Sermon Tone Analysis

15 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying,

“I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;

the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.

2 The Lord is my strength and my song,

and he has become my salvation;

this is my God, and I will praise him,

my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

3 The Lord is a man of war;

the Lord is his name.

4 “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea,

and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea.

5 The floods covered them;

they went down into the depths like a stone.

6 Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power,

your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy.

7 In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries;

you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble.

8 At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up;

the floods stood up in a heap;

the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.

9 The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake,

I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them.

I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’

10 You blew with your wind; the sea covered them;

they sank like lead in the mighty waters.

11 “Who? is like you, O Lord, among the gods?

Who? is like you, majestic in holiness,

awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

12 You stretched out your right hand;

the earth swallowed them.

13 “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed;

you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.

14 The peoples have heard; they tremble;

pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia.

15 Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed;

trembling seizes the leaders of Moab;

all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.

16 Terror and dread fall upon them;

because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone,

till your people, O Lord, pass by,

till the people pass by whom you have purchased.

17 You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain,

the place, O Lord, which you have made for your abode,

the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established.

18 The Lord will reign forever and ever.”

The LORD has Risen!

= He is risen indeed!

Christ is Seated at the Right Hand of God! = Amen!

Your God parted the Red Sea! = Amen!

Your God Created all things!

= Amen!

As we look at the meaning of “Holiness to the LORD”, I want to pause and ask yourself, “What is it I think of as holy?

How do I understand Holiness?

And “Am I holy?”

When I was a young Christian, I often answered such questions in what I knew was an acceptable way.

I would say “God is Holy”.

How do I understand Holiness, “Through the Holiness of God.” Am I holy?

“In Christ I am holy”.

The scriptures tell us repeatedly about Holiness in relationship to the LORD.

Scripture communicates in a way intended to bring us before Yahweh day by day in what the scriptures describe as the Beauty of Holiness which is found in fully in the LORD Christ Jesus and is the only hope of salvation.

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What is Holiness?

In the simplest sense the word holiness means sanctified, set apart.

Literally the word קדשׁ from v11 is the Hebrew word for “to cut” or “to separate”.

When we speak or think of holiness concerning God it reflects who HE is.

The Belgic Confession article 1 say God is:

..one only simple and spiritual Being, which we call God; and that He is eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, immutable, infinite, almighty, perfectly wise, just, good, and the overflowing fountain of all good.

We might look at the words of the WSC Q4:

God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

The holiness of God is defined by his incomprehensible nature.

The One who’s infinite perfection is beyond all comprehension except to himself.

He is forever distinct and separated from the Creation which he upholds.

This is what many theologians call the Creator Creature Distinction.

When we first recognize the holiness of the LORD, we can begin to understand our own uncleanness, our impure thoughts, our inability to be holy or to come in holiness to the LORD in our own strength.

Holiness is never accomplished by the creature, thereby granting access to the Creator.

HC Q6 teaches what tells us when it repeats 6 times it was good.

Adam was created in the image of God in righteousness and true holiness, to love God, to live with, praise, and glorify God for all eternity and it was VERY GOOD.

Holiness to the LORD is the definition of being redeemed body and soul being set apart by God for his Glory and your blessing.

Holiness to the LORD is commanded,

44 For I am the Lord your God.

Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.

You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground.

45 For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God.

You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”

14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 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.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you

When we see passages about the Holiness of the LORD, they are designed to teach us what holiness is, to demonstrate the glory, honor and love which God requires of those whom he has chosen to be his holy people.

Take some time to reread the Song of Moses from which our passage it taken.

The Song of Moses from if filled with awe and wonder.

In a way the song of Moses is a developing theme of the Holy God of Israel.

The verse we are looking at is one of the earliest verses to describe holiness using a rhetorical question.

11 “Who? is like you, O Lord, among the gods?

Who? is like you, majestic in holiness,

awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

Covenantal Holiness

The story of children of Israel, the power and mercy which God demonstrated was done in such a way which you and I can only imagine.

We have all the details of God acting on the covenant promises given to Abraham in , demonstrated his greatness through Pharaoh, though the bondage of the people of God, through they deliverance, hail that burned like fire on the ground, water turned to blood, and the Passover, where through the image of the death and blood of the Lamb of God, the first born of all Israel was redeemed, while the enemies of the LORD were rejected and consumed by death according to HIS Holiness.

The story of the Covenant and God’s Holiness is founded all the way back in .

There the rest of the LORD was proclaimed and memorialized in the Holy Sabbath, which finds it completion in Christ.

When it comes to holiness, we find over 800 instances where the word is used to describe what the LORD calls holy, how it is to be made holy, and how holiness is to be viewed.

In Exodus, we have the “holy ground” (), a “holy assembly” (), a “holy sabbath” (), a “holy people” (), or a “holy place” (), or the written declaration “HOLINESS TO THE LORD” () which Aaron was commanded to wear and that is just 6 of the over 100x holiness is mentioned in Exodus.