The Holiness of God Is. 6:3 3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. Rev. 4:8 8 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. Introduction In between Ex. 15 and Rev. 15, Gods holiness comes up over and over again. Holy is used more often as a prefix to Gods name than any other adjective. Two men in Scripture who were permitted to see into the throne room of heaven and write about it; both reported hearing one continuous refrain, spoken day and night. This is the only thing said about God in this fashion. No other attribute of His is repeated three times. This morning, I come to present to you truths about God that are so mysterious, so disquieting, and so awesome that it makes me tremble. If you turn aside from other distractions and draw near to the common things God set on fire by His presence, you will understand why Moses feared to get too close and took the sandals off his feet before the bush that burned with Gods presence. (Exodus 3: If you will look intently at this truth about God, you will join Isaiah, a man of God who studied and thought about and proclaimed Gods holiness for years before having a personal encounter with this holy God, and was left saying, Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, [and] because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts. (Isaiah 6:5) Lets ask a question in this day when God is the subject of stand-up comedians and bumper stickers: What does it mean to say God is holy ? There are basically two strands of meaning for the word holy: To be holy is to be distinct, separate, unique The basic meaning of holy in the Bible is to cut away or to separate. So when we say God is holy, were not talking about one characteristic out of many about God; were talking about the character of God Himself. Holiness, when applied to God, means that He is utterly unique, incomparable, matchless, without parallel and without peer. In Isaiah 40:25, God Himself issues the challenge: Who will you compare Me to, or who is My equal? asks the Holy One. And we must answer, There is no comparison. God is not just a super-sized version of you or me. He is transcendently separated in a class by Himself. He is subject to nothing. He answers to no one. This is who our Holy God is. When Hannah rejoiced in God for answering her prayer for a son, she prayed, There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one besides You! And there is no rock like our God. (1 Sam. 2:2). Davids confidence in God was fortified by considering His holiness: Lord, there is no one like You among the gods, and there are no works like Yours. All the nations You have made will come and bow down before You, Lord, and will honor Your name. For You are great and perform wonders; You alone are God.. (Ps. 86:8-10) Even the name God gave to His mighty archangel Michael testifies to this truth. The name is translated, Who is like God? Heres the first strand of meaning in the Bible about the holiness of God: He is not like anything or anyone we can come up with. He is above us. He is beyond us. He is so different and so rare that no one in the Bible, regardless of how devout or learned, failed to crumble in fear and humility and repentance when they caught a glimpse of this holy God. When God met with Habakkuk the prophet, he described his reaction like this: I heard, and I trembled within; my lips quivered at the sound. Rottenness entered my bones; I trembled where I stood . . . (Hab. 3:16) He was shattered by what he saw. When we see Him as He is, it traumatizes us because we immediately see ourselves for who we really are, and the incongruence is overwhelming. To be holy is to be absolutely pure Holiness is being set apart from anything impure in order to be completely given over to what God says is pure. When you apply this meaning to God, His holiness points to what 1 John 1:5 says: there is absolutely no darkness at all. James tells us that God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself doesnt tempt anyone. (James 1:13). Habakkuk 1:13 adds that Gods eyes are too pure to look on evil, and [He] cannot tolerate wrongdoing. In a word, God is perfect, without sin, flawless. So blazing is Gods purity that the sinless seraphim who serve Him in heaven cover their faces with their wings (Is. 6:2). Job 4:18 declares, God puts no trust in His servants and He charges His angels with error . . . . With the concepts of purpose and purity in God established, how does that relate to us? The leap from those heights is terrible to consider. The reflex of His holiness against sin is unmistakable, which raises up the final point: Only holy people can see God Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness - without it no one will see the Lord. (Heb. 12:14) Holy people see the holy God. Unholy people will never lay eyes on Him. Your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have made Him hide [His] face from you so that He does not listen. (Isaiah 59:2). Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not set his mind on what is false, and who has not sworn deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. (Ps. 24:3-5) I Peter 1:14-16 makes it even more blunt: As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance but, as the One who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy. What His holiness demanded His grace provided in Jesus Christ our Lord. He stepped took the white hot heat of Gods eternal and holy revulsion at sin in the single act at Calvary, so that all who put their hope there will be put to shame. Conclusion What difference does Gods holiness make in our life? Saving holiness: Do you have the holiness of God working for you in Christ, or is His holiness set against you? Have you fled to Christ, deliberately, personally trusting that what He did on the cross is your only hope of being right with God? Or are you still carrying your sin and an appointment with the fierce wrath of God? Serving holiness: What is the evidence in your daily life that the Holy Spirit of God indwells you? Does your behavior, your choices, your habits, your language show that you are, in the language of I Peter 2:9, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light?
Posted on: Tue, 25 Feb 2014 16:53:30 +0000
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