Good morning, brothers and sisters. I am just as nervous as I always am. I really appreciate all your prayers over the weeks as I prepared what to share today.
Bobby came up and said, “Are you going to share a message on thanksgiving?” I said, “Of course.” You know, it is thanksgiving when we come to Romans 12:1-2. Paul says, look at all these mercies and graces we have received from the Lord. What are you going to do? You offer yourself to the Lord; you present yourself as a living sacrifice.
Paul says that this is our reasonable worship and service. Do not conform to the world, but be conformed to the Lord Himself. I think that is, in a nutshell, what the Lord wants us to be: made holy unto the Lord.
I am not going to use the term consecration, because we use that a lot. Instead, I want to use a term from the Old Testament: “Holiness unto the Lord.” It can also be translated, “Holy to the Lord.”
Ken prayed this morning that we would be made holy unto the Lord. That touched my heart, because in 1 Corinthians 1:30, Paul says that by God’s doing we are in Christ Jesus, and He is to us sanctification. In the New Testament, sanctification means being set apart—being holy unto Him.
That is just the burden today. We all know that the Lord Jesus has been doing a recovery work since the first century. It has been going on for two thousand years. As we come to the end of the end times, the Lord is coming soon. What is in the Lord’s heart? He is after brothers and sisters who are made holy unto Him.
Remember this phrase: made holy unto Him by the Holy Spirit, not by us. None of us can make ourselves holy. I pray that, by the end of this ministry, we would sense how vital it is to give the Holy Spirit the right to make us holy. This is so important in the recovery work of the Lord Himself.
If we are willing to accept the work of the Holy Spirit, then we can hear Him and obey Him. At the end of Revelation, in the seven letters to the seven churches, the Lord says, “He that hath an ear, let him hear.” In this time, how critical it is that we hear. We not only need to hear; we need to obey. That is the key to allowing Him to make us holy.
Today we will be mostly in the Old Testament. As I mentioned, when you look for the word holy, it occurs more often in the Old Testament than in the New Testament. The Old Testament tells us of the Lord’s dealings with the Israelites, but it also becomes instruction for us today.
Let me read from Leviticus 11:44:
For I am the Lord your God: sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy; for I am holy.
The reason God wants to make us holy is because He is holy. Brother Roger shared about the holiness of God a couple of weeks ago, and it gave us a very good picture of how holy God is.
Even though we are like lepers—sinners, defiled, with wickedness in our hearts—He wants to make us holy. That is grace, and that is love.
Leviticus is addressed to all the Israelites. We have to understand that holiness is not for a select group of believers. Holiness is for everyone. He wants to make everyone holy unto Him.
Now we have the words from Exodus 28:36-38. These verses concern the garments worn by the high priest when he entered the temple to serve God. In particular, I want to point out what the high priest wore on his head.
And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, HOLY TO THE LORD.
And thou shalt put it on a lace of blue, and it shall be upon the mitre; upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be.
And it shall be upon Aaron’s forehead.
There was something on the high priest’s head when he came to serve God. It was a gold plate, engraved like a seal with the words, “Holy to the Lord,” tied to the turban at the front by a blue cord.
What does this signify? The high priest himself was made holy. He was holy unto the Lord when he was prepared and ready to serve. This is very important, because the high priest could not serve God unless he was properly clothed.
If he wore filthy clothing and did not have a turban, we would imagine that he would be struck down by God in the temple. So this is very important.
Then we come to 2 Chronicles 16:9:
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.
Remember what we said at the beginning. When God called Israel out of Egypt and delivered them from the world, God said, “You shall be holy, because I am holy.” That applied to everyone, not only to the high priest.
By the time we come to the period of the kings, the kingdom was in conflict, and Asa made an alliance with a fallen king. The hearts of the Israelites were not with the Lord Himself.
Imagine God moving throughout the earth, looking for those whose hearts are totally His. This implies that, at that time, the Israelites were in such a low spiritual condition that the Lord had to search for those whose hearts were wholly His. That was a very sad condition.
The last passage I want to read is Zechariah 3:1-5:
And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary.
And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; yea, the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?
Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the angel.
The first three verses describe the condition of the people at that time: filthy garments, defilement. The high priest in the Old Testament represented the spiritual condition of the people at that time.
They were in a horrible condition. What would God do? Let us continue reading:
And He answered and spake unto those that stood before Him, saying, Take the filthy garments from off him. And unto him He said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with rich apparel.
And I said, Let them set a clean mitre upon his head. So they set a clean mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments; and the angel of the Lord was standing by.
This is recovery. In the beginning of the vision, the high priest had filthy garments and perhaps a defiled turban. But God said, “I have chosen Jerusalem. They are Mine. I am going to work. I am going to make them holy unto Me.”
In verse 5, you see that this is by God’s doing. God instructed the angels, or spiritual beings, to put a clean turban on Joshua’s head, as well as the high priestly garments. The high priest was then clothed properly to serve God in the temple.
These are Old Testament stories and a vision given to God’s people. How does this apply to us? One thing we should keep in our hearts is that, at that time, the temple had been rebuilt.
Can you imagine it? The high priest had filthy garments. He was not clothed properly to serve. What was going on in the temple? Nothing. Nothing could happen because the high priest was not properly dressed.
There would be no service in the temple. There would be no lighting of the lamps on the lampstand, no showbread on the table, no prayers going up, no sacrifices, and no gifts to God. There would only be an outward structure called the temple, but nothing living inside.
God had to recover the priesthood within the temple in order to serve His house. The same thing applies to us today. We are the house of God, but He must make us holy to serve in His house.
I want to outline a few things that we learn from these prophecies. First, we need to consider service. This vision in Zechariah 3, the fourth vision, speaks to us concerning service.
The first question is this: how could the high priest’s garments become filthy? That is not merely an interesting question; I think we need an answer.
In modern terms, God has put us in Christ Jesus. We are clothed with the garment of righteousness, which is the Lord Himself. In Christ Jesus, in His life, there is never any filthiness. That is our position, and nothing can take us away from it.
Yet, in our daily life, our hearts can be defiled. Our lives can be defiled. It may be like the case of Israel and Joshua the high priest. We may be doing all the right things outwardly. They were building the temple, and we can even say that we are working for the Lord Jesus.
But when our hearts are far away from the Lord, what does that speak to us? Those are filthy garments. You cannot serve God with human hands. You cannot serve God in the flesh. The heart must be pure. We must be made holy unto the Lord.
The second thing is that Satan is the accuser. We all know that. In this case, when Satan saw Joshua with filthy garments, he had a basis to accuse Joshua. Indeed, Joshua the high priest was guilty as charged. He had filthy garments. What else could you say?
Yet there is no word from Joshua. God rebuked Satan. That is the word in the Bible. Even when we offend the Lord, we belong to Him. He will rebuke Satan, even though we may have been away from Him, because God desires to draw us back to Himself.
We have our Defender. We have our Counselor—our Advocate. He rebukes Satan because He has much more in His heart for His people than Satan knows about.
Thirdly, we see the mercy of God. We cannot miss it. God says, “I plucked them out of the fire. I am not going to destroy them.”
In the same way, God chose us. He pulled us away from the fire, and He is not going to destroy us. Rather, He will restore us to serve Him.
Fourthly, we have the high priestly garments. Of course, they were physical garments at that time, but what do they mean for us today?
Psalm 45:13-14 describes the queen, or Solomon’s bride:
The king’s daughter within the palace is all glorious:
Her clothing is inwrought with gold.
She shall be led unto the king in broidered work.
The garment of wrought gold speaks to us of the righteousness of Jesus—that righteous robe. But over that garment, there is another garment: the garment of embroidery. This is the work of the Holy Spirit upon His people.
I always picture it as stitch by stitch. It is a long process, but the Holy Spirit is patient. He works that embroidered garment onto us.
We see the same garment in Revelation 19:8, referring to the garment worn by the wife of the Lamb at the wedding:
And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
The beautiful garments in the Old Testament speak of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives to produce Christ in us. This is necessary because God wants to make us holy unto Himself. That work is only by the work of the Holy Spirit.
Fifthly, we have the clean turban on the high priest’s head. We have already mentioned the words, “Holy to the Lord.” It was a piece of pure gold, engraved upon it like a seal.
Unless we are covered with this, we cannot serve. We cannot offer acceptable service to God Himself. We may have a heart to serve the Lord, but we need to ask Him to make us holy—holy unto the Lord Himself. Otherwise, we may serve, but our service may not be acceptable.
When we speak of servanthood or priesthood, people often think of priests as a special class of people who go between God and His people. They may dress differently or have different clothing. But that is not true in the New Testament.
We are told in Revelation 1:6 that He made us to be a kingdom, priests unto His God and Father. Some translations say “kings and priests”; others say “a kingdom, priests.”
At the end of Revelation, Revelation 22:3 says:
And His servants shall serve Him.
Picture that. We are going to be His servants forever. There are no exceptions. We remain His servants, and we will serve Him throughout eternity.
If we are going to serve in eternity, how much do we need to be prepared today to serve our Lord Jesus? Remember, you cannot serve God by the flesh. You cannot serve God any way you like. We have to learn to yield to the work of the Holy Spirit, that He may make us holy unto the Lord Himself. Then we are fitted to serve Him.
Brother T. Austin-Sparks used the term the restoration of the priesthood in His house. In this context, even though service is important, the servant is more important. God is looking for and working in us. He is going to make us holy unto Him, and that is the only way we can serve Him.
Think about Zechariah’s time. If the high priest had not been restored, the house—the temple—would have been quiet. There would have been no service.
But if we agree with the Lord and allow Him to make us holy unto Him, what will happen in the house? When we yield our lives to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to work quietly in our lives, we can offer Him spiritual sacrifices, worship, and prayers.
The house of God will be living. There will be bread on the table, because the Lord Jesus Himself is the bread of life to every one of us. There will be light on the lampstand, because Jesus is the light.
We are called into fellowship with the Son and the Father, and also with one another in Christ Jesus. There will be fellowship of the Lord within the house. More than that, we are called to be kings and priests. There will be ruling and reigning with Christ.
All of this must be based on our being made holy unto the Lord Himself. But, as I have already said, we cannot make ourselves holy. We cannot. It is only by grace. It is always grace. It is always the work of the Holy Spirit to bring us to be holy unto Him.
Let me move on to this matter of holiness. If you search a Bible program, you will find that the word holy occurs many times in Scripture, especially in Exodus and Leviticus.
When we look at how the word is used in those two books, it is associated with the people, the tabernacle, the furniture, the sacrifices, the gifts to God, and the service in the tabernacle.
When God gave Moses the instructions for building the tabernacle—the service, the priesthood, and the garments—Moses did everything according to the pattern given to him in the mount. It had to be that way.
In the New Testament, the temple, the high priest, the gifts, and the sacrifices all refer to our Lord Himself. God is holy. Our Lord Himself is holy. Therefore, everything must be holy.
What does holy mean? In ordinary English, if we call someone a holy man, we may mean that he is good, moral, righteous, religious, pure, pious, or godly. We may mean that he has a higher moral standard than others.
But the meaning of holy in the Bible is somewhat different. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, and the New Testament was written in Greek. I do not know Hebrew and I do not know Greek, so I have to rely on concordances and Bible dictionaries.
When holy is used as an adjective, it means pure, devoted, and dedicated to God. But when it is used to describe an action, it means to sanctify—to set apart.
So, “holy unto the Lord” means separated: separated from self, separated from the world, and separated from other gods. That is what God was working in the Israelites when He brought them out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and into the promised land.
But it does not only mean being set apart from something. It also means being set apart unto Someone—wholly unto the Lord. It means being devoted, dedicated, and consecrated to God.
We all know that the Lord Himself is holy. If you read the four Gospels, you find that He is so unlike ordinary men. He always obeyed the Father, and He was always concerned with the Father’s business.
When He was twelve years old, Joseph and Mary took Him to Jerusalem. They went home, but Jesus remained behind. When they returned and found Him, the Lord Jesus said:
How is it that ye sought me? knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house?
That is the Lord Himself—set apart and dedicated to God. He is a good example for us.
As we talk about the Old Testament, perhaps we should consider the example of a man in a time of recovery. Daniel is the one who came to my heart.
Daniel was taken away from his own land and carried to Babylon. The king wanted to train these young men in the customs of Babylon so that they could help him rule the kingdom.
The first thing they did was offer the young people the king’s food and wine. But Daniel said, in effect, “I do not want that. I think that would defile my life.” He asked for water and vegetables.
Daniel separated himself. He set himself apart from the world and set himself apart unto God.
Later, people were jealous of Daniel’s position in the kingdom. They could not find fault with him, so they set a trap. They persuaded the king to issue a decree that, for thirty days, anyone who prayed to any god except the king would be thrown into the lions’ den.
But Daniel had a habit. His windows were open toward Jerusalem, and he prayed to God three times a day. He knelt down and prayed to God. That was his life.
Even though there was a decree that anyone who prayed to another god would be thrown into the lions’ den, that did not change Daniel. He continued to pray to God three times a day. He knelt before God. That was dedication. He gave himself wholly to God. That is holiness unto the Lord.
We should be encouraged. We have examples. Let me mention another example—not from the Old Testament, but from a story I read.
There was a believer traveling on a train with three other men. The men were bored and said, “Let’s play cards.” They needed four people, so they invited the believer to play with them.
The brother said, “No, I cannot. I have no hands.” The three men asked, “What are you talking about? You have hands.” The brother said, “Those hands do not belong to me. They belong to the Lord Himself.”
Are we not often tempted by the world to compromise, to do things that would not honor God? Do we know in our hearts that the Lord Himself purchased us with a great price? We no longer belong to ourselves; we belong to Him.
When we come into a situation where we are tempted in a way that would no longer set us apart for the Lord, may we remember that we belong to Him. Our hands, feet, ears, eyes—everything in our lives belongs to Him. We are no longer our own, and we do not have the liberty to do whatever we want.
Peter, when he spoke of the end times, encouraged God’s people to live a holy life and a godly life, looking for the coming of the Lord. In that sense, when we live a holy life and a godly life, that can hasten the return of the Lord.
Sometimes we think that the Lord’s return is set on an earthly clock or according to a date on our calendar. But that is not the case. The Bible says that He will return at the fullness of time.
When will the fullness of time be? It will be when He has His people—perhaps a representative portion of His people—who are made holy for Him, living a holy life, separated unto the Lord Himself.
So being made holy really can hasten the return of the Lord. Turn that around: if we fail to be holy, that also hinders the return of the Lord Himself. This is very serious.
I hope some of you have had an opportunity to listen to a tape message from the 1960s, a sharing by Sister Lou Anna Miller entitled “The Beginning History of the Richmond Fellowship.”
There are really two things to learn from it. One is the history: how God moved in Richmond more than fifty years ago and raised up a testimony here. That is good to know.
But I did not know those sisters personally. I could only follow the message, and I could sense the condition of their hearts. I want to speak about my impression from hearing the tape.
The sister said that they wanted to know the Lord freshly and live with Him every day. They wanted to be done with everything else and be wholly for Him. That speaks to me of sisters who were dedicated to the Lord Himself.
She mentioned a tract by A. B. Simpson: “Once it was the blessing, now it is the Lord.” They were no longer focused merely on the blessings of the Lord. We like the blessings, but they were focused on the Lord Himself. That is total devotion unto the Lord Jesus.
She also mentioned the book The Ultimate Intention. Their focus had once been, “What can we get from God?” That might be our focus too. But then the focus became: “What is God after in His Son?” That changes everything.
God did something in Richmond. Remember the words from Chronicles: God is looking for those whose hearts are wholly His. In the late 1960s, God found these sisters in Richmond, and their hearts were wholly for Him. They prayed for a testimony in Richmond, and God moved.
What is the lesson? God needs a condition, a basis, and ground to carry out His work. That may sound strange—God can do anything He likes—but He does not do it that way. He is waiting for vessels. He is looking for His people, brothers and sisters whose hearts are wholly His, who are made holy unto the Lord. Then He moves.
Today, God wants to maintain a testimony and show forth His praise. What is God looking for? We have to face that question. God is looking for the same thing as in those early times: hearts that are devoted wholly to Him.
God will maintain a testimony when He finds brothers and sisters who are in such a condition. That gives God the ground to work.
I have spoken much about God making us holy through the Holy Spirit. How do we come to the point where we allow God to work in us? That is the question.
I do not have a list: do A, B, C, D, E, and F, and your heart will be softened and you will be willing to allow the Holy Spirit to work in you. That is not the case.
I think the brother chose a hymn earlier about the love of God. Let me put it this way: the Lord Himself has first loved us, and that never changes. The question is, do we know that first love?
If we do, there will be no reservation in our hearts to allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and make us holy unto Him. It is knowing His first love.
We have an example in the New Testament. Remember Mary in John 12. During the last week before the Lord’s passion, Mary came and anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped His feet with her hair.
Judas said that the ointment was expensive—three hundred denarii, a man’s wages for a whole year. Mary was not from a wealthy family. She may have saved it little by little over a long time, perhaps even for her wedding.
But that night she poured everything out upon the Lord. Mary’s action should touch our hearts. How do we give ourselves to the Lord and allow the Holy Spirit to work holiness in us? We must be touched by the first love of our Lord Himself.
We also see that the Lord is merciful and gracious to us. I have to say for myself that I often do not make the right choices. My garments can become filthy. But thank God for the Holy Spirit within us.
He calls us. He reminds us. He stirs up our hearts. He calls us to repent and return unto Him.
May the Lord give us an ear to hear what the Holy Spirit says to the churches. That is our safeguard: if we can hear Him and repent, as in the time of Zechariah, fellowship and holiness can be restored.
But if we do not hear Him and reject His counsel, look at what happened in Malachi. What a controversy there was between God and His people. The priests brought blemished sacrifices. The people robbed God by not offering the full tithes. God sent Malachi to the people, but they would not listen.
May the Lord give us ears to hear.
Let me quickly close. This matter of being made holy unto the Lord—holiness—is essential. We must be made holy to serve Him. There is no other way to serve God unless we are made holy unto Him.
Having a life of holiness made real in us will hasten the return of the Lord. We must allow the Holy Spirit to work in us, because the Holy Spirit is the One who does the work of making us holy.
May the Lord reveal His great love to us. May our hearts be moved so that we are willing to say, “Lord, do Your work. Whatever is necessary, make us holy.”
We need to pray that the Lord will work in hearts—not only in Richmond, but around the world, in different assemblies. Many assemblies were started in a similar way. We need to pray today that the Lord will work in hearts and that there will be willing hearts to allow the Holy Spirit to work, so that all of us may be made holy. Then His return is at hand.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, we do want to give them to You. Lord, I do want to pray concerning this burden. It is not burdensome, Lord; it is always by Your grace. What can we say, Lord, that You want to make us holy unto Yourself?
Lord Jesus, touch our hearts. Show us. Help us understand. Help us comprehend the first love of the Lord Yourself, so that we are willing to give ourselves unto the Holy Spirit to do that work, to make us holy unto You.
Lord, sharpen our ears. He that hath an ear, let him hear. Lord, may we hear the word from You, even the corrective word from You, that we may return unto You and You may return unto us.
Lord, we also pray that You would work in a mighty way among the saints in different localities, even at this time. May You find brothers and sisters who are truly set apart, holy for You, consecrated, utterly devoted, and dedicated unto the Lord Yourself.
Lord, may You have what You are after in this time for Your soon return. We commit this ministry back to You. Whatever is difficult to understand, whatever needs to be clarified, we ask You, Holy Spirit, to speak to us again. Lord, please do so.
Lord, we want ourselves, and we want the brothers and sisters, to be made holy unto You. Lord Jesus, have mercy on us. Do Your work. Thank You, Lord. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.