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In today's sermon, we're looking at the holiness tradition, discovering the virtuous life. But what does it mean to be holy, and how do we lead holy lives? Pastor Wei shares the scripture with us today.

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So last week uh we looked at the contemplative tradition, right? The prayer-filled life, a life of loving attention to God and of deeper intimacy with Him. And this week we are looking at the next tradition, which is the holiness tradition. Uh, it leads nicely from uh the previous one, the contemplative tradition, because it is out of that contemplation, it is out of that intimacy with God that leads to a reformation of heart and mind, and a reformation that leads to holiness. So when we think about holiness, uh the first thing that comes to our mind, and I think rightfully so, is that we think about God who is holy. Right? I I think about the old hymn holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Um and in Isaiah chapter 6, verse 3, Isaiah writes this uh holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Right? God is holy, and when we think about God, we associate his holiness with absolute purity and perfection. Right? In God, there is no wrong, there is no blemish, there is no sin. And the holy lord is holy other, right? There's no other there's no category in the created order that can uh that can try to explain him, that can try to describe fully who he is. He is holy other, he is the great I am, in uh found in Exodus chapter 3. There is nothing, and there is no one else like God, and he stands alone as God, the Lord Most High. And so in uh Hannah in a prayer in 1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 2, uh prays this out there is none holy like the Lord, for there is none besides you. There is no rock like our God. And God's holiness is his essence, right? It is it permeates and it shapes every aspect of uh his character, his love, his grace, his mercy, also his anger and his justice, his words, his commandments, his actions, they are all permeated by his holiness. So God is this absolute, pure, perfect, holy God. And this same holy God has called the people out of the world to be his nation, to be his possession.

unknown 2:41

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And there's a command given from God that that that that uh is given in the old testament and repeated in the new. Right? Um, and then the the commandment is this be holy, for I am holy. Jesus on the Sermon of the Mount, uh, at the Sermon of the Mount would say, Be perfect, for God is perfect. Be holy, for I am holy, says the Lord. And the command is for us today as well. As sons and daughters of the holy God, we are to be holy. But what does it mean to be holy? What does it mean to live holy lives? Right? That is really at the heart of the holiness tradition. And so as we turn to uh this this tradition that emphasizes on the holiness of our lives, uh perhaps it is helpful to start uh by defining what it is not, right? Because there may be some mis uh uh pre-conceived notions of of what holiness is like. And and um and it can it can very quickly get into all these uh dangerous territories, right? But uh what what it is not, is that it is not a list of rules and regulations, right? We miss the point if all we care about are the do's and don'ts. Holiness is not about merely uh just very strictly adhering to a list of rules. It is not about avoiding the world completely either. It is not about uh all of us having a holy hurdle and then just get off of the world because the world is sinful, the world is evil, and so we want to cut all contact from the world. Holiness is not that, and it's not it's not extreme asceticism, right? It is not um uh utterly depriving ourselves of food or water just so we may uh lead those holy uh that holy life. It is not work, uh works-based righteousness, it is not about earning our salvation, right? It is important to note when we talk about holiness, we're not saying that you need to earn your salvation. We can never earn our righteousness, no matter how much we do. And lastly, holiness is not about perfectionism, right? It's not about becoming sinless, becoming flawless, it's not about never uh committing a mistake ever again. So there's a whole bunch of things that it is not, right? So, what exactly is holiness then? Richard Foster um writes that the holiness stream of the Christian life and faith focuses upon two things: the inward reformation of the heart and the development of holy habits. Right? These are holy habits that we rely on in our lives to function appropriately. And so the emphasis or the characteristics of the holiness traditions really begins firstly with our inner being, right? Uh the reformation of our hearts. Because our hearts, uh our heart is the wellspring of our actions. All that we say, all that we do, right, it springs from our heart. And so it starts with our inner being, it starts with who we are deep inside. And with reformed hearts, our holiness becomes embodied, it becomes evidenced in our uh our our in the things that we do, right? And then and and and by that we become um more and more uh like the image of God, more and more becoming who God has created us to be. And one of the great emphasis of the holiness tradition is that by living holy lives, we can have godly influence and impact in the lives of the people around us, whether it is in a small community, a small unit like the family or the small community where your neighborhood, or even in society, right? Our holiness must kind of spread out, so to speak, must be expressed outward to touch the lives of others and to change society. And so to understand this more, we can turn to a prominent figure in the holiness tradition. Uh, he has preached and written extensively on holiness and on the on the sanctifying grace of God. And this person is John Wesley. Uh, some of you may have heard him, heard of him, uh, together with his brother Charles Wesley. John was an ordained Anglican clergyman and he was the founder of the Methodist movement. And so uh Wesley has um a way of describing the the the Christian journey, the Christian faith. Right? He uses a house as a metaphor to describe uh our faith journey. Uh he wrote this, I'll just quote in full first. Uh he wrote this, our main doctrines, uh which include all the rest, are three. Our main doctrines are three repentance, faith, and holiness. Repentance, faith, and holiness. And so if we can go to the next slide, the way he describes these three main doctrines is if you were to approach, or if you're approaching a house, right? Uh repentance is where you you are led to the porch of the house. But you're not in the house proper, right? And there's still a barrier to you, so to speak, right? There's a door, right? So repentance brings you to the porch. Faith opens the door, faith in Christ, and faith alone justifies us, saves us, so that the door is open and we may enter. And lastly, holiness uh is is is is really figuring out how then are we gonna stay or remain in this house now? Not that we have entered by faith. How are we to live and stay in the house? And and this grace of God that kind of leads us uh into the house and and enables us to stay in the house, Wesley called this the sanctifying grace of God. It enables us to remain in this house. And for Wesley to stay in the house, right, is another way of saying to grow in holiness. Not that we are justified by God, we are we are being sanctified by Him. Right? And all this is to reach the ultimate aim that God has for all creation and for us especially, to restore the image of God and to conform us to Christ. That is the new reality, that is a new creation, that is the ultimate, ultimate aim of God, right? To transform us fully, that we become the new creation. And so this sanctifying grace that makes us holy enables us to grow more and more into the likeness of Christ. And so the the word to sanctify means to make holy, right? God's sanctifying grace helps us grow in holiness of heart and life to become holy and perfect as God is holy and perfect. And perfect again, not in the sense that we will uh we will be flawless, not in the sense that we'll never make a mistake ever again, right? But perfect in the sense of gaining maturity. The biblical language is maturity of uh of a completeness of our Christian character, that our wills are so purified that we don't intentionally sin anymore. Our souls are so purified that we choose not to do things that are against God's will. And so, what does holiness entail? Right? There are really two parts to holiness. One is uh this this uh again, this biblical understanding of being set apart. When God called his people to be holy as he is, he's calling them to be set apart, to be separate, to be distinct from the world for his purpose and for his glory. The accompanying uh accompanying command to this is usually uh a command to not be like the other nations, not to worship their gods, not to become like them. Because they are to be distinctly God's people, so that they may display God's truth and glory and wisdom to the nations. We live by God's standards, not the world's. And so we're set apart from the world. But remember, holiness is not just complete separation and then having no contact with the world, right? Because paradoxically, holiness, while calling us to be set apart, also calls us back into the world, right? It is not about uh simply a holy heart, it's not simply about staying away, right? Because the flip side of holiness is this impulse to go out into the world to display the love of God. So the sanctifying grace of God enables us to become more and more obedient to the two greatest commandments, right? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. So there's this idea of being distinct and set apart, but then to go back into the world so that we may love the Lord our God and we may love neighbor as ourselves. And so the apostle Peter puts it puts it this way in 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9. All of us here, all of us together are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that we may proclaim the excellencies in the Greek is virtues, that we may proclaim the virtues of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. We proclaim the excellencies or the virtues of God, not simply with words, although of course we proclaim his excellencies with our words, but more so by living the sanctified life. A heart that is renewed by God. And such a heart cannot help but find expression in moral character. It cannot help but find expression outwardly, right? It doesn't stay just inside. A renewed heart, a heart that is sanctified, made holy, doesn't just stay within us. There's an impulse to make it evident, such that our lifestyle cannot help but increase in virtue, finding expression in loving, selfless acts. And so, because the well the heart is the wellspring of our actions, when it is renewed, it cannot help but express itself in new ways befitting of a new creation in Christ. And so, holiness then is about being empowered by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, transforming us into the image of Christ. And it leads us to display the character or the excellencies or the virtues of God as we love God and neighbor. And so, another way, then, as Foster puts it, another way is that living in holiness means living the virtuous life. Right? The word virtue uh is often taken to mean certain traits, certain qualities. When you think about a virtuous person, what do you think of? What are the characteristics? You might think honest, uh or like loving, fair, courageous, right? We think of these good adjectives, these good terms to describe a virtuous person. But why are these things considered good? Why are virtues considered virtues? Right? It is it is borrowed from uh, of course, from Greek philosophy, right? And in Greek philosophy, virtue is tied to function. Right? Our virtues are tied to our functions. So what virtues does, uh what virtues do is that it enables a person to perform his or her actions or her functions excellently, whether privately, in our family, in the community, or in society at large. So foster enables us to function as we should and function excellently. So uh Foster frames holiness uh this way. Holiness means the ability to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done, right? What needs to be done when it needs to be done. It means being response able, to be able to respond appropriately to the demands of life. The flip side is that sin and vice renders us dysfunctional, isn't it? Our lives and our relationships with God and neighbor become broken because of sin. But virtues, in particular the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love, enable us to function as we should, as God's image bearers, as his holy people, and as a new creation in Christ. And so the the the virtuous life changes the way we think about everything. It changes the way we think about who we are and all that we have. It changes the way we think about our time, our money, the opportunities that we have, our energy, or the relationships in our lives. Living virtuously means we make wise decisions and virtuous responses in the way we acquire and spend money, or in the way we make use of our time. It helps us make appropriate responses when we face temptations, when sin creeps in and we are being pulled one way or the other. It helps us make uh wise responses when we face troubles in life, when we are wronged by someone and we feel indignant, right? And that's when we feel the least holy, and that's when we want to act out in the least holy way, right? But virtuous life, holiness, uh causes us to kind of act in appropriate ways in those situations, or when we encounter people in need, when we encounter suffering or we experience it in our lives, holiness or the virtuous life allows us to respond and to function excellently. In other words, all that we do, we do it unto the Lord because we are set apart for him and we are sent by him to proclaim his excellencies to the world. And so we all want to be virtuous people. I I don't think maybe some of you relish being the bad guy, right? I I don't know. Uh, but but we all want to be virtuous people, I take. And and and uh we want our kids to grow up becoming virtuous people as well, right? And so so we name, we give certain names to our kids, we name them based on what we want them to become when they grow up. Right? For the younger ones, if you if you haven't yet, maybe it's a good time to ask your parents why they gave you uh your names, right? Why, what what uh aspirations, what hopes or what dreams they have for you when they give you your name. Uh I remember someone um, and it is so ridiculous, I don't know whether it's it's really true, but but someone, a pastor actually was telling me about how uh one of his members um uh name was named a certain way by his by his dad. This was way back in the past when they had to they had to call the father or the mother to confirm the name. Right? So the nurse called this guy, uh and he picked up the phone. The connection was really bad. Um but the the guy the guy also not not very well, not very uh well spoken, right? So kind of listening and saying, trying to hear what the nurse was trying to say, right? And so he he thought that the nurse was just repeating and then confirming the name. So we just keep affirming and say, uh-uh, uh-uh. Right? Then the nurse uh said you, you share, real, uh-uh-a-uh, right? And uh that was how his son was named Tan ah ah. And and so so it's it's we wouldn't want I wouldn't want to name my my child Tan uh Lim A, right? Um that that really has no real meaning to it, right? Beck and I have been racking our brains trying to think of a Chinese name for our kid, right? Um and we we don't have one yet. Uh if you have suggestions, we're happy to hear. Um uh but but we do have an English name, right? Uh we are intending to call our daughter Sage. Not because we are like we we love the herb, not because we love the plant, or not because uh we are going for the color, right? But the word sage means wise one. And I mean, collectively, that is our hope for our daughter to grow up uh wise in the ways of the Lord. But as the day of delivery draws closer, and it's getting really close, and I'm getting nervous, more and more nervous each day. Uh but but the question keeps nagging at me in the past uh couple of weeks. Will we be good enough and godly enough parents to bring our daughter to become wise? How do we help her grow in wisdom? I mean, she could, by her own nature, grow up to be a more discerning and wise individual, right? And that's kind of the hope when we give names to our children. We kind of hope they'll just naturally grow up to be uh what, noble, uh pretty, talented, right? We kind of just want them to naturally grow into that, right? But in the end, whether or not Sage really becomes a wise person will not be because she is named Sage, right? But it will be because we have nurtured her in a particular way. Becoming wise for our kids or whatever other virtues, right, for our kids is never accidental. And in the same way, holiness does not come by accident. It is not once we once we call ourselves Christian, we magically become virtuous, right? We have to cultivate and nurture the holy habits in our lives. We are not saved by what we do, but we are to bear fruit of our salvation in holiness. And this is the way Paul puts it in Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13. Paul writes this work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is at work, it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure, right? To continue the work of our salvation. Meaning, now that we have been saved, what exactly are we being saved for? Right? And to work it out in our lives, but we don't do it alone, right? It is not by our own strength, it's not by our own effort. Because God is at work in us, his sanctifying grace and his spirit's power is in us, enabling us to work out our salvation. Dallas Wheelard, another popular writer in in uh in uh on holiness and on uh discipleship, uh spiritual formation, writes this grace is not opposed to effort, but to earning. Earning is an attitude, effort is action. Without effort, we would be nowhere. When you read the New Testament, you see how astonishingly energetic it is. Paul says, take off the old man, put on the new. There is no suggesting that this will be done for you. We are to take off the old self and put on the new. And so this morning's readings point us uh to two other occasions in scripture where the apostles teach us to nurture, to train, or to put in effort that we may grow in holiness. So we turn again uh to another letter of Paul by 1 Timothy chapter 4. 1 Timothy chapter 4, verses 6 to 8. Uh, 6 and 7 say this if you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. Being trained in the words of faith and of good doctrine that you have followed. Verse 7 is like kind of the opposite antithesis, right? Having nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. And then for affirmation, rather train yourself for godliness.

unknown 22:19

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This training in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Really means to read, to study the Bible, to understand our faith and our beliefs, to have intimate knowledge of God and his will and what he is doing in and through us today. All this comes from really studying the word, really taking time to read scripture and understand what God has spoken in his word. Doctrines, uh, another word, another word would be beliefs or the teachings of the church are really an important part of our godly living. Right? They safeguard us from what Paul says, the irreverent, silly myths, the false teachings that kind of lead us astray. But more importantly, it is through biblical doctrines, biblical teachings, that we have we can have a grasp uh on the contents of our Christian faith and how we are to live. It is maybe another way of putting it is that it is really about learning the story of scripture, of creation of for, of God calling Israel, of Christ coming to save us, of the church empowered by the Spirit and the consummation of all things. Or an even easier schema: creation for redemption, restoration. It is about learning the story of Scripture and learning about the trying God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, about the purpose and will of God for us, what God has done as recorded in Scripture, how his people have responded through the ages in both the Old and New Testament, and then to really think how where we are at in this grand story of God and what God is speaking and what God is saying to us today, and how we are to respond today. And there's effort, right? Knowledge just doesn't just come in. We are not living in a matrix where you can just upload Kung Fu, uh, different karate, different uh different types of martial arts, right? And then you just come into us, right? But we make every effort to train in in our understanding. And so there's effort involved. Paul says, continues to say in verse 8, for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. Right? And it and it kind of separates, uh it helps us kind of frame our our idea, our understanding of what holiness might be, right? What something one is of uh some value, right? Not that it's totally useless, right? But one is of some value, ultimately temporal though, right? It is transient, it will just one day be gone, right? So bodily uh training is of some value, but uh it is temporal. Um the other is of value in every way, both temporarily, right, both in this transient earthly life that we have, but in the eternal life, in the world to come. And so we train in our holiness, right, when we pursue the things of God, the things that are eternal, the things that have value here and in the life to come. So the apostle Peter makes the same appeal to us, right? In our second reading from 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 5 to 10, we read that for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith. The word supplement here means to furnish, to provide lavishly, or to supply, right? And so faith in the sense of knowing the Lord and receiving salvation is really the beginning of the Christian journey. Uh or if you're using uh Wesley's metaphor of the house, uh, faith as in as in believing God or being justified by God is really having the door open and entering through the door.

unknown 26:26

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And that's really the beginning of our life, of our journey, because there is more. Faith in God also means following him, to do his work, uh, following him and allowing him to do his work in us, to renew our hearts, so that we make conscious efforts to live according to his will. Right? God supplies us, his sanctifying grace. So God is at work in us. He is at work in us so that we may work out our salvation, so that we may be, we make a fruitful effort in supplying or supplementing our faith. Right? Our faith cannot remain bare and empty. Just as you enter the house, it cannot remain bare and empty. You have to furnish it, right, in order to live in it. We cannot allow our faith to remain bare and empty. And to supplement our faith with what? Faith with virtue, um, which really means moral excellence, right? In particular, God's virtues, God's excellence. Um, and so now with the eyes of faith, we see the glory of God and we want to embrace God's glory. Right? Pursuing virtue is another way of saying we want to embrace God's glory in our lives. And to become like God in all that we do. And with virtue, we supply it with knowledge. Even as we embrace God's goodness and adopt his way as our own, we are to increase in our knowledge of who he is. Uh, in the same vein as Paul's encouragement to train in the words of faith, right? To increase in our knowledge of God in sound biblical teachings, and then to supplement that knowledge with self-control or self-discipline, which is the opposite of self-indulgence. Right? Uh, we may have knowledge, we may we may have the faith and the knowledge, but there are there will be times, challenging times, when we are tempted to act uh otherwise, right? And that's when we require that self-discipline so that we do not sully our knowledge of God, we do not dilute the teachings of Christ. Uh and give ourselves license to indulge in our desires. And with self-control, we supplement it with steadfastness, or in other words, perseverance, right? To be able to persist in our pursuit of godly character, even when we suffer for doing so. Steadfastness, we supplied it with godliness. Uh, here, referring to, um, in a way, referring to referring to religion put into practice, right? Godliness in every aspect of our living. Um, and so we we supply godliness with uh brotherly affection, our love for fellow believers for one another, and lastly, to supplement our brotherly affection with love, right? The capstone of Christian virtues, to extend God's agape love to others, to love your neighbor as yourself. All this um calls for us uh to make conscious decision decisions on our part. And we have to choose to work on these qualities, whether in our own devotion and quiet time, or when we are reading and studying the Bible, or when we're in church, when we are in our connect groups, where when we are in our family, in our school, or in our workplace. It is something we make an effort for, to exercise our spiritual muscles, so to speak, so that we become increasingly strong in these qualities. And Paul Bitter tells us to increase because in verse 8 he says this uh these qualities if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from becoming ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Our faith is uh ineffective and unfruitful when we still live as though we haven't been saved by God. We are ineffective and unfruitful when we are unable to function excellently, to function as we should. Um, we are ineffective when we are unable to respond in holiness in our lives situations, and that is not the kind of life that God has saved you and I for. He has saved us for effective, for fruitful lives. So Peter concludes with these words. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fail. And so he comes back to what he first started with make every effort in our sanctification. And it may seem tedious, right? It may seem tough and hardgoing to really think about making every effort to choose to live in holiness, right? Almost like we have to always second guess ourselves. But that's usually how it goes uh when it comes to forming habits, anyway. Right? It is always difficult the first few times you learn an instrument, or the first few times you start to run when you pick up a language, or even just simple things like showering before you you lie on the bed, brushing your teeth before you go to sleep. Uh in the past, I when I was younger, uh I never really bothered with this as much. I don't I don't shower before I lie on my bed. Uh and I got scolded by my family members, and somehow that's a bad thing. Um I didn't buy into it, I I didn't care, but like, you know, to appease family members, I okay, shower, be more quiet or more obedient. Right? Uh and and now I cannot imagine lying on my bed without showering. Um most of the time. Uh and and definitely not go to sleep uh without showering, right, and without brushing my teeth. Um it's really about forming those habits, right? Um when we come to a point where we no longer give in to our to our to our sinful desires, right? Where we cannot imagine not following God's God's will in our lives. Right? You come to a point where you cannot imagine going to bed without showering again. To you, that's gross, to you that's that's dirty, right? In the same way, we we we we need to form these holy habits to the point where we cannot imagine not uh not following God anymore, that it is somehow gross or somehow wrong to do otherwise.

unknown 33:01

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SPEAKER_01 33:01

That's what forming holy habits is about. And so we make every effort to form such holy habits uh to the point that they become a natural thing, a natural response to life's situations. And so uh let me just conclude and kind of wrap up uh this holiness tradition. Holiness tradition uh really emphasizes uh our need to be holy as God is holy, to allow God to do his transformative work in our hearts, the wellspring of our thoughts, words, and deeds. Right? It is asking God to come and renew, come and reform and transform us from deep within, from our hearts, so that we may be able to put away the old self and put on the new, so that we gain holiness or perfection in the sense where we desire sin no more as we live unto the Lord, to live the virtuous life, virtuous in the sense that we can function excellently uh as we should, uh, as we have been created for. And ultimately, it's really about living in obedience to the greatest commandments of loving God and loving our neighbor. Such holiness can be pursued. We can train for it, and indeed, we are to make every effort to pursue holiness as we increase in our knowledge of Christ, as we increase in our understanding of biblical teachings and increase in our and as we practice godliness in every aspect.

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We pray that you've been ministered to the Word of God today. If you'd like to know more about the Eastern Christian Church, please visit our website at yccanglican.com. Have a blessed day.