Six Battles Every Man Must Win

Part 2:  Fight For Personal Holiness

1 Samuel 22:1-2

Pastor Darrin Wright

 

 

I.  Battle # 2:  Fight For Personal Holiness.

  • For centuries the garments of European rulers and judges have been lined with ermine fur.  An ermine is a cute little animal with shiny black eyes and beautiful fur.  It has short legs and a narrow body that’s some twenty inches long from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail.  The agile animal is found in the northern region of the northern hemisphere.  In summer, its coat is a rich chocolate brown except for the undersides of the body and legs.  In winter, the color changes to a clear white, broken only by a black tip on the tail.
  • If you looked up a picture of the ermine at the library, you would be shocked by the purity of its white fur.  The ermine seems to realize the beauty of its coat and takes great pride in maintaining it.  The animal’s most unusual characteristic is its hatred of anything that might soil its fur.
  • Hunters who know this will fill an ermine’s burrow with filth and wait with their dogs for the animal to return.  Once the ermine spots the dogs, the snow-white creature will dart for the safety of its burrow.  But the ermine will not enter the soiled safety of its home.  Rather than flee into the burrow, the ermine will fight the dogs to death.  It would rather die with a blood stained coat than live with a dirty one.
  • That’s why an ermine’s fur is used on the robes of rulers and judges.  It serves as a symbol of the purity of justice and law.
  • We need to realize personal holiness is a value worth fighting for.
  • We must understand the holiness of God and the holiness He has given us through His Son.
  • Holy – describes the essence of all of God’s moral attributes; it is used more often as a prefix to God’s name than any other attribute; separate; possessing a superior excellence; in a class of its own.
  • Key Text:  1 Samuel 26:8-9(NASB) – “Then Abishai said to David, Today God has delivered your enemy into your hand; now therefore, please let me strike him with the spear to the ground with one stroke, and I will not strike him the second time.  But David said to Abishai, do not destroy him, for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed and be without guilt?”
  • Key Person:  Abishai
  • God’s holiness directed David.  David served a holy God, and doing so meant he had to separate himself from all evil…even evil that might momentarily feel good and make life easier.
  • Saul had chased David and his men for years, forcing them into a Nomadic life away from Israelite society, yet Abishai acted as a warrior who serves a Holy God.  He refused to sin when sinning seemed so justified.
  • In that moment Abishai proved he was a mighty man.  Not because he could kill the King or his army, but because he bridled his passion for revenge.
  • In that moment Abishai fought like a man who realized the real war wasn’t against Saul, but against the evil forces that sought to capture his heart and compromise his holiness.
  • David and Abishai would rather do right and stand with God than do wrong and stand against Him.

 

 

 

 

  1. Positional Holiness.

1.      Apart from God nothing is holy in itself.  For objects or people to be holy, God must sanctify them and set them apart.

2.      1 Peter 2:9(NASB) – “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

3.      God’s touch transforms us from the commonplace into something special, different, and set apart.

B.    Progressive Holiness.

1.      1 Peter 1:14-16(NASB) – “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, You Shall Be Holy For I Am Holy.”

2.      We progressively become living expressions of the holy God who lives within us.

3.      Every day of our life we must grow in the knowledge of our holy God.  And every day we must fight against our fleshly appetites that drive us to conform to our culture rather than to the holiness of the God who indwells us.

4.      Our goal should be a perfect correspondence between God’s unseen holiness within us and evident holiness in our lifestyle.

5.      We must stand our ground and fight for personal holiness.

6.      illustration:  fax machine – When a fax machine receives a message, once the transfer of information is complete, the fax machine possesses all the data it will ever receive from that transmission.  But only after the transmission is complete does the invisible message get transferred onto paper so it can be seen.  That process illustrates the relationship between positional and progressive holiness.  The moment we trust Christ as savior, God makes us righteous – holy – in his sight.  We spend the remainder of our lives allowing the holiness we possess in him to be transferred onto the paper of our thoughts, words, and deeds.