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Your Testimony in Personal Holiness By Richard Wilson

Do the reading of God's Word as we find in the prophecy of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 31,
and we will take verses 31, so chapter 31 and verse 31 through to the end of the chapter,
oh no not quite to the end of the chapter, yeah to 37. And then we'll go to John,
the Gospel according to John and chapter 10. And before we do that I just wanted to take the text
that we've been looking at and see the connections there. The exaltation for us in chapter 4 of
Ephesians is that we are to work worthily to our calling and then he goes on say that we do not
develop our Christian life by non-Christian principles. And because as a non-Christian,
as a fallen, a fallen creature, we are those that are darkened in our understanding and futile in
our mind and alienated from God because of the ignorance that is within them. Because of the
blindness of our hearts, they are being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness,
that is immorality and all kinds of inappropriate behaviour, to work uncleanness with greediness.
And he says this point, but you have not learned Christ if indeed you have heard him and been
taught of him, that's the reason why I've chosen these two passages, as the truth is in Jesus,
that you put off considering the former conduct the old man which grows corrupt
according to the deceitfulness of lust and be renewed in the spirit of the mind and that you
may put on the new man which is created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.
So I'm going to be looking at our testimony in personal holiness and holiness is a very
unpopular word these days. They often think of holiness as being some kind of puritanical,
something
prudish, but holiness just simply means being separated under God. And to demonstrate the
separateness that we are as saints, saint and holiness comes from the same word,
and that we are those that are separated people from the world. We're not people trying to meld
into the world and be a witness in the world as a worldling, but we are to be holy and a testimony
in the world and that we are to hold a character that is both righteous and holy. This is going to
testify to the truth of Jesus our Lord and so that's what I want to emphasize today. Lovely
promise that isn't it that the Lord will not allow anybody to be
snatches out of the hand of the Father.
And the doctrine of election is something that really is a great comfort to believers.
And I often, I'm reminded of the imagery of Pilgrim's Progress when Pilgrim came through
the wicker gate and he, he could, all he could see is come written over the wicker gate come
all those who are weary and heavy ladened and he came. As he came through the other side of
sword on the other side of the wicker gate, elect. So it's only as we really understand
our election is by the work of Christ in our hearts and that knowledge of
the security of our salvation is absolute. And these promises no wonder the Lord could say
none of us will be snatched out of his hand. That's a wonderful, wonderful thought.
The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 20,
but you have not learned Christ if indeed you have heard him and been taught of him
as the truth of Jesus in Jesus that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man
which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts but be renewed in the spirit of your mind
and that you may put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness
and holiness. Now as we look at this the outcome and I would say even a destination a preliminary
destination of all Christians is holiness. It is heaven before we get there. It is
a condition that we can immediately experience upon conversion and yet gain more as we are
further sanctified by the work of God's grace in our lives that we might know more clearly the
image of Christ and his countenance in our life. Now this should bring great joy and satisfaction
to our life in and of itself. It's not something that it gives us full assurance that God himself
is with his people, with us personally and it gives us the strongest testimony
to the watching world that would see that is this guy a genuine guy? Is this guy a real Christian?
Is he one who knows a living God that is beyond anything else that we we can see?
Now he might see it and persecute it. He might see it and fear God and turn to the Saviour as well
but there can be no in-between state. He will either see it and utterly reject it as the Jews did,
as the religious leaders did of the day of Jesus, or they come and follow him and they hear his
voice and the voice teaches them and they come and follow him and therefore he says quite clearly
quite clearly that here we are those that are learning Christ.
Now the exaltation for us first of all in verse one is that we are called
to walk worthily of the calling which you were called with all lowliness and gentleness
and long suffering bearing one another in love endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in
the bond of peace. Now he goes on and he says in verse 17 and he gives yet further a further
exaltation that I say and all this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer
walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind.
Now he goes on and he says therefore we are in the manner that we had formerly lived in.
A lot of people think that as a Christian we are those that are to be wise both in worldly things
and spiritual things. Somehow we can have this sort of coalescing or bringing together
of all sorts of principles if they work then it's quite legitimate for us to work.
But the Lord the Apostle Paul is saying to us that we must be careful about this.
There are many things that we learned in our former life as non-Christians and they were
lauded and applauded. Many of them would seem to be fairly good things and we rarely get and some
of them are downright awful and we know as Christians that those awful things are obviously
not something we're going to have to bring into our Christian lives but these so-called
man-centered laudable things can be brought into our Christian life and we can expect
results from them. Now we cannot live the Christian life by reforming that which is old.
We've got to be transformed and there's a new order of life altogether. We move out of one
estate into a new estate. The old estate was under dominion of sin and under the power of darkness
but this new estate we now are brought into a completely new order of life and this life
is eternal life by a completely different constitution, a new inner mechanism that is
at work within the believer. The very rules and regulations of the new constitution that we are
under as new creatures in Christ is indeed from a completely different order of an order and basis.
So we are talking here not as non-Christians coming into the Christian life. We are talking
about Christians living the Christian life and it's characterized by a continuous pathway of
learning and we are in a school that is called Christ School. We are those that are constantly
following the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this will never stop from the moment you come to know the
Lord and are converted to the moment that we are snuffed off this face of the earth and all
physical things will come to the grave and our bodies will go to be, our lives will go to be with
our Lord that we will be under the constant estate of being in the school of Christ
and we are constantly learning. Now and the principles by which we learn is not from our
former conduct but which is described here that we are you know such futility of their mind
having their understandings darkened and alienated from God, you know nothing good can come from that
that condition because of the ignorance of that is within them because of the blindness of their
hearts who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness to work uncleanness with
greediness. Now you haven't learned Christ that way and you'll find that the first thing that
you'll find as you come to know the Lord that there is a whole other estate that we are now in
that is under righteousness, is in the estate of holiness, it is ruled by the word from heaven
not the word of man and no matter how the man actually borrows from the Sermon on the Mount
for instance as some have and made them the principles of their life they can't make them
into righteousness because their hearts are darkened and no matter how good Gandy was
and he says I live according to the Sermon on the Mount, his darkened heart could not produce the
righteousness of God. The futility of his mind was bound up with the Hindu religion and therefore
is impossible for him to produce any good except many people Lord him is almost a saint
and yet some of the decisions he's made has made literally millions of people died
on the basis of his decisions. Now this is the point that we need to grasp that old habits die
hard and I know that we bring a lot of that which we had learnt in our former life particularly
when we become believers as adults we have got many habits that we carry on to our Christian life
and we think that this can actually produce the right results. Now you've got this attitude within
the church. Churches if they were run like a company and we dispense with proper church order
and have directors and the pastors become some kind of puppet in the system we are substituting
worldly philosophies of ministry for biblical ones and many churches almost every church that
we know has done this to some degree sometimes far more than others. We can do this in our way
in which we are going to raise our family. We can say well there's a lot of wisdom in the latest
books that may be on the shelves in the newsagents and these things have been written by
people who are child psychologists and so on and we can think that if we employ some of these
principles with biblical views as well that we will somehow produce the right results
The Lord says here no you won't. We've got to debunk everything and make sure that we start
with the Word of God alone and the principles that are found in the Word of God will be the basis
for our life. We will not do any good if we try and reform that which is old.
Everything that we do must be transformed and renewed by the ministry of the Word of God
that is always met with the Spirit of God. Wherever the Word of God is being taught and
upheld and made the Spirit of God will give the power to that so it can be done
to the glory and the honor of God. The Word of God and the Spirit of God are always
belonging together. There is an unbreakable law, spiritual law, that if we are obeying God's Word
and with the Spirit of what God's Word is saying there will be the ministry of the Spirit
that will bring us in to enable us to achieve the very work of God which is always righteous.
And so we need to first of all understand what the truth is in the Lord Jesus and then
having understood it we must obey it and you will find that you will not be able to obey it
in the flesh but in the Spirit the Spirit will come and so enable you to achieve the very thing
the Word of God requires. And you will see this time and time about your life and constantly day
by day as these principles are enacted as we live by faith in the Word of God the Spirit of
God will enable us by the very power of God to achieve the very purposes that God wants to
achieve amongst you. And so the Spirit of God will never work on that which is dead and darkened
and has been failed us that may be to the world's reasonable laudable honourable behaviour.
We must debunk that to make sure that whatever we're doing it is being renewed by the Spirit
of God and it'll only be ever renewed by the Spirit of God is if we take the Word of God
as something we must obey and live under the authority of.
Now the difficulty at this point is many people who are in the church
are not really His. The church is a mixture of believers and unbelievers
and people can be associated with the church in many and varied reasons. Sometimes they're
associated with the church because well church people are good people and they're good people
they look after you they will reform your bad habits and make you feel more honourable about
feel more honourable about yourself. Some people come because they need a solid foundation for
their families and if they make sure that their families are raised according to the
Ten Commandments they will find that there is a lot of good value in the church. Others
come along to the church because they want a partner and that's for no other reason.
It's a good flesh pot to actually get your future husband or wife and there are a lot of reasons.
Some people are just so deluded about their real condition of their soul and they find themselves
saying well all this is meant to be if I'm a Christian because I'm just a little better than
most of the people anyway there in church. That's how I used to think and I found myself thinking
in those terms. Now therefore the Lord says here through the Apostle Paul that
that he says if indeed you have heard him and have been taught of him as the truth is in Jesus.
In other words he is saying here indeed if these things are true.
Now it's a time for us really basically and Paul the Apostle constantly reminds us to take
spiritual inventories of ourselves. I know before I became a Christian, gently, quietly
quietly and with much fear and trepidation
I found that many of those guys that I was at the youth group with and the youth bible study
would quietly point out to me that my behaviour was not necessarily Christian or biblical
and I'd argue the point but eventually it got through to me. I knew that there was something
missing. I knew that there was a chasm between God and myself. I knew that there was something
about my life that was not the genuine article and when I came to that conclusion
I found myself beginning to say well I need to start where I should be starting
and I found myself coming to the essentials. I was finding that there was a necessity for me
a necessity for me to petition God for his mercy. There was a necessity for me to start
understanding the word of God as the truth of God. The necessity that
required me to say I know that there is no truth in other religions. I know that the Spirit of God
is giving me understanding of Christ and I know that he was the one who was my Saviour. Now I
couldn't tell you all the intricate doctrines of these things. I couldn't understand many details
of these things but in my heart of hearts there was a transformation taking place.
Now I remember in the little congregation at Rochester I was preaching a sermon on
on the sheep hearing the the voice of God and if you are the sheep of God you hear the voice
of the Saviour and it was a powerful sermon and one little kid went home and I heard about it
through the back door and he says daddy I don't think I overhear the voice of Jesus
maybe I need to become a Christian and his daddy says oh don't worry about that
that's just religious talk and that was snuffed out of his of his thinking
but there is a sense in which we personally come and it says here that we come
and we hear that you have heard him in other words you have heard that beckoning call of God
come come unto me and he says and you have been taught of him now I can teach you many things and
I think I before I became a Christian I I was taught I think the entire bible in many ways
particularly through the Anglican uh lessons um at church I had heard the bible because I used to
attend bible at least twice a week and mostly during school years I was there every day at
chapel and by the time that way that way came through I knew most of the stories of the bible
but I I had nothing nothing that I could say was mine um I had not really perceived or understood it
um I've not really heard it and as a result um it wasn't until later on in my life that I'd
actually come to a point where uh the Lord had actually spoken to me uh in a manner that had
turned me completely around it was so uh everything in the word of God had become suddenly like to me
and suddenly things uh uh came uh as truth to me and and this is what we need to come to
that we are indeed so moved by the word of God not simply intellectualizing not simply uh
uh coming to a point where uh it seems sensible but that uh it so enters into our souls
that we are utterly uh arrested by the word of God because it is the word of God
and in doing that then uh the work of God is uh is being established we then begin to examine
ourselves we then begin to uh see that uh our eyes will be opened our ears will hear not as though
a preacher is preaching but as God who speaks to you and and you feel utterly accountable
to that word and that you cannot uh wriggle out from underneath it it's something that has
arrested your soul and you are captured by the very uh word of God itself and then we put our
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ not in the church not in a higher life not in some mystical um
uh mystical uh religious experience but in the Lord Jesus Christ himself
and that's why a person who has come to know uh salvation always comes to know the Lord Jesus
Christ he is the central uh person he is your savior he is uh your everything to you and so
when people are talking more about the church than about Jesus Christ I'm pretty well sure
that they're not converted because their faith is in something other than the savior they think the
church is a savior that's exactly what Roman Catholics believe if you belong to this group
you are saved now um and therefore we need to be those that once we have faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ then everything starts to be begins to unravel we begin to see that there are whole
tracks of our life that is under review of the word of God and we begin then repenting from
our former life and turning it right right about turn from our former life and putting in place
the principles and the precepts and the laws of God in righteousness and in holiness
and righteousness will make us holy righteousness will establish us as holy
because we will be separated for the things of God now that comes not from man
it comes directly from God that kind of experience it's something that
just rivets itself into our convictions and our conscience it's something that is uh
that totally establishes us in the things of God and so this brings me to the point that it says
here that having uh having come to the Lord Jesus having heard his voice and having uh follow begin
to follow him in the um and being taught of him uh the truth of Jesus he says
then there is a pressing forward if we have been justified if we have been uh forgiven of all our
sins and we have been pardoned then there will be an ongoing process of sanctifying grace that
takes place this is the next word justification always leads to sanctification
now the old catechism says concerning sanctification that what is sanctification
sanctification is the work of God it's free grace by which we are renewed throughout in the image of
God and enabled more and more to die to sin and live to righteousness okay so there's it's a work
our justification is an act of God's great free grace whereby we see these many things that
happen to us this is a work of God's free grace this means to say that we are justified by our
works at this point as uh as um um James says um if you are those who are who say that you're
justified then show me your works he says and Abraham was justified he goes as far as this he
says he's justified by his works in other words what he's saying is if we have been justified
by grace then the works of grace will follow in sanctification we will die more and more to sin
and live more and more to righteousness and so this is this is exactly where the
Westminster Shorter Catechism lifts this particular text as a proof text of that principle
of sanctification of holiness and so here the um he is saying that sanctification is just
another word for holiness being set apart more and more to be like God like our Lord Jesus Christ
and that there this is a lifelong process this is a day-to-day uh school of Christ that we are in
it constantly um is is part of our life where the struggle between the uh this the old the old man
and the new man and he says here we are to put off the old man and the old man becomes corrupt
I have a friend that uh at um her school he's one of my um atheistic uh teachers I had to sit with
at the in the common room and uh at the moment he's he's very much anti his mother at the moment
he um his mother is going through a time of life that uh is accusing everyone of everything
and he is just getting completely overwhelmed by he her sinful attitudes and I said Peter
remember you but you will go exactly the same way as your mother honor your mother I said
that's what the word of God says he quietens down at that point he said the only difference
between your mother and you is that she is a is a greater sinner than you because she's got more
time for it to happen the days will come and she will be just as big a sinner than her because
in the days to come you will do exactly the same sort of things he said yeah really yes because the
old man becomes more and more corrupt in the lusts of of it that's why when uh when we get
older uh we are more skilled in our sin uh left with our Christ and uh and the consequences of
our life style comes home to roost in our older lifestyle it's only as we come to know the Lord
that this is this whole situation is totally reversed and that's why Christians if they have
been walking with God throughout their life they should be examples of great holiness
uh within the church and they should be those that are examples of great wisdom
and of righteousness within the people of God because now the Spirit of God has been renewing
them day by day throughout their whole life and they've learnt well the lessons of Christ
and his truth within them and he says quite clearly here that we are those that put off
concerning the former conduct in the old man who grow corrupt according to the deceitful lusts
now the only antidote to that condition because the Lord never asks us to put off things
until he has got something better to put in his place and of course every time we have something
better to put in his place that's why a lot of people cannot deal with certain habits
because they refuse to put the better thing in his place
if you're a drunkard you need to have something better to put in his place being drunk in the
being drunk in the spirit I suppose I don't know um not being in that condition I
I don't know what the real answer there is but nonetheless if somebody is looking to the Lord
he will find that answer but it's quite practical if you put off something the Lord will always put
something better in its place and the better is always immortal eternal and unchangeable and
it will always hold its point uh point well he says he says by be renewed by the spirit of your
mind I'll skip over that and I'll come back to that and he says to put on the new man which
was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness now what is righteousness
righteousness is doing the law of God quite easy righteousness righteousness we will become more
and more committed to the causes of Christ we are will become more and more effective
to the purposes of Christ and therefore we will be separated under God as separate people now I
think we should be studied to be separate from the world what does the world say at this point
well this is what Christ says what does the world do at this point this is what the Christian does
what does um what are the kind of principles that we must live by this is what the world does
this is what we do and we shouldn't be breaking our neck to try and be like the world
whether in our worship practices or in our ethical procedures we should be taking our every cue from
the word of God alone and it's only then we will know what the definitions of righteousness is
and having known that as truth then we can do it because the spirit of God renews us
every day according to the word of God if somebody is filled with the spirit
he is also filled with the word of God and if somebody says I've had this ecstatic experience
of of the of of the spirit I said where does that where does that all fit in with the word of God
I don't know about the word of God don't confuse me with the truth what I know is I've experienced
something that is very real and has made me more holy I say nonsense
it has not made you more holy it's made you more conceited
and more religious
and so we need to be careful about that wherever the word of God is
so the spirit of God will renew us to achieve that purpose of becoming more righteous and holy
and this is a continuing work we don't have to wait for a revival for this to happen
it happens every day amongst believers and in the believer a lot of Christians are running
around and saying I want a revival then I'll live my Christian life no if you have the word
of God there before you you know the truth of the word of God you ask God for you to for for
you to obey it and when you ask God to obey the word of God then you are being transformed
first of all in your mind and then your whole person and being transformed in that aspect
of truth in your life you will then become more righteous and becoming more righteous
we are then more holy
so I want to say that in your testimony our greatest need is to be better Christians
and therefore ask how you're going to be more holy in these things how are you going to be
more distinct from this world and make sure you walk therein