Untitled Recording Aug 31 8:01pm

Holiness

The Dictionary Defines Holy as :

1) dedicated to religious use, consecrated, sacred

2) spiritually perfect or pure; untainted by evil or sin

3) regarded with or deserving deep respect, awe, reverence, or adoration

Bible:

Holiness is that which divides God from everyone and everything else.

Who among the gods is like you, O LORD? Who is like you - majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” Exodus 15:11 (NIV)

How does God reveal His holiness?

1. Through people

Moses

David

Isaiah

Isaiah 6:1-8

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train[a] of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”[b] 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” 8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

God’s holiness is revealed to Isaiah​

 Once he saw God as he really is, he then could look inwardly​

​His inward transformation led to an outward view of his life being about God’s agenda instead of his.

2. Through places

• Moses – burning bush

• Tabernacle

• Temple

• Pentecost

• Heaven – Revelation 4

3. Through the Law

• First 4 of the 10 Commandments all deal with God’s holiness

• First 5 books of the Bible, particularly in Leviticus:

4. Through the prophets

• Constantly addressed idolatry, which violated God’s holiness

5. Through His wrath and judgment

Achan (Joshua 7)

Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5)

6. Through His Son

Like with all His attributes, the most complete revelation of God’s holiness is through His Son

Transfiguration is a key example

Only unholy part of His life was his death

7. Through His Church

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (16 Do you not know that you[a] are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. ESV)

How do we respond to God’s holiness?

Three aspects of holiness:

1. Positional holiness – justification

2. Practical holiness – sanctification

3. Permanent holiness – glorification

Four essentials to grow in holiness:

1. A commitment we make

14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14

2. A way we think

Ephesians 4:17-24 17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self,[a] which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

3. A command we obey

As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." 1 Peter 1:14-16 (NIV)

4. An attitude we develop

To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. Proverbs 8:13 (NIV)