In every age where religion grows popular, holiness becomes rare. The Church of our generation has learned to sing loudly, but few have learned to live cleanly. We boast of attendance, programs, and lights — yet heaven searches for a man who trembles at the Word.
Holiness has been replaced with happiness; conviction with comfort. The old preachers thundered, “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). Today we whisper, “God understands.” We have forgotten that the God who forgives is the same God who consumes.
2. What Is Holiness?
Holiness is not the cold distance of a monk, nor the proud isolation of a Pharisee. It is the warm likeness of Christ within.
It is purity of heart that refuses to make peace with sin.
It is the will bowed, the eyes single, the hands clean.
Holiness begins where self ends. It is the fruit of a crucified life, the fragrance of one who has walked long with Jesus. The pure in heart shall see God — not because they have earned heaven, but because heaven already reigns within them.
3. Why the Call Has Been Forgotten
The call to holiness faded when the Church made peace with the world. We wanted their applause, their style, their approval. And so we softened the message, painted sin with kinder colors, and offered crowns without crosses.
The Puritans preached of sin until men wept. Today, we fear to offend until men sleep.
Yet the Holy Spirit has never anointed compromise. The oil only flows upon the clean vessel.
Leonard Ravenhill once said, “The greatest miracle God can do today is to take an unholy man out of an unholy world and make him holy, then put him back into that world and keep him holy.”
This is the miracle we have stopped seeking.
4. The Cost of True Holiness
Holiness will cost you popularity, ease, and often companionship. The world mocks it, and many in the Church misunderstand it. But it is better to walk alone with God than with a crowd headed toward judgment.
J. C. Ryle wrote, “A holy man will be found where others are not: he will be seen both and unseen both.”
There is a loneliness in the narrow way — yet at its end, there is the King.
5. The Hope of Restoration
God has not withdrawn His call. The trumpet of holiness still sounds for those who have ears to hear. The Bride of Christ must be clothed in white — not the borrowed robes of religion, but garments washed in repentance and faith.
Return to your first love. Let prayer be your altar and obedience your sacrifice. Confess what grieves the Spirit and forsake what dulls your fire.
“Be ye holy, for I am holy.”
The command has not changed; only our response has.
A Prayer for the Remnant
O Lord, awaken us again.
Burn away the pride, the compromise, and the secret sins that keep us from Thee.
Teach us the beauty of holiness and the fear of the Lord.
Let the Church be pure once more, that the world may see Jesus and not us.
Amen.
