God Is Holy
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Theme:
Hope:
9 Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the Lord our God is holy!
Defining Holy
Defining Holy
It Evolved Over Time.
It Evolved Over Time.
Very early on when we find the word holy being used it isn’t being used to describe “morality” within someone.
We see it used in such ways as…
The “holy city.”
2 For they call themselves after the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; the Lord of hosts is his name.
The holy mountain.
1 Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain,
A holy place.
33 And you shall hang the veil from the clasps, and bring the ark of the testimony in there within the veil. And the veil shall separate for you the Holy Place from the Most Holy.
As you can see there is no morality associated with “things.”
Things or objects can be neither moral or immoral so how is holy being used here?
It is being used to describe that which has been “separated for God.”
Even the Israelite were God’s holy people but that did not account for morality.
6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
18 Your holy people held possession for a little while; our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary.
However, in the New Testament we see this shift and change to reflect not just what was separated for God but what was separated for morality.
We find that church is a “holy nation.”
1 Peter 2:9 (ESV)
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
2 Thessalonians 1:10 (ESV)
10 when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.
The word for saint is holy.
Summary
Summary
So, the word holy, for us, means to be separated by God for him and his purpose.
That is predicated on our action of staying morally righteous.
Why, because God is holy we must be holy in our conduct.
15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
From this we must consider what…
God’s Holiness Demands…
God’s Holiness Demands…
Separation From The World.
Separation From The World.
If the word originally meant to be separated for God’s purpose and then “added” the morality aspect to it’s requirement wherein God’s people are concerned it makes since that God’s people should be separated, but from what…the world.
God has created a way that he, who is holy, can dwell with us and walk with us through his plan of salvation.
2 Corinthians 6:16–7:1 (ESV)
16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, 18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” 1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
Why is this the case?
Because we have been called out of the darkness and into the light.
Colossians 1:13 (ESV)
13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son
Let us not be an enemy of God for the world but a faithful child.
4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
God’s holiness demands we also…
Help Others Separate.
Help Others Separate.
It is our great commission.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
It is our privilege to give up our rights to win the lost to Christ.
14 In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. 15 But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. 16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
17 For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. 18 What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel. 19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.
20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
Summary
Summary
We must separate from the world spiritually speaking and help others do the same.
Conclusion
Conclusion
God is holy and we, his people, must be holy in every way as well.
This means that every decision we make must be in light of this reality.
What activities we are involved in.
What entertainment we consume and how we consume it.
What we allow our non-Christian friends to influence us in.
We live in this old sinful world and cannot separate our physical selves from it but that doesn’t mean we cannot be holy in this life.
We simply must be careful of what and who we spend our time with.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.