Isaiah 6:1-5, Rev 4:8
The Knowledge of the Holy
From the Old Testament, through the New, one thing is certain. The Bible
declares that God is HOLY. For anyone who knows anything about the Bible, that
is taken for granted. Most would say they both know and understand that God is
holy.
But do they? When I use the word HOLY, what does that mean to you?
How would you define it?
When you apply your concept of holiness to God, what kind of God does He become?
I have said for many years that I feel our Christian culture has lost its
concept, its vision, of God, especially of God’s holiness. I stand by that.
Churches today do not preach against sin and those who do seldom name sins.
Christians today do not consider their behavior to be sinful. The altars
are bereaved of the broken-hearted who are convicted of their vileness and have
fallen there to confess their wickedness to a holy God.
However, I now take myself to task.
I wonder if I understand holiness.
Do I see myself as sinful? as vile before God?
I wonder how mistaken I am in my concept of God holiness.
Let me share some thoughts with you.
I. The Bible tells us that we cannot comprehend God.
Job 11:7 Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the
Almighty unto perfection?
8 It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst
thou know?
9 The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
A. The Bible is not trying to discourage us in our walk with the Lord.
1. It is just pointing out what ought to be obvious.
2. God is infinite. We are finite. How can we who are limited
expect to comprehend a God who is limitless?
3. The answer is, "We can not."
4. We can and should try to comprehend Him. We should make it our
life and eternal purpose to understand as much about God as is
possible, but we shall never completely understand Him. It just
is not possible.
Proverbs 30:3 I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy.
Matthew 11:27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth
the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and
he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
B. Is it important that I understand God and His holiness?
1. Absolutely! Our concept of God is the one thing that determines
how we will interact with Him.
2. Whatever we think about God will color how we worship and how
we will serve.
a. It will shade what we will expect from Him.
b. It will determine what we feel He expects of us.
3. Literally, everything about our relationship with God hinges on
our concept of Him.
4. And one of the most consistent, uncompromising, unchallenged
statements about God is that He is holy.
5. We must seek to understand holiness.
II. The definition of the word HOLY is difficult to understand.
A. If you will think on this, you will readily agree.
1. How would you describe holiness?
2. You might come up with some words, some very basic definitions;
but when you apply them to the nature of God and what that
entails, you will realize that it comes up short.
B. I read after several Hebrew scholars this week. Their works lead me
to conclude that any definition of holiness would have to include at
least three distinctly different definitions rolled into one.
1. A definition of holiness would have to include the idea of PURITY,
PERFECT CLEANNESS, UNSOILED.
a. This is the concept the Bible is giving when it compares God
to light.
1John 1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare
unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the
world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life.
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh
down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of
turning.
b. God is completely pure, no spot of darkness or stain. He is
holy.
2. Any definition of holiness would have to also include the idea of
UNIQUENESS.
a. There are several words in the Bible for holy or holiness.
b. A.W. Tozer said that one Hebrew word is normally used to
speak of the holiness of God while another is normally used
to refer to things or people that are called holy.
c. The reason for this is because things and people are not
naturally holy.
d. They gain their holiness by associating with God who is holy.
e. He argues that God’s holiness is unique and different from
all other things and people.
f. The Scripture agrees.
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?
1 Samuel 2:2 There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside thee:
neither is there any rock like our God.
Psalms 71:19 Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, who hast done great
things: O God, who is like unto thee!
3. Any definition of holiness would also have to include the idea of
DEDICATED, DEVOTED, and SEPARATE.
a. The holiness of which we speak is so unique and different
that it cannot come into contact with the unholy.
b. Of the three concepts in this definition, this is probably
the most difficult for Man to comprehend, yet the Bible
makes is clear.
c. No corrupt man can see the Holy God and live.
Exodus 33:18 And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.
19 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will
proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will
be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.
20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: FOR THERE SHALL NO MAN SEE ME, AND
LIVE.
21 And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon
a rock:
22 And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee
in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:
23 And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my
face shall not be seen.
d. Until Jesus Christ came in the flesh to the earth, no man
ever saw anything more of God than just an earthly facsimile.
e. Moses saw a burning bush,
Abraham and Joshua saw angels,
Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel saw visions of God.
f. In fact, God commanded Moses to put up special barriers to
keep the unholy people of Israel from running onto the top
of Mount Sinai and being destroyed.
Exodus 19:21 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest
they break through unto the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish.
g. Even the most holiest of God’s servants could not come into
the presence of God, let alone see God, without it having
a devastating effect upon them!
(1) Daniel fainted and was left sick.
Daniel 8:27 And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose
up, and did the king’s business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none
understood it.
(2) Ezekiel fell down and had no strength to get up.
Ezekiel 1:28…And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of
one that spake.
2:1 And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto
thee.
2 And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my
feet, that I heard him that spake unto me.
(3) John the Apostle fell down petrified at Lord’s presence.
Revelation 1:17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his
right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:
h. This was in part due to the fact that, in the presence of
God’s holiness, these godly men felt their own wickedness.
Daniel 10:8 Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there
remained no strength in me: for MY COMELINESS WAS TURNED IN ME INTO CORRPUTION,
and I retained no strength.
Habakkuk 3:16 When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice:
ROTTENNESS ENTERED INTO MY BONES, and I trembled in myself…
C. In understanding this definition, we should understand something of
the effect God’s holiness ought to have upon us.
1. If God’s choicest servants fainted, were frightened to the place
of being immobile, were made sick by their wickedness before a
holy God, where ought vile, reprobate sinners like us be?
2. Someone says, "We better understand grace and forgiveness than
they."
3. I say, "I believe that we better understand ignorance and
arrogance than they!"
4. When the angels proclaimed, "Holy, Holy, Holy," the very
foundations of the temple were moved by the presence of a holy
God. How much more will we be moved when we come into the
presence of this holy God?
III. This holy God is the God sinners will meet at the Great White Throne
Judgment.
Rev 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose
face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were
opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead
were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to
their works.
13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to
their works.
14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the
lake of fire.
A. Some unsaved people think they will fair pretty good at the
Great White Throne because they think they have been pretty good
people.
1. Might I just say that if I am starting to understand the
holiness of God, He won’t have to judge you.
2. His holiness will just reach out and destroy you.
3. The phrase "Reach out and touch someone" will take on a whole
new meaning.
B. What you are going to need is an Intercessor.
1. Someone to stand in-between up you and a holy God.
2. The only One who can do that is Jesus Christ.
1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the
man Christ Jesus;
3. When Jesus died on the cross, He was placing Himself between
you and God’s holiness.
4. When God looks at a Christian, He does not see our wickedness
but His Son’s righteousness.
5. Would you let Jesus Christ stand there for you?
3. And why wouldn’t a person let Jesus stand there? Because he
thinks he is good enough!
a. We think we go to a good church.
b. We think we can give a bit of money.
c. We think we can tell a few about Jesus.
d. And we think God is pleased with us!
e. O, sinful creatures that we are to think such a puny list of
works could impress a God whose purity is without a single
shadow, who in His unlimited existence has never so much as
thought an wrong thought let alone acted upon one!
f. We do not understand how uniquely holy God is!
4. If this message could find lodging in our hearts, we would see
ourselves and our sorry lives as disgusting, vile, wicked,
and arrogant.
5. We would instinctively fall down in fright before God and wonder
that the fire of His purity has not already destroyed us.
6. Unfortunately, like trying to convince the lost man of God’s
holiness, we too have become so acquainted with God’s mercy
that we take it for granted. We can not be warned of the
holiness of God until we see it for ourselves. At that time,
His justice is forced to flay from us every self-righteous
attitude that riddles are sinful bodies.
D. If we are to pursue the holiness of God, I believe we must put away
our shallow Christianity.
1. In a message by Dr. Tozer, preached in 1960, he lamented the
turn of the church away from Bible preaching on sin to the
present day, feel-good church.
2. I did not get saved until he had been dead for 10 years, and all
I have ever been in are what I believe to be good Bible
preaching churches.
3. I pray before God that I am carrying on that tradition.
4. But I see it more and more.
a. Music that sounds more like it belongs in a bar room than a
church.
b. Preachers who speak a gentle, let-God-solve-your-problems
salvation.
c. My friend, God is a good One to give aid to your problems but
that is the kind of message that produces co-laborers,
not salvation!
d. People still need to be confronted with the news that they
are sinners; that sin damns the soul, that a holy God will
not accept them, and that they must repent of their sins
and fall on the mercy of God.
e. You can built a big church with a feel-good gospel if you
want, but I fear that most of those within it are destined
to hell; and if the misguided preacher is saved, he will
stand before the holy God culpable for every soul that never
heard the truth from their lips.
f. In this life, he may look good and get paid well, but I
would rather pastor a small church and tell people the truth
than pastor a large church tell people a lie.
I close with the Bible verse from which this morning’s title came. The prophet
Agur described himself honestly as he penned the next-to-the-last of the chapters
of Proverbs. I hope his description does not apply to me.
Proverbs 30:3 I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy.
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