Surrender: The Heart God ControlsReasonable Service

Leslie Basham: Holiness—the word may conjure up images of someone who is boring or stoic. Here is Nancy Leigh DeMoss to refresh our thinking.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: I think it's time for us to reclaim holiness as it really is presented in the Scripture, in its beauty and in its splendor; to see that true holiness is something exquisite.

Leslie: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss for Wednesday, August 10. For the last couple of weeks, we've been sending listeners a copy of a trilogy from Nancy—the books Brokenness, Surrender, and Holiness from Nancy. We've also been exploring these topics on the air. Later today, we'll consider holiness. But first, Nancy is wrapping up a series called Surrender: The Heart God Controls.

Nancy: In 1900, 17 years before the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin wrote in a socialist party newspaper, "We must train men and women who will devote to the revolution, not merely their spare evenings, but the whole of their lives."

God is calling in His revolution for the sake of His great kingdom. He's calling for men and women who are willing to devote to His kingdom, not just their leftover evenings, not just the few hours they think they can spare, but the whole of their lives.

That's what it means to be a part of the Kingdom of God, to be a citizen of His kingdom, to be a child of God. It means that we have given up to Him the whole of our lives, not just a part but the whole. So if we're going to see the Kingdom of God advance in this earth—and by the way, that's what we're supposed to be living for. The glory of God will one day cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. That is our purpose of living, to see His name reverenced, to see His kingdom come, to see His will done here on earth as it is in heaven.

That's what we're living for. If we want to be a part of seeing that revolution, we need to be men and women who are devoting to the kingdom of Christ, not just our spare evenings but the whole of our lives.

Now, as we talk about the complete sacrifice of our lives to God, about offering up ourselves as a living sacrifice, do you ever feel that it seems like a lot to ask? I have to tell you that I do. I love the Lord; I love His kingdom; I love serving Him; but truthfully, there are moments when I feel like something God is asking of me is just too much!

Not that He's not worthy of it, but you know what I tend to do is compare myself to what it seems like God is asking other people to do. There are times when I think, "Lord, couldn't you just let me have a little more ordinary, normal life? Do I have to be always serving, always giving, always sacrificing?"

I'm not proud to tell you that I think that at times. Sometimes it's not even some big huge sacrifice God's asking. Sometimes it's just a little thing that just hits me wrong.

I think sometimes the Lord asking me to invest financially, as a single woman, helping to provide Christian education for children of couples in full-time ministry. Sometimes just feeling, if God didn't ask this of me, there are other things I can think of to do with that money.

It just feels at the moment, though you wouldn't want to admit it, like a lot for God to ask. But the Kingdom of God requires that we relate every decision and every detail of our lives to what pleases God, what advances His purposes, what advances His kingdom.

In these moments when we feel like God's asking a lot, our emotions sometimes cry out, "I've already given so much; I just can't give any more." That's when we need to take a trip to Calvary and look into the eyes of a Savior who gave everything He had to reconcile us to Himself, no holding back, no limitations.

That's why the apostle Paul says, as we've been seeing, "I urge you in view of God's mercies, in view of God's great, limitless, infinite, ongoing, day after day, mercies and compassion, I urge you to make a sacrifice, pay the price; offer your bodies, not just your spare evenings, but also all that you are, all that you have, as a living sacrifice to God. For this is your reasonable act of worship" (Romans 12:1 paraphrase).

That word reasonable is an interesting one. It comes from a Greek word from which we get our word logical. It's reasonable. It's logical to make this sacrifice. Why?

In light of the incredible compassion and mercy that God has shown to us, past mercies, present mercies, and future mercies that we yet anticipate because God is a merciful God. He will never stop being merciful and compassionate toward us.

So in view of God's great mercies poured out upon us, it's altogether reasonable, logical, that He should ask whatever He wants of us and that we should say, "Yes, Lord."

In fact, this verse, Romans 12:1, appears at the end of eleven chapters, the first eleven chapters of the book of Romans, that have been an exposition about the mercies of God in salvation—how He took us as fallen, depraved, alienated sinners, far from God, far from hope and when we had no heart for God, no interest in God, God wooed our hearts.

He drew us to Himself. He opened our hearts to receive His mercy. He gave Jesus Christ for us. And in light of all that's gone ahead in those first eleven chapters of the book of Romans, Paul says, "It is absolutely logical, reasonable, that God should say to offer up your life as a sacrifice to Him."

I was with a couple not too long ago who were struggling with a sacrifice that they felt God was asking them to make. As we prayed together, I remember that father and husband sobbing, pouring out his heart to the Lord and, almost hard to understand, he said, "Oh Lord, oh Jesus, in light of what You have done for us on the cross, this is not too much for You to ask, and we are willing to say, 'Yes, Lord.'"

I quoted in the last session from Helen Roseveare. Let me quote again from her book, Living Sacrifice, where she says,

Today, it would appear that we Christians prefer to talk of a measure of commitment; the length to which we are willing to become involved, rather than the depths of God's immeasurable love in which we long to become immersed.

She goes on to say that the carefree abandonment of love that marks the sacrifices of the apostle Paul, of second century Christians, of nineteenth century missionaries, seems sadly lacking today.

Today we weigh up what we can afford to give Him. In those days they knew that they could not afford to give Him less than all.

You know the name David Livingstone? He was a nineteenth century missionary statesman to Africa. He's often held up as an example of an unusually sacrificial life. But from his perspective, what he did was not sacrificial at all—when it was seen in the light of what Christ has done for us.

David Livingstone said,

People talk of the sacrifice that I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice, that which is simply paid back as a small part of the great debt owing to our God that we can never repay?

Away with such a word sacrifice. Such a view and such a thought. It is emphatically no sacrifice; say rather, "It is a privilege." Anxieties, sickness, suffering, or danger now or then, with the foregoing of the common conveniences of this life may make us pause and cause the spirit to waiver and sink. But let this be only for a moment.

All these are nothing when compared with the glory that shall hereafter be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk. When we remember the great sacrifice which He made, who left His Father's throne on high to give Himself for us.

God may never call you to a foreign mission field, but He does ask that you offer up your life and your circumstances, whatever they are, as a living sacrifice, a burnt offering, signifying your wholehearted consecration and surrender to the Savior, who gave His life for you.

So could it be said of you that you have devoted to Christ the whole of your life? Or would it be true that you are merely giving Him your spare evenings?

Is He not worthy of the whole of our lives? In the words of Isaac Watts' immortal hymn,

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small.
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.¹

Father, please forgive me for all the times that I have felt I was making a sacrifice that seemed like a lot to give. Even as I have shared these words, I'm reminded of the incredible sacrifice You have made for us.

Lord, You are worthy, not just of our spare evenings, not just of what we think we can afford to give; but You are worthy of that careless, reckless abandon that we read about, that giving up of the whole of our lives for the sake of the Lord Jesus and of Your great kingdom, amen.

Leslie: Nancy Leigh DeMoss has been showing you what a life of surrender to the Lord looks like. Would you follow up on what you just heard and study the topic of surrender further with Nancy? Her book, Surrender: The Heart God Controls, will give you a biblical understanding of what it means to give your life wholeheartedly to the Lord. You'll be invited to explore areas of your life that need to be surrendered to him.

The team at Revive Our Hearts has packaged the book Surrender with two others from Nancy. You'll receive the trilogy Brokenness, Surrender, and Holiness when you donate any amount to Revive Our Hearts. Just call us at 1-800-569-5959, or visit ReviveOurHearts.com.

We've been exploring the topics of this trilogy on Revive Our Hearts the last couple of weeks. We've studied brokenness and surrender. We now turn to an important study on holiness. Here's Nancy.

Nancy: I want to talk this week about a word that Andrew Murray called the most profound word in the Bible. I don't know what you think that word would be, but the word we are going to talk about is holiness.

Now, I have to admit that holiness is a word that has fallen on hard times kind of like modesty or chastity or purity. It's not a word that people talk a lot about around the dinner table, for example.

It's not exactly an easy subject to sell, the subject of holiness. I don't think it's one of the top ten topics that people look for in a Christian bookstore, for example. It's something that we talk about at theology classes but not in everyday conversation.

We don't mind talking about holiness, as long as it is an abstract concept, just a theological idea. But if that concept gets too personal, then whoa, we want to back up from that conversation. We get uncomfortable really quickly.

I think part of the problem may be that this word, holiness, is a word that has picked up a lot of baggage that understandably makes some people uncomfortable. I don't know if that is you. But some may think of somber people, really straight-laced people that have outdated hairstyles, outdated clothing styles. They are holy people—just a lot of rules, a lot of regulations, a lot of things you can't do, and a lot of things you have to do to be holy.

Or maybe we think that holy people talk in hushed tones. They are always humming hymns under their breaths. They spend many hours a day kneeling in prayer. They always have their nose in the Bible or a spiritual book. There have no interest in normal everyday life activities. They are other worldly. They are holy people.

Or you may think of somebody who has a judgmental attitude towards everyone who doesn't see the Christian life just exactly as they do. Well, when you take those mis-perceptions or distorted perceptions of holiness and you hold those up, you think, "No wonder people aren't really excited about holiness." I mean, who wants that. It's kind-of as appealing as drinking salt water or something. Who wants to be holy if that's what it is?

Now, holiness may not be at the top of the list of things that you enjoy talking about, but let me remind you that in heaven they never stop talking about holiness. That's the number one subject of interest in heaven. Think about that verse in Psalm 96:9, that says that we are to "worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness."

Some of your translations will say, "in the splendor of holiness." I love that verse. I think it's time for us to reclaim holiness as it really is presented in the Scripture, in its beauty and in its splendor; to see that true holiness is something exquisite, is something desirable. It's something that we would want if we really understood it and could see how beautiful it is, how splendid it is.

As it's revealed in the Word of God, holiness is a beautiful thing. "Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness." I also believe that the holiness of God's people is one of the greatest needs in the church and in the world today.

Now, I want us to talk this week about what is the kind of holiness that God wants us to have as His people. What does that look like? What does it mean? And why is it so important that we recover biblical holiness?

Several years ago when I first started doing serious studies on the subject of holiness, I took time to read through the first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and then the New Testament epistles, the letters to the churches, and to write out, by hand, every verse that I could find that had anything to do with holiness.

I think I actually started in the book of Exodus because that's where you have a lot of emphasis that comes in about holiness. And I filled page after page of a legal pad with verses in just those books of the Bible about holiness.

For example, in the book of Leviticus alone, three hundred and eighty-six times you find words that are related to holiness: clean, unclean, holy, sanctified, purity, wash, defile, words that are in that family of words, just in the book of Leviticus.

Remember if you have waded through the book of Leviticus, that in that book God gave His people minute detailed instructions about cleansing, about ceremonial purity. And you have to ask yourself as you are trudging through the book of Leviticus, why? I mean, why did God take all the time and effort to spell out these detailed instructions about every aspect of daily life and worship and ceremonial cleansing?

Well, those regulations were intended to be an object lesson to the people of Israel. What did God want them to see in those object lessons? Well, He wanted them to see first that He is holy, that God is Holy. They were a picture of the holiness of God.

Then God wanted His people to realize that God is concerned about holiness in every detail and aspect of our lives, that it matters to God that we be clean, that we be pure, that we be holy, and that that holiness affects every area of our lives.

I'll tell you something else God wanted His people to understand (and that we have lost sight of today) and that is the blessings that come with holiness, that holy living is a blessed way to live. And God also wanted His people to see that sin has consequences, that when we don't live holy lives, there are consequences. There are results that are not pleasant. They are deadly, in fact.

Now, we sometimes think that God had higher standards for His people in the Old Testament than He did in the New; that in the Old Testament, God is this holy God who judges sin. People who violate God's commandments or His laws in the Old Testament, they get struck dead sometimes.

Then we think, "Wow, when we come to the New Testament, we can breathe easy." God's a God of mercy and love and kindness, the gospel, the good news. But as you read through the whole Scripture, what you come to realize is that God never changes. The God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New Testament, and that the God of the New Testament is the same as the God of the Old. All through the Old Testament you see the grace and the mercy of God, and in the New Testament you also see the justice and the righteousness of God.

It's at the cross of Christ that these marry each other. As Psalms say, "Righteousness and peace kiss each other" (Ps. 85:10). That's where they come together in great relief. But the New Testament places no less emphasis on holiness than the Old. Over and over again, Jesus and the New Testament authors call us to a life of purity. Let me just read several of those verses. Most of them will be familiar to you.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:48, "You shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect." Now, I don't know how you can get much higher than that standard. That's New Testament.

First Timothy 5:22, Paul says, "Keep yourself pure." First Thessalonians 4:3, "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." And Romans 12:9, "Abhor what is evil and cling to what is good."

You can't read those and other Scriptures carefully without being gripped by the sense that holiness matters to God, that God takes holiness, His and ours, very seriously.

Now, as I wrote out these verses in the Old and New Testament, I was forced to ask myself, "Why is it that something that is so vitally important to God is of so little concern and priority for so many professed believers? If it matters that much to Him, how can it be that it matters so little to so many of us?"

As I think about those verses that I just read from the New Testament, several things are clear. Number one, holiness is not optional. It's not, "Become a Christian and then if you want to become holy, that's a second course. You can take that one if you want to." It's not an elective. This is the will of God, that you be pure, that you be holy, your sanctification.

And then it's obvious as we read those verses, that God's standard for holiness is absolute, that there is not to be even a hint of sin in our lives. The question isn't how do we compare to some other family member or some coworker or somebody else in our church. We can point to them and say, "Okay, compared to them we are doing pretty well."

The question is how do we measure up to the holiness of God? That's an absolute, and I might add, impossible standard for fallen human beings. And that's why we need Jesus. That's why we need the grace of God. That's why we need the cross of Christ.

Now as I read those verses, I also realize that we have a responsibility to be proactive and intentional in our pursuit of holiness. It's not something that happens by osmosis. This is something that we need to go after, that we need to pursue, that we need to be intentional about.

And then I see also that holiness is not just for some select few pious people: pastors, missionaries, evangelists. Of course, they are supposed to be holy, that's what they get paid to do, right? But according to these verses, holiness is an obligation and a privilege for every single child of God.

As the Scripture says, "Let everyone that names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity" [2 Timothy 2:19].

Father, I pray that You will restore in our hearts a sense of the splendor and beauty of holiness. May we see You as the Holy God that You are. Thank You for Your grace that does in us what we could never do for ourselves. Oh Lord, would You make us holy as Your people. I pray in Jesus name, amen.

Leslie: Nancy Leigh DeMoss has been showing you the splendor of holiness. I hope you'll explore this topic further with Nancy by reading her book Holiness: The Heart God Purifies. This book has had a big effect on its readers, including one who contacted Nancy after reading it.

Nancy: We received an encouraging email from a student at Liberty University who wrote,

For one of my upper-level classes, my prof used your book Holiness. This book has totally changed my view of God and has allowed me to see Him like He is supposed to be seen. It has changed my thought life. It's made me conscious of holiness in little things. I talk about this book all the time and the seriousness of holiness.

Well, this student was about to get married and she added,

I'm thinking about getting copies for my six bridesmaids, so they too can grow in their understanding of the Lord.

People sometimes think of holiness as an old-fashioned, outdated concept for old folks. But I'm so glad that this college student is thinking deeply about holiness and about spreading the message to others. I hope you'll pursue this study as well.

We'd like to send you the book on holiness that influenced this student. We'll also send you two more books I’ve written called Brokenness and Surrender. We've packaged all three of those books in one volume. We'll send you a copy when you donate any amount to the ministry of Revive Our Hearts.

I hope you'll take this opportunity to let these important topics become an integral part of your walk with the Lord.

Leslie: When you call to make your donation of any size, ask for the trilogy Brokenness, Surrender, and Holiness. The number is 1-800-569-5959, or support the ministry and get your book by visiting ReviveOurHearts.com.

What comes to mind when I say “church”? Tomorrow, Nancy will give her definition and explain why it matters to the topic of holiness. Please be back for Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss is an outreach of Life Action Ministries.

¹ "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." Isaac Watts.