God's Call To Be Holy
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
One night while in his dorm room, a young man was awaken from his sleep—receiving a holy call to get up and leave his room. As the call grew stronger, the young man learned it was just ten minutes before 12:00 AM and he was walking outside in the cold brisk weather on a snowy night. The night was frightening and ghostly, he explains.
He entered the chapel where an intimidating glare was found. He made his way to the altar and fell to his knees to meet the one who had called him out of his sleep. With nothing to say and a heartbeat that was of one that was frightened by a terrible scare, he silently rested in the terrifying presence of God—contemplating whether he should run or rest in the moment. This young boy was the one who would become the great pastor and theologian, R.C. Sproul.
This story of God’s holiness and the way it convicted RC Sproul is inspiring. It talks about the way God delicately embraced and provoked RC out of his college dorm to reveal Himself to him. It is a story about how God cares enough about a young teenage boy to change the course of his life. In this story, God is merciful, gracious, compassionate, tender, and kind. Yet, there’s another side of the story.
The God that compels RC into an experience with Him is also dreadful and full of terror. What causes some one to use such words as this in reference to God? Dreadful? Terrorizing? Fearful?
RC continues to explain that the beauty of his experience is that God can fill him with terror in one moment and peace in the other.
Thankfully, RC leaves this experience a devout Christian and one of the most brilliant minds of the reformed community. This experience leads to the making of a man that would bless thousands of people in his lifetime through powerful preaching and teaching. For this reason, we are thankful for the experience God granted him…however dreadful it might have been.
The Other Scenario
The Other Scenario
However, the experiences of others are not always as balanced as RC’s. Recently, I was reading an article that encouraged a healthy dose of God’s terror. The writer (Aaron Armstrong), who I will not name since I am critical of his position, described what he called “holy terror.” He wrote,
Recently, I was reading the story of the transfiguration in Matthew 17:1-13. While reading this passage, I was struck by verse six...I am struck by this statement: “When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.” They were terrified in the presence of God. And frankly, I can’t blame them.
He continues,
I noticed this theme a lot in the Old Testament while I was reading it. When men and women were in the presence of the Lord, they were filled with what I can only describe as a holy terror.
In Exodus 19:6, the people trembled when they heard the thunder and lightning and the trumpet blasts from the mountain. And they were afraid to enter the presence of God, sending only Moses.
When Isaiah has a vision of the exalted Lord Jesus, he cries out, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isa. 6:5)
And we see it here again with the disciples, who fall on their faces in terror at the voice of the Father.
I am reminded, once again, that I, and perhaps a great many of us, sometimes lack a holy fear of Jesus. It’s easy to start thinking that Jesus is our “buddy.” That He’s only our example for how we should live, and is not our exalted King.
It’s sometimes easier to think this than to see that He is terrifying in His majesty.
He then continues to support his position by quoting the words from the hymn We Have Not Known Thee by Thomas B. Pollack,
Lord give us light, thy truth to see,
And make us wise in knowing thee
Lord, give us faith to know Thee near,
And grant the grace of holy fear.
I am a bit troubled by this writer’s position as I fear it does not give a fair and biblical demonstration of the holiness of God. Interestingly and unfortunately, the writer leaves Matthew 17:6 far too soon. You see, he had in his mind a preconceived idea that altered his ability to clearly see the meaning of the passage. We all do this from time-to-time. We read passages in a way that disables our ability to comprehend the point of the passage and therefore, adopt some alternative, and sometimes, opposing view.
If our dear friend would have kept reading, he would have discovered that though the disciples’ natural reaction was fear, this is not the correct reaction to the presence of God. God does not want us to be fearful of His presence. We are fearful, because we are sinful. Yet, God wants that to change. He wants us to be comfortable in His presence, which is why He always tell those who have fallen as dead or shrunk away from the moment by lying on the ground to “Get up!”
6 The disciples were terrified and fell face down on the ground.
Matthew 17:7 (CSB)
7 Jesus came up, touched them, and said, “Get up; don’t be afraid.”
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last.
The problem is we have too many Christians saying they are still terrified by the presence of God, when they should be boldly entering into His presence to receive the grace that they need in their time of trouble (Hebrews 4:16). The presence of God is not intended to terrorize us. It is intended to get us on our feet and remove the fear that is caused by sin.
Be ye holy!
Be ye holy!
As beautiful as being in the presence of God should be, there are many living beneath their privilege. We can tell this by the response one gets from such passages as the one we read at the beginning of our sermon, where God commands us to be holy.
In fact, God tells us to be holy six distinct times in the Bible:
2 “Give the following instructions to the entire community of Israel. You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.
7 So set yourselves apart to be holy, for I am the Lord your God.
26 You must be holy because I, the Lord, am holy. I have set you apart from all other people to be my very own.
6 And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation.’ This is the message you must give to the people of Israel.”
16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
7 God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives.
The word “holy” is emphatic and often misunderstood. The word has a meaning that is often lent to a more ritualistic or religious connotation that is present in the Hebrew meaning, but is not the entire Hebrew meaning.
The word holy means to be consecrated and sacred. The Greek emphasizes these meanings in a more exclusive way, being stripped from the Hebrew context and expression that identify the adjective with the reputation and purpose of the nation of Israel. You see, if we remove the word holy from the context of Israel’s calling, we simply have a ritual command. Yet, if we keep the word connected to the context of their calling, we have a more practical and obtainable understanding.
The nation of Israel was God’s called nation—appointed to represent God in the world of pagan practices. Other words to define the word holy, which are often neglected are commanding respect, awesome, devoted to service. That is, the command to be holy is a command to be respected or respectable, awesome, and devoted to service. That is, God has called us to be such people that are replicable and attractive.
Our idea of holiness is oftentimes too discouraging. This is why being rich, famous, intoxicated, or sexually addicted is more enticing to many than being holy, even for Christians.
(I must emphasize this point again.) Christians would rather be rich, famous, intoxicated, sexually addicted than holy, because their concept of holiness is empty and completely limited to a matter of pious responsibility and not identical reflection. (Not much gets done out of just being plain religious.)
The Larger Problem of Our Resentment Towards the Call to be Holy
The Larger Problem of Our Resentment Towards the Call to be Holy
But there’s a larger problem with our resentment towards being holy that is far more severe than our misunderstanding of a word definition. Our resentment towards being holy is a reflection of our view of God. God’s commandment is, “Be holy, because I am holy.”
The truth is we often have this dreadful and terrorizing view of God, which we define as holy. But the truth is—none of us want to be that. We don’t want to be this terrorizing and unwelcoming figure that we imagine God is. [Therefore, we say we are incapable of being holy, when the truth is we don’t want to be the idea of holiness we often consider God to be.]
Get this point: When our view of God’s holiness is negative, our respond to Gods command to be holy is negative. We simply avoid being what we perceive God is, even while acknowledging God’s holiness is the standard of man’s holiness. R.E. Clements wrote, “Every biblical statement about God carries with it an implied demand upon men to imitate Him in daily living” (R.E. Clements, “Leviticus,” in The Broadman Bible Commentary, 2:51). The New Bible Commentary says, “Holiness, therefore, was not something that you pursued by retreating from everyday life into some religious sanctum. Holiness meant transforming everyday life by the quality of behaviour that was utterly different from the surrounding ways of the world.” Jacob Milgrom wrote, “Thus holiness implies not only separation from but separation to, and since YHWH is the standard by which all holiness is measured, the doctrine of imitatio Dei takes on wider dimensions: “It is comparable to the court of a king. What is the court’s duty? To imitate the king!”
**In other words, you won’t behave after the manner of something you don’t like.
If we’re honest, some of us don’t like the God we describe to others enough to act like Him.
What if I told you God’s holiness is beautiful? What if I told you God’s holiness commands respect, but it also devotes him to service. This respectable service makes our God awesome and these are all the things He wants to find in us.
My brothers and sisters, friends, the holiness of God is so wonderful and should be what attracts us to Him rather than what runs us away from Him. It is this beautiful holiness of God that should inspire us to be holy as God has instructed. It is the holiness of God that separates Him from all of these other supposed gods; just as we are to be separated from others.
Holiness Requires Separation
Holiness Requires Separation
Now, we cannot resist the other concepts of holiness in acceptance of the other. The other meaning of holiness we have not yet discussed is the aspect of consecration.
The word consecration means to be removed or separated from common use. It means to be the subject of special treatment. The call to be holy, to be consecrated, is not a call to simply sit on the sidelines of life and exclude ourselves from whatever we consider to be “fun” and enjoyable. It is a call to be special, unique, and uncommon.
The NBA just finished its NBA Finals with a very competitive series between the Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks. For the first time in years, we saw uncommon faces contending for the NBA Championship. Many of the leagues superstars saw their first NBA Finals—Chris Paul, Devin Booker, Giannis Antetokenumpo, Chris Middleton, and a few others.
To commemorate his first appearance to the NBA Finals, Devin Booker showed up in unique fashion. Devin Booker, who has a rare car collection, showed up to Game 1 of the NBA Finals in a 1959 Chevrolet Impala. When asked about this very unique car, he mentioned he does usually not drive this car during this time of year. He normally reserves it for a different season and time of year, but because of the significance of the event, he made a special appearance in this car for the NBA Finals.
Devin Booker is describing an uncommon car— a car he does not drive on an every day basis. In other words, this car is not an everyday driver. It was an uncommon car. He doesn’t go to the gym in this car. He doesn’t go to the supermarket in this car. He doesn’t take out the trash in this car. He uses this car for special reasons, and special occasions.
Brothers and sisters, if we are not careful, some of us will be everyday driver saints. Everyone and anything can get in us and drive us wherever they want to take us. Because we have not separated ourselves, we have become common in the negative sense of the word, and there’s nothing rare, special, or unique about us.
Separation keeps us uncommon. Selected use makes us uncommon. Sometimes, we are going to have to tell some things and some people, “You can’t drive me! I’m to special to go where you’re trying to take me!”
God does not want anyone else driving you! You are His special car! You are what He has decided to use to bless and mold this creation into what it was intended to be.
Consider this passage with me that will show you just how valuable you are to God.
18 For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value.
19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.
20 God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake.
Called To Be Holy
Called To Be Holy
The amazing thing about the call of God to be holy is that He believed in us so strongly, that He was willing to pay for us. The Father loved us so much that He was sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for us, so we might be holy.
Exhortation: The reason we have decided to live holy, is because Jesus paid for it!
Since He died for us, we will live for Him.