Holiness: The Heart God Purifies - Week #2 [Ch.3-4]

Before coming to the Lord, I can still recall my utter blindness to spiritual truth.  It wasn't just a matter of lacking information.  The Bible was readily available to me, but I had no sincere interest in wanting to understand it.  God sent people to explain the gospel to me, but I could not get past the idea that I was a sinner.  That just stuck in my throat and angered me.  My problem, of course, was that I couldn't see God for who He really is, nor could I see my precarious position before Him.  I certainly had ideas about who God was, but they were influenced more by watching movies and by my own ideas of who I wanted God to be than by His revelation of Himself in Scripture.  But God, in His mercy, placed me in the hearing of Scripture and one night... BAM!!... the piercing flood light of God's Word reached into my heart and I SAW my situation before a holy God who had created me, who sustained my every breath, who knew me intimately, who loved me while I was yet a sinner by providing a way for me to be forgiven & reconciled with Him, and who was calling me to follow Him!  I came to realize the "problem" with my view of sin was my "horizontal" gaze.  I was comparing myself to everyone around me, when God wanted me to look "vertically" and compare myself in the light of His righteousness, so that I might become aware of my own spiritual bankruptcy.

The story of David's sin with Bathsheba provides a clear picture.  When you read through 2 Samuel 11-12, you are struck by David's heinous sin against both Uriah and Bathsheba.  Plainly put, David forced Bathsheba into sin, stole her away from her husband Uriah and had his loyal soldier murdered in an attempt to hide his own sin.  Yet when God used the Prophet Nathan to bring David to repentance and David wrote about the experience in Psalm 51, he perfectly understood that ultimately his sin was against God.  "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment." (Psalm 51:4)  This is precisely what DeMoss points out in Chapter 3, "The Enemy of Holiness."  All sin is ultimately against a holy God.  The more clearly we see that, the better we understand the true nature of sin and the more we will abhor it.

J.C. Ryle wrote, "A holy man will follow after purity of heart. He will dread all filthiness and uncleanness of spirit, and seek to avoid all things that might draw him into it. He knows his own heart is like tinder, and will diligently keep clear of the sparks of temptation.  Who shall dare to talk of strength when David can fall?  Few Christians are ever too watchful and too particular about this point."  What a clear word picture... our hearts are like "tinder", susceptible to the "sparks of temptation."  We need to remember our vulnerability.  The Apostle Paul warned, "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall." (1Cor.10:12)

The Bible is very clear - not only is sin to be put off/mortified, but righteousness is to take its place.  The balanced Christian life has one eye on removing and avoiding sin and the other eye on pursuing righteousness. The two work hand-in-hand.  Jesus said those blessed by God "hunger and thirst after righteousness." (Mt.5:6)   DeMoss introduces Chapter 4 with a quote from H.A. Ironside, "Be killing sin or it will be killing you."  I've heard believers express shock, amazement, even discouragement that the struggle against sin requires such effort.  There is often the idea that the Christian life should be easier, that as we progress in our spiritual walk we should struggle less.  Nothing could be further from the truth!  You need only observe Scripture.  "Put on the entire armor of God..." so you may do daily battle with sin! (Eph.6:11-13)   "In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood ...  strive/pursue/make every effort...to be holy." (Heb.12:4, 14)

The battle against the flesh, the indwelling sin nature, will last until we're home with the Lord.  Christ's substitutionary death and resurrection removed us from bondage to our sin nature (Rom.6:6), but in this life we will struggle against it (Rom.7:18-25) and through Christ have been given the ability to choose righteousness. The believer has spiritual resources to fight against "the flesh", but it requires putting on ALL of God's armor and engaging in battle daily.  Particular sins might be dealt with, but God will continue to shine His light onto our hearts and progressively reveal other areas that need addressing.  This process of sanctification, making us in experience what we are in position, continues until we're in glory.  Rather than becoming discouraged about fighting sin, we need to build up one another in God's truth, helping each other suit up for the battle.

That's one of the reasons God places each of us in a local body of believers to grow among.  We complement one another in spiritual gifts and are given opportunities to encourage one another in righteousness, so that together we may do the work of the ministry (Eph.4:11-14).  Take advantage of sitting under the biblical teaching in your local church - attend Sunday services, morning & night, go to Bible studies, take Bible Institute classes whenever they are offered. Band together with like-minded believers to serve in ministry together.   And spend consistent, daily time in prayer. Find prayer partners and participate in corporate prayer.  [Did you know that Spurgeon had a group of women praying in the basement of the church during every one of his sermons?  No wonder his messages were so powerful!]

Expose yourself daily to the truth of God's Word (in context!!).  Purposefully look for ways to apply it in your life with the empowering help of the indwelling HS.  There's a reason the Apostle Paul compares the Christian life to a race and  a battle.  Those metaphors imply effort, striving, patience, obedience, endurance and perseverance.  As Paul wrote to the believers at Philippi, "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.  Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain."  (Phil.2:12-16)

[Based upon the book Holiness: The Heart God Purifies, Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Week #1 (Chapters 1-2) here; Week #3 (Chapters 5-6) here]