Feeling Unholy
- May 31
- 19 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
Pastor Stan Mons
Sermon Transcription:
The title of this message is feeling unholy. Feeling unholy. When we talk about holiness, there's really two aspects of holiness, and we're really focusing in on one of those. So I want to divide that holiness into those two categories so that you have very clear, for your own life, what God may be addressing in your heart to remove it and to replace it with something not done by you or made by you, but with something that God has done. When we talk about holiness, there is such a thing that we call positional holiness, and then there's practical holiness. And if you don't split them up in two, it can become a very confusing topic. Positional holiness means that you are, head to toe, completely holy. There's nothing found in you that is unholy. That's positional. Practical holiness is the stuff you do in life, the stuff you say. Are those holy words? Are those holy actions or not?
We're going to talk this morning about positional holiness. You may have met people that work really hard to work out practical holiness in their life. They try to behave. They may look like they have a very clean mouth. They kind of come off like they have their life altogether. And then you come for a birthday party at their house, or for coffee, or whatever, and you are now in their comfortable environment, and all of a sudden you see that man kind of sneer at his wife in a way you'd never seen beyond the front door, and you go, "Oh." Nobody here has ever been there. But all of a sudden you realize, okay, they work really hard to make themselves look holy, as if their actions and their words are only separated unto God. But they kind of run out of strength when they are in their rest position, and the real them comes out. The practical holiness is not always there.
But we're going to talk about positional holiness because when people work so hard on their practical holiness, but they have no positional holiness, they won't have peace. They won't have joy. As a matter of fact, they actually don't know the Lord, and they are not right with God. You could liken it to the way that the Jews used to live. They were always working on their practical holiness. They'd have the Ten Commandments, and later on, way more than the Ten Commandments, and they'd have that list, and they'd go, "What else can I do today, or what else should I not do today, to work out this practical holiness and try to live holy?" When, in all reality, positional holiness, holiness on the inside, did not exist yet for them. And we learned that they became pretty harsh and pretty mean, in many cases, to such an extent that even when Jesus came on the scene, they didn't recognize him at large and crucified him.
We're going to talk about positional holiness, being holy on the inside. And in order to talk about that, I'm speaking this morning to people that feel unholy at times. I'm going to share a very unusual story with you that I believe is going to help you understand what it means to feel unholy.
I have a very dear friend. His name is Joshua Caldera. He was my roommate at David Wilkerson's ministry school. He's about this tall, but he's also about that wide. He's very strong. He's been here. He loves you guys. He loves the church. But he really became one of my closest of friends. And during one of our getaway weekends, is what we used to call them, once a month we, as international students, would go and stay with someone in our class. And in this case, I was tagging along, and Joshua had, I believe, an uncle who had his birthday party while we had our getaway weekend. And I was invited, and I was excited, hopefully meeting new people, maybe get to tell somebody about Jesus. And I had a—you ever have a first in your life, and it's kind of a shocker? I had that moment right there. I come through the front door in the Bronx, and I look around the room, and for the first time in my life, I realize I'm the only white person in the room. And I had never felt the color of my skin before. But the moment that I walked into that house—now, these people were excited to see me. They were as welcoming as they could be. There was food everywhere. Everyone was kind of extravagantly dressed up—and I stand there looking around, so self-conscious that I'm white. And I kind of felt, for no other reason than the color of my skin, that I didn't really fit in, that I didn't really belong. And I'm kind of looking around the room, looking at people's faces to see someone who has an approving or welcoming smile on their face or gesture, so that I know that I'm fine to be here, and I'm okay, and I'm welcome.
At the same time, I'm kind of looking for people that are looking at me like, "What's he doing here?" because I'm not sure. I'd never felt this way in my life. I was so aware of the color of my skin. And feeling unholy is very, very similar. When you walk into a room at church, when you walk into a place where people are that you look up to, or, or, or people that you know love Jesus, and you kind of feel out of place, or you're not so sure if you've wholeheartedly belonged to that group, or if you are giving enough to Jesus, or if you are surrendered enough to Jesus, you can kind of straighten out and, play it off, but on the inside, you can kind of feel out of place a little bit. Yes, we're all the same. And yes, you may go through life doing pretty fine, but then sometimes, when you get around certain people, all of a sudden you're so aware of your skin color. You're so aware of your sins, or you're so aware of the things that you have done in the past. And, when you struggle with feeling unholy, when you get around me sometimes, or another pastor, or a grandparent that has loved the Lord and looks up unto the Lord in a way that you would like to look up to God, and you get around them, and you feel a little bit like you're not quite there, you're not as holy, or you're not as good, or you're not as clean.
That's when you feel, on the inside, you're feeling unholy. You're not really doing anything wrong in the moment. You're not practicing practical unholiness in that moment. What you're feeling is unholiness on the inside, something you may have not been aware of until you opened that door and walked in. And all of a sudden, it kind of hit you like a ton of bricks. Let's look at this in the life of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 6. We're going to read verses 1-7. Right now, we'll read verses 1-5. "It was in the year of King Uzziah, when he died, that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. They were calling out to each other, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven's Armies. The whole earth is filled with his glory.' Their voices shook the temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke. Then I said, 'It's all over. I'm doomed. For I'm a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven's Armies.'"
Feeling unholiness happens once you get around holiness. And Isaiah, right here, sees a glimpse of heaven and the Lord. And instantly he's aware of his own unholiness. He says, "It's all over. I'm doomed." In other words, I am unholy. I am guilty of sin. I'm a sinful man. I have filthy lips. I live among people with filthy lips. Yet I've seen the King, the Lord of Heaven's Armies.
Unholy means you're not separated. Holiness means to be separated unto a specific purpose. In this case, to be separated as God is separated—separated from sin, separated from darkness, separated from wrong. And here Isaiah says, "I'm not that. I'm not separated like the Lord. I'm unholy. I'm unseparated. I'm still one foot in the world. I'm still committing things that are wrong. I'm still not wholly given to separation unto the Lord." He says a very particular thing. He says, "I'm a man of unclean lips. I have filthy lips." Jesus said this in Matthew 15:11: "Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a man." Jesus explains right here what Isaiah was feeling. Filthy lips is symbolic of being defiled, of being unclean, of being unholy.
Jesus says, "Whatever you eat"—because that's what the Jews believed. They were just trying to practice practical holiness. Just do it right. And that included the way they ate or the way they washed their hands before they ate. It all had to be done in a ritual way, in a ceremonial way, so that they were not doing it wrong. They were doing it holy. And Jesus kind of shoves all of that aside, and he says, "Listen, whatever goes into your mouth, that doesn't defile you. That doesn't make you unholy. But what you let come out of your mouth, what you speak, makes you defiled, makes you unholy." And here we see Isaiah stand right there in the presence of holiness. And he says, "My lips are unholy. My lips are not clean. I have unholiness inside of me. And sometimes it comes out." I'll read verse five again as we continue into verses six and seven:
"Then I said, 'It's all over. I'm doomed, for I'm a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven's Armies.'
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, 'See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.'" What a vision. What a story of unholiness.
Isaiah, feeling the moment he comes into the presence of the Lord, the moment he comes into the presence of worship, he is feeling unholy. He is feeling like something needs to happen, or else I can't really be here and belong here and fit in. And then an angel grabs a pair of tongs and grabs a coal from the altar and touches his lips, that symbol of unholiness in his life. And he touches his lips and says, "Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven." What does this mean? See, that altar we saw right there in that story is the altar of incense.
How do we know that? The Bible tells us that when Moses received the plans for the tabernacle, he was seeing the shadow of heavenly things, as if a light was shining on the things that are really taking place in heaven. It's casting the shadow on earth. You don't quite get the real thing, but the shape is about right. It is a reflection of sorts. And here we read of that altar. That would have been the altar of incense. And one day a year, here on earth, one day a year on the Day of Atonement, a feast the Jews celebrated, blood was shed on that altar.
And atonement really means a compensation for wrongdoing, or repairing the relationship, making amends. That was the day that there was, for sure, forgiveness for the sins that you had committed.
Even if you had forgotten them, never repented of them, never prayed about them, never worried about them, never mentioned them. That was the only day of the year that you knew: "Thank God, I get another chance." And the high priest would take the blood of the sin offering, and he would dip his hands in it, or his fingers, and at the corners of this altar of incense there were horns, and, he would rub the blood on each corner, on each horn of that altar. And we see the real deal. We see this altar that had reflected onto the shadow on earth of how Moses first made the tabernacle, and later Solomon made the temple. And we see this angel take a coal from that altar and see guilt and sins removed, forgiven, when he touches Isaiah with it.
What does this have to do with us? What does this really mean? What are we learning from this?
Matthew 3:11 reads this. John the Baptist speaking. He says, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. But He who is coming"—he's talking about Jesus—"He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." John the Baptist says there's going to come someone—we know he's talking about Jesus—and, when he comes, a fire is going to touch you, just like we saw in that story with Isaiah. This whole time in the book of Isaiah, we see really a story that is pointing forward to Jesus and how he is going to work in your life, why he is going to work in your life, and what he is going to get done in your life. You're going to see it very clear.
Let me take you to another story that has fire in it. Let me take you to the story where Moses has finally learned that he is not the answer to life, and now God can start to use him. Exodus 3, verses 2 through 5. Moses had tried to deliver his people. He tried to help. Now he'd been forty years taking care of sheep in the desert. No people. Verse 2: "And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, 'I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.' So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, 'Moses, Moses.'
And he said, 'Here I am.' Then he said, 'Do not draw near this place. Take the sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.'" See, here we have another story where fire comes into the life of Moses at the initiative, of course, of the Lord. And Moses feels he needs to get near to that fire. And the Lord says, "You don't have to go near this place. Take off your shoes. The ground on which you stand is holy ground."
What is he really saying? Moses, take those shoes off. I want you to touch what is holy. In Isaiah's story, we see an angel of the Lord take fire of the Lord, fire of the altar of incense where a sin offering was brought. We see an angel of the Lord take that fire to Isaiah. In this story, we see God calling out to Moses, saying, "Take off your shoes. I want you to touch what is holy. You are on holy ground. You don't need to come all the way here. You don't need to walk all the way. You need to take your shoes off because I want you to touch what is holy."
The shoes had to come off. Get this. Before God would use Moses, he had to accept that God wanted him to touch what is holy. A murderer. Moses, a murderer, coming near to God. And when the fire of God shows up, God challenges him to believe and act upon that faith that God wants that man to touch what is holy. And where the blood was shed—remember that altar of incense. First blood was shed. It was placed on the altar. And then a fire from that altar brought something into the life of Isaiah that changed him and set him free from his guilt, set him free from his sin.
Moses has a fire of the Lord show up. All of a sudden, he's now in a battle of faith, invited by the Lord to take off his shoes and to actually touch what is holy. Where the blood was shed for that altar, on the cross of Jesus Christ, when he spilled all of his blood for your and my sin, God calls us at that cross, where he calls us clean. He calls us to that place where he calls us clean, and he demands of you and I that we begin to accept that he has made us holy. That's that positional holiness. It never changes. It never becomes more or less. God did it, and he brings it into our life. Story after story is trying to explain to us what he has done. That your feelings do not tell the truth. That when you don't practice holiness perfectly every day, that doesn't affect your positional holiness that God wanted for your life. But first, the shoes had to come off. Moses had to say, "I believe that I can take these shoes off, and I'm not going to burn up when I begin to touch holy ground where God dwells. I need to trust that God actually desires me to be able to touch what is holy, to be a part of a holy place, to be a part of a holy work, to be a part of relationship with a holy God without limitation, without boundary, without being sent away." Church, God has made you holy so that you can touch what is holy and so that what is holy can touch you.
Holiness is always separated from unholiness. And God didn't become unholy. No, God came into this world. The blood of the sin offering was shed so that something could be brought to you. And we're going to get into that. Something could be brought to you like a fire of God, like a coal from the altar. And when that begins to happen in your life, the blood that was shed and the fire that is brought to you, all of a sudden, you are made holy so that God doesn't have to be separate from you. You don't have to be separate from what is holy. And what is holy, God himself, can touch your life, walk with you, speak with you, and dwell with you. That is why God made you holy. He desires you to come near. Hebrews 10:14 reads this: "For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified." By one offering, he made you perfect. He made you holy. He made you clean on the inside. There's nothing wrong, and nothing can ever undo it, even when your practical holiness, your sanctification, walking out a holy life, that's still a work in progress.
I'll read it to you again: "For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified." Who are learning to behave a little bit more like the Father in pressing situations. Who are learning to always forgive and not hold a grudge. Who are learning to use their mouth for good and not for evil. They are still learning that. I'm talking about the people that have been forever perfected because there was a sacrifice that was made. 2 Thessalonians 2:13:
"As for us, we can't help but thank God for you, dear brothers and sisters loved by the Lord. We are always thankful that God chose you to be among the first to experience salvation, a salvation that came through the Spirit who makes you holy and through your belief in the truth."
That Spirit makes you holy. 1 Corinthians 1:30: "God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit, God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God. He made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin." Church, you are holy. If it is the first time you hear about Jesus Christ this morning, the first time that you hear that Jesus is the Son of God, the first time that you hear that Jesus paid for the sins of the world and that he is that sacrifice whose blood was spilled so that there was blood that could be placed on the altar before the Lord, that made the fire on that altar holy—if it's your first time hearing about Jesus and you believe he's the Son of God, then God promises that that work is now yours.
You receive that holiness. You receive that washing of that sin. You receive the forgiveness. You receive that God does a miracle, and he removes the guilt off of your chest, off of your life.
And instantly, positionally, instantly, you are holy. You can touch what is holy now. And you can be touched by what is holy any time going forward. You are holy, made holy by Jesus, so that God can have you close enough to himself to touch, to touch your heart, to touch your life, to touch your sins, to touch the things that hurt, to touch your lips. And sometimes, even if we have believed in Jesus, it can become so hard to let this happen. Peter had to learn to allow what is holy to touch his feet, just like Moses. And Peter didn't want it at first. He was—he began resisting it. Even though he already had believed that Jesus is the Son of God, he began resisting that what is holy would be touching his feet. John 13:6–8. Jesus is washing the disciples' feet, and now he comes to Peter. Then he came to Simon Peter, and Peter said to him, "Lord, are you washing my feet?" Jesus answered and said to him, "What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will know after this." And Peter said to him, "You shall never wash my feet."
Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, have no part with me." See, Peter knew that Jesus was the Son of God at this point. He knew Jesus was holy. And Peter came to a place again where he said, "I can't have what is holy touch my feet." My practical holiness is not lining up. It would be dishonoring to the Lord Jesus if he'd be touching my feet. I'm not holy enough. I shouldn't be served by him." And he develops this feeling inside that says, "This is out of place. I don't, this shouldn't be happening." See, the Lord invites us to believe that he wants us to touch what is holy and that he desires himself. He who is holy, he desires to touch our lives even if some areas are not that pretty.See Hebrews 12:29 reads this: "For our God is a consuming fire." Revelation 19:12–13 reads this about Jesus: His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except himself. He was clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the word of God.See, we have three stories that all intertwine.
We have a fiery coal that is taken from the altar where the sin offerings blood is brought. A fiery coal is taken. Guilt is washed away. Sins are forgiven. Moses encounters a fire from heaven and all of a sudden is able to begin walking out his purpose here on earth. He's able to walk out his calling. He's now fully aware that God, even though he has a murderous past, God wants him, a man like him, to touch what is holy. And then Peter encounters a fire from heaven. He encounters Jesus Christ, a consuming fire. The word says the Lord is a consuming fire. Peter encounters the fire of God that cleanses his feet. And then the word tells you and I that we will be baptized with the Spirit and with fire. Here's what we learn, church. Heaven wants you and I to accept that you are made holy by Jesus. Heaven wants you to touch what is holy and heaven wants you to be touched by what is holy. That is what God desires for your life.
Feeling unholy on the inside makes you feel like people in these Bible stories, they had all these great journeys with God, but that will never be you. You will never be touched by what is holy. And you cannot really touch what is holy. And you have all these reasons as to why not that maybe the devil is throwing into your mind all the time. And they are all things that are about your practical holiness. Stuff you're just still learning to walk out. Do not ever let the enemy or your sins or your shortcomings cause you today to cry out like Isaiah did, "It's all over. I can't be in the presence of holiness. I can't be in the presence of God. I can't stand before God tonight if he calls me home. I can't. It'll all be over. I can't see the Holy One. I, I still feel unholy. I have unclean lips." All this time, every story Jesus is trying to get a message across: it's heaven's will that you, a man like you, a woman like you, would be made perfectly holy so that I can touch your life anytime I desire, and you can turn around and come and seek me and pursue me anytime you desire. I desire to make you holy so that you're never separated from what is holy.
I want to invite you to stand for a moment as I read to you John 20:27. Talking about Jesus:
"Then he said to Thomas, 'Reach your finger here, and look at my hands; and reach your hand here, and put it in my side.'" Do not be unbelieving, but believe. See Thomas, unbelieving Thomas, as we often recall his actions with his name. Unbelieving Thomas. When Jesus got around him, he’s teaching him the same story all over again. It’s Isaiah all over again. It’s Moses all over again. It’s Peter all over again. He’s getting the same lesson. He says, "Come, I want you to touch what is holy. Reach out your finger. Reach out your hand. Believe. Don’t walk in unbelief. It is my desire that you would be able to never be separated from what is holy, but that a man like you could touch what is holy and be near to me." He says, "Look at the evidence." Jesus shows him the evidence. Look at the evidence of the fact that I desire for you to be perfectly holy so that you’re not separated from this touch. Church, a sin offering has been brought. Blood has been spilled. It’s touched the altar. And a fire has gone out to touch our lives to burn away every single thing we could never erase. The fire simply burns it up.
And the message resounds.
The angel got to declare it to Isaiah. Look, now that this work is done, your guilt is gone, your sins forgiven. And Jesus says, "Come near. Look, you can touch what is holy now. Don’t be unbelieving. Believe it’s finished. Jesus has made you holy." That’s what he has done, so that you can always touch what is holy. So that you can always be touched by God, and you can have a relationship with him. Not random moments where he speaks from a bush and then disappears again for years at a time. Some of you, you’ve lived that way. You have an encounter with the Lord. It’s real. It impacted your life severely. It impacted the way you believe and the way you’re sure about him. But he doesn’t really touch you often. It’s hard to go and find him and to begin to reach out in the spirit and to touch something in the heart of God, to touch what is holy. I want you to ask yourself this morning: did you ever take your shoes off, so to speak? Did you ever accept that God wants you to touch what is holy? Or are the failures in your life, the practical holiness that you’re not walking out perfectly—neither am I—do you give them so much authority, so much credit, that you’ve taken distance in your faith about the perfect holiness that Jesus brought upon your life?
I want to invite you to leave all doubt at the altar today. I want to invite you to believe the gospel. And if that’s what you say this morning, it may be the first time for you, it may be the 99th time, I want to invite you, if you believe this gospel—that Jesus is the sacrifice, that he has brought a heavenly fire upon your life so that you would be cleansed from the inside out—if you believe that God actually wants someone like you to be able to touch what is holy, to be in the presence of holiness, and to be touched by a holy God—if you believe that, would you come and join me at the altar so that we can pray and give thanks to the Lord who has done this incredible work for all who believe him.
-Pastor Stan Mons
