TAKE
THE HIGH WAY TO HOLINESS
BREAD
20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and
the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own
eyes you will see them. 21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your
ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Isaiah 30:20-21 (NIV)
8 And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way
of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk
in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it. 9 No
lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be
found there. But only the redeemed will walk there. Isaiah 35:8-9 (NIV)
6 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:6-9 (NIV)
20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the
control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things
you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But
now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the
benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. Romans 6:20-22 (NIV)
1 Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us
purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting
holiness out of reverence for God. 2 Corinthians 7:1 (NIV)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness
and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those
who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions
and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with
the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-25 (NIV)
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it
does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not
easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love
does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It
always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love
never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NIV)
14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to
be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See
to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to
cause trouble and defile many. Hebrews
12:14-15 (NIV)
13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be
self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus
Christ is revealed. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil
desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But
just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for
it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
1 Peter 1:13-16 (NIV)
BUTTER
“If you are really the chosen of
God, and beloved by Him, do not allow all this lavish treasure of grace to be wasted
on you. Pursue holiness; it is the Christian's crown and glory. An unholy
church is useless to the world and of no esteem among men. It is an
abomination, hell's laughter, heaven's abhorrence.” C. H. Spurgeon revised by Alistair Begg
“‘We are the same as the
world’ is not the Christian motto. We do
not champion a powerless grace. To do so
excuses the idle in the church to ignore holiness. It belittles the power of the gospel to save
sinners from their sin. And it dismisses
the work and power of the Holy Spirit to make us holy. It tempts us to take our lamps down from atop
the hill, normalizes the loss of our saltiness, and removes shining stars from
a morally vacuous sky. We do not need
more wicked-as-the-world trophies of His pardon. We need men, women, and children who were
wicked as the world but are now trophies of His power.” Greg Morse
“We are more than conquerors
through Him who loved us. We will cast down the powers of darkness that are in
the world by our faith and zeal and holiness; we will win sinners to Jesus; we
will overturn false systems; we will convert nations. For God is with us, and
none shall stand against us.” C. H. Spurgeon revised by Alistair Begg
“True
Christianity is a struggle, a fight, and a warfare. . . . Where there is grace
there will be conflict. The believer is a soldier. There is no holiness without
a warfare. Saved souls will always be found to have fought a fight”. J.C.
Ryle
“We
need to give ourselves to what Horatius Bonar calls ‘daily littles.’ He writes,
‘The Christian life is a great thing, one of the greatest things on earth. Made
up of daily littles, it is yet in itself not a little thing, but in so far as
it is truly lived . . . is noble throughout’ (God’s Way of
Holiness,
127). If we want to persevere to the end, we need to maintain this dual
perspective: (1) the Christian life is ‘a great thing,’ and (2) the Christian
life is made up of ‘daily littles.’ Holiness happens one step at a time.” Scott Hubbard
“My
people’s greatest need is my personal holiness.” Robert
Murray M’Cheyne
Regarding the pursuit of holiness, Scottish Pastor
Robert Murray M’Cheyne writes: “I
know you will apply hard to German, but do not forget the culture of the inner
man – I mean of the heart. How
diligently the cavalry officer keeps his saber clean and sharp; every stain he
rubs off with greatest care. Remember
you are God’s sword, His instrument – I trust, a chosen vessel unto Him to bear
His name. In great measure, according to
the purity and perfection of the instrument, will be the success. It is not great talents God blesses so much
as likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is
an awful weapon in the hand of God.”
“Believers who know Christ
understand that delight and faith are so
wonderfully
united that the gates of hell cannot manage to separate them. Those who love
God with all their hearts find that His ways are ways of pleasantness, and all
His paths are peace. The saints discover in Christ such joy, such overflowing
delight, such blessedness that far from serving Him from custom, they would
follow Him even though the whole world rejected Him. We do not fear God because
of any compulsion; our faith is no shackle, our profession is no bondage, we
are not dragged to holiness, nor driven to duty. No, our piety is our pleasure,
our hope is our happiness, our duty is our delight.” Charles H. Spurgeon
“The essence of true holiness
consists in conformity to the nature and will of God.” Samuel Lucas
HEART SAVOR
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God calls His children to pursue holiness.
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It is God’s desire for every believer to be conformed into
the image of His Son through the power of the Holy Spirit – He was the
firstborn among many brethren.
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Those who claim to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.
