Enthroning God
Holiness • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 770 viewsNotes
Transcript
Who Is Like God?
Who Is Like God?
2 “No one is holy like the Lord,
For there is none besides You,
Nor is there any rock like our God.
I love this decree because it’s from the heart Hannah, Samuel’s mother, who was returning her son (as a toddler) to the Lord as she promised when she asked for a son when she was barren.
To refresh, holy means sacred. It’s used “to denote someone or something that is inherently sacred.” Inherent is “existing in someone or something as permanent or inseparable.” Being holy is who He is. It’s in His nature. His holiness can’t be separated from Him as a Person. What’s incredible is that Jesus gave us His nature meaning that we are NOW holy! Again, it’s not WHAT you do that makes you holy; it’s WHO dwells in you that makes you holy. Our old, unholy nature was crucified with Him, and we’ve been resurrected into His holy nature in our spirit, which is why it’s crucial to study “redemption realities” so our soul can come into agreement with this reality a.k.a. renewing the mind or working out our salvation.
Side note: What’s up with rocks in the Bible? Rocks were used metaphorically to represent strength or stability. They were the epitome of strength, safety, and protection. Jesus is represented numerous times in both the OT and NT as the Rock. He is UNCHANGING, FIRM, AND UNMOVING.
8 Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord;
Nor are there any works like Your works.
Fearful in Praises
Fearful in Praises
11 “Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like You, glorious in holiness,
Fearful in praises, doing wonders?
Out of all the gods, which are really demonic beings, only God is inherently sacred. The gods others worship are given attributes by mankind’s worship of them but ONLY GOD IS WORSHIPPED BECAUSE OF WHO HE ALREADY IS. I.E. HIS HOLINESS EVOKES A WORSHIP RESPONSE from those who love Him.
The word “glorious” is used only 3 times in the OT to celebrate God’s power and holiness after deliverance of Israel from Egypt and when the Law was given on Sinai. It literally means “to be magnified.” Here we see that He is MAGNIFIED IN HIS HOLINESS and FEARFUL IN PRAISES!
The context is deliverance from Egypt. Seeing the wonders He did in Egypt evoked a fear in the midst of praise. It’s the question, “What kind of God do I serve?” not in a contemptuous way or disrespectful way but one of fear. I.e. God’s might should scare us. His explosive power should scare us. He is a Lion as well as a Lamb. Fear means “to fear, to respect, to reverence, to be afraid, to be awesome, to be feared, to make afraid, to frighten.” This is God we’re talking about!
28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Think of fire. We respect fire. We are not careless around fire. Fire handled improperly injures. And while we don’t need to fear that God will kill us, there should be a fear that He can if necessary. He doesn’t play games. He does what He says. Even so, He humbled Himself to become One of us so we could become like Him and be baptized with Holy Spirit fire! Learning to live carefully in the fire ensures that we suffer no loss when He returns as fire!
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
20 And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.”
Fear of Him never results in us pulling away from Him but instead keeps us from sinning. But as we see in Exodus 15:11, it should also evoke praises! Praises is “a song of praise.” “In late Hebrew, this was a technical term for a psalm of praise and became the Hebrew title for the entire book of Psalms. It’s “genuine appreciation for the great actions or the character of its object.” It’s the character of God that deserves praise and His specific divine acts for us humans!
4 Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy.
For all nations shall come and worship before You,
For Your judgments have been manifested.”
So far we have the command to magnify Him in His holiness and to offer Him songs of praise in fear, reverence, and awe. And like most things with God, He HAS A PLAN in this type of praise!
Enthroning God
Enthroning God
Enthrone means “to place on a throne.” The word “en” means “to cause to be in a place.” In heaven, God is sitting on His throne but on earth, we must ENTHRONE HIM or “CAUSE HIM TO BE IN A PLACE OF EXALTATION” on the earth meaning that we can create a place for His rule, dominion, and authority to be displayed in the earth!
3 But You are holy,
Enthroned in the praises of Israel.
Praises is the same word used above. Enthroned means “to sit, to dwell, to inhabit, to endure, to stay, to sit. We enthrone God in our songs of praise! Now these are songs that EXALT Him. It’s not just any song. Remember it’s genuine appreciation for His great actions and character. This means if you’re in need of His rule, dominion, and authority to be exercised in a situation, exalt Him NOT the problem!
13 Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for He is aroused from His holy habitation!”
This is scary!! Aroused means “of raising someone to action, of agitating someone.” I.e. He’s ticked and coming to take care of bidness! But notice that He is aroused from His holy habitation. His holiness is His divinity. HE IS THE ONE TRUE GOD. All others are fake. He is the I AM, the Self-Existent One. He has no beginning nor any end. He is not created and He owes His existence to no one. ALL OF THESE THINGS DEMAND A RESPONSE OF PRAISE!
3 God came from Teman,
The Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His glory covered the heavens,
And the earth was full of His praise.
This verse is referring to when He gave the Law on Mt. Sinai. But Holy Spirit directed me to look up the word “Teman.” It means “south.” Typically, south is a “place away from God” because you’re going down instead of up. It also signifies a “place of testing” because most south winds are hot winds. But in the Hebrew this word means “south wind controlled by God.”
When God gave down, the people were tested. Did the fear of seeing His glory cause them to draw near or pull away. It was a test of truly knowing Him. Moses, who knew His ways, drew near. The congregation, who only knew His acts, withdrew. The south winds can be “the place of restoration” if we draw near instead of pulling away!
5 Exalt the Lord our God,
And worship at His footstool—
He is holy.
I love the word exalt because it is a perfect picture of what happens when we exalt God instead of problems. Exalt means “to lift up high” but also “describes the process of something growing.” We must learn to make God bigger because His bigness overtakes our problems! Praise invites His divinity to step in and allow His supernatural to change our natural! In fact, the Bible lets us know that the earth is His footstool.
It’s a divine exchange. Just like His holiness made us holy; His holiness changes our circumstances. I love this! Holiness is to spread into all areas of life! Things should get better and better. Of course, we’ll have resistance and opposition but His divinity/holiness operating in our souls and bodies from our spirit creates a better life!
2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.
Beauty of Holiness
2 Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name;
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
We’ve already studied the name aspect of God in this series so I’d refer you to that.
Worship means “to bow low, to prostrate oneself, to fall down, to do reverence, to worship. It was a verb “used to indicate bowing before a monarch or a superior and paying homage.” This type of worship is given to God BECAUSE HE DESERVES IT FOR HE IS HOLY/DIVINE.
Beauty means “adornment, glory” and is related to the Hebrew word for majesty. When we worship, we are to do so in the adornment and glory of holiness/divinity. Here’s what’s amazing! The Passion says we are to worship Him “wearing the glory-garments of your holy, priestly calling!”
In the OT, the High Priest wore a turban that had a plate on it that said, “Holiness to the Lord.” It symbolized the post-Christ ere we live in where we are now adorned with “glory-garments” and are able to minister to the Lord first from a place of holiness. I.e. His holiness is now our holiness and that adorns us with a glory and majesty—the Divinity within us worships the Divinity above us! Heaven and earth connect!
9 Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!
Tremble before Him, all the earth.
Tremble means “to wait, to hope, to tarry.” It means “to wait with hope.” Again, we see how our worship of Him is to occupy the waiting period for Him to display His mighty acts of deliverance for us! Isn’t that neat?! WAIT WITH HOPE IN YOUR GLORY GARMENTS ENTHRONING HIM IN YOUR PRAISES SO HE CAN INVADE YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES!
35 O God, You are more awesome than Your holy places.
The God of Israel is He who gives strength and power to His people.
Blessed be God!
And as you do so, God gives you strength and power for He is the Rock!
1 Oh, sing to the Lord a new song!
For He has done marvelous things;
His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory.
Worship is obviously not just a song; it’s a lifestyle, but it would be foolish to not see the absolute importance of “a song of praise” that exalts Him during difficult times. That’s why I’m very particular about the songs. It’s rare a song will be “soul focused.” Sometimes those are needed to bring comfort. But I prefer to worship to songs that exalt Him and make Him bigger than any small thinking or difficulty I’m going through!
21 And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying:
“Praise the Lord,
For His mercy endures forever.”
Using song, these appointed ones were to “praise the beauty of holiness” before the army as they went out to battle! Praise means “to commend, to boast, to shine. The root meaning may be to shine but could also be to shout.” Here we see they were to “PRAISE THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS” versus “in” the beauty of holiness. Why? Because His holiness is His inherent divinity and when you praise the glory of His holiness/divinity, you invite Him in to fight your battles!
