What does First B Jackson teach about holiness?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First Baptist Jackson, the teaching on holiness consistently starts in the same place: what happens when a person actually encounters a God who is completely set apart. Pastor Carl and Pastor Mike both open with two scenes side by side. In Isaiah 6, Isaiah sees the Lord enthroned with seraphim crying 'Holy, holy, holy,' and his immediate response is 'Woe is me, I am undone.' In Luke 5, Peter watches nets fill past breaking after a fishless night, falls at Jesus' feet, and says to go away from him because he is a sinful man. The pattern in both cases is the same: a genuine encounter with God's holiness makes a person see themselves clearly, and God responds with forgiveness and a call forward. Holiness, in this teaching, is not an abstraction. It is what happens when the purity of God comes close.
The 1 Peter 1 messages, preached by Carl, Mike, and Kenny, all trace the same structure in Peter's letter. The indicative comes before the imperative. God has already acted, giving new birth, living hope, and an inheritance that is imperishable and certain. The prophets strained to see what believers now have in hand. Even the angels long to look into it. Only after that foundation is laid do the commands arrive, and when they do, holiness is not a ceiling to hit but a direction to walk. A. W. Tozer is cited in both the Kenny and Mike messages: God's holiness stands apart, incomprehensible and unattainable, and yet the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is at work in the believer. The call is to fix hope fully on the grace coming at Christ's return, and let that settled certainty be what pulls a person away from old patterns of ignorance.
Pastor Ray's messages in 2 Corinthians 6 and Pastor Tony and Brian's messages in 1 Peter 4 press the same teaching into daily life. The Old Testament laws about not mixing things of different kinds, threads, seeds, animals, were always about God marking out a people who would be distinct. Paul carries that same logic into his call to the Corinthians: stop being shaped by affections that are still tied to the world. And Peter, writing to believers already facing real persecution, names the old way of living plainly and calls them done with it, not because they have achieved perfection, but because of what Christ already accomplished on the cross. His suffering made an end to sin. The response that fits that reality is to live the rest of life not for the desires of people but for the will of God.
Taught from 1 Peter 1:13-16 · Isaiah 6:1-7 · Luke 5:1-11 · 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 · 1 Peter 4:1-6
The passage taught · 1 Peter 1:1-2
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen ones who are living as foreigners in the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- January 7, 2024 If You Are Saved, Act Like It Peter calls scattered, persecuted believers to hope fully, live holy, fear God, love deeply, and crave God's word, all grounded in the mercy of Christ.
- January 7, 2024 His Mercy Is More Pastor Peter walks through 1 Peter 1, calling believers to hope fully, live holy, fear God, love deeply, renounce sin, and grow in God's Word.
- October 7, 2018 Done with Sin Peter calls believers to be done with sin. The pastor walks through 1 Peter 4:1-6, Christ's suffering, holy living, and the hope that grounds it all.
- October 7, 2018 Done With Sin Peter calls believers to be done with sin, armed with Christ's purpose, ready to suffer for righteousness, and assured that God will judge the living and the dead.
- August 26, 2018 Woe Is Me: Encountering the Holiness of God A study of 1 Peter 1:10-22 on the holiness of God, the salvation promised through the prophets, and what it means to live as a believer set apart for God.
- October 25, 2015 Make Room: A Heartfelt Plea for Holiness Pastor Ray walks through 2 Corinthians 6-7, calling believers to examine the affections and attachments that keep their hearts from being fully open to God.
- October 25, 2015 Stop Being Unequally Yoked Pastor Ray walks through 2 Corinthians 6-7, exploring Paul's call to holiness and what it means to live set apart from the world while staying genuinely present in it.
Mentioned along the way
- June 2, 2019 Y'all or a They Peter warns about false teachers who promise freedom but deliver slavery, while God's patience invites everyone to repentance before judgment comes.
- March 4, 2018 The Aim of Our Charge Is Love Paul's letter to Timothy warns against false teaching and calls believers to love from a pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith. All sinners welcome.