So today I want to talk about The greatest what I believe is the greatest challenge facing church leaders today The greatest challenge and I know that you can look around the world and say well There are a number of challenges of course we have all these issues developing in our culture We see all kinds of challenges to the faith, particularly from the culture. You may be well versed in how to deal with those, and that's good. You should be. But I don't think that's the number one challenge. I don't think that's what the Scriptures teach us to focus upon.

And so what I want us to look at today is a passage, a portion of Hebrews chapter 12. One of our brothers was just praying the whole book of Hebrews for us there a moment ago. It was wonderful about Christ because that's indeed what the book is about. But if you know the book of Hebrews, you'll know that this was written to a group of Christians who are living in a time of trial, in some ways very similar to the day in which we live. They were facing all kinds of challenges from their culture, but not just the Roman culture, but of course they were battling with this whole issue of how do I integrate what I've known for the faith that we call the Jewish faith or the people of Israel with this newfound faith, this new discovered faith that of following Christ.

And of course the book speaks much of that. And so the writer is trying to appoint these people to the sufficiency of Jesus Christ, the absolute sufficiency of Jesus Christ. And that's because some of these people apparently have been thinking about apostasy, about leaving the faith. It was hard enough to be a Jew in the Roman culture. Being a Christian was almost impossible.

And so the writer is warning them about some of the things that they are challenged with and about the terrible consequences of leaving the faith. You can't do that, he's saying. Don't do that. And he encourages them not to look at the big bad world out there, the culture around them, but he encourages them to what? To look to Jesus.

To look to Jesus. And So that is what he starts with in chapter 12, verse 1. But just remind yourself again what chapter 11 is about before we begin to read. 11 is this wonderful depiction of the saints of the faith. And all the people, one writer says it's like he's walking them down this corridor, and there's portraits of all the godly faithful on either side.

But at the end of the corridor is chapter 12, verse 1, look to Jesus. Look to Jesus. And so we're going to begin reading at verse 1 of chapter 12. Hear now the inspired, infallible Word of God. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him, for the Lord disciplines the one He loves and chastens every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure.

God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whose father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?

For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them. But he disciplines us for our own good that we may share his holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, lift your drooping hands, strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, For he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears." We'll stop there. He starts off, "...since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, " and then we are to run the race. Again, not looking to the trials that surround you, not looking to the culture in which you live but looking unto Jesus, to Jesus who endured the cross, despised the shame, the hostility from sinners." The natural tendency is to look outside and see that the problem is out there. If only our culture was not the way it is, if only these kinds of things were not happening to us, but in reality the problem is not out there, it's in here.

It's in here. The problem as is highlighted here in this chapter is that the problem is sin in the believers, not sin in the world. Sin in the believers. And therefore because of the sin in the believers, these believers are experiencing what he calls the discipline of the Lord, verse 5 and following. What is the particular sin in the believers that he highlights?

It's not specified exactly. We can make a generic statement and say the problem is that faithless wine, why me? Why do I have to suffer? Why are there challenges in the culture? Why am I facing opposition?

Why, why, why? Why me? Why me?" Of course, none of us have ever said that. And so they're asking the question, why do we have to endure this suffering? And the answer is given very clearly there in verse 5.

Have you forgotten? In other words, you already knew but you've somehow forgotten. You've forgotten that the address to you from the Scriptures, here Proverbs 3, is to you as sons, as sons of the living God, and you are being treated as sons by a loving heavenly Father. And the purpose in part of the trials in this hostile world are your father's discipline, Your father's discipline. And then he gives the example, of course, that we know how earthly fathers act toward their sons.

And if you don't discipline your son, or if you're not disciplined as a son, that means that you are somehow an illegitimate son. And who wants to be in that category? We know our earthly fathers discipline us, how much more so our heavenly Father. And so the goal is, verse 11, to yield in you the peaceable fruit of righteousness, that you will be enabled to live a godly Christian life. There, I've spilled the water.

We've made a mess. I said, bring water up because you'll be thirsty. I said, no, you'll spill it. Prophetic word. So we know the discipline that the Lord brings to His children, His children, and we are sons.

Thank you. Anthony, I think you need a bigger pulpit. So then we come to, in some translations, a paragraph break between 11 and 12. Now it's interesting, You may have a different translation that breaks between 13 and 14. Why do Bible translators put paragraph breaks where they do?

Well they're trying to show us a division of thought, but I don't think the division is there. In fact, you could have kept it all as one paragraph because what's the main theme here? All the way back to verse 1 and running through up to this point and even in 14 we have this idea of running the race, running the race. So we're going forward, we're running a race. You may not see it clearly in 14, but look at how 14 begins.

Strive for peace with everyone. That's the ESV translation. The King James says, follow, rather weaker word. The NASB says pursue. I think that's the best translation.

Pursue. What are you pursuing? Verse 14, pursuing peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. The word could be translated aggressively chase. It's what a dog does when he's after his prey.

We had a young man in our church who had a coon dog. When he first got the dog, Ghost was the dog's name. Ghost was all over the place as a puppy, you know. You had to train the dog to do what he wanted it to do. But he took me out hunting with it after he had spent some time training this dog.

And once the dog got the scent of a raccoon, boom, he was off like a shot, racing through the woods, gets to the base of the tree, and barking, I've got it, I've got it, I've got it. That's the idea here behind this word, pursue. I don't think the King James follow really carries that and maybe not even strive. It's pursue peace with everyone and holiness without which no one will see the Lord." So I think that is a race metaphor from verse 1 all the way through here. It's the idea of pursuing, whether it's a hunter seeking his prey or a runner seeking the prize.

You're pursuing something. You're chasing after it. It's sort of a call to arms. You could use it militarily. Go after the enemy.

Chase it down. Do what you're called to do. And so in summary here in these verses, what we have is the purpose of our suffering in this hostile world, the goal of our heavenly Father, is to discipline us, is to train us, so that we can run the race and gain the prize. Gain the prize. And so therefore you lift up your weary hands, your drooping hands, you press on, you pursue peace and holiness, or you fall into the alternatives which are verse 15 and following.

And they're all sin. They're all sin. The root of bitterness. Why is this happening to me? Why is my life so hard?

The sin of Esau who despised grace, unable to repent, sexual immorality, all kinds of unholy behavior. No, what he says, here's what you do, you pursue holiness. The number one challenge facing every church leader today is the necessity of pursuing holiness. Personal godliness. That's what I want to look at with you today.

I don't want to tell you how to do it. That's another series of sermons. I want you to be impressed upon by the absolute necessity of pursuing holiness. As I look back over my life and my years in ministry, I think, how have I failed so miserably time and time again? So dear brothers, I want you to see before you today that the number one challenge that we face in this horrible world This difficult time that we're living in with all the challenges coming in we are not to look at the world We are not to look at ourselves even the own trouble.

We are to look to Jesus who tells us how to be holy and calls us to pursue holiness. We all know what holiness is. We know the Bible divides holiness into two aspects. We have that aspect of holiness is to set apart or to set apart for a particular use, the vessels in the tabernacle, God's people set apart to be holy. It's a declarative judgment of God.

It's something that you are. But then we have this wonderful work that God begins in us and continues in us of sanctifying grace that is progressive holiness. And that's what the writer here is talking about. Pursue this holiness. It's something you must go after.

As John Owen says, be killing sin or it will be killing you. And it's a process, a lifelong process. And God has decreed that His own would be set apart, holy, to become holy, progressively holy. And it's so important that Christ has given Himself for the church for that very end. He calls you to Himself.

He declares you His own. You are justified by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, And you are being sanctified. And that's the good news. It's a work of Christ in you, but it is also a pursuit. I preached this sermon similarly at another location.

One of the other speakers came to me afterward. He said, you sound like a legalist. We have to do, do, do. I thought, oh my goodness, you missed the point. It's all about Jesus in you and His Spirit and the means of grace and all the details that we don't have time to look at today, but you know what holiness is.

And there's plenty of instruction out there about how you are to pursue that. Read John Owen, volume 6, Mortification of Sin, all the other wonderful little booklets that are in that volume. Or Thomas Brooks. I don't have this, but I was told that Thomas Brooks, I think six volumes of Thomas Brooks, in volume 4, there are 50-some sermons on this text. If you want to know how to pursue holiness, I assume he'll tell you.

Or you could just take the very simple thing that your children can tell you, read your Bible, pray every day. That's how you pursue holiness. But that's not the point here today. I want to encourage you in the pursuit. Why?

Because I think we've lost it. The circles I run in, there are so many people who are pursuing freedom in Christ, they've forgotten to pursue holiness in Christ. That's what we're called to do in this text. So before we go any further, let me ask you, are you? Am I?

What are the means that you undertake in your personal life, not your professional life, not your calling, but in your personal life, what are the things that you're doing to actually fulfill this requirement? It's an imperative. Pursue holiness. What are you doing? And do you excuse unholiness?

You know, it's just the way I am. It's my personality. It's my situation. If you knew what I knew about where I am and what I do, you'd be like me. The call is to pursue holiness.

And if we're honest with ourselves, we know the unholy parts of our character. I like to listen to sermons on sermon audio. I used to play this game called sermon audio roulette. I'd be walking and I just hit it and whichever sermon came up but it got very disappointing after a while. So now I choose people and I was actually listening to a sermon by someone who's very close to us here, Paul Washer.

And he used the idea that where he was challenging, I forget the particular point of the sermon, he was challenging people. He says, look at yourself, not the self that you put out here, but the self that's in here, the one that nobody else sees. So thinking of yourself, the one that nobody else sees except the Lord, are you holy? Are we holy men? And are we pursuing holiness?

Let me give you four motivations as to why we need to do that. Four motivations. The first one comes from the actual clear verse, verse 14. The next two come largely from the context of chapter 12, and then the last one is just so blatantly obvious we can't ignore it. But before we get to those motives, let me just lay this out before you one other thing.

The promise is, as we're looking for motivation, As we're looking for ways to do it the promise is that God will sanctify you He will do it he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion Philippians 1 6 I have a dear friend who says, pursue holiness. You will be sanctified whether you like it or not. But you will like it. You will like it. Because it's what God wants for you.

So four motivations. Here's the first. It's obvious in the verse, verse 14, so that you see the Lord. Pursue holiness without which no one will see the Lord. The obvious implication, If you do pursue holiness, you will see the Lord the highest most glorious blessing that any believer could ever attain See the Lord blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God First John 3 to beloved we are now sons It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

We will see Him only because we are like Him, because we're holy. We're holy. So when shall you see the Lord? In glory, obviously. You will see the Lord in all of His glory.

The Lord Jesus Christ, exalted at the right hand of the Father, you will see Him in His reigning glory. And you will be there because you are then completely holy. Revelation 21, Nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false. If the sinless angels have to veil their faces in the presence of the Lord, what makes you think that you can get before the presence of the Lord without being holy? And so if you are holy, absolutely pure, you will see the Lord.

God who is holy has no unholy children in glory. The unholy will wish that the rocks and mountains would fall upon them, lest they see Him or He sees them. So you will see the Lord in glory, that is clear. But what about now? What about now?

Think of this for a moment, if you will. People who are growing in holiness see, in quotations, the Lord spiritually. What is the passage open with in verse 2? Look to Jesus. Or some translations, look at Jesus.

How do we see Jesus now? We don't see Him with our eyes, but we see what? We see what He has accomplished. We see His redemptive power. We see His presence in our lives, we see His promises in His Word, we see His commands in His Word, we see Jesus wonderfully.

But if you're not pursuing holiness, you're not seeing any of this. You're not seeing it. The more you grow in holiness, the more you will see Jesus in this sense here and now. And is He not altogether lovely? So pursue holiness because without that you will not see the Lord now or later.

Pursue holiness. It's absolutely necessary if you want to see the Lord. That's the first motive. It's the shortest. It's the most obvious.

Ask yourself, do you want to see the Lord? Do you want to see Him present in your life here and now, working in you, helping you, not only as a man, as a father, as a husband, but as a godly leader in the church? Do you want to see Jesus to have your eyes fixed on Him? Or are you more happy to be fixed on all the things of the world or your own personal life? What are you pursuing?

It's very clear the writer is saying pursue holiness because if you pursue holiness and you're pursuing the Lord, The two are the same. If you're coming to become like Jesus, you're becoming holy. And if you're striving to be holy, the only one that you can be like is Jesus. So pursue holiness Because without that you won't see the Lord. That's that's the first motive.

The second is from the larger context here Remember the Christians are struggling with persecution They're they're in under pressure to conform to the world And so the second motive is this holiness is absolutely necessary because it's the best defense against the offenses of the world. We're being attacked. We the church, we those who are very striving for a biblical faithfulness are being attacked even by parts of the church. There's an offensive world against us, and our best defense is to pursue holiness. Now there's two possible temptations that we can fall into that actually work against that.

The first temptation is to pull away so far from the world that we no longer have an impact. It's the monastic option. Down through the centuries the church has always had a strain within it, a group of people who have said the best way to pursue holiness is to pull back. Years ago I was in Greece and they took us to this place called Metanora. It's a beautiful geographic feature of these pillars of rock that just rise up very, very small.

Some of them no bigger than this platform, but some of them large enough to build buildings on. But the only way up was to scale the side of this sheer rock. And I believe back in the fourth century, monks began to live on top of these pillars. Why? Because they could pursue holiness, they thought, apart from the world.

They had to have their food brought up in baskets, and they lowered waste down in baskets. They lived away from the world. It's a temptation. What's the problem? Well, it's not that the sin is out there.

Where's the sin? It's right here, and I can live on a rock all by myself, and I still have to deal with my sin. Now it may be easier in some cases to pursue holiness there, but it's not the solution. It's not the solution. The other temptation is just as bad, and that is of course to conform to the world.

Many parts of the church say, well, the best way to be attractive to the unbeliever is to become like the unbeliever. In various ways, we have our standards. They're low, but we have standards. And we compromise. Well, this doctrine's not that important, or maybe we can just not speak about that so loudly.

And we compromise and we become like the world. Both of these are wrong and you know it. The pursuit of holiness is motivated, secondly, then, by this, that the best defense against the offense of the world is our own personal holiness. Why is that so? Because as we're focused on that, as we are pursuing Christ and His holiness and becoming more and more like Jesus, that becomes the focus of our life.

And we're not saying, well, I pull away from the world or I become like the world. I'm pursuing Jesus. And therefore I'm, as it were, setting up a wall of faithfulness and godliness against the onslaughts of the world. Just think about the danger of compromise. One of your dear brothers in the Lord, you went to college with Him, or perhaps you were in ministry together years ago, and now He comes to you and He says, well, I've begun to think differently about this because maybe it's a better approach in our present day.

Well, if you're not pursuing holiness and understanding what the Scriptures say and knowing who Jesus is, then your ears might be tickled by your brother's attempt to compromise. But as you're pursuing holiness, as you're in the Word, as you're faithfully following Christ, what do you see and know? You say no to that. That's of the pit. That's not what I'm called to do or to be.

This is my path, this is my race, this is my goal, and this is the way I'm going. Sorry, brother, I can't go with you." You see how it's a defensive posture then because of what you're engaged in. Think of the athlete. Here's the imagery here, the running of the race. The athlete is engaged.

If he's at Olympic levels, he spends hours a day pursuing whatever one thing he wants to do best. If he's a runner, he runs and runs and exercises. And someone says, come, let's go out tonight. Let's drink and eat and be merry. He says, no, I've got to run tomorrow morning.

Brothers, if you're pursuing the holiness of Jesus Christ, that's your focus, that's where your mind is, that's where your heart is, and you do not have the time for these other things. So it's a good defense. Why do we need defense? Because the world's on offense. It's attacking the church.

If you don't know that, you're living in a cave, or maybe on top of one of those pillars. If you don't see what's happening, brothers, it's an offensive attack against the church of the likes that we haven't seen in decades. But don't be fooled and think this is the only time it's ever happened. Read your church history. Read your church history and see that at every period in church history there has always been this attack at some part against the church, and it's coming now against us.

Why particularly do you think? I think it's because the church in North America is particularly weak. I go to Africa regularly. I teach pastors over there. They're not being attacked in the same ways we are.

They're in a Muslim country, so The challenges that they face are completely different But we're being attacked that the world is on offense and we need to dig in our heels and stand with a good Defense and and the world has even hijacked the agenda and and just find the terms and we have to say no I think Scott mentioned that last night We are people of a word and the word has meaning and we stand on certain truths and we must stand for those But to do that of course we have to be holy men We have to be holy men The pursuit of holiness protects your heart. It is a wall of godliness that the world will press against but cannot push over. Pursuing holiness purifies your heart. The world will have nothing in you to attack. First Peter chapter 2, in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to what?

Make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do it with what? Gentleness and respect, having a good conscience so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. It is better to suffer for doing good, for doing God's will than for doing evil. I think Anthony read that verse last night.

You see, it's a good defense to be godly so that when they try to challenge you and you say, well, you're not so Christian or you're not so nice. They don't have that. They don't have that. We have to pursue holiness. And if we're pursuing holiness, we're not distracted by the things of the world.

And not just the things of the world that are obviously contrary to the gospel. There are lots of good things that we could pursue. If you've read church history, you'll know that in the Victorian era, the pastors of England, particularly Church of England, were botanists, archaeologists, philologists, and then they were pastors. It was quite the popular thing to do in Victorian era for the pastor to have a hobby that actually consumed him. Brothers, if you're pursuing holiness, you don't have time for that.

You don't have time for that. Many years ago I had an opportunity to study for three months. The church was tired of my preaching, I think, so they said, go away, learn something. And I went to Cambridge, England and was able to study in the wonderful libraries there at the university. Fabulous libraries.

And we attended the church pastored by Ian Hamilton. You may know Ian. So Ian met with me and he said, well, What's your goal here? Three months of study, that's ideal. What are you going to do?" And I had this long list of topics that I wanted to flesh out and to discover and think about and all these things that were good.

And he says, just study to become a better Christian. That'll be sufficient. That's what we need to do. Study to become better Christians because it's a defense against all the things that can distract you, that will come against you, that will lead you away from your number one calling, which is to be like Christ. Your number one calling is not to be a pastor.

Your number one calling is not to be a leader in the church. Your number one calling is to be like Jesus. And that's what He's saying here, pursue holiness. Pursue holiness. That's what we're called to do.

Are you? If you take one thing out of this message, just write it down, am I pursuing holiness? You know if you have a vitamin deficiency or some chemical deficiency in your body, you go to your doctor and he says, well, you need to take this medication and you need to do this. And if you don't, your body will be weak because you have a deficiency. Where's your deficiency in holiness?

You see, there's categories of it. We see some of those spelled out here in chapter verse 15 and following. But what's your deficiency? Is it anger? You're very, very good at everything else in the Christian life, but you blow up at the slightest little thing.

Is it laziness? You know, the great thing about being a pastor is most of the time people don't know what you're doing, so therefore they think you don't do anything. But you can easily be lazy. Today you have sermons at your fingertips. You can download them, preach them as your own.

It's laziness. Is it pornography? I just saw a study yesterday on Tim Chally's post, the phenomenal numbers of men and women who are engaged in pornography. Where's the hole in your holiness? What's the gap?

What's the deficiency that you've got everything else seemingly covered, but boy, this is the one that's just eating away like a cancer in your soul. Attack that one because it's the best defense. It's the best defense against all the offenses that the world will bring into your life. That's the second motive. Third one is almost like it, just the reverse.

What's the best defense? A good offense. The third motive for pursuing holiness, it's the best offense we have against everything else. You know, a lot of people are saying the church needs to just be in a defensive posture. This is sort of like that pulling away desire to be away from the world and not be encumbered by the world and so therefore I'm just going to be defensive.

But no, we're called to pursue and pursue by nature is an offensive action, right? It's to go forward in something. So the third motivation is to pursue holiness because it's the best offense, the best offense we have. Now there's two ways in which that will work out. Number one, you will be offensive, sort of like a bad smell.

The more holy you are, you will be offensive to a fallen, broken world and to many people in the church. You're gonna be offensive. Someone will be offended, guaranteed today. The more Christlike you are, the more you'll offend other people. Your offensive behavior as they see it will be convicting to them.

Jesus says in John 15, if the world hated Me, they will also hate you. Why? Because you're like Jesus. You're not striving to be offensive, but you will be offensive. That's the first way in which you'll be on the offense, if you will.

But the second way is just as important. You will be seen as proactive, as taking initiative. You will be offensive in the sense of what you do when you have the ball. You press forward. You drive down the court.

Again, many people advocate Christians just need to hold our ground today because the world is attacking us at the very base of what we believe. But we must be offensive because therein lies the power. We take the Gospel to the world. We don't just sit in our little church enclaves and hope those worldly people don't come and demonstrate against us. When I played high school soccer, I was 60 pounds lighter than I am today.

Pretty scary looking. The coach said, well, you're tall, you're skinny, but you're tall. You'll be on defense, and when they come at the goal, you just stand there and loom large. Well, it's hard to loom large when you're 145 pounds. And I'd get knocked over because I'd stand there and they were coming at me and what would they do?

They had the physical force that was moving and they'd knock me over. The coach wisely said, listen, Davis, you're so skinny. Why don't you run? You're fast. So you run at them and you will knock them over and that will be more effective.

And in fact it was. Brothers, if we're sitting in a defensive posture against the world today and thinking I'll just be holy here and I'll just hold on to what I've got, then the world is going to knock us over. No, we are pursuing holiness, and that's a movement forward, and that's what we need to be doing. And that's offensive, first in the negative way, but it's also moving the church forward. We don't do this in our own power.

We don't do this because we are wanting to be offensive in that bad smell sort of way, But because we have a glorious truth and a glorious gospel and a glorious Savior and we go forward with that and we're not ashamed of the gospel. We're offensive. We're showing the world Jesus. Pursuing holiness is the best offense against a hostile world as we show them Jesus Christ. Think of this maybe in a new way because if we don't, they won't see Jesus.

I Said the first motive was we would not see Jesus But unless we're taking the gospel to the world offensively Then the world will not see Jesus Although see his church walls and Christians huddled together and they won't see the glorious truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have to take it out to them. We have to be offensive in that way. The unbelieving world won't see Jesus and His character and His holiness unless you take it to the world. You are the feet of Christ.

You are the life of Christ. You are hopefully the holiness of Christ. You demonstrate that as you take it into the world. So what the apostle Peter is saying in 1 Peter 2, You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of His own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Verse 12, so therefore keep your conduct, your holy living, keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as an evildoer, they may see what?

Your good works and glorify you? No, God, because they see Christ in you. They'll begin to say things like, did you ever meet a more honest man? Have you ever met a man with such integrity? They may not know Christ, But they'll begin to see something in you that is different than the world around them, and they'll be attracted to the glorious gospel by His grace.

Your holiness is necessary because that's how unbelievers are going to see the world. That's offense. That's taking the ball to them. That's moving forward. An increasingly holy man will stick out in an unholy world.

So where's your holiness? Where's your holiness? Hidden somewhere, weak, deficient. There's a big hole in it. And how do you play it out?

Do people see it? It can't just be holy when you're at church. It can't be a holiness that is just effective now and then. It must be a holiness that radiates from the very core of who you are because of what Christ has done in you and how He has made you His own and is working in you to make you more and more like Jesus. And it's not something that you put on and take off.

It's who you are. Without holiness no one will see the Lord. You won't and the world won't. It's your best offense, it's your best defense. And then lastly this, I think it's obvious that if you are personally holy, it's a good offense, it's a good defense, but it's absolutely vital for the church in which you serve.

Brothers, how many churches have been hurt horribly by their leaders' unholiness? You say, Ah, but we are N-C-A-F-I-C people. We read the right books, we go to the right conferences, we would never fail. But do we not all know someone in church, leadership, pastors, elders, deacons, who have done something so harmful to the body of Christ by their own personal unholiness. Three years ago, I got word that the man who had been pastor at my church prior to me had fallen into gross, repeated, long-term sexual sin, and I had to tell the congregation.

They were devastated. They wanted to know, well, was he like that when he was here? How long has this been going on? What does that mean about the gospel? He was such a good preacher.

My brothers, we must be holy because if we not, we'll harm our church. We'll hurt the sheep. It's not here in the text, that's not what the apostle is writing about here, but our own personal holiness is vital for the people we lead and serve. And they look to us, sometimes wrongly. They expect us to be the apostle Paul or Jesus himself, but brothers, that's what we're being called to be here, like Jesus.

And Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ. Three of my favorite quotations on the point, Robert Murray McShane, the greatest need of my people is my own personal holiness. If someone asked you what's the greatest need of your congregation? You might say, well, we need a bigger sanctuary. We need better chairs.

They're not comfortable. We need more deacons. We need better preaching. We need whatever. No, no, the greatest need of my people is my own personal holiness.

That said by one of the most holy godly men I've ever read about. Have you thought about that? Richard Baxter, you will cut the throat of many a sermon by living an unholy life. A couple of years ago, I got publicly angry at a woman in our church. I don't think she listens to me anymore.

She comes. I've apologized, but I don't think she listens anymore. Again McShane, a holy Minister is an awful, we would say awesome, an awful weapon in the hand of God. Your holiness helps your ministry. Your unholiness will cut the throat of everything you say.

And isn't it the gravest shame that so many in our day, so many leaders publicly have fallen defaming the name of Christ? It hurts them, they lose their position, but it hurts Christ. Christ will overcome that, His church will go forward, but brothers, do we not see the absolute necessity of pursuing holiness because we are responsible for souls. And if we're not holy, we're being irresponsible. So where's our hope?

I hope I've set before you some motivation. But where's our hope? Our hope lies in this, that he who began a good work in me will bring it to completion. That's our hope. Don't miss the point.

It's looking unto Jesus. It's using the means of grace that He has given to us. It's reading all the good books. It's going to the good conferences. But it's Jesus and the power of the Spirit upon the Word, the means of grace to us, that will grow us and sanctify us in holiness.

And if we're not pursuing that doggedly, then we'll grow, but slowly, incrementally. We need the power of the Spirit. We need the Word of God working in our bones, in our souls, sanctifying us, showing us our particular holes, deficiencies, weaknesses, eradicating them with the power of the Spirit, and making us holy men. You can get consumed by looking at the world. You can study how to say the best apologetic against homosexuality or gender dysphobia or all the different terms.

I don't even know them all. You can get consumed by those things, or you can strive to become a holy man. We don't ignore the issues that the world is attacking. We understand them. But our number one desire, our number one pursuit is the glory of God in us as we become more holy.

The author and finisher of our faith is Jesus Christ. He has begun a good work in you And he tells you to pursue, pursue. Ask yourself, what do I need to do to order my day? What do I need to do to order my life? What do I need to do to order my family, to assist them?

And how do I best help my congregation so that all of us together collectively are doing this, pursuing holiness because without that we will not see the Lord. It's a call to arms. I love reading history. One of the greatest call to arms was that of Admiral Nelson. He was vice admiral, 1805, Battle of Trafalgar.

You know the whole British fleet is there and the whole French fleet is there, and to signal to his troops he had a series of flags hoisted. England expects every man to do his duty. And then he followed up, engaged the enemy more closely. Those are both good calls to us. Engage the enemy more closely.

How? By pursuing holiness. It's your duty. And your Lord, your Master, not Admiral Nelson, but your Lord and Master says, pursue holiness. That's your duty.

That's your calling. There's countless more motivations in the Scripture for it. But it's what we're called to do, and look at what we have. We have the promises of Scripture that God will make us holy. We have the promise that He will give us His Spirit.

We have the promise that we have the Word of God as the wonderful means by which we grow in grace and come to know the Lord. We have each other to build each other up in the faith and to challenge each other. We have everything we need, brothers, except maybe the motivation. So let this passage then be a motivating force. Let's go back to the Word again and again.

We have these promises, so pursue holiness. Because without that, all these things fall down and you may not see the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we Thank you that you have called us to this great high calling. We thank you, Lord, that you have given us all that we need to accomplish these things, not in our own strength, but in the strength of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

And so, Father, give us through the means of your grace to us all that is necessary for us to be holy, holy men, reflecting the glory of Christ in us so that He will receive all the glory. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.