NAMES AND TITLES OF CHRIST
THE HOLY ONE – PART I
DR. JIM DIXON
REVELATION 3:7-13
JUNE 1, 1997
If you’re over 50 years of age, then you’ve probably heard the expression “Holy Toledo.” It sounds like something Robin would say to Batman but the expression, the exclamation is actually very, very old and it is rooted in history. This expression does not refer to Toledo, Ohio, a city which has not always been considered holy but it refers rather to Toledo, Spain, a city which has generally been considered holy throughout its history, particularly after the year 1085 when the Moors were driven out of Spain and the city of Toledo, Spain became one of the great centers of Christendom, known for its cathedrals, known for its seminaries, known for its monasteries, known for its ecclesiastical offices.
From the 4th century to the 16th century, thirty councils, thirty official councils of the Roman Catholic Church met in Toledo, Spain. In that same. of time, more than 100 official decrees of the Roman Catholic Church were decreed in Toledo, Spain. But, of course, the city is not truly holy and never was. You see, seminaries do not make a city holy. Monasteries do not make a city holy. Ecclesiastical offices do not make a city holy. Cathedrals, councils, ecclesiastical decrees, none of these things make a city holy.
The Bible tells us there’s really only one holy city and the Bible calls that city the New Jerusalem, the heavenly city. The Bible says nothing unclean shall enter into it nor he who practices abomination or falsehood but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. One holy city. Just as there is only one holy city, the Bible tells us that there’s only one holy man, only one holy person, and that one holy person is our Lord Jesus Christ. He is The Holy One.
Now, this morning we examine the meaning of the word holy. This word has two meanings and we’re going to examine the first meaning this Sunday morning, and next Sunday, on Communion Sunday, we’re going to examine the next meaning, the second meaning of the word holy.
First then, the word holy means “set apart from evil.” If you would be holy, you must be set apart from evil. When we say that Jesus Christ is The Holy One, we mean He is utterly set apart from evil.
In the Bible, the word for holy is the Greek word “hagios.” This word literally means “set apart.” Sometimes it referred to that which was set apart from evil. Other times it referred to that which was set apart for good. Set apart from evil, set apart for good. Those are the two meanings of holy. Next week, we examine set apart for good, but this week, set apart from evil, set apart from sin.
In the late 18th century, in the early 19th century, there lived a woman whose name was Pauline. She lived in France, and she was the talk of Paris. She was sexually immoral. There were, perhaps, other women in Paris who were equally immoral, but they were not of the nobility as Pauline was. By the time Pauline was 16 years old, she had slept with most of the generals in the French army. This is not historical speculation. This is established fact. The people of Paris loved to talk about Pauline. They loved to gossip about her. They loved to anticipate her next affair. If The National Enquirer had existed in France in the late 18th century or the early 19th century, Pauline would have been front page material.
Now, everybody was absolutely stunned when Pauline announced that she was going to get married. She decided to marry a man whose name was Victor Emanuel LeClerc. This man sometimes, for some reason, went by the name Charles LeClerc. Shortly after the marriage, Charles and Pauline were reassigned. Charles was a General in the French Army, and he was reassigned to the island of Haiti in St. Dominique.
Pauline did not want to go with her husband. She did not want to go to the island of Haiti. She did not want to go to St. Dominique. She did not want to leave Paris, so it took six men, in addition to Charles, Pauline’s husband, to lift her up and carry her onto the boat that took her westward towards the island of Haiti. There in Haiti, Pauline’s husband, Charles LeClerc, took 25,000 men into the Haitian jungle to fight an uprising. While he was there in the jungle fighting, Pauline was entertaining the men that remained behind. She became famous for her milk bath, and she rarely bathed alone. When her husband Charles LeClerc came down with yellow fever and died in the Haitian jungle, she barely shed a tear. She almost immediately boarded an eastbound ship, and she went back to France.
She went back to Paris where Pauline became the talk of Paris again, moving from man to man, affair to affair. And then she was married again to a very wealthy Italian who gave her a treasure of pearls and diamonds and a wardrobe of 600 gowns and Pauline’s favorite gowns were transparent.
As the years passed, she began to age, and she began to lose her beauty. When Pauline was 40 years old, she spent much of her time just looking in the mirror and crying because her beauty was fading. When she was 44, she came down with a horrible disease and when she was 45, in the year 1825, Pauline died. When she died, many people in Paris were sad because they no longer had Pauline to talk about. A few people grieved. Napoleon Bonaparte himself would have grieved had he not died four years earlier, because, you see, Pauline was the sister of Napoleon Bonaparte, and she was, in fact, Napoleon’s favorite sister.
You know, it was said that Pauline was perhaps the most immoral woman in France, the most immoral person in France. But in fairness, Pauline was probably no more of a sinner than her brother Napoleon because Napoleon had an insatiable craving for ascendancy over men. The sin of Napoleon was pride. Perhaps Pauline was no more sinful than her sister, Carolyn, who was totally into material things, who lived for wealth and had an insatiable greed, insatiable longing to be wealthy.
You know, the Bible tells us in the little book of 1 John that in this world there are three types of sin. Only three. Three categories of sin. The Bible calls them the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Most Bible scholars agree that the pride of life refers to ascendancy and to the sin of ego. The lust of the flesh refers to hedonism and hedonistic sins. The lust of the eyes refers to materialism and materialistic sins.
You see, the sin of Napoleon Bonaparte was the pride of life. The sin of Pauline Bonaparte was the lust of the flesh. The sin of Carolyn Bonaparte was the lust of the eyes. You see, there’s a little bit of Napoleon in each and every one of us and there’s a little bit of Pauline in each and every one of us and there’s a little bit of Carolyn in each and every one of us because we are fallen. We are all fallen. We are all sinners and we’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is within us even as Christians a sin nature, a sin nature that is at war with the new nature of Christ which has come within us. We are fallen and the world is fallen. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God save one and that one is The Holy One. That one is our Lord Jesus Christ. He is not fallen. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the yes, the pride of life—no power over Him! He is separated from sin, set apart from evil.
The Bible tells us in Hebrews, chapter 7, verse 26, “Jesus Christ is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. The Holy One.” So, He is utterly separated from sin and yet desperately in love with sinners. Because Jesus Christ, The Holy One, is desperately in love with sinners, He came into our world. You know that. He died on Calvary’s cross, and you know that. He died for your sin, and He died for my sin. He took the sin of the world upon Himself though He knew no sin. He took the sin of the world upon Himself though He was The Holy One. From murder to rape. From child abuse to wife beating. From gossip to slander. From jealousy to covertness. From fornication to adultery. He took all sin upon Himself. He died for the sin of the world. He died for our sinful behavior, and He died for our sinful thoughts in substitutionary atonement.
The Bible makes it so clear. If we believe in Him as Lord and as Savior, then in the courtroom of heaven, we are declared not guilty. If we believe in Him as Lord and Savior, then in the courtroom of heaven, we are declared innocent. We are pronounced blameless and the righteousness of Jesus Christ, The Holy One, is imputed to us. His holiness is vested upon us, and we receive judicial holiness. But, you see, if you believe in Christ, if you’re truly a Christian, you’re not satisfied with judicial holiness. If you’re really a Christian, you’re not satisfied with judicial righteousness. You want to become behaviorally righteous. You want to become holy in your thoughts. If you’re really a Christian, then in some measure, you hunger and you thirst after righteousness, hunger and thirst after holiness, and you want more and more to be set apart from evil. You want more and more to be set apart from sin. You want more and more to be like Jesus. You want to be like The Holy One.
And it’s not easy, is it? I mean it’s a constant struggle and the battle is waged within you. It’s a constant struggle not only because we are fallen but it’s a constant struggle because we live in a fallen world and the morals, and the values of this world are constantly changing. The morals and the values of this world are antithetical to the morals and the values of The Holy One. If you’re going to become more and more holy, if you’re going to begin to experience sanctification, then you’re going to be at odds with the world and with the ways of the world.
We see how the world is changing morally. We see how the world in its sexual mores is changing. In 1974, Wilbur Mills, the Arkansas Democrat, who was the Chairman of the House, Ways and Means Committee, made a fool of himself and ruined his political career by chasing after a woman named Fanny Fox who was a stripper. She was called the Argentine Firecracker. Just two years later, in 1976, Wayne Hays, the Ohio Democrat, fell from grace when it was discovered that his secretary, Elizabeth Ray, didn’t even know how to type. She had other skills less secretarial. Of course, Edward Kennedy lost his shot at the Presidency of this nation when he drove his car off the dike bridge at Chappaquiddick, sending Mary Jo Kopechne to a watery grave. Gary Hart, the Colorado Democrat, lost his chance at the Presidency for a brief fling with Donna Rice.
All of these things were sad and yet there was a sense at least in which this nation and the people of this nation cared, cared about the sexual behavior of our leaders, cared about the moral integrity of those who lead us. I think in this nation and in this culture, times are changing. I think most people no longer care about the sexual behavior of those who lead us and their personal morality.
In 1992, Jennifer Flowers stepped forward and she accused President Clinton of a 12-year affair. More recently, Paula Jones has stepped forward and accused our President of sexual harassment. I do not know whether these accusations are true or false, but I suspect this. I suspect that most people just don’t care. I mean they don’t care anymore.
Perhaps you’re thinking, “Didn’t Thomas Jefferson, centuries ago, father children through a female slave?” The answer is yes, but, you see, the people of this nation did not know that. They did not know that and had they known that they would have cared. Perhaps you’re thinking, “Well, didn’t John F. Kennedy turn The White House into a brothel?” The answer is yes, but again, while Kennedy was in office, the nation’s media did not report on that and the people of American did not know. Had they known, perhaps they would have cared but today, people just don’t seem to care because our morals are changing, and our sexual mores are changing.
Of course, now we live in a culture where premarital sex, premarital sex, is almost universally accepted and viewed as recreational. We see this in television sitcoms, and we see this in Hollywood motion pictures. You know, the sad thing about our country is not so much that we no longer care about the immorality of others. The really sad thing about this country is that so many people no longer care about their own immorality. We no longer care about our own sexual immorality. People are changing their sexual mores and no longer call sin, sin.
Through the years, and I’ve been in the ministry now 25 years. I’ve seen some incredible changes. In those 25 years, I’ve done over 600 weddings. I have seen so many couples come into my office and they’re living together. They either don’t know that it violates scripture, or they just don’t care. They feel enlightened. But, you see, God’s word does not change. Holy scripture does not change. The words of The Holy One do not change. What’s wrong is wrong.
U.S. News and World Report in the May 19th issue just two weeks ago, the cover story, the cover story of this secular magazine, U.S. News and World Report, its cover story is “The Trouble with Premarital Sex.” Then on the cover it says, “Americans Don’t Think It’s Much of a Problem—Maybe They Should.” What an incredible article. Many pages in length. The article points out that adult premarital sex is the sin Americans wink at. We think it’s just a problem for the teenage population of this nation, but truth be known, the primary participants in this sin are adults.
The truth is that in 1965, 43% of the women of American were virgins when they were married. I don’t know how many men were virgins. I know in the sight of God there is no double standard. I know in the sight of God; God expects the same sexual morals from men and women equally. But in 1965, 43% of the women in American were virgins when they got married. Just 32 years ago. In 1985, only 14% were virgins when getting married. Today, although the U.S. News and World Report does not have an updated statistic, they say it’s far lower, far lower, certainly under 10%.
In the 1950s, nine out of every ten couples getting married were not cohabiting. Nine out of every ten couples, when they came to get married, had been living in separate places. Nine out of ten in the 1950s. Today, two out of every three people who marry are living together when they get married, cohabitating. You might think, “Well, what’s the big deal? I mean, why does God set the standards He sets?”
The word in the Bible for premarital sex is the Greek word “porneia.” Porneia is the Greek word from which we get the English word “porn” but porneia as it was originally used simply referred to premarital sex. Then as time passed, porneia was given a broader scope of meaning and it referred to any kind of sexual immorality. Sometimes the word porneia in the Bible is simply translated by the English word immorality. Sometimes it’s translated by the English word fornication, but I think a lot of Christians just read over the passages of scripture and perhaps aren’t even aware of the meaning.
God wants us to understand that sex is a wonderful gift. It’s a beautiful gift meant to be opened in the context of marriage, marriage between a man and a woman. When this gift is opened outside of that context, outside of the context of marriage, the gift is cheapened, and it is tainted. God’s not some kind of uptight God who is just trying to cramp our style. He loves us and cares about us.
You know this U.S. News and World Report makes some amazing conclusions for a secular peiodical. They point out that premarital sex just isn’t healthy. Now, that all the sociological studies are coming in, they’re finding out that premarital sex does great emotional damage to the people who participate. Sometimes that emotional damage doesn’t surface until years and years later. We just weren’t meant to give ourselves in such intimacy casually. We’re not meant to do that.
They are also discovering that couples who cohabit and live together, when they get married, are less likely to stay married. Did you know that? U.S. News and World Report reports that all the statistics indicate that if you’re living together before you’re married, you’re more likely, when you get married, not to stay married. STDs, sexually transmitted diseases, are rampant in America because of our promiscuity, because of our immorality, because of our lack of holiness. From AIDS to chlamydia, STDs are proliferating. This nation has more incidents of gonorrhea and syphilis than any other nation in the world. Did you know that? Because we are so morally and sexually enlightened, as we view enlightenment, and God grieves. God grieves.
So, here’s a call for holiness. You know, Christ—He didn’t call us to holiness because He wants to make us miserable. He called us to holiness because He longs to bless us. He longs to bless us. He knows what is best for us and He’s looking for people who have obedient hearts, people who hunger and thirst after righteousness. People who are fallen, yes. People who long to please Christ and people who long to be holy.
So, you know, as our time is drawing to a close, I just want to say that today is a day of repentance. It’s an opportunity to repent—of anything in your life that’s displeasing to Christ. Christ loves you. He wants His blessings to be full in your life and that can’t happen unless you take holiness seriously. If something in your life in terms of the lust of the eyes is displeasing to Christ; if you’re preoccupied with materialism and the accumulation of wealth and with career and success as the world defines it, today’s the day to repent. If you’re struggling with the lust of the flesh and with sins of hedonism, sins of pleasure—whether they are sexual sins or they’re alcohol or drug related—whatever, today’s the day to repent.
If you know your thought life is just not where it needs to be, and maybe, you know, behaviorally you’ve drawn some lines and not crossed them but in your mind, in your imagination you know you’re not thinking right, today is the day to repent. If there are pride sins in your life and you love to put yourself over others or you love to elevate yourself in the sight of others—if you love to put other people down—if you tend to practice gossip or slander or anything like that—today, is the day to repent.
The Bible says, “Do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who has called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct for it is written, ‘You shall be holy for I am holy.’” Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.