Today will conclude our sermon series on the
attributes of God with what I believe is God’s most important and most defining
attribute: God’s holiness. Some theologians warn against elevating any
of God’s attributes above the others, but I think if one honestly considers
what the Bible says about God, that they will agree that, when rightly
understood, God’s most important and defining attribute is His holiness. To say that God is holy is the closest we can
ever get to describe Him, and I think that if the Bible had to give us one word
to describe God, it would be “holy.”
When speaking of God’s holiness, the Bible doesn’t
give us one word but three: “holy, holy,
holy.” There is no other attribute
that is given this threefold emphasis.
The reason for using the word three times is the same reason we put
certain words in bold or italics: to emphasize their importance. It is like putting an exclamation point
behind this attribute. And the reason
for this emphasis on this particular attribute is because God’s holiness is the
sum total of all of His other attributes.
My prayer today is that each of us would catch a
vision of God’s holiness as the prophet Isaiah did in Isaiah 6:1-13: [6:1] In
the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and
lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. [2] Above him
stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with
two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. [3] And one called to
another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is
full of his glory!”
[4] And
the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the
house was filled with smoke. [5] And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost;
for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
[6] Then
one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had
taken with tongs from the altar. [7] And he touched my mouth and said:
“Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin
atoned for.”
[8] And
I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for
us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” [9] And he said, “Go, and say to
this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do
not perceive.’ [10] Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears
heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their
ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” [11] Then
I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without
inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, [12] and
the LORD removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst
of the land. [13] And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned
again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled.” The
holy seed is its stump.
I.
The Meaning of God’s Holiness
To say that God is holy carries at least two
meanings. First, God’s holiness describes His cleanness (6:2,5-7), or moral purity. God possesses infinite moral purity. This is implied in how quickly Isaiah
recognizes His own uncleanness (6:5).
We often speak of “feeling dirty” after being in a place that is filthy,
but here Isaiah feels dirty because of how morally clean the presence of the
Lord is! As 1 John 1:5 says, “God is
light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”
The second meaning that God’s holiness has is that
God’s holiness describes His otherness,
and by “otherness,” I mean that God is absolutely separate from and above
all creation. He is “wholly and
completely other.” This is the primary
meaning of holiness. Several passages
illustrate this truth. You are to distinguish between the holy and
the common, and between the unclean and the clean, (Leviticus 10:10 ESV). So
“holy” is the opposite of “common.” God
is the most “uncommon” being in the universe! “There is none holy like the LORD: for there
is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.” (1 Samuel 2:2 ESV) Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great
like our God? (Psalm 77:13 ESV) So to say that God is holy is to say that God
is in a class all by Himself in a most profound way.
The apostle John would record witnessing a very
similar description of God as Isaiah witness in Revelation 4:8: [8] And
the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all
around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy,
holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” From these two passages, I would like
to point out at least eight ways in which God is in fact completely separate
and uncommon. To begin with, this
passage shows us that God rules like no
other (1,5). Though the earthly king
Uzziah has died, creating great uncertainty in Judah, the heavenly King YAHWEH lives
on and He will never ceases to reign! He alone is THE KING of Kings and Lord of
Lords (Adonai). The next way that God is separate from all
creation is that God is higher than any
other (1b). Isaiah sees Him “high and lifted up,” because He is the
MOST HIGH GOD. There is no authority or
rule “over” Him. Everything that exists,
exists under His rule.
God is also
more glorious (beautiful) than any other (2). The “train of his robe” fills the temple. Even the mighty seraphim cover their feet and
faces in humility before God. They
confess that God’s glory fills the whole earth.
Consider how vast and beautiful our universe is! We are supposed to look at it and say, “If
the universe is this vast and beautiful, how much more vast and beautiful must
the One who made it be!” The whole earth
is full of God’s glory, but fallen men and women do not have eyes to see it (Romans 1:20). Also, there is coming a day when the earth
will be filled with the glory of God in a much more profound way (Num. 14:21, Hab. 2:14).
But there is more!
God is mightier than any other
(3). He is called “the LORD of hosts.” This
name of God carries the image of a mighty military commander and King. Revelation
4:8 calls Him “ALMIGHTY,” calling attention to God’s omnipotence.
God’s
existence is like no other (Revelation 4:8). He is the God who “was and is and is to come.” He is eternal. Also, God’s
moral purity is like no other (2, 5).
Again, not only does Isaiah (a fallen sinner) feel unworthy to be in
God’s presence, but also so do the sinless seraphim. Even the stars are not pure in God’s sight (Job 25:5).
This passage also shows us that God loves like no other (6-7). Isaiah is a man of unclean lips, and has no
business existing in the presence of a holy God. God doesn’t have to atone for Isaiah’s sin,
but He does so out of the abundance of His love, mercy, and grace.
Finally, God’s
prerogative to do all that He wills is like no other (8-13). God gives Isaiah here a ministry of hardening. Now we do want to make sure that we also say
that this hardening partially took place because the people of Israel were a
wicked and rebellious people. God’s
truth always has a hardening affect upon unrepentant hearts. But we also clearly see here a truth that the
Bible declares, and that is that it is God’s prerogative to grant a wicked and
rebellious people repentance or to allow them to continue in their own
rebellion. He has mercy on those whom He
will have mercy and He hardens whom He will harden and He is never unfair or
unjust in doing any of it (Romans 9:18).
Once one understands the meaning of God’s
holiness, it makes sense that God would also be jealous. How could He not be? The attribute of God’s holiness logically
implies that God should be jealous just as my being my wife’s husband logically
implies that I should experience jealousy if the affection that belonged to me
was being given to another man.
There is no one like our God! Consider the attributes we have studied in
this series. He is independent,
immutable, eternal, omnipresent (God is spirit), omniscient, omnipotent, wise,
sovereign, righteous, just, merciful, gracious, abounding in steadfast love and
faithfulness, wrathful towards sin, good, and triune. I say again, there is none like Him! This is the meaning of God’s holiness.
II.
The Implications of God’s Holiness
a.
God’s Holiness is Dangerous for an Unclean People:
Isaiah calls it a woeful thing to be who he is and
to see what he saw. A “woe” is an
announcement of doom. He is pronouncing
judgment upon himself! He is a man of
unclean lips (a lost man), and he is so because he is a man with an unclean
heart. Remember that it is fittingly a terrifying
thing to see God in both the Old and New Testament. No one can see God and live because no
uncleanness is permitted to exist in God’s presence (Habakkuk 1:13). This is bad
news for Isaiah and every other person who has ever lived outside of Jesus
Christ, because we are all people of unclean lips and hearts. Our only hope is that God would be gracious
and intervene for us, providing an atonement for our sins to take our guilt
away and make us fit for His presence.
This is what He does for Isaiah in 6:6-7. He provides a remedy of grace from a place of
sacrifice and the grace of God overrides the guilt of Isaiah, making him fit
for God’s presence and God’s work.
God has provided such a remedy of grace for each
of us here today in the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. Through the death of Jesus Christ, unclean
men and women can have their sins atoned for and be declared clean in God’s
sight. This happens by a person
repenting of their sins and coming to complete trust and reliance upon whom
Jesus is and what He has done to make atonement for us. But this is not all He does for us!
b.
God’s Holiness is Contagious for a Redeemed People
When God redeems a person (atones for their sin;
makes them fit for His presence), He then works to make them more and more holy
like Himself. In the Bible, from cover
to cover, God calls His people to be holy because He is holy. “For I
am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You
shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” (Leviticus 11:45 ESV) [13] Therefore,
preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on
the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
[14] As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your
former ignorance, [15] but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy
in all your conduct, [16] since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I
am holy.” (1 Peter 1:13-16 ESV)
And being holy means what we saw earlier, to be
morally clean and set apart from the rest of the world. It means to not love the world or the things
that are in the world (1 John 2:15-17). Essentially, for a child of God, being holy
means simply being His. [26] You
shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the
peoples, that you should be mine. (Leviticus
20:26 ESV) God tells His people that
He has separated them from all the peoples in order for them to be holy, i.e.
be His. This is exactly what we see in Isaiah 6:8, where Isaiah says, “Here am I!
Send me.” What’s he
saying? “Here I am, I’m yours!” He goes from being a man who says, “Woe is me!” to being a man who says, “Here am I!” This is what is means to be holy: to be His,
to be set apart, not just from the world, but also for God and His purposes so
that we can show the world who He is and fill it with His glory.
How
do we do this? How are we to be holy as
God is holy? To put it simply, we must
do so by faith. God makes an interesting connection while
explaining to Moses why he could not enter into the Promised Land in Deuteronomy 32:51. He says that breaking faith with God is to
not treat Him as holy. So to not have
faith in God is to not treat Him as holy, or separate, but to have faith in God
is to treat Him as holy. This is such a
practical application: in order to be holy, I must look to God in faith that He
alone can and will make me such and then act upon that faith. Commenting on this passage, R.C. Sproul says
of Isaiah that “God took a man with a
dirty mouth and made him His spokesman,” because “from brokenness to mission” is the pattern of all of God’s
people. God can do the same thing in
your life as well when you look to Him your only,
holy hope. Will you do so today?
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