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Jesus is Our Holiness


When Jesus prays, he prays not for the world but for his disciples. He asks the Holy Father that he would make us holy. Listen in on Jesus’ prayer just before he gave himself to die, “Sanctify [my disciples] in the truth…. For their sake I [sanctify] myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth” (John 17:17-19).

Christ prays to the Father for our holiness. Our sanctification is foremost on his mind the night before he was crucified. No voice has been heard in heaven or on earth like this voice of the Son of God praying for our holiness. No other man could pray for your sanctification like Jesus prays. For he not only asks the Father for your sanctification, but he then proceeds to become it!

This is what he means when he says, “For their sake I [sanctify] myself.” Jesus meant, “It is for my beloved disciples past, present, and future that I make myself a holy sacrifice to God.” Hebrews 13:12 shows this transparently, “So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.”

Christ becomes the very answer to his own prayer to the Holy Father for you believer, “Sanctify them, and I will be their sanctification!” Paul celebrates the very same, “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30).

Can you fathom the divine care of Christ for you? Who could care for you more? Who would you rather have care for you? How does it affect your pursuit of holiness to realize Christ made your holiness his supreme request before the Father, and then walked the Calvary road to pay for and become your sanctification? A thousand tongues’ endless thanksgiving fails to express the praise he is due!

 

Join us this Sunday at 10:45am in our corporate worship service and hear from Pastor Brent as he continues to point us to the significance of the holiness of God.


Foundations: The Central Doctrines of Five Points


In the final counsel of a seasoned pastor to a young and newly installed minister, Paul warned Timothy that the day was coming "when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths" (2 Timothy 4:3-4). Timothy was to stand firm in teaching the Word and hold fast to the teaching he had received.

It is that pastoral admonition that we, the elders here at Five Points, are eager to fulfill. We want to press on in the faithful proclamation of the Word, teaching the whole counsel of God. That is why we are now two weeks into our summer Bible Study Hour series called, "Foundations: The Central Doctrines of Five Points." We want to see us as a church continue to grow in our understanding of God, the gospel, and the implications of both on our lives.

We are using our primary theological statement, the New Hampshire Confession of Faith, as the outline for the series as one of the elders teaches on one of the theological topics of the confession each week. Here is the outline for the summer, using the confession's headings and section numbers:

+ June 6 – Scripture (Sect. 1)
+ June 9 – God (Sect. 2)
+ June 16 – Man (Sect. 3)
+ June 23 – Salvation, Justification & Freeness (Sect. 4-6)
+ June 30 – Regeneration, Repentance & Faith (Sect. 7-8)
+ July 7 – God's Purposes of Grace (Sect. 9)
+ July 14 – Sanctification & Perseverance (Sect. 10-11)
+ July 21 – Gospel Church (Sect. 13)
+ July 28 – Law & Gospel (Sect. 12)
+ August 4 – Baptism & Communion (Sect. 14)
+ August 11 – Sabbath (Sect. 15)
+ August 18 – Civil Government (Sect. 16)
+ August 25 – The Righteous, Wicked & World to Come (Sect. 17-18)

As you can imagine, these are some pretty big topics to tackle in an hour. And if you look over the long lists of Scriptural references for each section found in the confession, the task is even bigger. So the elders will focus each week on one particular passage that sheds light onto what the Bible and the confession says about that topic.

Come join us in pressing further into the wonder of God as we look to his Word. Maybe read over the section of the confession to be covered each week in advance and look up a few of the Scripture references to start getting your mind around the revelation of our magnificent Savior.

I look forward to pressing into these areas with you.


Welcoming Back Pastor Tom Norton


 

We’re glad to welcome back Pastor Tom Norton to the pulpit this Lord's Day. I say “welcome back” because Tom was the Senior Pastor at Five Points from 1992 to 1997. For the six years previous to that, he served as Five Points’ Associate Pastor under our founding pastor, Gordon Lindsay.
 
Tom was born to missionary parents and calls Karuizawa-machi Kitasaku-gun, Nagano, Japan his hometown. He and his wife, Sheila, have been married for 34 years. They are blessed with five children: Clint, Jennifer (married), Stephanie, Kathryn and Caleb. Tom has degrees from Tennessee Temple University,
Temple Baptist Seminary, Liberty University, and a Doctorate of Ministry from Temple Baptist Seminary (2012).
 
After his ministry at Five Points, Tom planted Cannon Community Church in Woodbury, Tennessee, and served there from 1997 until 2007. At that time, he transitioned to Daejeon, South Korea, to serve as pastor of Christian International Church, an English-speaking congregation. God has blessed his ministry there to the present time.
 
By God’s providence, Tom is here in Michigan visiting family and caring for his father. Please pray for God’s grace to provide comfort and peace to Tom, his father, and his siblings and to strengthen his entire family as they hope in God during a challenging time.
 
The Psalmist heralds God’s global glory over all the nations:
Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the LORD
is to be praised! The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens! Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? (Psalm 113:2-6)
In Auburn Hills, Daejeon, and every place in between, may the incomparably glorious name of Jesus Christ be proclaimed and praised!

Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Jesus Christ


No other attribute of God in the Bible is repeated three times over like his holiness is.

And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3)

In the Hebrew mind, to repeat an idea emphasizes it with multiplied force. For example, infinity times infinity is a great number. But who can grasp infinity cubed? God’s holiness is his infinite devotion to his own glory which is the only worthy object of his divine affections. His holiness is already infinite, but the Seraphim proclaim it not twice but three times. They tremble at God’s holiness cubed!

So the ever-reigning, splendor-clad, temple-filling, unapproachable, foundation-shaking, glory-radiating king in Isaiah’s vision is three times holy and, therefore, worthy of all our devotion, deeds, dollars, and delight—forever.

But God cannot be approached apart from him coming to us to make us worthy of coming to him. That’s why John defined Jesus Christ as the very glory Isaiah saw in God; “Isaiah said these things [of the Lord in Isaiah 6] because he saw Christ’s glory and spoke of him”  (John 12:41).

It should not surprise us then that all Heaven says of Christ, our Lamb, that he alone is holy and worships him as God.

And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” (Revelation 15:3-4)

 

Join us this Sunday at 9:30am as we begin a new Bible Study Hour series called "Foundations: The Central Doctrines of Five Points" and at 10:45am for our morning service.


Holiness Without Legalism


Dr. Bruce Ware spoke with Children Desiring God on how can parents and teachers can encourage holiness without teaching legalism. I was greatly encouraged by spending a quick 3 minutes watching this video. May the next generation set all their in God!