Holiness. It’s such a big word – especially to beings that are not holy. To be holy according to Webster is to be perfect in goodness and righteousness. To be holy is to be set apart. We are not born holy. No one teaches a child to lie or steal. We are born corrupted. David tells us that we born in sin. We are not holy.
When we are saved we are forgiven for the sins which we have committed, yet the nature of sin with which we are born remains. But God calls us to holiness.
In fact, we are called to be holy as He is. If we are going to be holy as He is, we must first know what God’s holiness is.
One of the greatest hymns that we sing says, “Holy, Holy, Holy! Merciful and Mighty! God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity.” We are instructed throughout the Bible to “Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness.” 1 Chronicles 16:29 instructs us to “Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.” There are approximately 135 verses in the Bible which describe God’s holiness.
Holiness is more than just an attribute of God – God is Holy. God’s holiness is the summation of what He is, and He has described Himself as holy. He is the absolute standard of all moral perfection. His actions are marked by the presence of all goodness and by the absence of all evil, and can never be otherwise. God’s holiness shows man’s inadequacy to serve and worship Him without being transformed by grace. He desires that we be holy like Himself.
We believe in the Trinity – God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This morning I want to consider the holiness of God the Father. Later we will look at the holiness of the Son and the Holy Spirit. I want us to see God’s holiness in its wholeness as the beginning in order for us to reverence and respect His holiness.
Everything God is and does is holy. It is impossible to select aspects of His deity that are more holy than others, because He is superbly perfect in every thought and action because His very essence is holiness. We cannot begin to comprehend or grasp all that there is about the nature of God, but this morning I do want to try to point how God manifests His holiness. As 2 Chronicles 16:9 says, “The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.”
William Newton Clarke said, “Holiness is the glorious fullness of God’s moral excellence, held as the principle of His own action and the standard for His creatures.” God’s actions are always consistent with His own perfection. He is the standard of holiness in all of His acts.
Once, as an experiment, the great scientist Isaac Newton stared at the image of the sun reflected in a mirror. The brightness burned into his retina, and he suffered temporary blindness. Even after he hid for three days behind closed doors, still the bright spot would not fade from his vision.
I pray that you and I would have a similar experience this morning as we fix our gaze on the penetrating purity of the holiness of God. May His brightness burn into our lives in such a way that it would never fade from our vision. May we find His holiness irresistible and not boring.
This morning I want to observe five ways in which God manifests His holiness.
I. God manifests His Holiness in His Love.
If God did not love us, His holiness would only strike terror into our hearts. Wherever His holiness is, there is love. It is because of God’s love that awakens in us a desire to know God, and when we know Him to know His holiness.
However, God’s love is discriminating. What do I mean by this? The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 45:7 that God loves righteousness and hates wickedness. His love is holy in that it is directed toward what is holy and away from that which is inherently evil. If we want to appreciate God’s holiness, we must feel something of His infinite antagonism toward sin of any degree or form. In Habakkuk 1:13 we read, “You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness.” God is holy and cannot tolerate sin. “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” (Proverbs 15:3) God sees the evil but He cannot look upon it with any degree of satisfaction.
This is where we find the motive for the entire redemptive plan. God loved with race of fallen mankind with discriminating love. God is not pleased with the wickedness of mankind, but He is also not pleased with the death of the wicked. Psalm 5:4 declares, “For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.” But we also find in Ezekiel 33:11 that God speaks to Ezekiel and says, “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”
Because He is righteous the wicked must die for their sins, yet His righteousness places His love in a position of displeasure unless there is a righteous deliverance for the wicked. This is exactly what He provided through the death of His son because He was motivated by His love.
We need a strong emphasis again on God’s hatred of sin. If God’s love is preached in such a way that it makes allowance for sin than we violate His love and His holiness! We are told in Psalm 97:10, 12, “Ye that love the LORD, hate evil…Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.” If you do not hate evil than you do not love God! When we have a proper view of the holiness of God we will hate any kind of sin!
The modern thought is that ‘God loves us and wants us to do whatever we want…if we want a drink of liquor, we take one…’ Such thinking comes from a distorted view of the love of God. It comes from a kind of preaching that is strong on the positive aspects of God’s love, but silent on the things which God condemns.
Raccoons go through a glandular change at about 24 months. After that they often attack their owner. Since a 30-pound raccoon can be equal to a 100-pound dog in a scrap, a zoo keeper felt compelled to mention the change coming to a pet raccoon owned by a young lady named Julie. She listened politely as he explained the coming danger. He never forgot her response. “It will be different for me . . .” And she also smiled as she added, “Bandit wouldn’t hurt me. He just wouldn’t.” Julie underwent plastic surgery just three months later for facial lacerations sustained when her adult raccoon attacker her for no apparent reason. All too often sin comes dressed in an adorable disguise and so we play with it. How quickly we find ourselves saying, “It will be different for me.” However, the results are predictable. (Gary Richmond, View From the Zoo)
There is nothing the church needs more desperately today than a fresh encounter with the holiness of God to make us aware of the dangers of playing with sin. When Isaiah experienced his encounter with the Holy he was in the temple seeking God.
God manifests His holiness in His love.
II. God manifests His Holiness in His Separateness from Sinners.
Implied in the meaning of holiness is the thought of separateness. When Moses approached the burning bush, God warned him, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5) When God came down to Mount Sinai He warned Moses, “You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, ’Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.” (Exodus 19:12)
In Hebrews 12:29 we are told that “Our God is a consuming fire.” The weight of these Scriptures is to show that in God the Father holiness is separate and high above man. To approach Him without some kind of mediation would be as destructive as connecting an ordinary light bulb directly to the generator at the power station without a step-down transformer. God provided a mediator for us – we’ll talk about this later.
God manifests His holiness by His separation.
III. God manifests His Holiness in His Peace.
Peace is commonly related to God’s holiness throughout the Bible. In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Paul said, “The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Peace is essential to the nature of God in three persons. There is no disharmony in the Trinity. There is no struggle for supremacy. God moves with a majestic deliberateness and stately calmness, unmarred by impetuous, impulsive and nervous actions which we so frequently have.
It is this peace which He wants to bring into the hearts and lives of His children. Holiness is inward harmony which works itself outward in human relationships. There is no lasting peace in the heart where sin is and there will be no peace in this world where sin abounds. Holiness is the only way to a peace that satisfies.
God manifests His holiness in His peace.
IV. God manifests His Holiness in His Will.
God’s will is perfect because it is the expression of His nature. Morality is shown by what someone wants. God is absolutely perfect and has an absolutely perfect will. He wants only what is good. God does permit evil to endure for a season, but only while His love and mercy and kindness is being manifest toward the evildoer. But He does not will what is sinful. He wants all men to repent. He wants all believers to be sanctified. He wants all men to come to knowledge of the truth.
The plan of salvation is because of God’s perfect will. Nothing happened by chance; He planned it all. It was because of His will that we have a Mediator. The Mediator that bridged the gulf between infinite, exalted holiness and fallen, sin-infested man. It was by His will that a way was provided to grant full justice toward sin and yet win the sinner in a loving drama of deliverance. It was by His perfect will!
Because God wills holiness for His children, within the sphere of that holiness He also wills the very elements which His own holiness possesses:
• The beauty of the sanctified life
• Moral excellence
• Self-giving love
• Separation from sin
• A perfect will to do the will of God.
We as humans cannot know the absolute holiness inherent in the infinite God, we can know a holiness that is perfect in quality, though condition to our “earthen vessel’s” When God commanded that we “Love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might,” (Duet. 6:5) He was indicating a love relative to a man’s heart soul and might. These are far beneath the infinite measure of God Himself, but nevertheless within man’s redeemed capacity we have can have the same qualities which are part of the same qualities of God’s own holiness.
God manifests His holiness in His love, His separateness from sinners, His peace, and His will.
Finally notice…
V. God manifests His Holiness in His Judgments.
In the Book of Revelation as God’s judgments are being poured out on an unrepentant world, the Apostle John heard one of the angels proclaim: “You are righteous, O Lord, The One who is and who was and who is to be, Because You have judged these things. 6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. For it is their just due.” Then John heard the angel of the altar respond “Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.” (Revelation 16:5-7)
We find in Revelation 15:4 that those who gained victory over the Antichrist sang in triumph the same exaltation to God, “Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, for Your judgments have been manifested.”
Those who refuse God’s love and His provision for their righteousness will feel His wrath and but cast into hell. It is not innocent and ignorant men who receive God’s holy judgment, but self-willed and unyielding men and women those who reject His truth and chose sinful pleasures instead of His truth and righteousness.
It is from His throne of holiness that God will forever banish unrepentant men and women into the lake of fire forever. The same love which acts in mercy toward those who repent, will act in wrath toward those who are willfully wicked because they have refused His offer of love. God manifests His holiness in His judgment. Because He is holy He will never allow sin to enter His Presence. He will never allow sin into heaven. If we are faithful to the holiness of God we must remember His wrath as well as His mercy – His judgment as well as His loving forgiveness!
Conclusion:
Holiness is more than just an attribute of God; holiness is the sum of all of God’s attributes.
Holiness is more than just the absence of wrong; it is the perfection of excellence and righteousness in all things. God is holy.
God is holy in His love. He exercises “discriminating love.” If you do not hate evil you do not truly love God.
God’s love is self-giving. He gave His only Son for your sins this morning and He wants you to be made holy. Romans 8:32 tells us that “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
This morning I have talked to you about how God’s holiness is manifested in His character. I have been talking about holiness in God the Father and in God the Father holiness is separate and high above man. Over the course of the next couple of Sunday’s we will find that while in the Father “holiness is separated from and high above man,” we will find that in the Son, “holiness is brought neigh,” and through God the Holy Spirit “holiness is wrought within the heart of the believer in response to faith.”
I hope to help you see that:
1. Holiness in God is the perfection of moral excellence. “Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the god? Who is like unto thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonder?” (Exodus 15:11) “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of host: the whole earth is full of His glory.” (Isaiah 6:3)
2. Holiness is the principle of God’s own activity. “The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works.” (Psalms 145:17)
3. Holiness is the standard for us. “I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy.” (Leviticus 11:44) “But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; (living) because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15-16)
My goal is to help you see that because God is holy He demands that we be holy. Not absolutely for absolute holiness belongs only to Him, but relatively. This is possible only through the atonement of Christ.
Sources:
1. “The Holy Way” by Dale Yocum chapter 1. This book was the primary basis for this sermon.
2. “Introduction to Christian Theology” by H. Orton Wiley. Pp. 103-104.
3. Notes from “Theology of Holiness” class. Penn View Bible Institute. Timothy Cooley Sr. Professor.
4. “I Believe – Fundamentals of the Christian Faith” by the Faculty of God’s Bible School.
