God Is Holy
Notes
Transcript
This week we continue this series about knowing God as we look at His holiness. God Is Holy. It is absolutely important that we look at God as a whole, and not only in parts. As our search continues to know God, I have tried to link all the attributes that we have discussed together because God is not just good, He is not only trustworthy, nor is He only love. He is all these things put together and more. We cannot separate God's love trustworthiness from His goodness, nor His holiness (that we will discuss today) from His love. This would lead to a horribly incomplete knowledge of who God is and what He has revealed Himself to be.
Each of us are acquainted with many different people. We understand that there are many facets to people, because we ourselves are multifaceted. There are differing elements to our personalities that make us each unique. But there are some people of whom we only see one or two of those facets, and we judge who they are based on what we see and experience from them.
[Show this example using a bright light and a shape formed from cardboard
]
When we only look at one facet of God, we see Him incompletely. This is why an intimate relationship with Him is important. As we walk with Him, as we read and study about Him, and as we seek His purpose for our lives we will encounter the different attributes of God and how they work together. The more we experience God, the better we will get to know Him, not just know about Him.
Today, as we talk about God's holiness, we must understand that this character trait that makes up who God is cannot be separated from His love or His goodness.
As we progress through this sermon, like we have in the past three weeks, we will look at false narratives about God and the narrative that Jesus showed about His Father.
Let's review really quickly.
Week 1 of this series we studied that God Is Good.
Does anyone remember the false narrative?
God is an angry judge. Jesus' narrative is a narrative that says God is good always, whether we are good or not.
The next week we studied that God is ___________? Trustworthy. The false narrative that we saw was we could not trust God to keep our best interests in mind. However, Jesus' narrative is that God is a Father that always is looking out for us.
Last week we studied that God Is ___________? LOVE.
Does anyone remember the false narrative? God loves us only when we are good.
But Jesus' narrative is different. Who remembers Jesus' narrative? God is a God who welcomes and loves sinners. We saw this as we studied the parable of the prodigal son and as we see the story of Jesus calling Matthew, a publican, and eating with all his publican and sinner friends.
The original plan was to preach this sermon last week, but I really feel it was necessary to get a good grasp on God's love before we delve into His holiness. It is so easy to just see God as one or the other. It is so easy to look at God's love and think, "Well, because God loves me, I can do whatever I want, because a loving God would not ever punish me," or, "I can do whatever I want because God loves me just the way I am."
There are two false narratives that I want to discuss today as we look at this topic: God Is Holy.
False Narratives:
1. The first false narrative goes with what I just referenced, God does not care about my sin. We talked in the first week of this study that 37% percent of conservative Christians believed that God was judgmental and ready to deal out retribution upon sin at a moments notice. But another growing portion of the population is now of the mindset that God does not punish sin nor does he send anyone to hell. But the narrative of a God that does not care about sin undermines the complete Christian story. We'll get into how in just a moment; just remember that this is a false narrative. We will refer to this narrative as, "The Teddy Bear God."
2. The second false narrative that we will discuss is that God is wrathful. One woman put it this way: "I just figure that God is generally angry with me, but puts up with it until I do something really bad, and then I wonder, 'Oh no, what is God going to do to me?'"
The reason, I believe, that we get such extreme narratives is because there are three things we do not fully grasp that MUST be understood in the context of each other.
1. God's love
2. God's wrath
3. and God's holiness
We discussed God's love last week, and as we go into God's wrath and holiness, we will reference back to it quite a bit.
When hear the verses that say God is love, and we are tempted to look at God as a teddy bear, it seems very inviting. But really, this particular view is one that evokes a god that is powerless against sin. It will be strange to hear, but I believe God's wrath to be a beautiful part of His majesty and love.
Jesus spoke mildly and was meek. He often spoke about peace and love. But we must not forget that he also spoke about judgment and wrath. John 3:36 is a prime example of Jesus speaking on God's wrath: He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Jesus used words like wrath, judgment, and condemnation, and we cannot overlook that.
How do we integrate these teachings with those we have looked at so far? How do we make sense of a God who, according to Jesus, is like a father who would throw a party for a wayward son, and yet at the same time feels wrath toward those who reject him? To do so we need to take a closer look at what Jesus means by condemnation and wrath.
Integrating God's wrath with His love is a difficult thing to do, but Jesus does not give us the choice. It is not "God is wrathful and God is love," but, "God is love and feels and expresses His wrath." To have a correct understanding of who God is, we must not separate the two.
Speaking of Jews that had rejected Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God as opposed to some Romans that had accepted Jesus Christ, Paul writes to them in Romans 11:22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness... God is both kind/good and severe.
To understand this better, we must understand the concept of God's wrath better. Too often, when we hear the word wrath, we think of someone flying of the handle in a fit of rage. This image is one of someone who has lost all reason and all control. I witnessed a young man in basic training behave in this way, to his own detriment. Someone had called him ignorant, and in a fit of rage, the trainee punched a brick wall right beside the offender's head. This had no effect on the one that called him ignorant, but it did fracture three knuckles in the one young man's hand. When we speak of wrath, it usually is a description of someone who has crossed from anger into rage, and when we speak of God's wrath, this is probably where most of our minds go in relation to Him.
But God's wrath is not a passionate loss of control in anger. Last week we talked about God's love. His love is not emotional and romantic. It isn't some sappy, silly feeling of butterflies in His stomach. His love is a constant desire for our good.
And God's wrath, just as His love, is an act formed with care and intention, the result of determination and decision.
The wrath of God is not like human wrath, which is a reckless and irrational passion. For example, God is never described by Paul as being angry. Anger is a human emotion. Wrath is different. God’s wrath is a mindful, objective, rational response to sin. It is actually an act of love.
God is not indecisive when it comes to evil. He is fiercely opposed to anything that destroys His people. God's wrath must be understood in relation to His love. Because God desire our good (love), He sets Himself consistently and forcefully against the sin that would damage us (wrath).
This gives us a good base as we try to understand God's holiness.
God is Holy.
Holy means different, distinct, separate, consecrated, pure. This is the essence of God. There is no evil or darkness in Him (1 John 1). Throughout the Bible we can see God's holiness proclaimed.
- Exodus 15:11 Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
- Leviticus 11:44 For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy...
- Isaiah 6:3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
among other passages.
Jus like love is an essential part of God's nature, so is holiness. Wrath on the other hand is not something God is,but something God does. While it is correct to say "God is Holy," it is not correct to say "God is wrathful." Wrath is the just act of our Holy God toward sin. It is hard to reconcile God's wrath and His love and bring them together. But a little over a year ago, I read something written by a Scottish preacher, George McDonald. He wrote: Love loves unto purity. He was referencing Hebrews 12:29 that states Our God is a consuming fire. McDonald continued to say that God loves us so much that He desires us to be pure and works tirelessly in order to make us so. He is for humanity and therefore against sin. "He is always against sin; while they [people] and sin are one, he is also against them - against their desires, their aims, their fears, and their hopes; and thus he is altogether for them."
I must understand that God is against my sin because he is for me, and if I am for sin, then God stands against those desires because they are my destruction. So, as a fire, God wishes to burn that out of me. time and again we see God refer to Himself as a silversmith or a goldsmith that takes those precious metals and puts them in the fire so that the dross, the impurities can come to the surface and be taken away. Our God is not out to consume us with His fire, but to completely consume the sin that is destructive in us in order that we may be pure.
He does not use guilt to or shame to make me behave better. Guilt and shame are products of sin. No, God's methods of change is the highest of all. He loves and He is kind. God's love loves unto purity.
At first glance, we may prefer a teddy bear god. It would be a whole lot easier to rationalize my sin and live without guilt if I had a teddy bear god. But I do not want a god that says “It’s cool. Don’t sweat it. Everybody sins, just do it without the guilt, dude. Guilt stinks. Just have a good time!” This god does not love me. Being soft on sin is not loving, because sin destroys.
I want a God that hates anything that destroys me. I want a God who has taken steps to destroy the sin that hurts me. And because this God destroyed the power of sin and the guilt that it brings by taking it all upon Himself and laying down His life for me, I love Him.
And now we come to possibly the hardest thing to understand about God's holiness and love: The necessity of hell.
Hell, and afterward the lake of fire are places of separation from God. Hell is necessary because God is love. That may seem odd, but stay with me. god does everything that He can to reach out to us. He does so by demonstrating His power in nature; He reaches out by showing grace everyday to those who are good and those who are bad; He gave us His Son Jesus to reach out to people, and He left us a Bible with His words so that we may know Him and His desire to save us from sin and the consequences thereof. However, people are free to reject His love. Because of His holy nature, God cannot dwell forever with sin so He made a way for us to be washed and cleansed from our sin. This is the only way, if there were any other way, He would have provided it.
Because He is holy and just (this is a legal term), there must be payment for sin.
Because only God is perfect, only He can pay for sin. Because the law demands payment in blood, then He had to die. Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, God in the flesh, died on a cross sacrificing His life and His blood so that we would not have to.
But God, being love, will not violate the choices that we make. People may choose to keep God from their lives. It is not a question of God sending people to hell, but of people refusing the only entrance to heaven.
For Christians, those who have already personally put their faith in Jesus for salvation, God's holiness means a great deal as well. First, we must understand that we are loved by a good, trustworthy, and holy God. This God loves you so much that He hates what destroys you. He is opposed to it, and if you are involved in it, you place yourself directly in His opposition.
God would not be good if He allowed evil to go unchecked in the lives of His children. He would not be loving if He allowed you to freely participate in the things that damage you. He would not be trustworthy if He were inconsistent in His feelings for sin. All this would directly oppose His holiness.
This sermon has probably been the hardest one to preach in this serries so far. I feel like I have restated the same things over and over again, just in different ways, but I really think it is needed. I really think that we miss so much about God because we do not see Him as a whole, just individual attributes. This in turn affects the way we live, the way we relate to Him, and it affects our efficiency in telling others about Him.
This study of how God's goodness and trustworthiness and love and holiness has given me headaches as I continue to try to fully understand and integrate them, and I hope that it has made you think more deeply of who God is and how all His attributes work together in a mind-blowing way.
Invitation: (Don't stand yet)
As viewed by people in the Old Testament, God's holiness was something that kept God at a distance. In the temple, there was the Holiest of Holies. In that place was the ark of the covenant, the symbol of God's presence with man. This ark of the covenant was separated from view by an 18" thick curtain made of various symbolic materials and animal skins. Only one person, the high priest, was allowed into the Holy of Holies, and that only once a year. If anyone else dared to enter, they would immediately fall down dead. If the high priest entered before he had made sacrifice for his sins, he would also die. The holiness of God was something to be feared.
But when Jesus came. When He died on that cross, that veil was literally torn in the temple by God's hand. We have access to a holy God, not because we ourselves are holy, but because Jesus will give us access to God, a relationship with Him and it was all paid for at the cross. All you have to do is believe on Him and receive Him as your savior.
If you have never done that, today you can do that.
How many of you would say, "Pastor, I know without a doubt that I am saved. I know that I am trusting Jesus and only Him for my salvation, I can say confidently God is my Father and I am His child."
How many of you would say, "I am not sure that I am saved. I do not know if I were to die today if I would go to heaven or not, but I would like to talk to someone."
STAND
