Let's go to Exodus 15. Exodus 15. You that know the Lord, have
you ever experienced those times where you were singing a hymn
or hearing the gospel preached and your heart just became overwhelmed
And you just wanted to... you couldn't put into words what
you feel and think about the Lord. That seems to be what happened
with Moses as he was singing this song. He comes now to verse
11 and he just cries out here and he says, Who is like unto
thee, O Lord, among the gods? Among all God's creation, all
His creatures, which men worship more than the Creator. Among
all the idols of men that they call God, including that one
that's popular, that's another Jesus. And all the mighty men
who think they're gods. Among all that could be called
God, there's none like the one true God. And here's why, verse
11. He says, Who is like Thee, glorious
in holiness, fearful in praises. He even commands the fear and
the reverence from us who praise Him. Fearful in praising, doing
wonders. Glorious in holiness, fearful
in praises, doing wonders. No other so-called God that men
pretend to worship commands fear in their hearts. Watch them. Watch how men speak of their
Jesus and how they worship Him. They don't reverence Him. Why
should they? He is not glorious in holiness
and He doesn't work wonders. But our God, the one true and
living God, is glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, working wonders. And where we see all of these
things about our God most is in His judgment of sinners and
in the salvation of His people. We live in an apostate nation
and an apostate world for that matter. A world that does not
believe God. And when you start beholding
your enemies without all around you in this world, and you behold
the enemies within your own sinful flesh, believe it, do you feel
like sometimes you see that you have no strength and doubt and
fear at times? I want you to pay attention to
this song. I want you to pay attention to what Moses declares
the rest of the way through this song. And we're going to see
that we don't have any reason to fear or doubt. First of all,
it's because God stands alone in the judgment of His enemies
and in the salvation of His people. His judgment of all His enemies
is the same judgment with which He saves His people and has mercy
on us. In the judgment of our enemies,
we see God's glorious in holiness. He's glorious in holiness and
He does wonders. In scripture, God's called holy
more than anything else. You won't find the angels ever
repeating any other attribute three times like they did when
Isaiah was shown the glory of God and they cried, holy, holy,
holy is the Lord God Almighty. And then we are told the four
beasts in heaven rest night, night, day and night saying holy,
holy, holy Lord God Almighty. God is holy. Now what is that? What is holiness? John described
it. When we saw it the other night
on Thursday night in 1 John, he described it this way, God
is light and in Him is no darkness. And James added to that, with
whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. That's about
the best description of holiness I know to give. God is light
and in Him is no darkness. To try to describe God and not
speak of His holiness would be like trying to describe the sun
and not speak of light. God is holy. He's holy. When God took flesh, when He
came down, this describes His holiness. We read, such a high
priest became us. That means such a high priest
met the need that we had. He was suitable for our need.
He was becoming of our need. Such a high priest became us
who's holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, higher
than the heavens. That's a good description of
God in His glorious holiness. God's nothing like you and me. Absolutely nothing like you and
me. Holiness is God's name. It's
the glory of the Godhead. It's the glory of every other
attribute of God. And it's the governing factor
in all that He does. Holiness. His judgment is holy
justice. His mercy is holy mercy. His
love is holy love. His wisdom is holy wisdom. His
power is holy power. that promise we looked at this
morning. He remembered His holy promise, the scripture said.
Scripture says He's righteous in all His ways and holy in all
His works. And so, because this is our God,
scripture says He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God
is not like us in judgment. When He judges a sinner, He's
not getting any satisfaction from that. He's holy. When we judge our enemies, our
justice is full of sin and passion and anger and revenge. Not God. God's judgment is holy. His judgment
is holy judgment with no darkness whatsoever. And so God, because
He's holy, He must pour out judgment on sinners. He must do so. This is so important to understand. God is holy and we are sinners. So He must pour out judgment
on sinners. And He will. God has and He shall
pour out judgment on every sinner in this world. You and me who
believe included. He must pour out His judgment
on sinners. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness. That means He loves that which
is holy and just and He abhors sin and all things contrary to
righteousness with a perfect holy hatred. Stephen Charnock, an old preacher,
wrote this. He said, Divine holiness is the
root of divine justice. Divine holiness is the root of
divine justice and divine justice is the triumph of divine holiness. Our text says, he stands alone
working wonders. And scripture declares that God's
wonder that he works. He says this, his wonder that
he works is his judgment upon sinners. That's His wonder work. It's His judgment upon sinners.
That's what this whole song of Moses is about. And that's His
wonder work. Listen to this. Isaiah 29, 14,
God said, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people,
even a marvelous work and a wonder. For the wisdom of their wise
men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be
hid. God was declaring He was about
to pour out judgment on Israel. And that's what He did when Christ
came. And the reason that He declares there that this judgment,
this wonder of judgment that He pours out on sinners, especially
that wonder of judgment He poured out on His Son, so that He could
make justice and mercy meet in harmony. This is the wonder,
God says, whereby He destroys the wisdom of the wise and prudent. He does. He's either going to
destroy the wisdom of the wise and prudent, He does it in justice,
condemning us, and leaving us in darkness or He does it in
grace when He makes us to drop all our wisdom and all our prudence
and seek Christ as wisdom. But this is the wonder work,
the judgment of God whereby He destroys the wisdom of the wise
and prudent. A man who is wise and prudent
in his own eyes and religious and thinks he knows everything,
A natural man cannot understand how God could make justice and
mercy meet. Be just and merciful to his people.
He doesn't understand it. You don't hear that message preached
in 99% of churches. You don't hear them preaching
that God's just and the justifier in Christ. And that is the very
heart of the gospel. And men who are prudent and wise
in their eyes and think they know, they're great theologians,
because they can't reason how God could make Christ sin, they
deny it. This is the work of God whereby
He destroys the wisdom of the wise and prudent. When God stretched
out His holy hand of judgment upon Pharaoh and that army, Brethren,
that was just judgment. What he was doing was just judgment. It was holy. His glorious holiness
was shining forth in that wonder work of judgment that he poured
out on them. He sent his word to them repeatedly. He worked wonders among them,
showed them that all their idol gods, they worshiped fogs and
lice and the river and all those things. And before you start
laughing, remember, Isaac and Jacob and those are Abraham's
natural seed. These people we're seeing in
Egypt, that's our natural seed. That's our natural fathers. Worshipping
frogs and lice and whatever. We're Gentiles by nature. But
God showed that none of their so-called gods was anything like
Him. And yet they refused to believe
on Him. They refused to repent from their dead works and trust
Him. And so they're left in their sin. They're in their sin. So it was just for God to lead
them right into the middle of that Red Sea and stretch out
His hand and swallow them up in that Red Sea. It was just
for Him to do that. You know, see people lose their life in
this earth through some, you know, tragedy. And the men will
start saying, ìOh, how could a good and loving God let bad
things happen to good people?î Well, first of all, God doesnít
just let anything happen. He said, ìShall there be evil
in a city and the Lord hath not done it?î Heís in control of everything
in His creation. Everything. And whatever God
does to sinners is just because there is none good, no, not one. And whatever you see happen in
the earth that you think was bad compares nothing to the judgment
sinners are going to come into when they meet God in judgment. Whatever happened on earth is
nothing compared to that. It's just a foreshadowing of
what's to come. Because everybody who does not have Christ as their
righteousness, when they meet God, you have a perfectly holy
God, glorious in holiness, and you have a wicked sinful people
which He abhors with a perfect holy hatred. Oh, God hates the
sin. He doesn't hate the sinner. Lie!
God hates the sinner. He's angry with the wicked every
day. And God will pour out judgment of His wonder work upon those
that meet God without Christ and it will be an eternity in
hell. You think a whole army being
swallowed up in a sea was bad? That's nothing compared to what's
to come. I want you to hear the warning now if you're sitting
here without Christ. You meet God in the day of judgment,
you're going to perish. God cannot, His holy, glorious
holiness will not allow Him to receive you into His presence.
But here's the good news. For all who believe on Christ,
this is the good news brethren, the same right hand of holy judgment
that works wonders destroying His enemies is the right hand
whereby He's able to show mercy to His people. The same hand,
O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust
in thee from those that rise up against them. How does he
save his people while destroying his enemies? Really and truly
it all occurred in one place. It all happened when judgment
took place on Calvary's cross. He saved His people and He judged
them in Christ and really He judged everybody else outside
of Christ. Listen to this. The Lord hath made bare His holy
arm in the eyes of all the nations and all the ends of the earth
shall see the salvation of our God. What's He talking about? He made bare His holy arm on
Calvary's cross and there is His wonder work of judgment.
There is salvation for His people. All wrapped up in that one act
on the cross. God's ransom and His redemption
of His people was not at the expense of His justice. He doesn't
save at the expense of His justice. That work on the cross was the
display of His glorious holiness and the display of His wonder
work. That's what we see on the cross.
God laid all the sins of His people on Christ. He laid all
the sins of His people on Christ. He made Christ sin for us. And
right here we read, God stretched out His right hand and the earth
swallowed the enemies of God up. The earth swallowed them
up. In glorious holiness, working the wonder of judgment, the Lord
God stretched out His right hand and He plunged His sword of justice
into His Son in place of His people. And when Christ was buried
in the earth, the earth swallowed up all the sins of God's elect,
just like the earth swallowed up Moses and his enemies at the
Red Sea. The earth swallowed up. Our old
man of sin was destroyed. Our old man is crucified with
Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth
we should not serve sin. That word should means shall
not. That we shall not. And then three days later when
Christ came out of that grave, He came out of that grave with
no sin, justified in the Spirit, and all His people came out in
Him. And so we read, Christ being
raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion
over him, for in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in
that he liveth, he liveth unto God. And so He says, likewise
reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the glorious holiness
of God. That's where you see the glorious
holiness of God and you see His wonder work of judgment right
there on the cross, brethren. And this is the work, this is
it, how the way that God can be just and the justifier, the
way God can be just and a Savior. This right here is what makes
Him unlike any other God that men have ever imagined. Listen
to this. Tell ye and bring them near,
yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from the
ancient time? Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord? There is no God else beside me. Isn't that what Moses said at
the beginning of our text? Who is like unto thee? Oh, why
is he unlike any other man-made God? Because he's glorious in
holiness and he works this wonder of judgment. Whereby he can be
a just God and a Savior. And God said, there's no God
else beside me because I'm a just God and a Savior. And there's
none beside me. This is what makes him unlike
any other God. any other God. Men want to go
to, they want to talk to somebody, they go to a new church, they
want to ask questions, see what they believe, what have you.
I'll tell you what your best lead-off question would be. For
whom did Christ die and what did He accomplish by it? Get
that settled. If that question is answered
wrong, you're better off not being there. Because God's not
in it. I promise you that's the case.
Christ died for His elect people and we have to insist on that
because Christ accomplished something. And what He accomplished is He
justified everyone He died for so that God is just to have mercy
on us. And He honored God's laws so
God is just to have mercy on us. That's the first question
I'd ask. Who did He die for and what did
He accomplish? The number one enemy of the devil, that gospel
he hates more than anything else, is particular redemption, limited
atonement. Number one. Number one. And these
reformed folks said, you know, we ought to like to talk about
them, the fact that they preach a lie in progressive sanctification.
They don't believe Christ died for a particular people either.
They believe ultimately His blood is sufficient to save anybody
that wants it. That's double talk for universal
redemption. Nobody else wants it but those
He makes want it. No, He died for His elect. That's
all. And this is His glorious holiness.
Brethren, now let me ask you something. What does this work
in His people? What does this work in us when we behold this
by His grace? It makes us fearful in praises.
It makes you fear God with reverence because you see how holy He is
and how just He is. You know, when those angels cried,
Holy, Holy, Holy, you remember what they did? They covered their
face and their feet. Whenever Abraham approached the
Lord in that burning bush, he was walking up there out of idle
curiosity, just treating it like it was common ground, but he
was just curious to see what this was about. And the Lord
said, don't you come nigh me like that. You take your shoes
off. This is a holy ground right here.
Why was it holy ground? Because his presence was there.
That's why. How do we respect one another
when we attend a wedding or a funeral? We come there with utmost respect
in the way we dress, the way we talk, the way we... everything. How much more God's presence? And I'm telling you when we're
in private and we're pouring our heart out to the Lord or
when we come into this place right here where He said we're
two or three together, there am I in the midst of Him. His
presence is here and it's holy ground. There's nothing holy
about this building, there's nothing holy about anything except
the fact He's here and that makes it holy. And so we approach and
we praise Him in reverence and with fear. Now look at this second
thing. Exodus 15, there's none like
God in His irresistible grace. He's glorious in holiness and
He works wonders in His irresistible grace. Verse 13, Thou and Thy
mercy has led forth the people which Thou has redeemed. Thou
has guided them in Thy strength under Thy holy habitation. Believers
are made to see that God is glorious in holiness and that He works
wonders when the Holy Spirit irresistibly leads forth all
those that Christ purchased with His own blood. That's what he
said. Thou and thy mercy has led forth
the people which thou hast redeemed. He comes in power and he gives
you a new heart and this is the wonder work he does. He makes
you see yourself so sinful that you actually take sides with
God in judgment against yourself and against everything you've
done. And that's going to work some fearful reverence in you
when you see He's so glorious and holiness and can work this
wonder of judgment to make you judge your own self as wicked. Where before we walked around
bragging and boasting about how good we were. That's what God
can do. And when He does this, He makes
you see that He's going to lead out, He leads out those that
He has redeemed. Why is it some believe and some
don't believe? He leads out those He has redeemed. He guides His redeemed in His
strength under His church, which is His holy habitation. That's
where He dwells. That's where He habits. Go read
Ephesians 2. That's where He dwells. And because
He leads them to that holy habitation, and then He makes them His holy
habitation through the preaching of the gospel. But you notice here, when they
were in bondage in Egypt, God didn't provide a Passover lamb
for the Egyptians. He didn't provide a Passover
lamb for the Egyptians and redeem them. He provided a Passover
lamb only for the children of Israel and paid the price to
redeem them. And therefore, He didn't lead
the Egyptians forth. He didn't come and lead them
out. He let out those He had redeemed. That's who He let out. And that's a picture of His distinguishing
grace in redeeming all God's elect and then leading all God's
elect out of all our sin and death and bondage by His mercy. He satisfied God's justice on
the cross for all God's elect and only for God's elect. And
therefore, because God is glorious in holiness, because God is this
wonder-working just God, it demands that He must lead out all those
Christ purchased. He must lead us out. He must
do it. He must bring us to God. Why?
Because Christ had suffered for sins, the just for the unjust,
that He might bring us to God. That's why He did it. He suffered
that He might bring us to God. Payment God cannot twice demand. Payment God cannot twice demand. First, at my bleeding surety's
hand, And then again at mine. Can't do it. He will not pour
out justice twice. He's a just God. And all who
have experienced this irresistible grace praise Him with fearful
praises. We praise Him with fearful praises.
We reverence Him because we know something now of the power of
God. We see Christ now, and we see
the justice of God, the wonder of God, and we see the holiness
of God. And now we have some fear in
our heart and reverence. And scripture says, the fear
of God is the beginning of wisdom. That's when we're first made
to have some sense, is when God makes us start fearing Him. That's why when we You pray. And I know that you parents here
that have children who don't believe, I know your heart breaks
for them. And you pray to God for them.
But when you pray to God for them, brethren, you do it with
reverence. You do it with reverence. But
you have this consolation. You know that if Christ redeemed
them, He will call them out. You may look at your son or your
daughter and you may think they're so far away from ever being in
a gospel church under the sound of the gospel. I don't see how
it could ever happen. It's nothing too hard for the Lord. He can
change things and work things and you'd be amazed what He can
do and bring them to His holy habitation and then teach them
the truth. Nothing too hard for the Lord.
But what about our enemies? What about all these enemies
we see around? We're sheep. We're sheep. Sheep don't have
any strength. Sheep don't have any defenses.
We're just sheep. You know what the number one
defense of a sheep is? To be together with other sheep. That
makes them look like one giant sheep. And that's their defense. It's just to be together. And
to be under the care of their shepherd. That's their defense. Well, we're counted as sheep
for the slaughter by the enemy. So what, how, what, how are we
going to, I love, I was telling Melinda last night, what I'm
going to enjoy about this is we're about to go through the
wilderness with Moses and all these children of Israel. And
this is a picture of us who've been called out, Christ has redeemed
us, He's delivered us out of bondage, and we believe Him,
we trust Him, and now He's leading us through this wilderness to
the land He's promised, to that promise of that heavenly Canaan
that He's promised us. They're on their way to Canaan.
And so we're going to get to see a picture of us in everything
we do, and to see how God continually keeps His people and delivers
His people. And this is what we see here.
We're going to refer back to this probably a lot. Because
as they go, we're not going to hear them saying what they're
saying right here right now. They had just witnessed this
wonder of God's grace and what He did in bringing them through
that river. And so they were filled with
joy and they were filled with faith and they cried these things
out. But as they went along and they
saw opposition, They weren't crying these things out anymore.
That teaches you and me, the reason we need to come hear this
gospel continually and get a glimpse of Christ and His wonderful work
continually is because that keeps us strong crying out like they
were crying out right here at the Red Sea. But the longer we
go in the wilderness without seeing a glimpse of Him, the
more we get like they got when they were in that wilderness,
murmuring and complaining and finding fault with everybody
but themselves. We need to hear that. We need to see Christ constantly. Now listen to this. This is what
they cried. They saw God glorious in holiness,
working wonders in preserving us from all our enemies. Look
here, verse 14. They said, the people, they are
talking about our enemies, the people shall hear and be afraid. Sorrow shall take hold on the
inhabitants of Palestine. Then the dukes of Edom shall
be amazed. These strong dukes there, these
rich dukes, they'll be amazed. The mighty men of Moab. Trembling
shall take hold upon them. All the inhabitants of Canaan
shall just melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon
them by the greatness of thy arm. They shall be as still as
a stone till all thy people pass over, O Lord, to the people pass
over which thou hast purchased. Thou shalt bring them in and
plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place,
O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the
sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. You are
going to deliver them to your holy place. God is so glorious in preserving
us, glorious in holiness, so separate from anything else that's
called God for anything like us. He's so glorious in preserving
us that Moses spoke of God delivering them into that holy Canaan, His
promised place. He spoke of it in the past tense,
like it had already happened. He said there, thou hast guided
them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. Thou hast done
it. And they hadn't stepped a foot
in Canaan yet. They're standing on the bank
of the Red Sea. They hadn't stepped a foot in Canaan. He said, you've
already delivered us into your holy habitation. And then he
spoke with assurance of what God would do in the future. By
the greatness of thine arm, they shall be still as a stone, till
all thy people pass over which you have purchased. Thou shalt
bring them in and plant them in the place, O Lord, which thou
hast made for thee to dwell in. You're going to do this, Lord.
He's saying in verse 18, the Lord shall reign forever and
ever. What made him so sure? Why was
he so sure that he spoke of this in the past tense and spoke of
it with assurance in the future tense? And what made him cry
out, the Lord is going to reign forever and ever? He had experienced
God's holiness and God's wonder work. That's why he cried it
out. Verse 19, he said, here's why.
He tells you why he cried it. Because the horse of Pharaoh
went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea,
and the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them,
but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the
sea. We get all our encouragement, all our faith, and all our strength
from beholding what our Lord has already done for us, brethren.
And knowing what the Lord's already delivered us from, what a great
death He's delivered us from, and how He's delivering us right
now, that makes us sure He's going to deliver us in the future.
We who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver, in
whom we trust that He will yet deliver. Believer, you've been
opposed by enemies. I don't have to even ask that
question, I know you are. Because it's either enemies without
or enemies within, but we're being opposed by enemies constantly. And sometimes it's overbearing,
overwhelming. But let me ask you this question.
Has Christ delivered you from the curse of the law? Has Christ
already delivered you from that which is so great a death? Has
He delivered you from your own sin? And the dominion of sin
of your own nature? Has He done that for you today?
Yeah. Then don't worry about your enemies.
You can have assurance knowing He will deliver you. He's already
done the great thing. The great thing was delivering
us from the curse of the law and from our sin nature. The
rest of it, no problem with God whatsoever. None whatsoever. So this makes us have fear and
trembling. You know why? Because when He says here, I'm
going to preserve you and I'm going to strengthen you. That
means He's in us. He's in our midst. He's in each
believer. He abides in each believer and
He's in the midst of His church collectively. That works fearful
praise in us. That's why brethren get along
so well. That's what makes us overlook
one another's sin. That's what makes us want to
endeavor to keep the unity of the bond of peace that the Holy
Spirit has worked in us. It's because Christ said, what
you do to me, what you do to my brethren, you're doing it
to me. Whatever you do to them, you're doing to me. And so we
know he's in our midst, we know he's right here amongst us and
he's amongst one another. And that's why Paul said, brethren,
my beloved, work out your daily dealings with each other with
fear and trembling. Why? Because you fear and tremble
to come up here and cut the grass and clean the church building?
No. Because wherever you come in
contact with your brethren, God's there. He's working His will
and His good pleasure. And that's why we fearfully praise
God in the way we treat one another. Alright, let's look at this last
thing. Who gets the glory for making us behold His glorious
holiness and making us behold this wonder work and making us
fearful in praises? Who gets the glory for that? Well, Christ, the same as He
gets the glory for redeeming us, and for leading us out, and
for preserving us, He gets the glory for making us sing this
song. Look here in verse 20. And Miriam,
Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her
hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and
with dances. And Miriam answered them, and
she told them, she instructed them, sing ye to the Lord, for
he hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath
he thrown in the sea. Miriam right here is a picture
of Christ. I've looked and looked and looked,
tried to figure out, How can you preach the gospel from Miriam? Who is she? That's Moses' sister,
Aaron's sister. How can you preach the gospel
from Miriam? This is one of those things she did right here that
shows us a picture of Christ. Miriam was one with these women. They were her brethren. Christ
is one with His people. He's one with us. We're His brethren.
And Miriam instructed them and taught them what to sing right
there in the midst of that congregation of people. She taught them. And
that's what Christ does for His people. Go with me to Hebrews
2.11. Hebrews 2.11. It says, For both
he that sanctifyeth and they who are sanctified are all of
one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.
Those ladies that Miriam was leading out, they were all her
brethren. She wasn't ashamed to call them brethren. Look here. Saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren. In the midst of the church will
I sing praise unto thee. And again, I will put my trust
in Him. And again, behold, I and the
children which God hath given me. See, God, the Lord Jesus,
is in the midst of His church, in the heart of His people, and
He's the one, He's our prophet, priest, and king. And He sings
unto the Lord and teaches us to sing praise unto the Lord. So not only does He get the glory
for redeeming us, for leading us out, for preserving us, He
is the glory for teaching us this gospel and bringing us to
fearfully praise the Lord God. He gets the glory in everything.
Why does God teach us to trust and praise and worship God in
fearful praise with reference? Why does He teach us to do this?
You remember when Nadab and Abihu disrespected God. They came into
God's presence with strange fire. It was just fire that they had
made up out of oil they had put together which God didn't command
them to make. And they came in there with that
and when they came in there they so disrespected God, He poured
fire out on them right then and destroyed them right there on
the spot while they were attempting to worship God. The Lord said,
here's why He did it, I will be sanctified in them that come
near to Me. and by the way his children fearfully
approach and praise him. He said, I'm going to be sanctified
by the way they come to worship and praise me. That's what they
were coming for. They were coming to worship and
praise God. I'm going to be sanctified in them that come near to worship
and praise me, in my people. And here's why. He said, before
all the people, before all the people, Will I be glorified? This so-called contemporary worship,
where everybody dresses like the world and they act like the
world and they flippantly speak about God, that's designed on
purpose to tell all the people who are watching, the visitors
that see them, the people watching online, that's designed to teach
them all, you can come to God any old way you want to. Well,
you might can to their God, but you can't to ours. You've got
to be robed in the righteousness of Christ. You've got to be made
holy as God is holy. And I'll tell you something else.
Our glorifying God before visitors and online, it begins before
I ever stand here to preach the gospel. It begins when they see
us sanctifying God in our hearts by the fear and the reverence
with which we come into His presence for worship. In the respectable way we dress,
in the way we approach God in prayer, in the words we sing,
in the way we conduct our service, they see God as sanctified in
our hearts before we ever declare our message to Him. And that is so important to God.
He killed Nadab and Abihu because before all the people, they were
showing, you can approach God any way you want to. God said,
nope, you're going to glorify me before all the people. You're
going to sanctify me as being unlike any other God. That's
what he means by fearful in praises. When we see Him glorious in holiness,
working these wonders, that makes you reverence Him. That makes
you fearful in praises. Sanctifying God in your heart. So never regard, brethren, never
regard the assembling together in this place to hear the Gospel
or wherever His Gospel is preached in truth. Don't ever regard that
as common. Don't ever regard it that it's
just a time like any other time. in the way you dress, the way
you speak, act, whatever. Don't regard it like that, because
it's not common. You know, we consider, well,
we dress to the nines for special occasions and for those rare... Let me tell you something. This
right here is the most special occasion you and I will ever
attend. Ever. Ever. And God said, by the way
you approach me, sanctify me, you're going to show the people.
You're going to glorify me before the people. Did Moses glorify
Him? Did the children of Israel glorify
Him in what they sang? All they talked about was Him.
Was Him. They didn't sing about Himself,
just Him. That's why we sing about Him.
That's why we preach Him. That's why we follow our faith
before Him. It's all about Him. Amen.