Now we say on the next page something about holiness. And as we’ve already indicated, holiness is not an ‘it’ of some kind, it is rather a ‘way of living.’ And you might look at the middle of your page there, first of all. And here we have the idea stated, which we want you to think a good deal about that little sentence: Holiness is not something one has, but something is. Oh, my...if you have read broadly different books on holiness and sanctification you get the idea so often that holiness is the very mysterious thing that you have; something you get and carry with you. And there have been in history different ... different divisions of the church. And to those who are sanctified or have holiness, they say ... and those who do not have holiness....and yet are saved (337 ). They say they are only justified, but then there are others who are also sanctified. And as you read their discussion they seem to have the idea that holiness is something you get. We’ll see further how this development has come when we talk about man a little longer, again, and the fall of man, and so on; and what happened when this took place. But when we come to the scriptures it seems to be a simple thing; holiness is a way of living...not something mysterious somewhere in my personality. Oh, my...my memory goes back to some very agonizing scenes of earnest prayer in tears, and also a number of years of pain in my own prayer life...in deep agony for the entity of holiness when I read these many books and ...and had the idea that holiness was an ‘it’ of some kind that you were gonna get... and so you carry for half a day or more in your closet of prayer, and you’re gonna stay there till you get the entity. And then when you think you have the entity, then this is supposed to automatically produce the results. And if it doesn’t produce the results then the only conclusion you have in honesty is you didn’t get the entity. then you say, why didn’t I get the entity...and so you...you’re faith gets a nose dive won’t recover for a period of months, possibly. So it becomes so important to give this a thought, then, that holiness is nothing...no kind of substance...nothing fixed that we get in our personality. It’s an achievement...it’s a way of living. And that seems to be the way the scripture describes it...and it tells us that we are to have the right actions and the right actions is the description of holiness. Well, just a couple of passages here...we have the main Old Testament passage...it appears to be in
Leviticus 11:44 and 45: I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourself, therefore, and be holy for I am holy. So holiness is something we are to be, is it not...not something we are to mysteriously have. People suppose they have holiness when they’re not living in a holy way. And things brings some utter complications, as you can see. And Peter also picks this great statement up, doesn’t he...and he quotes this in 1st Peter 1:15-17 ...and this is the great New Testament description of this matter...verse 15, it went: Like the Holy one who calls you be holy yourselves; also in all your behavior because it is written you shall be holy for I am holy. So holiness is a...is an action...it’s an achievement. Now we need to say from beginning to end, we never achieve anything in our own isolated state of living. Holiness is not to learn to live in a certain way; it is to learn the secret of maintaining a relationship in the Holy Spirit and in the powerful provisions of the grace of God. Paul says, “I am what I am by the grace of God.” He didn’t stop “I am what I am.” And so the life of holiness flows from learning the secrets of intimate relationship with God, isn’t it. It’s an achievement of relationship then...not an achievement of isolation...not something we have and go out and live automatically with it. And that’s what we try to develop there. Now quickly, a few words on the serenity of God. We had this on our chart, you remember, in our first lecture, as an introductory thought. God is holy in the absolute sense. We start with the concept of motivation: God is love. He has chosen to live in pure benevolence. The next remarkable statement we see: God is light. And in Him there is no darkness at all. there’s not one single thing then that God has done that anyone can find anything wrong with. And we have the lovely statement here in 1st John 1:7: God is in the light Himself. The light, of course, is His own intelligence; His perfect intelligence of all His relationships. A total evaluation of balance of all relationships. Now we will never have this total intelligence. Therefore, our actions will never be totally perfect. And as I said, and asked you to think about, God rates us by motivation. There can be no change in a state of love; there will be an improvement of conduct as we learn more what pleases God. So our holiness will always be relative compared to God. Also in heaven...because we’re never gonna have the total knowledge of all relationships...and so God rates us by virtuous motive.
But with God, He has a total concept...we’ll illustrate this in another area...another discussion. But with God He has a total knowledge of...of every single action in His total response...His total involvement in every consideration of an action. He never has to apologize to anybody. We have done things against people when we meant to do them good, and if we have a Christian life...a virtue...when we find out we’ve done (419)something against them, we meant to do them good, we’ll go and tell them about it...we’ll apologize. I did you harm...>I meant to do you good. God never has to do this because His knowledge is total. And therefore, the ovations of heaven are going to be told...isn’t this tremendous. Praise the Lord. Gonna be wonderful to be so lost in God you forget yourself. My, we have so many of the charismatic (426) , but watch out for your own feelings....how much are you getting out of all this? Why bless God? The great achievement is to forget ourselves. And we’re so occupied with the glory of God we just worship Him and forget about ourselves. But you can’t be occupied with the glory of God until you pick up a glow. I have a little clock in my room with pure radium...figures here. When I go to bed sometimes I shine a little flashlight on it...it picks up some of the light and you can see it for a while. We’re like little radium deposits. If we are busy, occupying ourselves with God, we take on a glow ourselves, to a certain extent; but that glow will wear off unless we keep on being occupied with God. And so the ultimate of Christian experience is not to be concerned with our own happiness...this would be selfishness, wouldn’t it. But to be so happy in enjoying God that we forget all about our own experiences and as we’re occupied in a total worship of God there comes a reaction ...a glow that comes into our personality...a drawing ourselves out, and we become happy without realizing it...because we’re so busy adoring God. And so this is what the great totalization of heaven is like. Since God is love in His character...since He is light in His actions, God is holy, totally, and ever moral being that ever investigates God will be lifted up in the great ovation of holiness. So heaven is a place where our minds are enlightened unthinkably, and the more we’re light and the more we see about God,...and the...and eternity’s a continuing enlightenment of the greatness of God.
So the ovation of our hearts continually increase, as I understand it, without any end. And this is the concept of the great excitement God has in mind for us. No wonder God suffers so deeply when little mean doesn’t want to grow toward the great dimensions that God knows he can grow into. And this must be the measure of God’s grief, mustn’t it. Skip down to 52:52 So we have a summary paragraph there on your page 19, which I trust you'll read a few times. We say, to sum up, those moral attributes of God which are in reality attributes of God's loving, God's voluntary moral character of perfect love or impartial good will toward all moral beings, we may say. That perfect love must treat every moral being in absolute righteousness. will be tempered by loving kindness and mercy toward all when righteousness is not sacrificed thereby. Will engage the faculties and endowments of personality to devise and produce manifestations of wisdom and will be perfectly truthful in all revelations and expressions of factual knowledge. Holiness is the proper evaluation of this whole wonderful proceeding, but since all proceeds from love, holiness, more specifically, is a true evaluation of the voluntary disposition of love. Now His holiness, as we've said, is like taking a moving picture camera and recording all the actions and expressions of God and evaluating them and finding not the tiniest error or deficiency in anything God does...and so God is holy in the absolute sense and no amount of scrutiny is ever gonna bring any defects into observation.