from your sins and put your faith in Jesus. Then read the Bible daily and obey it. Jesus said if you love Me, keep My commandments. Do you love the Lord? If Jesus is not your Lord and Savior, call upon the name of the Lord and be saved (Romans 10:13).
(This message was lifted up in downtown Springfield, MO on May 17, 2019)