Why Is Holiness So Important? Series

Why is Holiness so Important?

Text: Hebrews 12:14

The question is asked today by many people,

“why is holiness so important?” Why do we talk

about holiness and sanctification and John Wesley

all of the time? Many have become disillusioned

by all of the talk of John Wesley and have begun to

think that this is something that he dreamed up.

Sadly, many have completely stopped preaching

and teaching holiness as necessity, but merely as a

nice option. Much like a car salesmen would say

that a CD player and heated seats would be nice in

the new car he’s selling, but he would never

demand that those options must be bought for fear

of losing his sell. Many today preach and teach

holiness as a nice option or a dream that you could

try to obtain in this life, but you never will so why

bother? However, this morning I believe that there

is more to holiness than that. I would like to

present to you three reasons why I believe holiness

is so important.

1. Because Christ died for it. Hebrews 13:12

Jesus Christ suffered and shed his own blood

on the cruel cross that we may be sanctified! He

did not just die that we could be saved from our

committed sins, but he died so that we may be free

from all of sin. He suffered without the gate, that

he may sanctify the people. By rejecting holiness

we are in fact rejecting his death upon the cross.

The reason he died was that we might be sanctified.

If we reject this second work, we are rejecting him.

Heb. 6:1 1 ¶ Therefore leaving the principles of the

doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not

laying again the foundation of repentance from dead

works, and of faith toward God,.” And then verse

6 tells us that if we don’t go on into perfection we

crucify Christ again. Holiness is important because

Christ died of it. 1 Thess. 4 gives us what the will

of God is, sanctification.

Benjamin West, the great painter, speaking

of Gilbert Stuart, a brother artist famed for his

beautiful coloring, used to say to his pupils, "It’s no

use to steal Stuart’s colors; if you want to paint as

he does, you must steal his eyes." When we are

baffled in our efforts to live as Christ lived, the

record of His life, however wonderful it is, will not

enable us to be like Him. What we need is His

heart, His nature. Only divinity within us can

recognize divinity without. Without the Holy Spirit,

we cannot know Him as God.

Until we are filled with the Holy Ghost and

completely sanctified we are not all that Christ

wants us to be . Jesus Christ died for our

sanctification and this is the first reason why it is so

important. Holiness did not begin with John

Wesley or George Straub, Jesus Christ died for our

sanctification.

2. Because the Carnal Nature drives us without it.

Romans 7:20-24

Paul wrote these verses describing his battle

to do the whole law of the Old Testament. Yet, he

recognized the sin nature in his heart and he battled

with it to try to overcome it. So many today get

tied up in this chapter of Romans but fail to finish

the chapter and read the next one. Paul was battled

with the sin nature which was driving him to do

things that he did not want to do, but with the

inbred nature of sin in his heart he could not fully

conquer sin. Paul was disillusioned and crying out

for deliverance from his sin nature, however its a

good thing that Paul did not go to many of our

preachers today and ask if there was deliverance for

he would have probably never found deliverance.

But in the next chapter it tells of how he was

delivered in verses 1-6 (read!).

We must be delivered from that sin nature in

our hearts. The absolute necessity of the indwelling

Spirit of God is demonstrated by the forester.

Whitewashing and spraying never reaches some

parasites attacking the tree, so the forester bores

into the very heart of the tree, and introduces

chemical solutions which mingle with the sap and

circulate through every branch and leaf. Thus is the

old tree rendered absolutely safe from its foes.

Is this not exactly the work of the Holy Spirit in the

lives of believers--to so indwell them as to render

them safe from their foes? His ministry is very

much like that of the antiseptic. To be effective the

antiseptic must come in direct contact with the

putrefaction in the flesh. Just so the Holy Spirit

must be permitted direct access to the innermost

secret sins of the believer if there is to be real