"God's Holiness"
Notes
Transcript
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.’ ”
2 “There is no one holy like the Lord, Indeed, there is no one besides You, Nor is there any rock like our God.
5 Exalt the Lord our God And worship at His footstool; Holy is He.
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.”
22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. 23 “I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord,” declares the Lord God, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight.
8 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.”
Anthony Bloom - It is not the constant thought of their sins, but the vision of the holiness of God that makes the saints aware of their own sinfulness.
Thomas Benton Brooks - Holiness in angels and saints is but a quality, but in God it is his essence.
Oswald Chambers - There is a danger of forgetting that the Bible reveals, not first the love of God, but the intense, blazing holiness of God, with his love as the center of that holiness.
Jonathan Edwards - A true love of God must begin with a delight in his holiness, and not with a delight in any other attribute; for no other attribute is truly lovely without this.
Richard J. Foster - The pervasive sinfulness of man becomes evident when contrasted with the radiant holiness of God.
Reginald Heber - Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty! / All Thy works shall praise Thy Name, in earth and sky and sea; / Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty, / God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity!
Matthew Henry - No attribute of God is more dreadful to sinners than his holiness.
Aiden Wilson (A.W.) Tozer - God is holy with an absolute holiness that knows no degrees, and this he cannot impart to his creatures. But there is a relative and contingent holiness which he shares with angels and seraphim in heaven and with redeemed men on earth as their preparation for heaven. This holiness God can and does impart to his children. He shares it with them by imputation and by impartation, and because he has made it available to them through the blood of the Lamb, he requires it of them.
Proposition - It is a great joy to be with you men this weekend! As I get the honor and privilege to open God’s Word with you this weekend I have chosen the theme “Give me Jesus.” Let me ask you a question - do you want Jesus? if so why? In our first session together I want us to be reminded of God’s Holiness: 1) the magnificence of the Holiness of God, 2) the manifestation of the Holiness of God,
Interrogative question - How can we as men apply the concept of God's holiness to our personal lives and decision-making?
1. The Magnificence of the Holiness of God -
1. The Magnificence of the Holiness of God -
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. 2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
29 for our God is a consuming fire.
14 Sinners in Zion are terrified; Trembling has seized the godless. “Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with continual burning?” 15 He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, He who rejects unjust gain And shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe; He who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed And shuts his eyes from looking upon evil;
2 The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.
21 The Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. 22 He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.
6 He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
17 When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last,
1 Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, 2 and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; 4 and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” 5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, 6 but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.” 7 The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. 8 Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. 9 And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.
1 Now it came about in the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was by the river Chebar among the exiles, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. 2 (On the fifth of the month in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s exile, 3 the word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and there the hand of the Lord came upon him.) 4 As I looked, behold, a storm wind was coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually and a bright light around it, and in its midst something like glowing metal in the midst of the fire.
7 But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. 8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. 9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. 11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!
The Attributes of God, Volume 1: A Journey into the Father’s Heart (The Fiery Holiness of God)
The Fiery Holiness of God
Go to the book of Isaiah: “Above [the throne] stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly” (Isaiah 6:2). There wasn’t any of the flippancy that we see now. There wasn’t any tendency to try to be funnier than a clown. There was a sense of Presence, and the holy creatures covered their feet. Why? They covered their feet in modesty, and they covered their face in worship, and they used their other wings to fly. These were the seraphim; they’re called “fiery burners.” Then there is Ezekiel, chapter 1, where the creatures come out of a fire.
God speaks of Himself often as fire. “Our God is a consuming fire,” it says in Hebrews 12:29. And in Isaiah 33:14: “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”
People sometimes use this text to ask, “Who of you is going to go to hell?” but if you will read it in its context this does not describe hell. Almost all commentators agree on this, because the next verse says that it is “He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil” (Isaiah 33:15).
What is this devouring fire? It is not hell, but the presence of God. Who among us shall dwell in the fiery burnings? Do you not know that fire can dwell with fire? You can put the iron into the fire and the iron can learn to live with the fire by absorbing the fire and beginning to glow in incandescent brightness in the fire. So we will dwell in the fire; these creatures in Ezekiel came out of the fire, and they let down their wings to worship. At the Word of God’s command they leap to do His will, these awesome holy creatures about which we know so little and about which we ought to know more.
God showed Himself as fire when He spoke to Moses out of the burning bush (Exodus 3:2). He went with them in the pillar of fire:
And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people. (Exodus 13:21–22)
God was dwelling there in that awesome fire. Then when the tabernacle was made and the cherubim of gold overshadowed the mercy seat, what was it that came down between the cherubim wings? What was it that only one man could see, and he only once a year with blood? I wonder how many high priests ever looked at the Shekinah, with all of the protection of the atoning blood and the commandment of God. The priest would go through the great, heavy veil that took four men to part it. And this man went in trembling into the Presence.
I wonder if, being Jewish and worshiping the great God Almighty, the Holy One of Israel, one in twenty ever dared gaze on that fire. He was not told he couldn’t, but I wonder if anybody ever dared do it. I notice that the very seraphim covered their faces. Moses “hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God” (Exodus 3:6). John fell down when he saw the Savior and had to be raised up again almost from the dead (Revelation 1:17).
Every encounter with God has been such that man went flat down and went blind. Paul went blind on the Damascus road (see Acts 9). What was the light that blinded him? Was it a cosmic ray coming down from some exploding body or from two colliding galaxies? No! It was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God that dwelt in the bush, the God that dwelt in the Shekinah between the wings of the seraphim.
When they were all together in one place and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as the rushing of a mighty wind and fire appeared and sat as a tongue of flame upon each one of them (see Acts 2:1–3)—what was it? What could it mean but that God was branding them on their foreheads with His fiery holiness to say, “You’re mine now”?
The Church was born out of fire, just as the creatures in Ezekiel 1 came out of fire. We have gray ashes today, but we are to be men and women of fire, for that is our origin.
Here are the words that tell us how God shall some day untomb the sky:
But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment.… [T]he heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.… [T]he heavens being on fire shall be dissolved.… (2 Peter 3:7, 10, 12)
What is that fire? Is it to be the atomic fire of a hydrogen bomb? Don’t allow yourself to be fooled by the scientists. Don’t let your spiritual concepts and perceptions be dragged down to a research laboratory. That awesome fire out of which the seraphim moved, that fire that dwelt between the cherubim and that blazing light that knocked Paul flat—that’s the same fire that shall dissolve the heaven and the earth: the awful presence of that Holy Thing, that Awful Thing. (Don’t be offended because I say Thing—I know He is a Person, God the Holy One of Israel. But there is something about Him that is awesome and awful.)
The Attributes of God, Volume 1: A Journey into the Father’s Heart (Chapter 9: God’s Holiness)
They say that when Leonardo DaVinci painted his famous Last Supper he had little difficulty with any of it except the faces. Then he painted the faces in without too much trouble except one. He did not feel himself worthy to paint the face of Jesus. He held off and kept holding off, unwilling to approach it but knowing he must. Then in the impulsive carelessness of despair, he just painted it quickly and let it go. “There is no use,” he said. “I can’t paint Him.”
I feel very much the same way about explaining the holiness of God. I think that same sense of despair is on my heart. There isn’t any use for anybody to try to explain holiness. The greatest speakers on this subject can play their oratorical harps, but it sounds tinny and unreal, and when they are through you’ve listened to music but you haven’t seen God.
The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary (Holiness)
By the holiness of God, it is not implied that He is subject to some law or standard of moral excellence external to Himself, but that all moral law and perfection have their eternal and unchangeable basis in His own nature. He is the One in whom these eternal sanctities reside, who is Himself the root and ground of them all. In this sense it is said without qualification, “There is none holy like the Lord” (1 Sam. 2:2); “Thou alone art holy” (Rev. 15:4).
The holiness of God is set before us in the Scriptures as of great practical consequence.
(1) It is the special ground of reverence, awe, and adoration (Pss. 71:22; 111:9; Isa. 6:3; etc.).
(2) It is the standard of all holiness (Matt. 5:48; 1 Pet. 1:6; etc.).
(3) It implies necessarily the divine opposition to, and condemnation of, all sin (Hab. 1:13; 1 Sam. 6:20; Isa. 6:5; etc.).
(4) The contemplation of this attribute is accordingly peculiarly adapted to awaken or deepen human consciousness of sin. See Scriptures above referred to.
(5) It is revealed to men, nevertheless, as setting before them the highest end of their aspiration, hope, and endeavor (Ex. 19:6; Lev. 20:7; Heb. 12; 1 Pet. 1:16).
Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth (Holiness > The Communicable Perfections)
God’s holiness is his inherent and absolute greatness, in which he is perfectly distinct above everything outside himself and is absolutely morally separate from sin.
Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth (Majestic Holiness)
Majestic Holiness. This speaks to the fact that God is inherently great and resists all compromises of his character and therefore is transcendently distinct from all his creatures in infinite majesty. He is majestically unique. This sense of God’s holiness qualifies all his other attributes, and all these qualify his holiness. This transcendent distinction is asserted by both the Old Testament (Ex. 15:11; 1 Sam. 2:2; 2 Chron. 30:27; Pss. 5:7; 22:3; 48:1; 71:22; 89:18; 97:12; 98:1; 99:3, 5, 9; 103:1; 105:3; 145:21; Prov. 30:3; Isa. 5:16; 6:3; 10:20; 29:23; 43:14–15; 49:7; 54:5; 57:15; Jer. 51:5; Hos. 11:9; Hab. 1:12) and the New Testament (Mark 1:24; Luke 1:49; 4:34; John 17:11; Rev. 4:8; 6:10; 15:4).
Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth (Ethical, Moral Holiness)
Ethical, Moral Holiness. Since God is inherently great and therefore transcendently distinct from everything outside himself, he is most certainly separate from sin, being morally and ethically perfect, abhorring sin and demanding purity in his moral creatures (Lev. 11:44; 19:2; 20:26; 22:32; Josh. 24:19; Job 34:10; Pss. 5:5; 7:11; Isa. 1:12–17; Ezek. 39:7; Amos 2:7; 5:21–23; Hab. 1:13; Zech. 8:17; 1 Pet. 1:15–16).
Dogmatic Theology (Holiness (Including Justice))
The holiness of God is the perfect rectitude of his will. The divine will is in absolute harmony with divine nature: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:3; 57:15; Exod. 15:11; Ps. 89:35; 145:17; Amos 4:2; Rev. 4:8; 15:4).
God’s word is holy (Rom. 1:2).
His promise is holy (Ps. 105:42).
His Sabbath is holy (Isa. 58:13).
His people are holy (62:12).
His residence is holy (57:15).
His angels are holy (Rev. 14:10).
Holiness in God cannot be defined in the same terms in which holiness in man or angel is defined, namely, as conformity to the moral law.
The Attributes of God, Volume 1: A Journey into the Father’s Heart (We Cannot Understand Holiness)
Holiness means purity, but “purity” doesn’t describe it well enough. Purity merely means that it is unmixed, with nothing else in it. But that isn’t enough. We talk of moral excellency, but that isn’t adequate. To be morally excellent is to exceed someone else in moral character. But when we say that God is morally excellent, who is it that He exceeds? The angels, the seraphim? Surely He does—but that still isn’t enough. We mean rectitude; we mean honor; we mean truth and righteousness; we mean all of these—uncreated and eternal.
The Attributes of God, Volume 1: A Journey into the Father’s Heart (The Holy One and the Sinner)
I tell you this: I want God to be what God is: the impeccably holy, unapproachable Holy Thing, the All-Holy One. I want Him to be and remain THE HOLY. I want His heaven to be holy and His throne to be holy. I don’t want Him to change or modify His requirements. Even if it shuts me out, I want something holy left in the universe.
The Attributes of God, Volume 1: A Journey into the Father’s Heart (We Cannot Understand Holiness)
But when you talk about the holiness of God, you have not only the problem of an intellectual grasp, but also a sense of personal vileness, which is almost too much to bear.
The Attributes of God, Volume 1: A Journey into the Father’s Heart (We Cannot Understand Holiness)
God is not now any holier than He ever was. For He, being unchanging and unchangeable, can never become holier than He is. And He never was holier than He is, and He’ll never be any holier than now. His moral excellence implies self-existence, for He did not get His holiness from anyone nor from anywhere. He did not go off into some vast, infinitely distant realm and there absorb His holiness; He is Himself the Holiness. He is the All-Holy, the Holy One; He is holiness itself, beyond the power of thought to grasp or of word to express, beyond the power of all praise.
Language cannot express the holy, so God resorts to association and suggestion. He cannot say it outright because He would have to use words for which we know no meaning. He would have to translate it down into our unholiness. If He were to tell us how white He is, we would understand it in terms of only dingy gray.
The Attributes of God, Volume 1: A Journey into the Father’s Heart (Two Words for Holiness)
There are two particular words for holy in the Hebrew Bible. One word is used almost exclusively of God the Holy One and rarely used of anything or person except God the Holy One. In Proverbs 9:10 it says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” I am greatly fascinated by the fact that the King James Bible refers to it in the abstract—“the holy” rather than “the Holy One.” And yet the Jewish Bible says “the knowledge of the Holy One.”
Proverbs 30:3 also uses this phrase: “I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy.” Again, the Jewish Bible translates it “the knowledge of the Holy One” or “the All-Holy.” The Jewish translators encountered exactly the same word more than forty times and translated it “the Holy One.” So obviously this is God! And yet there is enough vagueness about it that the King James translators felt free to make it abstract and call it “the holy.”
There is another word for “holy” that is not used of God very often. It is not as “high” a word; it is used often of created things. It is something that is “holy by contact or association” with something holy. We hear of holy ground or holy Sabbath or holy city or holy people or holy works. It’s not the same awesome, awe-filled word that He uses when He says “the holy” or “the Holy One.”
The Attributes of God, Volume 1: A Journey into the Father’s Heart (Two Words for Holiness)
In the New Testament, we have a Greek word about God being holy. “Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16). I notice that the definition of that Greek word is “Awful [full of awe] Thing.” Now think of that. The Awful Thing—that’s one meaning of the word holy—the Holy One!
Let’s think a little about the Holy One and His creatures. We see that this Holy One allows only holy beings into His Presence. Yet in our humanistic day—our day of a watered-down, sentimental Christianity that blows its nose loudly and makes God into a poor, weak, weeping old man—in this awful day, that sense of the holy isn’t upon the Church.
The Attributes of God, Volume 1: A Journey into the Father’s Heart (Two Words for Holiness)
James Ussher, the seventeenth-century Irish archbishop, used to go out to the riverbank, kneel down by a log and repent of his sins all Saturday afternoon—though there probably wasn’t a holier man in all the region. He felt how unutterably vile he was; he couldn’t stand the dingy gray which was the whitest thing he had set over against the unapproachable shining whiteness that was God.
The Attributes of God, Volume 1: A Journey into the Father’s Heart (The Fiery Holiness of God)
Here are the words that tell us how God shall some day untomb the sky:
But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment.… [T]he heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.… [T]he heavens being on fire shall be dissolved.… (2 Peter 3:7, 10, 12)
What is that fire? Is it to be the atomic fire of a hydrogen bomb? Don’t allow yourself to be fooled by the scientists. Don’t let your spiritual concepts and perceptions be dragged down to a research laboratory. That awesome fire out of which the seraphim moved, that fire that dwelt between the cherubim and that blazing light that knocked Paul flat—that’s the same fire that shall dissolve the heaven and the earth: the awful presence of that Holy Thing, that Awful Thing. (Don’t be offended because I say Thing—I know He is a Person, God the Holy One of Israel. But there is something about Him that is awesome and awful.)
The Attributes of God, Volume 1: A Journey into the Father’s Heart (The Holy One and the Sinner)
I would recommend that you remember these words: “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil.” You have evil in your life, your heart, your home, your business, your memory—all unconfessed, unforgiven and uncleansed. Remember that it is only by the infinite patience of God that you are not consumed (see Lamentations 3:22). “Our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). And it is also written, “Follow … holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (12:14). Teachers come from everywhere with their dingy gray interpretations, pulling this down and explaining it away and saying, “See note on such and such.” But it stands—“holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.”
The Attributes of God, Volume 1: A Journey into the Father’s Heart (The Holy One and the Sinner)
It was a common thing in other days, when God was the center of human worship, to kneel at an altar and shake, tremble, weep and perspire in an agony of conviction. They expected it in that day. We don’t see it now because the God we preach is not the everlasting, awful God, “mine Holy One,” who is “of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.”
The Attributes of God, Volume 1: A Journey into the Father’s Heart (The Holy One and the Sinner)
Thomas Binney wrote one of the most awesome, wondrous things ever written:
Eternal Light! Eternal Light!
How pure the soul must be
When, placed within Thy searching sight,
It shrinks not, but with calm delight
Can live and look on Thee.
The spirits that surround Thy throne
May bear the burning bliss;
But that is surely theirs alone,
Since they have never, never known
A fallen world like this.
Oh, how shall I, whose native sphere
Is dark, whose mind is dim,
Before th’Ineffable appear,
And on my natural spirit bear
The uncreated beam?
“How shall … my natural spirit bear the uncreated beam”—that fiery beam, out of which come the “holy burners” who sing, “Holy, holy holy is the Lord God Almighty”? How can I bear it?
All your religious helps, all your marked Bibles, all your jolly, joke-telling, banqueting Christian friends—all of these will mean nothing when each one of us is called “before the Ineffable [to] appear and on our naked spirits bear the uncreated beam.” How are we going to do it?
There is a way for man to rise
To Thee, sublime Abode;
An Offering and a Sacrifice,
A Holy Spirit’s energies,
An Advocate with God:
These, these prepare us for the sight
Of holiness above;
The sons of ignorance and night
May dwell in the eternal Light,
Through the eternal Love.
I think that’s one of the greatest things ever written by mortal man. We don’t sing it much; it is too awful and we’re afraid of it.
“The spirits that surround Thy throne”—the seraphim, cherubim, angels, archangels, principalities, powers, unfallen creatures—“can bear the burning bliss,” but that’s because “they have never, never known a fallen world like this.”
But how can I “bear the burning bliss”? It isn’t enough for somebody to mark a New Testament and rub my nose in it and try to comfort me. I don’t want to be comforted! I want to know what it will be like in that hour when I leave my wife, my children, my grandchildren and all my good friends. There’s not one of them that can help me in that awful hour when I appear before the Ineffable, and the uncreated beam impinges on my naked spirit.
There is a way. It is through the “offering and the sacrifice” of “the Advocate with God.” But don’t take that lightly. Conversion used to be a revolutionary, radical, wondrous, terrible, glorious thing. But there’s not much of it left. We’ve forgotten that God is the Holy One of Israel.
2. The Manifestation of the Holiness of God -
2. The Manifestation of the Holiness of God -
The holiness of God is the moral excellence of God that unifies His attributes and is expressed through His actions, setting him apart from all others.
God’s nature is Holy -
He is perfect -
4 “The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.
31 “As for God, His way is blameless; The word of the Lord is tested; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.
10 “But it is still my consolation, And I rejoice in unsparing pain, That I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
30 As for God, His way is blameless; The word of the Lord is tried; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.
3 Yet You are holy, O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.
22 I will also praise You with a harp, Even Your truth, O my God; To You I will sing praises with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.
41 Again and again they tempted God, And pained the Holy One of Israel.
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.”
14 “Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel; I will help you,” declares the Lord, “and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
15 “I am the Lord, your Holy One, The Creator of Israel, your King.”
13 Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they?
11 “I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.
8 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.”
10 and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
He is uniquely Holy -
11 “Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?
2 “There is no one holy like the Lord, Indeed, there is no one besides You, Nor is there any rock like our God.
13 Your way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God?
25 “To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One.
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.”
God’s name is Holy -
32 “You shall not profane My holy name, but I will be sanctified among the sons of Israel; I am the Lord who sanctifies you,
35 Then say, “Save us, O God of our salvation, And gather us and deliver us from the nations, To give thanks to Your holy name, And glory in Your praise.”
16 “O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided to build You a house for Your holy name, it is from Your hand, and all is Yours.
21 For our heart rejoices in Him, Because we trust in His holy name.
12 Be glad in the Lord, you righteous ones, And give thanks to His holy name.
15 For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.
21 “But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they went. 22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. 23 “I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord,” declares the Lord God, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight.
25 Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name.
49 “For the Mighty One has done great things for me; And holy is His name.
God’s dwelling-place is Holy -
11 Then Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter up from the city of David to the house which he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places are holy where the ark of the Lord has entered.”
27 Then the Levitical priests arose and blessed the people; and their voice was heard and their prayer came to His holy dwelling place, to heaven.
6 “But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”
4 I was crying to the Lord with my voice, And He answered me from His holy mountain. Selah.
7 But as for me, by Your abundant lovingkindness I will enter Your house, At Your holy temple I will bow in reverence for You.
4 The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.
1 O Lord, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill?
6 Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven With the saving strength of His right hand.
8 God reigns over the nations, God sits on His holy throne.
1 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, In the city of our God, His holy mountain.
4 How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You To dwell in Your courts. We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Your holy temple.
15 For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.
15 Look down from heaven and see from Your holy and glorious habitation; Where are Your zeal and Your mighty deeds? The stirrings of Your heart and Your compassion are restrained toward me.
17 Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, Dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain. So Jerusalem will be holy, And strangers will pass through it no more.
16 “Because just as you drank on My holy mountain, All the nations will drink continually. They will drink and swallow And become as if they had never existed. 17 “But on Mount Zion there will be those who escape, And it will be holy. And the house of Jacob will possess their possessions.
4 “So I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
2 Hear, O peoples, all of you; Listen, O earth and all it contains, And let the Lord God be a witness against you, The Lord from His holy temple.
20 “But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.”
13 “Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord; for He is aroused from His holy habitation.”
28 crying out, “Men of Israel, come to our aid! This is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people and the Law and this place; and besides he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.”
21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.
God’s holiness is revealed in His righteous activity -
11 “At the sound of those who divide flocks among the watering places, There they shall recount the righteous deeds of the Lord, The righteous deeds for His peasantry in Israel. Then the people of the Lord went down to the gates.
7 “So now, take your stand, that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous acts of the Lord which He did for you and your fathers.
13 Your way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God?
17 The Lord is righteous in all His ways And kind in all His deeds.
16 But the Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgment, And the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.
14 “Therefore the Lord has kept the calamity in store and brought it on us; for the Lord our God is righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice.
16 “O Lord, in accordance with all Your righteous acts, let now Your anger and Your wrath turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a reproach to all those around us.
5 The Lord is righteous within her; He will do no injustice. Every morning He brings His justice to light; He does not fail. But the unjust knows no shame.
SO WHAT?
How can we apply the concept of God's holiness to our personal lives and decision-making?
The Attributes of God, Volume 1: A Journey into the Father’s Heart (The Holy One and the Sinner)
Oh God, time is running, flying like a frightened bird. The bird of time is on the wing and has a little way to flutter. The wine of life is oozing drop by drop, and the leaves of life are falling one by one. Soon, before the Ineffable every man must appear to give an account for the deeds done in the body. Oh, Father, keep upon us a sense of holiness that we can’t sin and excuse it, but that repentance will be as deep as our lives. This we ask in Christ’s name. Amen.
How does recognizing God's holiness challenge or change your perception of personal sin?
In what ways does God's holiness inspire you to live a more consecrated life?
How can the understanding of God's holiness impact your worship and reverence in His presence?
What practices can you incorporate in your life to reflect the holiness of God?
How might the truth of God's holiness influence your relationships with others?
What specific decisions or actions in your life need to change in light of God's holiness?
How can you foster an awareness of God's holiness in your daily life?
In what areas of your life have you found it challenging to uphold the standards of holiness?
How will you pursue personal holiness in your thoughts, words, and actions?
What accountability measures can you put in place to help you live in accordance with God’s holiness?
