"BE YE HOLY FOR I AM HOLY"
INTRODUCTION
You can see our theme hanging up here over my head, and when you read the seventh chapter of Ezra and the 23rd verse, you don't find the word exactly in that verse, but you do find it in the marginal reading of the verse. Ezra 7:23, "Whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be diligently [or exactly] done." These are the words of King Artaxerxes to Ezra when he was preparing to go to Jerusalem. He was giving Ezra instructions and he said, "Whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be [exactly] done." We read in the 10th verse that Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of God, or the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statues and judgments. So we find in Ezra a man who was willing to do what he was instructed to do, for he had prepared his heart. As we think about our theme, I don't want it to come across as something harsh; what I do want us to understand is that God means what He says and He says what He means. The king said, "The God of heaven." When it comes to the God of heaven I'm afraid there are multitudes of people today who have no fear of God before their eyes. That's why there's so much wickedness and ungodliness in the world, because there is no fear of God before their eyes. Now there is a right kind of fear and a wrong kind of fear. The fear that brings torment is not the right kind, but the fear that enables us to reverence, respect and honor Almighty God is proper and right. There is a God in heaven, Daniel said, and I believe it and I'm sure you do to. But even among saints of God, if we're not careful we can take God's commands too lightly. We can disregard them too easily and excuse our self for disobeying them, justifying ourselves. But, let us remember whatever the Lord commands they are to be done exactly.
God told Moses on one occasion to take his rod and strike a rock. The children of Israel were murmuring and complaining. We think we have problems today as pastors, look at Moses. What a people he had to pastor. They were murmuring, they were complaining, and God said, "Take your rod and strike a rock." He did it and water came out of it. They watered not only the people but the cattle as well. Later on they got in the place where again they had no water and God said to Moses, "Speak to the rock." But because the people had provoked Moses, he struck the rock again. That may seem like a rather insignificant thing but if you'll read what God said to Moses, and how that he had disrespected and dishonored God before the people, it was a very, very serious act of disobedience. Yes, the great man Moses disobeyed God, and as a result of his act of disobedience God said, "You shall not be permitted to enter the promised land." So it's a very serious thing to disobey the commands of Almighty God. And, there's always consequences.
Joshua took over the leadership of the children of Israel. They took the city of Jericho. God had said, "Now you are not to take any of the spoils of the city for yourself. All the spoils are to go into the treasury of the Lord." They took the city, a little town the Bible calls Ai, up the road a ways. Joshua sent men up there to spy out and to look around and they came back and said, "It's not necessary to send the whole army up there; just send a small group of men. It's a small city, we'll have no trouble taking it." But whenever the army, the few thousand that went up there, were attacked by the people of the town they fled before them and what was it? 37 Israelites were slain. Joshua threw himself on the ground and said, "Lord, you promised to be with me; you said you'd be with me, what's going on here?" The Lord said, "Get up off your face, Joshua, there's sin in the camp. In spite of all the promises I have given you I will not be with you unless you get this sin out of the camp." You see, most of God's promises are conditional. Joshua had been promised by God, "I'll be with you even as I was with Moses," but sin entering the camp changed the situation. As a result Achan was taken, his family, his cattle and they were stoned. They were piled in a heap and stones were piled over them. Listen Beloved, God means what He says. We need to take Him seriously. That's the introduction to our thoughts.
WE MUST BE HOLY
The subject this morning (This is the introductory message. They'll be numbers of others the Lord willing.) is, "Be Ye Holy, for I Am Holy." That's one of God's commands. God said that we should be holy. Holiness is the way that God's people are to walk. The prophet said, "And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it" (Isaiah 35:8). There is a way and it's called the way of holiness and He said, the unclean, in other words, the sinners, the unsaved, shall not travel on this highway. This is the highway of holiness and only those who are redeemed are on this highway. Sinners are not on this highway. This is the way of holiness and this is the way that God's people are to walk. "Now Bro. Alvin, we've heard that before." Well you know, I don't have a new Bible and I'm not looking for one. I believe in trying to follow the one we have. Let me say here before I go on, there is such a thing as false holiness. You know, anything straighter than straight is crooked. Any standard that's higher than what the Word of God holds is false holiness, and any standard that's less than what God's Word holds is false. So there is such a thing as false holiness. There are holiness spirits. Thank God there is a way, one way, that is the right way, the highway of holiness and the unclean are not on it. It is for the redeemed. "For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness," Paul wrote in I Thessalonians 4:7. God never calls anybody to live an unclean life. Those who are living an unclean life are not following God's calling. Peter said in II Peter 1:4, God has given us great and precious promises. Through these we can be partakers of the divine nature. In obtaining this experience we leave corruption that is in the world behind. God has made it possible through Jesus Christ for man who has gone away from God, who has gone into sin, who has become filthy with sin, defiled with sin, to come back to Him, to be cleaned up, to be made holy, and to be made partakers of the divine nature.
TWO WORKS OF GRACE
I don't expect to preach on justification or sanctification as far as messages is concerned, but I do want to refer to them, because it is through these two experiences that we can have this divine nature and be void of the Adamic nature, the carnal nature, our native depravity, whatever you want to call it. Let me say, Beloved, as far as this congregation is concerned, as far as this ministry is concerned, we still believe man has a depraved nature. We believe there is an experience wherein He has cleansed us, cleaned us and delivered us from that depravity. First of all he has to be justified, he has to be converted. Whenever a person is justified they're just because God pardons them. It is not because of any work or righteousness of our own, but it's because God through Christ pardons us. He forgives us. He wipes our sins out of His remembrance to remember them against us forever no more. He removes them from us as far as the east is from the west. Whenever I hear somebody say, "I'm just a sinner saved by grace," I tell them I'm not; I'm not a sinner saved by grace. I was a sinner and I was saved by grace, but I'm no longer a sinner. No, I'm no longer a sinner, and if you're a child of God neither are you. Whenever we're justified, whenever we're forgiven, whenever we're pardoned, whenever we're taken out of that old horrible pit, there's something we need to do after that. We need to have that nature that is contrary to God, that nature that led us into sin to begin with, eradicated. I know there's people that don't believe in that but they don't believe the Bible.
Now whenever you are justified, whenever you are sanctified you have holiness of heart. Holiness of heart means you're free from selfish pride. You know one of the big problems in the world today is self. We blame this, we blame that, we blame environment, we blame influences, and I know people have an influence on us, but you know, our number one problem is self; selfishness. The world is dominated by a get spirit and that get spirit is selfishness: me, myself and I; I don't care who I push down while I'm trying to climb up. I live in the same world you live in and you know that's the kind of world that's out there today. But I tell you, whenever you're justified and you're sanctified it takes out that old selfish, self-seeking, putting self first. I tell you something else it gets out of your heart and gets you free from and that's envy. So much envy in the world today. Along with envy is jealousy. I believe there is a place for the right kind of jealousy. I read in the Bible where God is jealous of His people. I don't blame a man for being jealous of his wife, but he shouldn't carry it so far that he imagines a bunch of stuff on her, begins to accuse her falsely and let his imagination run away with him, that he's so jealous he can't allow somebody to speak to her and vice versa. Listen to me this morning. What I am talking about, justification and sanctification does something for your heart. It changes your life. It gets rid of some things.
Enmity and carnal strife. I don't like strife, do you? I like peace. And you know, it frees you from the desire to rule or to ruin. One of the things that hinders even the Church of God is some people want to rule that have no authority to rule. Now there is rule in the Church of God, there is government in the Church of God, but there's too many people trying to rule that have no authority to rule. You want to upset me, you try to come and tell me to do something when you don't have any authority to tell me. Yes, I can get upset. I have more than one time. Some times some people in the congregation appoint themselves to go around trying to correct everybody else and they end up making more problems for the pastor. I read in the Bible where it says God places the members in the body as it pleases Him. Let every member fill the place God would have them to fill and we'll have harmony and unity. I'm still talking about being justified and sanctified. I say justification and sanctification takes this kind of thing out of your heart. Let me add to that too since I said it. If somebody has the rule over you and you have the right spirit you're going to let them rule over you. I said before and I say again this morning, no pastor can pastor anybody that's not willing to be pastored. No pastor can pastor a person that's going to be their own pastor. It works both ways. The Bible says to obey those that have the rule over you. That's part of it too.
CHRIST IS THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH
It enables you whenever you're really saved and sanctified to see Christ as the Head of the Church and you let Him be Lord of your life. Christ is the head of the Church. Some people don't like Hagerstown. I'm talking about this congregation. It's even been printed in some papers that Hagerstown is not the headquarters of the Church of God. Well, I would think anybody that knew anything about the Church of God would know that. If you don't know that Hagerstown is not the headquarters of the Church of God then you don't know anything about the Church of God. I don't belong to a church that has headquarters in Hagerstown, Maryland. I don't know of one but I don't belong to one. I belong to that one where Christ is the head and the head is in heaven; that is where the headquarters are. I say a saved and sanctified life will acknowledge Christ as the head of the Church and Lord of your life. People talk about being saved for years before they let the Lord become Lord of their lives. That's foolishness. When Christ becomes your Savior He becomes your Lord. You can't separate the two. If you really accept Christ as Savior you accept Him as Lord of your life and you accept the fact that He has the right to tell you what to do and what not to do.
Now holiness in heart produces holiness in life. Peter said in I Peter 1:15, "But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of [living]." He said conversation but it's living. That's what it means. "As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of [living]." So holiness of heart produces holiness of life. You can't have holiness of heart and have a sinful life. A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit and a good tree does not bring forth corrupt fruit. A holy heart does not bring forth sinful living; a holy heart produces holy living. We are not to walk as we once did.
HOLY IN BODY AND SPIRIT
I want to take time to read several verses of scripture now from Ephesians, chapter four, beginning with verse 17. "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."
We find in this passage of scripture where Paul tells us to lay aside some things, he tells us to put on some things. If we're going to live holy, if we're going to be Christians and live holy, there are things we must put off and there are things we must put on. There are things we must stop doing and there are things we must start doing. We must be holy in body and in spirit. How many times do you hear out in the religious world people talking about, "This old flesh just has to sin"? I read in the Bible where it isn't the flesh that sins. I read in the Bible where it says, "Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body." I read in the Bible where it is the soul that sins and it's the soul that dies. And so, that old flesh doesn't sin, it is just flesh. No, that doesn't hold true. That's not supported by the Scriptures. The Bible teaches we are to be holy in body and in spirit. "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (II Corinthians 7:1). What is filthiness of the flesh? Filthiness of the flesh is anything that the Word of God forbids for the flesh. It may be 14 caret gold but if it's on your finger it's forbidden. Cleanse yourself. Listen to me. God forgives you of your sins, the blood cleanses from our sins, but Paul is telling us here, there's some things we have to cleanse our self of. If you have a string of beads around your neck don't expect an angel to come down here and take it off. If you have those old things hanging on your ears don't expect an angel to take them off, you take them off. You have your lips painted up black or blue or whatever, don't expect an angel to wipe it off, you wipe it off. Amen! You have a pack of cigarettes in your pocket don't expect God to take them out, you take them out. Cleanse yourself of the filthiness of the flesh. Anything the Word of God forbids for the flesh is filthiness.
He said also to cleanse yourself of filthiness of the spirit. There are some filthy spirits, there are some unclean spirits, and you know some people are going to have to be free from those spirits before they can ever get saved. Some people who are saved and under the influence of the wrong kind of spirits need to get out from under them. "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (I Corinthians 6:19, 20). And then in I Corinthians 3:17, "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." Isn't it a marvelous privilege to be a temple of the Holy Ghost? Just think of it. The Almighty God in the person of the Holy Spirit is willing to come down here and dwell in this earthen vessel, but He's not going to dwell in an unclean vessel. "The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." If you defile the temple of God, God said, "I will destroy you." That's why tobacco is killing people; that's why alcohol is killing people. They're defiling the body and they are destroying it through these ungodly things.
HOLINESS AND MODESTY GO TOGETHER
Now holiness and modesty go together. "Bro. Alvin, you have to preach on that?" I'm preaching on holiness and God said, "Be ye holy." We're to do exactly as God said. So holiness and modesty go together. Paul said, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." The word conform means to pattern after. This patterning after the world has wrecked many congregations. It has robbed many people of power with God. There seems to be pressure to conform to the world but Paul said, "Don't do that. Be ye transformed so that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." The Church is not to follow the world. The Church is to set the pattern for the world.
I don't know where Bro. Junior got it, but he was preaching in Grand Cayman a few years ago about the boat in the water. As long as the boat was in the water it was doing all right, but whenever the water got in the boat ... . If enough water gets into the boat it's going to the bottom. I tell you, the Church is in the world but the world is not to be in the Church. When the world gets in the Church it ceases to be the Church. When the world gets in the Church it's no longer the Church. You're not of the world. If you're of the world the love of the Father is not in you.
Let us look at that word modest. It covers more than our manner of dress, although it covers that, but I'll touch on that later, Lord willing. This word modest means "having or showing a moderate or humble estimate of one's merit, importance, etc." One of the things that can cause a Christian to be shipwrecked is to begin to think more highly of themselves than they ought to think. Now, we're not slamming our young people this morning. I have no intention. I heard one time the story of a young preacher who went up in the pulpit so bold and he made a flop, he made a failure. Afterwards he came down off the platform with his head down. An older brother preacher went up to him and said, "Now, Young Man, if you would have went up like you came down you could have come down like you went up." We need to always remember if anything is accomplished through our life who did it, for God said, "Without me ye can do nothing." We can't even make a hair white or black. We certainly cannot save a soul, we can't sanctify a believer, we can't heal a body. So part of the meaning of the word modest is "having or showing a moderate or humble estimate of one's merit and their importance; free from vanity." Have you ever heard of vanity kits? Ladies used to have what they call vanity kits. "Egotism; boastfulness or great pretensions." It frees us from these things. Modesty frees us from this showing extravagance. Modesty is "having or showing regard for the decency of behavior in speech and dress." It frees us from those things which are objectionable, which are disagreeable to the Word of God, and it enables us to show regard for the decency of behavior in speech and dress. "Decent; a modest neckline on a dress; pure; virtuous." Modest "implies a becoming shyness, sobriety and proper behavior; a modest self respecting person." Now part of that is from Random House Dictionary but I think it's a pretty good definition. So modesty is more than just dress. It covers a lot more than that. Holiness and modesty go together.
The Psalmist said in the 93rd Psalm, and the fifth verse, "Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house [or church], O LORD, for ever."
I want to quote something here and I want to enlarge on it. "God designed clothing to cover, not draw attention to the sexuality of either men or women. Modesty begins in the heart. Modesty is an attitude and a way of thinking that exhibits the values by which we live." Now, I do not profess to have the authority to tell you ladies that your dress has to be X numbers of inches from the floor but I can tell you this, the Bible teaches modesty. Whenever a dress or a skirt is so short and you happen to bend over a little bit and somebody standing behind you can see half way up, you have on an immodest garment. Whenever you have a neck cut in such a way that you're beginning to expose the upper part of your body you have on an immodest garment. Now I know back in D. S. Warner's day they had their sleeves to their wrists and they came up under their chins and all you could see was their hands and their faces. I am not saying we have to go back to the days of D. S. Warner to be modest, but I am going to say there are some people among us that are not dressing as modest as they need to. [....] I'm still preaching on holiness. Holiness and modesty go together. You can't have real modesty without holiness and you can't have holiness without modesty.
[....] I read in the Bible that whenever Adam and Eve sinned and realized they were naked they put on some bikini's, but that wasn't accepted by God. [...] I don't know if it was that much or not. But there's one thing about it, God wasn't satisfied. He took animal skins and clothed them, and the Hebrew word means "covered." What are you talking about, Bro. Alvin? I'm talking about living in a world where there's a spirit of lust, and saints of God have no business feeding that spirit of lust. Some men are so degenerate. "O I want people to see what I've got. I want them to see." I don't. I want my wife to be covered. I want her to be modest. I don't want other men looking at her, lusting after her, and I don't want her being responsible for men doing that. We're all headed for the judgment and we're going to give an account to God for the life we live. Let me quote that again. "God designed clothing to cover, not draw attention to the sexuality of either men or women." Some women and men wear clothes so tight you wonder how they ever squeezed into them. They must wiggle and twist and turn and pull and jerk and I don't know what all else to get in them. I know I'm in a mixed audience this morning but I tell you, whenever you dress in such a way that you know you're tempting men there's something lacking in your heart, there's something lacking in your experience. So holiness and modesty go together, and if you are pure in heart, holy in heart, you want your life to be holy.
THE RIGHT KIND OF FRIENDLINESS
I also realize people can be too friendly. Now there's a right kind of friendliness and there's another kind. Some people can be too familiar, and some men can let their hands go places they have no business. I'd rather for somebody to say I have a dishrag handshake. You know what they mean by that? You don't squeeze their hand all that tight. I'd rather for somebody to say I have a dishrag handshake than to say, "You see how long he held on to her hand?" I know there's a ditch on both sides of the road and the devil don't care which ditch he gets you into, fanaticism or compromise. I know that, but I'd tell you one thing, I'd rather be a little more conservative than necessary than to be too liberal. God's not going to condemn me for wearing my long sleeves. I didn't say you had to. I said God's not going to condemn me for it, but if I have them too short He would condemn me. "Now, Bro. Alvin, you're just picking on little things." I read in the Bible where it says something about the little foxes that spoil the vine.
When Bro. Ollen and I were boys on the farm we built us a little dirt dam to back up the water so we could make us a swimming pool. You'd go down there some time and you'd see a little leak in your dam, just a little, but if you didn't do something about it you'd go back in a few days and the whole dam was washed out. What am I talking about? I'm talking about a little bit of worldliness, a little bit of compromise, a little bit of leaven coming in here and coming in there. "O, that's so trivial." Let me ask you a question this morning. Do you think God would withdraw fellowship from a person for eating a little bit of fruit? Do you think He would? Whether you think He would or not, He did. I know some people call it an apple, well I don't know what it was. It wasn't the fruit anyway, it was the act of obedience or disobedience. So it isn't whether it's a thousand dollars you steal or it's a nickel you steal; it isn't a matter of whether you tell a white lie or a black lie as they call it, they're all lies. We're the one that likes to graduate this stuff but God demands that we obey His word. Whatsoever the Lord commands do exactly! I believe when a person is really saved and sanctified and has the Word of God in their heart they want to do what's right. It's not a matter of having to, they want to.
CONCLUSION
Let me close by saying this: Doing exactly as God commands is not bondage, it's freedom.
"If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Truth liberates. We had that as a theme one year. Truth liberates, error binds you. So doing exactly as God commands is not bondage, it's freedom. The Lord bless you.
2003 I.C.C message by Bro. Alvin Craig
Alvin Craig is the editor of "The Way of Truth" magazine.
God told Moses on one occasion to take his rod and strike a rock. The children of Israel were murmuring and complaining. We think we have problems today as pastors, look at Moses. What a people he had to pastor. They were murmuring, they were complaining, and God said, "Take your rod and strike a rock." He did it and water came out of it. They watered not only the people but the cattle as well. Later on they got in the place where again they had no water and God said to Moses, "Speak to the rock." But because the people had provoked Moses, he struck the rock again. That may seem like a rather insignificant thing but if you'll read what God said to Moses, and how that he had disrespected and dishonored God before the people, it was a very, very serious act of disobedience. Yes, the great man Moses disobeyed God, and as a result of his act of disobedience God said, "You shall not be permitted to enter the promised land." So it's a very serious thing to disobey the commands of Almighty God. And, there's always consequences.
Joshua took over the leadership of the children of Israel. They took the city of Jericho. God had said, "Now you are not to take any of the spoils of the city for yourself. All the spoils are to go into the treasury of the Lord." They took the city, a little town the Bible calls Ai, up the road a ways. Joshua sent men up there to spy out and to look around and they came back and said, "It's not necessary to send the whole army up there; just send a small group of men. It's a small city, we'll have no trouble taking it." But whenever the army, the few thousand that went up there, were attacked by the people of the town they fled before them and what was it? 37 Israelites were slain. Joshua threw himself on the ground and said, "Lord, you promised to be with me; you said you'd be with me, what's going on here?" The Lord said, "Get up off your face, Joshua, there's sin in the camp. In spite of all the promises I have given you I will not be with you unless you get this sin out of the camp." You see, most of God's promises are conditional. Joshua had been promised by God, "I'll be with you even as I was with Moses," but sin entering the camp changed the situation. As a result Achan was taken, his family, his cattle and they were stoned. They were piled in a heap and stones were piled over them. Listen Beloved, God means what He says. We need to take Him seriously. That's the introduction to our thoughts.
WE MUST BE HOLY
The subject this morning (This is the introductory message. They'll be numbers of others the Lord willing.) is, "Be Ye Holy, for I Am Holy." That's one of God's commands. God said that we should be holy. Holiness is the way that God's people are to walk. The prophet said, "And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it" (Isaiah 35:8). There is a way and it's called the way of holiness and He said, the unclean, in other words, the sinners, the unsaved, shall not travel on this highway. This is the highway of holiness and only those who are redeemed are on this highway. Sinners are not on this highway. This is the way of holiness and this is the way that God's people are to walk. "Now Bro. Alvin, we've heard that before." Well you know, I don't have a new Bible and I'm not looking for one. I believe in trying to follow the one we have. Let me say here before I go on, there is such a thing as false holiness. You know, anything straighter than straight is crooked. Any standard that's higher than what the Word of God holds is false holiness, and any standard that's less than what God's Word holds is false. So there is such a thing as false holiness. There are holiness spirits. Thank God there is a way, one way, that is the right way, the highway of holiness and the unclean are not on it. It is for the redeemed. "For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness," Paul wrote in I Thessalonians 4:7. God never calls anybody to live an unclean life. Those who are living an unclean life are not following God's calling. Peter said in II Peter 1:4, God has given us great and precious promises. Through these we can be partakers of the divine nature. In obtaining this experience we leave corruption that is in the world behind. God has made it possible through Jesus Christ for man who has gone away from God, who has gone into sin, who has become filthy with sin, defiled with sin, to come back to Him, to be cleaned up, to be made holy, and to be made partakers of the divine nature.
TWO WORKS OF GRACE
I don't expect to preach on justification or sanctification as far as messages is concerned, but I do want to refer to them, because it is through these two experiences that we can have this divine nature and be void of the Adamic nature, the carnal nature, our native depravity, whatever you want to call it. Let me say, Beloved, as far as this congregation is concerned, as far as this ministry is concerned, we still believe man has a depraved nature. We believe there is an experience wherein He has cleansed us, cleaned us and delivered us from that depravity. First of all he has to be justified, he has to be converted. Whenever a person is justified they're just because God pardons them. It is not because of any work or righteousness of our own, but it's because God through Christ pardons us. He forgives us. He wipes our sins out of His remembrance to remember them against us forever no more. He removes them from us as far as the east is from the west. Whenever I hear somebody say, "I'm just a sinner saved by grace," I tell them I'm not; I'm not a sinner saved by grace. I was a sinner and I was saved by grace, but I'm no longer a sinner. No, I'm no longer a sinner, and if you're a child of God neither are you. Whenever we're justified, whenever we're forgiven, whenever we're pardoned, whenever we're taken out of that old horrible pit, there's something we need to do after that. We need to have that nature that is contrary to God, that nature that led us into sin to begin with, eradicated. I know there's people that don't believe in that but they don't believe the Bible.
Now whenever you are justified, whenever you are sanctified you have holiness of heart. Holiness of heart means you're free from selfish pride. You know one of the big problems in the world today is self. We blame this, we blame that, we blame environment, we blame influences, and I know people have an influence on us, but you know, our number one problem is self; selfishness. The world is dominated by a get spirit and that get spirit is selfishness: me, myself and I; I don't care who I push down while I'm trying to climb up. I live in the same world you live in and you know that's the kind of world that's out there today. But I tell you, whenever you're justified and you're sanctified it takes out that old selfish, self-seeking, putting self first. I tell you something else it gets out of your heart and gets you free from and that's envy. So much envy in the world today. Along with envy is jealousy. I believe there is a place for the right kind of jealousy. I read in the Bible where God is jealous of His people. I don't blame a man for being jealous of his wife, but he shouldn't carry it so far that he imagines a bunch of stuff on her, begins to accuse her falsely and let his imagination run away with him, that he's so jealous he can't allow somebody to speak to her and vice versa. Listen to me this morning. What I am talking about, justification and sanctification does something for your heart. It changes your life. It gets rid of some things.
Enmity and carnal strife. I don't like strife, do you? I like peace. And you know, it frees you from the desire to rule or to ruin. One of the things that hinders even the Church of God is some people want to rule that have no authority to rule. Now there is rule in the Church of God, there is government in the Church of God, but there's too many people trying to rule that have no authority to rule. You want to upset me, you try to come and tell me to do something when you don't have any authority to tell me. Yes, I can get upset. I have more than one time. Some times some people in the congregation appoint themselves to go around trying to correct everybody else and they end up making more problems for the pastor. I read in the Bible where it says God places the members in the body as it pleases Him. Let every member fill the place God would have them to fill and we'll have harmony and unity. I'm still talking about being justified and sanctified. I say justification and sanctification takes this kind of thing out of your heart. Let me add to that too since I said it. If somebody has the rule over you and you have the right spirit you're going to let them rule over you. I said before and I say again this morning, no pastor can pastor anybody that's not willing to be pastored. No pastor can pastor a person that's going to be their own pastor. It works both ways. The Bible says to obey those that have the rule over you. That's part of it too.
CHRIST IS THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH
It enables you whenever you're really saved and sanctified to see Christ as the Head of the Church and you let Him be Lord of your life. Christ is the head of the Church. Some people don't like Hagerstown. I'm talking about this congregation. It's even been printed in some papers that Hagerstown is not the headquarters of the Church of God. Well, I would think anybody that knew anything about the Church of God would know that. If you don't know that Hagerstown is not the headquarters of the Church of God then you don't know anything about the Church of God. I don't belong to a church that has headquarters in Hagerstown, Maryland. I don't know of one but I don't belong to one. I belong to that one where Christ is the head and the head is in heaven; that is where the headquarters are. I say a saved and sanctified life will acknowledge Christ as the head of the Church and Lord of your life. People talk about being saved for years before they let the Lord become Lord of their lives. That's foolishness. When Christ becomes your Savior He becomes your Lord. You can't separate the two. If you really accept Christ as Savior you accept Him as Lord of your life and you accept the fact that He has the right to tell you what to do and what not to do.
Now holiness in heart produces holiness in life. Peter said in I Peter 1:15, "But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of [living]." He said conversation but it's living. That's what it means. "As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of [living]." So holiness of heart produces holiness of life. You can't have holiness of heart and have a sinful life. A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit and a good tree does not bring forth corrupt fruit. A holy heart does not bring forth sinful living; a holy heart produces holy living. We are not to walk as we once did.
HOLY IN BODY AND SPIRIT
I want to take time to read several verses of scripture now from Ephesians, chapter four, beginning with verse 17. "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."
We find in this passage of scripture where Paul tells us to lay aside some things, he tells us to put on some things. If we're going to live holy, if we're going to be Christians and live holy, there are things we must put off and there are things we must put on. There are things we must stop doing and there are things we must start doing. We must be holy in body and in spirit. How many times do you hear out in the religious world people talking about, "This old flesh just has to sin"? I read in the Bible where it isn't the flesh that sins. I read in the Bible where it says, "Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body." I read in the Bible where it is the soul that sins and it's the soul that dies. And so, that old flesh doesn't sin, it is just flesh. No, that doesn't hold true. That's not supported by the Scriptures. The Bible teaches we are to be holy in body and in spirit. "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (II Corinthians 7:1). What is filthiness of the flesh? Filthiness of the flesh is anything that the Word of God forbids for the flesh. It may be 14 caret gold but if it's on your finger it's forbidden. Cleanse yourself. Listen to me. God forgives you of your sins, the blood cleanses from our sins, but Paul is telling us here, there's some things we have to cleanse our self of. If you have a string of beads around your neck don't expect an angel to come down here and take it off. If you have those old things hanging on your ears don't expect an angel to take them off, you take them off. You have your lips painted up black or blue or whatever, don't expect an angel to wipe it off, you wipe it off. Amen! You have a pack of cigarettes in your pocket don't expect God to take them out, you take them out. Cleanse yourself of the filthiness of the flesh. Anything the Word of God forbids for the flesh is filthiness.
He said also to cleanse yourself of filthiness of the spirit. There are some filthy spirits, there are some unclean spirits, and you know some people are going to have to be free from those spirits before they can ever get saved. Some people who are saved and under the influence of the wrong kind of spirits need to get out from under them. "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (I Corinthians 6:19, 20). And then in I Corinthians 3:17, "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." Isn't it a marvelous privilege to be a temple of the Holy Ghost? Just think of it. The Almighty God in the person of the Holy Spirit is willing to come down here and dwell in this earthen vessel, but He's not going to dwell in an unclean vessel. "The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." If you defile the temple of God, God said, "I will destroy you." That's why tobacco is killing people; that's why alcohol is killing people. They're defiling the body and they are destroying it through these ungodly things.
HOLINESS AND MODESTY GO TOGETHER
Now holiness and modesty go together. "Bro. Alvin, you have to preach on that?" I'm preaching on holiness and God said, "Be ye holy." We're to do exactly as God said. So holiness and modesty go together. Paul said, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." The word conform means to pattern after. This patterning after the world has wrecked many congregations. It has robbed many people of power with God. There seems to be pressure to conform to the world but Paul said, "Don't do that. Be ye transformed so that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." The Church is not to follow the world. The Church is to set the pattern for the world.
I don't know where Bro. Junior got it, but he was preaching in Grand Cayman a few years ago about the boat in the water. As long as the boat was in the water it was doing all right, but whenever the water got in the boat ... . If enough water gets into the boat it's going to the bottom. I tell you, the Church is in the world but the world is not to be in the Church. When the world gets in the Church it ceases to be the Church. When the world gets in the Church it's no longer the Church. You're not of the world. If you're of the world the love of the Father is not in you.
Let us look at that word modest. It covers more than our manner of dress, although it covers that, but I'll touch on that later, Lord willing. This word modest means "having or showing a moderate or humble estimate of one's merit, importance, etc." One of the things that can cause a Christian to be shipwrecked is to begin to think more highly of themselves than they ought to think. Now, we're not slamming our young people this morning. I have no intention. I heard one time the story of a young preacher who went up in the pulpit so bold and he made a flop, he made a failure. Afterwards he came down off the platform with his head down. An older brother preacher went up to him and said, "Now, Young Man, if you would have went up like you came down you could have come down like you went up." We need to always remember if anything is accomplished through our life who did it, for God said, "Without me ye can do nothing." We can't even make a hair white or black. We certainly cannot save a soul, we can't sanctify a believer, we can't heal a body. So part of the meaning of the word modest is "having or showing a moderate or humble estimate of one's merit and their importance; free from vanity." Have you ever heard of vanity kits? Ladies used to have what they call vanity kits. "Egotism; boastfulness or great pretensions." It frees us from these things. Modesty frees us from this showing extravagance. Modesty is "having or showing regard for the decency of behavior in speech and dress." It frees us from those things which are objectionable, which are disagreeable to the Word of God, and it enables us to show regard for the decency of behavior in speech and dress. "Decent; a modest neckline on a dress; pure; virtuous." Modest "implies a becoming shyness, sobriety and proper behavior; a modest self respecting person." Now part of that is from Random House Dictionary but I think it's a pretty good definition. So modesty is more than just dress. It covers a lot more than that. Holiness and modesty go together.
The Psalmist said in the 93rd Psalm, and the fifth verse, "Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house [or church], O LORD, for ever."
I want to quote something here and I want to enlarge on it. "God designed clothing to cover, not draw attention to the sexuality of either men or women. Modesty begins in the heart. Modesty is an attitude and a way of thinking that exhibits the values by which we live." Now, I do not profess to have the authority to tell you ladies that your dress has to be X numbers of inches from the floor but I can tell you this, the Bible teaches modesty. Whenever a dress or a skirt is so short and you happen to bend over a little bit and somebody standing behind you can see half way up, you have on an immodest garment. Whenever you have a neck cut in such a way that you're beginning to expose the upper part of your body you have on an immodest garment. Now I know back in D. S. Warner's day they had their sleeves to their wrists and they came up under their chins and all you could see was their hands and their faces. I am not saying we have to go back to the days of D. S. Warner to be modest, but I am going to say there are some people among us that are not dressing as modest as they need to. [....] I'm still preaching on holiness. Holiness and modesty go together. You can't have real modesty without holiness and you can't have holiness without modesty.
[....] I read in the Bible that whenever Adam and Eve sinned and realized they were naked they put on some bikini's, but that wasn't accepted by God. [...] I don't know if it was that much or not. But there's one thing about it, God wasn't satisfied. He took animal skins and clothed them, and the Hebrew word means "covered." What are you talking about, Bro. Alvin? I'm talking about living in a world where there's a spirit of lust, and saints of God have no business feeding that spirit of lust. Some men are so degenerate. "O I want people to see what I've got. I want them to see." I don't. I want my wife to be covered. I want her to be modest. I don't want other men looking at her, lusting after her, and I don't want her being responsible for men doing that. We're all headed for the judgment and we're going to give an account to God for the life we live. Let me quote that again. "God designed clothing to cover, not draw attention to the sexuality of either men or women." Some women and men wear clothes so tight you wonder how they ever squeezed into them. They must wiggle and twist and turn and pull and jerk and I don't know what all else to get in them. I know I'm in a mixed audience this morning but I tell you, whenever you dress in such a way that you know you're tempting men there's something lacking in your heart, there's something lacking in your experience. So holiness and modesty go together, and if you are pure in heart, holy in heart, you want your life to be holy.
THE RIGHT KIND OF FRIENDLINESS
I also realize people can be too friendly. Now there's a right kind of friendliness and there's another kind. Some people can be too familiar, and some men can let their hands go places they have no business. I'd rather for somebody to say I have a dishrag handshake. You know what they mean by that? You don't squeeze their hand all that tight. I'd rather for somebody to say I have a dishrag handshake than to say, "You see how long he held on to her hand?" I know there's a ditch on both sides of the road and the devil don't care which ditch he gets you into, fanaticism or compromise. I know that, but I'd tell you one thing, I'd rather be a little more conservative than necessary than to be too liberal. God's not going to condemn me for wearing my long sleeves. I didn't say you had to. I said God's not going to condemn me for it, but if I have them too short He would condemn me. "Now, Bro. Alvin, you're just picking on little things." I read in the Bible where it says something about the little foxes that spoil the vine.
When Bro. Ollen and I were boys on the farm we built us a little dirt dam to back up the water so we could make us a swimming pool. You'd go down there some time and you'd see a little leak in your dam, just a little, but if you didn't do something about it you'd go back in a few days and the whole dam was washed out. What am I talking about? I'm talking about a little bit of worldliness, a little bit of compromise, a little bit of leaven coming in here and coming in there. "O, that's so trivial." Let me ask you a question this morning. Do you think God would withdraw fellowship from a person for eating a little bit of fruit? Do you think He would? Whether you think He would or not, He did. I know some people call it an apple, well I don't know what it was. It wasn't the fruit anyway, it was the act of obedience or disobedience. So it isn't whether it's a thousand dollars you steal or it's a nickel you steal; it isn't a matter of whether you tell a white lie or a black lie as they call it, they're all lies. We're the one that likes to graduate this stuff but God demands that we obey His word. Whatsoever the Lord commands do exactly! I believe when a person is really saved and sanctified and has the Word of God in their heart they want to do what's right. It's not a matter of having to, they want to.
CONCLUSION
Let me close by saying this: Doing exactly as God commands is not bondage, it's freedom.
"If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Truth liberates. We had that as a theme one year. Truth liberates, error binds you. So doing exactly as God commands is not bondage, it's freedom. The Lord bless you.
2003 I.C.C message by Bro. Alvin Craig
Alvin Craig is the editor of "The Way of Truth" magazine.
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