Choose to be Holy
Preached by Apostle Aje Pelser, Harvester Reformational Church, Cape Town.
7th Sept. 2014
All it takes to become holier still, is to make a few right decisions.

Decide to Repent
Repentance or metanoia helps you to turn around 180 degrees, and then you need to choose to walk in the opposite direction. A few steps in the right direction eventually become a pathway. The Good Shepherd leads us in paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake. He is Holy we need to become holy because we represent His Name.
Psalm 23

Decide to Walk According to His Word
This is how you cleanse your way: you walk according to His word. A young man and a young woman can keep their way pure. But the same thing applies as you get older. The tempter does not check your age: he checks your decisions.
Psalm 119: Psa 119:9 How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.
Psa 119:10 With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!

Lay aside the weights and Traps of Sin
If you make a series of wrong decisions you indicate the direction you want to go. Satan can see what you are willing to do and he will set the traps along that path of unrighteousness.

Heb 12:1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
Heb 12:2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Decide to enjoy fellowship with God above the World & life will change for you!
The battle for purity and holiness has already been won: Jesus won it for all those who would believe in Him. So once you have made up your mind, it is a matter of learning to rely upon Him. You have to call upon His name and begin to do what His word tells you to do. Then life completely changes and we come to have an entirely new attitude towards life, people and things. We begin to have a godly perspective. We no longer walk as the world walks in the lust of the flesh and allowing ungodly desires to rule our lives we step into the ark of God’s protection and begin to enjoy His fellowship more than the friendship of the world.

2Pe 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
2Pe 1:3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
2Pe 1:4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
2Pe 1:5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
2Pe 1:6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,
2Pe 1:7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
2Pe 1:8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2Pe 1:9 For he who lacks these things is short-sighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
2Pe 1:10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;
2Pe 1:11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
2Pe 1:12 For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth.

From Peter’s Epistle we can discern a simple and logical progression of Holiness:
1. Focus on His ability
2. Receive and apply His Promises in the Word
3. Access His Divine Nature that way
4. Let Him add to our seed of faith – all the things that make us holy in His sight
5. Cultivate the fruit of the Spirit – we can’t even do that without the Holy Spirit
6. Let Him remind you that you are cleansed
7. Let His Spirit help you make your calling and election sure as children of God
8. Let Him prevent you from stumbling
9. Through faithful diligence God supplies and entry point into another dimension of living in the Spirit – the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
10. By understanding this progression we are established in the present truth of who we are in Christ – holy and set apart for Him – his pure and spotless Bride the Church.

Decide to follow Jesus
You and I must choose to hate the world and the things of the world before we can love the things of God. You cannot serve two masters. The third option here is to become useful to God.
The two donkeys tied at the place where two ways meet had to be untied and brought to serve the Master. He rode on them and entered Jerusalem. Jerusalem means ‘peace’. Peace in the Hebrew mind includes wholeness and prosperity.

As you yield to the Holy Spirit more and more, as you become useful in the kingdom of God, He will sanctify you. He will change your desires. He will make you hate the things of the world and give you a love for God.

Decide to Drink of the Water of Life and become a Child of God
The Good news for us is that it is already done – His will for us to be holy is already an accomplished fact in heaven. Let it be on earth as it is in heaven.,..
Revelation 21:6-8
6 And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.7 “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.8 “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Without this progression of Holiness, no one shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus paid for us to access this holiness as we make Him our lord and saviour and renounce all other ways to try to get to God or heaven.
Revelation 21:27
27 But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

So without Jesus we can’t be holy and without holiness we can’t enter, that is a crisis – but that God He has given us a Christ for our Crisis – Jesus Christ the Righteous! Answer His call and come to Him to be cleansed and sanctified – made holy as He is holy through the washing and regeneration of His Blood that He shed on the cross for the sins of all mankind.

Revelation 22:10-17
10 And he said to me, “Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand.11 “He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.”
12 “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.13 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”14 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.15 But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.16 “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.”17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.

Whoever hears Jesus’ call today – let them decide to come to Him, access His progression of Holiness, drink of the water of life freely, stop trying to be holy in your own strength and allow His Spirit to sanctify you spirit,soul and body.