Reflecting God's Holiness

Pastor Allan Kircher

Shell Point Baptist Church

March 17, 2013

Reflecting God’s Holiness

Leviticus 16:1-2

Into:

We can be admitted/concert hall/any concert hall, only if we have a ticket.

• Ticket/gives/right/hear/symphony concert.

• Let us suppose we possess such a ticket.

• sit down/listen/glorious music/masters

• only to discover that we are bored out of our minds

• the music seems to mean nothing/boring

We are jarred, upset, since the concert strikes us as pointless, seemingly endless, an utter waste of an evening we could have spent at something fruitful

And all of this just because we are tone-deaf.

The ticket of admission gives us the right to be present; but as long as we are tone-deaf we aren't fit to be present.

• Regardless of our right to be/concert

• It is only our musicality that fits us for the concert.

• Without that musicality which fits us for the concert

• The concert is merely a huge frustration.

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I sometimes fear that we have redefined conversion in terms of human decisions

We have so removed any necessity/experience of God's Spirit

Too many people think they are saved when in fact they only have Christian ideas in their head not spiritual power in their heart.

• It is the life-changing experience/Holy Spirit

• Only through faith/Jesus Christ/Lord/universe.

• Justification means/in Christ believers have a new birth

• Sanctification means that a Christian grows in holiness.

I believe God has commissioned me to remind Christians of God's insistence on holiness.

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• Very dramatic way/Lord showed Isaiah how He helps us achieve this holiness.

Isaiah was given/vision/throne room of God, with/seraphim over the throne:

Isa. 6:3 “and they were calling to one another, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory."

• Isaiah immediately grasped/meaning/what/angel said.

• He understood/true degree/extent of the holiness of God.

• He saw the glory of God in the whole earth

• then a type of fear gripped his heart and soul

• he also understood how we have corrupted God's glory

• and so he cried out:

Isa. 6:5 "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."

In his unholiness/Isaiah saw himself/dead man/midst/God's holiness.

• Isaiah confessed his own sins/sins of the people.

• in all His grace and mercy

• God showed Isaiah, and us, how to become truly holy:

Isa. 6:6-7 “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, with a burning coal in his hand which he had taken from the altar with tongs. 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."

This is exactly what Jesus did for all who believe in Him and call upon His name in repentance.

• when Isaiah realized he was made holy

• he also realized his responsibility

• he knew/quality/holiness/not something we are/hide away

• It is something/must shine forth from us as strongly as the light of the Lord shines forth from Him:

Isa. 6:8 “Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

• If we are truly touched by the Lord,

• Then we must respond, as did Isaiah.

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There are marks of being baptized in the Holy Spirit.

• One is a heart of praise. Acts 10:46

• the Holy Spirit had fallen

• They heard them extolling (or magnifying) God.

The heart in which the Holy Spirit has been poured out will stop magnifying self and start magnifying God.

Heartfelt praise/worship/mark/real experience of the Holy Spirit.

The other mark I'll mention is obedience.

• Acts 5:29 Peter/apostles say/Sadducees who had arrested them, "We must obey God rather than men."

• Then in verse 32 he says,

• "We are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God gave to those who are obeying him."

• "Gave" is past tense; "obey" is present, ongoing tense.

• When the object of your heart's worship changes

• Your obedience changes.

When Jesus baptizes you/Holy Spirit/infuses you with a new sense of the glory of God, you have a new desire and a new power (1:8) to obey.

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Let's approach the matter from a different angle. "God can do something with sin beyond forgiving it." He can.

• What can God do with sin beyond forgiving it?

• He can unlock its grip upon us

• He can get its "hooks" out of us.

• Get beyond the point of forgiveness to deliverance.

When we look out over the church-scene a great many church-people reassure themselves that "of course" their sin was forgiven, even while they hold fast in that sin.