We’ve heard Hebrews 12:14 … Without Holiness, No one will see GOD. What is Holiness according to the bible? Many of us have adopted our own definition of Holiness, choosing what to keep and obey and what not to obey.
Leviticus 19 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.
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Holiness is very central to THE LORD. GOD is Holy, Holy, Holy. And HE is instructing the church to be Holy as HE is.
Mathew 5:48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
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THE LORD is speaking to the Church to make every effort to reach the perfection of GOD, the Holiness of GOD. THE LORD is saying there is no reason whatsoever that Christians can fail to be Holy. Why? Because HE has already provided a sacrifice (Zephaniah 1:7) and THE BLOOD OF JESUS has Ultimate Authority to wash anyone who was in extreme sin to be clean and white as snow. THE BLOOD OF JESUS has POWER, the real power to make any prostitute a virgin; a wise virgin who awaits the coming of THE LORD.
What is Holiness According to THE Bible?
Holy is to be set apart from sin. Holiness is reaching a state of complete devotion in perfecting goodness. In other words completely be separated from sin, be blameless. When THE LORD called Abraham before his name changed from Abram; the LORD instructed him to be blameless.
Genesis 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless
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To walk with GOD means you have to be Holy. To be a faithful Christian, then you have to be set apart from any kind of defilement; be Holy. Be blameless before GOD.
2nd Corithians 7:1 Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
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The Word of GOD speaks about living a life set apart from everything that contaminates the body and the spirit—being set apart from any form of sin. Sin is sin. There is no greater or lesser sin. All sins will take you to eternal condemnation.
1st Thessalonians 4:7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.
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We see Holiness as Purity. The Bible warns us of the things we need to separate from. Whoever wants to see GOD, then they must separate. It’s only sin that can separate one from fellowship with GOD. And the bible puts it clearly, that He that sits on the throne hears no prayer/worship of a sinner.
Proverbs 15:29 The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.
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John 9:31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will.
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God Almighty does not listen to a prayer/worship of a wicked person. The word of GOD is true, and GOD cannot contradict himself. GOD is not man. When HE says, he does not listen, then be assured of so. If you’ve been walking in sin, you can imagine how many days and time you have been wasting going to church and making useless noise before THE LORD.
Proverbs 16:25 There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.
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Many churches and people have some form of definition of Holiness, that is contrary to the Bible. And all of them are going to hell out of ignorance. They have neglected their bible and turned their ears to man. They have neglected the voice of GOD, the Spirit of GOD.
Galatians 1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
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It is good to understand, what the bible says about Holiness. What does the bible say about walking with GOD? What is the point of being a Christian and then hed to hell?
Sin. What are the things I need to separate from?
Sin is always contrary to Holiness.
Galatians 5:17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want
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Literally, anything in your life that you do to gratify the desires of the flesh, anything you do and does not bring Glory to OUR LORD JESUS, as a Christian you need to watch out. For whatever you do contrary to the Spirit is either a sin or will draw you closer to sin. For instance a birthday party. There is nothing wrong with partying, but 100% and over a trillion % if it is not about JESUS, then sin is knocking at your doorstep or it’s already in. That will be a topic for another day. Let’s talk about the Bible:
Galatians 5:19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
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Sin is very obvious. And its end result is eternal condemnation.
Mark 7:20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
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Drunkards will not see the kingdom of GOD, it does not matter what your preachers outside there said; translating the bible in flesh and saying, “ooh Paul said…”. The Bible is very clear, earthly wine leads to debauchery and encourages Christians to be only drunk by the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 5:18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Give GOD glory in everything you do. You need to separate yourself from every form of sin. Because all sins will stop a Christian from being with God. Separate yourself even from anger; Earthly anger leads to sin; Psalms 37:8, Ephesians 4:26…
Holiness is a Gift
Holiness is a gift from GOD. When you receive Salvation; meaning GOD has granted you repentance. Then it’s a responsibility of a Christain to preserve it. And since it comes from GOD, HE is fully aware that you are not able by yourself and that is why HE sends you the Holy Spirit to come and live in you.
Genesis 1:25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
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God created every living being that came to be. When it came to the creation of man, from the Bible:
Genesis 1:7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
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When it came to the creation of man, God did something different. He breathed life and life abundance into man. He blessed man with eternity. For the breath of GOD is eternal. God is Holy, Holy, Holy. God gifted man holiness. If God would not have blessed man with eternal life, then man would not have been different from the other animals HE created. Man would have roamed the earth with their heart full of darkness. Before THE LORD sin is death and so is darkness, so we clearly get the picture of what it means man became a living being. You’re alive before THE LORD when you’re Holy. To stand before THE LORD, you have to be Holy. Hebrews 12:14. For a man to fellowship with GOD, man has to be Holy.
Acts 1:4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with[b] the Holy Spirit.”
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Salvation is a gift from THE LORD. When man fell to sin, death came. And from the generation of Adam, we were counted as sinners. All that we deserved from GOD was judgement.
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
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Ephesians 2:1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved
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In a glimpse, it is only OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST who came to restore eternal life to us; for those who will believe in HIM by putting into practice what THE WORD says. All were subjected to the wrath of GOD, the eternal judgement of GOD.
2nd Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
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Isaiah 53: 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
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Salvation is not a right. It is a gift from GOD. Take your salvation seriously!
What are the fruits of Repentance/Holiness?
When you say you’re Holy, then the fruits of repentance must be evident in your life. Since you cannot be Holy by yourself. But Holines is a clear indicator that you received the Holy Spirit of GOD, the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Counsel.
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
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When you receive the Holy Spirit according to the bible, then the following must be evident in your life:
- Love; John 15:13, you are always ready to lose your life in the service of THE LORD. JESUS did not hesitate to give up HIS life for our sake, we should always be ready to deny ourselves, that LORD JESUS be exalted in our lives and that many may receive OUR LORD JESUS according to the testimony we take to them.
- Joy; James 1:2-3. Despite hardship and persecution. We should always be happy despite trials and temptations that come our way. Since we know our faith is made firm through perseverance. All this comes from THE LORD. We should always be happy, considering the great glorious promises THE LORD has promised to us for those who will overcome the world.
- Forbearance; Romans 3:25-26, 2nd Timothy 2:24-25, Jude 1:22. Right now you should have noted it is about THE LORD’s service, and there is a character that comes when you receive the Holy Spirit. Just as HE who called us was patient with us, we must follow HIS perfect example.
- Kindness; 1st Corinthians 13:4-7, Titus 3:4-5. Love is patient, love is kind. You cannot achieve kindness when you miss love. Love and kindness are similar and one of a kind.
- Goodness; Ephesians 5:9, Only Holiness is good before THE LORD. Holy deeds must be evident in our life.
- Faithfulness; Romans 3:3-4, Genesis 17:1. When THE LORD called Abram, HE commanded him to walk faithfully before him. there is no way we can achieve Holiness without being faithful to THE LORD.
- Gentleness; Philippians 4:5, Titus 3:2, Ephesians 4:2
- Self-Control; Titus 2:11-13. The Spirit of God; when HE comes to live with us; HE comes and teaches Christians to live godly lives, teaching them to say no to worldly passions and ungodly things. Separation from sin.
You cannot bear the above fruits without the help of THE LORD. When you receive the Holy Spirit, then you have to be obedient to HIS voice. In addition to helping you prepare for the coming of THE MESSIAH, the Holy Spirit bears very powerful fruits that help you and me to evangelise JESUS. It is always about JESUS.
2nd Peter 1:5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Hebrews 12:14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.
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The only reason we as Christians need to be Holy is that one day we will again fellowship with THE LORD. That we may be spared of the coming wrath of GOD that is coming to all the inhabitants of the earth. Holiness is a standard set by God and not mere human rules.
2nd Corinthians 7:17 Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
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Are you Holy?