Somebody Loves You

Raul Ries: You are the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill that can never be hidden. Notice what He said. You and I are lights on a hill for everybody to watch. When it's dark, they should be able to see our lights. That's the kind of people God is looking for in these last days.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. Today we are pressing on in our series exploring the freedom and responsibility of life as Jesus' disciples. Today Raul will challenge us to a daily commitment to holiness, not allowing the world's lax view of sin to skew our view of what is right in God's eyes. We've been called to righteousness and our obedience brings honor to the Lord. Here is Raul Ries with our study Seeking Holiness in an Ungodly World.

Raul Ries: If you have your Bibles, turn to the book of 2nd Corinthians chapter 6. Pretty amazing passage. It's a passage that Paul the Apostle writes to us and he really speaks to the church. And the reason for that is because in 1st Corinthians he was having so many problems with the church as the church had become carnal. They were having divisions, they were having lawsuits, they were going to court and suing other Christians.

And Paul begins to share with them, listen, there's even a guy in the church that's living together with his mother-in-law and living together sexually and they're still coming to church and the pastor doesn't say nothing about it and the elders are sleeping. What is the problem? And then, of course, the abuse of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. So Paul in his second letter, he writes to us about the suffering of the believer. What happens when you really become a believer in Jesus Christ?

And then in chapter 6, beginning about verse 14, Paul says this: Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Satan? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: I will dwell in them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people.

Therefore, come out from among them and be you separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you. And then I will be a father to you. You shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Therefore, having these promises beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from the filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

And what's really incredible about this passage is that here Paul the Apostle is going to be talking about seeking holiness in an ungodly world. Think of how many Christians, young men, young women, get themselves in trouble by being unequally yoked together with someone else. A boy or a girl. Or you go into partnership with a non-believer and then he ends up ripping you off.

Paul makes it very clear that Christians, yes, we live in this world but we're not of this world. And we have to be wise, not stupid. We have to be wise in our understanding of the word of God and what God declares here. We are in the light, we're not in the darkness. The light has to shine into the darkness. The darkness doesn't rule over the light. And so he's talking about really becoming a real witness in a world that is passing away.

And this was a problem in the church of Corinth. They were a bunch of compromisers. Guys were living together with women. They were drinking, they were partying, they were going to the house of prostitutes. They had no respect for the holiness of God. They were doing their own thing. And God stepped in and God began to do sicknesses and weaknesses and even putting people to death. They would die.

Now we are living in the days that are changing very rapidly in our world. Everything is becoming acceptable. Homosexuality, lesbianism, drugs, alcohol, social drinking. I mean, stealing, cheating. I mean, being at work and taking pencils and paper and taking long breaks and cheating on your employer. As you're the employee and you're supposed to be a Christian, what kind of example are you setting for a world that is so dark and is watching you?

One of the things that I see is that we need to be men and women of integrity. Integrity. That's a word that is not being used today in our society. It's a way we live, the way we act, the way we live out our weekends. When we come to church, what have we done this past week? Are we really preparing our hearts for the future in case anything would happen? Are we going to be salt and light to a world that is coming into judgment?

So here we have a time that we're living upon this earth where there are so many people that do not want to be accountable to God. They don't want to be accountable to God or to anyone. They have no integrity and at the same time they love being unholy and ungodly in their lives. Remember when Isaiah the prophet was there before the Lord? And the Lord came in chapter 6, and the Lord wanted to use the prophet.

Because in chapter 1 of Isaiah, if you open the book there and you read the first chapter, you see them in the house of God and there's people literally worshipping the Lord and they're raising their hands unto God. And the Lord comes along and says, put your hands down because your hands are full of blood. Says, you hypocrites. He says you're a phony. You're playing church. Your life is not aligned with the purposes and the will of God.

And so Isaiah the prophet wanted to be used of God. God wanted to use him, but before he could ever be used in chapter 6, God says we've got to clean your act. We've got to clean your life. Check what he says. In Isaiah 6:5 he says, so I said, woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the middle of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

Where do we live? We live in a world in the middle of unclean people. People that do not love God. We have to work there, we have to live next to them, we have to shop with them, we have to play with them. We're all over the place. And it's really important for me to be light and salt in a world that is always, always judging Christians. Judging Christians.

If you're going to be a Christian and you're going to really share with someone, please don't share your faith if you're not going to live your faith out. You'll embarrass Christianity. You'll embarrass the Lord plus yourself. Make sure that before you even open your mouth, before you even say anything, people are watching your life. And they'll watch you every single day, every month, every year and one day without saying one word, those people that were watching you and hated you are the ones that are going to come and say, how can I know your Savior?

How can I know Christ? By not saying one word. That's why Isaiah the prophet was such an incredible person. And he said, woe is me for I am a man undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I am living in the middle of people that have unclean lips. And check this out: for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies, I've seen Him. He revealed Himself to me.

I really believe with all my heart that once you see Jesus you'll never be the same. And I'm not saying literally. Once you really have a true conversion, you cannot be the same person. There's no way. No possible way. No wonder Peter in writing his little letter in 1st Peter chapter 1 verse 15 and 16 he says, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your manner of life.

Because it is written, be you holy for I am holy, says the Lord. God is a holy, holy, holy God and we're supposed to be a holy people. That's why James the brother of John, cousins of Jesus, he wrote the epistle of James 1:22. He says, but be you doers of the word of God and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. I like that.

Think of how many people come here every Sunday morning, Wednesday nights, Sunday nights, Thursday nights, whenever something is going on and yet he says they're not doers of God's word but only hearers, deceiving themselves. You're deceiving yourself. You're not learning. You're not committed to the holiness of God. God wants us to be holy why? Because He is holy. We need to be lights in a dark world around us that is perishing away daily without God, without hope.

And yet God has touched your life, touched my life. And that's why Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:14, He could say, you are the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill that can never be hidden. Notice what He said. You and I are lights on a hill for everybody to watch. When it's dark, they should be able to see our lights. That's the kind of people God is looking for in these last days.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. For resources to help direct you in a God-glorifying life, visit us at somebodylovesyou.com. You can also join Raul for Straight Talk on the Somebody Loves You worldwide YouTube channel every Tuesday at 10 a.m. West Coast time. Here is Raul Ries with more of our study from First Corinthians chapter 6.

Raul Ries: Let me give you three things that I wrote down. Number one, the believer's life of holiness. Is it God's call for every one of us to be holy? Yes. 1st Thessalonians 4:7 says, for God did not call us to uncleanness but He called us in holiness. In holiness. And then secondly, it is God's will for us to be holy even as He is holy. Ephesians 4:24 says, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Notice what he says. And holiness.

Thirdly, it is God's choosing us to be holy. Check this out. Ephesians 4:1: I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, Paul, beseech you or beg you that you walk worthy of the calling which God has called you to walk on. It's a calling of God. And fourthly, it is a command. A command for us to realize that we are the temple of the living God. What do you mean? Check this out.

1st Corinthians 3:16-17: Don't you know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God is dwelling in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy that person, for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. You say, well, that's in the Old Testament. No, this is the New Testament. Same God. Not two Gods, same God.

The word that he uses here, temple, is the word for the holiest of holies in the Old Testament where the priest would go in once a year on the Day of Atonement. They would tie a rope to his right ankle. He would have the pomegranates bells at the bottom, the 12 stones, the crown and he would walk into the holiest of holies. And as long as those bells were ringing, he was cool.

But the moment those bells would stop, with that rope they would pull him out because God had killed him because of sin. Now He says when Christ comes and He rents the temple in half, what does He say? He says now your body, my body, has become the temple of the living God. This is not the house of the Lord. You are the house of the Lord.

You and me. My body has become the temple of the living God. Where does God live? He lives not in Calvary Chapel. He lives wherever your name may be. He lives in your heart. He uses your body as the temple of the living God and then He says, what are you doing with your body? How are you using it?

Paul tells us in 1st Corinthians that when a young person has sex with a girlfriend or boyfriend and they put their bodies together, he says you're bringing righteousness with unrighteousness and what do you do? That is not God's way. You're in sin. It's not good. It's really important that we understand God's word. God's word is holy and we're supposed to be holy as He is holy.

You see, God's choosing for us is to desire holiness in our life. 1st Peter 1:15: but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all of your manner of life. That's what Peter said. And the demand is there. Romans chapter 12 verse 1 and 2. He says, I beseech you, I beg you brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God which is your reasonable service.

And do not be conformed to this world but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. In the Old Testament they would kill lambs and then bleed them. Lambs, turtledoves. Because in the New Testament He's not asking for a dead sacrifice, He's asking for a living sacrifice. A living sacrifice.

My eyes, my ears, my hands, my feet, my mouth, my brain. Everything belongs to God. He is the living God and God desires that we serve Him in holiness. In Luke 1:74-75, he says to grant unto us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve Jesus Christ without fear, in holiness, in righteousness before Him all the days of our life. All the days of our life.

And then the second point is the examples that are given to us of holy lives in the Old Testament, such as Enoch. Remember Genesis 5:24 where Enoch was walking 365 years with God? He took a little walk one day, he never came back because God took him. The first one to get raptured in the Old Testament. The second one was Elijah.

He went out in a chariot of fire, came by, picked him up and took him to heaven. And they were not looking for him, never found him. The two that are coming back in the last seven years of world history that are going to be killed in Jerusalem and three days later their bodies are going to rise and every TV channel is going to watch it and the whole world will see them going to heaven before the Antichrist. Interesting how the Bible speaks so clear.

How about Noah? A guy that lived in a world of perversion. Of perversion. Read Genesis 6. I mean, so many people on the earth where there were these angels, the fallen ones, they were coming in possessing women and men were having sex with these women and half-angels and half-demons and half-humans were being born. Nephilim, read it.

And God got so sick of it that he told Noah 120 years and the end will come. Build a ship as big as the Titanic, no, build it as big as you can put inside of it 522 railroad cars you can put inside, three levels. One window, one door and then pitch it on the bottom. And then I'm going to send a flood. And what happened? 120 billion people drowned in the flood.

Go back and look at it. And only eight survived. Eight is a number of new beginnings. Seven is a number of perfection. Only Noah, his wife and three sons and three daughter-in-laws, they were the only ones to survive the flood. The rest of the world drowned in the flood. And how about Abraham?

Abraham, the one that had no faith, and yet he was 100 years old, his wife 90 years old and God gave them a baby by the name of Isaac. They laughed in the tent when God told them the previous year, next year you're going to be pregnant and she started laughing. She was 90 years old. A miracle of God and then Isaac was born.

But before that, what did they do? Isaac was not even born. So what does Abraham do? Abraham and his wife, what do they do? They try to help God out. So they get Hagar, the one that they actually bring along, she's an Arab and she goes with Abraham, has sex with Abraham, she gets pregnant because Sarah can't have babies.

And Ishmael is born before God ever gives a promise. No, He gave the promise, but they didn't believe it. But what did they do? They try to help God out and when you help God out, all you're doing is breaking what God is intending to do. And then God gave them a son by the name of Isaac, a type of Jesus Christ. So many beautiful stories in the Bible.

And then third point and final, the reasons for God's holiness. What is it? Because God desires that we would have fruit unto holiness. Fruit unto holiness. Romans 6:22: but now having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have holiness and the end you'll have everlasting life. Secondly, because God desires that we would be holy.

He wants us to lift up holy hands. 1st Timothy 2:8: I desire therefore that men would pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and without doubting. And then He wants us to be a holy priesthood. 1st Peter 2:5: you also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

And then fourthly, a holy conversation when we talk to God. 2nd Peter 3:11: therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, then what manner of persons are you ought to be in all holy manner of life and godliness? Godliness. This is what God desires.

Guest (Male): It's easy to follow those around you into sinful compromise, but we hope today's study has created a strong desire within you to maintain a pure commitment to holiness. You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. Today's study was titled Seeking Holiness in an Ungodly World. If you'd like to get an unedited version, we'll be happy to send one to you for a donation of $5 or more. All you have to do is call us at 800-634-9165.

Now we'd also like to support your pursuit of righteousness with Raul's four-part liberty study available on both CD and thumb drive. Providing more insight into what it means to walk in freedom with Christ, this resource will guide you in avoiding the pitfalls of legalism while honoring the Lord with obedience. You'll also get a challenge to share the gospel's life-changing message with others. Visit somebodylovesyou.com or call 800-634-9165 to order Raul's four-lesson series celebrating your spiritual liberty.

We'll send you the CD set for $19 or the flash drive for just $10. Our number once again is 800-634-9165. You can also write to us at Somebody Loves You Radio, Post Office Box 4440, Diamond Bar, California 91765. We encourage you to download our Somebody Loves You app to keep God's word at your fingertips. There you'll find live-streamed Bible teaching, an easy reading plan to help guide your personal devotion times, and much more.

Raul is also happy to answer your Bible questions. His email address is pastorraul@somebodylovesyou.com. This ministry is completely listener-supported and every contribution is tax-deductible. Thank you for your partnership in sharing the good news of the gospel with the world. And next time as we return to God's word for more inspiration and instruction, we hope you'll join us. We're always blessed with every opportunity to grow with you in wisdom and in faith. Now once again with a final thought from today's study, here is Raul.

Raul Ries: Fifth and final. Because God's desire is that we would be blameless and holy in this world. Check this out. Ephesians 1:4: just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. The love of Christ that constrains me. The love of Christ that has saved you. The love of Christ that has forgiven you for every one of your sins today.

Guest (Male): This program is sponsored by Somebody Loves You Radio in Diamond Bar, California.