Who Is God? Part 5: God the Creator - Holy

Revelation 4:5–8 NASB95

Out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God; and before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. The first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.”

Where we’ve been: God is eternal, transcendent, omnipotent, triune, and omnipresent.

Today: holiness.

Probably not thought about much or not discussed much.

We like the idea of God being loving, merciful, and gracious, but holy?

Elton John once commented:

300 Illustrations for Preachers Seeing God How We Want Him to Be

“I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems.”

We want a loving, all-accepting God, but do not want a God who is holy. Reason: we are sinners.

No attribute of God is more dreadful to sinners than his holiness.

Matthew Henry (Nonconformist Biblical Exegete)

God’s holiness is where we are directly confronted with our sinfulness and guilt. This is one—if not the primary—reason why so many wish to avoid it and not even think of God as holy.

Introduction: God is Holy (Hos 11:9; Ps 99:3; Isa 6:3)

Hosea 11:9 “I will not execute My fierce anger; I will not destroy Ephraim again. For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, And I will not come in wrath.”

Psalm 99:3 “Let them praise Your great and awesome name; Holy is He.”

Isaiah 6:3 “And one called out to another and said, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.’”

But what does it mean?

1. God is Different From Us

Although made in his image, he is still different. He is eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent, etc.

Recall: transcendence

God is sovereign, majestic, and exalted above all else.

Sovereign and Majestic (Gen. 1-2)

“sovereign” and “majesty” = kingship, rulership, owner

Seen through the creation narrative in Gen 1-2

He speaks things into existence; he names things; he gives design and purpose to his creation; he gives responsibilities to Adam and Eve; he rules over all creation

Exalted (Isa 6:1; 33:5)

Isaiah 6:1 “In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.”

Isaiah 33:5 “The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high; He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.”

Illustration:

Preaching Illustrations, Vol. 1 Only God Is Great (1 Corinthians 5:6; James 4:16)

Louis XIV reigned as King of France from May 14, 1643 until his death on September 1, 1715. For 72 years he ruled and he declared that he “was the State.”

Although, there was nothing particularly splendid about his appearance, he did possess a total and thorough confidence in himself.

He enjoyed being called “The Sun King” or “Louis the Great,” though there was nothing exceptional about this reign except for its length. Louis ruled France with an iron hand and greatly influenced the culture and political structure of Europe throughout his reign.

Prior to his death in 1715, he left instructions with the Bishop of the Catholic Church in France, Bishop Jean-Baptiste Massillon, that he be buried in a golden coffin and that at his funeral service the entire cathedral should be dark, lit dimly by only one candle positioned above his coffin so that all would be awed in his presence, even in death.

At the memorial, thousands waited in hushed silence. Then Bishop Massillon began to speak; slowly reaching down, he snuffed out the candle and said, “Only God is great.”

What This Means for Us:

We are to worship him

Just the fact that God is our Creator and different from us and that he is sovereign means we ought to worship him.

Isaiah 43:6–7 “. . . Bring My sons from afar And My daughters from the ends of the earth, Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.”

Isaiah 44:23 “Shout for joy, O heavens, for the Lord has done it! Shout joyfully, you lower parts of the earth; Break forth into a shout of joy, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it; For the Lord has redeemed Jacob And in Israel He shows forth His glory.”

John’s vision of the throne of God; angels praising God:

Revelation 4:11 “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”

There will come a time when everyone will worship God the Creator:

Revelation 15:4 “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For all the nations will come and worship before You, For Your righteous acts have been revealed.”

We are to obey him

Because God is Sovereign, Majestic, Exalted Creator, we are to obey him. As the Creator, God designed the universe, including us human beings.

He made us a certain way to think, act, and live. Just as an engineer designs parts to work a certain way and accomplish particular goals, God has designed his creatures to work a certain way an accomplish certain goals.

Re: Natural Law

When we fail to fulfill the natural law—the way in which God designed us—it is called sin. And when we sin, we fail to love God.

1 John 5:3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.”

John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

I wonder if this is one reason why the holiness of God is overlooked

If God is holy in the sense that he is Sovereign and King over all creation, then this means he has the right to command how we live.

God’s holiness is much more than being the highly exalted sovereign king and creator of the universe; it’s also about him being without sin:

2. God is Morally Perfect

This is described in several ways. One is:

He is Good (Ps 34:8; Mk 10:18)

Everything He IS:

Psalm 34:8 “O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”

Mark 10:18 “And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.’”

God is the very definition of “good.” There is no such thing as good apart from God. He is the standard. He is pure unadulterated goodness.

Everything He does is good:

Genesis 1:31 “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

Augustine: “God made what was made not from necessity, nor for the sake of supplying any want, but solely from his own goodness” [“City of God,” XI:24]

James 1:17 “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”

God does ONLY good things because he is good. I.e.:

No Sin Dwells in Him (1 Jn 1:5; 3:5)

(There is no evil or sin in him and he commits no evil or sin)

1 John 1:5 “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”

1 John 3:5 “You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.”

God cannot lie: Titus 1:2 “. . . in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago . . .”

Hebrews 6:18 “. . . it is impossible for God to lie. . . .”

James 1:13 “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.”

Holiness is the standard, and righteousness is its active fulfillment. Or you might say His holiness is His complete separation from all that is sinful, and His righteousness is the manifestation of that holiness.

John F. MacArthur

What This Means for Us

Application:

We are to be Like God: Sinless

Leviticus 11:45 “For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus you shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Holiness is better than morality. It goes beyond it. Holiness affects the heart. Holiness respects the motive. Holiness regards the whole nature of man.

Charles Spurgeon

We are Under the Wrath of God

This is where the rubber meets the road. Where the rub is when it comes to talking about God’s holiness.

Because God is holy, perfect obedience and submission to him in a loving relationship is required. Problem: no one has done this.

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Because God is holy, he responds in wrath to sin. He has righteous indignation toward us for not living in accordance to how he made us (or natural law), for attempting to make ourselves sovereign kings over our lives.

This is where we humans have a problem with God: we want a God who is always loving, forgiving, gracious, and merciful, but definitely not wrathful.

JI Packer (“Knowing God,” 148): “The modern habit throughout the Christian church is to play this subject down. Those who still believe in the wrath of God (not all do) say little about it; perhaps they do not think much about it. To an age which has unashamedly sold itself to the gods of greed, pride, sex and self-will, the church mumbled on about God’s kindness but says virtually nothing about his judgment. . . . The fact is that the subject of divine wrath has become taboo . . . and Christians . . . have accepted the taboo.”

We want God just to wave his hand or overlook our sins: lying, cheating, verbal and physical abuse, sexual immorality (be specific here), slander, gossip....

Because God is holy and perfectly good, he must bring wrath and punishment upon sinners. Otherwise, God would not be holy and perfectly good. And the Scriptures speak of God’s wrath more than his love, overall, not because he’s mean, but because he in fact loves us. The voluminous references to God’s wrath are meant to warn us and point out to us that we are sinners in need of judgment and redemption.

2 Thessalonians 1:7–10 “. . . the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed—for our testimony to you was believed.”

One thing we must not misunderstand: Wrath does not equal cruelty; it is not tyrannical. Wrath is the righteous and just response of a holy God when confronted by sin and sinners.

The Christian answer is because God’s holy wrath rests on evil. There is nothing unprincipled, unpredictable or uncontrolled about God’s anger; it is aroused by evil alone.

John Robert Walmsley Stott (English Preacher)

Hebrews 12:29 “For our God is a consuming fire.”

Romans 1:28–32 “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Two parts to this verse: wages and gift.

Romans 5:6–10 NIRV:

“At just the right time Christ died for ungodly people. He died for us when we had no power of our own. It is unusual for anyone to die for a godly person. Maybe someone would be willing to die for a good person.  But here is how God has shown his love for us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The blood of Christ has made us right with God. So we are even more sure that Jesus will save us from God’s anger. Once we were God’s enemies. But we have been brought back to him because his Son has died for us. Now that God has brought us back, we are even more secure. We know that we will be saved because Christ lives.”

How one responds to the offer of grace:

Accept it by faith and confessing Jesus as Lord and Savior:

Romans 10:9–10 “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

Repent of your rebellious ways and sins and turn to God.

And be baptized into Christ: Galatians 3:26–27 “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

Do we see how important the attribute of holiness is to God? It is essential for God to be holy and for his holiness to respond in wrath and judgment. If he were not holy and did nor respond in this way, the salvation of the world would be impossible.

If I did not believe in the doctrine of the wrath of God, I would not understand the death of Christ upon the cross, it would be meaningless to me. A Nation Under Wrath, 173

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Welsh Preacher and Writer)