The Holy Spirit Makes Us Holy
John 16: says, When the Holy Spirit comes, he will convict the world of judgment and righteousness.
About 100 years ago there was a division in the Christian church over this scripture and its meaning. One faction who became the Pentecostalists said the work of the Holy Spirit is to empower us. The other faction said, the work of the Holy Spirit is to make us holy.
In Acts 2:37 Peter said, repent and be baptized every one of you for the forgiveness of your sins and ye shall receive the gift of Holy Spirit. Peter was preaching on the day of Pentecost to believing Jews about the powerful things that were happening at the original outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit on the church…. One purpose for the gift of God’s Holy Spirit was to save the believers from a wicked and perverse generation.
AW Tozer says, minimally the Holy Spirit is coming to make us holy. The name of the Holy Spirit itself implies a life of holiness. If a person’s life is not holy, then their lives are not sanctified… set apart unto the Lord according to His divine design and divine purpose.
Man’s basic problem started with the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden. This was the spiritual root of the problems that we experience today. God’s spirit within Adam and Eve died the day they disobeyed God by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There are also problems rooted in spiritual darkness described in Genesis chapter 6 about the flood of Noah’s time, and chapter 11 about the Tower of Babel.
Genesis chapter 6 is about the events that preceded the flood:
1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
The ancient Jews believed that the first 8 verses of this chapter described the spiritual perversion of God’s original divine design. This spiritual perversion manifest itself in sexual perversion contrary to God’s divine order. This explosion of sexual sin rooted in spiritual darkness precipitated the flood.
One perspective of these verses according to John McArthur, Chuck Smith, and Chuck Missler, teaches that the perversion of God’s divine order defied God’s purpose for one man to marry one woman in order to be fruitful and multiply to replenish the earth. God’s purpose for a husband and wife to procreate and reproduce was perverted and prevented by spiritual defilement that went ballistic and affected the whole of mankind in Genesis 6 so that “the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
Peter’s sermon In Acts 2 says, “As in the days of Noah, judgement will come.” In the days of Noah, the judgement came suddenly. The deluge of God’s judgement was the result of the spiritual perversion of God’s Devine order.
In today’s America what is the parallel path of the perversion of God’s divine order? In 1978, only 5% of American men had seen hardcore pornography in a video format. In 1983, 55% had seen these videos after the invention of the BetaMax by Sony. Today, pornography is so common that it’s only one click away on our smart phones. This perversion of God’s divine design has destroyed countless marriages, many of them Christian.
Today we are living in something akin to the days of Noah. As in Noah’s day, today’s message is “deliver yourselves from this wicked and perverse generation.” Jesus said, “you shall be hated by all men for my namesake. Many will fall away and betray one another. Many false prophets will lead people astray and lawlessness will be increased.”
Today’s popular American culture celebrates the month of June as “pride month,” insisting that all Americans bow down and revere the sexual perversion of homosexuality. The so-called “Gay Pride movement” has gone so far as to usurp very symbol that God gave to Noah…. The rainbow as a seal of God’s promise to remind all mankind that he would never again destroy the earth with a worldwide flood. Children in America have not been taught about God’s promise to Noah. They have been indoctrinated that the rainbow represents “Gay Pride” and the LGBTQ+ movement.
Every perversion of this fallen world is a manifestation of spiritual evil, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness from on high. Some think that Genesis 6 may refer to fallen angels…. Devil spirits who posessed influential leaders, “giants among men,” to infect the entire human population with spiritually defiled perversion of God’s natural order. This defilement caused the flood to wipe out every living creature upon the face of the earth to purge the spiritual perversion.
The message of freedom is for God to deliver us from the bondage of spiritual perversion. Today 66% of all Christian men are watching porn. One third of women in the church watch porn. As in the days of Noah there is an increase of sexual perversion. The most alarming statistic is that fifty percent of all pastors in America today watch porn regularly.
According to Ephesians 5:3, Among you let there be not even a hint of sexual immorality. Thank God for 1 John 1:9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Freedom from the addiction to spiritual perversion requires an encounter with the Holy Spirit. John said, “If we walk in the light as he is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Jesus said, if you abide in my word ye shall be my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. If the son therefore shall set you free, then you shall be free indeed.
Three of the nine sins listed in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 are related to sexual immorality. Paul said, those who practice these things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Reading these verses in Canada would be grounds for arrest for violating the laws against “hate speech.”
The solution to the sins listed in 1 Corinthians 6 is found in verse 11: “And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”
The riches of the glory of the mystery that God had kept hidden until he revealed it to the Apostle Paul is this…. Christ in you the hope of glory. The gift of God’s Holy Spirit, Christ in you will cleanse you from all unrighteousness. For Jesus Christ who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.
How do you get free from sexual perversion? The remedy is in 1 Corinthians 6:18-20. “Flee fornication.” You are not your own, ye have been bought with a price…. Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? Therefore glorify God in your body which is God’s.
God in his mercy, by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, has set us apart… sanctified and made us holy according to His divine design…
That we should live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
