The Holiness of God

Strange Fire

When I first started pastoring there was a man in my congregation named Malcolm Robertson. He was a decorated Greek scholar and former administrator at Azusa Pacific University.

He was friends with just about everybody who was a christian, and so I would invite him to breakfast and just ask him about his life because he had done so much and I wanted to learn from him

Well one day he started telling me about WWII

He was drafted, went to camp Roberts for Basic training

And one day in Basic training they were learning bayonet strikes on dummies. And Malcolm waked up to his commanding officer and say, Sir, I want to serve my country but I can not do this. The idea of killing a person, even if they are my enemy makes me sick to my stomach.

The person asked him what he did for a living and Malcom told him that he was a theology student in seminary. So that commander would tell him, as luck would have it we need chaplains so go over there your now a chaplain

So Malcolm would go where he was told and the next day he is basically shipped off to Italy and because he had some Bible college under his belt

So he gets to Italy when the fighting had basically already stopped, every day they were disarming and taking in thousands of surrendering Germans as prisoners of war

So Malcolm asked his commanding officer what he should do, and his commanding officer says hey we have all of these prisoners to keep busy, why don’t you do a bible study with them

So Malcolm introduces himself to the soldiers…who are all Lutheran Germans…and Malcolm belongs to a group called the pilgrim Holiness church

And what you need to know about the Pilgrim holiness church, you don’t wear jewelry, or makeup…you don’t wear flashy clothes, you try to be as simple as possible....Because you were a holiness church....

And Malcolm was married but he didn't wear a wedding ring because of his Pilgrim Holiness background

So Malcolm is introducing himself to all of these Nazi POW’s telling him that he is married and they are all very nice to him.

But the second he goes to teach the Bible the German soldiers almost universally turned around and didn't face him

Malcom thought this was strange so he continued his lesson and moved on and every week…Soldiers were nice to him…But when he opened the Bible they turned and didn’t face him

So after that lesson he asked one of the prisoners why this was happening and the soldier said you told us that you are married and you don’t wear a wedding ring...

And when German men are cheating on their wives, they take off their ring. The soldier told Malcom that since you are so obviously in sin, none of the men will listen to you when it comes to the Bible...

So then Malcom ended up buying a wedding ring and wearing it but trying to explain to all the men that he would never cheat on his wife but that he belonged to a christian group that practiced holiness

Malcolm Grew up in the pilgrim holiness way of life and he had never questioned that this is what holiness means...

See You were a holiness person back in the day if you didn't play cards...

you were a holiness christian if you didn't dance

You were a holiness christian if you didn't wear jewelry

You were a holiness christian if you didn’t go to the movies

For Malcolm Holiness was about what you didn’t do…thats how he was raised...

And for the German Christians he was ministering to, Holiness was about turning your back toward sin and hypocrisy.

So Malcolm told me that on that day he understood holiness in a very different way.

So I wanted to do a teaching series on what Holiness is because its one of those things that we don’t really used the word in church anymore and I think thats tragic.

Understanding holiness is understanding God’s core character

Holy describes not just God, but his desire for his people to live Holy Lives...

So Today I am kicking off a bit of a longer form teaching series…8 weeks on holiness that I hope will have a very well rounded look at what holiness it is my hope that this series reveals the heart of God more and more and more...

So today we are looking at the holiness of God...

The idea of holiness is describing a God who is utterly unique...

What I mean is that God is the uncreated one. Everything else is a creation…People, animals, angels, stars, the universe are all creations…but he is the creator God…the one who has the power to speak life into existence.

For thousands of years Man has been looking at creation with the understanding that all of life just works together…that there is intelligence behind all of this

And the Apostle Paul sums up the problem that humanity has with 5 verses out of Romans

Romans 1:20–25 NIV

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

I mean The apostle Paul wrote this 2,000 years ago...

God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature are clearly seen.

I mean Francis Collins figured this out when he mapped the human Genome. That this world and indeed our very bodies are made to all work together with what we can only describe as powerful lines of code that make our earth and world function in harmony.

Our world is the result of a creator, a unique outside force

But then Paul also mentions that all of creation have walked away from their creator...

What Paul is saying here in verse 23 is that the humans exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images that look like mortal humans and birds and reptiles

The Apostle Paul is perfectly describing the problem.

God made humans in his image

God is Holy

So in our unfallen state we get to share in God’s holiness....

But instead humanity has opted to exchange all of that for a cheap parody

So the judgment of God is to give humans over to what they want…If they are not going to choose holiness then the judgment of humans is to be aloud to continue down their own path…and you don’t have to look very far to see that the human path is destructive

So in this series I want to submit to you that we can not only experience God’s holiness...

But that we can share in it with our lives

So this morning we are starting in Exodus 3

If you have never read the book of Exodus, it is the second book of the Bible…It tells the story of the Israelites escaping Egypt...

And you have to understand that the people of God started by the family of Abraham, God was on a journey to lead these people back to the promise land.

Really back to eden...

God picked this group of humanity to be a light to all the rest of humanity to show the way back to God’s presence

So God picks one guy to lead all of Israel out of Egypt and into the promised land

So if you know the story of Moses,

He was raised in the royal Egyptian court but he was defending his own people and he killed an Egyptian so he ran away to a place called Midian and he

Exodus 3:1–5 NIV

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

Ok there is so much to break down here and one of these days we will do a deep dive into exodus where we will see how truly amazing chapter 3 is...

but this is a story that we are all pretty familiar with

We know the burning bush story in theological terms this is a Theophany story, a Theophany is any account where there is a physical appearance of God, and often times there is this fire associated with God, but its a strange fire in that it doesn't burn something up

and the reason why I bring this word Theophany up is because the book of exodus will be one long theophany story. God will reveal himself over and over again, in a pillar of fire

So God tells Moses…Remove your sandals, this is holy ground…and you know what don’t come closer

In the Old Testament God’s holy presence is a dangerous thing...

A good way to understand God’s holiness is to use the sun as an example

The sun is unique in our universe and it is really powerful…and because of the sun we can have life on our planet

But if you were to jump in a rocket ship and fly to the sun, you’d burn up before you even got there

So you could say that the sun is Holy because it is unique and it gives life…and you can take this further by saying that everything around the sun is holy too because it radiates its light and heat...

But the closer you get to it the more in danger you are of burning up

So the power that generates life…the sun…is also very dangerous

So in the same way, with God’s holiness there is the same paradox

If you are impure, God’s presence is dangerous to you and not because it is bad…but because it is so good

So the way that we see this is with Moses…Standing by this bush…taking off his sandals and actually covering his face

Moses is confronted with the author of life and he cant go any closer, because Moses is sinful...

The speaking, burning bush revealed the power of God and Moses’s own unworthiness

My goodness on my own can never match up to God’s goodness so I just can’t even come closer

But later on in the story of Exodus we actually see where Moses and God spend time together face to face and you might remember the story where Moses’s face actually shines because he has been with God

The point being that God took moses through this process of making him Holy so that he could enter his presence

So the burning bush story is not saying…you can never come closer…It is saying that moses its not safe because your not ready to experience my presence

God’s holiness reveals that humans need purity

And actually the rest of the story of exodus is the way in which humans can have purity so that they can share in God’s holiness

This is what the 10 commandments are all about...

the 10 commandments are actually the marriage agreement between humanity and God…they are vows

But unfortunately the rest of the old testament reveals how God’s people continually fall short of that purity

But God has to create a way for people to purify themselves and so thats why we have the entire book of Leviticus

It is a priestly handbook of what you have to do and how you have to live as a priest

But one of the early stories of Leviticus is a warning not to take God’s holiness lightly

God is Holy and worthy of our honor and reverence

So I am just going to share three verses with you but there are three chapters of stuff to share with you so I will do this in a short way

The first 7 chapters of Leviticus are all about making offerings for your sin…and its really impotrant to note that these offerings are subsitunary…in other words, these offerings take the place of your sin

The point here is to reinforce that sin leads to death…and in order to be in relationship with a Holy God that sin needs to be dealt with...

So there are 7 chapters of instructions on bringing a grain offering or some kind of animal slaughter to pay for your sin

and then in Leviticus 8, Moses ordains 3 priests to do all of these offerings and I can not state just how impotrant these priests were....

The priests helped people with their sacrifices and helped people remove their sin so they can have a relationship with God

So the priests have to be set apart from the common people and consecrated…Infact the term set apart is also the word Holy…So they were set apart from the common people to do holy things

They were ordained into the priesthood

Let me just give you a little taste of the ordination ceremony

Leviticus 8:23–24 NIV

Moses slaughtered the ram and took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. Moses also brought Aaron’s sons forward and put some of the blood on the lobes of their right ears, on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet. Then he splashed blood against the sides of the altar.

So this is a part of ordaining the priests

They had to listen to God…thats why the blood was on their ear

They had to do the will of God…thats why the blood was on their hands

and they had to walk in the way of God…thats why the blood was on their toes

So these priests had a tall order...

The role of a priest is to intercede on behalf of the people to God

The priests had to always guard their own holiness because they had to go into the presence of God

But just like every story in the Bible…It goes off track pretty quickly

Leviticus 10:1–3 NIV

Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord spoke of when he said: “ ‘Among those who approach me I will be proved holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.’ ” Aaron remained silent.

In everything that we didn't read, we would have seen the exact way that these priests were supposed to act and behave…there are exact rituals for them to follow and they decided not to do it

They were doing the opposite of listening, acting and walking in the way of the lord

and when they approached God’s presence or his holiness…they were willfully doing the wrong thing

what we read as “unauthorized fire” in verse 1 can also be translated as “strange fire” or “unholy fire...”

Because Nadab and Abihu did the same thing that Adam and Eve did…they forsook God’s holiness and goodness and decided what would be good on their own terms

and they died

What happened here is we actually see the danger of God’s holiness in the lives of a couple of men who decide that they are going to just go do their own thing...

God says he will be proved Holy one way or another.

So the reason why I am starting with all of this

is that we have been very casual about God in the last 30-50 years of the church...

In the church growth movement we did something called “Seeker Sensitive...”

Thats where churches removed anything offensive that might keep people away

The call to holiness was removed because its hard!

It is a hard call to say that Jesus loves you and died for you to forgive you of your sins but he doesn't want you to stay that way…He wants to make you new and perfect you!

And as a result the church produced casual christians who treated God as common as anything else

But what I want to get across in the beginning of this series is that God is neither casual or common but bigger than you can ever imagine

And he’s Holy...

He is perfection

He is the creator of all life

What is the attitude that we bring to worship?

How do you approach God in your daily prayers…is it with Honor and reverence?

When you open the scriptures how is it that you come to a holy God

God is Holy and worthy of everything in our lives, he is worthy of our praise and adoration

He is worthy of every song

He is the alpha and omega, creator of heaven and earth

So I want to read to you this little glimpse of heaven

Revelation 4:6–11 NIV

Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “ ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.” Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”

So when we read this text one of the things we see is 4 living creatures that are super strange

But the book of Revelation is like this. It is Jewish Apocalypse literature

There are all of these off creatures…in fact is says 4 creatures that were worshiping, and did you catch the descriptions?

They were covered with eyes? Like a lion, like an ox, face of a man, like a flying eagle…This is a Jewish Apocalypse: Where there are animals that have special significance. What they are saying is that the number 4 is the number of natural completeness…the 4 corners of the earth, the 4 winds…So, what this verse is saying is that all of creation cannot help but to worship the king…Not just humans but animals too…all of the created order bows at the holiness of God

And they sing Holy Holy Holy!

And catch this it is my last point…and its my most important point…there are these 24 elders, signifying the 12 tribes and the 12 apostles…and they all lay their crowns down

They lay down their authority

They law down their own kingship

How do we revere a holy God? lay your crown down.

Holiness begins here

Recognizing that God is bigger than you could even imagine, recognizing that if you a frail and broken human could be absolutely obliterated by God’s presence

Holiness begins by recognizing that God is Holy....giving the reverence that is due to a Holy God

So maybe you’re here today and you have never contemplated God’s holiness.

Maybe for you holiness means that you dress a certain way or do a certain thing

what does God’s holiness demand of me? That I don’t wear jewelry or makeup?

No, it demands that you take that crown off

The crown of self determination

The crown of autonomy

the crown of significance

And that you lay it at the foot of the king

Prayer for teachers

Dear Heavenly Father, We thank you today for all of our teachers, educators & Administrators who have dedicated their lives to educating our children, youth and adults. We thank you for the ways they have inspired us, motivated us, challenged us and guided us into greater knowledge.

We pray especially that you will bless our teachers with your help and grace. Fill them daily with encouragement by showing them specific ways that their teaching efforts are making a difference in their students’ lives and in the world.

Keep their classrooms safe from all threat of harm.

Give them the resources and teaching tools they need to do their jobs well.

Guard their time from the pressures of our secularized world

Give our teachers a commitment to your truth oh God

Grant supportive parents and communities to all of our teachers. Keep the communication lines open between teachers and parents. Help parents listen well and not push the teacher to make exceptions to the rules for their child. May our teachers be blessed with parents and communities of support

And God we commission and send our teachers today in the powerful name of Jesus

To be lights and beacons of truth in a world that doesn't honor or revere you.

May their commitment to truth and following you oh God be contagious oh God. And will you forever use them to change lives and plant seeds of your goodness and love.

We pray these things in the name and spirit of Jesus, the Good Teacher. Amen.