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| The Iniquity Of Holy People
2 Timothy 3:2: For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
What makes unholy sinners Holy?
Hebrews 7:26: For such an high priest (Jesus) became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
Ephesians 3:17a: That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; . . . 19b that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Romans 5:5: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
God the Father is Holy, Jesus is Holy and the Holy Spirit is Holy. Having Jesus and the Holy Spirit living in them is what makes unholy sinners Holy. Multitudes believe that they do not need to be Holy. Many do not believe that having a Holy Saviour and a Holy Spirit in them will have no impact on their lives. They are sadly mistaken.
1 Peter 1:16: Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
Ephesians 4:24: And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
1 Thessalonians 3:13: To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon on Exodus 28:38: The iniquity of the holy things.
What a veil is lifted up by these words, and what a disclosure is made! It will be humbling and profitable for us to pause awhile and see this sad sight. The iniquities of our public worship, its hypocrisy, formality, lukewarmness, irreverence, wandering of heart and forgetfulness of God, what a full measure have we there! Our work for the Lord, its emulation, selfishness, carelessness, slackness, unbelief, what a mass of defilement is there! Our private devotions, their laxity, coldness, neglect, sleepiness, and vanity, what a mountain of dead earth is there! If we looked more carefully we should find this iniquity to be far greater than appears at first sight. Dr. Payson, writing to his brother, says, *My parish, as well as my heart, very much resembles the garden of the sluggard; and what is worse, I find that very many of my desires for the melioration of both, proceed either from pride or vanity or indolence. I look at the weeds which overspread my garden, and breathe out an earnest wish that they were eradicated. But why? What prompts the wish? It may be that I may walk out and say to myself, *In what fine order is my garden kept!* This is pride. Or, it may be that my neighbours may look over the wall and say, *How finely your garden flourishes!* This is vanity. Or I may wish for the destruction of the weeds, because I am weary of pulling them up. This is indolence.* So that even our desires after holiness may be polluted by ill motives. Under the greenest sods worms hide themselves; we need not look long to discover them. How cheering is the thought, that when the High Priest bore the iniquity of the holy things he wore upon his brow the words, *HOLINESS TO THE LORD:* and even so while Jesus bears our sin, He presents before His Father*s face not our unholiness, but his . . .
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