Holiness, Godliness, Usefulness
04/09/2014, by John Kincaid
Lesson 201: Habits of Holiness, Part 2
All of us were once unbelievers; we develop unholy habits with every sin: lust, hate, cheat, lie. These habits of ever-increasing wickedness make unbelievers slaves to sin.
Rom.6:19 just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
But now as believers, God calls us to give ourselves to the work of building holy habits.
We must learn to put off our old self (a slave to sin) and put on our new self (slave to holiness).
Putting off our old self (sinful habits) involves putting to death the deeds of the body.
Rom.8:13 if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Putting on our new self involves discipline and training to develop godliness.
1 Tim.4:7 train yourself for godliness.
We cannot break unholy habits unless we depend on the Holy Spirit for guidance & strength.
Sheer willpower, making resolutions, and any action in our own strength will always fail.
About This Series
The goal of this series is to become more useful in serving the Lord Jesus Christ, as an instrument in the Redeemer's hand. The theme verses for the series are Ephesians 4:22-24, Philemon 11, 2 Timothy 2:21
- to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
- and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
- Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.
- Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
