HOLY IS THE
LORD
Psalm 99
When someone speaks of breath-taking
beauty, what comes to your mind? In
other words, what do you normally think of as breathtakingly beautiful? Is it someone or something? Is it an individual (usually female) whose
appearance is entirely pleasing to your eyes?
Or is it an event, like a sunset with a myriad of colors filling the
skies? Or is it musical, like a
powerful flood of symphonic harmony washing over you?
We love beautiful things, animate and inanimate. Our cultural pursuits, even our spiritual pursuits, often can be defined in terms of the pursuit of beauty, those things we have set apart as special, uniquely pleasing and full of delight.
Since most of what we perceive as beautiful has to do with our senses, we may have a hard time grasping the biblical pursuit of the beauty of the Lord. For example, our spiritual pursuits sometimes lack the sophistication and sensitivities to appreciate the splendor and beauty of the holiness of the Lord.
Psa. 27:4 One thing I have
asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the
LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD, And to meditate
in His temple.
1Chr. 16:29 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.
If we fail to appreciate the beauty of
the Lord, we will be very likely also to fail in our ability to grasp His
awesome holiness. The result will be a
diminished desire to be holy ourselves if we do not even value holiness in the
Lord Himself.
THESIS: The
low emphasis on holiness in the body of Christ in our day is due in large part
to our failure to appreciate and value the splendor of God’s holiness.
Today we begin a
series of messages on holiness in the life of a believer. In order to get started on the right track,
we need to get a better understanding of the biblical teaching on the holiness
of the Lord. What does the Bible mean
when it says “Holy is the Lord?”
I. AN
INESCAPABLE CALL TO HOLINESS
--When Jesus Christ called you to come and follow Him as His
disciple, did you realize that He was calling you to holiness?
1 Peter 1:15-16 15but like the Holy One who
called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
--What does the word ‘holy’ mean?
“Holy”—means
literally, to be set apart. It means to be righteous, pure, sinless…to
be perfect, complete, and fulfilled in every possible sense; to be separated
and entirely different from all other beings and things (Practical Word Studies in the New Testament, Vol. I, p. 1046).
--Sometimes we forget that we were called to more than
salvation from sin, but were called to live holy lives which are worthy of the
Holy One who called us.
--The natural inclination of the human heart is to take the
path of least resistance, or to take the “easy way out” if they can find one.
A.
INTENTIONAL HOLINESS
--By accepting the call of Christ to follow Him, we embrace
His call to be holy—not as if it were available as one of the alternatives for
Christians, but as a fundamental and essential part of our calling.
1. We
Determine to Live in a Holy Manner
--As we perceive the voice of Christ, we will recognize that
it does not call us only to escape the punishment of sin, but also to overcome
the power of sin—to live in victory over it.
Romans 6:12-14 12Therefore
do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, 13and do not go on presenting the
members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present
yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments
of righteousness to God. 14For
sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
--Ours then is a call to live intentionally, not
incidentally, as if holiness really mattered, as if refusing to allow sin to
dominate and reign in us were profoundly significant to us.
2. We Decide
to Commit to a Pure Life
--Our determination to holiness will, of course, make our
decision about purity for us.
--Impure affections and desires, impure actions and
impulses, impure motives and thoughts—these will defile and defraud the lives of those who have been set apart for
holiness by the Holy One Himself.
--Therefore, for our lives to be holy, we must be
intentional about it or it will not happen.
B. INCLUSIVE
HOLINESS
--Holy living does not tolerate exceptions but encompasses
all aspects of our lives as we seek to imitate Jesus Christ in every way and
become like Him in all things.
J. I. Packer says that Christians committed to holiness will measure
their likeness to Christ by the way their lives conform to His:
· Consecrate
themselves totally to the Father…
· Say and do
only what pleases the Father…
· Accept pain,
grief, disloyalty, and betrayal…
· Care for
people and serve their needs without either compromise of principle or ulterior
motives in practice…
· Accept
opposition and isolation, hoping patiently for better things and meantime
staying steady under pressure…
· Rejoice in the
specifics of the Father’s ways and thank him for his wisdom and goodness…
…all as Jesus did!
--But that raises an important question that we must answer
before we continue to consider the calling of God to be holy as He is holy.
--If we are to be holy as He is holy, how then do we
understand Him to be holy?
II. AN
INCOMPARABLE ENCOUNTER WITH THE HOLY ONE
--If He is holy, what does that mean, what does that look
like, and how are we supposed to be like that?
--The thought of God as holy awakens within us an
overwhelming sense of awe—a reverence that profoundly impacts the way we
approach Him as well as the way we approach each day.
Rev. 15:4 “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Thy
name? For Thou alone art holy; For
all the nations will come and worship before Thee, For Thy righteous acts have
been revealed.”
--Who would dare not to fear the Lord and stand in awe of
Him? The only way we would dare is to minimize what it means for Him to be
holy, to underestimate the nature of
holiness in the Lord.
A. HOLY IN
ALL HIS WAYS
Psalm 99:9
Exalt the LORD our God, And worship at His holy hill; For holy is the LORD our
God.
--He IS holy…His being.
1. Each
Attribute Is a Holy Attribute
--God’s attributes, or His perfections, describe different
aspects of His nature, or the way God is.
--His holiness is actually one of His attributes, but
somewhat unique in the way it amplifies and influences and even serves to
explain some of His other attributes.
a. A Holy
Love
--God’s love is always a holy love, distinctive from every
other kind of love.
--It is selfless and unconditional because its motives are
always pure and undefiled.
--It is perfect and unchanging because its foundations are
always unique and distinctive
--Because God is holy, His love can never be less than the
best possible love, never falling short of perfection and completeness.
b. A Holy
Justice
--God’s justice is always a holy justice, never influenced
by capricious emotions or prejudiced by impure biases.
--Holy justice is always right, never confusing what is just
and righteous with what is popular or expedient.
--When God declares His position in making His judgments on
any issue, there is no fear that His ruling has missed the mark, left out any
evidence, or failed to consider all the possibilities.
c. A Holy
Wisdom
--God’s wisdom is always a holy wisdom which combines
infinite knowledge with sovereign power and matches them both with all that is
righteous and good—both for God’s glory and our good.
--Therefore, His wisdom can be sought with every confidence
that when we find it, in applying it we will become more holy, more like Jesus
Christ.
Proverbs 9:10
10The
fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One
is understanding.
--A holy fear, a reverent awe, mark the beginning of our
life of wisdom and fill our days with understanding—because the wisdom we gain
in that posture will always be holy wisdom.
d. A Holy
Power
--God’s power is always a holy power, something which marks
it as distinctive from nearly all aspects of human power.
Historian and champion of liberty, Lord Acton (1834-1902), wrote in a letter to Bishop Mandell
Creighton, 1887. “Power tends to corrupt,
and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”
In the case of the Lord, His
power is incorruptible and pure, perfect in that it has no limits and no
worthless uses.
--God never puts His power to work for anything less than
holy and noble purposes and cannot be manipulated into using His power for
things that are unworthy of being set apart for His glory.
e. A Holy
Goodness
--God’s goodness is always a holy goodness because for Him
what is good is always holy and what is holy is always good.
Rom. 7:12
So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
--Remembering the definition of the word ‘holy,’ God’s
goodness can be viewed as holy goodness is always completely good, perfectly
holy and distinctively different from everything else.
2. Each
Action Is a Holy Action
--What He DOES is holy…His doing.
--What God does flows out of who He is, so that because He
IS holy, what He DOES is holy.
a. A Holy
Creation
--The glory of God is seen in all that He created so that
each work of His hand reveals something more of the holy character and conduct
of the Holy One who created all things.
--In its created purity, the whole earth bore witness to
God’s glory as a constant testimony to a God who could make everything perfect,
complete and fulfilled.
If you have taken the time to ponder a star-filled
sky—gaze upon the expanse of a mountain range—watch the playfulness of young
puppies—walk quietly through a thick forest…you can understand the there is
something even in creation itself that cries out that their Creator, the Maker,
is holy. As much as the human race has
destroyed of the pristine and pure character of a beautiful planet, the
creation still cries out, “My Creator is glorious and holy…there is no one like
Him!”
Rom. 1:20 For since the creation of the world His
invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly
seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without
excuse.
--All that He has made reveals His attributes, and His
creation is truly a holy creation created to bring Him glory and bear witness
to His holiness.
b. A Holy
Redemption
--When the world fell at the hands of sinful human beings,
God immediately began to make known His plan for redemption, purchasing back
their freedom and restoring their original holy condition.
Psa.
111:9 He has sent redemption to His people; He has ordained His covenant forever; Holy and awesome is His name.
--Even after the human race chose to rebel against the Holy
One and chose unholy, ungodly pursuits, the Lord put in place His redemptive
plan—a plan to restore lost holiness in us and make His creation holy once
again.
One of the reasons we focus so little on holiness in
our lives is that we have lost touch with the truth that God is holy and wants
all creatures of our God and King to be holy as He is holy. He redeems us so that we might once again be
holy just as He intended from the beginning.
c. A Holy
Word
--When God chose to speak to His people, how
else could He have spoken when everything about Him is holy?
--His Word is holy as He Himself is holy,
flawless, perfect, having no impurity.
Psa. 105:42
For He remembered His holy word
With Abraham His servant;
Psa. 12:6 And the words of the LORD are flawless, like
silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times.
--Taking action by speaking to us, God determined that His
Word would be a holy word, a concept so well-understood until recent days that
seldom could you find a Bible without the title imprinted on the front—“Holy
Bible.”
--Therefore, when we approach the scriptures, we should do
so with a sense of reverence and awe that God has provided the words He has
spoken, holy words, for our instruction and guidance.
B. HOLY IN
ALL HIS GLORY
--The brilliant brightness of God’s glory, the splendor of
His radiance, all point to the holiness of our God.
--He has no shadow cast upon His glory by the presence of
anything unholy or impure so that all we see in Him is undiminished glory—glory
that is perfected in holiness in the Lord!
1. The
Majesty of His Holiness
Ex. 15:11 “Who among the gods is like you, O LORD? Who
is like you — majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?
--Throughout the Bible, ‘majesty’
refers to the display of God’s glory
and power, that is a vision of what already exists in His being but is put on
display for all who will see to see.
--The glory and power of God are majestically revealed in
the One who is spoken of by Isaiah with these words:
Isaiah 6:3
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty; the whole earth is full of
his glory.
--In every manifestation of His glory, God is always seen as
holy and our vision of that majestic holiness should result in a holy and
awe-filled response.
With all of our interests these days in developing a
more personal and intimate relationship with God, we must never forget that
such intimacy cannot come at the expense of our appreciation of the majesty,
splendor and holiness of the Lord.
2. The
Beauty of His Holiness
--God makes His beauty known through His holiness where our
visions of it bring out our most glorious praise, adoration and worship!
2 Chr. 20:21 And when he had consulted with the people,
he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army,
and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever. (KJV)
Psa. 29:2
Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
--When we allow ourselves to contemplate and meditate on the
beauty of the Lord, we will be struck at once with what a holy experience it
is, free from the possibility of perversity and selfishness that come when we
gaze upon created beauty.
--Beholding the beauty of the Lord in His holiness satisfies
our inner longings in a way that nothing else possibly can.
--We were created to appreciate the beauty of holiness and
have watched with horror as our own hearts have become satisfied with inferior,
unholy, defiled substitutes.
--Holy is the Lord and worthy of our praise, beautiful in
holiness, majestic in holiness, awesome in a breath-taking way to those who
persist in seeking Him until they have seen Him!
Is there another source of beauty and
delight in your life that in all honesty does give you more pleasure than the
Lord?
If that is true,
it probably also true that you have not yet seen the beauty of the Lord in all
its glory. How can you worship the Lord
in the beauty of holiness if you do not value and delight in either His beauty
or His holiness?
Like many other
kinds of beauty, appreciating the beauty of God’s holiness does not come
naturally—but it does come spiritually as God opens our eyes by the presence
and power of His Spirit in our lives.
Would you ask
the Lord today to open your eyes to see the fullness of the beauty of holiness,
to understand the breath-taking beauty of the statement, “Holy is the Lord?”
June 8, 2003
© David Horner 2003
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