Psalm 99. And I'll begin reading in verse 1. The Lord reigneth. Let the people tremble. he sitteth between the cherubims,
let the earth be moved. The Lord is great in Zion, and
he is high above all the people. Let them praise thy great and
terrible name, for it is holy. The King's strength also loveth
judgment. thou dost establish equity. Thou executest judgment and righteousness
in Jacob. Exalt ye the Lord our God, and
worship at his footstool, for he is holy. Moses and Aaron amongst
his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his They
called upon the Lord, and He answered them. He spake unto
them in the cloudy pillar. They kept His testimonies and
the ordinance that He gave them. Thou answerest them, O Lord our
God. Thou wast a God that forgavest
them. thou tookest vengeance of their
inventions. Exalt the Lord our God and worship
at His holy hill, for the Lord our God is holy." The psalmist begins with what
we saw last week. the fact that God is sovereign. He says, the Lord reigneth. But he speaks most of that attribute
of God which truly sets him apart. As a matter of fact, The very
Word has something to do with His being separate and unique. We find it in verse 3. Let them praise thy great and
terrible name, for it is holy. We find it in verse 5. Exalt
ye the Lord our God, and worship at His footstool, for He is holy. And we find it again in verse
9. Exalt the Lord our God, and worship
at His holy hill, for the Lord our God is holy. That's what I want us to look
at tonight, the fact that God is holy. As a matter of fact,
of all that can be said of God in the Bible, this one thing
about Him is emphasized and spoken of and remembered over and over
again more than any other attribute. Hold your place and turn over
to Isaiah 6. In Isaiah 6, where we read as
we did last week, where when Isaiah saw the Lord, he was sitting
upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the
temple. Then in verse 6 it says, Above
it stood the seraphims, each one had six wings. With twain
he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and
with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and
said, Holy, holy, holy. is the Lord of hosts. The whole
earth is full of His glory." That is, when Isaiah was enabled
to see the Lord high and lifted up, there was in the midst these
unique living creatures And again, and again, and again, this was
their cry in His presence, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts. And the whole earth is full of
His glory. And then if you'll turn over
likewise to the book of Revelation, in Revelation chapter 4, what
we find is much the very same scene spoken of in this last
book of the Bible. Revelation chapter 4 and verse
8 in this vision that God gave to the Apostle John. Verse 8,
it says, And the four beasts had each of them six wings about
him, and they were full of eyes within, and they rest not day
and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which
was and is to come. So whether it comes from the
mouths of men and women or not, this truth is resounded to God
by those in His presence, day and night, without rest, this
fact that He is holy. And not only the psalmist or
these that we have read of in Isaiah and Revelation, but all
the Bible speaks more to this than any other attribute, even
the love of God. If you ask men and women in our
day about the one thing about God that characterizes Him above
all other, they will most likely say the fact that He is love. But many, many more times than
that, And even though that is said two times in the same book
in the New Testament, many, many more times in this book, it says
that God is holy. As a matter of fact, it seems
to me after reading so many verses on this thought, it seems to
me that this is what God is Himself. He is holy. And this attribute
of God, which seems to be more than just an attribute, it's
like the hub, if you will, in a wagon wheel. It is central
to everything else about God. and all his attributes go out
from this central thing so that all of them are in some way dictated
by the fact that he is holy. You see, it is his essence and
it is his nature And it has to do with his perfection and with
his purity, not only in what he is, but in everything that
he does. In the book of Habakkuk, we read
this about God. It is that he is of pure eyes,
than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity." That means
that in his purity, in his holiness, he cannot look on the least sin. He cannot look on the least imperfection
with any kind of favor. He's too holy. We read this in
the book of Exodus. Who is like unto thee, O Lord
among the gods? Who is like unto thee, glorious
in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? In other words, this is what
separates him as God, the fact that he is holy. The psalmist
again in Psalm 145 says it like this, the Lord is righteous in
all His ways and holy in all His works. I was reading today where an
old preacher made this statement in light of this. He said, his
very being is the sole source and standard of right. Whatever he wills is ethically
right. There is no standard for God. He Himself is the standard of
holiness. God is under no law of holiness. He Himself is the law of holiness. Whatever God is, whatever God
does, It's holy. It's perfect. He's pure in every
sense. And holiness, if you stop and
think about it, it allows no degrees. You say, what do you mean? I
mean this. The least imperfection or the
least impurity or the least flaw or the least failure on the part
of God would render him imperfect and he would cease to be holy
and therefore cease to be God. He is holy. And it is as the
triune God that He reveals Himself as such in the Scripture in the
three Persons of the Godhead, that one God in this Trinity
of His sacred Person, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As the Father, He is holy. When our Lord prayed in John
17 and verse 11, He said this to the Father, And now I am no
more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come
to Thee, Holy Father, through Thine own name keep those
whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are." He
is Holy Father. The same is said concerning the
Son. In Isaiah it says, cry out and
shout, thou inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of
Israel, in the midst of thee." As a matter of fact, in the book
of Isaiah alone, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
prophesied of and spoken of many times in Isaiah, over thirty
times, He's called the Holy One. And that's why we read in Mark
1 that when He confronted Those demons, when he confronted them
in Mark 1, they cried out and said, let us alone. What have we to do with thee,
thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the
Holy One of God. And then, of course, by his very
name we read of the Spirit of God as such. Paul saying to believers
at Ephesus in Ephesians 4, he says, And grieve not the Holy
Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption. Now, if we did not learn anything
else by reading and studying the Bible, it would have to be
this, if God gives us eyes to see it, this fact that God is
holy. When you come to what we call
the first mention of a word in the Bible, we can oftentimes
learn a lot. The first time the word holy
is used in the Bible is when Moses comes into the presence
of God who speaks to him from the burning bush. You remember
he came upon this bush that burned and was not consumed? And out
of that burning bush God spoke to him. What did He say? He said, Draw not nigh hither. That literally means don't come
any closer Moses. But rather put off your shoes
from off your feet for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." Now, all through
history, especially more recent history, there is a piece of
land there in the Middle East, the land and nation called Israel,
and it is referred to as the Holy Land. It's not the Holy Land any more
than any other land is the Holy Land. And the fact that on this
occasion, when God says this to Moses, what is it that makes
that holy ground? It's so easy. God's presence. The fact that God was there as
one speaking to Moses out of that burning bush, the fact that
the holy God was there is what made it holy ground. But everything about Him is holy. The law that he gives, every
commandment that he gives, as Paul says in Romans 7, the law
is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. Why is it holy? Because God commanded
it. Because it's God's law. And so when you come to the Scriptures,
you go throughout all of the Bible, and everything that is
associated with God is holy because of that. It speaks of the holy place. It tells of the holy of holies. What made that little area in
the midst of that tent called the tabernacle, where there was
not anybody allowed except the high priest once a year, what
made that place so special and unique? Why was it called the
holiest of the holy? Because God dwelt there. His
presence in the form of like a cloud, or what was called the
Shekinah glory, because there was a mercy seat there over the
Ark of the Covenant, and those golden cherubs on each end of
that mercy seat, and God said, I will dwell between the midst
of the cherubim. That's why it was holy. That's
why a priest alone could go in and that once a year, and that
only with a sacrifice of blood. He speaks of His holy temple. It talks about His holy things. He speaks of His holy hill and
His holy scriptures. Everything. that is associated
with God is holy because He is holy. And you know, the amazing
thing is, if you stop and think about it, if God were not holy,
He would simply be a sovereign tyrant. But He can't be. Why? Because He's holy. If he were
not holy, his wisdom would just be cunningness. If he were not holy, what he
calls justice might really be unjust. But he's holy. And I'll tell you this, God's
holiness assures his faithfulness to all his promises, both to
his own people and to his enemies. He says in Psalm 89, Once have I sworn by my holiness
that I will not lie unto David. Why can we trust His promises. Why can we believe God? Why should we believe God? Why should we rely on what He
has promised? Why should we believe that He's
done what He says He's done? Because He's holy. Because He's holy, He cannot
lie. Because he's holy, he will not
lie. So that it says, faithful is
he that hath promised. He's holy. But there's something
more in the light of this fact that God is holy. There's something
very, very sobering. And that is, as God is absolutely
holy, we're nothing but absolutely
sin. In other words, as much as God
is in this way perfection, we are in our way imperfection. As much as He is purity, We're
impurity. As much as He is holy, we're
unholy. So sin actually is any deviation
with or to God. You can look at it like this.
And it's true. Everything that is not God is
what? Sin. If He's the only one that's holy,
and holy is everything that He does, unholy is everything we
do. And everywhere in this book,
again and again, so that we might know exactly who it is that we're
dealing with, who exactly it is, this God with whom we have
to do, exactly that we might know what we are in light of
that, we're brought to this truth. God is holy. He can't look upon
the least sin with favor. He can't excuse the least sin
because it is always a sin against Him. It is a violation of and
contrary to His holiness. Do you remember what David said
in confessing his sin? Though he had wronged Uriah,
though he had wronged Bathsheba, though he had wronged the people
of Israel, he says to God, against Thee and Thee only have I sinned
and done this great evil in Thy sight. And that's the dilemma. You see,
He cannot look upon us in our sin with favor, and all that
He does toward us, He must in all His works toward us be holy. And if He were to receive you
or me, if He were to bless you or me in our unholiness, He would cease to be holy. In other words, it amounts to
this. If God, the holy God who dwells in what He calls His holy
heaven, the only thing that would be necessary to change it from
a holy heaven to a hell is for one of us. to go there like we are. That's right. It would no longer
be holy. And Him receiving us in His presence,
He would no longer be holy. You see, every aspect of salvation,
because of this very thing, Because of who God is as the Holy One,
every aspect of salvation must be consistent with who He is. And He's holy. You see, men offer a lot of salvation. And they show a lot of ways,
and they offer a lot of remedies, and they prescribe a lot of different
paths, and they give a lot of different rules. But every one
of them that man comes up with does not recognize, they do not
recognize, they do not honor God in His holiness. And you can mark this down as
the truth. That which does not honor and
respect God as the Holy One will not save you and me from our
sins. If it doesn't take into account
this reality, this awesome thing that God is holy in every way, won't save us. But, that's the good news of
the Gospel. That's the good news of the Gospel. And that is His salvation. Salvation by grace. Salvation in Christ, salvation
all of God, glorifies Him in all His holy character and attributes
and saves us from our sin. Now, man hasn't done you a favor.
I would not have done you a favor if I kind of did a remake on
God. and make Him less than He is. Nor would I be doing you a favor
if I did a remake on you and make you more than you are. If I make God less than everything,
I've done wrong. If I make you more than nothing,
I've done wrong. But He is holy. How can a holy God? You see, when you've got your
own ideas about God as only love or only mercy or only grace,
and you forget that He is first holy, you run into a problem. And that's why there's only one
gospel, and that's God's gospel. Because in God's gospel, in God's
salvation, He first honors and glorifies Himself and deals with
this problem. How can a holy God love us? How could a holy God choose us
and bless us and receive us to Himself with favor? How could that happen? I know one thing. You and I can't
do anything to make it happen. You and I who are nothing but
sin, we can't do anything to satisfy a holy God. So God, in His grace and in His
wisdom, He removes the sin that separates us and makes us holy. the thing necessary, twofold. He must deal with our unholiness,
our sin, and He must make us holy. He has to remove the sin that
separates us, that offends Him, that His holy law requires to
be condemned, that His holy justice requires to be punished. And He has to make us holy. And like I said, that's the good
news of the gospel. That's exactly what He's done
in the Lord Jesus Christ. I was reading today and I was
reminded of it again. There was a special garment that
God gave the design of to Moses that was to be made and was to
be worn by the high priest once a year when he went into the
presence of God. And part of that outfit with something like a golden
crown. Here's this priest. He has to
dress in this spotless white garment. Picture the great high
priest of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, in His sinless perfection,
in His perfect righteousness as a man. He had to wear a golden
breastplate, and on that breastplate there were twelve stones, and
on the shoulders there were golden plates that had engraved in them
the names of all the tribes of Israel, representing the fact
that He was going in before God to represent His people, spiritual
Israel? But on that crown, that mitre
made of gold that He wore, you know what was on that? It said,
Holiness unto the Lord. Where is our holiness? There He is, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our way that our sins are
put away by the shedding of His own blood. There He is going
in the presence of God on our behalf. There He is, our holiness. unto the Lord. This is why it says that we are
to worship Him in the beauties of holiness. I love that expression. And I
don't even begin to think that I'm able to tell you all that
it means. But it seems to me that beauty
is not just one thing about a person. If a lady has nice hair, but
maybe her facial features are not all that much, or if she
has a perfect nose, but maybe her ears are a little big, that's
not what we call beauty, is it? Beauty, as I understand it and
see it, beauty has to do with the sum of all the parts and
the harmony of them together. That's what beauty is. And that's what the beauties
of holiness is about. It is worshipping God. in that
one way wherein all of His attributes, all that He does, especially
that which He does to save us, they're all in harmony. And especially
in harmony with that which is central to Him, the fact that
He's holy. When God saves His people, He
not only remains holy, His holiness is magnified and glorified. We worship Him in the beauties
of holiness and in the only way that all He is can be in harmony
with all He does. That's the beautiful thing about
His grace in Christ. All that he does in Christ is
in a perfect harmony and honors all that he is. You know, if you're ever brought
to see the glory of God, I thought about it for the last
few days, knowing that I was coming to this tonight. I thought
about, you know, boy, you've really got some business trying
to tell somebody about the holiness of God. Here I am, a sinful creature,
and I'm going to talk about the fact that God is holy. What I'm saying to you is simply
what He says about Himself. What He says is His glory. What He says is His beauty. And He is worshipped, and the
Scripture says that He is worshipped everywhere that this takes place. Not everywhere people gather,
not everywhere they seen, not everywhere they have religious
services or not, but where he is worshipped in the beauties
of holiness. Honored in all his holy character. Honored in all his attributes
in a harmony with that. Honored in all that he does,
all that he gives in the Lord Jesus Christ that's in a harmony
with that. Where? Where is God worshiped
like that? Look down at that ninth verse
again. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His holy hill. Now, that holy hill is a reference
to Jerusalem. which is exactly the same thing
in Scripture as that Zion of old, both of which are simply
pictures and types of the Lord's true church. Not a building, not a literal
city, not a literal mountain. But that one he describes as
the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven as a bride
adorned for her husband? The church. It's in Zion, it's
in his holy hill where he has set his king that he's worshipped
like this. in his church where his gospel
is preached and believed, in the hearts of those in whom he
has exalted Christ the Holy One, because in Christ crucified we
see the holy justice of God and the holy wrath of God and the
holy righteousness of God, as well as the holy love of God,
and the holy grace of God, and the holy mercy of God. Without any of them contradicted
the other, but all of them saying that God
is all these things at the same time, that He is holy. All of them. Give unto the Lord
the glory due in His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. God's believing people worship
Him. Because they worship Him in Christ. They worship Him around this
gospel that magnifies Him in His character. And shows Him
just in all that He does. Righteous in all that He does. Because Christ gave Himself for the church. That's what Paul
says in Ephesians 5. He gave himself for the church,
that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and
without blemish. Now, he says that speaking of
the marriage relationship. And he goes on to say that this is a picture of Christ
in the church, and when a husband leaves his mother and father
and marries his wife, they are then one flesh. And that's how we're holy, in
Christ, by virtue of a union with Christ. So that John says, as he is,
so are we in this world. Is he holy in the sight of God? Absolutely. Well, all those in
him are. I'll read you one more thing, and that is this fact, this remembrance
of who God is, being holy, and how in light of that he has yet
in his wisdom found a way to deliver our souls and remain
so. Peter says, Wherefore, gird up
the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace
that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Christ,
as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former
lusts in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is
holy." So be ye holy in all manner of
conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy." When it speaks in the New Testament
of holiness concerning God, that's what He
is in His essence. To us, with regard to holiness,
that word in many translations is translated either separation
or sanctification. So what he's saying is this,
in light of the One who loved us and saved us, the fact that
He's holy. We are to live in a way that
glorifies Him for what He is and how He is. We are to be separated
from what we were to Him, because He's holy. I feel just like tonight that
I knew I would. It's like I've taken and thrown a ball as hard as I could
toward outer space, and it never got out of my sight. I've tried to talk about the
one who's holy. And the only way we can see true
holiness, know anything about it, is in the face of Jesus Christ. That's the beauty of God. My wife, I would not take a picture
of one foot or one ear or one hand or something like that.
Take a picture of the face. Why, that's the central part
of one's beauty. And the beauty of God in His
holiness and the beauty of God in His grace and mercy, all that
is, shines in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever he is, whatever he does,
he first is and always remains holy. Our Father, this night we give
you thanks for who you are, though we are far from being able to
understand all that it means. Surely you're perfect and without
flaw. You are essentially that which
can describe you alone, your essence, your nature, your very
being. Your name is holy. And what a marvelous, gracious,
Unbelievably wise thing it is that you've saved a people, saved them from all their sin
and made them holy without ever ceasing to be yourself, but rather the magnifying of that very thing. We thank
you. And give us grace, we pray, to
worship you in that way, in the beauties of holiness, in the
midst of your people, where the crucified Christ is held up as all that you are and as all
that you've done for such unholy creatures as we are. Be with
us, we pray, in grace and mercy and watch care, Lord, as we go
out into the rest of this week. What a blessing it is if you
caused us to see your holiness and in Christ enabled us to rejoice
in the fact. We thank you and we pray. Pray
for all our brethren, for all these, Lord, in this assembly. Help us, we pray. In Christ's
name, Amen.