Naracoorte Presbyterian Church

• Exodus 15:11-18

• Revelation 15:1-8

Introduction

Dear friends in the Lord,

Last week, we began a sermon series on the attributes of God. The sermon topic last week was “The Sovereignty of God” and this week, we will explore “The Holiness of God.”

Before we delve into the topic, let’s address a crucial question: why is it essential to comprehend the attributes of God? Understanding God’s attributes is paramount because it enables us to worship and love Him authentically. If we form a distorted image of God based on our own imaginations, we commit idolatry. Our concept of God can influence our expectations of Him.

For instance, our understanding of God’s love might lead us to believe that He indeed loves everyone and everything. Conversely, our understanding of God’s omnipotence might make Him seem like someone who must bow to our every whim and need. Only when we truly grasp the essence of God’s nature will we begin to comprehend His attributes. 

God never changes

Another aspect of God’s attributes is that He always acts according to everything He is. He is not sometimes loving, sometimes righteous, sometimes holy, or sometimes sovereign. Instead, He does not vary between His attributes. Circumstances do not cause Him to set aside His righteousness to more forgiving and loving.

Holiness as a principal attribute of God

Of all His attributes, one seems to stand out: God’s holiness. The Bible emphasises this, calling God “holy, holy, holy” (Isaiah 6:3). The same is not said of His love, judgement, or any other attribute. From this, we can conclude that God’s love, judgement, and sovereignty and all His other attributes are defining His unchanging and perfect holiness. His justice is holy justice, His wisdom is holy wisdom, His power is a “holy arm” (Psalm 98:1). His faithfulness is holy faithfulness (Psalm 105:42). His name, which signifies all His attributes in conjunction,“is holy” (Psalm 103:1).

If God were not holy, His sovereignty over everything He created could easily be understood as an autocratic despotism. This is what powerful leaders like Hitler, Stalin, and other hateful leaders were. God’s holiness defines His sovereignty. If God were not holy, He would have to love everything and everyone, including godless people and the things He hates. However, His holiness gives expression to His love. If God were not holy, one could understand His judgment as wrathful, hateful, and something that doesn’t fit His love. But His judgment and righteousness are expressions of His holiness.

The holy God

One aspect of God’s attributes, then, stands out: He is holy. How do we know? The Bible tells us so. What does it mean? 

He is holy because in Him the sum of all moral excellency is found. He is absolute purity, spotless without a shadow of sin. “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Holiness is the very excellency of His divine nature, He is “glorious in holiness” (Ex. 15:11). Therefore, we read, “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong… (Habakkuk 1:13, ESV)

He created every good indeed

God’s holiness is his perfection in all He does. His creation was perfect, without sin. However, sin entered the world after Adam disobeyed God, causing death, disease, pain, and other forms of sin to defile his holy works. Despite this, God’s grace still shines through in the goodness of the world. We still have food, water, the ability to do discover, explore engineering and scientific principles, medical science to combat sickness, and education to advance knowledge. His holiness is the complete antithesis of all moral blemish or corruption. God’s holiness is His beauty. According to Psalm 89:35 God swears by His holiness because that is a full expression of who He is.

God holiness is reflected in His worship

God’s holiness cannot tolerate sin. Despite man’s rebellion, God gave a way for sinners to commune with Him, as life outside God is impossible.

After rescuing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and destroying their slave masters, the people sang a song of praise, 

“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 led the Israelites to Mount Sinai. Before revealing anything, He instructed Moses to consecrate the people and have them wash their clothes (Exodus 19:10, ESV). The people could not meet God unprepared. When God met them on the third day, He instructed that they could only worship Him as people consecrated by the blood of a flawless lamb.

God designed everything for His worship as revelation of His holiness.

Every utensil, bowl, altar, and furnishings of the tabernacle and temple proclaimed God’s glorious beauty. God commanded that His people worship Him “in the beauty of His holiness.” Psalm 30:4 teaches, “Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.” (Psalm 30:4, NKJV)

Before entering the temple, one must pass the altar and washing basins. Ceremonial washing and blood, as symbols of God’s forgiveness and cleansing of sinful hearts, were essential. 

The temple transported visitors into another world. It was filled with splendour and beauty. Gold, silver, and precious stones adorned the objects. The priests’ tunics and dresses reflected the beauty of God’s worship. Past these wonders hanged a curtain. Only those who were willing to die would pass that point. It was the holy of holies, where only the High Priest could enter once a year after remitting his sins. The sons of Aaron tried to enter on their own terms, resulting in their deaths on the same day. God’s holiness demands that humans may not fashion His worship.

David sings, “One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I 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 inquire in His temple.” (Psalm 27:4)

God’s people are holy

Right there, at the foot of Mount Sinai, God spoke to His people,

“If you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:5–6, NKJV)

God adorns his rescued people with beauty and holiness. Ezekiel 16 gives us a great glimpse of God’s holy love and salvation. In that chapter we find the story of a throw-way baby girl who laid helplessly by the roadside. This baby is not of Jewish descent. No, she from the land of Canaan. Her father was an Amorite and her mother was a Hittite. (Ezekiel 16:3) The helpless state of this girl is described in graphic terms. 

“On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.” (Ezekiel 16:4–5, NIV)

Ezekiel continues the story, 

“Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!” I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew up and developed and became the most beautiful of jewels. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, you who were naked and bare.” (Ezekiel 16:6–7, NIV)

We begin to understand that this is a parable of God”s holy and sovereign love for His people. How did He treat them?

“Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine. I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you. I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put leather sandals on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments. I adorned you with jewellery: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck, and I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. So you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your food was fine flour, honey and olive oil. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen. And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendour I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign Lord. But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. You lavished your favors on anyone who passed by and your beauty became his.” (Ezekiel 16:8–15, NIV)

It is the story of how God rescued Israel to become holy people. But why did He do that. For no other reason than He unconditional holy love and holy mercy. To what purpose did He reuse them? He had a mission for his people. Ultimately, his mission was to bring blessing to all the nations through this nation whom He chose to be His own. Without God’s redeeming gift of life they were nothing but an abandoned foetus, but by God’s saving grace they were transformed to become a dazzling queen. 

This queen contributed to the beauty and splendour of her king. This resonates something of what God said in Deuteronomy 26 

“He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honour high above all the nations He has made and that you will be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.” (Deuteronomy 26:19, NIV)

Point is, God’s people must be holy to represent Him to the world.

“Where God’s people live in God’s way, God’s name is adorned and beautified, and something of his splendour is witnessed among them. And indeed that is God’s purpose, as the New Testament shows. The very existence of the church is for the sake of the greater praise and glory of God, and especially of his redeeming grace…Do our lives weave the kind of clothing that our Lord would want to be seen in? Do our actions so shine like jewellery that the watching world is led to give glory to our Father, as Jesus exhorted?” (Christopher Wright, The message of Ezekiel, IVP, 2001)

The pinnacle of the beauty and splendour off God’s people was probably during the reign of Solomon. We read, 

Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, He has made you king, to maintain justice and righteousness.” (1 Kings 10:9, NIV) 

We further read, 

“King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift—articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules…The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as plentiful as sycamore-fig trees in the foothills.” (1 Kings 10:23–25, 27)

But the like the orphan girl of Ezekiel 16, Israel squandered her privileges and jewels. God’s bride became a harlot. She prostituted the holy Name of God. Because she turned against God, she lost her position as a witness of God’s grace to attract unbelievers to the gracious and holy God. Only when the world sees any difference in the behaviour of God’s people will they be drawn to acknowledge the God whose people we claim to be. 

Holy punishment and holy redemption

Solomon was entrapped in sin. His riches became his downfall. By the time Israel fell to become slaves of Babylon, there was about nothing left of the holiness of God’s people. They lost their purpose of being a witness to the world. On the contrary. They became a witness of God’s holy judgment on covenant unfaithfulness. 

Let’s move on 500 years. God’s rescue plan reached its climax in Jesus Christ. He kingship was unlike that of Solomon’s. He knew no riches or esteem. He built His kingdom by seeking and saving the lost. 

He paid for their salvation in a far greater way than all consecrated animals on all the altars through history could achieve. He bought them with his own blood. 

God’s holiness necessitated the punishment of sin. His grace, in Christ Jesus, our Lord, provides for this. Every poor sinner who seeks refuge in Him receives God’s freely given glorious grace (Ephesians 1:6). At the cross, God’s holiness is manifestly displayed. The atonement solemnly displays God’s infinite holiness and abhorrence of sin. How hateful must sin be to God for Him to punish it to its fullest extent when it was imputed to His Son. Stephen Charnock writes,

“Never did Divine holiness appear more beautiful and lovely than at the time our Savior’s countenance was most marred in the midst of His dying groans.’

Because of the cross and redeeming world of Christ, God made us once again a holy people. 

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9, NIV)

This chapter, Revelation 15, recalls God’s rescue of the Israelites through the Red Sea and the plagues that fell on Egypt. The victorious over the beast stand with the Saviour beside the calm sea, the enemy defeated. Like the people on the other side of the sea after the enemy drowned, Christ’s people sing the song of Moses. They sang:

“Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” (Revelation 15:4)

The church, now rescued and saved by the blood of the Lamb, are indeed the instrument through which God will draw the nations to the worship of God. They will hear of His holy Name because his people will tell of His righteous acts. 

Amen.