week 5: our holy god · all praise to god, the father of our lord jesus christ, who has blessed us...

©2020 Ken Miller Momentum, a ministry of Christ Chapel Bible Church, Fort Worth, Texas 76107

WEEK 5: Our Holy God

Holy, holy, holy Lord God almighty Early in the morning my song shall rise to thee Holy. holy, holy Merciful and mighty God in three persons, blessed Trinity – Reginald Heber (1861) • The unparalleled holiness of God

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. 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. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” – Isaiah 6:1-3 ESV At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald…And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures…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!” – Revelation 4:2-3, 6, 8 ESV - The holiness of God makes us feel a bit uncomfortable - Because holiness is the one attribute we completely lack

o God knows, but so can we o God has wisdom, but so do we o God is unchanging, but in some ways, so are we o God is holy…but we are not


…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… – Romans 3:23 ESV Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. – Ecclesiastes 7:20 ESV o We are inherently unholy

None is righteous, no, not one… – Romans 3:10 ESV

§ Yet God told the people of Israel…

I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. – Leviticus 11:44 ESV

§ And Peter told believers…

But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” – 1 Peter 1:15-16 NLT

• Who Is like God? “The holiness of God is His intrinsic and transcendent purity, the standard of righteousness to which the whole universe must conform.” – Tony Evans, Theology You Can Count On “In respect to God, holiness means not only that He is separate from all that is unclean and evil but also that He is positively pure and thus distinct from all others.” – Charles Ryrie, Systematic Theology “Holiness, then, is the characteristic of God that sets him apart from his creation.” – James Montgomery Boice, Foundations of the Christian Faith

holiness – qodesh (Hebrew) – apartness, separateness “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?” – Exodus 15:11 ESV God is…

…completely sinless …perfectly pure …wholly righteous


…and entirely without equal

To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. – Isaiah 40:25 ESV “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God?” – 1 Samuel 6:20 ESV - God’s holiness tends to intimidate us - But it should inspire and amaze us

When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? – Psalm 8:3-4 NLT Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority… – Psalm 8:5-6 NLT - God’s holiness blew David away - But that a holy God would acknowledge sinful man was more than he could grasp - And Job felt the same way

What is man, that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him? – Job 7:17 ESV

• Holy, but engaged

“Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them.

“You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode. – Exodus 15:11-13 ESV

- Moses is singing the glories of God’s holiness - But notice how he related to God’s holiness

o “You stretched out your right hand” o “You have led” o “You have redeemed” o “You have guided”

- God had intervened on their behalf - He entered into their sorry circumstances


- He showed them undeserved mercy and grace - He was holy, yet engaged - He remained set-apart, but not separate from - He did the same thing in the New Testament

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” – Luke 1:46-49 ESV

• A song celebrating God’s holiness – Isaiah 15:1-10

Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying,

“I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him. The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is his name.

“Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone. Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power, your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy. In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble. At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up; the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’ You blew with your wind; the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters.”

- Who is like you, O Lord? – Vs. 11


For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” – Isaiah 57:15 ESV

- He is high and lifted up, but fully engaged

The Lord looks down from heaven and sees the whole human race. From his throne he observes all who live on the earth. He made their hearts, so he understands everything they do. – Psalm 33:13-15 NLT

• So, what does all this have to do with us? - Remember what Tony Evans said:

“The holiness of God is…the standard of righteousness to which the whole universe must comform.” o God doesn’t conform to any outside standard o Instead, all creation must conform to His o And that standard is what determines evil o Evil is evil only because of God’s holiness o And yet, our holy God has made a way for sinful men to be holy

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. – Ephesians 1:3-4 NLT Once you were alienated from God and were hostile in your minds because of your evil deeds. But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence. – Colossians 1:21-22 BSB He [Jesus] gave up his life for her [the church] to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. – Ephesians 5:25-27 NLT For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. – 2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT


o Our holy God made our holiness possible o He did for us what we could not do for ourselves o God made provision for mankind’s sin problem o And He had modeled it in the Tabernacle

And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. – Hebrews 10:19-22 NLT

DISCUSSION QUESTION: • Why would it be beneficial for us to consider the “majestic holiness” of God? • When you stop to consider just how unattainable God’s holy standard is, how does it impact

your view of what He has done to make you holy in His sight? • Read and think about Romans 12:1. What does this verse say to you about holiness?

week 5: our holy god · all praise to god, the father of our lord jesus christ, who has blessed us...

Documents