Holiness and the House of God

Holiness is fitting for the house of God (Ps. 93:5). It’s appropriate and necessary for God’s house to be holy. There is a vital connection between holiness and the house of God. 

God dwells in the high and holy place. He lives in the Holy of Holies – the Most Holy Place. This is the holiest place in the entire universe. This place is holy because God is holy, and he lives there. Here the angels sing “Holy Holy Holy” all the time. 

Our God is holy. The name of his Spirit is Holy – the Holy Spirit. Holiness is the primary characteristic of God.

God wants to live on this earth among people. The church is the house of God. We are a temple of living stones that God is to live among. The church is called to be the dwelling place of God on the earth, and he wants to shine out from the church. God wants a holy house to live in. We need to be holy if God is going to dwell among us and walk among us (2 Cor. 6:17-18).

“As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,  because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.'” (1 Pet. 1:15-16). 

We are called to be as holy as God is, because we are God’s house. Being holy is a high standard. It may seem unattainable. But this is a command, and God doesn’t give us impossible commands. We can be holy because we have the Holy Spirit inside us. As we live and walk in the Holy Spirit, we rise above our flesh and the world around us. When we live according to the Holy Spirit, we become partakers of his holiness (Heb. 12:10). 

Our own righteousness is like filthy rags. Let’s throw them away. We need the righteousness of Christ. We don’t need our own holiness. We need the holiness of God.

Holiness cannot be attained through the law. The law cannot produce holiness because it depends on our own strength. Holiness can only be produced in us as a gift from God himself. As we walk in the Spirit, we are not under the law but under grace. We receive holiness as we walk in the Spirit, following the leading of God. The words of Jesus are Spirit and life. As we obey Christ in the power of the Spirit, the spiritual power of his words will be unleashed in our lives and we will be changed into his image.

Sometimes we are deceived about holiness, and we might think that holiness is unnecessary. Maybe a little compromise with sin is ok. But God is clear. God is hates sin, darkness, and uncleanness. He doesn’t want these things in his house.

“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,  nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-10).

The first request of the Lord’s prayer is “Hallowed by thy name.” This means asking God to make his name holy. Asking God’s name to be made holy might seem unusual. God’s name is already holy, so how can it be made any more holy than it already is? 

God’s name is how God is revealed or known to the world. God wants to be revealed to the world as he actually is. When we pray, “Let your name be holy,” we are praying that God would be made known to the world as he actually is. 

God’s name or reputation is often made dirty by his people. For ‘the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,’ as it is written” (Rom. 2:24).

When God’s house is defiled with sin, God’s name is blasphemed. 

Ravi Zacharias passed away several months ago. He was a bestselling Christian author and Christian minister. He had a popular radio show. He travelled around the world representing Christianity, arguing with atheists and others that God is true.

Vice-President Mike Pence, who many recognize as an evangelical Christian, spoke at his funeral. He said that Ravi Zacharias was “the greatest Christian apologist of this century.” Newsweek magazine hailed him “Christianity’s top apologist.”

It was recently revealed that Ravi had been living an unrepentant, immoral lifestyle around the world for many years, using his position as a successful Christian leader to trap people into sin.

Now, Christian leaders are recognizing Ravi as a “sexual predator,” “one of the greatest frauds of this generation,” a “uniquely charismatic manipulator,” and “Satanic.”

Can the top defender of the Christian faith actually be a Satanic individual?

Jesus said that when he returns, many will tell him of all the wonderful ministry they had done, and then he will say, “I never knew you. Depart from me you who work iniquity!” (Matt. 7:21-23).

The fact that a “Satanic sexual predator” is called the “top defender of the Christian faith” reveals that there is a serious problem in the church today! There is a lot of deception in Christianity!

“But to the wicked God says: ‘What right have you to declare My statutes, or take My covenant in your mouth, seeing you hate instruction and cast My words behind you? When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have been a partaker with adulterers. You give your mouth to evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son. These things you have done, and I kept silent; you thought that I was altogether like you; but I will rebuke you, and set them in order before your eyes. Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver” (Psalm 50:16-22).

God doesn’t want wicked people who refuse to repent to be teaching his word to others. He doesn’t want serial adulterers traveling around the world trying to convince other people to follow Jesus. God is holy. His Spirit is holy. God wants his name to be hallowed. He wants his house to be as holy as he is. The Holy Spirit is grieved by such things. Judgement will begin at the house of God.

We need discernment. We need to distinguish between those who are serving God and those who are not serving God. There is no benefit in being deceived. There is no point in hiding behind a mask of hypocrisy. There is no point in allowing Christian leaders to hide in their sins. It is better to get rid of lies and hypocrisy so that people can repent and move forward.

A big problem in the church today is lack of accountability. Lack of accountability often arises because church or ministry structures are unbiblical. Many churches and ministry organizations today are ordered in such a way that sin is able to hide, especially among leaders. There is also a lack of the working of the Holy Spirit in many of these places.

Biblical church ought to be a place where sin is exposed and people are brought to repentance. Paul said that if someone comes into the church, the prophetic gift should expose the secrets of his or her heart (1 Cor. 14:24). This will bring repentance. This is good. We need to grow spiritually when we come into church, not use church as a means for our own religious ambitions or putting on an empty show.

Biblical church is to be holy, and Biblical church is an aid to the holiness of the individual. For church to fulfill this function, we need to get back to the word of God. We need to recover the apostolic order.

Once Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took some incense and went into the Most Holy place. They offered incense there before God. God never told them to do this. But they didn’t care. They were doing religion in their own way! 

God struck them down dead (Lev. 10:1-2).

The problem was that Nadab and Abihu didn’t sanctify God (Lev. 10:3). They didn’t make him holy. The tried to bring him down to their level and make him conform to their own religious ideas. They weren’t willing to allow God to to lift them up to his holy standard by conforming themselves to his word. A lot of religious activity is man-made and pointless. We need to get back to the word of God and submit ourselves to Jesus Christ.

Let’s pursue holiness, without which no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). Let’s do things according to God’s word. As we do, we will partake of his holiness. And his name will be made holy on this earth. His house will be holy and the world will see that there is a God. Intellectual arguments are often empty and fail to win a lost world. The Holy Spirit is the one who will prove to an unbelieving world that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.