WORSHIP & THE HOLINESS OF GOD
Rev. 4:1-11
Sermon Objective: The holiness of God is a driving force of authentic worship.
INTRO:
It is considered one of the most difficult topics of faith to discuss.
• Not because we wish to avoid it.
• Not because it is of no relevance.
• And not because it is inappropriate.
No, it is one of the most difficult topics of faith to discuss because human language is inadequate and human knowledge is even more insufficient. THE ISSUE AT HAND IS THE HOLINESS OF GOD.
How does one speak and describe that which is transcendent … that which is beyond us?
In his book, “The Knowledge of the Holy” A.W. Tozer writes, “We cannot grasp the true meaning of divine holiness. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible, and unattainable. The nature of man is blind to it. He may fear God’s power and admire His wisdom, but His holiness, he can never even imagine.”
I must agree. And yet I stand, as many before me, with the responsibility of helping us all grasp the essentialness of God’s holiness. It is a frightening, humbling, and yet, an honorable call.
As I read Revelation chapter 4 I cannot help but grasp the character (istics) of God that evoke his creatures to worship Him. We have seen the role that sovereignty plays; as well as the roles of love and fear. But the one that stands out head and shoulders above the others is GOD’S HOLINESS. It affected the creatures worshipping Him … just as it affects “we” creatures as we worship too. It was more than merely acknowledged by the worshippers … it was a driving force in their worship.
Let’s read the chapter again this week.
Rev. 4:1After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this." 2At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. 3And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne. 4Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. 5From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. 6Also before 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. 7The 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. 8Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." 9Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, 10the 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: 11"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."
R.C. Sproul gives us a simple way to grasp God’s holiness, “The first prayer I learned as a child was the simple table grace: ‘God is great, God is good, and we thank Him for this food.’ The two virtues assigned to God in this prayer, greatness and goodness, may be captured by the one biblical word, holy.” [Essential Truths p. 47].
Sproul nails it! In simple, child-like words, Sproul helps us grasp God’s holiness.
GOD IS GREAT!
The first element, greatness, implies a vastness to God’s character. It gets to the core of the dilemma I was describing to you regarding the obligation to speak on God’s holiness today. It suggests that God is wholly other (transcendent). It informs us that God is in a class all by Himself. It speaks of His “separateness” … that He cannot be confused with the gods of this world. It speaks of our inability to grasp Him much less describe Him.
The greatness of God reminds us that there is a profound difference between Him and those He has created. Exodus 15:11 says “Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?”
Have you ever had a sense that you could not draw near to God in the way you wanted? Well some of that may have to do with your acute awareness that God is not like you whatsoever – He is great – He is completely other than you and drawing close can be difficult (if not impossible) since we have no way whatsoever to relate to Him. You may even begin to think that God’s holiness can foster aloofness within him. WELL, HOLINESS IS NOT ALOOFNESS -- THE AMAZING THING IS … THIS “WHOLLY OTHER” HAS REVEALED HIMSELF TO US!
Have you ever noticed that once you grasped the reality of the incarnation (God becoming flesh in Jesus Christ) that the sense of distance can be spanned and you can draw near?
Have you noticed that the filling of the Holy Spirit gives you an intimacy and the capacity to grasp God as “daddy” instead of as an “other-worldly” transcendent entity?
That is an incredible distance to span; but that is exactly what God has done through the work of Jesus Christ.
The only way the “gulf of holiness” could be crossed was via the cross of Christ. And only God could build the bridge and offer us such nearness.
If you still sense a gulf between you and God … if you still sense that there is no intimate fellowship it possibly stems from this. The need can only be satisfied when we come to Christ for salvation and come again for a filling of the Holy Spirit.
Yes, our simple childhood prayer of thanksgiving gives us insight into God’s holiness. Particularly that He is great … vast. There is always a clear demarcation between God and his creation. Even those who are without sin (the angels around the throne) show there is a clear gulf because they (like us) are creatures.
GOD IS GOOD!
But there is another aspect of God’s holiness and the childhood prayer helps us grasp this too; “GOD IS GOOD.”
When we say, “God is good” we make an implicit statement about His character. We declare that God is morally perfect.
To be morally perfect means God is free from blemish of any kind … from any uncleanness. He is separate from evil.
The Psalmist said, “The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works” (Psalm 145:17).
1 John 1:5 says, “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”
No other attribute of God is addressed in Scripture like His holiness. Only God’s holiness receives the special attention that the Hebrew language and culture affords. You see, if a Jew wants to illustrate how significant something is they do it through repetition. If they are speaking about the universe, for example, they wouldn’t just say it was big. They would say it was “big big.” And if they REALLY wanted to insinuate that it was immense and immeasurable they would say it is “big, big, big!”
Holiness is the only word that is repeated with this threefold progression in Scripture. It is called “the trisagion” and we say it as “Holy, Holy, Holy!”
WRAP-UP
So there you have it. The holiness that the creatures around the throne see and which erupts into unrestrained worship is possibly best understood in our childhood prayer of thanksgiving; “God is great, God is good.”
God’s holiness overshadows everything in the Old Testament – and this holiness paves the way for the theme of the New Testament . . . salvation.
And there are some implications or ramifications that are elicited by God Nature of holiness. For example, God’s holiness demands:
1. EXCLUSIVE WORSHIP.
• There is no-thing and no one worthy to compete for God’s worship. Nothing compares to God or qualifies for such an act.
• The Decalogue (The Ten Commandments) makes it clear that God alone is to be worshipped.
3 "You shall have no other gods before me. 4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them (Exodus 20:3-5a)
2. JUDGMENT OR PARDON FOR SIN
God’s holiness also demands that sin be addressed. There is no uncleanness in God; and no darkness can be tolerated or exist in His presence. Therefore, sin has been judged. It was judged on the cross of Christ and its penalty paid through His sacrifice. And that means you have two choices. You can be pardoned for your sin or you can be judged along with your sin.
The choice is yours. One (pardon) qualifies you to be in the presence of God and the other removes you from His presence while banishing you in judgment for all eternity.
And those demands mirror our natural responses once we get even a small a glimpse of our holy God.
1. We want to worship Him.
2. We feel completely unqualified and disqualified to do so because we are sinful. It is natural to recognize our uncleanness in the presence of moral perfection. The testimony of Isaiah illustrates this:
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." (6:1-5)
Yes, it is appropriate that we shrink in the presence of a holy God. As we have discovered, everything about His holiness reveals our unworthiness. We know from both Old and New Testaments that God identifies with that which is holy and if we want to be identified with Him we must meet that criteria.
Peter says “14As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’” (1 Peter 1:13-16). In fact, at least five times in the Bible God tells us: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
However, again, we come back to our sinfulness – our inadequacy to be holy. And we also come back to God’s love and mercy which has made relationship possible. God initiated a strategy of grace that reunites us to Him.
I remind you that Jesus is the only solution. Jesus said, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9a).
And here in Revelation 4 (verse 1) John again refers to the door and mentions it is now open … “After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven.”
The door to God’s presence is open and available to everyone. They need simply to enter via the work and name of Jesus Christ. Because, “salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12).
“BUT THANKS BE TO GOD! HE GIVES US THE VICTORY THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.” (1 CORINTHIANS 15:57)
Yes, once we have received the pardon and restoration that Jesus provides we are equipped and qualified to enter God’s presence. And then our response can be nothing short of the authentic, uninhibited worship as it is described in Revelation 4:1-11.
“Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth.”
(Psalm 96:9)
This sermon is provided by Dr. Kenneth Pell
Potsdam Church of the Nazarene
Potsdam, New York
www.potsdam-naz.org
