The Lord Our God is Holy

The Lord Our God is Holy
February 20, 2022
Speaker:
Passage: Psalms 99:1-9
Service Type:

The Lord our God is holy, this is the subject of our lesson tonight.

  • Psalm 99:1-9

Holiness is a defining characteristic of God. It is emphasized perhaps above all other divine attributes, especially in the Old Testament.

  • Isaiah 6:1-4

The seraphim around God's throne cry a single sentence one to another. Over and over, throughout the centuries of eternity, they chant... “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory...

Holiness is the centerpiece of God’s attributes. Of all the things God is, at the center of His being, God is holy.

Never in the Bible is God called, ‘love, love, love,’ or ‘eternal, eternal, eternal,’ or ‘truth, truth, truth,’ though He is those things.  Only on this aspect of His character, God has laid the most stress – “Holy, Holy, Holy.”

Holy, holy, holy!
Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning
our song shall rise to Thee.
Holy, holy, holy!
Merciful and mighty,
God over all and blessed eternally!
— Songwriter: Reginald Heber

God's Holiness is Beautiful

His holiness is beautiful.

The gods of the heathen are often ugly and even monstrosities. The Greek gods, though they looked like humands wer petty and childish. The Canaanite god Molech was worshipped by human sacrifices. Egyptian gods were half man, half beasts.

In contrast to these so called “gods”, the true God of heaven is beautiful.

Have you ever considered how beautiful He is? He is the perfection of beauty,

  • Psalm 50:2
  • Psalm 90:17

He is the perfection of beauty. He is not an image that we can look upon. But, an aspect of His being, is His beauty. What makes God beautiful? His Holiness.

  • 2 Chronicles 20:20-21

Jehoshaphat once "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 forever.

Moses' song of praise to God celebrating Israel's redemption from four hundred years of Egyptian bondage highlighted the beautiful holiness of Jehovah.

  • Exodus 15:11

This is after the crossing of the Red Sea on dry land, and then the waters came rushing down upon their enemise. To ask the question “Who is like unto thee?” is to answer it.

  • Jeremiah 10:6

God's beauty is holiness.

The New Testament makes the tantalizing suggestion that we may inherit this beauty one day.

  •  1 John 3:2

Notice, that He says we shall be like Him in some aspect. When we come to know God, we naturally want to praise Him for who He is. It is as normal to be in awe of God as it is to be in awe of a breathtaking mountain view or a powerful summer storm, only less sensory and more intellectual.

  • Psalms 19:1

The Heavens declare the glory of God, His beauty, He is beautiful.

Those who have learned of Jehovah can't help but extol Him.

  • 1 Chronicles 16:25
  • Psalm 9:11
  • Psalm 67:3
  • Hebrews 13:15

People cannot deny the beauty of His holiness.

Holy, holy, holy!
Though the darkness hide Thee,
Though the eye of sinful man
Thy glory may not see,
Only thou art holy;
there is none beside Thee,
Perfect in power, in love and purity.
— Songwriter: Reginald Heber

God's Holiness is Unique

Not only is His holiness beautiful, but it is also unique.

  • Deuteronomy 33:26
  • Psalm 86:8

There is no one like Jehovah God.

God alone is intrinsically holy. The Bible never speaks of God as becoming sanctified. Holiness is not something that God attained at some point in the past. He wasn't a man who was so good that He became a man at some point. It is not something he can lose. It is what He is. He cannot even be tempted with evil.

  • James 1:13

Think about God. There is nothing that God cannot do that is within His nature to do. It is not in His nature to tempt or be tempted. He alone is morally perfect.

“When the Bible calls God holy, it means primarily that God is transcendentally separate. He is so far above and beyond us that He seems almost totally foreign to us. To be holy is to be “other”, to be different in a special way.” – R.C. Sproul

God's holiness is unique. It is unique to Him. There is none like Him.

Holy, holy, holy!
All the saints adore Thee,
Casting down their golden crowns
around the crystal sea;
Cherubim and seraphim
falling down before Thee,
Who wast, and art, and evermore shalt be.
— Songwriter: Reginald Heber

God's holiness is beautiful and unique.

God's Holiness is Absolute

He is absolutely holy.

  • 1 John 1:5

In this aspect, light is symbolic of His holiness. God is perfect and completely unpolluted by evil. He is separated from the shadow of evil, the smell of evil, the hint of evil, any imaginable infection of evil. He is separate from these things. There can be no contradiction in divine nature; God cannot know what is right and do what is wrong.

God's works can only be righteous; His words can only be true.

  • Titus 1:1-2

Man can have the quality of holiness, but only God is absolutely holy. He is infinitely holy; we are finitely holy at best. He is holy from within, and we only are holy because of our connection to Him.

Our holiness wanes and waxes, grows and fades, and can cease altogether, but God's cannot be diminished or overshadowed.

  • James 1:17

His holiness, the light that emanates from God has no shadow. There is no variance. It doesn't turn or change.

Holy, holy, holy!
Lord God Almighty!
All Thy works shall praise thy name,
in earth and sky and sea.
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty,
God over all and blessed eternally!
— Songwriter: Reginald Heber

We see that God's holiness is beautiful, unique and absolute.

God's Holiness is Intense

Because God is absolutely holy, He can never approve of any evil.

  • Psalm 5:4

God can no more approve of sin than He can commit it. If God approved of evil, He would be a partaker with it.

  • 1 Timothy 5:22

Since God is intensely holy, His hatred of sin is also intense. With a holy God even the slightest infraction brings about hatred of the evil.

  • Amos 5:21-23

He says this because their heart was not pure. They were not worshipping God in holiness. They were living in sin, and promoting sin among the people.

Since God's holiness is universal & perpetual, His hatred of sin is universal without end. God hates all sin in all people all the time.

  • Psalm 5:5
  • Psalm 7:11

Think about David, a man after his own heart. He was like God in many ways. But, David sinned, and God punished Him for His sin.

Moses led God's people out of bondage, yet one act of unbelief barred his entrance into Canaan.

God does not excuse sin in anyone.

God cannot deny Himself.

  • 2 Timothy 2:13

God is going to do what He said He is going to do. The wages of sin is death. Thus God can only be approached by those who are holy, but since all have sinned no one can approach God. Except through a perfect sacrifice can we approach Him, through Christ.

Man must be declared holy (forgiven) before He can approach God in worship.

The Corinthians had been unholy, but they were made holy through the name of the Lord Jesus and the Spirit of our God.

  • 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

But ye are justified. You are just as if you have never sinned. You are justified  in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God Man can be reconciled to God. We can only when he comes to Him through Jesus Christ.

  • 2 Corinthians 5:18

We come to God through Christ then we are drawn to Him.

  • John 6:44

We are drawn to Him when we are called by the gospel.

  • 2 Thessalonians 2:14

The gospel, the Word of God, gives us faith.

  • Romans 10:17

Faith leads one to repentance. Repentance plus baptism brings forgiveness from sin.

  • Act 2:38

Faithfulness to God continually cleanses us from sin.

  • 1 John 1:7

We need to walk in the light, as Christians, sometimes we do sin, and are susceptible to sin. When that happens, we need to confess, and repent.

  • 1 John 1:9
  • 1 Peter 1:15

God is holy, it is beautiful, unique, intense, and absolute. We are going to be in the presence of God eternally one day, we've got to be made holy.

We're made holy by obedience to His will. You become holy by putting on Christ in baptism, believing that Jesus is the Son of God, repenting of sin, and confessing His name before men.

If you'd like to learn more about the holiness of God, please contact us.

Topics: ,