Bringing Holiness to Completion

I. Read 2 Corinthians 7:1 – Pause for a moment, get it in your mind. We’ll come back to this.

II. Holiness

A. Most have frequently heard or quoted 1 Peter 1:15”…as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.”

B. Defining the word holiness is interesting.

1. Sometimes people will give the good Bible class answer: “Holiness means to ‘set apart’.”
2. However, I can pull a quarter out of a cup full of change and set it on the dresser but that does not make it holy. The Bible class answer is incomplete.
3. The Bible concept of holiness is something set apart from what is common and cleansed, or purified, for use in God’s service. (REPEAT)
   • Priests purified the furnishings and utensils of the tabernacle and temple so they could be used in worship (Exodus 40).
   • The priests went through a ceremonial cleansing process before they could go into the tabernacle or temple to perform their service (Exodus 29)
   • Sometimes the purification process to make something holy involved the sprinkling of blood, Exodus 29:19-21.
4. The ceremony was to purify – remove the impurity – so something or someone is made holy: ready to be used in God’s service.

III. Purification

A. You purify something by taking things out, not putting things in.

B. In water purification, you are filtering out impurities, not adding impurities.

1. Purification takes out what doesn’t belong, what will make you sick or will kill you.
2. The result is pure water that is safe to drink.

IV. God has purified us to make us holy

A. When we sinned, we became impure, defiled, polluted, and unfit for God’s use.

B. He cleansed us with the blood of Christ.

1. Romans 6:1-4
2. 1 John 1:7: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

C. This cleanses our whole being so that we take Christ into our being.

1. Galatians 3:27: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

D. Because we’ve been purified and put on Christ, our thinking must change: Philippians 2:1-4

E. Because we’ve been purified and put on Christ, our lifestyle must change: Romans 13:11-14

F. But we have a challenge

V. Satan wants to pollute what God has purified

A. God made the world and it was very good but the devil, the destroyer, introduced sin and with it came corruption and death.

B. Satan wants to destroy God’s new creation, the Christian, and uses the flesh to wage war for the conquest of your spirit

1. Galatians 5:16-25.
2. James 4:1-8
3. 1 Peter 2:11: “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.”

C. Having been purified by God, we can allow the impurities back into our lives to pollute our mind and corrupt our lives.

1. 2 Peter 2:20-22: how the Holy Spirit describes the situation from God’s point of view
2. Hebrews 10:25-30: it is an insult to God worthy of eternal condemnation because we have rejected the only one, Jesus, and the only thing, His blood, that can purify us.
3. It is a disgusting thing to pollute what God has purified.

D. But, we are not going to let Satan pollute us, Hebrews 10:38-39.

VI. Transforming into Christ

A. As we studied earlier, God purified us with the blood of Christ to make us holy which resulted in a change in our mind, our attitude, and our actions.

B. However, God’s goal in purification is not to clean up our lives, make us stop cussing and lying, give up bad habits, and make a better version of ourselves; but to change the absolute core of who we are.

C. God didn’t come to reform us, but transform us.

D. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 – as in a mirror seeing the transformation

1. Every day seeing less of me and more of Christ replacing me.
2. Christ didn’t come to make a better me but to create Christ in me

E. God wants Christ to be our life so the world can see Christ in us in all that we say or do and that we can see Christ in us in a way that is invisible to the world. It’s not a show, it’s who we are.

VII. The glory of God filled the temple

A. Do you remember what happened when the tabernacle and temple were built, purified, and Israel held ceremonies to dedicate them to God’s service?

1. Exodus 40:34-35: Glory of God filled the tabernacle completely so none could enter
2. 2 Chronicles 5:13-14; 7:1-2: Glory of God filled the temple so that none could enter it.

B. 1 Corinthians 6:17-20: Your body is a temple of God to be kept holy

VIII. Conclusion

A. Our body is to be God’s temple, completely filled with His glory and displacing evil and every inferior thing in this passing world.

B. Our life is to be a reflection of the glory of Christ from the deepest part of our thoughts and being and shine forth in all that we say and do.

C. But it is a lifelong process of transformation: the glory of God gradually filled the tabernacle and temple and Paul described the transformation into Christ as a daily process.

D. We are the temple of God: 2 Corinthians 6:16-7:1

1. We must separate ourselves from world so that we can be in close fellowship with God.
2. We must cleanse all that would defile his temple to bring holiness to completion.

E. Where are you on that journey tonight?

1. If you are a faithful Christian, don’t quit; don’t settle for less and don’t get frustrated when the growth seems slow. You’ll eventually see more of Christ as will others.
2. Are you a Christian that has defiled your temple through rebellion or carelessness? Be like King Josiah and reopen the temple, take out the idols and the filth, let God cleanse it and renew the process of developing Jesus in your life.
3. Do you need to be leave the world and be cleansed so that you Christ can be formed in you and you can begin this transformation into a life where Christ lives in you?