The Holiness of God

Outline

Big Idea:

Visions of Holiness

Understanding Holiness

God’s Holiness

Living in Light of His Holiness

Introduction

Play video - Oh My Larry (Skit Guys)

Once video concludes, begin reading Revelation 4.

Revelation 4

Revelation 4 ESV

1 After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. 3 And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. 4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, 6 and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. 8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” 9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Perform a READERS THEATER with the congregation.

Break them into three groups

Have each group recite, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” in staggering sequence.

Have the second group start when when the first group gets to “who was…”

Have the third group start when the second group gets to “who was..”

Have each group repeat this phrase five times. After the 5th time have them fall silent.

After the third group falls silent, let the silence linger for several seconds.

Don’t you think, a name that illicits ceaseless praise to it’s holiness by the angels in heaven demands more respect than we often give it?

This morning, as we enter chapter 4 of Revelation, we are confronted with the HOLINESS of God.

A holiness that DEMANDS we take notice and OBLIGES us to treat it and the bearer of it with heavenly respect and praise.

Heaven is the place where reverence for God’s holiness is total and complete.

Body

They were saying the same thing over and over again…

English Standard Version Chapter 4

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,

who was and is and is to come!”

Understanding Holiness

In a very real sense, the word holy is foreign to all languages.

None seem adequate to describe.

Holiness is something so different from us, than us that we are inadequate to describe it.

The word is used is more than one way in the bible.

Purity is the first way we think of this word.

BUT this is actually a secondary meaning. YES, the bible does refer to holiness this way and applies the meaning of purity, righteousness, sinlessness to it. But it is not the primary meaning of the word.

It is often defined as “ purity, free from every stain, wholly perfect, and immaculate in every detail.”

But again, this is secondary.

Primary meaning is “Separate”

To cut

To separate

“A cut apart” or better “A cut above the rest”

Similar to when someone refers to “The best cut of mean” or the “Prime cut of cloth”

God’s holiness means that He is A CUT ABOVE THE REST

This makes it more than just a separation

It makes Him Transcendent

Literally meaning “to climb across”

It is defined as “exceeding usual limits”

To rise above, to cross the usual limits to a place that none other have gone.

Transcendence is about God’s supreme and absolute greatness.

“Transcendence describes God in His consuming majesty, His exalted loftiness. It points to the infinte distance that separates Him from every creature. He is an infinite cut above everything else.” RC Sproul - The Holiness of God.

So, when the bible speaks of God’s holiness, it means He is “transcendentally separate.”

In scripture, when things are declared HOLY, it means the same basic thing. They have been set apart, to be a cut above the rest.

They in and of themselves are not holy. They are holy because they have been separated, set apart UNTO THE LORD who is Holy.

The idea of purity enters this meaning of being separate BECAUSE they things that are being separated, are being separated to be used IN PURE and HOLY ways for a PURE AND HOLY God.

Thus the meaning of holiness is added to the idea of separation through the understanding of what and why they are being separated.

Holiness, however is not LIMITED to purity. Purity IS included in the idea, but HOLINESS IS SO MUCH MORE than just purity.

Also important to note is that holiness is not an attribute restricted to itself. God is spoken of as Holy in a general sense. A sense that gets applied to every other attribute of His

His is a HOLY love

His is a HOLY grace

His is a HOLY mercy

His is a HOLY justice

His is a HOLY wrath

His is a HOLY knowledge

His is a HOLY wisdom

His is a HOLY compassion

ETC

RC Sproul rightly acknowledges, “When we call things holy when they are not holy, we commit the sin of idolatry.”

Given the lofty nature of God’s holiness, his otherness, his separateness…he is not wrong. It is only when we lower the understanding, the view of holiness, that we think we can use the term in casual ways without sin.

He goes on to note, “We give to common things the respect, awe, worship, and adoration that belong only to God. To worship the creature instead of the Creator is the essence of idolatry.”

This ought to give new perspective to the things like using the phrase, “Holy Cow!” A phrase I grew up on.

Come on, you might say. Don’t you think we are taking it a bit far?

Maybe the right question is, do you think we are taking the supremacy of God’s holiness far enough?

When man takes something and declares it holy, he desecrates it.

The only exception is this…if God has already declared it holy, then we are permitted to do the same. But only God has the right to declare something holy.

For instance, to say that God has ordained the marriage to be holy, to join man and women in holy matrimony…this is acceptable. God has declared it to be so.

Hebrews 13:4

But for man to declare something holy, something that God has not already done so, would be to elevate that thing to a distinct status that only God has the right to do, making it an idol.

God’s Holiness

God’s holiness is His top priority. It was Jesus’

Matthew 6:9-13

The first line of this model prayer was not supplication or request, but praise and acknowledgment of His holiness and worthiness.

Jesus uttered these words as a petition, a request. He is praying for God’s name to be treated as HOLY.

God’s kingdom will never come where His name is not considered holy.

His will will never be done where he is not considered Holy

Obedience to Him will never happen if He is not held is absolute reverence of His holiness.

Uzzah’s death.

2 Samuel 6:1-7

2 Samuel 6:1–7 ESV

1 David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. 2 And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale-judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who sits enthroned on the cherubim. 3 And they carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart, 4 with the ark of God, and Ahio went before the ark. 5 And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. 6 And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. 7 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God.

Living in Light of His Holiness

Paul was not permitted to talk about what he saw when he had a vision of heaven

2 Corinthians 12:2-5

Conclusion

Application