All right, if you take your Bibles
and turn with me to Psalm 103. Psalm 103. Very good to have you here this
morning. I'm glad for our visitors. I
pray the Lord will bless you to worship with us. The title of the message this
morning is The Benefits of Holiness. The Benefits of Holiness. This psalm, Psalm 103, the psalmist
here at the beginning says to bless the Lord, O my soul and
all that is within me, bless His holy name and forget not
all His benefits. How often do we forget His great
benefits? There are so many benefits to
blessing the Lord, to bowing down before the Lord Jesus Christ
and believing, trusting, resting in His perfect person and work. There are so many benefits because
these benefits were given us in Him before the foundation
of the world. The Scripture says in Ephesians
1, all spiritual blessings are ours. All spiritual blessings. In other words, the best things
that God could give, He gave. And He didn't partially give
them. He gave us all of them. All of
His spiritual blessings. Forgiveness of sins. Redemption,
His loving kindness, His tender mercies, His Word that satisfies
our mouth with good things, His grace that renews our strength.
Do we not need these benefits? Daily, I need these benefits. Daily, I need to know and remember
because I am so prone to forget. When you leave here today, How
much of the message will you remember? I know that I preach it. I study
it. And I know that I forget. I'm
sure that you do. I'm sure that you do. That you
can't maintain all these things. But that's why God has written
it down for us in a book. God has written it down for us
so we would know His benefits. all his spiritual benefits. And
one of these benefits that I want us to see this morning is the
holiness of God, the revelation of God's holiness. Look at this
in verse seven. I'm sorry, verse six. The Lord. Executed righteousness and judgment
for all that are oppressed. Righteousness and judgment. These are aspects of holiness. Holiness. The holiness of God. When we sing that song, holy,
holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come,
what are we saying? What does it mean when we ascribe
to God what the Word of God ascribes to Him, holiness unto the Lord. What is holiness? Well, this aspect of holiness
is said to be the chief aspect of all God's attributes, holiness. Why? Why is holiness the chief
attribute? All of his other attributes are
bathed in holiness. We think of his judgment, justice. Well, God in justice has holy
justice. We think of God as love. God is love. But His love is
not like our love, is it? His love is holy love. His power. He's all-powerful,
but He's all-powerful in holiness. In holiness. Holiness of God
has to do with separation. If you were to look up the word,
it does in its root mean separate. God is separate from all His
creatures. He is separate because He is
holy. He is perfect. When I ascribe
to God holiness, I'm not giving God holiness. I'm acknowledging
God's holiness. God is absolutely perfect in
every way. In every way. The holiness of God is said to
be the beauty of God. The scripture says in Psalm 110,
in the beauty of holiness from the womb of the morning, thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power. I better read
it. I don't want to misquote it.
Psalm 110, it says, thy people shall be willing in the day of
thy power in the beauty of holiness from the womb of the morning.
And there are multiple scriptures I can go to to show you that
holiness of God has to do with the beauty of His perfections.
But God is perfect. And therefore, God being perfect,
He says, Behold, I am God. I change not. I change not. God is holy. God is perfect. God does not
have any need to change. Why is it that we change? We
always are trying to change something, right? You change your hair,
you change your clothes, you change this, you change that.
Why? Because we are imperfect. Because we are not perfect. We strive to be better by changing
certain things. But we are never perfect. God
is only perfect in every way. The holy angels of God are called
the holy angels only because they derive their holiness from
God. The moon itself has no light
except it reflects the light from the sun. The angels, in
the same manner, have holiness. Their holiness is a reflection
of God. It is God giving holiness to
them. Therefore, the holiness of God
is so much brighter than the angels' holiness that the Scripture
says that they must cover their face. The Scriptures tell us
that the heavens are not clean in His sight. Because God is
holy in all His attributes, all that God does is holy. All that God does is holy. There's
nothing that God has purposed. There's nothing that God has
decreed. There's nothing that God has willed. There's nothing
that God has brought to pass in time that has not been according
to His holy and perfect will. Men, as men, we see tragedy often. We see things and we can say,
well, how is that according to God's holy purpose,
God's holy plan? God never asks us to reconcile
that. God tells us that he is holy
and all he does is holy. All He does is right. God cannot
do anything that is not according to righteousness and justice.
He cannot lie and God cannot deny Himself. When you tell God
that He cannot do something, you better be careful. I only
say this because the Scripture tells us this, that God cannot
lie and He cannot deny Himself. Well, He cannot lie because He's
perfect. We lie because We're trying to
cover something. We're covering imperfections,
covering our sin. God cannot deny Himself. I hate
myself daily. I despise my sin daily. I do. But God is perfect and He cannot
deny perfection. He cannot deny Himself. Holiness,
the holiness of God is in all His works. Psalm 145, verse 17
says, The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all
his works. When God created the world, what
was his exclamation? What was his declaration after
he created everything? He said this was good. And when
he was finished with everything, when God created all things,
He said, Behold, this is very good. Very good. He made man and He set him in
a perfect environment. He made him innocent. He made
him pure. He gave him the highest intellect
and mind. Isn't it foolish how men always
claim that man is evolving up when God made man in the highest
form that he could be made in. And since then, we have been
going down. Adam was made perfect and enlightened. He was given the perfect wife. The perfect wife. And yet, according
to his perfect and holy decree, God planted a tree. The tree
of the knowledge of good and evil. And he told Adam not to
eat of this tree. Well, we think we're so much
smarter. And we say, well, why didn't God just not plant the
tree? Well, because you and I are not holy and we have no idea
what we're talking about. That's why. What God did was right. There
was nothing wrong with that. God was holy to do it. It was
God's world. It was God's tree. And he could
plant it where he wanted to. He did plant it where he wanted
to. And he told Adam, Don't eat it. And in the day you eat it,
you shall surely die. This was the commandment of God. Satan, having already fallen,
seeing the opportunity, tempted man to sin against God. And seized upon it. And man disobeyed
God and fell from his innocent state, his enlightened state,
to a spiritual depravity, to spiritual darkness. The holy
judgment of God then was manifest. God said, in the day you eat,
you shall die. And the holy God that cannot
lie, that decreed all things from eternity and perfection,
killed Adam. That very day, that very moment
that he ate, he died. Adam lived to be nine hundred
and something years old before he physically died. Was God lying? God said in the
day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. What happened
to Adam? Did he die or did he not die? God said he died. And
by the way he acted, you can see he died spiritually. He ran from God. He hid from
God. And listen to me, as his, as
Adam, he was a federal head of every one of us this morning. He was a representative man. He represented all the human
race. And when Adam died, spiritually,
that death, that holy judgment of God passed down to all men. And we all were born dead. Go to Romans 5, 12. Romans 5,
12 says, Wherefore, as by one man's
sin entered into the world and death by sin, So death passed upon all men. Well, how do you know that? Preacher,
how in the world could you be so bold as to say death passed
upon my darling son, my little child, my baby? How can you say
that? For, because, it's manifest,
for all have sinned. I did not teach my children to
lie or steal. or anything like that, they do
that all by themselves. Why? They inherited death from
their father, from me. They inherited that sin nature
from me. Now go down to verse 18. As by the offense of one judgment
came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men under justification of
life." All men are born sinners. Born without any desire or ability
to serve God. Isaiah says, from the sole of
the foot to the head there is no soundness, but wounds and
bruises and putrefying sores that have not been closed up,
neither bound up nor mollified with ointment. The apostle Paul
himself said, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. The Scripture
says that there is none righteous. No, not one. There's none that
understand it. There's none that seeketh after
God. Well, Pastor, I've been seeking after God all my life.
You're a liar. The Scripture says there's none
that seeketh after God. Some people, you ask them, say,
well, how long have you known the Lord? Well, I've known him
all my life. That's too long. That's too long. See, for someone to be saved,
they must first be lost. For someone to have a resurrection
of the soul, they must first be dead. For someone to be forgiven
of sins, they must be a sinner. And so then, all humanity by
nature is at enmity against God. This world's religious, isn't
it? On this road, there are five churches. Five churches. And I tell you,
there are five different gods being preached. There are five
different gods. Man is religious. Man is very religious. But the problem is, man hates
the true and living God. Why? Because God is sovereign. God alone saves whomsoever He
will, and man hates it. Now, you want to ask people to
do something for salvation? They'll jump to it. They'll jump
through as many hoops as they have to. This is why when people come
into churches today, usually they try to give, they give you
a job immediately. Come in here, you serve the Lord,
you do this, you do this, keep them busy. No. Man hates God by nature. We may see the holiness and justice
of God, even since he is pronounced sentence of death upon Adam's
race. Death being passed upon every
child because God is holy. I can see the holiness of God
in the depravity of my children. You see this? It's still being
passed down. That's how holy and perfect God
is that he doesn't cut this a break. He doesn't give this any slack.
God has already pronounced sentence, judgment upon mankind so that
all men are born dead in sins. God is holy. He's perfect. He's
not going to change this. He's right to do so. God is not the author of sin,
and yet He has for His own glory and purpose allowed it into His
creation. For His own glory. Because before there was ever
sin, God purposed to show grace. And this is how He purposed to
do it. To save sinners. To save the unworthy. To save the worthless. To save
the vile. God said, I will show grace to
sinners. He's done this for His own glory.
He in holy perfection ordained His elect children to be holy
and without blame, and that they should be presented to Himself
holy and without blame in the end of all time." God purposed
this from the beginning. When you plan a trip or anything
and you purpose something, how often does it come to pass? Does
everything seem to go well with you? when you have plans. Well,
see, my God has purposed all things from eternity, and He's
so perfect that it's going to happen. Everything that He has
purposed has already happened. It is happening and it shall
happen, even as He purposed it. Therefore, our Father gave His
own children. Into the hands of His perfect
and darling Son, to be their surety, Jesus, the Son of God,
was chosen to be the Christ, the Redeemer and Savior of the
elect. And so God, in holiness, purposed
the salvation of His people by His holy and free grace, and
Jesus, by free grace, agreed to be their Savior. Friends, if we are born in sin,
how then can a holy and just God justify us? How is that possible? How is
it possible for God who is holy to justify the ungodly? Look at your text. The Lord executeth righteousness
and judgment." Notice this. This is wonderful. Beautiful. If I were to stop there and say,
The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment. Period. Would that
give you any hope? No, it's the next words that
give us hope. For all that are oppressed. For all that are oppressed. All men know that the justice
of God is against unholiness, against unrighteousness. We know that God must punish
all sin. Are you guilty of sin? Are you oppressed by sin? Sin doesn't bother some people. Are you oppressed by sin? Are you enchained, enslaved by
your lusts, Well, this is why the Scripture
says that no man will be justified by the law. For by the law is
the knowledge of sin. Does this cause you to grieve
and fear the law? Then behold the grace of God
who executeth righteousness and judgment, not against the oppressed,
but for the oppressed. For the oppressed. Those oppressed
by sin and under the condemnation of God, He has sent His Holy
Son into the world to set us free. We were born enslaved to
nature, to sin, to our passions, to our lusts. But God. Two greatest words in all of
Scripture. But God. sent His Son to execute righteousness
and judgment on our behalf. On our behalf. This could not be done by the
mere will of God. Think of this. God's will is
so powerful and perfect, yet it could not be done by God willing
it so, Christ must have come and literally died for our sins. Because God is so holy that sin
must be paid for. It must be punished. And so Christ
took the nature of a man so that he might pay. that he might endure the justice
of God's holy wrath against our sins. Justice demanded that sin be
punished and God could not slide it under the rug. God could not
just sweep it away or will it away like we do. We're unjust. When you get pulled over by a
cop, you want him to be unjust. That's just so. I know I do. I want him to not give me what
I deserve. I want him to just give me a warning and move on. We can just sweep things like
that under. God cannot do that. This is why the Son of God must
have been punished. He was made to bear our guilt. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son. To do what? We'd have to go back
up in the verse before it. He says, as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. We were all like the Israelites,
bitten with sin and worthy of death. Those Israelites, all
they did was complain. Are we any different? No. Yet, God made His Son to be sin
for us. Why? so that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. Now then, the holiness of God
is not something I dread. Why? Because He executes His
holiness for the oppressed. For the sinner. God has already executed my Savior
in my place. And I know this, He will not
bring that sin back to me. Why? He's holy. Again, you and I aren't like
that. Oh, I forgive you, Cook. Until you mess me up again. Then
I'm going to bring back that other thing. I'm going to bury
the hatchet with the handle sticking out, you know. We don't forgive
that way. God, He's so holy that He cannot
even remember our sins. Matter of fact, He says, I will
remember their sins no more. What a glorious benefit. I love the holiness of God. Once
I dreaded it. Once I feared it. But now, by
faith in Christ, I don't dread it. I adore it. It keeps me. It sustains me. And it won't let me go. If God were to punish me for
my sins, He would no longer be God. He would be unjust. Unjust to punish my sins in Christ
and then in me. Not going to happen. Praise God. My sins are gone. How far are
they gone? As far as the east is from the
west. as high as the heavens is above the earth. His mercy
is so great that it lasts from eternity to eternity. Jesus bore my sins in his own
body on the tree. And to testify that God, that
his work was perfect, to testify that he was The Savior of sinners,
God raised Him from the dead. God set Him on the right hand
of a majesty on high. And right now, my Savior lives. Right now, my Savior lives and
is ruling all things after the counsel of His own will. Do you
suppose that anything happens by chance, luck, accident? Christians should never use such
words as luck. Our God has purposed all things
and all things are moving after the counsel of His own will.
And He saves His people from their sin. I have a good hope. I hope in the holiness of God.
I trust in the holiness of God. I trust in his son. Do you? Then
you have every reason to rejoice. Every reason to give thanks.
Do you have any reason to complain? No. No. May God give us such
hearts of thankfulness to see the benefits of his holiness.
to the oppressed. Praise God for His mercy. Have
the men come forward and we'll enjoy the Lord's Supper together.
If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, if you have been obedient
unto Christ in faith, by all means, enjoy the Supper
with us. Men like ceremonies. The Lord
has only given us two ordinances in the church, baptism and the
Lord's Supper. This is a picture. Of our union with Christ. A picture
of what he's done for us. His broken body represented by
the bread and His blood of the New Testament represented by
the wine. As we eat and drink this, we
do show forth the Lord's death until He comes. This is the commandment
of our Savior. And we do this after what we've
been given in Scripture. The Scripture says, for I have
received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that
the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took
bread. And when he had given thanks, he breaketh and said,
Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you, this do you
in remembrance of me. And after the same manner he
took a cup, and when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament
in my blood, this do you as often as you drink it in remembrance
of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup,
you do show forth the Lord's death until he comes." Let's
ask the Lord's blessing upon this bread and wine and remember
the great sacrifice that our Lord has offered for our sins. Zach, would you give thanks?