Revelation chapter 15. And let's look in verse 4. I
think probably this is the reference that you have on the list that
I gave you on the attribute of holiness, the holiness of God. Revelation chapter 15 and verse
4. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord,
and glorify your name? For thou only art holy. For all nations shall come and
worship before thee, for thy judgments are made manifest. Thou only art holy." This word,
holy, Webster's gives the definition of this word, holy, to be whole,
W-H-O-L-E, to be whole, to be entire. are perfect in a moral
sense. Another definition is moral excellency,
absolute purity. It's really difficult to give
a definition of holiness. It's almost like glory. Go to
the dictionary to find the definition of glory, and it's just not satisfactory. We can say moral excellency,
Perfect purity. But it really doesn't do the
justice to the holiness of God. One of the ways that you and
I can get just a little handle on the holiness of God and help
us to define it a little bit more is just a few verses from
the Scripture. What the Scripture says about
the holiness of God. The Scripture says that He is
glorious in holiness. Glorious in holiness. And that
simply means that when we talk about moral excellency, he's
glorious in moral excellency. When we talk about purity, he's
glorious in purity. But listen to these passages
of Scripture. In 1 John chapter 5, when the
Lord wants to represent Himself to us in something that you and
I can relate to. He wants us to know something
of his purity, something of his holiness. He represents himself
to us under the symbol of light. Now, science tells us that the
more pure light is, the whiter it is. And if you take pure light,
it is pure white. You and I see the sun shining,
but it is red in the afternoon. And you can look at it, and the
reason it's red is because of all these particles in the air
between us and the light. But if the light, if the particles
weren't there, you and I could not endure to see the brightness
of the sun. So God is light, and in Him is
no darkness at all. That depicts His holiness. There's no spot. There's no speck
of impurity in God at all. He's lying. And in Habakkuk chapter
1 and verse 13, Thou art of pure eyes than to behold evil and
cannot look upon iniquity. Two pure eyes. He cannot look
upon sin. It's impossible. If God ever
looked upon sin, He'd consume it. That's how pure He is. Hebrews
chapter 1 and verse 9, Thou hast loved righteousness and hated
iniquity. He loves righteousness perfectly. And he hates iniquity perfectly. Let no man say when he is tempted
that he is tempted of God. Now why? Because God cannot be
tempted of evil. That's how pure, that's how holy
He is. The angels were tempted, they fell. Adam and Eve, our
parents, were tempted, and they fell. God cannot be tempted of
evil. He is too pure. He is too holy. He is too white. So those verses,
if you and I would think upon those and study them, they give
us just a little bit more understanding or a grasp of the holiness of
God. He is holy in the trinity of
His person. You and I just sang that song.
that he's holy. God the Father is holy, God the
Son is holy, God the Holy Spirit is holy. The Lord Jesus, there
in John chapter 17 and verse 11, He addressed the Father in
this way, Holy Father. Now, nobody knows the Father
like the Son. The Son knows what character
He's of, and He addresses Him as Holy Father. Keep through
your own name those that you have given me, Holy Father. The Son, in so many places, is
called that Holy One. This holy thing that shall be
born of you shall be called the Son of God. And the Father says
of Him, Thou wilt not suffer, thou holy one, to see corruption. Such a high priest became us
who is holy, harmless, undefiled, Separate from sinners. Separate
from sinners. He was born of a sinful woman.
He lived among sinful people. But He is separate from sinners.
He is the Holy Son of God. And every word you and I are
told of the Spirit, that He is called the Holy Spirit. Greed
not the Holy Spirit. So truly it can be said that
God in the Trinity of His person is holy. He is a holy God. Now, here in verse 4 of Revelation
chapter 15, some of the words here that stand out. One is this,
Thou only art holy. Thou only. Holiness belongs exclusively
to God. This word is used 654 times in
the Bible. I counted 654 times this word
is used in the Old and the New Testaments. But it's not always
speaking of the triune God. How can it be said then that
he only is holy? Let's look at that just for a
few minutes. Sometimes, let's look at it this way, sometimes
we read in the Bible that someone or something is holy. And it's
called holy because it's consecrated to God. It's separated to the
service or worship of God, and it's called holy. We read in
the scriptures of the Holy Sabbath, and we know why it's called holy.
God sanctified it and set it apart. That's the day that he
rested upon. It was no more holy in and of
itself than Sunday, or Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday, or
Thursday, or Friday. But it was called the Holy Sabbath
because God set it apart. He sanctified it. for His honor,
for His glory. A day of rest. We read of holy
oil, of holy vessels, holy temple, holy ground, holy place, a holy
nation, a holy priesthood, holy garments, holy prophets, holy
apostles. And the meaning is all of these
things were set aside. And God addressed them and declared
them to be holy because they were set aside for His use, for
His service, and for His glory. Now hold Romans chapter 15 and
look over in reference to this in Romans chapter 12 and verse
1. Chapter 12 and verse 1. Paul exhorts us here in this
chapter to be holy. Not only holy in spirit, but
holy in body. Now how do we be holy in body?
How do we become holy in body? Well, he tells us here in chapter
12 of Romans, in verse 1. I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, all of these mercies that he's been
talking about in the book of Romans, that you present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is
your reasonable service. Anything that's presented to
God, For His service, for His worship, for His glory, He turns
it as holy. Your body turns as holy when
you present it to Him. And that's our service, our reasonable
service. Then, secondly, not only things
that set aside, sanctified, and not only those who set themselves
aside for His glory, but sometimes Those things are called holy
that comes directly from God. Those things that come directly
from Him are called holy. And by that I mean this, the
law is holy. Romans 7, verse 12. The commandments
are holy. Why is the law holy? God gave
it. Why is the commandment holy?
God spake it. So we read of the holy law, the
holy commandments. We read of the holy Scripture.
From a child you've known the holy scriptures, all scriptures
given by inspiration of God. God breathes them, therefore
they're holy, the holy scriptures. They come from God. We read of holy angels. Why is
the angels called holy? Because God made them. God created
the angels. The Son of Man shall come in
His glory and all His holy angels. Why are the angels holy? Because
they come from the hand of God. God created the holy angels. And then in Ephesians chapter
4 and in verse 24 we read of a new creature. And he said to
be holy. Put on the new man which after
God is created in righteousness and true holiness. So why are
these things called holy? because they come from the mouth
of God. Scriptures are holy. The law is holy because it comes
from God. Angels are holy because they
are God's creation. The new man within is holy because
God created him in righteousness and true holiness. Now, here is so important. These
are holy because they derive their holiness from God in and
of themselves. They can have no holiness. The
holiness they have comes from God. They're holy because they
came from Him. The angels are holy because God
created them. But before God, now listen to
this, but before God ever spoke a word, a scripture, before He
ever gave a written promise in His Word, before He ever created
the angels, before He ever created new creatures within us, when
God dwelt alone in eternity. Nobody with Him. The trial in
God dwelt alone. He was infinitely and essential
and immutably holy. Before there was anything else,
the Word of God wasn't in its written form. There were no angels. There were no creatures at all,
not even the world. God was essentially and independently
and immutably holy. Anything or anyone that is said
to be holy in whatever sense, it derives that holiness from
God. Only God is independently holy. Therefore, it can be said in
our text in Revelation chapter 15 and verse 4, Thou only art
holy. Only God is essentially and independently
holy. This is why we read of the holy
angels, since they are holy creatures, and they have their holiness
from God. He created them holy. Yet, though
they are holy creatures, they are creatures still. And when
those holy creatures stand before the Lord, what do they do? We
are told that they cover their faces with their wings. The prophet
Isaiah was said to be a holy prophet along with all the other
holy prophets, but when he stands before the Lord and sees His
holiness, what does this holy man say? Woe is me, for I am
undone. and our bodies which are said
to be holy because we present them to the Lord, and yet before
Him these bodies are vile. Jesus Christ shall change our
vile bodies. So all men, all things that are
said to be holy, they are so because they are declared of
God to be holy, or He makes them holy. But that holiness comes
from Him. No creature or nothing is holy
in and of itself. It derives that from God. But
where does God get His holiness? He doesn't get them anyplace
else. He is essentially holy. Who is lacking to thee, O Lord,
among the gods? Who is likened to thee, glorious
in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonder? The obvious answer
is, there is none like you. There is none like you. And what's
the essential difference? Holiness. Holiness. Holiness. You and I have holy creatures.
We are holy creatures, aren't we? If any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. And that creature is holy. But
I tell you, if God doesn't support him, He falls. He falls. He can't even support himself.
God has to hold him up and support him. But none holds God up in
His holiness. Now, here in our text, something
else. We see there that God is holy, and He only is holy. That means He only is essentially
and independently and eternally and immutably holy. But we see something else here
in verse 4. We see some things here that
holiness is connected to. And look at it. First of all,
look at the last portion of verse 4. For thou only art holy, for
all nations shall come and worship before thee. See how holiness
is connected to worship. For thou only art holy, for all
nations shall come and worship before thee. You're holy. Therefore,
all nations Men and women out of all nations are going to come
and worship before Thee. You know there is no true spiritual
worship but of a God who is holy. We cannot worship, neither should
we worship, a God that is impure or that is immoral, who has defects
or spots or blemishes. Such a God cannot, neither should
He be, worshiped. What kind of a God do we worship?
A holy God. Look over in Psalms chapter 96
with me. In Psalms chapter 96, and look
in verse 8 and verse 9. Psalms chapter 96, and look right
quickly in verse 8 and verse 9. Psalms 96, verse 8, "...given
to the Lord, the glory due His name, bring an offering, and
come unto His presence." Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. Fear before Him all the earth. The beauty of holiness. The beauty. Holiness is the attribute
The attribute of God that puts splendor upon all other attributes
of God. Now listen to that. Holiness
is the attribute of God that puts splendor upon all the other
attributes of God. You know we never read of God's
beautiful power. We never read of that. We never
read of His beautiful omnipotence or His beautiful omniscience.
We never even read of His beautiful grace. Not of His beautiful love. But we read of His beautiful
holiness. Holiness is the beauty of God. And it adds charm. It adds splendor
to all the other attributes of God. What would power be? if it wasn't from a holy God.
We've seen dictators that have all kinds of power help the life
and death of men in their hands. But there was no splendor in
that power. He'd come to be despised. But when we talk about the power
of God, what puts splendor to that power? What puts splendor
to His omniscience? The holiness of His person. It's
beautiful. It's beautiful. Stephen Shemok
said this. He said, Power is God's arm. Omniscient is His eye. Mercy is His bowels. Eternity
is His duration. But holiness is His beauty. The holiness of God. Worship
in the beauty of holiness. You know there's no other way
to worship God. We cannot worship Him unless we first and foremost
worship Him in the beauty of holiness. King Jehoshaphat appointed
singers to sing unto the Lord that they might praise the beauty
of holiness. Praise the beauty of holiness. We cannot worship a God of love. We cannot worship a God of wrath.
We cannot worship a just God, and we cannot worship a merciful
God, but as we worship an holy God. That's the very foundation
of our worship. Thou only art holy, therefore
all nations shall come and worship Thee. Holiness is connected to
worship. And you know this is where it
begins. I bet you if I asked any of you to tell me your experience
of grace when the Lord saved you, one of the first things
you would mention that God made you aware of Himself was His
holiness. His holiness. That's where true
worship begins. And men never will worship Him
in spirit and in truth until He makes Himself known as holy. Something else here we find linked
to holiness is this. Look back over in our text again.
Look at the beginning of verse 4. Revelation chapter 15. And look in verse 4 again. Who
shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name, for thou
art holy? Fear. Reverence. That word means
awe, to stand in awe. Who will not stand in awe of
you and glorify you? Why? Why should they? Because
he's holy. Because he's holy. The chief
characteristics of a lost person is this, and the Bible tells
us this. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Men and
women continue on in sin. They love their sins. They serve
their sins. All because they do not fear
God. They will not come to fear their
sins and abhor their sins and come to the Lord until first
they fear God. What's the first thing they fear
about God? His holiness. Who will not fear Thee? Thou
art a holy God. And you see people begin to come
to the Lord for mercy and for salvation? They fear Him because
He's holy. He's holy. Sin only appears exceedingly
sinful when we begin to perceive the holiness of God. Be not wise in your own eyes.
Fear the Lord and depart from evil. Serve the Lord with fear
and rejoice with tremor. Wherefore, we receive in a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve
God acceptably with reverence and godly fear." His holiness. There is just no right attitude
towards God except we perceive Him as holy. We cannot fear Him. We cannot glorify Him. He said,
who will not glorify You? I am afraid. Are you afraid of
sin? And we're only afraid of sin in the light of God's holiness. I'm afraid not to give Him all
the glory. I fear not to do that. I want
to ascribe to Him. I want to glorify Him. Why? He's
holy. He's holy. He's eternally and
unchangeably holy. And that's the way we serve Him.
Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with tremor. And you
know, this is one of the flippant attitudes that we see in so many
churches today. Making fun of the Bible. Making jokes about holy things.
And the reason people have gotten so flippant is there's no fear
of this holiness. Holiness, holiness to the Lord. Who will not fear thy holy name? And something else here right
quickly that's linked to this holiness of God, and it's on
here towards the last part of verse 4. For thou only art holy,
and all nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy
judgments are made manifest. Judgments. The judgments of God. The decisions He makes. The deeds
that He does. All that God does, all His judgments
that He determines, all His judgments that He executes, all His works
are done in holiness and in truth. Look here at our context. Look
in chapter 16. This, for instance, His judgments. Look at His judgments.
And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seventh
angel, Go your ways, and pour out the vows of the wrath of
God upon the earth. And the first went and poured
out his vow upon the earth, and there fell a noisome, a grievous,
a foul, loathsome, and grievous sore upon the men which had the
bark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. And
the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea, and it became
as the blood of a dead man, and every living soul creature died
in the sea. And the third angel poured out
his vial upon the waters and the fountains of waters, rivers
and fountains of waters, and they became blood. And I heard
the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which
art, was, and shall be, because thou hast judged us. For they
have shed the blood of saints and prophets, that has given
them blood to drink. They are worthy. And I heard
another out of the elders say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true
and righteous are thy judgments. Look what he says over in the
19th chapter and in verse 1. After these things I heard a
great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Hallelujah, salvation
and glory and honor and power unto the Lord God, for true and
righteous are his judgments, for he hath judged the great
whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and has
avenged the blood of his servants at her hand." God is known by
His judgments. And when we see in the Word,
or we see around us, that God is bringing judgment, that He's
bringing decision, all of them are holy. They're holy. You see our first parents leaving
the Garden of Eden. And their countenance are falling.
Their heads are bowed. They're leaving that beautiful
garden because the Scripture says, God drove them from the
garden. How do you feel about that? How
do you and I feel that God judged Adam and our first mother and
found them to be guilty and drove them from that garden? Was that
a just judgment? Was that a holy judgment? When
you see the old world and God looked upon it, and man had corrupted
his ways, and God spoke and said, I'm going to destroy man whom
I have made. And He said, I'm going to send
a flood, and all life is going to die that's upon the earth.
How do we feel about that? Do we see that judgment as holy? Holy? Holy? When we see this world, and the
skies are opened up, and the Lord God appears, and heaven
and earth flees away, and all the dead come and stand before
the Lord. And their names are not in the
book of life. And He casts them unto the lake of fire and brimstone."
How do we feel about that? How do you feel about that? Do
we say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God? Your judgments are
true and righteous altogether. Everything He does, everything
He decides to do is holy. Holy, holy. Brother Mahan gave
us something that his grandson said
up here. I will forget this because I was asking his grandson about
it. Luke Coffey, Bob Coffey's son. He was his grandson. I asked
Luke about this. I said, Luke, your grandpa told
us about an incident that happened while you were in school, and
would you relate that to me? And he said, yes. He was in school. His teacher was a Jewish lady. And they were going to study
on the Holocaust, where Hitler killed so many Jews. And she
had each student to come up and write one word that they thought
best described God. And Luke said some would go up
and put mercy and some love and some just. And Luke said, I went
up and I took my piece of chalk and I wrote H-O-L-Y. Holy. They started there and they studied
through the Holocaust. And he said that the bent of
the teacher was to show God in an unjust light. How could God
possibly let six million Jews die? How could he still be right
in doing that? And when they finished their
study, she said, now come back up in the light of what we've
studied. And write one more word, if you can think of it, in the
light of the Holocaust, how you would describe God now. And Luke
said, I went back up and he said, I had room on the left side of
holiness to put another word. And I put S-T-I-L-L. Still holy. All God's judgments are holy. When He ran our first parents
out of the garden and judged them for the sin, He is holy.
When He drowned the old world and everybody in it, He is holy. When He took the law away from
His Jews, when He took the temple, when He sent Titus in to slay
them and the blood run in the streets, He is holy. And when
He winds up this history And He takes men to glory into His
presence, and when He puts them into hell, He is holy. His judgments are holy. Now, do we worship a God like
that? We sure do, don't we? We tell our children, we tell
our neighbors, we remind one another that God is holy. And any time He is pleased to
judge, He may take my life. He may take your life. He may
take the life of our children. He can do it, and when He does
it, what do we say? Holy. Holy. Holy. Look at one more Scripture in
closing. My time is gone. Look in Psalms 22. I think if you and I wanted to
see a demonstration of the holiness of God, the best place to go
would be the cross. There is where the holiness of
God is on display more than in hell itself, because there the
Son of God, the Son of God's love, His only Son, took the
sins of His people and was hanging there upon the cross. If God
was ever going to compromise, it would be there. He would spur
his son. He would say, surely I cannot
smite my son. I cannot kill my son. I'll have to relinquish. I'll
have to lay aside my holiness. But did he? No, he did not. He spurred not his own son. Why? Because he's holy. And look
what the Lord Jesus said here in Psalms 22 and 1. And you and
I will remember very well when He spoke of this. My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? You know the Lord Jesus knew
why. Glenn, you've often said it. He wasn't asking to get information.
He was wanting you and me to consider why God would forsake
His Son. Why God would turn His eyes?
Why God turned His back upon His Son? You know why? S-I-N. You mean He was a sinner? You
know what? He took all of our sins. And
He took them into His own body. And He said, these are mine.
These are now my sins. I stand responsible for them.
Every sin, I stand responsible for it. What did God do? God smote him. God smote him. God afflicted him. God looked
upon him, and let me say this, to stress this, God looked upon
his son as being the worst, cursed sinner that ever lived. Does
not the Scripture say that in Galatians 3.13? Cursed is everyone
who hangeth on a tree. Who cursed him? Cursed of God. He's cursed of God. He's under
the wrath of God. Why is that? God is holy. And look what the Lord Jesus
said in verse 2. My God, I cry in the daytime, but You hear
not. And in the night season, I am not silent, but look at
this, but Thou art holy. Holy. You've smitten me. You've
brought me to the dust of death, but Thou art holy. I tell you
what, it makes me concerned for myself and for other people.
Because if God is so holy that He spared not His Son, He's not
going to spare you, man. He's not going to spare me. If
we're found outside of Christ, God will smite us. Judgment will
come. Because God is holy. And yet,
knowing all of that now, having the Holy Spirit to teach us this,
what do we do? We love it. We love it. He's brought us to love holiness. And we give thanks at the remembrance
of His holiness. And we worship Him in the beauty
of holiness. And we just sing about His holiness.
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. And we loved it, didn't we? And
it sounded so beautiful. Why? Because He's brought us
to know Him. He saved us by His grace. And
where holiness used to make us afraid, now we love it. And we long for the day, by God's
grace, when the Son of God shall descend from heaven with a shout
and change these vile bodies and make them liken to His holy
body, His glorious body. And then, and then only, can
we worship Him in the beauty of holiness as He is worthy of. God bless His Word to our hearts.