His Holiness

Of all the titles given to our Lord in the Bible, the one he's referred to the most is the fact that he is a holy God. In fact, if there's one thing you only knew about him, the one thing he would want you to know is that he him. Is holy. Tonight, what we're going to do is try to help you understand the holiness of God. And I got to tell you that of all the attributes of God, this is the most difficult one for me to preach on because it reminds me of how unholy I am in compared to his holiness. Tonight, as we embark on understanding the holiness of God, we have four points we want to cover.

The first deals with the quality of His holiness. The second with the centrality of his holiness. The third with the beauty of his holiness.

And we'll close our time with the practicality. His holiness for your life and for mine. But first of all, the quality of his holiness.

Turn with me in your Bible, if you would, to Isaiah chapter 57. Isaiah chapter 5. The basic idea in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, words for holy, is that it means separation. We get the word saint, we get the word sanctified from the word holy. God is the separate one, God is the distinct one, God is the different one. We must understand the quality of his holiness. It centers around the fact that God is different than anything else we can ever imagine. So, when we speak of the holiness of God, we speak of it in two areas.

Number one, the fact that God is separate from creation. And number two, God is separate. From corruption. To understand that aspect of God is to begin to understand the quality of his holiness. Isaiah 57, verse number 15 says this, For thus says the high and exalted one, who lives forever, whose name is holy, I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit. In order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite, God is exalted high above us in infinite gl.

And trans majesty. In fact, it's R. C. Sproul who talks about God's holiness as His transcendence when He says this. When we speak of the transcendence of God, we are talking about that sense in which God is above and beyond us. It tries to get at his supreme and altogether greatness. Transcendence describes God in His consuming majesty, His exalted loftiness. It points to the infinite distance that separates Him from every creature. You see, God is just not better than us because He's in a different location than us.

God's just not a little bit different from us because He created us. God is worlds apart from us. He is completely separate from his creation. And our problem is that we keep trying to bring God down to our level. We use phrases like, Holy roller or holy smoke, or if we see a child running around in the nursery out of control, we call that child a holy terror. See? We use the word like holy mackerel. We call cows holy cow. You know, what does that mean? It's our effort to bring God's holiness down to our level so somehow we can understand it.

The first thing you need to know about God's holiness is that you can never bring him down to your level because he is totally separate from His creation.

God is totally separate from any corruption as well as separate from his creation. It was Hannah who said in her song in 1 Samuel 2:2. There is no one holy like the Lord. Indeed, there is no one beside thee. There is no one like the Lord. He is completely different than anything else in the world. It says in Isaiah 66, verse number 1, Thus says the Lord, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where then is a house you could build for me? And where is a place that I Could rest? Answer: Nowhere, except one place.

And we'll come back to Isaiah 61 at the end of our time together this evening. But see, God wants us to maximize his holiness. The reason we minimize God's holiness is because we want to minimize Our sinfulness. And whenever we do that, then we ultimately minimize the great of the cross of Jesus Christ. And so we need to maximize the holiness of God in our messages and in our own lives. So, number one, the first quality you need to understand is that he is separate from creation, and number two, he is separate from corruption.

He is separated from all evil. He is separated from all sin. He tempts no one to sin. He has no association with sin. It was Elihu who said to Job, Job 34, 10, Far be it from God to do wickedness and from the Almighty to do wrong. In Abak 1:13, it says that God is of purer eyes than to even behold evil, than to even look upon evil. He is perfect. In being holy. In fact, that same holiness is ascribed to the Lord Jesus Christ when he walked on earth. It says in 1 Peter 2:2 that he committed no sin.

1 John 3:5, that there was no sin in him. 2 Corinthians 5:2 that he knew no sin. Hebrews 7, 26, that he is a holy, innocent, undefiled, separate from sinners. And Acts 3. in Peter's sermon, he referred to him as the Holy One of Israel. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ was holy because the Lord Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. And our God is a holy God, separate from his creation, separate from any kind of corruption. Point number two, the centrality of his holiness.

It's important for us to understand that this attribute, more so than any other attribute, is the center of who God is. Without God being holy, every other attribute begins to crumble around it. The centrality of his holiness is understand in two ways. Number one, it is the extreme expression.

Of his character. Turn with me over to Psalm 89. Psalm 89, verses 33 to 35. Listen to what the Lord God says.

But I will not break off my loving kind from him, nor deal falsely in my faithfulness. My covenant I will not violate, nor will I alter the utterance of my lips. Once I have sworn by my holiness, I will not lie. To David, God says, Look, because I am holy, I will swear by the highest expression, the most extreme expression of who I am.

So that you will understand that I speak truth. It fully explains who he is. In Leviticus 19, verse number 2, God is holy in all of his being. He's not holy just in his feet or his. Arms or his hands or his head. He's holy in his entire being. His whole body, his whole life is set apart. His whole life is different. Romans 7:12 says the Bible declares that God's law is holy. Why is God's law holy? Because God's law defines for us the character of God. If you read Mark chapter 1, verse number 24, when in the synagogue at Caper, one of the demons cried out, What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are. You are who? The holy one of God. The demons know. They know that He's the Holy One of God. They know that He is totally separate from anything that He's created. They know that He's completely separate from any kind of sin or corruption. They know he is the Holy One of Israel. But not only is it the extreme expression of his character, it is a consummate celebration of his character. When you celebrate God, you've got to celebrate the holiness of God.

The first song in the Bible, Exodus 15, is a song emphasizing the holiness of God. The last song in the Bible, Revelation 15, is a song about the holiness of God. They're like booke in the scriptures to help you understand. That when you celebrate God, you need to celebrate the fact that He is a holy God more so than you celebrate anything else about God. That's important to understand. Over in Revelation chapter 4, verse number 8, it says this. 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. Now, can you imagine that? All day and all night, that's all they say. That's all they can say. They can't think of anything else to say. Because God is so holy. And these living creatures can only say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty over and over and over again throughout all eternity because they can't even begin to comprehend the separateness of God.

He wants you to understand that when you celebrate him, you need to celebrate the fact that he is a holy God. The Bible emphasizes the fact that when you sing unto God, when you celebrate God, you must celebrate the holiness of God. And isn't it interesting that the thing we least celebrate is God's holiness? You know what? Because we like our sin. That's why. We don't have time to celebrate the holiness of God because if we do, that means we've got to rid ourselves of sin and we like our sin too much.

So we'll sing songs about other things: the love of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God, because we can still sin and experience God's mercy and God's grace and God's forgiveness, right? And God's faithfulness. But you can't sing about the holiness of God and still sin because you'd be a hypocrite, right? And so, God is concerned about those kinds of things. So, when you read through the Bible, when people are expressing celebration to God and raising their hands to Him, they sing about His wonderful holiness.

Because of his greatness, he is so separate from us, and that he would bestow anything upon his creatures who are so sinful, we can't help but see of his majestic holiness. Number three, I want you to notice the beauty of his holiness.

The beauty of his holiness. There's something about God's holiness you need to see that makes you understand how beautiful he really is. When King Jehoshaphat organized his armies in 2 Chronicles 20, verse number 21, he appointed a choir, and they were to sing unto the Lord. And praise the beauty of his holiness. Again, there was a celebration before they ever went to battle about the holiness of God. That's 2 Chronicles 20, verse number 21. Remember Psalm 27, verse number 4? David longed to be in the house of God so much.

Why? Because he wanted to behold the beauty of the Lord. If he could just get to the house of God, he could behold the beauty of God. And the beauty of God centers around the holiness of God. Three things about the beauty of his holiness. Seen first of all in his works, second in his word, and third in his wrath.

But first of all, in his works. Psalm 145. Psalm 145, verse number 17, says this. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all His deeds. Folks, you got to understand something. Everything God does is holy. God never does anything unholy, right? So that means that all of God's works are holy. You've got to understand that. What makes something unholy is not God, it's us, right? It's our sinfulness that makes something unholy. But when God created the world, He said it was good. When He created man, He said it was very good.

In fact, it was A. W. Pink who said this: not but that which is excellent can proceed from Him. Stop right there. Nothing but that which is excellent can proceed from God. If anything is ungood, if that's a word, that comes from God, God would cease to be holy. Why? Because if something is not good, it's sinful. That would make God sinful. But because God is holy, every work of God is holy. That means every work of God is good. No work of God is bad. So Pete goes on to say this: Holiness is the rule of all his actions.

At the beginning, he pronounced all that he made in Genesis 1:3 very good. Which he could not have done had there been anything imperfect or unholy in them. You see, Adam was created. Let me stop right there.

Adam was created to be a holy being. Adam was created immortal. He became mortal when when he sinned, but God made him to be immortal when he chose to sin. It was that day that he experienced death. He experienced what? Separation from what? A holy God. That's what death is. Death is defined as separation. And man is spiritually dead, that means God he is separated from who? From God. When he dies physically, that is the soul's separation from what? The body. See? Death is defined as separation. To better understand that, you need to come to one of my funeral messages, and I'll explain that to you really clearly.

But the bottom line is that when man sinned, he found himself for the very first time separate from God, separate from a holy God.

So when God does something, he does it good. God is a holy God. This is so important to understand. Because we want to blame God for everything knowing. We want to blame God for my lost job. We want to blame God for my house burning down. We want to blame God for my divorce. We want to blame God for my Rebellious children. We want to blame God very, you can't blame God. You can't do that. What? He's a holy God. And because he's holy, he didn't do anything unholy. Who are you going to blame? Yeah.

You got to blame yourself, right? And nobody wants to do that, so you got to blame somebody, so blame God. I mean, after all, you can't see him anyway, so you just won't blame him, right? That's what we think. But he's holy in all of his works. The second thing I want you to know about the beauty of his holiness is in his word.

This is great. Romans 7, verse number 12 says this: The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good. The Bible is very clear. God's law is holy. God's commandment is good. Psalm 19, verses 8 and 9: The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. God says, everything about me is pure and clean and true.

His word, John 15, verse number 3, Christ says, You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you.

And this gets really good. Turn with me to Titus chapter 3, verse number 5. Maybe you don't think this is any good. I think this is really good. So if you want to say amen, you can say amen. If you want to give a holy grunt, you give a holy grunt. But you need to give something out there because this is going to get really good. If it's not already good already, it's going to get better for you. Titus chapter 3, verse number 5. Look at what it says.

He saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. Now, how did God save us? He saved us by the washing of regeneration. How does God do the washing, the cleansing of regeneration? He does it through the Spirit of God. And how does the Spirit of God do it? He does it through the holy word of God. Paul says in Ephesians 5:2, the washing of water with the word. The washing of regeneration comes to the word because the word is like It's like com.

It 's like babbo. You know what I'm saying? It just cleans everything it touches. Now you understand Psalm 119, verse number 9. How can a young man keep his way clean? How can a young man keep his way pure? How? By taking heed to the Word of God. You see, people say, you know, I read my Bible, I don't get anything out of it. My response to that is, who cares? You don't read your Bible to get something out of it. You read your Bible because your Bible is a cleansing agent. It cleans you. God says, I clean you up through the word of God.

Sanctify them in truth, Lord, for thy word is truth. How are we set apart? How are we sanctified? Through the word of truth. So, someone might say, I've read my Bible all day, I it all week, I didn't get anything out of it. Hey, you just keep reading it. It's a cleansing agent, it needs to go in and out of the filter. It's just cleansing your life. So, as you read the word of God, let me tell you something.

God's word is powerful, God's word is living, and God's word is active, whether or not you get anything out of it or not. And because it, thank you. And because it's active, it's going to cleanse your life as you read it and as you meditate upon it. And you will notice that as you continue to read it, even though you don't get anything out of it, all of a sudden one day you going to wake up and Bang!

It's all going to come into focus. Why? Because God's been washing out all that dirt in your mind. Getting it all clean. So one day, it all comes into clear focus. Clear perspective. That's why you read the word. Why? Because God's word is holy. That's the beauty of his holiness. But the capstone, in order to understand the beauty of his holiness, is you need to understand his wrath. Because his wrath best describes the holiness of God. God hates sin. God is holy. Proverbs 15: says, The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord.

Even the thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to God. He must punish sin. For God not to punish sin would make God unjust. But because God is holy, He's just. Therefore, He must punish sin. See? God just doesn't overlook sin. He doesn't say, okay, let's forgive and forget. Let's just get on with life. It's okay. It's not a problem. You can sin. I won't look. I'll turn the other way. You just do what you want to do. God's not that way. God can't do that because He's a pure eyes and to behold evil.

So when evil begins to run its course, He does what He does best, and that is on Leash his wrath upon those who are opposed to him and destroys them because he's holy. See that? Psalm 5, verse number 5: God hates all workers of iniquity. God hates all workers of iniquity. You need to put that in your salvation message. Don't go out and say, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. He doesn't have a wonderful plan for the sinner. He's got a diabolical plan for the sinner. It's going to kill the sinner.

God hates all workers of iniquity. Psalm 7, verse number 11: God is angry with the wicked every day. He's constantly angry at the wicked. So you can't go to the wicked and say, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. That's not true. The truth is, God hates wickedness. God hates sin, and God's going to send you to hell. But I got a solution. God's got a solution. You want to hear the solution? I got it. They might say yes or no, but there is a solution. You see, for one sin, God banished Adam and Eve from the garden.

For one sin, Moses wasn't able to enter the land of Canaan. For one sin, Elijah's servant was smitten with leprosy. For one sin, Ananias and Sapphir lied, and God killed them. Just for one sin. See? And we ask, well, I lie. I'm not dead. I've sinned and I haven banished from my church. I do things that are wrong, and I don't have any kind of disease or cancer or leprosy or things like that. Folks, that's just the mercy of God. That's all that is. Be thankful you've seen the mercy of God demonstrated in your life.

See, God sets those out in Scripture. Why? So that they're warning signs for people like you and me. They could happen to us. That's why in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul is very clear about how he presents the 23,000 that fell in one day because they were involved in immorality. And the others that fell because they were disgruntled and griped and complained. They were laid low in the wilderness. And Paul says, these are written, for example, that you won't fall into the same punishment that they themselves fell into.

See that? So here's the point. Are you ready? When God poured out his wrath on his son at Calvary. That is the clearest description of the beauty of God's holiness. That's when God turned away, the sky became dark. And Christ cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Folks, you need to understand that verse. He who knew no sin. The Bible says, bec sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

As God imputed sin to H Son, so now He imputes His Son's righteousness to us. So that now we become righteous, you see? Which leads us to point number four: the practicality of his holiness. Second Corinthians chapter 6.

Paul says in verse number 16, For we are the temple of the living God. Just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate. Be holy, says the Lord, and do not touch what is unclean, and I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Al. Here's the exhortation. Number one, we are to portray holiness.

Number two, we are to pursue holiness. And number three, we are to perfect holiness. That's the exhortation. Well, before we get there, there is a caution. Here's the caution. As Isaiah was able to see the Lord and see the glory of the Lord as the smoke filled the temple, he realized that you can't toy with God or you will be consum. You'll be consumed. No one can stand in the presence of God without being profoundly and devastatingly aware of his own wretchedness. When people come to church, they ought to leave not feeling good.

They ought to leave saying, I am a sinful man. I need to repent in dust and ashes. We want them to come and encounter the presence of God. It's because God's Spirit's working on them. And they don't want to repent. But there is a provision, and that's in Isaiah 6, verses 6 and 7. Then one of the ser flew to me with the burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongues. And 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.

God didn't leave Isaiah devastated. You see, because when he recognized his sinfulness, he was able to embrace God's holiness. And when he embraced God's holiness, God cleansed him from his sin. God is the one who provides the cleansing. God alone is the fount of holiness and the source of forgiveness. That's why our prayer should be as 1 Thessalonians 5:2. Now may the God of peace him sanctify you entirely. Separate you entirely. That should be our prayer. May that be your pursuit.