A certain few books from church history are timeless classics. Though written nearly 150 years ago, J. C. Ryle's work "Holiness" is one of those classics. Ryle's book has become a standard, go-to work on the topic of sanctification and personal holiness. As today, he was battling a widespread, general attitude that was unconcerned about holiness and considered that to be the calling of only the "higher life" believers. On the other hand, he also warns against the opposite error that teaches holiness results in sinless perfection in this life. Instead he rightly teaches that real holiness is a heart issue and flows from the genuine Christian's vital connection to Christ by faith.

The following message is a presentation of the National Center for Family Integrated Churches where we're proclaiming the sufficiency of scripture for church and family life. More information about the NCFIC is available at www.ncfic.org. Is available at www.ncfic.org. So I'm self-tasked with talking about J.C. Ryle's classic book, Holiness.

Self-tasked means I begged Scott to let me to do it. It's a book that I love and have greatly benefited from. First, just a little housekeeping. How many people here have actually read the book? Raise your hand if you've read the book.

Okay, most of you haven't. That's good. I want to give you a couple of places you can get it. First, if you go to chapellibrary.org, it's free there. You can download e-book formats in a couple of different formats, and you can get it for nothing.

This is gold for nothing. You can go to chapellibrary.org and just search on Rile Holiness. It'll pop right up, and you'll have it for free. If you're like me and you like paper then it's offered at the back of the room today. NCFIC normally sells it for $20 today it's $18.

Is that right? $18? And it's a nice hardcopy version So there's an opportunity to get it today also one other housekeeping thing Tonight at 7 o'clock in Dogwood Dogwood is between where we are right now and the cafeteria building. There's a building in between, that's Dogwood, and from 7 to 8 tonight where we're having just unstructured time where people can fellowship and do as they like, I'm going to be reading the introduction, JC Ryle's own introduction to the book. It takes about 45 minutes to read, and he summarizes the book in the introduction very powerfully.

It actually might be more helpful than the session you're in right now because it's kind of J.C. Ryle in his own words without interruption. So if you'd like to do that tonight, 7 o'clock, Dogwood, I'll be reading. I have 50 copies to pass out, and so you can follow along. I'll be reading the introduction.

I think that's going to be really profitable. Okay, a few opening remarks. First, if you're not familiar with our author, John Charles Ryle was born in 1816. He died in 1900. And Holiness, the first full-length volume, was published in 1879, so almost 15 years after our Civil War, if you're placing this in time.

J.C. Ryle was a local pastor in England for decades and then became Bishop of Liverpool, the first Bishop of Liverpool in the Anglican Church or the Church of England. And it's a book that could have been written yesterday. I think I could just slap my name on this and retitle it and put it out now, and people who didn't know better, who hadn't read J.C. Ryle would say, wow, this is perfect for what the church needs today.

It's a timeless book, and when I see the modern controversy in the church over holiness and sanctification and is holiness legalism and how should justification relate to sanctification and where do we draw those lines and how do we keep from becoming legalistic, it makes me want to say just like just read the book. These things were wrestled through and carefully handled and treated hundreds of years ago. I think it's because in the modern church we all suffer from the disease of thinking world history started on the day of our birth. And it didn't. The world didn't start the day you were born or the day I was born.

God has been raising up people to understand and to help his people wrestle through difficult issues. And what a blessing it is to be able to reach back 130 years in time to a man that God raised up to treat this very issue so carefully with such helpful precision. Now there's 21 chapters in the book, I can't even begin to touch on that in the time we've been given. So what I'm going to try to do is just to whet your appetite. I'm going to pull forward five of the major themes of the book, and do my best to represent how J.C.

Ryle taught on these five themes. And I'm hoping to just give you a taste that makes you want to read the book and study it further. Two final thoughts before we get started. I hope this is not a lecture. I don't intend for this to be a lecture or a book report.

This is truth from the Bible about things that are so important, life and death important. And so this shouldn't be an intellectual treatment of the study. These are truths to be preached with passion, okay? And so that's what I'm going to try to do for the rest of our time. The second thing I'd like to say and the final thing before we get started is this.

This is not given with a desire to glorify J.C. Ryle. We're not disciples of J.C. Ryle. The point is is that God has raised up men and women throughout the centuries to be a blessing and to shine a light on his word in very helpful ways.

Okay so J.C. Ryle understood what the Bible teaches about holiness and he was good at articulating it, and he's great in doing it a way that exalts the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we're studying it, not to say, how great is J.C. Ryle? He's just really good at exalting Christ, and So those who have gone before us who were good at exalting Christ, we should read them and benefit.

Let's pray. God, I thank you that Many faithful men, teachers, expositors have gone before us through many centuries, that you have raised them up to be a blessing to your people and that the things that have been written hundreds of years ago today can be so helpful to us in understanding what your word has said and understanding how your people have believed and lived throughout the centuries. And I pray it would be so, God, I pray that we would reach back in time this morning to a man who exalted Christ, understood the scriptures on holiness, and how Jesus Christ is the fountainhead and articulated it so beautifully. Now may we benefit long after he went to be with you. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Okay I'm gonna give you the roadmap for our time. I'm gonna give you these five themes that I'm pulling from the book. I'm just gonna blurt out the five and then we'll go back and touch on each one of them. Number one, the essence of holiness. Number two, the two great errors.

Number three, our part in sanctification. Number four, case studies in scripture. J.C. Ryle gives us four, I'll touch on them. And number five, the great source of holiness, the Lord Jesus Christ.

So that's a full agenda. Let's get started. Number one, the essence of holiness. J.C. Ryle very carefully defines and develops what true biblical holiness is.

In chapter 3, which is titled Holiness, now when you're in a book named Holiness and you come to a chapter by the same title, you know you're in an important chapter. And in that chapter titled Holiness, J.C. Ryle brings us immediately to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 15. Of course this is a letter written by the Apostle Paul and in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 15 Paul says, He, Christ, died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again." This is right at the core of holiness that Jesus died for a people and that those that he died for that he gave life to shouldn't live for themselves anymore but should live for him because he freed them from their sins. He freed them from their bondage.

He brought them out of death into life. So we don't live for ourselves anymore if we're in Christ. We live for Him because we're bought at a price, right? That's what the Apostle Paul was teaching in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 15. Holiness is a word that means set apart.

And when we apply holiness, being set apart to God, it means that he's not like anyone else. There is none like him. But when the word holiness is applied to us, it means something a little different. It means that we're set apart for his pleasure. We're set apart for him.

That's what the Apostle Paul was teaching. That's the whole reason that Jesus died to purchase a people, to pull out a people from the kingdom of darkness, and to bring them into a kingdom of marvelous light and life and love and joy and peace, and to make them his own so that they didn't live for themselves anymore, but that they lived for him. That's what this verse teaches. That Christ died to set us apart for himself. There's another word closely associated with the word holiness, and it's the word sanctification.

Sanctification means the process of growing in holiness. In other words, God is perfectly holy, and he doesn't need to grow in holiness, but because he's set apart, because he's not like us, he's not like us in that way either. We're not perfectly holy, we have very little holiness, and we need to grow in holiness. And So there's a word for that lifetime of going from a little to more and more and more, and that word is sanctification. It's the process of growing in holiness.

There are degrees of holiness. And so sanctification is a life of growth, okay, a life of progress. Christ died to set apart a people, But he didn't stop with setting apart a people. He then brings us along to live more and more for him. In other words, on the day of our justification, on the day when we're born again, That's the starting line and not the finish line.

We're just starting. We're very little. We know very little of how to live for him and what we know we find hard to do and so we have to grow. Sanctification equals growth in holiness. That's what it means.

At this point, J.C. Ryle says something interesting. He says that God usually has to afflict us to help us grow. In other words, if he leaves us alone, we won't grow. If he leaves us alone in perfect health and prosperity and ease, we won't grow.

He has to bring affliction upon us to stretch us and help us to grow. And so sanctification, this process of growing in holiness, often involves God afflicting us, not because he doesn't love us, but because he does love us and he doesn't want us to stay unholy. He doesn't want us to stay in a state of a little living for him. He wants us to grow into a lot of living for him. And so he's actually merciful to afflict us, to stretch us.

It brings growth. Next, Ryle teaches what the Bible teaches, that holiness is an essential quality of every Christian. Did you get that? Holiness, being set apart for him, living for him and his pleasure, is an essential part of every Christian. It's an essential quality, and he hangs this on Hebrews 12, verse 14.

In Hebrews 12, verse 14, the author says, without holiness, no one will see the Lord. No one will see the Lord without holiness. If you have not been set apart for Him, set apart to live to His pleasure, then you're not in Christ, you're dead in your sins, you will not see the Lord. There's not another way to interpret that verse. Without holiness no one will see the Lord.

He's not teaching that holiness earns salvation. That would be work salvation. He's teaching that holiness flows from salvation. So when a person is saved, that the Holy Spirit comes and takes up residence in their life and goes to work and he produces the fruit of the Spirit and that means things for my life if the Holy Spirit lives in me. The Bible puts forth an omnipotent God, a God without limits to his power.

You cannot believe that an omnipotent God takes up residence in you and then there's no change. This is what it means, without holiness no one will see the Lord. Without holiness it means the omnipotent God has not taken up residence here. Ryle says that it's possible to have too low a view of holiness, to have the view that you can be a Christian without progress. Ryle says, no, that's no view of holiness.

That is such a low view that you can be in Christ. But there's no change. There's no progress. Month after month goes by, and year after year goes by, and a decade goes by, and you're just as you were. It's too low a view of holiness.

And so Ryle attacks this teaching that leaves us with three classes of people. If you have a low view of holiness, then you've probably brought into the teaching that was running wild in Riles Day and is still around in our day, that there are three classes of people. There are the unconverted, there are the converted, and then there are higher life Christians there are entire consecration Christians there serious Christians The Bible knows nothing of these categories. The Bible knows about two categories. Out of Christ or in Christ.

Unconverted or converted. Okay, there's not a second line of demarcation where there are people who are saved but make no progress and then there's the serious ones. Ryle looks at that, those three classifications and he says, no this is just real Christianity versus pretended Christianity. And the Bible speaks of that so clearly. Many will say to me in that day, did we not do this or do that?

And I'll say, depart from me. I never knew you, you who practice lawlessness. Christians who make no progress aren't Christians. That's what Ryle teaches. That's because that's what the Bible teaches.

Ryle says this over and over and over and over again in the book, Christ died not just to free us from the guilt of sin, but also from the power of sin. The church today preaches with such power, Christ's power to free us from the guilt of sin to which we all say Amen. It's the most glorious truth in the Bible. We're free from the guilt of sin. We don't bear that condemnation anymore but the Bible doesn't stop there.

The Bible continues to teach that Jesus's work on the cross frees us from the power of sin. We don't have to be slaves to sin anymore. This is why Christians can make progress. This is why Christians do make progress because the power of sin has been broken through the work of Jesus Christ. So Ryle says, don't have too low a view of holiness, that people purchased by Christ to live for him can be purchased by Christ and then not live for him.

No it's too low of you but then he says it's also possible to have too high of you of holiness. Wow. I'm not used to hearing that But he's right. He looks at the doctrine of perfectionism and Christians who say, I can go months at a time without sinning, and J.C. Ryle says, that's a lie.

That's not true. That is a wrong view of the corruption of humankind and how it touches every part of us and how it's still resident in the flesh of Christians. They have been spiritually resurrected but not physically resurrected yet. And that born-again spirit is still joined to a flesh that has corruption. And not only do you not go months without sinning, you don't go weeks without sinning, you don't go days without sinning, you don't go hours without sinning, you don't go minutes without sinning, and if you think you do it's because you don't understand all the corruption that is there that taints every thought.

And he calls a witness, he calls a witness, the Apostle Paul, who in 1st Timothy chapter 1 verse 15 calls himself the chief of sinners. Now do a Google search on the chronological order of Paul's letters. Which one did he write first, which one did he write last? And all of them will agree the last two letters he wrote are first and second Timothy. So Paul's not writing, I'm the chief of sinners, early in his letter writing career.

He's writing, I'm the chief of sinners, at the very end of his letter writing career, when he's near to being martyred. So why is the Apostle Paul, whose sanctification has to be way ahead, the Apostle Paul has to have much more holiness of life than we do. When you think, I think so. But at the end he's saying I'm the chief of sinners. How can this be?

Is it because he's neglected sanctification in his life? No. It's because the more progress you make, the more you can see. So as you grow in holiness, you feel the remaining lack of holiness like you never felt it before. You were blind to so much unholiness.

So as God sanctifies you, as God brings you through this process of growing and living for him more and more and more your eyes are opened more and more and more to see the corruptions that actually still remain. You couldn't see them it was probably merciful of God that you couldn't see them. How discouraged would we have been early in our Christian walk, but as he brings us to maturity he shows us more of our corruptions. So as you become more holy you feel less holy. And it brings the Apostle Paul at the end of his letter writing career to say, I'm the chief of sinners.

There's still so much corruption remaining. Listen to what J.C. Ryle says, he says, how true it is that the holiest saint is in himself a miserable sinner and a debtor to mercy and grace to the last moment of his existence." I hope that's not news to you. I hope you know that the last moment of your existence you'll be a debtor to grace as much as the day you were saved. The holiest saints see that they're just miserable sinners, that they're still a debtor to grace now more than ever.

So J.C. Ryle would have us have not too low of you where we think you can be a Christian but never make progress or not too high of you where we think we're going to be perfect. He would have us to have the Bible's view of holiness where the standard of holiness is the Lord Jesus Christ and where we'll progress towards that image, we'll be conformed more and more towards that image but will never arrive, will never arrive this side of heaven. Holiness is Christ-likeness. Jesus said that his food was to do the will of his Father.

That's what he says in John 4, 34. It is my food to do the will of my Father. That is holiness. To be set apart for God's good pleasure. Whatever he wants is what we want because we're bought at a price.

He shed his precious blood to purchase us and now we're his. Not grudgingly his. Happily his. We couldn't imagine being anything else but his because we've beheld the beauty of his kingdom. Finally, Ryle says that holiness is fundamentally inward.

Fundamentally inward. That is roots. The roots are in here. Okay? The roots aren't about how far your skirt is from the floor or how high your neckline is.

Now it has implications for those things but those are the outward manifestations and that's all they are manifestations of holiness. They're not the roots of holiness, The roots are in here. Authentic holiness comes from a transformed heart. You cannot have authentic holiness without a transformed heart. It only comes from a heart that has been changed, that has been captivated by the Lord Jesus Christ.

So that's how holiness works. Jesus puts his hand on a sinner and he gives them eyes to see and he gives them ears to hear and they never knew their desperate state. But today, because of the hand of God, they know their desperate state. And they see that there is a refuge in Jesus and they run to him and their hearts are changed and they're captivated by their Savior. Holiness flows out of that.

So that was number one, the essence of holiness. Number two, the two great errors. JC Ryle spends much time talking about the two great errors related to holiness. This has to do with the relationship between justification and sanctification. Okay, these things are related and if you don't get how they're related right you're gonna be a mess and fall into one of these errors.

Justification of course is being pardoned, being declared innocent not because you're innocent but because Jesus Christ has stood in your place, because he was innocent and he traded with you. That's justification. Sanctification being what happens next. Sanctification being growth in holiness. Starting small, living for him a little, and learning to live for him a little more.

Now how do these things relate to each other? Here's what J.C. Ryle says about justification and sanctification. No doubt they cannot be divided and everyone that is a partaker of either is a partaker of both. But never, never ought they to be confounded and never ought the distinction between them to be forgotten.

Okay, so here's the first great error that J.C. Ryle has exposed. First, that they should never be confounded. The lines between justification being declared innocent and sanctification making progress in holiness should never be blurred. There must be a solid line between them that is maintained, a distinction that is maintained.

Justification is by grace alone through faith alone. It's the only way it ever happens. You apprehend it by faith, by trusting in what Christ has done. Jesus Christ does 100% of the work. You have nothing to add.

You have nothing that you can add. You have nothing that you do add. It is all of His work. We contribute nothing. You're justified one time, and it's forever.

It's never revoked, it's never pulled back. It happens in a moment of time. You weren't, and then you were, and you will be. And it can never grow. You can never be more justified.

You either are not justified or you are justified and if you are justified you'll not grow in that. You don't become more justified over time. There's no growth in justification. Sanctification is an ongoing work of the Spirit. So justification was a point in time.

You weren't and then you were and you are forever. Sanctification is an ongoing work of the Spirit and we are called to participate in it. And there are degrees. Okay, you can't become more justified but you better become more sanctified. There are ebbs and flows to it.

There are times where you'd say, the Lord is really working powerfully in my life, I'm experiencing a lot of change, I'm living more for the Lord than I've ever lived for him before and there are times that you just say, I don't know if I'm going to make it. I'm finding myself entangled in sin again. It starts so small. If you've walked with the Lord for decades you can look back and say, wow, at the starting line I didn't know anything, I couldn't hardly do anything. But in times of tremendous victory and growth or in times of tremendous failings and discouragement, justification remains unchanged.

If you are, you are. And so they are distinct and confusion is deadly. Blurring the lines between the two is deadly. Why is that so? Because one is all of Christ and one we participate in.

And when you blur the lines, you're saying, I participate in my justification. You cannot blur the lines. And lack of precision is dangerous. Brothers and sisters, we need to be careful about how we think about this and about how we talk about this, especially to our children. Through imprecision in your language, are you blurring the lines between justification, which is all of Christ, and sanctification, which we participate in?

If so, you're unwittingly teaching workspace salvation to your children. Precision, distinction is required. Here's the second great error. They cannot be divided, so we must keep them distinct, but the purpose of keeping them distinct isn't so that you can hide one of them behind your back. They're to be kept together.

The distinction isn't so that you can separate them off from one another? No. They cannot be divided. If you are a partaker of either justification or sanctification, then you are a partaker of both. You have both of them or you have neither of them.

That's what the Bible teaches. That's what J.C. Ryle is putting forth in his book. Both or neither. They cannot be divided.

Here's what J.C. Ryle says, a saint in whom nothing can be seen but worldliness or sin is a kind of monster not recognized in the Bible. That's a monster. A saint in whom you don't see anything but worldliness and sin. That's a monster you don't find in the Bible.

If you have been justified, you are being sanctified, period. Amen. You've been justified? Great, then you are being sanctified. If you are being sanctified, then it's because you have been justified.

Here's some implications of that. If you can't detect any growth over an extended period of time, You have good reason to ask if you've really been justified. Churches are—many churches are filled with people who assume they're in Christ, and they're not in Christ. And they would do well to ask themselves, I don't see any progress. Could it be it's because there's no root?

Could it be because I've never been born again? That's the first implication. No growth? You should ask yourself if you've really been justified. Here's the second implication.

There are no sanctified unbelievers. Okay, this is important stuff. There are no, zero, never have been, aren't now, never will be, sanctified unbelievers. There are polite unbelievers. There are unbelievers who are great neighbors.

They're unbelievers who are wonderful citizens, some of the nicest people you'll meet, but that doesn't mean they're sanctified. I love the examples we've gotten over the last couple of days. Yesterday morning it was John Snyder talking about the plastic flowers over the grave. From the road it looks like real flowers, but it's really just plastic, artificial, counterfeit things on top over death. Okay, that's all it is.

That is, that's the niceness of your unregenerate neighbor. Okay, You're happy to have him as a neighbor because he's polite, he's a great citizen, and he watches out for your house, but he's not sanctified. That's not the same thing as being sanctified, okay? That doesn't, that isn't rooted in being set apart for God and living for his glory because you've been cleansed by his blood. Those things have no relationship to each other.

There are no sanctified unbelievers. That was number two, the two great errors. Number three, our part in sanctification. We have no part in justification, but we do have a part in sanctification, and it's this, to fight! That's the title of chapter four, The Fight.

And J.C. Ryle is just reaching into all the language and scripture about warfare and pulling it forward to consider it in the category of holiness. Here's what J.C. Ryle says of Paul's teachings. The very same apostle who says in one place, the life that I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, says in another place, I fight, I run, I keep under my body, and in other places, let us cleanse ourselves, let us labor, let us lay aside every weight.

Ryle is teaching that Paul teaches both. The life we live, we live by faith in the Son of God. Yes, it's true, it's what Paul teaches, but in other places he says, I fight, I press on, I run, I keep under my body, cleanse yourself, labor, Lay aside the weights. Paul teaches both and they don't contradict. He's not contradicting himself.

Personal exertion is to be a companion to saving faith. That's what the Bible calls for. Personal exertion, you fighting, you pressing forward, is to be a companion to your saving faith. This is the death of let go and let God theology. It's running in the church today.

Just let go and let God. Just your growth is going to be magical. No, no, the Bible doesn't teach that your growth is going to be magical. The Bible does teach that it is the work of the Spirit. The Bible also teaches that God has ordained means and he's working through those means to bring his people to maturity.

Here's a stunning quote that I need. This quote's been so helpful to me. Ryle says, cast away forever the vain thought that if a believer does not grow in grace, it is not his fault. J.C. Ryle just says, push that thought as far away as you can, that if a believer doesn't make progress, it's not his fault.

What is he saying? It is your fault if you're in Christ and you're not making progress. It is your fault. Whose fault is it? And he ties this to Proverbs chapter 13 verse 4, the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.

How are you going to argue against that? Proverbs is so explicit. Proverbs 13 verse 4, the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. He tells us how to exert ourselves through private means of grace and public means of grace. In other words, God has established things in your private life and things in your public life that help you make progress in holiness.

And he works in them. He meets you there in these things that he's commanded. So it's not just, go do these things, good luck. It's These are the things I've given my people so that they will grow. I'll meet you there.

Okay? Here they are, the private means of grace as J. C. Ryle draws them out. Prayer.

God meets you there in prayer. You want to grow? Go meet with God, you'll grow. Reading of the scripture, God says I'll meet you there. You open that Bible and my Spirit will meet you there to tutor you and help you understand and gain and grow.

Meditation. Turning scripture in your mind over and over and over and over again and thinking about it and dwelling upon it and memorizing it and savoring it and praying through it. God says, I'll meet you there. It'll be food to you. I'll help you grow.

Self-examination. Ryle calls self-examination a private means of grace. God meets us there. We're examining ourselves and God is showing us things that we need to see in there. He's helping us understand things that we need to repent of, things that we need to walk away from so that we grow.

How about public means of grace, meeting with the church, being with the Lord's people, hearing, preaching, praying together as his people, And the other public means of grace, the ordinances, baptism, the Lord's Supper. God says, I'll meet you there. I'll provide strength there. It's not a small thing if we do or don't take the Lord's Supper. It isn't magic, but God has given this for our blessing and our good and our growth.

He meets us there when we remember his death by taking the body and the blood. It's a place where he meets us to give us strength and help us to grow. Or how about this quote? Ryle's talking about the world, the flesh, and the devil. And he says, the foe we have to do with keeps no holidays, never slumbers, and never sleeps.

So long as we have breath in our bodies, we must keep on our armor and remember we are on the enemy's ground. This is why we have to fight because we have enemies within and enemies without and they're not sleeping and they're not slumbering and they're not resting and we better not either. This is where our personal exertion meets our saving faith. We keep our armor on and we're watchful as Jesus tells us to be watchful. There's going to be conflict.

Let go and let God. Only works if there's not conflict. But that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches of course there will be conflict. There's a mighty conflict.

The world, the flesh, and the devil are waging endless unceasing war against you, and you better be waging endless unceasing war against them. That's how conflict and wars work. Ryle believed and taught that growth and holiness is a work of the Spirit, but that we can sinfully retard that work, meaning we can slow down the work of the Holy Spirit through sin and disobedience and rebellion. Christians can slow down the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives by sinning and disobeying and resisting his work or that we can speed it along by cheerful obedience. Listen to Ryle.

Above all, grieve not the spirit, quench not the spirit, vex not the spirit. Drive him not to a distance by tampering with small habits and little sins. Little jarrings between husbands and wives make unhappy homes and petty inconsistencies known and allowed will bring a strangeness between you and the Spirit. Let our Calvinism run away with us here brothers and sisters. You can resist the Spirit.

You can quench the Spirit. There are exhortations about that from the Calvinistic writers of the New Testament. You can quench the Spirit, you can vex the Spirit, you can put the Spirit at a distance. And so Paul just calls marriage as a witness. You know the little jarrings between a husband and a wife and the distance it creates.

And so J.C. Ryle says, don't do that by having known and allowed inconsistencies, sins in your life. So that was number three, our part in sanctification. Number four, case studies in Scripture. Ryle gives us two positive case studies and two negative case studies, two case studies of holiness in the life of men that he raised up and two negative examples are those who would not be holy from the scriptures.

Here's the first one in chapter 8, Moses an example that's the chapter name and in this chapter about Moses he quotes Hebrews chapter 11 the great faith chapter, verses 24 through 26. Listen to this. Hebrews 11, 24 through 26. By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt for he looked to the reward." Ryle points to what the author of Hebrews says about Moses in Hebrews chapter 11 he says that's holiness. Moses deliberately gave up greatness and refused pleasure and riches.

Here's what Ryle says, rank pleasure and riches did not leave him but he left them. Okay that's true right? He had rank pleasure and riches in Egypt and he turned his back on them, he didn't have to, he deliberately turned his back and left rank, pleasure, and riches. To be gods, to be set apart for the pleasure of God. He chose suffering, he chose the company of a despised people, he chose reproach.

Why? Because he believed that he would gain in the end. This is what we have to get about holiness, is that we gain in the end. The things that we leave behind are nothing compared to the things that we gain. Okay Ryle says this over and over and over again in the book without apology.

The holiest man is the happiest man. Do you believe that? Moses believed that and he walked away from rank and privilege and riches because he believed he would gain. Now Ryle says it's not just Moses. It's everyone.

The circumstances might look different but everyone is faced with the same choice. The world or Christ. And what we see in Moses is the choice that all of us would make and he takes us to Luke chapter 14 verses 26 and 27. Listen to the text that Ryle uses Luke 14 verses 26 and 27 Jesus says if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother wife and children brothers and sisters yes in his own life also he cannot be my disciple And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Brothers and sisters, Have we forgotten the radical claims of the gospel?

If you don't hate your spouse compared to Jesus Christ, you cannot be his disciple. If you will not take up your cross to follow him, you cannot be his disciple. Moses did this. Moses despised, he counted as rubbish all the things that were past that he might have Christ. This is exactly what Paul says in Philippians chapter 3.

So that's Moses chapter 8. The second case study is chapter 9, the next chapter, Lot a beacon. It's a negative example, it's a man who would not be holy and J.C. Ryle grounds this chapter in a phrase from Genesis 19 16, he lingered. He lingered, Lot lingered.

He points out that Lot was a saved man and he takes this from 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 8 which says that that righteous man tortured his righteous soul from day to day living in Sodom. So he's declared by an inspired writer of the New Testament to be a righteous man. He was a saved man. And yet, as Ryle points out, there are Christians who will not make a clean break with the world and they insist on dabbling. Dabbling.

Okay, they won't come out and be separate. They are saved. They do have saving faith. There is growth. But they won't stop dabbling.

Listen to what Ryle says. These are they who are always trying to keep in with the world. They are ingenious in discovering reasons for not separating decidedly, and in framing plausible excuses for attending questionable amusements and keeping up questionable friendships. They are constantly laboring to persuade themselves that to mix a little with worldly people on their own ground does good. Yet in their case, it is very clear that they do no good and get harm.

Doesn't this cut you? Doesn't this cut you? Is there any of the world left in you? There isn't me. When I read that, I say, in many ways, that's me.

I hope these things will make us repent. Have we been ingenious in discovering reasons for not separating decidedly? On thinking up reasons why it would be good to keep up questionable friendships and mixing with the world a little on their own ground. Here's how he ends that chapter. Oh, let not one of us linger.

Time does not, death does not, judgment does not, the devil does not, the world does not. Neither let the children of God linger. Friends, that is gold. That is gold. Chapter 10 is another case study.

The title is A Woman to be Remembered. And he grounds this in what Jesus says in Luke 17 verse 32. In Luke 17 Jesus is talking about the disaster that's going to come and that when you see it coming you should flee immediately. You shouldn't stop to even go into your house to collect your possessions. You just run and don't look back.

So in Luke 17 verse 32 Jesus says, remember Lot's wife. And Ryle points out that Lot's wife enjoyed many privileges of association with a righteous man, with a believing man, with a saved man and yet she was never so herself. So Ryle says we should value our religious privileges. It is wonderful to be among the people of God but we should never rest on those privileges. We should never presume that it makes us something that we may not be just because we're around those who are born again.

Here's what Ryle says of Lot's wife, the world was in her and her heart was, the world was in her heart and her heart was in the world in this state she lived, and in this state she died." And he puts her forth as an example of those who seem to be one thing, but they have no holiness, and she's become a picture of judgment. Finally, in chapter 11, we get the last case study. Christ's greatest trophy is the name of the chapter and Ryle takes us to Luke chapter 23 verses 39 through 43 the section on the penitent thief who died next to our Lord. Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed him saying, If you were the Christ, save yourself and us. But the other answering rebuked him saying, Do you not even fear God seeing that you are under the same condemnation?

And we indeed justly, for we received the due reward of our deeds. This man has done nothing wrong. Then he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said to him, assuredly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise." Ryle points out that in this text we see that this man had a true sense of his sin. He realizes that he's been justly condemned.

He deserves what he's getting. And so he has this sense of unworthiness rising in him and it leads to repentance and faith. And that though this man only had hours to live, he displays a holiness in his life. He's set apart in the last hours of his life to be the Lord. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord, but if you've got hours left, you can be set apart.

We shouldn't presume on that. Ryle says that there's one in the Gospels who's saved at the very end so that we might hope, but not more than one, so that we wouldn't presume. Lastly, Number five, the great source of holiness, Christ. This is really a book about the Lord Jesus Christ. Of the 21 chapters, eight of them are comprehensively about Jesus.

Chapter 12, the ruler of the waves, where Ryle says that You can tell from this account that we're not going to be immune from the storms of life, but that Jesus can overcome the storms of life. Chapter 13, the church which Jesus builds, and he speaks that nothing can stop Jesus as he gives progress to his people. His church will advance. His children will be sanctified. He will build his church.

He's unstoppable. Chapter 14, the visible church warned where Ryle takes us to Revelation 2 and 3, the seven chapters to the churches, and he notes that in every one of the letters to the churches, he begins with this, I know your works. I know your works. Chapter 15, love us thou me. He pulls this from John 21 where Jesus asked Peter three times, do you love me?

And he says this is the essence. He says Wherever there's saving faith, there's love for Jesus Christ, real heart affection for Jesus. It's impossible to believe in Him and to lay hold of salvation by trusting in His work without loving Him. To know Him is to love Him, truly. To know Him is to love Him.

If you know enough to believe in His work, then you have love and affection in your heart. And we should use this as a great test. Is there love in there? Chapter 16, without Christ, talking about the desperate condition of being without Christ and then what Christ is to his people. It's a beautiful chapter.

Chapter 17, thirst relieved, where Jesus says in John chapter 737, if any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. Chapter 18 unsearchable riches, quoting from Paul in Ephesians chapter 3 verse 8 where Paul says unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." And then Ryle just launches into these riches and he says, you'll never get to the bottom, But he's trying really hard in this chapter. It's a beautiful chapter. And then chapter 20, Christ is all from Colossians chapter 3 verse 11. And Ryle says Christ is all in creation, Christ is all in the fall where the promise is given that he would be the Redeemer.

Christ is all in the Incarnation in his death, in his resurrection, in his coming judgment. Christ is all in the Scriptures. I'll close with this quote. Where Ryle says that Jesus is the fountain head of all holiness, you cannot have holiness without him. Would you be holy?

Then Christ is the manna you must daily eat, like Israel in the wilderness of old. Would you be holy? Then Christ must be the rock from which you must daily drink the living water. Would you be holy? Then you must ever be looking unto Jesus.

I pity those who try to be holy without Christ. Your labor is all in vain. You're putting money in a bag with holes. You're pouring water into a sieve. I pray that Christ would be all to us.

Christ would be all. He would be the fountainhead of our holiness, that we would be so caught up in what He has done in His work on the cross that we are free, forever free from not just the guilt of sin, praise God that we're free from the guilt of sin, but also for the power of sin and that we might know that his children have the power to live for him, to make progress. God, I thank you for this time and I pray that you would bless it God as we read and reread this book to just be helped and understand and have light thrown onto your words who might understand it at a greater depth pray that you would bless that in the name of Jesus Amen. Thank you for listening to this presentation of the National Center for Family Integrated Churches. We invite you to visit our website at www.ncf.org ncfic.org where you can keep up to date on what is new as well as find articles, videos, audio sermons and much more at no charge.

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