Title: The Highway of Holiness
Text: Isaiah 35: 8
Date: January 30, 2011
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Earthly Zion was where the city of Jerusalem was. It was the place where the one altar and the one mercy-seat were. That was the one place where the Lord in manifest glory communed with His covenant people. Therefore, access to earthly Zion was the most important part of the believer's life.
Eventually, Judah was carried away captive by Babylon. The true believer's longed to be redeemed from captivity and for a highway by which they could return to Zion, to the tabernacle of the Lord, to return into the presence of God. In due time the LORD raised up a king who set the captives free; and as promised, the LORD gave them a highway and the remnant returned to Zion with songs of rejoicing.
The good news of the gospel is far greater than a highway to some earthly place here below. When sin entered the world and death by sin, all mankind was taken into captivity in sin and separation from God. But God had a remnant chosen in Christ. In the fullness of time, Christ the King was raised up. He built the King's Highway. By the Holy Spirit of God, every chosen child shall be newly born and called into Christ the Way, kept in him. Every believer shall make our pilgrimage in the way from the sinful wilderness of Babylon to heavenly Zion.
Isaiah 35: 8: And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it;
A highway as in "a raised causeway, visible and unmistakable."
Penn Turnpike is a raised highway. It spans the deep ravines of the wilderness as if to bring the valley up and it tunnels through the mountains as if to bring the mountains down. It makes places that are curvy to be straight and it makes rough places plain. It is visible and unmistakably the highway.
Isaiah 40: 3: The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4: Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: 5: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see [it] together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken [it].
Proposition: CHRIST IS THE HIGHWAY--visibly, unmistakably the Highway, the Way, the ONLY WAY, into God presence both now and forever. It is in Christ that the glory of the LORD is revealed. The Lord said, all flesh--Jew and Gentile--shall see. This thing was not done in a corner.
Sinner, there is no peace with God, no direction in this life, and no lasting joy for those who do not believe on Christ. Christ is the Way. THE ONLY WAY. The Way into God's presence, the Way into communion with God, the Way which ends in eternal glory and everlasting life with God.
I. CHRIST JESUS IS THE HIGHWAY, THE WAY OF HOLINESS.
This Way was designed in High in eternity.
v8: Christ is the Way of holiness, the unclean shall not pass over it.
Literal translation: And the ‘way of holiness’ is called to it,
The Way of Holiness
This is the name given to those the Father gave to Christ in eternity. The Way--is his people, his church--"The Way of holiness'.
(Saul of Tarsus--persecuted "this way")
Isaiah 4: 3 And it shall come to pass, [that he that is] left in Zion, and [he that] remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, [even] every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: 4 When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.
Isaiah 62:12: And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.
The church of God was given this name "the Way of holiness" when each individual child was sanctified by God the Father in Christ the Holy One--in eternity.
Ephesians 1: 3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6: To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
This is when every chosen child of God had their names' written among the living, written in the book of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. In Christ the Way, each elect child was preserved when sin entered the world and death by sin, like as his remnant were preserved in Babylonian captivity. In fact, it is why this world is now held in store. By the word of his covenant power!
Jude 1:…them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:
Our God knows the end from the beginning because our God made the end from the beginning, choosing his people in Christ Jesus the Way and thus making us "the Way of holiness" before ever the earth was
II. GOD'S ELECT WERE MADE HOLY IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME WHEN CHRIST CAME IN THE FLESH.
ONE FLESH
No man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it. So did the Lord love his church, "For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." For this reason he left his Father and the Son of God came down and made himself one flesh with his bride that he might make each elect child one with God.
Ephesians 5: 26: That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27: That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Note: Paul said this is the believer's constraint to flee fornication--for this is our sanctification--we are members of Christ's body, he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. What Christ did in the perfection of holiness, I did in the perfection of holiness!
Hebrews 2: 10: For it became him, for whom [are] all things, and by whom [are] all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified [are] all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,…forasmuch as the children were flesh and blood, he took part of the same to destroy the power of the devil through death and deliver us from his bondage.
Christ is the Author and Finisher of faith--HE IS THE PIONEER OF FAITHFULNESS, THE CAPTAIN OF OUR SALVATION AND THE FINISHER OF FAITH.
Hebrews 5: 7: Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; 8: Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; 9: And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
THE HOLY OBEDIENCE GOD REQUIRES OF ME IS MINE BY BELIEVING ON CHRIST AS CHRIST HAS COMMANDED ME. MY HOLINESS IS PERFECT BY WHAT HE DID IN HIS BODY, NOT BY WHAT I DO IN MINE.
Hebrews 10: 5: Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:…7: Lo, I come…to do thy will, O God….10: By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all….14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
All the ordinances of sanctification, of purification under the Mosaic law--is fulfilled by Christ in his fleshly obedience!
Ephesians 2: 15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, [even] the law of commandments [contained] in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, [so] making peace; 16 And that he might reconcile both {Jew and Gentile} unto God in one body by the cross,…18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
Colossians 1: 21: And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in [your] mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 22: In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
III. THE SINNER IS MADE HOLY, when God's elect are called into Christ the Way--washed clean in regeneration in the blood of Christ.
Titus 3: 5: Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6: Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour
1 Corinthians 6: 9: Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10: Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11: And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified,
but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Then the believer glories in Christ the Lord because he
Revelation 1: 5:…loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.
Application: Turn to Hebrews 10: 19. Having been made holy by God's grace in Christ Jesus, I can think of no better exhortation than what is written:
V8: It shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it
Leviticus 22: 21:…it shall be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein.
Revelation 21: 27: And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth,…
Hebrews 10: 19: Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20: By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 21: And [having] an high priest over the house of God; 22: Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Have you ever been lost? Behind my father's house was over 4000 acres owned by timber companies on which I was free to roam as a young boy. I recall getting lost in the woods. Some of you have been lost on unknown roads.
The feeling is horrible. Not knowing which way to go. Not knowing where the path will lead you.
We have seen movies where from a great height above the camera pans down to show a man, a little speck, surrounded by a vast desert--no path, no highway. The man has wandered this way and that, in circles. Finally, he gives out and falls down to die.
For many here today, your life has been nothing but as a lost wander, making aimless circles in a wilderness. A kid chasing butterflies. No direction. No certain comfort. One day you will finally give out and die and go to hell.
There is no peace, no direction, and no joy in this life for those who are not in Christ. Christ is the Way. He is the Way into God's presence, the Way into communion with God, the Way which ends in eternal glory and everlasting life with God. Beg Christ for mercy and you shall have it!
This is glorious good news brethren: When an individual sinner is born of the Spirit of God, delivered from spiritual bondage, called into Christ the Way, though sin is yet in our members, we have already been separated and made holy--washed clean--by holy God in Christ Jesus. We are in the Way of holiness--Christ the Way--and have access into the holiest of all--BECAUSE AS HE IS--HOLY, HARMLESS, UNDEFILED--SO ARE WE IN THIS WORLD. I
Isaiah 60:21:…the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.
Jude 24: Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, 25: To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.