Holiness of Godly Offspring

[Gary Petty] We live in a society where people don’t think much about what is holy. I suppose, if you ask people what is holy, many people would say it’s the feeling they get when they walk into a cathedral – you know, when they walk into a church – and they feel holy. They feel something special when they walk into that building. Other people say, “Well, there are things that are holy, like ‘I take holy communion,’ or Christmas. Christmas is a holy time for me and my family.” But, you know, when you get down to it, most people don’t think much about holiness – not on a daily basis. They go through life and they don’t think much about holiness.

Well, this is the fourth sermon in a series that we’ll be giving one or two sermons, now, on holiness for probably the next six months. But this is number four on the concept of holiness.

In the first sermon, we talked about how God is holy. And only He can declare something holy. When He says something is holy, it is very special, because when He says something is holy, He says, “This is Mine. And, as Mine, I impute some of My purity – My holiness – into it.” He can declare time to be holy. He can declare a thing to be holy. He can declare people to be holy. Only God can declare something holy. And when He declares it holy, it is very special. To profane that holiness receives judgment from God. And we went through and we started with the story of Uzzah, which seems so cruel until you realize the whole point God is making. The people of Israel, and David as king – including him – did not recognize their holiness, they did not recognize the holiness of the tabernacle and the instruments of the tabernacle, and God killed a man over it to show that when He says something is holy…. Now you and I live in a profane world. It is not a holy world. Holiness is actually very, very rare in our society and so, it is very, very important that we understand holiness, and the importance of it, and what it means.

Now, it’s interesting in Revelation – we won’t go there – Revelation 15 – it talks about the resurrected saints before the throne of God. And they sing a song to Him and part of that song is a declaration of the holiness of God. “You are holy!” So holiness is God. And then, when He declares something holy, He says, “This is set apart for me and I attribute to that – time, place, thing (places are holy – we still talk about Jerusalem as the Holy Land) people….” And it’s very important.

Now the last two sermons we talked specifically about marriage as holy. We went through the marriage covenant in the Old Testament and why there are certain laws in the Old Testament about marriage and family that seem so strange to us, but they really don’t in the context of what God is achieving. God was taking a group of people and He said, “You are holy. You are to represent Me to the world. And you will live in a holy land.” And marriage wasn’t just between a husband and a wife. It was a holy institution. We went through, in Malachi, where it’s called a holy institution. And in this holy institution, God was going to take these holy people and He was going to connect them to a holy land, and through them, the Holy One of Israel – the Messiah – would come. So there were certain laws about marriage, that don’t directly apply to us today in the church, but they did apply then for specific reasons.

Then, in the second sermon, we went through holiness in marriage in the New Testament – in the church – and the absolute breaking of what God intended and how horrible divorce really is. And we went through the three basic reasons that divorce is allowed in the church. And, if it’s not for those reasons, it is wrong. We also showed how important it is that marriage is holy – it is established by God – and how important that is in remembering that. This whole homosexual issue today – about homosexual marriage – is a direct attack on the holiness of what the Bible says marriage is. And less and less people are willing to say that. But that’s what you and I have been called to. That’s the lives that we are to live.

So, let’s start today…what I want to talk about today is brought out in the Old Testament. Then we’re going to go to the New Testament. Let’s look at Malachi, chapter 2. And once again, I’m going to show how the Old and New Testament fit together and their slight difference in the concept of holiness, here in the Old and New Testament, in what we’re going to talk about today, but they’re all based in the same premise – that God declares something holy and to profane that holiness is serious between us and God! It’s serious and we need to understand that seriousness. Malachi, chapter 2 – we read this in the second sermon and we want to talk about what this is launching into now – what we’re going to talk about today – Malachi, chapter 2, verse 13 – it says here:

Malachi 2: 13 – And this is the second thing you do – now he had brought two things, here in this passage, that he attacked the Levites and the people of Judah for doing, and he was very upset with them. And it had to do with holiness. This is the second thing you do: you cover the altar of the LORD with tears – with weeping and crying – so He does not regard the offering anymore nor receive it with good will from your hands. He said, “You come, you pray to God, you bring your offerings, you do your good deeds and God doesn’t listen to you anymore. And you cry, ‘Why isn’t God listening to me anymore?’”

V-14 – And you say – verse 14 – “For what reason? Why is God not listening to my prayers?” – or “our prayers, as a people?” And he says, “Because the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, whom you have dealt with treacherously, for she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

The covenant we make in marriage is not just between us, as husband and wife. It is between God and us, as husband and wife. It is a covenant ordained by God in Genesis – at the very beginning. And it is a covenant. It is an agreement. And to break the covenant is sin and it separates us from God. He said, “So, you are, by covenant, with God, married to each other, but you’re divorcing.” Verse 15 is what is very interesting.

V-15 – But did He not make them one, having remnant of the Spirit? And why one? Why did God say, “The two of you shall become one – one flesh?” That’s what it says in Genesis. Why did He do that? He seeks Godly offspring. Therefore, take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.

We already went through and showed that, in the Old Testament, the foundational concept of children being part of the covenant, and then they were to pass on from generation to generation the covenant that God had given to them. And it was a command. That’s why having children, in the Old Testament, is considered a command. And that’s why teaching your children is a command. It’s not a option. And that’s why enforcing your children into the covenant is not an option. That’s why you circumcised your son the eighth day. He didn’t get a choice in it. Why? Because it was part of a covenant. That’s not the sign of the covenant today, but it was then – because God made us one, as husband and wife, in order to produce Godly offspring.

Now let’s move to the New Testament and let’s to go to the book of Acts. Here we have, in Acts, chapter 2…Jesus Christ came to be a perfect example – you know, the Son of God became flesh to be the perfect example of how life is supposed to be lived. Jesus Christ became flesh to die as the substitute for yours and my sins. He was resurrected so He could become our High Priest. He also came to bring the New Covenant.

Now we know that, in the Old Testament and the Old Covenant, there were promises made to the fathers, and those promises were passed on to the children, and those promises were passed on to the grandchildren. You talk about children…they don’t just mean the second generation. The whole concept of the Old Testament was, this is to be passed on to people from generation to generation to generation. It’s amazing how Jewish people today – even people who are not religious Jews – adhere to, sometimes, strict Jewish traditions. You think, “Well, why?” That’s four thousand years of being told, “You are God’s people and you are holy” – since they were little – “and you are special, and you have to maintain that holiness.” And so they strictly adhere to ideas – traditions.

Now, in Acts, chapter 2, Peter gets up in the temple and he tells these Jews, “You have killed the Messiah, and you have to repent and turn to God. Oh, you worship God, and you come here every Sabbath, and you try to keep the Ten Commandments, but your heart is not right with God and you need to accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah – the prophesied Messiah.” And they respond to that – a large number of people respond to that. So let’s pick that up in Acts, chapter 2, verse 37. And we read verse 37 to 38 many times as a motivation for people to get baptized. But I want to take this a step further.

Acts 2:37 – Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And usually, when we’re reading this passage, we stop there, because we’ve made our point. “This is what you have to do – repent, for the remission of your sins be baptized, receive the Holy Spirit.” But verse 39:

V-39 – For the promise – what is the promise here? We’re going to have to go back to that in a minute. What is the promise that is being made? But I want  you to notice who the promise is to. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. This promise is to you! But what’s the promise? The promise has to do with the remission of sins and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. He says, “This promise of the New Covenant of receiving God’s Spirit and obtaining eternal life is made to you and your children and to those who are afar off.”

Do you know what’s really amazing about that little verse there – verse 39 – is that it is a summation of a prophecy in the Old Testament. Let’s go back to Joel, chapter 2. Here’s the promise. He says, “Remember, you were given a promise. And this promise isn’t given just to you. It’s to your children.” We can make the same claim today, so, when you are called into the Church of God, you receive certain promises. Those promises are available to you and they are available to your children. They’re available to your children. Now, your children may not choose it. There’s a huge difference between the fact that, in Israel, you were part of the covenant by act of birth, and, in the New Covenant, you are part of the New Covenant by act of choice. That’s different, but it’s important to understand that our children are exposed to God and given promises, if they will claim them. They are given choices, if they will choose them. You say, “Well, what special about that?” The rest of the world, Jesus said, “They don’t understand unless God opens their minds.” Our children have a choice. Do you realize most of the world does not have a choice – not yet. Until God calls someone, they don’t have a choice. See, you can go to your neighbor and you can try to convince your neighbor of the truth, and, if God hasn’t called that person, they don’t get it! Our children have a choice! And they are given promises. You are not a ten-year-old tag-along which happens to be here by accident. You are a child of promise from God. You’re an eighteen-year-old and you say, “Yeah, I grew up in the church, but you know, it’s not really my church.” You are a child of promise. That’s who you are. You don’t have to take the promise. You don’t have to, but understand what it is to turn down a promise from God. It’s a serious issue. Joel 2:28 – a prophecy:

Joel 2:28 – And it shall come to pass afterward – this is after the great Day of the Lord – that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. He says, “I’m going to pour this out on people and it’s going to be a generational effect. All God’s covenants are generational effect. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also, on My manservants, and on My maidservants, I will pour out My Spirit in those days. Verse 32 is interesting.

V-32 – And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. This is exactly what Peter said. He summarized this: “This promise is to your children and to those who are called from afar off.” It shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.

Children of promise, God has offered you a promise. Now, what does that mean? To be offered a promise from God? 1 Corinthians 7. We went through 1 Corinthians 7 last week, because we talked about marriage and divorce in the church. Right? Now let’s go to 1 Corinthians 7, verse 14. So this is in the middle of this passage. I’m not going to go through the whole passage, since we went through it last week, but I want to zero in on this verse.

1 Corinthians 7:14 – For the unbelieving mate is sanctified…. Remember? Sanctification has to do with holiness. You are justified through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You can’t justify yourself. You can’t make your account zero. Only God can forgive us. But we are not just to be justified. Over and over, through the New Testament, it says, “You must be justified and sanctified.” Sanctification comes from the same root word, hagios – holy in the Greek. It means you must be made holy. You are in the process of being made holy by the Almighty God. On Pentecost, we’ll go through the Holy Spirit. We’ll talk about that and we’ll tie this in to everything we’ve been talking about. He says: For the unbelieving mate is sanctified by the wife, the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. In other words, if you’re married to someone who is not a Christian, he’s saying that person has an opportunity for a relationship with God because of you. Now notice this next statement. …otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.

The fact that you show up here, as a child with your parents, means that God has said, “You are holy and you are a child of promise that I have chosen.” That’s actually a pretty heavy burden, but it is also the most amazing thing that can happen to a human being in your life. Now, you don’t have to choose that. You don’t have to, but we have to understand…we can’t say, “Well, I’ll let my children make their own decisions,” because you have now profaned their holiness before God. Now, when they’re adults, they make their own decisions, right? We don’t get the choice of saying, “Well, you know, I think we have to let our kids choose their own religion” – I’ve heard people say this – “so we don’t want to teach them a lot, because, you know, we want them to choose their own religion.” Then you do not understand your children are holy. God has declared them holy, just as much as He’s declared the Sabbath holy or His law is holy. He has said, “I take these children and I have given promises to them. And I want them to respond.” Now He won’t make children respond. He won’t make us respond. You have no control over what your children do, and once they get to be adults, they’re adults, right? But we’re talking about children before they become adults. How important is it?

And I’ve heard young people say this, “I haven’t received God’s Spirit yet, so it’s okay for me to have my fun, and then later, I’ll repent and come back.” You are holy! First of all, there’s a really strange premise there. The premise is, “God doesn’t want me to have a good life. God is keeping me from having a good life. Therefore, I’m going to go have a good life, and then, when I’ve really had all the good life I can stand, I’ll come back and live this bad life.” And you believe – let’s be honest – when you believe that, you believe that God is mean! And let’s just face it. You believe God does not know what He’s doing and God, basically, wants to keep you from having a good life. That’s what you believe. Be honest about it.

But, you know, it’s hard, when everything else outside of holiness looks so good. Of course it does! It feels like it would be so much better. Of course it does! And you know what? In the short run, sometimes, it’s really great. Sin, in the short run, can be very good. It isn’t in the long run. It always brings failure. That’s the problem with sin. It always brings failure in the long run, but it seems good in the short run. “It seemed like it was going to be good.”

How important is it for you to be holy? It’s interesting. We’ve looked at how God killed Uzzah in the Old Testament. By the time we get through this sermon, we’ll show some times in the New Testament on how harshly God dealt with people, sometimes, when they profaned their own holiness.

God told the Levitical priesthood – He told Aaron and his sons – “You are holy.” He told all of Israel, “You are a holy people.” Then He told Aaron, “You’re special holy, because you get to serve Me with My holy instruments in the holy tabernacle.” He even gave them instruction on how they were supposed to build the fire and what instruments they could use in order to go into the tabernacle. Let’s go to Leviticus, chapter 10. Now, I don’t want you to get a wrong idea from this, but I also want to show you how important holiness is to God, because when God says something is holy, He means other people should be able to see this and say, “That’s of God.” See, what God wants is for people to look at you and say, “Ah, that person is of God.” We’re to reflect God. It’s His holiness, right? You and I can’t produce holiness. If it’s His holiness, then we are supposed to reflect God! Why did God punish ancient Israel? He said, “You don’t reflect Me anymore. You’re just like everybody else around you. And yet, you were chosen by Me to be holy.” Leviticus 10.

Leviticus 10:1 – Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censor and put fire in it, and put incense in it – now they’re serving in the tabernacle and they’re supposed to bring coals and incense into the tabernacle – and offered profane fire. In other words…I don’t know if they let the fire go out, and they just took someone’s camp fire…whatever it was, they didn’t do it…they went into the holy tabernacle, where God, when He came to earth, resided and they profaned it. …profane fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.

V-3 - And this – in verse 3 – is what God told Moses to tell Aaron – his two sons had been killed – “By those who come near Me, I must be regarded as holy, and before all the people, I must be glorified.” God said, “They’re holiness depended on Me and they don’t see Me as holy.”

God is very interested in purity and holiness, because that’s who He is – for us to understand that we have received the Holy Spirit in order to be a holy people, and for our children to understand the promise is made to them, and to our grandchildren, and to whomever will respond. They already have been offered the promises. You have already been offered the promises. And God has already said, “I call you to be holy – to be special to Me – the Creator of the universe – so that wherever you go, you reflect Me.” There is no more important thing in the world to be, and there’s probably no more hard thing in the world to be – is a reflector of God.

Now, as parents, that gives us…. And by the way, I want to say, “That doesn’t mean, young people, God is looking for you to mess up so He can zap you.” Okay? “Oh no, fire is going to come out of my closet tonight and kill me in my bed.” God actually doesn’t do that very often. In the course of the Bible, you only find it in a few places. In each case, though, He wanted to do and record it to show everybody, “If I am holy, and I say, ‘You’re holy,’ and you profane that,” you are profaning Him! You’re spitting in the face of God. You’re telling Him He doesn’t matter. You’re telling God He doesn’t know what He’s doing. You’re telling God He doesn’t count as much as this. “This counts more than You, God, in my life.” That’s what we tell God. “This counts more than You.” And we don’t understand the privilege that He’s given to us, because holiness only comes from the grace of God. If I can’t make myself holy, and only He can give it to me – only He can decide to do it. Right? I can’t decide to be holy. I can decide to submit to holiness, but that’s entirely different thing. Sanctification is a process and we must be involved in it, but I can’t declare myself holy. I can only submit to God’s holiness.

Now what does this mean for us as parents and grandparents? What does it mean for us in terms of a congregation? We are holy people and these children are holy – declared by God. What does that mean? Let’s start with the family. Let’s go to Ephesians 6, because at the heart and core of the holiness of our children is the family. That’s why I went through marriage to begin with. First of all…before we go there, I want to go to Mark 10. I talked about promises. Let’s go to Mark 10. I want to read a promise given by Jesus Christ. I want you to think about this, because this promise is made to all those who turn to God, receive God’s Spirit. Remember, the promise is to you and your children. So this promise is not only made to those who have received God’s Spirit, it is made to our children, who have not yet received God’s Spirit. Now, God’s Spirit is working with them and we’ll talk about that when we talk about the Holy Spirit. You say, “Well, I’m not baptized. God hasn’t made promises to me yet.” Verse 29:

Mark 10:29 – Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly I say to you, ‘There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for My sake and the gospel’s….’” Now I want you to understand something. This promise has a price. You have to believe the promise of God is greater than the price that you have to pay. If you don’t, you won’t pay the price. It’s that simple.

Now, in the sermonette we heard about vision. If you don’t believe what God is offering you is greater than the price, you won’t pay the price, and you won’t take the promise, because, by the very words here, it shows that there are going to be times that you have to give up your house, or your brother, or your sister, or your father, or your mother, or your wife, or your children, or your lands, your goods, your money for the sake of God and the gospel. That’s going to happen. You’re going to pay a price. You’re going to give up some opportunity, you’re going to give up multiple opportunities, in terms of the world. You’re going to give up certain wealth, in terms of the world. You’re going to give up certain relationships, in terms of the world. You’re going to have to give up certain experiences, in terms of the world, because you are holy and the world is not holy. Boy, that’s a rough message in today’s world, isn’t it? “I’m okay, you’re okay.” That’s not true! None of us is okay. That’s the truth. “I’m okay, you’re okay” is a lie! None of us are okay and only by God calling us and God working in us can we become okay. And God has already said to you, young people, “You are Mine! You are holy.” I don’t care if you’re five years old. He’s already said it, because you’re here. He already said it and He’s made this promise. Now this promise comes with a price. You will give up things that other people do. You will give up things that other kids have. You will give up relationships. “You will do this because you are Mine,” God says – because being God’s is more important than anything else. Being God’s child is more important than anything else. And you have to believe that. But then notice what He says…“Assuredly I say to you, ‘If you do these things…,

V-30 – who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time…. His promise is, “I will give you a good life and I guarantee you it will be better than the life you will have by not following Me,” Christ says, “because the penalties – the price you pay for sin – is greater than the price you pay for not sinning.” And that’s what is so hard for young people to believe. It’s hard for adults to believe. We believe the price of sin is better than the price for not sinning. We would never sin if we didn’t believe that. Right? “Oh yeah, but the price for sin here…I can pay the price, because not sinning is a worse price.” And Christ says, “It’s the exact opposite.” The price you pay to obey God is a price, but what you will receive is greater than the price you will pay. And that’s not just in the Kingdom. He says, “…now at this time.” What God will give you at this time is greater than the price you will pay. And either you believe that or you don’t. Because there’s a price to pay – verse 29 says that. …who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands with persecutions…. Oh, you’re going to receive persecutions for living this way. You’re going to lose things. Yeah, it’s going to happen. …and in the age to come, eternal life. He’s says, “I’m going to give you a life you can’t even imagine!” But you have to believe that. You have to believe it. That’s the promise.

“So what promise was made to me?” It’s the same promise that was made to Joel. “What promise was made to me? I’m not baptized? I’m just a kid.” This promise is made to you! Because you were called to be holy, the promise applies to you. “This only applies to people who are baptized.” No, it doesn’t, because the promise is made to you and your children. So you have to understand: you may not want this promise. I can understand that. Lots of people don’t want this promise. But you have to understand: the promise is already made to you. Whether you want it or not is up to you. But it’s already been made. The Almighty God already said it to you. He said, “You are holy children.”

What price do you pay to give that up? What price? Sex in the back seat of a car? Getting high? What price is it that you’re willing to pay for that? “Ah, not believing in the Sabbath. Do whatever you want.” Rebelling against your parents? What price? You say, “Well, that promise was made to my parents.” No, no, no. You have to understand – I don’t know how to drive it into your heads – the promise has been made to you. It already has. That’s what it says. And either you believe that or you don’t. And if you don’t, there’s probably not much any of us can do to you, except try to give you a good life and tell you we love you. That’s basically all we can do – tell you we love you and try to teach you how to have a good life. If you believe the promise, ooh, you can become part of the covenant people – the holy people of God.

Ephesians 6…I want to talk just a little bit about what parents can do…Ephesians, chapter 6.

It’s funny. I was listening to the radio this week…I was driving in the car and I turned on the radio, and I was flipping across the dial, and I came across some minister, and I stopped, because he said, “Today, I’m talking about holiness.” I thought, “Oh.” He said, “People don’t like me to talk about holiness,” he said, “because most of you don’t want to be holy.” I thought, “Oh, wow! He just punched his congregation right in the nose.” He said, “You don’t like me talking about money, sex and holiness.” He said, “But I’m going to talk about all three of them today.” He actually did a pretty good job.

Ephesians 6, verse 1:

Ephesians 6:1 – Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth.

Obey your parents, honoring your parents receives a promise not from your parents, but from God. It’s a promise! Honor your parents and God says, “I’ll give you a better life.” That’s what He said! He didn’t say He’d give you a perfect life. He didn’t say you’d have a life with no problems. He didn’t say, “Well, I’ll give you a life and you’ll never lose an opportunity, or wealth, or a person over Me.” He said, “You may lose a person over Me, an opportunity over Me. You may lose wealth over Me,” but He said, “I’ll give you a better life than those things could have given you.” Then notice verse 4:

V-4 – And you fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

We have a command, as parents and grandparents, that is just as real as the command given to ancient Israel to teach your children when they rise, when they go to sleep, when they get up…and one thing that’s interesting is that in ancient Israel, by the you were by what we call a teenager, you were expected to act as an adult when it came to the covenant. There was no idea of sowing wild oats as a teenager in ancient Israel. Even today, in the Jewish community, at age 12 – is it, you do the bar mitvah? – you’re now a man, and you’re expected to obey God as a man at age 12! That’s a foreign concept in the mind of the Bible – what we call the whole teenage thing. Now, in our society we need that – have emphasis on teenagers – because of the way our society develops – the way people develop now, which is totally different than the way people developed then, because of the society they lived in.

But we are told to teach them – and that would include way into their teenage years – until they’re adults and they move out. We’re to train them…first of all, it says, “Bring them up….” In other words, you have to have a goal. You have to bring them someplace. If we don’t bring our children…if our childrearing is simply by happenstance, and we expect them to accept God’s way by osmosis, you have forgotten that you are holy, your marriage is holy and your children are holy! Holiness is serious to God! And we are to bring them to this goal. What is the goal? That they are holy. We are to bring them up…and it’s interesting here that the Greeks words training and admonition – it’s sometimes discipline – there are different way this is translated  in different translations – and there’s a reason why. The two words fit together to make a whole. The meaning of these two words fit to say, “Okay, you are to encourage them and you are to discipline them. You are to teach them and you are to be an example to them. They fit together – and there are different meanings to those two words, even though they are related – to create this sort of picture that you are, every day, teaching them to be holy, because it’s what? You are teaching them what? What are we to teach them? Sometimes we only teach them the letter of the law – and we have to teach them the letter of the law – the younger they are, the more the letter of the law we teach – but it’s more than that, because it says “in the Lord” or “of the Lord.” We are to teach them “of the Lord” – the ways of Christ that exhibit the ways of God. Our children are to be seen as disciples of Jesus Christ. And we are the disciplers. We’re the ones who disciple them as disciples of Jesus Christ. And so many times, parents will say, “Well, they don’t have God’s Spirit. They’re not baptized yet.” But that’s not what the scripture says. They are holy and we are to disciple them of the Lord! We’re to bring them in relationship to God.

Some church teen and pre-teen activities have actually done damage to this concept, because what happened is that people just simply let the church activities be like the babysitter for their children. And that’s why we don’t do that anymore with our teen and pre-teen activities. We changed that. They are family activities with family involvement. Why? Because you are supposed to bring them up in the discipline and the training and the admonition of the Lord. And we’re supposed to help you do that because we’re the holy community. And, as the holy community, we support the holy family. That’s why. It’s not a babysitting service. They’re important – church youth activities – and I’ve spent my whole life involved in church youth activities and will continue to do so – but understand, they are support. Church youth activities of themselves have never kept a kid in the church. They only help them come along. We only support families. And when families use as them as the opposite – “You will raise them up in the admonition of the Lord” – it will fail. It will fail. So we have to understand what our roles are.

You know, it’s interesting – and we won’t turn there – in Genesis 18, it says…God says, “I have called Abraham because he will train his children.” Now think about it. God is making a covenant with Abraham that would have to go on for generation after generation after generation until Christ came on the face of the earth. And then it would go on for generation after generation until He came back the second time – this covenant He made with Abraham. Eventually it would involve not only Israel, his physical descendants, but the church, his spiritual descendants. How do you guarantee that’s going to keep going? Well, He said, “One of the reasons I called you, Abraham, is because you will teach your children.” You were called, as a family, to teach your children to be holy people. And the rest of us are here to help you do that in whatever way we can – officially, unofficially, whatever – but it rests squarely on the family to do that.

Now, children who see themselves in a relationship with God and a relationship with Jesus Christ, will interact in the church differently than those who don’t. Our primary goal is to lead children to God and to Jesus Christ. God, then, puts them in the church. We have thought that, if we keep them in the church, they are saved – sort of like the Jews saying, “I was born a Jew,” but Jesus saying, “I can raise up stones and make them into Jews.” Right? Well, we think, “If I keep my kid in the church….” No, we have to bring our children to God and to Christ, and then the relationships of the holy community. That’s what we have to do. And then they choose to take the promise and they choose to be part of the church. And then God forgives them and gives them His Spirit.

I was talking to a minister that said he had a remarkable situation happen. He has a small church – well, he has about five small churches that he’s the pastor over – but he said one church, I think, only had two children – both of them 11 and 12 – somewhere in there. And he said this family came in with two children – I think they were middle-teens – the ages I don’t remember – I just remember this family came in, had a couple kids – and his first thought was, “Oh my, there are no children here their age, so they won’t stay.” He said what was remarkable was, the second Sabbath the two kids were working in the hospitality room, serving the coffee and cookies to everybody, and fit right in with the whole group. They saw themselves as what? Members of the holy community. And it didn’t seem to matter much that there was nobody there their age. It’s nice to have people your own age. We all prefer to have people our own age. But God doesn’t say, “You are holy only if there are other people there your age.” He didn’t say that. He says, “You are holy because I make you holy.” And you become part of the holy people.

I want to wrap up – I’ve got one last scripture to go to. Parents, how do you teach holiness? Well, there is so much in the New Testament that we can go to, but I’ve been trying to go back and forth between Old and New Testament and show how things fit together in these sermons on holiness, because it’s wrong to look at the Old Testament and say, “All those crazy laws….” No, they were holy laws given by God. How do we help teach our children holiness?

Remember in 1 Peter, where we read, where he said…he told the church – God said, “I am holy, therefore you be holy,” or “You be holy, therefore…”, no – I forget how Peter quotes it. “I am holy, therefore you be holy” – paraphrasing. Did you know that he’s actually quoting from Leviticus 19? It’s an Old Testament quote. I want to go to Leviticus 19 and see the context in which that statement is made. Leviticus 19. And then, if you have children that are old enough to go through this exercise, up until late teens, I’m going to give you a little exercise you can do. Leviticus 19, verse 1:

Leviticus 19:1 – And the LORD spoke to Moses saying, “Speak to all of the congregation of the children of Israel saying, ‘You shall be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am holy.’” Okay, there’s the exact quote. And that’s what Peter quotes. He says that about the church.

Now what I find interesting about Leviticus 19 – this is usually called The Holiness Code – because being holy…and then he gave a whole lot of laws to Moses and said, “Okay, these are principles of holiness.” Now, if we go through these, some of them have to do with sacrifices, some of them apply directly to us, some of them don’t.

If you want to say, “How do I start teaching holiness to my children?” first you talk to them about the holiness of God. Right? “Be you holy as I am holy.” They have to know that God is holy and they have to know who Jesus Christ is. They have to know those two things to start. But once you get that down, you say, “How do I start teaching holiness in its simplest terms?” Leviticus 19 does that. All you have to do is get a piece of paper. Draw a line down the middle. Write out each verse and then say, “What does that mean to me? What does this mean to my life and being holy?” When you come to part about sacrifices and the agricultural system, you say, “Well, that doesn’t mean anything to me today.” It might not directly, but I guarantee you, there’s a principle there that applies to you. But you will be surprised how much Leviticus 19 does apply specifically to holiness and we can teach this to children, because you can break this down into everyday stuff. This is how you act in school. “Well, I’m only in fifth grade.” Yeah, we can take Leviticus 19 and make is absolutely applicable to a fifth grader.

I’ll show you what I mean. Let’s take verse…let’s just take verse 3:

V-3 – Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father. Oh, holiness begins with honoring your mother and your father. So you can sit down and make a list – Here are ways you show honor to me – make a list. Write that down and make a list. Ask the child, “How do think you show honor to me?” You might be surprised. Your child may be trying to show you honor and not understand what it means. “Does that mean I love you?” You have to help them define that and go through that. The younger the child, the more honor and love will be the same thing. And that’s okay. That’s not bad. That’s actually good. You can sit down and teach them that. Then say, “Okay, tomorrow we’re going to go through the rest of this verse.” …and keep My Sabbath. I am the LORD your God. We’re going to do at least two sermons on keeping the Sabbath holy as we talk about holiness. Okay, sometimes we emphasize the Sabbath so much and teenagers get tired of it. They says, “Man, it seems we’re a church about the Sabbath and we’re a church about sex.” Right? “Don’t have sex” and “Keep the Sabbath.”  Well, I remember asking a group of teenagers one time, “What’s the most important commandment in the Bible?” And I felt really bad, because their number one answer was, “Remember the Sabbath day.” It is not. It is, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul, and love your neighbor as yourself.” That’s what Jesus said. “Remember the Sabbath day” is important, but it’s not everything. It’s not what everything’s based on. It is an extension of loving God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul.

But let me explain to you why we talk so much about Sabbath keeping and about sex before marriage. First of all, because, if you learn how to keep the Sabbath day holy, and you experience holiness, you will begin to apply that every other day of your life. It’s not so that you can learn how to keep a day strictly. It is to learn holiness. If you learn to keep the Sabbath day holy, that holiness will affect the other six days. If you don’t keep it holy, you will keep nothing holy. That’s simply the way it is.

And why do we make such a big issue out of sex? Remember, I said the last two sermons were R-rated? This is the R-rated part of this, but you can’t get through this without a little R-rated material here, so…. We’ve talked about how sex before marriage, or in adultery, and other things profane the holiness of marriage. And so, young people get the idea that God is against sex. Now I want you to understand something. God commands against things that are bad for us. He commands things that are good for us. And when He created the marriage covenant, He said, “And the two shall become one flesh.” I want you to understand that, in a marriage, God commands people to have sex. He absolutely commands it, because it’s good. “I want you people to do that.” That’s what He says. Okay? God’s not against sex! He made it! In fact, we talk about ratification of covenants, right? You make a promise to God…in the Old Testament, they promised to be God’s people. And on the eighth day a little boy was circumcised and they said, “Now it’s ratified.” In other words, it’s final. It’s final. He made a promise. The family made a promise. It’s final. When you are baptized…. You may be called by God, and you’re holy, but that holiness isn’t ratified until you receive God’s Spirit at baptism and the laying on of hands. Right? Because God’s making a covenant with you, but it’s not totally ratified yet. When people get married, they make a covenant. Do you know what ratifies that covenant? Sexual activity. If two people get married, both by the law of the land and the law of God, but they do not have a sexual union, you can annul the marriage. You can annul it. It hasn’t been ratified yet. It can’t be bad. I just wanted to bring that to your attention. He commands what’s good. And in holy marriage, He commands that two people become one flesh. He only commands against things that are bad for us. Sex outside of marriage, in any form, is bad for us. It’s that simple.

And that’s why it seems like we pound teenagers so much about sex and the Sabbath. Sometimes we pound it too much, I know, because there’s a whole lot more to life than that. But it’s because, if you understand holiness in those two situations, you’ll begin to see a whole lot of other things in life differently, too. Those two things guide how we view life – especially when we’re younger. The Sabbath is supposed to bring you into a better relationship with God. That’s holiness – when you experience a better relationship with God.

Listen to verse 4:

V-4 – Do not turn to idols or make yourself molten gods. I am the LORD your God. This is why we don’t have crucifixes. This is why we don’t have statues up here of saints or Mary. It’s why recently we looked at a church we thought about moving into, but there were statues, and there were crucifixes, and pictures, and there was just too much of it. We decided not to use that hall.

Verse 12 – you can go through this entire chapter and you’ll say, “Yeah, but some of this doesn’t apply. Verse 5 says, “You offer a sacrifice of peace…we don’t have….” Whoa, whoa, whoa, write it down and say, “Okay, how could I apply that now under the New Covenant?” All these things have some application. Verse 12:

V-12 – And you shall not swear by My name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of your God. I am the LORD. “I am holy. I made you holy. Don’t take My name in vain.” You know, we will do at least two sermons on taking God’s name in vain. We’ll be doing at least two sermons on that. So, whenever you say, “OMG,” you’re taking God’s name in vain. We have to understand our acceptance of holiness depends on our acceptance of God’s holiness. Remember what He said about the two sons of Aaron. “I rejected them because they did not accept that I am holy,” God said. And He’d given them holiness. It’s serious with God. Verse 15:

V-15 – You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor. Boy, that’s weird in our society. We tend to have one group of people who always honor the rich and we have one group of people who always honor the poor. Right? We have judges who always judge on the side of the rich and we have judges who always judge on the side of the poor. And God says, “That’s wrong!” Right is right and it doesn’t matter if you’re poor or rich. Right is right and wrong is wrong. Simple. We need to teach our children that. The social engineering that goes on in our society…there will be a time in the future where right and wrong will be so confused to the average person, they won’t even…the Bible already, for many people, seems oppressive. I heard, the other day, a guy on the radio say, “God is a megalomaniac – a mass murderer that hates women.” Verse 16:

V-16 – You shall go about as a talebearer among the people, nor shall you make a stand against the life of your neighbor. I am the LORD.” Remember what He keeps saying here: “I am God. I am holy.” Remember what verse 2 starts with. “I am holy, you be holy. So don’t go around gossiping.” Think about how much we gossip, folks. It may be hard when you do some of this with your children, because they may look at you and say, “Well, Daddy does that,” “Well, mommy does that.”  We’re all in the process of sanctification, okay? None of us are there yet. We have to teach our children not to go around just slandering and putting other people down. And yet how many people…that’s their whole life. All they do is judge other people and compare themselves with other people. That’s all they do. That’s a miserable way to live. That is a miserable way to live, yet there are people that live that way. Verse 17:
V-17 – You shall not hate your brother. Verse 18 says:

V-18 – You shall bear vengeance or even have a grudge. Oh boy, this holiness stuff is really tough. This is the simple holiness. This is the simple holiness you start with children with.  “Okay kids, you’ve got to learn not to bear a grudge.” And He says at the end of verse 18, “I am the LORD. I am the Holy One and I’ve asked you to be holy, like Me.” Verse 28:

V-28 – You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you. I am the LORD. Why do we say people should not get tattoos? It’s not because we have no sense of style. It’s because we are holy and our bodies are holy. That’s why. We are holy. If you don’t understand holiness, you’ll think that’s stupid. I know that. I understand that. I’ve had people say, “That’s absolutely stupid. If I want to get a tattoo, that’s my business.” My answer is, “Sure it is! You can go and get a tattoo. No one’s going to beat you up. No one’s even going to kick you out of the church. But you surely don’t know what holiness is. You surely don’t know what God has said when He said, “You are holy.” You don’t understand that. You will, eventually. Verse 31:

V-31 – Give no regard to mediums. Stay away from the demonic things that just permeate popular culture and movies. You can spend a whole day every week talking to your kid about that one. Verse 32:

V-32 – You shall rise before the gray head, and honor the presence of an old man, and fear your God. I am the LORD. Do we teach our children to be respectful older people – to honor older people? Running around in church…not running around in church - you’re six years old out there and I know you want to run around in church – not running around in church is an act of holiness, because you’re not going to knock down an older person and hurt them. “That’s not holiness. That’s just being nice.” No, no. This is Leviticus 19. This is the Holiness Code. This is where you start at to teach children…because remember the first thing He says? Honor your father and your mother. This is all about teaching children – teaching children holiness.

You want a real experience? Take your children, take Leviticus 19, and go through it section by section, phrase by phrase, and come up with a list of what they can do. Children learn by doing, okay? We try to teach them all these big concepts sometimes, and they’re just glassy-eyed, and they don’t have any idea what we’re talking about. Teach them by doing. You do this. You treat a person this way. You answer the telephone a certain way. You be polite. If an older person walks in the room, and there are no other chairs, you get up and let them have the chair. Boy! Was that drilled into me! If a pregnant woman walks in a room, you get up and let her have the chair, because you honor the fact that she’s bearing a child. Wow! What a weird concept today! I remember that being drilled into me when I was a kid.

Holiness – the concept of holiness is almost non-existent in the world that we live in. I can’t stress enough to all the young people in the…you know, we have between 30 and 40 people in this congregation under the age of 19. Some of them are here, some are on the hook-up up in Kerrville. I can’t stress enough to you that you have already been made a promise by God – already! You’re already declared holy by Him. You don’t have to take the promise. And He won’t make you do it. He won’t make you. It’s been given to you. It’s been offered to you. He doesn’t go back on His promises. If you reject His promise, He takes it away, but He won’t take it away until you reject it. There’s also a need, as parents and grandparents, and as members of the holy community, we have a responsibility to love and teach and train and help our kids go through everything they go through. And when they’re wrong, we tell them they’re wrong, and we love them anyway. We love them anyway.

I have to laugh sometimes. I’ve been at the camp, where some kid, on the first day, gets into some trouble, and you talk to him. And three days later, you realize he’s avoiding you. You’ve forgotten the incident, right? Poor kid. He’s avoiding you and thinks, “Oh man, I was in trouble and I hope he’s not mad at me anymore.” And you’ve got to walk up and say, “I’m not mad at you anymore. Man, that was done three days ago. Forget it!” We go on with life. They’ve got to know that we go on with life. We’ve all made mistakes. We still make mistakes – every one of us. And a lot of us still sin. And our job is to help those kids – pull them along as we head towards the Kingdom of God.

Holiness isn’t magic. It is something given to us by God. It is sanctification and we have to live up to it. You have to live up to what God has given you. And it’s higher than anything you can imagine. Be sanctified! Remember what God says: “You shall be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am holy.”