10. Be Holy As I Am Holy
10
BE HOLY AS I AM HOLY
As the night fell, I sat with a frustrated pastor and his wife, sensing the agony and heart cry of his soul. In their dining room that Sunday evening, we stirred our coffee and stared out the window in strained silence. All I could see was the pitch-black night. And as it turned out, that night was symbolic of so many of the lives of people in his church.
Like many other pastors who have shared their private pains with me over the years, this brother had just unburdened his heart about the tragic situation in his congregation. Although outwardly his people seemed like a vibrant and growing church, beneath the surface they were full of confusion—blinded by sin, having no understanding of what it means to follow the Holy One of Israel.
The pastor himself was confused and concerned, and he explained that he felt like a hypocrite. He claimed he was tempted to pack up and walk away from it all. But where would he go, and was that the Lord’s solution? He had many questions, and I had few answers.
It was a fairly large church of a major denomination, and nobody would have guessed that there was anything wrong. I had preached in the church that morning, and I was impressed. The hymns were meaningfully and vibrantly sung. Everything appeared normal. But in reality, he insisted, it was all a sham.
“Brother K.P.,” said the pastor, “I am tired and desperate—I stand before these people and preach Sunday after Sunday. Yet there is no real difference between them and the people of the world. Right now, we have every sin you can imagine going on openly among the believers in our congregation—divorce, adultery, gossip, lust-filled lives, unforgiveness, pride, boasting, jealousy, lack of self-control, rebellious youth.
“I don’t know if I can go on preaching the Word to such hardened hearts.”
He continued, not waiting for a reply. “Brother, is this really the Church of Christ, or are we just calling it the church because of our traditions and history?”
Plainly, he seemed a hungry soul, not satisfied with living a lie. He said he was fed up with putting on a front, tired of just fulfilling the expectations of his denominational traditions, pleasing men and church boards without seeing reality in the lives of the people.
I’m sorry to say that today this dear pastor is no longer there; he has walked away from a successful pulpit and career in his denomination. He is willing to be unknown, choosing instead to spend time waiting upon the Living God—walking before Him with a blameless heart.
How many pastors, I wonder, would do the same thing if they were honest about the true spiritual condition of the people in their congregations?
A Masterful Deception
As we look at so many of our churches today, we are not seeing the real Body of Christ at all, but a masterful deception. Often, the doctrine seems proper—solidly evangelical and correct.
Some of the largest church buildings and biggest congregations in history are springing up. Big names, huge choirs, flashy advertising and the power of television cause us to believe that we are seeing something really great. But we must challenge these notions. All is not what it appears to be.
Just the opposite may be true. Tell me why churches have sought after entertainment, recreation and social activities to keep people in their congregations? One pastor boasted in a national news-weekly that his church had a better recreation facility than any commercial health club in town. It cost them millions of dollars, and the pastor claimed they had the best equipment available. It’s difficult to believe he was serious. Since when did matching the devil in facilities become part of the Great Commission?
Meanwhile, counseling ministries are proliferating like wildfire because the lives of so many Christians are empty and confused. They cannot find answers in their church. So now, they are going outside the local church. Radio and television ministries are bombarded with letters and calls from families and individuals who don’t have solutions to their spiritual needs and problems.
Our churches often are bursting at the seams; we have programs every night of the week, but we lack the power and authority of a life in tune with the will of God.
Our lives are so contrary to the holiness and purity that God seeks from His people that we have become easy marks for the attacks of Satan and demons. While worshiping God with our lips, our lives are growing further and further away from His Word.
False Gospels; False Christs
The New Testament warns us that in the end times, there will be those who will come teaching a gospel that is not the Gospel at all, presenting a “christ” that is not Christ (2 Corinthians 11:4).
And I believe that what we see already happening today—and much more that will soon come upon us—is a direct result of the past decades of false teaching. We have been brainwashed with what Dietrich Bonhoeffer originally called the “cheap grace” gospel.[1] As a result, we are in ruin in our individual lives and families, as well as in our churches.
I fear for the nation and people whose Christian churches have forsaken holiness and separation from sin and the world.
This is a new gospel that is really half of the Gospel. It correctly portrays the wonderful love and forgiveness of God, but it downplays the need for confession, repentance and changed living. Most of all, it virtually ignores the ongoing work of the cross in our everyday lives.
Because of it, we are now blinded to hundreds of scriptures that teach practical holiness in everyday living. This false gospel ignores the very teachings of our Lord and Savior! Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).
This means you may go forward in every meeting, read all the Bible you want, study all the theology you can and be in church every time the door opens—but you still won’t be able to stand before God on Judgment Day. The Bible says that the only way to see the face of the Living God is to be pure and to be purged from sin in your heart.
This is the fact that is lost in the “cheap grace” gospel that has flooded our churches. And today, we are seeing the terrible fruit of this watered-down perversion of the truth—the world has swallowed up the Church. Most Christians are living carnal lives of defeat and failure.
God’s Unchanging Desire for the Church
The Bible says the Lord Jesus Christ is coming for a Bride that is holy and pure and spotless. He is not coming for a harlot church. He is coming for a holy people who are walking the narrow road as He walked.
I believe Revelation 18:4 is a very relevant verse to our churches today. Listen to it: “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”
God is calling for total separation and holy living from His people—just as He always has throughout every generation and dispensation. God does not change. The commandment the Lord gives to His people is always to “be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16).
From the beginning of creation, God’s desire has been to have a holy people. We are impressed with size and quantity, but God is immensely more concerned about the quality. We are living in such a statistics-conscious society that will do almost anything for bigger numbers, larger organizations and mega-churches. But all the while God is looking for a few who will walk in purity and holiness.
He simply is not impressed with the length of our lists and the size of our directories. Oh, that God would help us see that we’re less than the size of germs in His vast universe. Yet we go on measuring the effectiveness of our businesses, careers and ministries in terms of bigger and bigger budgets, more influential friends and larger buildings.
Even our Christian magazines are full of photographs and numbers designed to show how great we think we are. If we could only see what a tragic joke all this is to God. We’ve become just like the secular culture around us, blinded by the god of this world—Satan himself. We are seeking to gratify the lusts of our flesh and of the mind as lost sinners do, comparing ourselves with ourselves.
In the Old Testament we read God’s criticism against Israel was not that they were not offering large enough offerings in terms of size or number, but that their offerings were impure (Malachi 1:6–11). What God is looking for is true holiness and purity, separation from the world and sin.
God had sent prophet after prophet to Israel—for 1,450 years—calling them to turn from sin to purity, but they had not listened. Israel’s lack of reverence was manifested in their bringing to the Lord offerings of animals that were sick, lame and blind. They offered Him less than their best. Much of what believers offer Him today falls into the same category. There is often little self-denial or sacrifice involved in what we are bringing before Him. Our lives are mixed up with the ways of this world, crippled by our disobedience and deceit—unworthy of His call on us.
In Romans 12:1–2, we read of the pure offering God seeks today. He wants our very lives—set apart from the world, self and sin.
In Isaiah 1:11–17, God asks His people,
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
From the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation, we see this one message God continues to impress upon us. He is looking for a holy people with a pure heart. Righteousness is critically important to Him because He is righteous—and He is never satisfied with less than a righteous people.