What True Practical Holiness Is

In chapter three of J. C. Ryle's Holiness he offers these twelve marks of true and practical holiness in the believer.

1. Holiness is the habit of being of one mind with God, according as we find His mind described in Scripture.
2. A holy man will endeavour to shun every known sin, and to keep every known commandment.
3. A holy man will strive to be like our Lord Jesus Christ.
4. A holy man will follow after meekness, longsuffering, gentleness, patience, kind tempers, government of his tongue.
5. A holy man will follow after temperance and self-denial.
6. A holy man will follow after charity and brotherly kindness.
7. A holy man will follow after a spirit of mercy and benevolence toward others. Do good.
8. A holy man will follow after purity of heart.
9. A holy man will follow after the fear of God.
10. A holy man will follow after humility. "He will see more evil in his own heart than in any other in the world."
11. A holy man will follow after faithfulness in all the duties and relations in life.
12. A holy man will follow after spiritual mindedness.

In short, a holy man follows hard after God (Psalm 63:8). How vigorous is your pursuit of God and His holiness today?

In the same chapter, Ryle adds this clarification about our pursuit of hoiness:

It is the greatest misery of a holy man that he carries about with him a "body of death;"-that often when he would do good "evil is present with him"; that the old man is clogging all his movements, and, as it were, trying to draw him back at every step he takes (Rom. vii. 21). But it is the excellence of a holy man that he is not at peace with indwelling sin, as others are. He hates it, mourns over it, and longs to be free from its company. The work of sanctification within him is like the wall of Jerusalem-the building goes forward "even in troublous times" (Dan. ix. 25).

May we know the great misery of indwelling sin AND the excellence of no peace with it.

An Acts 9:31 Birthday Wish/Prayer for OGC

Our church turned 18 on Sunday. Thanks be to God. We sang Happy Birthday to Us the previous Sunday night. Different, but sweet. This is my personal birthday wish/prayer for our church. My hope is you will join in making it with me.

It comes from Acts 9:31.

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

By peace Luke means rest from persecution. The previous chapters record the hits taken by the fledgling church throughout Palestine in the form of heavy persecution. But now, following Saul’s conversion, she enjoys a widespread, relative peace.

But that’s not all the author tells us about the church in this season of blessed rest. He mentions two other significant realities about her. First, she was being built up. Edified. The Greek word gives us a word picture of a house under construction. We might say she was becoming more spiritual.

Second, she multiplied. The church grew. Numbers we added. Souls were saved. People were converted. The kingdom advanced.

How did these two things occur? Walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Walking conveys the idea of an everyday kind of experience. It was second nature for this church of the first century to reverence God and to be strengthened by His Spirit. In other words they were a Godward people in every sense of the word. As a result, they were edified and multiplied.

G. Campbell Morgan, in his commentary on this verse, wrote:

It is impossible to read this verse without being reminded of the missionary vocation of the Church. Here the Church is seen going on its way, going in the way the Lord commanded it, going to the nations to disciple them, going into the cosmos to suffer in order to save; and going on its way in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. These two things are closely united. The first part of the verse ends “being edified”; the second part ends “was multiplied.” The underlying thought is exactly the same. Consequently if the Church is to be missionary, she must be spiritual; and if the church is to be spiritual, she must be missionary.

Spiritual and missionary. Edified and multiplied. To be one or the other we must be both. That is my prayer for OGC as we move into our 19th year. May God make us spiritual and missionary, edified and multiplied, to a greater extent than we ever have before!

Will you join me in praying this birthday wish for our church?

A Preacher for the Glory of God

Reflections on D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: the First Forty Years (Banner of Truth, 1982, 381 pages)

I don’t remember the conference at all. Somewhere along the line I picked up a recording of it. I decided to listen to the messages. I especially liked the now characteristic Q&A panel discussions included in gatherings of this sort. The only speaker I remember from this conference was Dr. Alistair Begg. And the reason I recall him was the answer he gave to one of the questions in that particular session. What one book has made the greatest impact on your life? Begg’s reply was Ian H. Murray’s two volume biography of D. Martyn Lloyd –Jones.

That stuck with me, in large part I suppose, because like both those men, I too am a preacher. I settled on acquiring my own copy of Murray’s work with a desire to discover for myself what made it so very valuable to someone of note like Dr. Begg. My wife surprised me some time ago with the volumes as a gift. But I confess they have set on the bookshelf at home for some time now with no attention at all from me.

But this recent vacation I took volume one, the first forty years (1899-1939), with me to Idaho. I devoured it. Murray has gifted evangelicalism with a readable and stirring account of the Welsh M.D. turned pulpiteer. It took little time for me to gain some notion of its value to the likes of Dr. Begg and others who long to fulfill their calling to preach as best they can for the glory of God and the advance of His kingdom.

In the introduction Murray explains in part why Dr. M L-J eschewed the writing of an autobiography.

“Dr. Lloyd-Jones disliked any indulgence in personal publicity on the part of Christians. He viewed the personality-cults evident in some of the churches of the Victorian era as disastrous to the interests of true spirituality. Man-centeredness in any form disfigures the kingdom of God. The church at her best is a power in the world not because of what she says about herself but because of what she is by the grace of God” (p. xii).

Murray managed to gain permission to write his subject’s biography with Dr. Lloyd-Jones help in the process. But the collaboration came with a nonnegotiable condition. Murray explains:

“His one, oft-repeated, proviso, vehemently expressed both in conversation and in prayer, was that the sole aim of any record should be to advance ‘the glory of God’” (p. xiii).

The great apostle Paul, another man of God who was more than anything which print can convey (p. xv), exhorts in 1 Cor. 10:31, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Surely preaching falls under the comprehensive umbrella “all” in that verse.

I don’t know Dr. Alistair Begg at all. But I am willing to bet he found these volumes so very valuable because, like me, a preacher of the gospel, he longs to preach for the glory of God. There is much to learn from the biography of Dr. M L-J to that end.

I can hardly wait to get my hands on volume two.

What Then Is True Practical Holiness?

J. C. Ryle answers the question in several ways in his treatise on the subject.

"First, holiness is the habit of being of one mind with God, according as we find His mind described in Scripture. It is the habit of agreeing in God's judgment--hating what He hates, loving what He loves--and measuring everything in this world by the standard of His Word. He who most entirely agrees with God, he is the most holy man."

Are you seeking the mind of God in His word and pleading with Him for a spirit of agreement in your entire being? This is part of what it means to be holy.

A Seasonable & Profitable Question

Are we holy? That's the question. J. C. Ryle calls it the most seasonable and profitable question anyone can ask of himself.

I ask to be heard today about this question. How stands the account between our souls and God? In this hurrying, bustling world, let us stand still for a few minutes and consider the matter of holiness. I believe I might have choseen a subject more popular and pleasant. I am sure I might have found one more easy to handle. But I feel deeply I could not have chosen one more seasonable and more profitable to our souls. It is a solemn thing to hear the Word of God saying, "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14).

A solemn thing indeed. Stand still for a time today and ask yourself this most seasonable and profitable question. Are you holy? What do you hear God say in response? Remember the gospel and do what He requires.

Seek & You Shall NOT Find?

Never in all these years of hunting have I missed so many shots. Near shots. Far shots. In between shots. No matter. I failed to fell a deer in ’09. At one point toward the end of our vacation I concluded it would take an animal coming right up to me and shaking my hand for me to hit one. I used to think I was a good shot. Not anymore.

One night toward the end I thought I finally broke through. At dusk we sighted two nice size bucks on the sky line of the ridge pictured here. I fired at the bigger one first. Missed again. What else is new? Then I got off a round at the second. Missed yet again. Sigh. This is getting monotonous. One more chance. I fired a second shot. Finally. He staggered and disappeared beyond the skyline. “He went down out of sight,” my friend Dick assured me.

We marked the shot and began our climb. This ridge is precipitous. The heart pumps hard as you zig zag up the fence line. Finally, we reached the spot on the hillside. Nothing. No blood trail, no deer. You’ve got to be kidding me! I worked my way up to the very top of the ridge, well beyond the scene of the shooting. Slowly I crisscrossed back and forth scouring every square foot. My friend did the same. When darkness enveloped the hillside, we gave up and headed back to the truck. Unbelievable.

We came back at dawn the next morning. The law of the woods says if you think you hit something, make sure you do the right thing in looking for it until you are absolutely sure you did or didn’t hit it. My friend, who has hunted these hills all his life, was certain I got the buck given the way he staggered. So we climbed again. We zigged and zagged again. In the full light of day we searched for that deer to no avail. The case of the missing deer. Beyond baffling. Go figure.

It occurred to me while looking just how much effort the two of us put into the search, all in the hope of finding an animal to butcher and eat along with another rack to nail to the rail on my deck. Not that the pursuit of venison for the freezer is insignificant, mind you. But it pales in comparison to the rewards that come from seeking God. And unlike the occasional deer on the hillside, God promises to be found.

Deuteronomy 4:29 says, “You will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Jeremiah 29:13 repeats virtually the same promise. “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jesus said, in Matt. 7:7-8, “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.”

Notice the proviso in these Old Testament verses. It concerns the way we must seek – with all our heart and soul. With at least the same, if not more vigor, that hunters seek after their felled quarry, believers should seek after God and His glory, banking all the way on His gracious promise to be found.

I asked myself some hard questions on that ridge. Do I seek God with the same energy I devote to finding a deer I might have shot? How earnest is my daily reading of the Scriptures? Does my zeal for Scripture memory match my passion for hunting? Where does my passionate pursuit of God in prayer compare to the enthusiasm with which I tackle an arduous climb up an Idaho hillside?

What do you value so greatly that you seek it with all your heart and all your soul? Don’t blow by this question. Stop and think about it for a time. Honestly, how do you answer?

With hunting or any other inferior pursuit, seek and you may or may not find. With God, your supreme satisfaction, seek with all your heart and soul and you will find.

Sanctification Can Be Seen

In the second chapter of his book, Holiness, J. C. Ryle contends that sanctification is a visible reality in a Christian. He gives the reader ten aspects of the visible evidence of sanctification in a Christian's life.

1. True sanctification does not consist in talk about religion (1 John 3:18).
2. True sanctification does not consist in temporary religious feelings (Matt. 13:20).
3. True sanctification does not consist in outward formalism and external devoutness (1 Tim. 4:8).
4. True sanctification does not consist in retirement from our place in life, and the renunciation of our social duties (Jn. 17:15).
5. True sanctification does not consist in the occasional performance of right actions (Psa. 119:1-4).
6. Genuine sanctification will show itself in habitual respect to God’s law, and habitual effort to live in obedience to it as the rule of life (1 Tim. 1:8; Rom. 7:22).
7. Genuine sanctification will show itself in an habitual endeavor to do Christ’s will, and to live by His practical precepts (Jn 15:14).
8. Genuine sanctification will show itself in an habitual desire to live up to the standard which St. Paul sets before the churches in his writings.
9. Genuine sanctification will show itself in habitual attention to the active graces which our Lord so beautifully exemplified, and especially to the grace of charity (Jn. 13:34-35; Col. 3:10).
10. Genuine sanctification will show itself in habitual attention to the passive graces of Christianity (1 Pet. 2:21-23). These are the graces of being forbearing to one another. It is nonsense to pretend to sanctification unless we follow after the meekness, gentleness, longsuffering, and forgivingness of which the Bible makes so much.

GENUINE SANCTIFICATION IS A THING THAT CAN BE SEEN!

How visible a reality is it in you and me?