And we're going to be continuing through this study of this tremendous book, this tremendous letter written by the Apostle Paul to this church in Thessalonica, the second city that he came to on his journey into Europe. And this particular meeting with this church was a profitable one. The Lord brought many into this church. Many became saved. And unfortunately, Paul had to leave very suddenly, and that is why he wrote this letter, to be able to share with him what he felt concerning them and what he wanted to teach them when he received a report from his co-worker, Timothy, after he had been there and visited and received some wonderful responses. So this morning we're going to be returning to this book, especially in chapter four. Last week, we ended chapter three as we look at God's role in your spiritual growth. And we learned, as it says in other passages, that it is God that gives the increase in our lives as Christians. If we desire to grow, One person may plant a seed in our life. One person may water that seed. But it is always God that gives the increase. And He deserves all the credit if there is any kind of spiritual growth happening in our lives or in our families or in our church. God deserves all the glory and all the credit. But this truth that God gives the increase, does not in any way take away from our role and our personal responsibility for spiritual growth as well. And what we saw last week is now the other side of the coin that we see in chapter 4 that talks about our role and our responsibility in this process of spiritual growth. Paul wrote a prayer to the Thessalonians that he was asking God in v. 12 that the Lord would make you to increase and abound in love toward one another and toward all men, even as we do toward you. Paul recognized that it was the Lord's doing for their spiritual increase. But then we come to these verses in v. 1-8, and then we see that he is exhorting them and beseeching them that now they will walk as they taught them to walk." In other words, to do what they told them to do in order to grow spiritually. You see, in verse 10 of chapter 3, he noticed that there was something lacking in their faith. He said, "...night and day, praying exceedingly that we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith." There was something there, something lacking that needed to be addressed, that needed to be taught, that needed to be brought out in their lives so that they could grow in even a greater way. Now, the problem does not seem to be their knowledge, because Paul throughout this epistle says, you know this about God, you know this about our teaching, you know this and you know that. It doesn't seem like there was a great problem with their knowledge. They knew that their salvation was of the Lord. They knew that their growth was from the Lord. But I think the thing that is lacking that we see in these verses is the problem with their application. Not their knowledge, but their application. The putting into practice the things that they knew. And so let's look at these first eight verses and consider what he's teaching about how to be holy. Furthermore, Paul writes, Then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us how ye ought to walk and how you ought to please God, so ye would abound more and more. For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification or holiness and honor. Not in the lust of concupiscence. That's basically talking about a lust from the passions of your flesh. The lust of concupiscence. even as the Gentiles which don't know God, and that no man go beyond or defraud his brother in any matter, because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. For God has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit. The issue that we find in these verses is the issue of holiness in the life of a believer. These verses are written to a church, to people that know Christ as their Savior, to a group of people who have God working in their life to bring them to a point of holiness and growth. This is not how you become saved, these verses. This is not how you gain God's pleasure so that He will save you. This is something that happens after you're saved through a process called sanctification, where God brings you from where you were to where you will be through holiness by the Holy Spirit. Holiness, in these eight verses, appears in some form four times. Sometimes we see the actual word holy or holiness, and other times we see the word sanctification. It all comes from the same word that describes holiness. Holiness is an important issue for a believer. Why? because the Scripture teaches that God is holy. And not only is God holy, but God wants you as His child to be holy as well. And that is why it is so important for us to consider the issue of holiness this morning. But the question often comes to my mind when I see the phrase in the Bible, God saying, Be holy, for I am holy. That shows to us His holiness and His desire all coupled together. The question comes to my mind, well, how then can I be holy? How, Lord, can I be holy like you are? I believe that's the main point of these verses. And in verse 1, Paul writes, Furthermore, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us, how you ought to walk and to please God. Literally, when you look at that word how, He is describing to you the how of holiness. The how, the practical application of the truth about God's holiness. So this is going to be a very practical message as we consider not just the fact that God gives the increase, but also the fact that we must be holy. It is a command that we must implement in our lives as Christians, resting upon the Spirit that He gives us to enable us to be holy. So we find in these verses the how of holiness. We've already learned about God's role, the who of holiness. Now we're going to learn about our role, the how of spiritual growth and holiness. So we want to consider this question. How can you and I be holy? How can you and I live lives that are holy before God, the same kind of lives that he desires us to have because he is holy? First, we see in verses one and two that you must respond to the Lord's commands. Verse 1 again says, furthermore, this is the rest of what he's trying to bring out. We beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as you have received of us the how of how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more. That's that spiritual growth. For ye know in verse 2 what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. We need to respond to the Lord's commands if we desire to be holy. Because according to these verses, God's commands still stand. God's commands still stand. These Thessalonian believers knew what it took to walk and to please God. Paul said, you know what we've given you. You received them when we were there with you, and you know what it takes to walk with God. You know what it takes to please God. And the fact is, so do we, don't we? We have been here many years. We have sat in the very same pew, some of you in the very same seats, for years. And we know what God expects of us. We know His commands. We know that He desires us to be holy because He is holy. But that's not the problem, is it? The problem isn't so much the knowledge. The problem is the application of this knowledge. We read His commands from His Word. We hear about His commands from this pulpit, but we do not know how to apply what He teaches. As I said in our Sunday school this morning, in the adult Sunday school class, the Christian life is not that complicated. The fact is, when God tells us to do something through a command, what are we to do? We're supposed to respond to it and obey it. The hard part is getting our will to obey what those commands are. And that is why He's given to us the Spirit of God to enable us and to equip us and to challenge us and to convict us when we don't. And so we have for us here a response that we must have to the Lord's commands. And that is part of the application to be holy. We need to respond by listening to His commands. Paul appeals to the Thessalonian believers in verse 1 to listen. Why? Because of its importance of these commands. He says, I beseech you and I exhort you. He says, this is very important and I am going to literally beg you to listen to what I have to say, because your life and holiness as a Christian depends upon it. Listen! I'm begging you to listen because this is the only way that you'll get built up. This is the only way that you'll be exhorted. This is the only true path to holiness is if you listen to God's commands. You need to listen because this relationship that we have, Paul says, is important. Paul described them as brethren. He was part of that same family, that same Christian family, and so are we. We are brethren with Paul. We have the same Heavenly Father who seeks to make us holy because He is holy. And this world that is tainted with sin and ungodliness and worldliness and fleshliness, holiness is an issue that is so critical in our lives as Christians and in this church today. God seeks holiness in the lives of His people. Why? Because he is whole. And now he describes for us how we need to listen because he is our father. We also need to listen because this request is important and because of the importance of our ruler. These commandments. that Paul is describing in verse 2. For ye know what commandments we gave to you by the Lord Jesus. These commandments were not the commandments of men. These were the commandments given to Paul by the Lord Jesus Christ. These are the commandments that we are to follow. The commandments from the Word. Now, Jesus told the Pharisees who were trying to make up commandments of men and then put them out as the doctrines of God. That was not true. That was not right. That was hypocritical. But there is nothing wrong with a teacher or a preacher to come before a people of God and say, God's commands still stand. And if you are a child of God, your desire and quest for your whole life ought to be holy because He is holy. And the first step to becoming holy is to listen to His commandments because of their importance and their crucialness in our lives. We need to be holy. We need to listen, not just for the knowledge of His commands. Some of the kids downstairs could probably quote to us from top to bottom all of the Ten Commandments. And they could go through a lot of verses about what God expects. And we all could do this. We all know some of those things. But the fact is, it's not our knowledge that we need to listen for. It is for application. It is the how. James puts it this way. Be doers of the word and not hearers, what? only because if you're here is only, James says, you're deceiving your own selves. There is a process where we must comply with the commandments that God has given to us in order to be like him in holiness. We need to respond by listening to His commands. Also, we need to respond, as we see in these verses, by living up to His commands. There are some things that are necessary in your Christian life, Paul is saying. He is saying there are some things, the how, of how you can walk with God and how you can please God. These are absolutely necessary for you as a Christian. Some of those things that we commonly would consider are reading the Bible. This is an absolute necessity if you want to become holy and grow as a Christian. Prayer is another absolute necessity that you and I all know that this is how we are to walk with God and how we are to please God, by prayer. fellowship with other people, other Christians. This is another how that God has given to us that we clearly know, but we need to continue to apply. We need to not just hear, but then heed and live up to those commands. He teaches us that we know how we should walk with God and how we should please God. Now, this is one of the great privileges of Christianity. Christians can please God. You have, through the Holy Spirit's power, now, as a Christian, the capability to please God as you walk with Him and as you live for Him and as you become holy and grow in Him. Before you were a Christian, you could have never pleased God. Now that you are a Christian, He teaches you how you can please God. This is a great opportunity for us and ought to be a great desire of your heart. And how we can please God is by being holy because He is holy. We need to respond by living up to His commands, but also we need to respond by learning from His commands. As we listen to and live up to His commands, what's going to happen? It says in verse 1, His prayer is that they would abound more and more. If you listen to the commands of God and then you start living your life according to those commands, you know what's going to happen? You're going to grow as a Christian. You're going to grow. You may start growing very small, like a very small seed, like a mustard seed. Jesus said the kingdom of God is like a grain of mustard seed. And it is very small at the very beginning, but then as it grows, it becomes very large. And that is what happens in a very mysterious sense as we apply ourselves to the means and the process that God has given to us to grow. As we apply ourselves to that, then He produces growth. It may start out very small, but at the end we will be able to say and look back and say that God has given the increase and we are stronger and we are more knowledgeable and we are more loving and we are more holy because of what God has done for us. Because God uses your response to His commands to cultivate spiritual growth in your life. Jesus said it this way in John 15, 8. Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit. The Lord's desire is that you be a fruitful Christian. This isn't just talking about souls saved, though I think that's included. It's talking about growth spiritually as you become more holy like He is holy. And as you apply yourselves to the process of God's commands and listening and living those commands, in a very unique and yet mysterious way that we cannot fully understand. God's spirit is bringing about holiness in our lives. God brings the increase. That is his role. But we also have a responsibility to respond to those commands because God's commands still stand and his commands are for us to be holy. How are we responding to that command? If we don't respond, we'll never be holy. But as you respond to those commands and it shows to you that the Holy Spirit is working in your life, you will become holy and you will grow as a Christian, because this is a crucial matter in our life. A second way that we are to be holy is not just by responding to the Lord's commands, but also you must respond to the Lord's will that we see in verses 3-6. What is the Lord's will in your life as a Christian? Verse 3 says this, if you didn't know, this is the will of God, even your sanctification. What is he describing there? Well, the Lord's will is for you to be made holy. That's what that word sanctification means. God's will is that you become like Him. God's desire, God's sole aim of saving you is to conform you to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. It is to make you holy. And when you obey His commands, you will become more and more holy. How are we sanctified according to these verses? When we respond to the Lord's will. We see in verse 3 that you are sanctified through personal cleansing. Again, in verse three, he says, this is the will of God, even your sanctification. And then he adds that you should abstain from fornication. You see, holiness is not just going to come about as we sit there and soak in the word of God. Knowledge is not the problem. application is. As we sit and we soak the Word of God and we receive all this knowledge from God, then we must act upon that knowledge and we must do those things that He commands. And what does He command us here? He says, this is the will of God. Even your holiness, even your sanctification, now abstain from fornication. This is a personal choice and a personal cleansing that you must do in your life as a Christian in order to be holy. You must comply with God's commands. You must comply with the Holy Spirit in your sanctification. Now, there's one key area that is mentioned here, and I think one of the reasons why it is mentioned is because it is such a prevalent issue in all of Christianity and in all the world. He says you need to comply with the Holy Spirit by abstaining from the sin of fornication. What is fornication? It is sexual impurity and infidelity. We all know what fornication is. We all understand what God's commands are concerning sexuality. We all understand what that is. But then it's the application that is the problem. And from the very beginning to the very end of Scripture, we see this as a prevalent issue. And we understand that this is an issue even in churches today. And the fact is, we as believers, in order to be sanctified, must comply with God's commands of abstaining from fornication, from this kind of sin. But I believe that Paul is using this particular sin of sexual impurity as an example to show us the how of becoming holy and abstaining from all of these kinds of sins. In order to become holy, we need to abstain from this sin of fornication, but also from others. Now, how do you abstain from this kind of sin? How do you abstain from sexual immorality as well as other kinds of sins that will prevent us from becoming holy? Last year, when they were doing our roof on the church, did anybody notice something happening to our hedges here alongside? They started dying. Did anybody notice that? I know at least one other person noticed that, but they were dying. Why? Because as they were working on the roof, they took a tarp and they stuck it over that because they wanted to protect it. Now, that was a nice thought. But as they put that in, the sun beat on that tarp and literally baked the life out of part of that hedge. This is what sin does to the process of sanctification. It snots out the very process of it, and that is why when it comes to sexual immorality or any kind of sin that you struggle with, abstinence is absolutely necessary for your holiness. And we need to abstain from sin. Now, how do we do this? First of all, it's a matter of attitude. We need to understand that the sin's target is your soul. Peter says it this way in 1 Peter 2.11, he says, abstain, that's the same word, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Do you realize that the sins that sometimes we are beset by so easily, as the Scripture says, the sins that we think are secret to ourselves, that we hold in our own hearts, in our own lives, Do you realize that sin is warring against your very soul? Do you realize the seriousness of sin in your life? James talks about what happens to sin. Sin, when it is conceived, bringeth forth all these things, ultimately death. It is warring against your soul and we need to have an attitude recognizing the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Today we live in a day and age where sin is not that sinful anymore. We're able to read it, to look upon it, to engage in it, and it seems like nothing happens. And we wonder why we aren't growing as a Christian. We have all this knowledge. We come to church day in and day out, Sunday after Sunday. We go through the Take 20 and we were reading through the Bible this year. A noble and valiant effort. But without an application of that knowledge, without an abstaining from that kind of sin that creeps up in our life that we are doing, without that, we will be snuffed out and we will not achieve the holiness that it is God's desire to bring about in our life. What sin is in your life and in my life that we must abstain from? What sin is there that is a black spot on our heart that we have not confessed before God, that we are holding to ourselves, and we wonder why we're not growing? Holiness will come about when you abstain from fleshly lusts. And you've got to have that attitude. You've got to realize the seriousness of sin, but also, you need to do whatever it takes to avoid it. Later in this book, Paul says in chapter 5, verse 22, to abstain again. That's the same word. Abstain, not just here from fornication, but abstain from all appearance of evil. This is how we become holy. Through the Holy Spirit doing His part in His role and we doing our part by abstaining from even the very appearance of evil. This is why today Standards are still very important. And this is not a popular subject for churches today. They say as long as you live a life in your liberty and you don't offend a brother, that's OK. But they fail to recognize that the standard of holiness that God sets for us is high because God is holy. We ought to be holy. And to abstain from sin means to even abstain from the very appearance of sin. I remember I had a instructor when I was in grade school and she was telling me a story about a co-worker of hers, another college teacher or another professor at a Christian college there. He was a man of God who went to a Christian school. And what was said was he was in his office and he was chewing on a pen, a white pen like this. He was chewing. And it was sticking out of his mouth. And my teacher went by and she stopped and she did a double take and she looked and she she just kind of chuckled and laughed. And she said, well, Brother Blue Eye, that was his name. I thought you were smoking in a church. He immediately took that pencil out of that pen out and he said, avoid all appearance of evil. He didn't even want anyone to think that he was taking his body in that way. He didn't even want anybody to think that he was doing that to his life. He wanted to have a pure lifestyle before God. He wanted to abstain from all appearance of evil. How easy is it for us to think, well, something's not so bad. Something isn't so bad. And yet our standards are becoming looser and looser and looser to the point where we don't have any at all. It's what we listen to, it's what we wear, it's what we say. The purpose of standards is not for others, it is for us. This is why I need to apply this abstinence and have personal standards in my life that will guard me from temptation to sin and will guard me from the very appearance of evil so that I can be holy. for God is holy. This is God's aim. This is God's will for your life. Is this your desire as well? To be holy as He is holy? And if it is, you will abstain from these things. Not only that, you are sanctified through personal control. And we see these in verses 4 and 5 where Paul says that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel or his body in sanctification and in honor, not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles, which know not God. He not only says that you need to abstain from sin, abstain from the very appearance of sin. He also says now part of this process of holiness is that you need to learn how to control your own body and flesh. You need to have a personal control over yourself. You need to know how to possess your vessel. That's referring to your body. Now, this is describing in context here about fornication. We need to be able how to bridle our lusts. We need to be able to know how to control our passions and to do those things that God does allow us to do properly. We all understand that sins naturally come out of the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life. These are natural things. It's OK to have a hunger for food, but it is not OK to have that as your life. It is okay to have sexual desire and urges, but that is natural. But it is not okay to do that according to the world's standards. You've got to keep that in the context of Scripture. One man, one woman for life. And that's what it teaches. So yes, God provides outlets for these natural desires. But He also says you need to control those desires so they don't control you. And this world that we see out there is running rampant with people that can't control themselves. And we see this when Hollywood actors are going to prison and going to psych wards and getting pregnant outside of wedlock and having all these problems. Why? It is because they do not have a control over their own body and their own lusts. And Paul says, you need to know how to possess your vessel. You need to know how to possess your body. You need to know how to bridle those passions, just like you know how to bridle a horse. We bridle horses, don't we? Very easily. You can put a bridle on a horse, as James teaches, and you can move that horse wherever you want. You can't do that to a person with their passions and their lusts. You can't control it that way. It has to be controlled from the inside through the power of the Holy Ghost. Do not let your lusts and your passions rule over you. You rule over them, always relying on the power of God. How can we now rule over our lusts? I believe in verse 4 it says that we need to do it in sanctification and honor. In other words, through morality. In sanctification, that is the word for holiness. This is how we control our bodies through morality. In other words, we hold ourselves to a high standard of morality. We put ourselves in a position to be in a place where godliness is promoted, not ungodliness. If we go to where ungodliness is promoted, do we think that we will remain moral? Do you think that we will maintain a control over our passions and our bodies? Absolutely not! We must have a control by remaining moral, but also, as it says here, in honor or through modesty. It's not just the morality that God gives us in the Scripture. It is also the honor and the decent things and the proper things that we must do and think about in our lives. In Philippians chapter 4, Paul says it this way, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, If there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things which ye have learned and received and heard and seen in me, do, and the God of peace shall be with you. The fact is, if we are setting our minds on the things of this world, we will never, ever, ever be able to maintain holiness because it will take away our personal control enabled by the power of God. You are sanctified through controlling your body in morality and in modesty, but also in verse six, we see that you are sanctified through personal concern. It's not just an abstaining. It's not just knowing how to control your body and your passions, but also you need to know how to control your conduct toward others. In verse six, he says, adding to this, this is your sanctification, that no man goes beyond and defraud his brother in any matter, not just the matter of sexual impurity, but in any matter, because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testify. We need to know how to control our conduct toward others, especially other Christians. And he gives us two points here. He says, first of all, don't step over one another. It is so easy to go around each other, to ignore the desires and the needs and the interests of others, to brush them aside. It is so easy to go around and to step over each other. The greatest illustration of this is where the Good Samaritan, before he came and saw this man that had been almost left dead. What happened before he came and helped this man on the road to Jericho? What happened? A priest went by. A Levite stepped over his brother. They didn't have any care about his interests. And this is another area where we are able to achieve holiness through the power of the Lord is when we see that we are offending others. When we see that we are giving a problem and we're producing a stumbling block to someone else, what do we do? We must not go there. We must not do that. We must not step over another Christian, but also We are not to step on one another either. It says, don't defraud your brother. Don't take advantage of them. Sin does not affect just you when you sin. There's no such thing as a secret sin. Jesus says in Luke 8, 17, for nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest. neither anything hid that shall not be made known and come abroad." When you offend another Christian, you haven't just offended yourself or that other Christian. You've offended God Himself. Because in Zechariah 2.8, God says, He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye. If you step over or step on other believers, not caring what they think, or sinning and offending them, not caring what the consequences will be, You're touching the apple of God's eye. And God says, I will be the avenger in verse six of all such. That's a warning. That's a warning that he says there. A warning to us that realize we need to fear God. Yes, there needs to be a fear of God because that is part of becoming holy. When we realize that God is holy and we realize that we are not holy and when we sin, that ought to produce a fear of God in our life that brings us back on our knees and say, God, forgive me because I have sinned. And I have done dreadfully in your sight. I don't deserve your forgiveness. I don't deserve your mercy. Lord, if it be your will, take me completely out of this situation. Take me out of this earth because I cannot do this on my own. But that is what God desires, a broken and a contrite heart. God will not despise. The fear of God is part of becoming holy. Ecclesiastes 12, 13. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commandments. This is the whole duty of man. The Lord's will is for you to be holy, to be sanctified. How are we responding to that? Are we not just listening, but also are we responding to His commands? And are we responding to His will? Are we taking what is necessary, what personal action and application is necessary so as not to quench, to not snuff out the work of holiness that God is striving to do in our lives? And third, in verses 7 and 8, in order to be holy, you must respond to the Lord's call. In verse 7 we read, For God has not called us unto uncleanness. You see, God has not called you so that you would ignore Him, like kids like to do. As you yell out the door and the kids are at play, come home for supper, come home for lunch, and the kids don't even listen to you. It goes in one ear and out the other. God hasn't called you to be His child in order for you to ignore Him. God has not called you to be holy so that you would just live your life as an unholy individual, never striving to be holy. God called you so that He would change you. And this change is a change unto holiness. It says in verse 7, He has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. When God calls you, it is to change you from uncleanness to holiness, or as 1 Peter 2.9 states, from darkness to light. Question is, are you changing according to His will? Are you truly responding to the point where you are becoming more holy and less unclean? His call is also for you to submit. In verse 8, He says, He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God. The lesson here is do not refuse what God has provided to you for your sanctification. Don't despise morality. Don't despise modesty. Don't despise these personal choices that you must make in order to be holy. Don't despise them. Don't despise standards that people have in their life. Don't look down upon them. So many modern churches today, they do that. They talk about fundamentalist Christians and how they have all these standards and they can live in their liberty. The fact of the matter is they don't have standards and they are not becoming holy as God is holy. We ought to have standards and we will not refuse those. We will not despise what God has given to us. In order for us to be holy, we will not look down upon someone who has very high standards. Rather, we will uphold them and say, Lord, would to God that my standards would be that way. We need to not despise what God has given to us, because if you do, if you despise the work of God's sanctification, what he uses, the means that he uses to sanctify you, you're not just despising man. Your quarrel is not with me. Your quarrel is with God. We need to submit to His call by using what He has provided to become holy. We also need to see that His call is for you to trust. And this brings it all together. Last week, we looked at God's role of bringing the increase. This week, we particularly looked at our role of becoming holy. But in the last part of verse eight, He calls you to trust. He says He has also given unto you His Holy Spirit. Yes, the emphasis this morning has been on your personal responsibility for holiness. This does not take away God's role either. He is still the one who gives the increase. He is still the one that brings us to growth. This is a mysterious connection. This is something that I don't have the capacity to fully understand. God's role and man's role. Yet we comply together and we as Christians can walk with God and can please God and can become holy as we apply our knowledge about God's holiness. Because the Lord does provide to us the gift of his Holy Spirit. I love the phrase, that name that he's given, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit indwells in us. And also, as it says in Philippians 2.13, He is the one, after all is said and done, that works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Yes, I want to please God. That comes from my heart. But behind the scenes, as I use what God has given to me to become holy, God, through the Holy Spirit, is making me holy. A mysterious connection indeed. But it's the truth that the Scripture teaches that we must always trust in Him for this kind of growth. We need to respond to that call by trusting in Him because His call is to be holy. And the only way we can be holy is by trusting in His Holy Spirit and that work in our life. Are you changing this morning? Because holiness is important in your life. The Bible says that without holiness, no man can see God. That is how critical holiness is in our lives as Christians. It is God's command for you to be holy. It is God's ultimate will and desire for you to be holy. It is why God called you to be his child, is for you to be holy. Do you now see your responsibility to respond? James puts it this way. In chapter 1, verse 27, he says, Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. As we think about holiness, we think about our unholiness. How many spots are there in your heart this morning that have been placed there by your flesh or by the world? Are you holy? Are there fewer spots there today than there was last week? If there are, you're growing. But if there's more, you've snuffed it out and you're not abstaining from sin. You're not using the process of modesty and morality and obedience to his commands to become like him. You are not availing yourself of his word and his prayer and of his spirit's power to become like him as a holy individual. I don't know about you, but I think there are way too many spots. in our hearts and in our lives. We have plenty of room to grow and to change. And that is why we must never forget these verses of the how to be holy. God says, I don't want you to just live your life the way you were. I want you to become holy. This is the proving ground. This is the process time being holy for I am holy. And I'll tell you how to be holy.