The Holiness of God

Our text this morning is from 1 Peter 1:13-16. I have chosen this text, instead of Isaiah 6 because of the title of our conference “On Holiness.” I think 1 Peter 1 verses 15 and 16 perfectly depicts and outlines our theme “The Pursuit of Holiness.”. Isaiah 6 will still be a vital part of this sermon titled “The Holiness of God.”

I will be reading from ESV. 1 Peter 1:13-16.

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 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.”

At the outset, we should ask this question: “Is there a difference between righteousness and holiness?” There is a slight difference. Righteousness is the condition of being proven or declared morally excellent, while holiness is the condition of being consecrated or dedicated to moral excellence.

Verse 13, you see the word therefore. What is the therefore for? It means that because of the future inheritance that is promised to us as followers of Christ, such incentive should motivate us to holiness. To do so:

1. We should prepare or gird our minds for actions to focus on the future grace of God (cf. Ephesians 6:14).

2. To be sober is to have self-control and clarity of mind and moral decisiveness.

3. And to hope fully on Jesus’ 2nd coming.

Verse 14, as obedient children, we should not be conformed to the world but rather live as transformed people of God, because we already have the knowledge of God.

Verse 15 starts with a but, and we know exactly what this means. It means a contrast from the negative attitudes that we should be doing as followers of the Lord. Peter summarizes the whole sanctification process by admonishing us to live holy lives, or separated from the world.

Verse 16 is just a reiteration of the admonition. Repetition is a popular form of writing to emphasize an important thing or subject.

I think if we are paying attention to what the Word of God is telling us here in this passage, that it is not an obscure passage, that we would really pursue holiness as christians.For after all, true-born-again christians are saints. And saints literally means “holy ones.” Though it is always easier said than done that we are all work-in-progress.

The phrase “because God is holy that He requires every believers of Him to be holy” is the point of this passage, which is also one of the theological principle of this epistle. A theological principle is a principle or truth that is true in both the OT and the NT and that it guides believers of all times on how to live a life that is pleasing and honoring to the LORD.

In this first epistle of Peter, we know that Peter wrote this to encourage christian believers who were scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, to endure persecution. And one best way to endure persecution is to pursue holiness.

[This passage robustly admonishes or urges us believers and followers of the LORD Jesus to pursue holiness as our penultimate goal. For our chief end “is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever,” and to pursue holiness is one best way to glorify God in our lives.]

From verse 15, we can deduced two main points.

The Holiness of God, and

The Holiness of Man

We will give more emphasis on the first point because it is the assignment given to me, and beside the fact that it is the highest point of the text. In fact, our holiness is a result [or by-product] of having a sound understanding and knowledge of the holiness of God. Therefore, if we truly understand God’s holiness, that we will be able to have a genuine “pursuit of holiness” in our own lives.

Though, I have to tell you of a caveat, that the threefold holiness of God, the only attribute of God that is repeated thrice, cannot be explained in just 40-45 minutes of study, teaching, or preaching. And so, we might only be scratching through the surface. Thus, our goal for the next 40 minutes or so is to have a deeper understanding of the holiness of God. And after, may every believer here today pursue holiness like never before.

But before we continue, let us pray one more time.

In Christian theology, the word holy has two meanings. The first meaning will be our first point and the second meaning of the word will be our second point.

1. The holiness of God

The holiness of God refers to the unparalleled majesty of His incomparable being and His blameless, faultless, unblemished moral purity (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8). It is God’s perfection or in layman’s term “no sin” (not falling short or not missing the mark, sa Tagalog hindi kulang) and “no transgression” (not going beyond the mark or line, sa Tagalog hindi sobra). (Hindi kulang at hindi rin sobra, kung sa exam 100% palagi, meron ka bang kilalang ganyan sa tanang ng buhay mo, na palaging perfect sa exam? Sigurado akong walang ganyan na tao. Kahit pa si Einstein.)

Simply, the holiness of God means that God is untouched and unstained by sin and evil. God is [holy for He is] absolutely pure and perfect.

I have several passages and verses that showcase God’s incomparable being and perfection. In these verses we will see God’s nature or essence is holiness.

1. Isaiah 49:7 (NASB95)

Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One,

To the despised One,

To the One abhorred by the nation,

To the Servant of rulers,

“Kings will see and arise,

Princes will also bow down,

Because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.”

-God is the only One that is truly holy. There is none like Him.

2. Exodus 15:11 (NASB95)

“Who is like You among the gods, O Lord?

Who is like You, majestic in holiness,

Awesome in praises, working wonders?

- most of the time if we were please by some people because of some good things or performance they have done, we comment like “you are awesome.” But in reality, there is only One (capital O) who is truly awesome because God is the only One who is perfect in all that He does and whose motive is all pure.

3. Leviticus 21:8 (NASB95)

‘You shall consecrate him, therefore, for he offers the food of your God; he shall be holy to you; for I the Lord, who sanctifies you, am holy.

-because God is holy, that he is the only one that can truly sanctifies. I believe that the sanctification mentioned here by Moses is the whole sanctification process - meaning from justification to progressive sanctificaiton to glorification. God does it all .

Ezekiel 39:7 (NASB95)

“My holy name I will make known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let My holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.

Psalm 99:9 (NASB95)

Exalt the Lord our God

And worship at His holy hill,

For holy is the Lord our God.

6. Revelation 4:8 (NASB95)

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.”

-Here is the only place in the NT that this superlative attibute of holiness of God is mentioned. And the other one is Isaiah 6.

7. Isaiah 6:1–7 (NASB95)

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.

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.

And one called out to another and said,

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts,

The whole earth is full of His glory.”

And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.

Then I said,

“Woe is me, for I am ruined!

Because I am a man of unclean lips,

And I live among a people of unclean lips;

For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.

He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”

Notice the word Lord in verse 1 and LORD in verse 3 and 5. The Lord in verse 3 is the word Adonai or the sovereign - God’s title. And the word LORD in verse 3 and 5 is the name of God or Yahweh.

The seraphims have 6 wings because that is what they need in their habitat. As fish are given gills to live on water, their habitat and as birds were given feathers and wings for them to be able to fly. Notice, two they used to cover their face from the glory of God, and two to cover their feet because they are in the holy presence of God.

No one will see God [holiness] and will live.

Remember when Moses saw God in the mountain in Midian. When he came down from the mountain, the people told him that he should cover his face because its blinding them. And that is only the reflection of God’s holiness and glory, that was reflected on Moses.

With this kind of holiness, we cannot relate because as Romans 3:10 says, there is none righteous and Romans 3:23 says that we are all sinners. So, we are all greatly stained by sin and desperately sick of it (cf., Jeremiah 17:9).

2. The holiness of man or better yet “the pursuit of holiness [of man]”

I think the second one is more appropriate because no christian have ever attained perfection in his lifetime as a believer since man continue to sin while alive. The apostle Paul, describes this struggle of his in Romans 7:15 ESV (For I do not understand my own actions. For, I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate).

So succintly, “The Pursuit of Holiness deals largely with putting off the old self—dealing with sin in our lives” (Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness, page 158–159).

On this second meaning of the word “holy” - here we can relate - if. There is a condition for you to be able to relate to the second meaning. That is, If you have been truly born-again or regenerated by believing in the Lord Jesus’ death and resurrection for the forgiveness of your sins (John 3:3, 16). Once you are born-again or regenerated, or another term we used is - “we have become a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17), or still another term “being adopted (Ephesians 1:5), or son of God (small “s”) and heir of God” (Galatians 4:7).

If this is a true of you then you are being set-apart by God, iand this is the second meaning of the word “holy.”

Holy in plain words refers to something or someone that has been separated from the common or set aside for God’s use. And because we are talking about men’s pursuit of holiness we are not talking about something that is holy but rather of someone.

Or as R.C. Sproul calls it “theological apartheid.” Apatheid simply means separate or segragated from the world.

(My notes only)[As an example, Belshazzar profaned the holy temple vessels—those set aside for use by God’s priests—by drinking toasts to his idols (Daniel 5:2–4). Belshazzar’s abuse of these holy artifacts made him guilty of sacrilege.]

The question we need to answer then is this : Are we that kind of people that the Bible depicts? Do we pursue holiness because our Abba Father is holy? Do we deal seriously with sin in our lives as holy people? Again are we pursuing holiness? This will be the goal of our day today.

Our trajectory: God is holy, and He who is holy called or separated us to be holy in our justification, then sanctification and at the end is glorification or the saint’s freedom from sin.

To close this topic of the “Holiness of God,” I see it fitting to just sing the song “Holy Holy Holy.”

End.

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1st Message: The Holiness of God

God’s holiness pertains to His:

A. Majesty

The concept of the majesty of God means that He is sovereignly powerful, full authority and have great dignity.

grandeur, greatness, splendor

B. Perfection

“God’s holiness then is perfect freedom from all evil.”

(Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 1978), 23).

Threefold ascription of God’s holiness (cf., Revelation 4:8: Isaiah 6:3).

B. The Holiness of man

The Greek word “hagios” is translated “holy” or “sacred” in English. It means set apart by (or for) God. Or in simpler word, it means different. Thus [the] temple in the 1st century was hagios or "holy" because it is different from other buildings. In the NT, hágios ("holy") has the "technical" meaning "different from the world. So, if we paraphrase this verse, we could say, “Be different from the world, but be like Jesus.

It is wrought, formed or molded to all born-again believers (v.3). Christians are the only true holy people .

Perhaps those imperative words “be holy” (maging banal) is something you want to know how? How can a born-again christian be holy? Again, I have to tell you that only the true born-again christian can be holy.

So, here are some ways that we can be holy (separated or different from the world) according to our passage:

verse 13, prepare your minds for action and be sober (it is the same as Romans 12:1, renewing your mind). What kind of action?

verse 13, set your hope on the things that you have known about Jesus Christ

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2nd Message: The sinfullness of man

Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”

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3rd Message: On justification

James 2:

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4th Message: On sanctification (progressive sanctification)

Colossians 3:1-17 “Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, “That You may be justified in Your words, And prevail when You are judged.” But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.) May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world? But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), “Let us do evil that good may come”? Their condemnation is just. What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charge…”

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5th Message: The saint’s struggle with sin

(simul justus et peccatur)

Romans 7:14-25 “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which i…”

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6th Message: Saint’s Freedeom from sin (glorification)