@henryodera5726

4 months ago

The reason people shut down when they hear about holiness isn't "mean-spirited" preachers. It's because very few honest listeners think that they're holy, or that they can even be holy. Why do you think the so-called "mean-spirited preachers" are considered to be mean-spirited in the first place? It's because their listeners feel like they are being asked to do the impossible. If Jesus were to appear today and start giving the sermon on the Mount, He may be considered one of the "mean-spirited preachers" when He says "your are to be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect", because how is a sinner with the weakness of the flesh and a strong appetite for/addiction to its pleasures supposed to achieve that? The one mistake that "mean-spirited" preachers make though, is that they forget to stress how this holiness is to be achieved. It's not by "12 steps", or by strength of will, or by effort, but by the Spirit of God. "Not by might or power, but by My Spirit". (Zechariah 4:6; see also 1 Corinthians 2:4-5). To put this into perspective, think of becoming holy as being on the same level of difficulty as raising the dead. Both are impossible for a man to do, but easy for God to do. If anyone thinks that becoming holy is easier for them than the raising the dead, they have neither understood the Gospel nor what holiness is, for just as a dead body cannot raise itself rom the dead, that which is unholy cannot make itself holy. They are trying to do that which only God can do through their own strength, resolve and will. The resolve of a unholy man to become holy is as useful and reliable as a mirror in a completely dark changing room. We need God to be the one to cause us to will and to do His pleasure (Philippians 2:13; Ezekiel 36:27). But many preachers are busy giving "12 steps of holiness" and making money by convincing corpses and dry bones (see Ezekiel 37:1-14), that they can rid themselves of rot, grow new living flesh in its place, and give themselves life by doing this or that, or doing this more and doing that less. They consign people to their flesh and cause them to look away from the light of God, and to search for their own lights in their own shadows.

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