You Have Been Set Apart As Holy To The LORD Your God

[Walter and Deborah]

Tuesday 10-26-21 Cheshvan 19, 5782 3rd. day of the weekly cycle, 35th. Fall Day

Deuteronomy 14:2 You have been set apart as holy to the LORD your God, and he has chosen you from all the nations of the earth to be his own special treasure.

Bible verses about being set apart

When it comes to being set apart for God, know that it cannot be done by our own efforts. You must be saved. You must repent of your sins and trust in Christ alone for salvation. God desires perfection. Jesus died on the cross and became that perfection on our behalf.

He satisfied the wrath of God. We must have a change of mind about who Jesus is and what was done for us. This will lead to a change of lifestyle.

The sanctification process is when God works in His children’s life to make them more like Christ until the end. Christians are a new creation through Christ, our old life is gone.

We can’t go back to when we used to live in sexual sin, drunkenness, wild parties, and anything that goes against the Bible. We don’t live for man, we live to do God’s will.

Being set apart from the world doesn’t mean we can’t have fun, but we are not to indulge in the sinful activities of this world. Christians are not to go clubbing.

We are not to indulge in things that are contrary to the Word of God, like the fake Christians of this world who live like unbelievers.

The world likes to smoke weed, we shouldn’t like to smoke weed. Weed and God do not mix.  The world is infatuated with materialism while others are in need. We don’t live like this. Christians don’t live in sin and things the Bible doesn’t condone.

Let your light shine before others. God has chosen you out of the world to show His glory in you. You’re in the world, but don’t be part of the world. Don’t follow the world’s desires and live like unbelievers, but walk like Jesus our Lord and Savior. Our holiness comes from Christ.

In Him we are holy. We must allow our lives to reflect our appreciation and love for the great price that was paid for us on the cross of Jesus Christ. God desires an intimate relationship with us.

Not only should we set ourselves apart by our lifestyle, but we should set ourselves apart by getting away to be alone with God in prayer.

 

Quotes

• “He that chooses God, devotes himself to God as the vessels of the sanctuary were consecrated and set apart from common to holy uses, so he that has chosen God to be his God, has dedicated himself to God, and will no more be devoted to profane uses.”  Thomas Watson
• “A soul disengaged from the world is a heavenly one; and then are we ready for heaven when our heart is there before us.” John Newton
• “That cross has separated me from the world that crucified my Lord, just as much as if His body were now on the cross, marred and wounded by the world.” G.V. Wigram

 

What does the Bible say?

1. 1 Peter 2:9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

2. Deuteronomy 14:2 You have been set apart as holy to the LORD your God, and he has chosen you from all the nations of the earth to be his own special treasure.

3. Revelation 18:4 Then I heard another voice from heaven say: Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues.

4. Psalm 4:3 You can be sure of this: The LORD set apart the godly for himself. The LORD will answer when I call to him.

5. 1 John 4:4-5 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them.

6. 2 Corinthians 6:17 Therefore, come out from among unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them, says the LORD. Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you.

7. 2 Corinthians 7:1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

 

We must conform our minds to that of Christ. 

8. Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.

9. Colossians 3:1-3 Since you were raised from the dead with Christ, aim at what is in heaven, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Think only about the things in heaven, not the things on earth. Your old sinful self has died, and your new life is kept with Christ in God.

Do not live for what people live for.

10.  1 John 2:15-16 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because all that is in the world (the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance produced by material possessions) is not from the Father, but is from the world.

11. Matthew 6:24 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

 

We were made new through Christ.

12. Colossians 3:10 and you’ve become a new person. This new person is continually renewed in knowledge to be like its Creator.

13. 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

14. Galatians 2:20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

15. Romans 6:5-6 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.

16. Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

 

Reminder

17. Matthew 10:16-17 Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves. But beware! For you will be handed over to the courts and will be flogged with whips in the synagogues.

 

Do not follow the way of the wicked.

18. 2 Timothy 2:22 Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

19. Ephesians 5:11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

20. Deuteronomy 18:14 because those nations that you are about to dispossess listen to those who practice witchcraft and divination. But the Lord does not allow you to act this way.

21. Exodus 23:2 You must not follow a crowd in wrongdoing. Do not testify in a lawsuit and go along with a crowd to pervert justice.

 

Imitate Christ

22. Ephesians 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

 

The world will hate you.

23. John 15:18-19 If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.

24. 1 Peter 4:4 Of course, your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you.

25. Matthew 5:14-16 You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

 

Bonus

John 14:23-24 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”

LOL, Walter and Debbie

 

 

 

 

 

[Riverwalker]

Amen, this message is so needed, I hope people take the time to read it, so often it is not a tweet sized post we soon pass over it

(bookmarked this, as I will be coming back to it many times)

Edited October 26, 2021 by Riverwalker

[missmuffet]

Holiness is not only a possibility for the Christian; holiness is a requirement. “Without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). The difference between God and us is that He is inherently holy while we, on the other hand, only become holy in relationship to Christ and we only increase in practical holiness as we mature spiritually. The New Testament emphasizes the pursuit of holiness in this world and the final attainment of holiness in the world to come.

To be “holy” means that we are, first of all, “set apart for honorable use.” Whereas we were “once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures . . . God our Savior . . . saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:3-5; cf. 1 Corinthians 6:11). The Lord took the initiative to pull us out of our former lifestyles. He saved us, cleansed us, and set us apart for righteousness. If we have believed in Christ for salvation, we have been washed by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit and set apart from the world for godliness (see Romans 12:2).

However, the pursuit of holiness does not end when we come to Christ. In fact, it just begins! There is a positional holiness that we inherit at regeneration and a practical holiness which we must actively pursue. God expects us to cultivate a lifestyle of holiness (1 Peter 1:14-16) and commands us to “cleanse ourselves of all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1 NASB). Bringing holiness to “perfection” means that we should be increasing in spiritual fruitfulness every day. We are to consider ourselves “dead to sin” (Romans 6:11), refusing to revert back to our former lifestyles. In this way we “cleanse [ourselves] from what is dishonorable,” becoming vessels for “honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master . . . for every good work” (2 Timothy 2:21). Holiness is the mark of every true Christian (1 John 3:9-10).

Cultivating a lifestyle of holiness does not mean that we must draft a list of dos and donts to live by. We are free from the letter of the law which kills (2 Corinthians 3:6) and now live according to the dictates of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:16-18).

We are told, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13). In this verse, we see cooperation between God and His children in sanctification. We “work out” what God “works in” us, because God has a timeline for the virtues that He wishes to cultivate in our lives. Our responsibility is to yield to His wishes, “working out” with focused attention and great care those things that He is causing to grow in us. Holiness will not be brought to completion in our lives with no effort on our part. We are invited to participate in God’s work in us. We will not be “carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease,” as the old hymn says.

This is, perhaps, the most important lesson that we can learn as Christians. God’s ultimate desire for His people is that we be holy—conformed into the image of His Son, Jesus (Romans 8:29; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4). Holiness is the will of God for our lives.

Of course, the flesh is weak (Mark 14:38). None of us will reach sinless perfection in this world, but God has made provision for our sin. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Our pursuit of holiness in this world includes daily confessing and forsaking sin (see Hebrews 12:1-3).

God helps us in our weakness by giving us His Holy Spirit who reveals the mind of Christ to us and enables us to carry out His will (1 Corinthians 2:14-16; Philippians 2:13). When we yield to the Spirit, we become fruit-bearing Christians, yielding a harvest with which God is well pleased (Galatians 5:22-23). On the other hand, when we suppress the work of the Holy Spirit by rebelling against His will for us, we stifle the design of God, sabotage our own spiritual growth, and grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30).

If God was gracious enough to redeem us from sin and death and give us new life in Christ, the very least we can do is offer our lives back to Him in complete surrender and holiness, which is for our benefit (cf. Deuteronomy 10:13). Because of God’s mercies, we should be living sacrifices, “holy and pleasing to God” (Romans 12:1; cf. Deuteronomy 10:13). One day, in heaven, we will be free from sin and all its effects. Until then, we “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” and keep running our race (Hebrews 12:2).

https://www.gotquestions.org/being-holy.html

Edited October 26, 2021 by missmuffet