The Holiness of God - Holy One of Israel Part 2

You know holiness is not a word that we hear much about in our daily routine here in America these days. Our coworkers don't sit around at lunch and talk about holiness, newspapers, primetime television, magazines never mention it is never discussed on our college campuses are in our public school classrooms, but except perhaps as an object of ridicule and neighbors don't stand over the back fence together and talk about holiness. But as we look in the Bible, we find that this is perhaps the most fundamental fact about God that we find there.

Namely, that God is holy and this is what we want to talk about today and I remember where a series entitled the holy one of Israel. This is a series all about the attributes the character the essential nature of God, and last week in part one we talked about the fact that God is eternal.

If you miss that. I encourage you to get the tape for the CD or to podcast it and keep up with this, but were going to move on today in part two, and were going to talk about the holiness of God. The fact that God is holy.

Now, what exactly does it mean to be holy. While the word holy comes from the old English word hole with the W in the front it means to be complete or to be perfect and therefore to be holy simply means to be utterly perfect in every way, to be perfectly righteous to be impeccably sinless to be totally virtuous and to be absolutely pure in all of our ways and in the Bible. This is exactly what God claims for himself.

Leviticus 19 says, for I the Lord your God am holy over 30 times in the Old Testament God refers to himself as the holy one, of Israel. In fact, God's holiness is so overwhelming and so compelling that every place where God is in everything that God touches becomes automatically holy. Just because God is there, and God is touching Exodus chapter 3. You remember God called to Moses from within the burning bush and said do not come any closer. Take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy ground. Now the truth is, Moses was just standing on regular dirt, but that regular dirt had become holy ground because God the presence of God was there and that took regular dirt and turned it into holy ground. Remember Midas. Of course, had the golden touch whatever he touched turned to go, while God's got the holy touch whatever he touches turns holy in the Bible goes on to tell us that there is no being in the universe who is holy in the same way that Almighty God is Exodus chapter 15 verse 11. Who is like you oh Lord Majestic in your holiness. First Samuel two verse two there is no one. The Bible says who is holy, like the Lord but I think the most impressive passage in the entire Bible when it comes to this attribute of God has to be Isaiah chapter 6. Here's what it says, verse one. In the year that King Uzziah died, I Isaiah says, saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and lifted up and above him were seraphim, each with six wings with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying now. Sarah for seraphim in Hebrew literally means a burning one. These are some kind of angelic beings.

And it was a pretty amazing description that Isaiah gives of them. But folks really the important thing is not what these creatures looked like, but what they Say verse three says in the seraphim were calling to one another and saying holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty.

The whole earth is full of his glory. It reminds me of the creatures in Revelation chapter 4. Where the Bible says, day and night.

They do not stop saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord now could you imagine spending all of eternity flying around and and day after day, night after night saying absolutely nothing but holy, holy, holy is the Lord over and over and over and over and over again what you can.

You cannot. But the reason for that is that we don't understand the awful holiness of God. The way these creatures in heaven do you salon your II and stab at it, you know, one thing that intrigues me is how come every time you hear it there always saying, holy, holy, holy, three times never twice or 4×1.

How come there always saying to three times. Well, it seems to me the reason for that is probably because that's the way the hymn goes you know holy, holy, holy.

I thought that was pretty funny. But not sure.

Y'all did okay. What no, there is an answer that question. The real answer is that the Hebrew language has no way to say the superlative holiest. The only way the Hebrew language can say that is by repeating the adjective over and over and over again. And so when the Old Testament says holy, holy, holy, in reference to God what the Bible is trying to emphasize to us is that God is holy to the superlative maximum.

And here's something really interesting.

This is the only attribute of God that is ever repeated like this anywhere in the Bible. I mean, nowhere in the Bible does it say that God is love love love or God is faithful faithful faithful or God is just just just for God is good good good but it says over and over again in the Bible God is holy, holy, holy.

The point is that of all the great attributes of God that were told about in the Bible, the one that God wants to impress upon us the most is that he is holy, so here's Isaiah getting a naked glimpse of the holiness of God. And so the question is how did this affect him. The question is how did he respond well. Verse five says will MRI. I am ruined.

Isaiah says I love the King James it says I am undone. I am coming apart at the seams. I'm coming apart on unhinged at the joints. I'm falling apart here.

Why, for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips, and what made you so sensitive to that issue. Isaiah well because my eyes have seen the King, Lord God Almighty and all of his holiness. Listen. Isaiah was probably one of the most godly men in all of Israel in his day and yet when he gets a mere glimpse of the holiness of God. He is utterly overwhelmed.

He is utterly blown away by his own sinfulness.

You know the truth is, this is exactly what happened. Every person who ever got a glimpse on this earth of the holiness of God. Moses at the burning bush when he experienced God's holiness.

The Bible says he hid his face in fear. Daniel when he experienced God's holiness, Daniel. Chapter 10 there was no strength left in me. My face turned pale and I was helpless when God got there would Job.

Job was a rack.

The prophet Habakkuk said my belly trembled, my lips quivered the K entered my bones and I shot from top to bottom.

Peterson departed from the Lord, for I am a sinful man. I don't think Peter walked around talking like that every day. Peter was a pretty arrogant God.

But when he came in contact with the holiness of God even shielded in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. He became so convinced of his own holiness is the Lord you need to move away from Llamas and, of course.

Isaiah woe is me. I'm undone I'm coming apart at the seams. All these men got a small taste of the awesome holiness of God, and they were immediately devastated with an acute awareness of their own on holiness their own sinfulness their own wretched condition in the sight of a thrice holy God. Now in his great mercy. Thankfully, God doesn't leave Isaiah in this terrible condition. Watch verse six. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand which he had taken with tongs off the altar with it he touched my mouth and said see this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away and your sin is atone for.

Let's make sure we see here that Isaiah had no way to solve his sin problem by itself. I mean at that moment facing Almighty God in Isaiah 6. No amount of good works, no amount of religious activity was going to make him look a bit cleaner in the site of an orderly holy God and so wisely. Isaiah didn't even try to fix his sin problem himself. He just throw himself on the mercy of God, and friends. In response, God created a solution for Isaiah you see that the let me stop here and say that this equation is the central theme of the Bible and that is namely that in his sinfulness man is utterly helpless in the presence of a holy God. But in his mercy, God goes for man.

What man cannot do for himself in his mercy, God makes a way for us to have our sins forgiven and his mercy, God makes a way for us to be clean in his holy site and to dwell safely and securely in his holy presence. Not today. The coal that makes all this possible.

The purges are sin is not some coal off of it altar, but the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ shed on the cross. First John 17 the blood of Jesus. The Bible says purifies us from all sin. The people in heaven. Revelation chapter 7 are described as those who have washed their robes and made them whites in the blood of the lamb nonnormally blood doesn't make close white, but the blood of Jesus is different.

It takes close that are staying with sin and makes them white as snow as I love to say the blood of Christ is like the spray and wash of heaven. You understand what I'm saying that you're here today and you never trusted Jesus Christ in a real and personal way.

What we just talked about has enormous ramifications for you what it means is when you leave this world and you stand in front of this thrice holy God that friends not your religious activities going to make a bit of difference. Not your good works are going to matter you got to be covered and protected by the blood of Jesus Christ, or it is going to be a very unfortunate meeting between you and God.

And if you've never trusted Christ. I don't mean just believing in your head that he existed or went to the cross. I mean, relying on what he did for you on the cross depending on it and making the blood of Christ are one and only remedy for sin. Your one and only hope of facing a holy God and escaping from that unharmed. If you've never done that in friend that's what you need to do this is the way God made to fix the problem but there's only one way to fix the problem. It's God's way and I hope you'll think about that and I hope you will avail yourself of God solution. So let's conclude by saying that thank God, Isaiah 6000 in with Isaiah screaming out.

Woe is me. It ends with Isaiah standing in the presence of this thrice holy God with his sin forgiven and his wretchedness removed and his alienation from God repaired all because of the undeserved mercy of God, who in his dazzling holiness has no obligation to you to me to Isaiah or anybody else but who in his compassion shows his mercy anyway. Now that's as far as we want to go in the theology of God is holy because now we want to ask our most important question you know what that is where everybody here we go ask Greg a deep breath in here we go. 123 year use a lawn. So what's a God bless you permit your preaching your heart out.

We love you that.

But what difference does any of this make when I walk on my door tomorrow morning to go to school to go to work. What differences make to me.

Well I'm in a try to help you with that. You know in over 30 years of being in the ministry. I've learned something about the kind of God. Most people here in America want most people want a God who is nice and polite and tolerance and the nonthreatening. We want a kindly old grandfather.

We want a genie in the lamp pops out and says name and claimant. We want the man upstairs who looks at everything we do and says all it's okay I understand you're just human it's okay don't worry about what folks I'm here to tell you this is not the God of the Bible, the God of the Bible. Hebrews 1229 says is a consuming fire, who is awesome in his holiness, who is frightening in his purity, which is why Hebrews 1031 says it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God not I submit to you that large segments of the Christian church here in America today have utterly lost sight of who God really is majestic awesome fearful and awful in his holiness, I submit to you that if I walked into the average church in America today and preached on a verse like Hebrews 1031. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God, or if I preached on Hebrews 1229.

Our God is a consuming fire. Those people would look at me like I was speaking Martian and I believe that it is this diminishing of God's holiness. Listen now this diminishing of God's holiness in the church today that lies at the heart of our coldness are compromised, our arrogance, our disobedience, our lukewarmness about evangelism, all of which pervades and saturates the church in America today with the church in America today needs most is not new programs, not new methods not new strategies but what we need is a fresh glimpse of the awesome holiness of God is what I need the most in my life. This is what you need the most in your life, and this is what McLean Bible church needs more than anything else, because no business now because it is this and this alone that will shock us out of our arrogance that will terrify us out of our disobedience and that will devastate us out of our spiritual lukewarmness and our hypocrisy and our backsliding and our superficiality in our walks with Jesus Christ. Anybody agree say Mick now many of us know the name Jonathan Edwards great Puritan preacher. He preached for over 30 years of yet. The only sermon.

Everybody's ever heard of that he ever preaches a sermon call centers in the hands of an angry God.

He actually was a very jolly fellow. He actually was not a negative you know Bible banging sort of guy, but it doesn't change the truthfulness of what he said in this sermon. Let me read you part of it, and I quote he said in his holiness, God looks upon us as worthy of nothing else but to be thrown into the fire of hell. His holy eyes are too pure to even have us in his sight. We have offended him infinitely more than ever, a stubborn rebel did his prints. It is, he still goes on to say it is to be ascribed to nothing else but his hand that we did not go to hell last night that we were allowed to wake up again in this world. After we went to sleep last night and he says there is no other reason to be given why we have not dropped in the hell since we arose this morning, except that God's hand has held us up."

You get the idea.

There's more but you got the idea. Now I realize most Americans don't see themselves this way. I understand that and I don't expect them to.

But as followers of Jesus Christ. I believe that we have a hard time really seeing ourselves like this as hell deserving sinners who have nothing in our flesh to commend us to God. Nothing in our flesh to incline him to warn us in heaven.

Nothing in our flesh to entice him to show us mercy or clemency in any way. And yet this is how the Bible says it really is with us friends Zebulon as a follower of Jesus was covered by the blood of Christ. I'm in a completely different relationship with Almighty God, aren't II mean I mean things are different for me in my relationship with God right absolutely my friend. They certainly are as a follower of Christ the blood of Jesus covers and protects you and me from God's holiness as followers of Christ the blood of Jesus shields us from God's wrath against our sin, but but look here, but as followers of Jesus Christ. We must never forget who we are uncovered by the blood of Jesus. We must never forget who we are outside of Jesus Christ friends uncovered by the blood of Christ, and outside of Christ, we are everything Jonathan Edwards said about us and worse.

Now the saints of old understood this. Moses Daniel back in Isaiah, Peter. They were undone by the realization of their own sinfulness and they were overwhelmed by God's utterly undeserved mercy to them and it was this understanding that shape their lives into lives of godliness and obedience and passion for Christ and the bottom line is we in the modern church desperately need a touch from these people's claim. We do know the problem is that it's hard to appreciate the beauty of the prescription until we appreciate the awfulness of a disease that some of you are old enough to remember polio before the sock vaccine. I am. I remember little kids coming to school in wheelchairs.

Little kids coming to school on canes and crutches. I remember in the hospital, kids in iron lungs because they couldn't read on their own. All because of the poliovirus and parents when I was a little child lived in mortal fear that one day they were going to walk in their child's room and the child was going to be in bed unable to move struck down by polio. I remember that. And I remember standing in line at an elementary school when I was about six or seven years old and receiving the first sock vaccine on a little sugar cube and I remember parents standing in line with tears rolling down her face, weeping about this vaccine.

Enjoy over this vaccine that it was going to free their children from the scourge of polio.

Now I don't think most people today when they go take their children to the pediatrician to get there. Polio vaccine I don't think most parents today sit in the waiting room and weep like babies go all the polio vaccine. You know why because polio is been virtually wiped out in our world and we really don't understand anymore the devastation of that disease could we never seen it so we don't appreciate the prescription enough not maintain that if we really want to appreciate the cross and if we really want to appreciate what Jesus did for us. We have got to understand the disease. We've got and the terribleness of it in the devastation of it because until we understand who we really are in slide of the holiness of God until we are undone by our sinfulness, like Isaiah was we will never appreciate the mercy of Christ like we should now I Zebulon I thought God is a God of love. I thought God is a God of mercy, and the God of grace, friends, God is a God of love and mercy and grace.

If you weren't the awesome holiness of God would've incinerated every one of us this morning. Like little drops of water on a red-hot burner but God is also a God of terrifying holiness with whom we dare not trifle even as his children in Jesus Christ. You know what I was facing death this summer looking at right in the eyeballs even as a blood covered follower of Christ. I need to tell you being honest with you, but I was terrified by the idea of going into eternity and facing an infinitely holy God. Now, I wasn't afraid of dying. I wasn't afraid that I was going to miss heaven.

I mean, I know the word of God. I knew I was going to heaven, but friends I was afraid because I knew that there was too much superficiality in my Christian life and I knew that there was too much sloppiness in my obedience to God and I knew that there was too much lukewarmness in my passion for Christ, and I knew that I had allowed myself to forget a little bit about who God really is and is holiness and who I really am in my sinfulness now. I wasn't doing anything awful. I wasn't committing adultery.

I was stealing money I was ordering pornography over the Internet, but I wasn't really ready to face an infinitely holy God. I knew God would forgive these things but I did want to facing like I was terrified at the thought of facing the exalted transcendent all-consuming holy living God in the condition that I was in and so I asked God for some extra time and I said Lord if you give me some extra time here on this earth yeah want to be with my family that's true, but Lord, I want to tell you something, I believe, with the help of the Holy Spirit. I can do better. I can do better.

Lord, I believe that I can do a better job of obeying Christ fully in my life that I can do a better job of serving Christ faithfully in my life and I can do a better job of loving Christ more passionately in my life. And Lord, if you just give me some extra time. I will dedicate myself to that with the help of the Holy Spirit in a new way a fresh way so that when I'm ready to face you next time I'll be in better shape now in his mercy, God gave me some extra time and I want you to know that I have dedicated myself to this very purpose, but I want to ask you a question and that is if you were looking death in the eyeballs tomorrow morning. Are you really ready to face an infinitely holy God and give an account of how you've lived your life as a follower of Jesus here on this earth.

I wonder if you are really ready to face the awesomely holy God of the universe. I wonder if you need to tighten some things up in your Christian life little bit to start every day utterly humble by the pervading sinfulness that's in your life and utterly overwhelmed by God's undeserved mercy, and on that basis to go out every day and live a life full of obedience to God and personal holiness before God and integrity and passion of Christ. Now you say, but long. We can ever get it 100% right you know world were human, I mean we can never we can never get it all right will you that's correct, but I gotta tell you sit in the hospital this summer. I knew that I could do better with the help of the Holy Spirit. I knew I could and I aspired to do better now that the Lord has granted me some extra time, as I said a moment ago on dedicated to doing better and I want to challenge you to follow my example I want to challenge you to examine your life and say Lord Lord enough were tiptoeing through the tulips here mean if I'm gonna stand in front of a God so awesome and so holy that even people covered by the blood of Christ can't stand up even people covered by the blood of Christ lose all their strength and collapse to the ground if I'm going to stand in front of a being like that is my wife ready to think about.

Well I can answer that question for you. I can only answer for me not told you my answer, but I suspect that there are a lot of us here who we really answer that question honestly, it would be a terrifying thing for us to stay in front of them right now. So friends what he can do about your call.

We can do about well I hope you'll do what I decided to do and say. With the help of God spirit in my life.

I'm going to commit myself a fresh to living passionately for Jesus Christ because I understand it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

When that happens, eternity. I want to have done the best I possibly could.

I'm tired of playing games and being superficial. I wanted to be the best I can do. I hope you do too, but pretty Lord Jesus David prayed, forgive me for presumptuous sins and father.

I suppose if there were any one group of sins that characterized us today, more than any other as followers of Christ. Here in America it would be presumptuous sins, presuming on your love, presuming on your forgiveness.

Presuming on your mercy and your compassion in that presumption, forms the basis of us becoming sloppy and lukewarm compromising in our disobedience and our passion for Christ.

Father, we need a fresh glimpse of the holiness of God which is not to be trifled with. Even his followers of Jesus, so use your word today to grip our hearts. Use your word today to convict our hearts usual word today to motivate us to a new commitment to passion and obedience integrity for Christ in our lives that we might truly be the kind of followers of Christ that can make a difference in our world father change our heart in our lives because we were here today, change the very way we behave and we pray these things in Jesus name God's people said amen