In his sermon, Peter Allison explores Proverbs 20:5-12, emphasizing the literary device of chiasm to highlight the central message 'Who can say, I have made my heart clean? I am pure from sin?' He outlines the juxtaposition of human effort and divine power, explaining how human actions are dependent on God's grace. The sermon stresses that true wisdom and counsel are gifts from God, requiring discernment and readiness to act. Allison uses biblical examples to illustrate that faith must be accompanied by works, as genuine faith results in visible actions. He emphasizes parental responsibility in teaching and modeling obedience to children, suggesting that parental actions significantly impact children's spiritual development. The sermon concludes with the reassurance that while humans cannot cleanse themselves from sin, God's power ensures sanctification and ultimate glorification for those justified by faith.

Proverbs chapter 20. I'd like to read verses 5 through 12. Council in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, but who can find a faithful man? The righteous man walks in his integrity, his children are blessed after Him.

A king who sits on the throne of judgment scatters all evil with his eyes. Who can say I have made my heart clean? I am pure from my sin." Diverse weights and diverse measures, they are both alike an abomination to the Lord. Even a child is known by his deeds whether what he does is pure and right. The seeing ear, the hearing ear and the seeing eye, Jehovah has made them both.

May God add His blessing to the hearing of His Word. Almighty Heavenly Father, Your Word is truth. Sanctify us now by your word. And sanctify, Father, these lips, these unclean lips, that through a vessel of clay your glory might be proclaimed, that You might be glorified and not man. In Jesus' name, amen.

Last week we saw four different fools who are easily deceived, easily self-deceived. And there is a transition and a chiasm, I believe in this next section of verses and that's what has governed our the choice of these verses, verses 5 through 12. But they're tied together, so a kaiyaz, if you remember, is where the first and the end have something in common and so on. And the, but the point, the main emphasis of this literary device is to, is in the middle. It's what's in the center.

That's the point of the, The point of the literary device is to emphasize what is in the center. And so what is in The center of this chiasm is in verse 9, who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from sin. That's the center, that's the message, that's the point here. But there are these verses around it, and so I've taken, if you see the outline in your bulletin, I've taken these verses in pairs, the first and the last, and worked in like that. That's why we're looking at verses 5 together with verse 12, and verses 6 and 7 together with verse 11 and so on.

I think There is a connection between these verse pairs. And the connection is related to the human effort, which the scriptures tell us to do, they call us, they command us to do things, but also we know that we can't do anything apart from the grace of God, and that it's by God's divine power that we are enabled to do anything that we do. And so these two themes then are coupled together in this passage. Verses 4 and 13 both speak of laziness and I think provide a link between these passages. But then, verses 5 speaks about counsel, speaks of human discernment and insight, but verse 12 tells us that this ability is from God.

These organs by which information is gathered and through which discernment is exercised, the seeing eye and the hearing ear says God made these, these are from God. So this discernment that is talked about in verse 5 is something that God gives, and yet it's something we're called to exercise. Verses 6 and 7 speak of righteousness. And it's not what we say about ourselves, but it's what we do that counts. Verse 7 speaks about this human effort, walking in our integrity according to what's right.

And verse 11 talks about this is true even of children. Verses 9 and sorry, verses 10 and 8 speak of authority. Authority. There is, as humans, as people, we are called to exercise authority. We are given offices.

And yet, that authority is from God. It's His law, and His law alone, that determines the standard of what is right and what is wrong, regardless of what the King says. And so both of this human effort and divine power come together. And then in the center, at the focus, is the question, who can say, I have made my heart clean? The obvious answer to this rhetorical question is no one.

No one can say, I have made my heart clean. The obvious answer to this rhetorical question is no one. No one can say, I have made my heart clean. I am pure from sin. So with that outline, with that structure this morning, let's look then at each of these points.

Council in the heart of man is like deep water. But a man of understanding will draw it out. Counsel is just advice. It's like what one would pay an attorney or a doctor for counsel, for their understanding of the problem, for their advice. It can also, though, mean purpose.

It can mean our intentions, somebody's intentions, somebody's purpose. See, unlike wisdom, though, When Proverbs speaks of wisdom, the difference is, counsel does not have a moral component to it. It's used for both good counsel and bad counsel. But there's no such thing as bad wisdom. Wisdom is that which is true, it's that which is good.

All wisdom is hidden in Christ. But counsel is a little different in that it doesn't necessarily have a moral component to it. There can be bad counsel, you can get bad advice. It can refer to God's counsel which is good and true and it can refer to the counsel of the wicked. Deep water is another metaphor for something that is hard to get.

Now we saw this same metaphor used earlier, a couple of chapters earlier, in chapter 18 when it said that the words of a man's mouth are deep waters and the wellspring of wisdom is a flowing brook. And there it had a slightly different sense of being a large reservoir, deep in the sense of it's big, it's vast, there's a lot in it. In this sense though, I think the sense of the metaphor is that it is something that is hard to get. Now there are two ways that you can take this metaphor, This verse, council in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. Either one fits grammatically this text.

One is that people's intentions, you can take the word counsel to mean intentions. People's intentions are deep. They are hard to get at. They are hard to know for sure. But somebody who has wisdom will be able to draw out those intentions, be able to sort that out.

Or it could also mean, and I think that I would slightly favor, although I'm not too dogmatic about it, but I would slightly favor the idea that this is speaking of counsel in the heart of man in the sense of people's experience, people's wisdom that they have is like deep water. It's not always there on the surface. There are people running around who do share their advice whether you ask for it or not. They have plenty to say about, it seems like, everything. But those aren't the people that we usually want to Get advice from.

They're usually not the people that have the advice that we want. The good advice. Good advice is often harder to get. Now have you ever had the experience of you learn a new word and then all of a sudden you see that word everywhere it's just like you know the next day the later the day there's that word there oh wow what a coincidence right Until you realize after a while of you learning new words and this happens all the time, you begin to think, well maybe those words were there all along and I just didn't see them. Maybe I was blind to them, I was just jumping over them, they were not in my view.

I wasn't tuned in to that wavelength, like the radio waves. They're all through this room, but without the right sensors to detect them, we don't know that they're there. So sometimes words that we don't know are like that. They're all around us, we just aren't hearing them. And the wisdom can be the same way.

Somebody who has wisdom can be the same way. We can be around them and never realize the things that they know. Have you ever gotten to know somebody in a casual way and maybe over time and then later on you learned something that they were good at or knew and you didn't realize. You were there with them, you had this casual connection, but you had no idea of what their skills or abilities were in something. And that's, I think, what this is speaking about.

Council in the heart of man is like deep water. It's not right there. They're not people that have wisdom, aren't just running around true wisdom or true good counsel, aren't just running around telling everybody about it all the time. You have to draw it out of them. And that takes some understanding.

That takes some discernment. It takes hearing ears and seeing eyes, something that the Lord gives to us. It takes that kind of discernment and understanding to get that wisdom from people. Now why is that? Why is that?

Well, because people that have knowledge understand that in order for that knowledge that they have to do anybody any good that person has to be willing or ready to receive it you probably all experienced trying to share something with someone and they're just not ready to hear it. And so it doesn't do them any good. They either reject it or they're oblivious to it. You're wasting your time. It's like you're talking to somebody who isn't hearing.

It's like you're talking to a blank wall, right? And so people with wisdom understand that. And they understand that if their wisdom is going to be of any help to somebody, That person who is there to receive it needs to be ready to receive it. Wisdom knows you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink as they say. Did you ever notice how many questions Jesus never answered?

Did you read the Gospels? How many questions that Jesus was asked that he never answered? Jesus is the great teacher. He's the master teacher. When he realized that people were not ready to receive, he didn't give them anything.

The rich young ruler that came to him and said, what must I do to be saved? Now what would you and I say if somebody came and said, what must I do to be saved? We would be delighted with a question like that. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Philippian jailer asked that question of Paul, and that's what Paul told him.

Paul sensed he was ready to hear that. But when the rich young ruler asked that, Jesus asked him, what did the law say? And he recited the law. Jesus said, well, you know, do that and you will live. Jesus told him, keep the law and you will live.

Now that's true. But he, but that wasn't, he wasn't able to keep the law. And so he thought he was, he said, I've kept that law from my youth up. And so Jesus said, well then go sell everything you have and give to the poor. Or there are other questions.

The Pharisees would ask him questions and he wouldn't answer their questions. He would ask them, just ask them another question. Because Jesus did not give his wisdom to those who are not ready to receive it, ready to hear, ready to listen. Relationships can be hurt when counsel is given to people who are not ready to hear it. People can come up and ask for, they can directly ask what you think and not be ready to hear it.

And it takes discernment to know when, What to say and what not to say, but this verse is talking about the other way, that when we need counsel and we want counsel, it takes wisdom and understanding to be able to receive it. We have to be able to demonstrate that we are ready to hear that counsel. I know when I was in the Navy there was a process of qualification to do anything. When you first go on board the boat you're you're you're called a nub not a useful body because you're not qualified to do anything You have to be qualified to do anything So you have to get qualified and and you get qualified by demonstrating to people that you have certain knowledge and that's, and that is, they can sign a little book and it's kind of like, it's just a process. It works actually fairly well for as raw as the process is.

But you're in the situation continually of needing to learn from people these old cranky Navy chiefs oftentimes or first-class petty officers and In order for them to be willing to tell you anything these guys knew a lot they they knew extensive amount of knowledge, but they had to be willing to talk to you. And they weren't always willing to talk to you. You had to demonstrate that you were ready to hear, that you were willing and ready to hear what their wisdom, what knowledge they had about the submarine. And so a person with understanding then knows how to approach somebody who has counsel, who has the experience, and knows how to demonstrate that they are ready to hear. To hear.

Bible says you see only a fool speaks everything that is on his mind. Only a fool does that. We can also, so in there's a sense that we can be right, we can have good knowledge, good counsel, but not wise in how we use it. And try and give it to people who aren't ready for it, even if they might be asking for it. Sometimes people ask for all sorts of reasons, all sorts of other motives than simply wanting our counsel.

They maybe want our approval more than they want the counsel, more than they want an answer to the question they're asking. They want our approval and if they don't get our approval, they won't be happy. And so it takes understanding to recognize the difference. Now Secondly, we have to be ready to act on what we are hearing. Ready to act.

It doesn't do any good to hear something if we're not acting on it. Have you ever spent a lot of time talking to somebody and they listen and then they don't do anything that you tell them? And again and again and you realize I'm just wasting my time talking to them, they're not really interested in my counsel. They're not doing anything with what I've told them. They're just following into the same ruts and they come back and want to help them again, but they're not doing what I've said.

They're not following the council. I think doctors must be very frustrated with patients, that they spend a lot of time and effort teaching or helping, giving their council, right? But there's no action. There's no action. We have to be ready to act.

This takes then wisdom to be able to draw out good counsel from people that have it. So all this discernment then that this man of understanding has who can draw counsel out of the heart of man, this discernment comes from God. Verse 12, the hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made them both. God has created the organs of sense and understanding. To hear can also have the sense of obeying.

To hear God's voice is to obey God's voice. Moses told them, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant. He said, you have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and unto all his lands. You have seen this. The great temptations which your eyes have seen, the signs and these miracles, yet the Lord has not given you, " Moses told the people, a heart to perceive, eyes to see and ears to hear.

You've seen them, but the Lord hasn't given you ears to hear. Hearing is in the sense of obeying. Moses is saying, you have ears and you heard these things, but you haven't obeyed them. Eyes have seen these great wonders, but you haven't acted, you haven't really seen. Jesus told the disciples unto you, it is given to know the mysteries, but to them they will see, but not understand.

So when it says that God has created the hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made them both. Yes, God has made our physical eyes, He's made our hearing, and so if He's made these organs by which we hear, then God is able to make anyone to hear. God is able to make Lazarus, who is dead, He is able to make him hear His voice. And God is able to make our infants that are not even yet born, that maybe They don't have ears that function or eyes that see yet, but God is able to make them, even these infants, because they are people created in His image, He is able to make them understand and see. Because He is the one who created the seeing eye and the hearing ear.

And so we don't ever want to think that just because somebody doesn't have ears, that they can't hear. Or they don't have eyes that they can't understand. Or their mind isn't fully developed that therefore they can't understand. If they are a person, they are created in God's image. God who created the seeing eye can make them see.

God who created the hearing ear can make them hear. That's why We can pray even for our children before they're born, even before they have ears, before they have a beating heart, because God is one who made the seeing eye. And He can make these little day old, week old, unborn children to see. Or even people who are born, who we can't hear from. We can't discern.

We can't know if the Lord has given them faith, because they can't express it in the ways that we can understand and comprehend. And that's a limitation, but don't ever think that God can't give to them saving faith. He can't give them the ability to see and ears that hear. Because He's the one that created these eyes in the first place. It also should, this understanding that this discernment comes from the Lord should also give us patience.

Sometimes we can get frustrated when people don't, maybe our children, don't receive our instruction, don't understand. We have to remember it's the Lord that gives this discernment. It's the Lord that gives the seeing eyes and hearing ears. So we can't force our own perspective on others no matter how right or important it is, we have to be willing to wait on the Lord to give them that discernment. Now we can certainly be faithful in speaking, But we also need to be patient and recognize that if they understand it wasn't because of our abilities, it's because God has given them eyes to see and ears to hear.

Of course, when God gives counsel then, to whom much is given, much is expected. When God has given us great gifts, He expects great things from us. So there's a responsibility that goes with this counsel and this understanding. We have a duty to use it, use it well. Righteousness.

Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, but who can find a faithful man? Unfaithful men talk about the many things that they will do. But how do you find a righteous man? How do you find a faithful man? The answer is in the next verse.

It's by looking at what they do, not what they say. Deeds not talk, or action not just words. A just man walks in his integrity. That means a living faith is an obedient faith. A living faith is an obedient faith.

A living faith is an obedient faith. A living faith will produce fruit that is visible, that can be seen, that can be tasted, that can be felt. Felt. So we can find a faithful man by looking at what people do as opposed to what they say. This is what James says in James chapter 2 verse 14 and following.

James discusses this same question. The righteous man walks in his integrity. There's a fruit there, there's an action, there are deeds that flow out of a living faith. James says, what does it profit my brethren if someone says he has faith but does not have works? This is like the man in Proverbs proclaiming their own goodness.

I believe, yes I do, and yet there is no works. If someone says he has faith but doesn't have works, Can faith save him? Well a faith that has no works is a dead faith, and a dead faith doesn't save anyone. If a sister or a brother is naked and destitute of food, and one of you says to them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed For the body what does it profit in other words? It's Mere words it doesn't accomplish anything if you simply say be warmed and be fed and I'm sorry for your that you don't have any food, that you're cold.

So in the same way, faith by itself, if it doesn't have works, is dead. But someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works. Works are the fruit of the living faith. They're visible, they're evident.

You believe that there is one God? You do well. Even the demons believe and tremble. The demons believe and they tremble, but there's no fruit of their belief. It's not a saving faith.

But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? David said, I believe. Or Abraham said, I believe. Lord said, good, take your only son and offer him as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah.

And Abraham said, yes Lord, yes Lord, with a heavy heart, but yes Lord, because he believed that God could raise up his Son. Abraham our Father was justified by works. He was declared to be just by his works. Do you see that faith was working together with his works and by works faith was made perfect? Made complete because if it doesn't have any fruit, it's not a saving faith saving faith It produces fruit Now we know that we are not accepted in the sight of God based on what we do.

We are accepted in the sight of God based on what Christ has done. We are accepted in the beloved. And so we say that we are justified by faith and faith alone, meaning that that's the ground, Christ's obedience is the ground, is the basis for our justification, for our being accepted in Christ. But if that faith that justifies, by which we are justified, is a living faith and it's a true faith, then there will be fruits from that faith. And so faith works declare that we are just.

They make that declaration. They demonstrate it. And the scripture was fulfilled which says Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness and he was called a friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. Likewise was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out the other way.

For as the body without the Spirit is dead, there is the body and the Spirit, where two parts, an earthly part, a fleshly part, and a spiritual part, a body and a spirit, together make a living soul. For as the body without the Spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." So the answer to the question, Who can find a righteous man is in the next verse the righteous man walks in his integrity Who can find a faithful man? It's somebody who does Wisdom is justified by her children wisdom is proven by her fruit John tells us my little children let us not love in word and tongue, but in deed and truth. Let us not love in word and tongue, but in deed and in truth. Now, this is true of children as well.

Children are moral agents too. God expects children, little children, to do what is right. If you can hear me this morning and you're a little child, God is expecting you to do what is right, to obey your parents. Actually the question is, do parents expect their children to obey? God expects our children to obey.

God expects little ones to obey. Do we as parents expect our children to obey? I think far too often we have far too low of expectations of obedience. Little children can be very cute in their disobedience. And it's easy to laugh at them.

It's easy to pass off their disobedience as, well, they're just a little child and look how cute that is. Or they're just young and they'll grow out of it. But you see the habits of little children become the habits of their adulthood. If we love our children, the Proverbs says, we will tend carefully to the garden of their soul. Timothy, Samuel are examples of little children.

Timothy or Samuel was three years old when he started serving God in the temple. Three years old. He is now serving the Lord in the temple. And God spoke to him as a young child. God didn't speak to Eli.

God spoke to little Samuel as a boy. Three years of age, he was already serving God. Timothy is also another child who, as a young child, was known for following the Lord. And so if you are a little child here this morning, this is for you. God's word is for you.

God looks to you and expects obedience of you too. Now God also blesses our children through our obedience. Through our obedience. The righteous man walks in his integrity and his children are blessed after him. Our children are blessed through our obedience and also they have to face the consequences of our sins as well.

There are many examples of both in the scriptures. There are examples where the children suffer because of the effects of their parents' sin, parental sins. But there are also many examples where God's covenant faithfulness is demonstrated and children reap the reward of obedient parents. You know, I think the most important component of our perennial obedience here is our obedience to the Lord in teaching our children. Our obedience to the Lord in teaching our children, in commanding our family after them.

They may not like what we want. And if that's the case, then we need to see that as a problem in and of itself and begin to address that as well. But God said he knew Abraham would command his family after him. And so our obedience in this matter is significant. Eli is an example, and Samuel as well, were not obedient in this area and their children did not follow the Lord.

Eli, God spoke very strong judgment to him. In fact, He spoke it through Samuel, which makes it all the more amazing that Samuel's own children grew up and were apostate. That Samuel was the messenger, was the prophet that God sent His word through when he told Eli of the judgment that he was bringing on his house because Eli had never said to his children Why are you doing this? He had never held them accountable and God said that in doing that he honored his children more than he honored God David had the same fault in that he had never corrected his son Absalom and Adonijah. He never disciplined them.

He never held them accountable, the Bible says. So the greatest blessing that we can be to our children is to be ourselves obedient to the Lord in His commands to teach and train our children. He who spares the rod doesn't spoil the child, nor that came from. The Bible says if you spare the rod you hate your child, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly a parental obedience in this area especially will bring great blessing to our children He who righteous man walks in his integrity and his children are blessed after him. They see his example.

They see him wrestling with his sin and they see someone submitting to the will of God. They see somebody worshiping the Lord. All these examples are a great blessing to our children. Now, eyes of authority. A king who sits on the throne of judgment scatters all evil with his eyes.

Eyes communicate authority, the judgment, and the inability to look into someone's eyes is an indication often of guilt. When your child can't look at you, it's because often they are guilty. When somebody can't look you in the eye, we don't trust them. If they're always looking everywhere else but at us, We don't trust them. We say they are shifty.

Shifty eyes. A king who sits on the throne of judgment scatters all evil with his eyes. A king bears the sword of God. He is God's minister. He bears authority.

He is God's minister of vengeance to take God's vengeance on those who do evil. Adam and Eve, when they sinned against God, they ran and hid from God, they could not look into His eyes, they could not see Him, look at Him face to face, because they were guilty. And that's the sense then, this King who sits on the throne of judgment, scattering evil with His eyes. You know, parents have the same kind of eyes too right if you have The if you have rightly used the authority that God gives you as a parent You can look at your children and they know exactly what you are saying When when Peter had denied Christ remember Jesus just looked at him with his eyes. And Peter was convicted and went out weeping.

Jesus just looked at him. His eyes. Eyes of judgment, eyes of authority, scattering evil. Parents have these eyes. But God has these eyes as well.

There is a day of judgment where God will sit on his throne and he will judge. And his eyes are described in Revelation as eyes like a flame of fire. Those are the eyes of a king. Those are the eyes of judgment. Those are the eyes that scatter evil.

His eyes will look at our eyes. And every Act, every work that we have done will be brought to light. It will be seen in His eyes. But God is looking at us now. We don't want to wait until that day when every one of our wicked ways is made public we don't need to wait we shouldn't want to wait we should open now our eye ourselves to the eyes of God to the scrutiny of God we should ask the Lord now to for his eyes to search us that's what David did search me oh God and know my heart Try me and know my thoughts and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

David didn't wait for the judgment day when God's eyes will search us out. But he prayed, now Lord search me and see if there's any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. We want the Lord to sanctify us now. We want the Lord to show us now where we have ways that are not pleasing to Him. So we can change them by His grace and by His power.

We can't do it on our own. That's the point of the next verse. Who can say, I have made my heart clean? That's the point of this passage. It's a rhetorical question.

The answer is obvious. No one. Such a man does not exist. Nobody can say that they have made their heart clean and they are pure from sin. If we say we have no sin, John says the truth is not in us and we deceive ourselves.

So this verse is a warning to us. It's a warning against thinking that we stand. If we go to pray and we have trouble thinking of any sins to confess, that should be a warning. If we can't remember the last time that we have repented to somebody in our family with true brokenness and contrition Because we've sinned against them that should be a warning to us Who can say I am free of sin? If we can't remember these times, it's probably because we are blind to our sin, and we have a log in our eye, and it's preventing us from seeing ourselves.

This should be a warning to us, that we begin to boast to ourselves, we don't do it to others, but we might do it to ourselves, about our righteousness, our ability to keep the law of God, our ability to do the many good things that He has enabled us to do. And we begin to think that we have arrived. We have arrived. Who can say, I have made my heart pure, I am cleansed from my sin. He who thinks he stands, Paul said, take heed lest you fall.

That's the person who's thinking he's standing. That's in the greatest danger of falling. This should also be a caution against thinking too highly of a person and following any person, no matter how righteous they seem. When some well-known Christian leader apostasizes as one recently has done, or falls into grievous sin, You read about all the people that fall away from the faith. Well, why does that happen?

It happens because those people were following a person. They said, well, this person has it all figured out. This is a person who has cleansed himself from sin and I'm going to follow him. And then when they fall or apostatize, what happens to their faith? Their God has fallen And their faith is shaken.

But if our faith is in Jesus Christ, and not in any person, then when people fall we are grieved, but we aren't shaken. We don't fall away. Even Jesus, when he was addressed as a good master, Jesus pushed back on that. He said, why do you call me good? There is none good except God.

Jesus himself, Jesus was as a man even perfect, perfectly obeying God's law and yet Jesus did not accept that from this person. How much more should we not? But this is also a great comfort, this passage here. This is a comfort to us because When we are weary with long and protracted battles with our sin, with our failures, with the deadness of our prayer life, with the coldness of our heart, and we are tempted to be discouraged that, well Lord, why is this so, so hard? Why is my heart so, so cold?

Why is it so, so hard for me to pray that we can recognize who can say I have made my heart clean? There is no one that can say that. And the fact that we are having a battle with our sin, a battle with the deadness of our heart, can in one sense be an encouragement to us that there is life there. When prayer is difficult and we're tempted to think God is upset with us, We can remember this passage. Who can say, I have cleansed myself from sin?

Our sanctification is not yet complete. And the fact that we are having these battles is still a sign that we are being sanctified. And all those whom God has justified he sanctifies and those whom he sanctifies he will glorify that is God's promise And so the more that we find ourselves wrestling in these battles, we know we can draw assurance from God's Word that we are being sanctified in these. And anybody that says otherwise has not really wrestled with the true nature of their own sin. So we could say then that there are two marks of holiness and one is a sense of our own unworthiness.

Who can say, Who can say, I have cleansed myself and made my heart clean and I'm pure from all sin? See holiness is the first perfection, the first excellency of God that we encounter, that we see, that overwhelms us when we encounter God. The seraphim standing before God, They cover their faces. Moses hides his face. He's unable to look at the glory of God in the burning bush.

The Israelites could not look on the glory of God reflected in the face of Moses. Manoah and his wife fall on their faces to the ground and seeing the glory of God when He appeared to them. And was that angel ascending in the fire. John on seeing one like the Son of Man falls dead at His feet. Isaiah on being in the presence of the Holy King seated on his throne cries out, Woe is me, I am undone.

I am a man of unclean lips. That centurion who called for Jesus, recognized he wasn't worthy to have Jesus come under his roof. He said, you are a man of authority, just say the word, for I'm not worthy for you to come under my roof. And so the first, really the first mark of holiness is having a deep sense of our sinfulness before God. If we aren't overwhelmed with our sin, then we don't know the first thing about holiness.

Paul, that chief of the apostles said, I am the, called himself the chief of sinners, even though he was as eminent as any other apostle. Okay, so To grow in sanctification, to pursue holiness means that we ought to have a bigger and bigger sense of our own sinfulness. That we are more cognizant of it and more grieved by it. The second characteristic of those pursuing holiness is that they are engaged in a battle to death with their own sin. One will kill the other.

It is a battle to death. Make no mistake about it. Either our sin will kill us or we will put to death our sin. Paul describes this battle in Romans 7, crying out, Oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of sin, this body of death? So he exhorts the Corinthians to run in such a way as to obtain the prize, to run with dedication and purpose, to run not as somebody who is running aimlessly with no goal, not as somebody who is shadow boxing, just hitting the air, but somebody who is disciplining their body to bring it into subjection to the Word of God.

And the comfort here is that it is God who does this. It is God who has created the seeing eye and the hearing ear. God will accomplish His desire. God will accomplish His desire. The Father's election, the Son's sacrifice, the Holy Spirit's indwelling will accomplish their purpose.

And all who have been justified will be glorified. That is the word of God. That is the unconditional word of God. All, all whom God has justified will be sanctified and all whom those who are sanctified will be glorified. Because God is, this is dependent not on us, not on our own power, not on our own effort, but it is divine power.

Divine power. Almighty, Heavenly Father, we thank you that it is by your power that we are justified, by your obedience. It is by Your grace, Your work of grace, that we are sanctified. And it is by Your grace that we are glorified. And Father, we do look forward with great expectation for the completion of our salvation.

For though we are not what we once were, neither are we what we will be. Neither are we what you are making us to be. Lord we ask For that sure and certain hope We ask Lord for your Holy Spirit and for your divine power that we may walk in the way that you have set before us not in our own strength not by our own might but by your spirit we Ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.