Do You Believe: In the Holiness of God
Notes
Transcript
A little boy excitedly told his mom that he had just MEASURED HIMSELF and he was six feet tall! Mom was a little skeptical, so she asked him to measure himself again while she watched.
She discovered the problem when the boy took out not a 12-inch, but a 6-inch ruler. He had calculated well: he was six-ruler-heights tall – he just had the wrong ruler, the wrong standard.
Of all the things about God that are hard for us to focus on perhaps the most difficult is His holiness. Holiness is one of those uncomfortable attributes because it reminds us how much unlike God we are. Let’s start with a definition. The holiness of God is His intrinsic and transcendent purity, the standard of righteousness to which the whole universe will be conformed.
God does not conform to any standard created by others. He is the standard. Therefore His creation must conform to His standard.
Holiness is the centerpiece of God’s attributes. Of all the things God is, at the center of His being is His holiness. God’s holiness unlocks the door to understanding and making sense out of everything else about Him. This attribute infiltrates all the other attributes. His love is holy love. His all-knowing is holy all-knowing. His all-presence is holy all-presence. Everything about God has been infiltrated by this defining attribute of God called holiness. Therefore, if we want to know God we must understand the idea of God's holiness.
When we speak of holiness, we usually attach a rather harsh or sterile meaning to it. For example, one who lies a holy life is one who wears plain clothes, no makeup; or a person who wears a robe and lives in a monastery. What does Holy mean according to the Bible?
God’s Divine Nature
God’s Divine Nature
11 Lord, who is like you among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders?
25 “To whom will you compare me, or who is my equal?” asks the Holy One.
2 There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one besides you! And there is no rock like our God.
R. C. Sproul: “Any attempt to understand God apart from His holiness is idolatry.”
R. C. Sproul: “Any attempt to understand God apart from His holiness is idolatry.”
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, and the hem of his robe filled the temple.
2 Seraphim were standing above him; they each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.
3 And one called to another: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies; his glory fills the whole earth.
4 The foundations of the doorways shook at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke.
First, it means that God is distinct; separate.
The primary meaning of the Hebrew word for holy is ‘separate.’ It comes from an ancient word that meant, ‘to cut,’ or ‘to separate.’ Perhaps even more accurate would be the phrase ‘a cut above something.’ That is what God is, but more so. This is what is meant when people refer to God as being transcendent. He is beyond ordinary limits; He surpasses and exceeds everything we know and are accustomed to. He has no rivals or competition.
He is not ordinary. He is not normal or casual. If someone came up to you and asked you, what is God like, there is nothing you can point to on this earth to say, "He is like this, or like that." He is so far above and beyond us that He seems almost totally foreign to us. Saying that He is so far beyond what we could even imagine would still be underestimating His holiness. It is pretty much impossible for mortal men like us to adequately describe it.
Unfortunately, men like to bring God down to our level. When people say that God is their buddy or homeboy, or the man upstairs, they are talking about God as though He is one of us; like He is common or ordinary. Whenever we think of God's attributes, it may be easy for us to think God's anger and love is like ours. But it is not. All of His attributes are a cut above ours. He is not like us. If we make Him like us we are making an idol.
Secondly, To be holy is to be morally pure.
The term that a lot of people use to define what it means to be Holy is "purity." The words 'holy' and 'pure' are not synonyms, but the idea of moral purity is included in the definition of being holy. The idea of purity is used in referring to metal that has no other material in it. This is also the case when we refer to morality. God is morally pure in that there is not any hint of the unholy in Him. There is nothing common about Him. There is no sin in God. HE IS PERFECT!!!! Can you understand that? HE IS PERFECT!
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him.
Third aspect of what it means to be Holy: God is not neutral towards sin.
Holiness means that God is not neutral towards the unholy. This is why it is so idolatrous to look at God like a Old Grandfather type of figure that overlooks our faults and spoils us and will let everyone into heaven. If this is how God is then He would not be holy. To believe such a thing about God would be compromising His holiness. Because God is Holy, He is not neutral towards sin. He hates it and those who are living in it. We saw this clearly in the sermon I preached on the wrath and hatred of God. His wrath and hatred towards sin is present because He is Holy.
In 2 Samuel 6:1-11
David was transporting the ark of the covenant into the city of Jerusalem, but there was a problem with how he was doing it. The law prescribed that a certain group of Levites carry the ark, but David and the people disregarded this and put it on an ox cart. The oxen end up stumbling, and thinking the ark may fall off the cart, Uzzah put out his hand to stabilize the ark, and God struck him dead for it. Even though his motive was probably very sincere in not wanting the ark to fall of the cart and hit the ground, he made an error in thinking that his hand was more holy than the ground it would have crashed onto. No one was to touch the ark. Even the priests did not touch it. They carried it with poles that were put through rings on the ark.
Being Set Apart
Being Set Apart
44 For I am the Lord your God, so you must consecrate yourselves and be holy because I am holy. Do not defile yourselves by any swarming creature that crawls on the ground.
14 Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness—without it no one will see the Lord.
NO ONE WILL SEE THE LORD UNLESS THEY ARE HOLY!!!! God's holiness is the standard that we are to aim for and pursue. Jesus says to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. Peter says to be Holy as God is Holy.
The first thought that comes to our minds is: "this is not possible." It may be true that we will not be perfect in every way like God in this life; holy as He is holy. We have a terrible obstacle that gets in the way: our sin.
Sin makes us common; profane; unclean. Sin is repulsive to a holy God. We deserve the same fate as Nadab and Abihu, Uzzah, and many others because of our unholy conduct against God. We deserve to be killed every time we sin and to be thrown into the lake of fire. NO ONE is “holy” enough on their own to get to heaven!
But thank the Lord that He not only has Holy anger, but Holy love. He from before the foundation of time chose a people that He wanted to make His own Holy and blameless people that He could have fellowship with.
5 Then I said: 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 Armies.
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs.
7 He touched my mouth with it and said: Now that this has touched your lips, your iniquity is removed and your sin is atoned for.
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord asking: Who will I send? Who will go for us? I said: Here I am. Send me.
The first response of an unholy person to the holiness of God is an acute awareness of personal sin (Mt. 17) . When the unholy confronts the holy we become very conscious of our own sinfulness. When seen next to the purity of God’s holiness, the impurity of human sin is overwhelmingly evident. It is like we live our lives with most of our lights off so that we are able to hide most of our wickedness in the dark. But when we come into the presence of God the darkness is gone. All the hidden is exposed.
All our lives we feel we are doing pretty well because we have been comparing ourselves to each other. And when we compare our self to those around us we can always spot those who are seemingly worse than we are. However, when we compare ourselves to the standard of absolute holiness . . . look out. At that time the walls of delusion come crumbling down.
This is why I believe that a person who has no sense of their own sinfulness has really never had a true sense of the nature of God. The person who believes that they did the right things to get saved has no awareness of how deeply stained they really are. We must be undone before we can be remade. The Holy Spirit has to awaken us to our sinfulness before we can be summoned to His grace.
His eyes had seen the Lord and for the first time in his life Isaiah really understood who God was. Also notice that at the same instant, Isaiah for the first time really understood who Isaiah was. In recognition Isaiah calls himself a man of unclean lips. His lips do not belong to God or else like the seraphim they would be pouring forth praise. The lips express what is in the heart and mind indicating their uncleanness also.
Interestingly Isaiah identified with his people who also were sinful (a people of unclean lips). Sin and iniquity must be removed if Isaiah and his people are ever to serve God with clean lips.
It reminds me of the story of KING FREDERICK II, an eighteenth-century king in Prussia, what is today Germany. He was visiting a prison in Berlin when the inmates crowded around him to proclaim their innocence. All except one man. He sat quietly in the corner, head bowed.
"Frederick walked over to him and said, 'What are you here for?' "'Armed robbery, your majesty,' the man replied.
'Are you guilty?' the king asked.
'Yes, sir. I deserve this punishment.'
"The king turned to the guard and ordered, 'Set this guilty man free. I don't want him corrupting all these other innocent people.'"
21 Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions.
22 But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him—
23 if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.
