Have you A Heart For Holiness?

Let's read God's word we're reading from first Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3 and we're going to read from verse 9 to the end.

First Thessalonians chapter 3, verses 9 to the end.

1 Thessalonians 3:9

Let's hear the word of God for those online the words will come

up on screen and we're reading. Of course, we've often

emphasised from the King James Bible First Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 3:9

chapter 3, verse 9. For what thanks can we rendered

to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for

your sakes before our God night and day, praying exceedingly

that we might see your fears and might perfect that which is

lacking in your faith. Now God Himself and our Father

and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you, and the Lord

make you to increase and abound and love one toward another and

toward all men, even as we do toward you.

To the end, He may establish your hearts unblameable in

holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our

Lord Jesus Christ with all His Saints.

Amen. We know that God will stamp with

His own approval and blessing this reading of His own precious

and infallible Word. Now this morning as we continue

with our studies in the book of First Thessalonians.

My text today is taken from the verse 13.

It reads as follows to the end. He may establish your hearts

unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father at the

coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his sins.

Now my theme today I've entitled in the form of a question, have

you a heart for holiness. Now let's remember the context.

First Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 13 is part and parcel of

1 Thessalonians 3:13

one of the Apostle Paul's prayers for the church at

Thessalonica. And this prayer is found in

chapter 3, verses 9 to 13, where Paul is expressing his desire of

his heart that the Lord is God will richly bless the church at

Thessalonia. This prayer reveals A longing

and a yearning to see the face of these believers again, even

after they were forced to flee due to the opposition of an

angry, unbelieving mob. And literally, one of his

requests is about getting back to this infant church he founded

under God. Now we know that the Lord did

answer his prayer. Not immediately, but certainly

not in the day that he fled from Thessalonica.

He did return, but it was some years later as part of his third

missionary journey. You can read about that in Acts

Acts 18:23

18, verses 23, right through to Acts 21, verse 26.

Acts 21:26

These verses provide a detailed itinerary of Paul's third

missionary journey, which had to include, according to Acts 19

and two, Macedonia. We also learnt that in verse 12

he expressed his intense longing in his soul that the Lord would

make the whole of the Thessalonian church to increase

and abound and love one toward another and toward all men, even

as we do toward you. So verse 12 is a prayer about

the church loving one another, and at its heart it's a prayer

for love to grow and to develop. And last Lord's Day we thought

about the production of love toward one another, it's origin,

the Lord make, it's operation. Then we thought of the practise

of this love. It's love for Saints, it's love

for the souls of men, the lost souls of men.

It's a love for the servants of Christ.

And we closed with a Third Point, the possession of true

love toward one another. Look at verse 13, at the opening

words to the end. He may establish the words to

the end. Here's the goal of it all.

True love, I told you, belongs to and is connected with the

subject of heart holiness. And the fullest and the deepest

demonstration of true love is that we are a holy, godly people

unto the Lord, a people that hate sin, a people that love

righteousness. You see, the love of God shed

abroad in the soul by the Holy Spirit should motivate us to a

life of heart holiness. So what is verse 13 all about?

It's about a prayer for holiness of life.

So I asked the question, have you a heart holiness for God?

I want you to think of a number of things very quickly.

One, the subject of heart holiness.

Notice these words again to the end.

He may establish. Now we'll pause there.

You see, there is a connection here.

Remember what I've just said. Love is the chief grace among

all graces that make up the fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 522 starts with the spiritual grace of love.

Love is first. Now in chapter 13 of First

Corinthians, the great chapter of love.

If you look with me at First Corinthians chapter 13 verse 13,

1 Corinthians 13:13

it says this. Now listen to it.

Look at the order. And now abideth faith, hope and

charity, these three. But the greatest is charity.

Now the word charity, young people, is not about giving a

gift of money to A cause like the Jamaican Appeal, it includes

that. But it's much more than that.

You see, the word charity is an old Elizabethan word in the

Authorised Version. The Greek word is agape, and

it's a reference here. When they use the word charity,

it's a reference to the spiritual quality of God's love.

You see, God's love at his heart is a giving love.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.

We're coming up to think of Christmas time and he gave us a

baby, Baby Jesus, God Incarnate, he, he, he gave a star to direct

us to where the baby was. And he gave this baby to be the

Saviour of the world. You see, God's love is a giving

love. Now we're taught here in First

Corinthians 1313 that love is greater than faith and hope.

Why? The greatest of these is

charity. What could Paul mean?

Remember, as I've said in verse 12, Paul is praying about the

Thessalonians loving one another.

He wanted them to practise and demonstrate and develop love to

one another. He wanted their love to grow and

to overflow. And yet here he tells us that

the greatest of these is charity.

You see, let me put it this way. True faith, which is the gift of

God, a true hope benefits yourself to a larger, greater

degree. You exercise that faith.

You lay hold upon that hope. You're called upon to have faith

in Christ. It's faith in Christ that saved

not just faith, but faith in Christ.

You're called to have a sure and steadfast hope, a real hope

that's like an anchor to the soul.

But love not only benefits you, but benefits others.

It benefits the church. Now we're not saved by love.

We're saved by faith in Christ. We're not saved by hope.

Our hope is sure. It's real.

It's fixed in the personal work of Christ, like an answer to

anchor to the soul. But true love not only benefits

you personally, but benefits many others.

That's why the Bible says in Galatians 5 and 6, faith worketh

by love. Nothing to do with the ground of

salvation, but the evidence. It's the growth and overflow of

true love to others. We've already seen that to the

Saints, to the lost souls of man in in the service of Christ.

And this spiritual love that he's talking about manifests

itself in holiness. This love that grows and

develops leads to a a life of holiness before the Lord.

So when you truly love the Lord, you'd want to please him.

You will want to do his will, you will want to know him

better. You'd want to trust Him no

matter the darkness you're going through, no matter the

difficulty that you're facing, no matter even if you're

depressed and downcast in your spirit.

The Chinese woman spoke to me on Friday at City Hall and she kept

emphasising, pastor, you've got to trust and obey.

She was a lovely saved woman from Bloomfield and we had a

lovely chat and she's absolutely right, you have to trust and

obey. Now our obedience is gay and

it's not the ground of salving, it is the evidence.

It's a sign that we have a true possession of Christ.

We live in an age when there's loads of professions of Christ,

10s of thousands of them in Northern Ireland.

But there's a vast difference between a profession of Christ

and a possession of Christ. But once you're born again of

the Spirit, the love of God is shed abroad in your heart and

you become a possessor of the gift of eternal life, the true

love of God in your heart and life.

Here's how it will operate. Here's how it will be seen to

this end. That's very important that you

grasp that connection. This spiritual grace, this holy

love is connected to the concept of true holiness.

Now you need to grasp that. The second thing is this.

In the subject of heart holiness, there's a coexistence

here. You see, there's a close

coexistence between the subject of love and the subject of

holiness. There can be no true love

without holiness. There can be no true holiness

without true love. True love and holiness coexist.

Think of these truths and not turn to the references for time.

God is holy. Leviticus 19 and two, ye shall

be holy, for I the Lord your God, I'm holy.

In the book of Psalms and Psalm 9599 and verse 5, we read Exalt

you the Lord our God and worship at his footstool, for He is

holy. And also we read in the New

Testament first John four and eight, God is love first John 4

and 16. You see, true love and true

holiness coexist in God. They're not mutually exclusive.

And what's true in relation to the divine nature of God is also

true in the life of a true believer.

Listen to me carefully. If there's no true love for God

in the things of God, then there's no true holiness.

And if there's no holiness unto the Lord, there's no true love

being demonstrated toward the Lord.

See, many profess the Lord's name.

Many say I'm a Christian. Many say I love the Lord Jesus.

But they have no desire to live a holy life.

They have no true hatred for sin.

Their own sin are the sins of others.

There's no turning their back on the world and the flesh and the

devil and and live for the honour and glory of God.

You see, if there's a true love in the soul, a love shed abroad

in the heart by the Holy Ghost, there'll be a genuine love for

holiness. The grace of a holy love to God

coexists with the concept of holy living.

Now this is a solemn, serious matter.

We live in an age of coldness, an age of carelessness, an age

of wantonness, an age of worldliness.

Among the professing people of God, there's a lack of keeping

God's commandments. People tell us I love Jesus, and

yet the knowledge that God is infinitely holy and this concept

of true holiness seems to be forgotten and despised.

Let me illustrate. Reverend John Greer spoke

recently about a man's fellowship in Northern Ireland.

A man's fellowship professing Christians.

They're in the House of God on the Lord's Day.

They've got a Bible in their hand.

They meet every month. They have a time of prayer, time

of Bible reading, a time of praise.

And yet these very same men go together to the North Coast to

drink beer. Proverbs 21 tells us that wine

is a mocker and strong drink is raging.

And whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.

And drunkenness is a sin and it's a bad testimony before an

unholy world, before a Christ rejecting world.

And they've haven't thought of the impact on the Wicker

brother. And that's only one area.

There's many others that we could talk to because many

professing Christians who say they loved Christ, they're

they're addicted to pornography on the Internet.

They're also guilty of the sin of gambling and dancing, and

they're often absent from the House of God on the Lord's Day.

And some, of course, would be guilty of smoking, cursing,

coarse jesting and coarse language.

And that's only some of the things.

There has to be a call for repentance.

There has to be a call for holy living.

That's the subject here. Very quickly.

I want you to think the substance of heart holiness will

ask the question, what is holiness?

How do you define it? We live in a day when there's

many misconceptions, many distortions.

See, people think holiness is connected to a life shut away in

a monastery like the 15th century or a nunnery.

Cut yourself off from the real world.

Live a life of prayerful devotion unto God.

But I want to tell you, you know what the monks and the nuns

discovered when they went into the monastery and into the

nunnery? That they still had sin in their

heart, That they had a love for the things of the world.

That they had lustful and carnal desires that in and of

themselves they couldn't overcome.

See, holiness is not about legalism.

It's not a list of do's and don'ts.

I'll tell you something else that's not even about being

sinlessly perfect in this life, nor is it connected to the

spirit of pride. Oh, I'm such a holy person and

I'm full of pride about that. Holiness in this text is

annoying. And often times this subject of

holiness is connected to an adjective.

An adjective is a describing word.

Such and such a one like Nehemiah is a holy man of God,

or such and such a person like Deborah is a holy woman of God.

We could talk about a holy vessel as well as a holy person.

You see, holiness has to do with being set apart for a secret

use. It's a describing word and it

denotes the spiritual quality of holiness.

I've already told you God is holy.

Leviticus 19 and 2, Psalm 99 verse 5.

Psalms 99:5

Listen to what Peter says in first Peter and in chapter 1.

But as he which hath called you as holy, so be ye holy in all

manner of conversation, because it is written, be, be, be ye

holy, for I am holy. Do you see the connection?

You see God, who saves sinners, changes and transforms the life

of that Sinner, and makes men holy initially in the new birth.

And by His word that sanctifies that individual, He separates

men from this world. Men from being earthy to men

being heavenly. He, he makes them a holy vessel

when they were formerly an unholy vessel.

See this world in which we live as a fallen, sinful, unholy

world, A world of great iniquity.

It's a place of wickedness. Just look at Sudan and the

murder of the Christians there. 2000 I've told you inside 48

hours, 460 murdered in a maternity ward.

Such barbarism, such acts of inhumanity by other human

beings. And it's all contrary to the

mind and will of God. And even those who carry out

these deeds profess to be serving Allah.

They're not because he's a false God in the 1st place, the Lord

of mercy, but here's God and in his redemptive work He calls

sinners to repent and believe the gospel.

When they're born of the Spirit, they're changed and transformed.

He says if any man be in new, any man be in Christ, he's a new

creature. All things have passed away and

all things have become new. What does God do?

He works from the inside out. He changes hearts and lives and

the inside impacts on the outside of the life and this

Christianity and being in Christ that makes us better husbands,

better wives, better young people, better workers, better

citizens, better worshippers. And what he does is in the

journey of life, He weans and draws his people until the day

that all sin is finally taken away and we are perfected.

He says there in Second Corinthians in Chapter 7 and in

the verse one listen to these words Second Corinthians 7 and

one 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.

Fallen man loves this world. Fallen man has set his heart

upon this world. Even though the Bible says love

not the world, neither are the things that are in the world of

any man love the world. The love of the Father's not in

him. And if the love of the Father's

not in him, then there's no love for holiness, nor that we could

grasp that holiness belongs to the very being of God.

God is glorious in holiness. God never became holy young

people. God is holy, God always was

holy, God was eternally holy. God is perfectly holy.

We sang there deliberately, that beautiful hymn there based in

Revelation 4 and 8. Holy, holy, holy Lord God

Almighty, which was and is and is to come.

And that's connected to Isaiah chapter 6, whenever Isaiah was

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

in the temple and, and saw the vision of the holiness of God's

being. Holiness belongs to the being of

God. God is infinite, eternal,

unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness,

justice, goodness and truth. And God in that sense has a

majestic holiness. And, and we, we don't know

anything about that. The word infinite means he's

without limitation. But God's holiness is not just a

majestic holiness of who he is. It's also a moral holiness.

Do you know that God cannot sin? It's impossible for God to sin.

God cannot lie. It's impossible for God to deny

himself because God is light, pure eternal light, and him is

no darkness at all. God's of pure rise and behold

iniquity. God is morally holy.

He is also majestically holy. And it's that vision of the

holiness of God that Isaiah saw in Isaiah chapter 6 and verse 3.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

And whenever Isaiah seen the Lord and the Lord appeared to

him, what did he do? He felt smitten, he felt

unclean, he felt guilty, he felt unworthy before God.

And that's where we need to come to.

True holiness starts with God who is majestically and morally

holy. It starts with God who He is.

And then this God calls and wants you to be holy in himself.

Be holy for I am holy. What an argument.

And remember what we read in Ephesians, In Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

1 and in the verse 4, if you want to turn to that reference.

We read this according as He hath chosen us in Him there's

election before the foundation of the world.

This is the council of the covenant of redemption, that we

should be holy and without blame before Him.

Enough. Do you see that there?

Here's the plan and purpose of God.

God, the Bible tells us, according as He hath chosen us

in Him, that's Christ. When did He do it?

Before the foundation of the world that we should be what

that we should be holy and without blame before him in

love. God's purpose is to make his

people like him. God's purpose is to make his

people holy. God's purpose is to make his

people blameless before him in love.

And God's purpose will be accomplished.

God's purpose will be manifest. God's purpose will be fulfilled.

The third thing I want you to think about very quickly is the

seat of heart holiness. Look at their text again and it

says to this end that he may what He may establish you and to

this end he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness.

This is where it happens. It happens in the heart.

Holiness is not something you add on, you know, it's not

something you put on like a coat.

It's not something you put into your pocket and carried about

with. You know what?

It happens in your heart. It impacts the inside 1st and

what is in the inside then begins to impact your life on

the outside. And of course, God's mind is

that our hearts would be constantly and firmly steadfast

in this holiness. See, let me just emphasise

something. What you put on doesn't

necessarily make you holy. Whether it's a suit, a tie, a

hat, a dress. There's no real spiritual value

in clothes. Why do we dress up?

Because it's the Lord's Day, Because we're going to present

ourselves unto God and we want to be the best that we can

before Him. But you know, we could be

dressed up in the finest suit, hat, dress, but our heart could

be unclean before the Lord. Our heart could not be right

before the Lord. Our heart could not be changed.

There's no heart holiness in our heart, even though we're outside

looking right. Holiness begins in the heart.

Why? Because the heart is the seat of

your personhood. The heart is the seat of your

mind, your will, your emotions, your affections.

And we know what's in the heart. The heart is deceitful and above

all things, desperately wicked. Jeremiah 17 and 9 says and who

can know it? And Mark Chapter 7 tells us this

Mark 7 · chapter mention

in verse at 21. For from within, out of the

heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,

fornications, murders, theft, covetousness, wickedness,

deceit, lusciviousness and evil eye, blasphemy, pride,

foolishness, all these evil things come from within and

defile the man. There's no holiness without a

change of heart. God begins in the human heart.

Your hearts are to be fixed and firmly steadfast.

If we think of another reference here over there in First

Thessalonians chapter 523, we read these words and the very

God of peace sanctify you holy, connected to holiness, and I

pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body, we preserve

blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In other words, it starts where? Notice the wording here.

Your whole spirit, your soul and body, it starts in the inside.

Do you see that? So I asked this question, Has

your heart been changed? Is this principle of holiness

found within your soul? As a Christian, you profess the

name of Christ. Do you hate sin and love

righteousness? Do do you want to perfect

holiness in the fear of God? Do you want to be weaned off a

life of sin and wickedness? Remember the Bible says without

holiness no man shall see the Lord, no holiness, no heaven.

You can't live for heaven and home if you love sin and love

wickedness. If you want a home in heaven,

then you'll have to have a heart for holiness.

So what's in the inside impacts upon the outside.

Someone has said what's down in the whale comes out in the

bucket. What's in our heart comes to the

fore and that's why we need our heart changed and need our heart

transformed. Holiness is not about the

observance of rights. It's not about observing a form

of religion outwardly. It's not in creeds and things

like that. Holiness is in the heart and

what's in the heart comes out on the outside.

It impacts upon the outside very quickly.

I want you to think of the source of heart holiness.

Notice this word again, stablish.

It means to settle, fixed, to make firm, to make fast, to

strengthen. He is a reference to the Lord.

You see, God performs this. It is God's spiritual operation,

and it starts in the new birth. God infuses this principle in

the new birth of holiness, and as a result, there's a yearning.

There's a desire to be a godly person, a desire to consecrate

yourself to the Lord, and it's all connected to the redemptive

work of Christ. It's not divorce from Christ.

It's not divorce from the cross. Let me show you this very

quickly turn to the book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 5.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

And we read here just a couple of verses, Ephesians chapter 5.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

And remember these, these words, husbands, love your wives, even

as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.

Now what was the purpose of giving himself on the cross for

the church? Look at verse 26, that he might

sanctify. That's the Word connected to

holiness. And cleanse it high with the

washing of water by the Word, verse 27.

Here's the ultimate goal, that He may present it to Himself, a

glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,

but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Christ gave Himself for the church and here was His purpose.

The outcome was to sanctify and set you apart for Himself.

And the basis and ground of your holiness is the death of Christ

and the blood shedding of His cross.

And the source. The secret is the death of

Christ and the cross. Maybe you're struggling with sin

right now. Maybe you're battling

temptation. Maybe you long for victory in

Jesus and you're, you've got a besetting sin.

And you, you say I'm in a holy war here.

I, I, I want to be holy. And yet I, I sin so easily

against the Lord and I grieve in my heart and I can't seem to get

the victory. How can I get victory?

Well, only the cross of Christ can break the power of counsel,

sin and sets the prisoner free. Only the death of Christ dealing

with sin at the cross can put sin away.

The power of the blood, the power of the Spirit, it can be

applied by faith in Him. We know that the Lord uses

means. We we know that the basis of

holiness is the blood sacrifice of Christ, but he uses the

ordinances of the Word, the sacraments and prayer.

We are sanctified. When you read the Bible, God

speaks to you, talks about your coldness and your backsliding

and your sins and your doubts, your fears and troubles and you,

you grieve in your heart. And then the Lord calls you to

get right with him and and calls you to return to him.

And as you read the word of God and let God speak that word has

a wonderful, powerful cleansing effect.

One final thing and our time is gone.

Think of the scope of heart holiness.

Notice this word in the text there unblameable.

Can you underline that that to the to the end, He may establish

your hearts unblameable in holiness.

Do you know what that word unblameable means?

It means without accusation, without charge.

And who is it before? Before God, without charge and

accusation, before God, even our Father.

And when does this take place? At the coming of our Lord Jesus

Christ with all his Saints. What you've got here is a

perfection. What you've got here is a

presentation. What you've got here is a

proclamation. We're legally perfect in Christ.

We're clothed in Christ's righteousness.

That's our justification. We have a moral purity, but it's

not perfect. But we passionately desire

holiness unto the Lord. It doesn't mean we're fight sin.

It doesn't mean we're perfect. Zacharias the priest, the father

of John the Baptist, was guilty of the sin of unbelief, even

though he's described in Luke. One of the six has been

blameless before the Lord, and while he had good intention of

striving to live a holy life unto God, the word unblameable

stands out without charge and without accusing.

How is that possible? Only in Christ, only when we're

clothed with Christ perfect righteousness.

We have a legal perfection in Christ.

We have a striving for a moral perfection in Christ, but that

is never perfect until we die, until we we become one of the

spirits of just men made perfect.

And even at the coming of Christ and the bodies raised up and

we're with Christ, which we're going to see in time to come.

I'd have to stop here. The scope of this heart

holiness, there's a perfection connected to it.

There's a presentation before God, even our Father, at the

coming of Christ. God presents us.

Christ presents us, and there's a proclamation at the coming of

Christ. We'll have to leave it there.

I trust that you'll study the latter part of the verse and

your own, and I pray that God will give us help and grace even

as we deal with these things.