The Holiness of God

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. In a spiritual sense, we're all brothers and sisters in the Lord. We need each other. We need to come alongside of each other as it were and lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees and support each other and encourage each other in our walk with the Lord. [00:00:34] So I feel you brethren have already tremendously ministered to me this morning. So, turn with me to the book of Exodus for a scripture this morning. The book of Exodus chapter 15. I'd like to read the first 11 verses. Jesus, this scripture is right, the setting here is right after the children of Israel came out of Egypt and God gave them a marvelous deliverance from Pharaoh. [00:01:11] I suppose from a human perspective we could have reasoned that Pharaoh and his army was a mighty army and for the children of Israel to escape out of that army's hands was probably physically an impossibility. But with God all things are possible. God wrought a wonderful victory for the children of Israel and I'd like to look at the song of Moses following that marvelous deliverance. Shall we read chapter 15 verse 1 [00:01:42] Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord in spake saying I will sing unto the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously The horse and the rider hath he thrown into the sea The Lord is my strength and song and he has become my salvation He is my God and I will prepare him a habitation My father's God and I will exalt him The Lord is a man of war The Lord is his name Pharaoh's chariots and his hosts hath he cast into the sea [00:02:13] His chosen captains also are drowned in the sea, in the Red Sea The depths have covered them, they sank into the bottom as a stone Thy right hand, O Lord, is found become glorious in power Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy And in the greatness of thine excellency Thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee Thou sendest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble, and with the blast of thy nostrils the waters have gathered together. [00:02:48] The floods stood upright as in heat, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil. My lust shall be satisfied upon them. I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. But thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them, they sank as lead in the mighty waters Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, and doing wonders? [00:03:23] I think we'll cease our reading there But I was blessed as they sang this song of praise, this song of triumph This song of giving honor and glory to the God who delivered them. You know, often in the Old Testament you read of Israel went to war against this group or that group or the other group. And you read how that the Lord fought for them. And how that God delivered them time after time after time. [00:03:56] He delivered them. Many times, again, from a human perspective, we could have reasoned the enemy is so much stronger than we, that we stand no chance. But God, when God is on our side, we can overcome. We can overcome. I guess the thought that I'd like to pick up then here from this particular psalm is in verse 11. Who is likened to thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? [00:04:34] I'd like to talk this morning about the holiness of God. And it says here that who is likened to thee who is glorious in holiness? This morning our brother who had the opening devotion, he talked about Lent and how that this is a time of saying no and exercising some, so to speak, external disciplines and so on. And I appreciated the thought that was shared that as God's people, we ought to have that kind of a spirit about us all year long. [00:05:06] All the time we should have that kind of a spirit. And then he used the phrase of walking in holiness. And that, I believe, is very important. Very important, the walking in holiness. I'd like to use, in conjunction with this scripture here, particularly this thought, that the God that we serve is glorious in holiness. Now, I guess I may use this illustration. [00:05:40] I had somebody in my office here recently, and it's not often that I pay any kind of particular attention to a man's ring. But this particular man, he came in and he had this ring on. It was not necessarily a big ring, but it didn't matter how he turned his hand, that ring just glistened. And I guess that was kind of what got my attention. And like I say, I'm not advocating that this morning, but this morning it would be my prayer and desire that the holiness of God could be, so to speak, put on the candlestick and uplifted and be observed and seen this morning as we look into the word of God. [00:06:29] Looking at the holiness of God in that kind of a matter. You know, the light always exposes, does it not? Light always exposes. And so we like to, by the grace of God, lift up and lift up the holiness of God. Turn with me to Isaiah, the sixth chapter, when God called the prophet Isaiah, there were these seraphims that Isaiah saw here. [00:07:04] And there it tells us that these seraphims, they cried one to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. That caught Isaiah's attention that the call of God, or that God is holy. And I don't know for what length of time that they cried out, but through this vision, this call that Isaiah had, he was reminded of the holiness of God. [00:07:43] I'd like to read a number of New Testament scriptures as well. Ephesians 1.4. We have this call to holiness. Ephesians 1.4. Here it says, according as he has chosen us and him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Then, I'd like to look at 1 Peter chapter 1, 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 13 through 16. [00:08:27] It reads, Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. [00:08:59] Then in Revelation chapter 15 and verse 4. Here it reads, Revelation 15, verse 4 Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy. For all nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments are made manifest. These scriptures talk about the holiness of God. And I guess as I see it this morning, holiness is the foundational characteristic of our God. [00:09:38] Holiness is a foundational characteristic of our God. And on that premise, He is calling you and me to live holy lives. On that foundation, He is calling. There's no exceptions made to this call. This call is not only just for the preachers, or for the Sunday school teachers, or the Christian school teacher, but it is a call to every child of God. [00:10:11] It is a call that goes out to the learned and the unlearned. It's a call that goes out to the rich and to the poor. It's a call that goes out to the carpenter. It's a call that goes out to the mother in the home. It's a call that goes out to the father. It's a call that goes out to every child. God is calling His people to be a holy people. Now, many Christians have this idea that there's something about a cultural holiness. [00:10:47] What I'm simply saying is that, you know, I would suppose that if I was a part of the brotherhood here, there'd be a certain prohibitions that would come into focus. and there would be certain things that would be expected of me. And there's a sense in which there's a cultural holiness that goes with that. You know, now if you were a part of a Baptist group or maybe some Protestant group, [00:11:23] And maybe their perception of holiness would call that you would abstain from drinking and maybe smoking and maybe dancing. And as long as you refrain, there's a certain sense of cultural holiness that goes with you, with that group. And, you know, really the bottom line is if we compare ourselves on the premise of a cultural holiness, [00:11:58] you know, that's something that varies from this group to that group to the other group, you know, that really becomes a pharisaical type of thing, doesn't it? Or it can very easily be a pharisaical type of thing. This morning, now granted, while I think it ought to be that every brother and sister has an expression of holiness and challenge each other to holiness, or in other words, follow me as I follow the Lord. [00:12:29] But really, we need to be looking to God, looking what the standard is of God in order to be holy. that is pleasing to Him. We could say this way. If you just look at this group and that group and the other group, you know, like I say, we could easily reason that, oh, well, more or less holy. Maybe a little bit more or less holy here and so on. We could reason that way. But this morning the call is that God is holy [00:13:04] And God has not called us to be just like those around us, but He has called us to be holy as He is holy. He has called us to be holy as He is holy. And I think that really when we look at the holiness of God, that sets a standard that is much higher than the cultural holiness of this group or that group or the other group. The holiness of God. That is a call that is far superior. [00:13:39] You know, when we look at the holiness of God, we would say that the holiness of God describes both the majesty of God and the purity and the moral perfection of His nature. I think we would say that. Holiness describes that. I'd like to say that the holiness of God is as necessary as His existence. It is. Now, just as He cannot but know what is right, [00:14:12] so He cannot but do what is right. I often pray and thank the Lord for this prayer Remember that God is just and right in all of His ways. That's because of His holiness. He is just and right in all of His ways. He is. I thank the Lord. You know, sometimes for us, we agonize. We have a decision to make. [00:14:43] We have a decision to make. We agonize sometimes a bit. What is the right choice to make? Or what's the right decision to make? What's the best or what's the fair decision to make? Like I say, we agonize over those kind of decisions we make. But you know, God doesn't agonize at all, does He? No. He is perfect holiness. He's perfectly right and fair and just in all of His ways. [00:15:14] When he comes to a decision, there is not the thing of vacillating between this or that. But he's just and holy. He always makes the right choice and the right decision. You know, sometimes for us, we face, we know what's right, but there's sometimes a reluctance on our part to do just that. Because, you know, if we take this right way, it's going to mean some kind of a sacrifice for us. [00:15:50] Or, maybe it's really a blow to our pride. And we vacillate. May God help us when we know what's right to follow up and do what's right. May God help us. But another thing about God and His holiness is that He is free from all evil. Now, you sisters in washing clothes, when the clothes come out of that washer and they're spotless, we say they're clean. [00:16:26] And we're glad about that. A lot of labor goes into washing clothes, and we're concerned about the clean in us. And in fact, in our society in which we live, there's a lot of concern about purity as well, particularly as it relates to water. I don't know, I haven't read statistics of the amount of water that has been going through some kind of filtering or purifying processes that are sold today in the marketplace. [00:17:01] I don't know what that amount is, but at least from my few short years, I would just perceive and have this sense that today there is volumes of water that are being sold that have gone through some kind of a filtering or purifying process and so on, and I think it's a good concern, legitimate concern. But are we equally concerned about the spiritual aspects of that? I think we ought to be. God is perfectly holy and free from any kind of spot. [00:17:35] You know, when gold is pure, we say that all the impurities have been refined from it, or the dross has been removed from pure gold. In the same manner, we can think of God as the absolute absence of any evil. You know, the scriptures say in 1 John 1-5 that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. In Him is no darkness at all. [00:18:09] You know, the holiness of God includes a perfect conformity to His own divine character. You know, sometimes some of our thoughts and sometimes some of our actions are inconsistent with the holiness of character. You know what I'm saying? You know, if somebody, in fact, I'll just share with you just this past week an issue there between my wife and I. She came home, I came home from work and she told me that she did so and so. [00:18:40] and right away it kind of irked me a little bit. I kind of blew off. My actions were not holy, were they? But you know, she didn't say anything much about it. But you know what, in a short time, the Holy Spirit worked on me and said, you need to go and apologize. You know, my actions were not holy in character, were they? But that's not true with God. All of his actions, all the time, all of his responses are perfect holiness, perfectly right and fair and good. [00:19:17] Now, as we grow and as in the Christian life, there's a certain degree of Christian holy character that comes along with that. There's areas of truthfulness, for an example, the area of purity, the area of humility that God wants to develop and have us become holy and clean in those areas. And we can take comfort this morning in the absolute holiness of God. It gives us assurance that God, if He's perfectly holy, we can be confident that all of His actions toward us are always perfect and just. [00:19:58] I thank God for that. We can have that kind of assurance of our God. He is called the Holy One of Israel. And I would say like this, that holiness is the crown of God. It's God's crown, we could say. Holiness is a perfection of all other attributes. His power is holy. His mercy is holy mercy. His wisdom is holy wisdom. It is His holiness more than any other attribute that makes Him worthy of our praise. [00:20:30] Indeed, I thank God that He is holy. Now, in the scripture in Peter, we read that you and I are to be holy because God is holy. And I don't believe that it's unfair or unreasonable for God to expect that of His children. It's reasonable, it's right, that He demands that kind of holiness of His moral creatures. [00:21:07] God is holy. And we can be assured that God never tempts us to sin. In fact, James says, Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. We would attest to the fact that God never asks us to do anything that's evil. But maybe there are sometimes situations that God places us that we kind of tend to feel that we have no choice. [00:21:42] For an example, you take Saul. Shortly after God had anointed, after he was anointed king in chapter 13 of 1 Samuel, we read the account of the fact that the Philistines were coming against the Israelites. And they were coming to battle and Samuel was to come to offer the sacrifice or the burnt offering and to ask God for their favor on the battle. [00:22:16] Samuel was to come there in a certain appointed time. I think it might have been something like seven days he was supposed to be there to make this offering. What happened? Samuel, for some reason, did not come in the appointed time and Saul took it upon himself to offer the sacrifice. The result was that he disobeyed a clear commandment from the Lord and the result was that Saul lost the kingdom. [00:22:47] How about us? When we come into those difficult situations, do we see the hand of God? Are we willing to submit to the hand of God and let God work out the details? Another aspect about God and His holiness is the fact that God hates sin. And, you know, hate is such a strong word that we don't very often use the word, do we? [00:23:21] We don't often use the word. It's a strong word. But it's clear from the scripture that God does hate sin I guess one of the things that has impressed me about our late brother Abe Swartz He often prayed the prayer God help me to love the things that you love And to hate the things that you hate And I often pray that prayer [00:23:51] That was a blessing and a challenge to me. And I think we ought to too pray that prayer that God would help us to love the things that He loves and to hate the things that He hates. Because of God's holiness, He hates sin. The psalmist said in Psalm 119 verse 104, Through thy precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. When you and I have a close relationship with God and we have a sincere desire to walk in the ways of God, [00:24:27] I believe we can find the ways of God in His Word and we too will hate every false way. We will hate it. Do you hate sin this morning? The holiness of God. I'm blessed with the example of Joseph when he was there in Pharaoh's house And when Pharaoh's wife approached him to come and lie with her, Joseph responded by saying, [00:24:58] How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? That's the same type of attitude you and I must have because God is holy. When we recognize the holiness of God, it will bring that kind of a response. And how can I sin this such a great sin against God? You know, too often we take the idea, well, I can indulge in this or that or the other. [00:25:31] Then I can get up and I can make a confession to the brothers and sisters and be clear again. Well, thank God we can be clear. But let me say it like this. That kind of a looseness of thought is contrary to the holiness of God. It is contrary to the holiness of God. May God help us. That kind of thinking is really dangerous, is it not? Now, in 1 Peter 1 verse 17, I guess we didn't read that scripture initially at the onset, but in verse 17 it says, [00:26:12] If ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judges according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. I think this morning that when we see the holiness of God, it creates within us a reverential fear and respect for God. Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. In conclusion, I would like to say it this way. The holiness of God is an exceeding high standard. [00:26:47] It is a perfect standard. But it is nevertheless the standard to which God calls us and holds us to He cannot do less While it is true that He accepts us solely through the merit of Christ God's standard for our character, our attitudes, our affections, and actions is Be holy, for I am holy The Hebrew writer sums it up by saying in chapter 12 and verse 10 [00:27:19] That we can be partakers of his holiness That's what I desire That's my prayer for all of us Shall we kneel for prayer?