In James Fetterly's sermon "The Holiness of God," he explores the profound attribute of God's holiness and its implications for believers. The sermon begins with a prayer, asking for God's presence and the Holy Spirit's guidance as the congregation delves into understanding His holiness.
Fetterly emphasizes that studying God's attributes, particularly His holiness, helps believers understand who God is and how He reveals Himself. He defines holiness as a state of being set apart and distinct from the common, highlighting the vast difference between the Creator and His creation.
Using Ezekiel 22:26, Fetterly explains that the holiness of God is often profaned when what is sacred is treated as common. The priests in Ezekiel's time failed to uphold God's holy standards, making no distinction between the holy and the common, and disregarding the Sabbath.
Psalm 99 is referenced to illustrate God's sovereign holiness, describing how God reigns with majesty, causing people to tremble and the earth to quake. This psalm, along with other royal psalms, portrays God's sovereignty and the proper response of worship and reverence due to His holiness.
Fetterly also discusses Revelation 4, where God's holiness is depicted through a vision of His throne room. The repeated proclamation of "Holy, holy, holy" by the living creatures underscores the supreme importance of God's holiness. This attribute is raised to the highest level, emphasizing its central role in understanding God's nature.
Further, in Isaiah 6, Isaiah's vision of God on His throne reveals the prophet's response to God's holiness—a recognition of his own sinfulness and the need for atonement. Fetterly stresses that an encounter with God's holiness should lead to worship, confession of sins, and transformation by the Holy Spirit.
Fetterly concludes by highlighting the practical implications of God's holiness for believers. As God's holiness permeates all His attributes and actions, believers are called to reflect His moral character in their lives. This reflection requires a transformation that can only come through the Holy Spirit and results in a life that glorifies God.
The sermon calls believers to worship God for His holiness, recognize their own shortcomings, and seek to live holy lives through the power of the Holy Spirit.
In James Fetterly's sermon "The Holiness of God," he explores the profound attribute of God's holiness and its implications for believers. The sermon begins with a prayer, asking for God's presence and the Holy Spirit's guidance as the congregation delves into understanding His holiness.
Fetterly emphasizes that studying God's attributes, particularly His holiness, helps believers understand who God is and how He reveals Himself. He defines holiness as a state of being set apart and distinct from the common, highlighting the vast difference between the Creator and His creation.
Using Ezekiel 22:26, Fetterly explains that the holiness of God is often profaned when what is sacred is treated as common. The priests in Ezekiel's time failed to uphold God's holy standards, making no distinction between the holy and the common, and disregarding the Sabbath.
Psalm 99 is referenced to illustrate God's sovereign holiness, describing how God reigns with majesty, causing people to tremble and the earth to quake. This psalm, along with other royal psalms, portrays God's sovereignty and the proper response of worship and reverence due to His holiness.
Fetterly also discusses Revelation 4, where God's holiness is depicted through a vision of His throne room. The repeated proclamation of "Holy, holy, holy" by the living creatures underscores the supreme importance of God's holiness. This attribute is raised to the highest level, emphasizing its central role in understanding God's nature.
Further, in Isaiah 6, Isaiah's vision of God on His throne reveals the prophet's response to God's holiness—a recognition of his own sinfulness and the need for atonement. Fetterly stresses that an encounter with God's holiness should lead to worship, confession of sins, and transformation by the Holy Spirit.
Fetterly concludes by highlighting the practical implications of God's holiness for believers. As God's holiness permeates all His attributes and actions, believers are called to reflect His moral character in their lives. This reflection requires a transformation that can only come through the Holy Spirit and results in a life that glorifies God.
The sermon calls believers to worship God for His holiness, recognize their own shortcomings, and seek to live holy lives through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The attributes of God and can you think of a more noble thing to consider than the characteristics of our loving creator and Redeemer and all that he has described for us in Scripture and this morning we will consider the holiness of God. Let's open in a word of prayer and then we will begin our study. Bow and pray with me. Almighty God, you are the most beautiful, the most glorious one. You have revealed yourself to us throughout history, through Scripture, and through the Lord Jesus Christ and we thank you, Lord, for that. Would you display your glory even as we consider your holiness? May it elevate our thoughts of you so that we might worship you in spirit and in truth? We ask that not only would your Holy Spirit give us eyes to see and ears to hear but that all would be done for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, whose name we pray. Amen. A.W. Tozer has stated, "What comes to mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us." And maybe that's why we should study the attributes of God for a long time so that we might know who He is and how He has revealed Himself to us. And this morning, yes, we will study the holiness of God, one of the many attributes of who God is. In Ezekiel chapter 22, we will start to understand a biblical definition of holiness. But for those of you that are taking notes, let's write down a primary definition for the word"holy." It means a partness or otherness. It talks about that which is separated and different from other things that are common. No doubt as you are looking at Ezekiel chapter 22, we look at verse 26 and the prophet writes, "Her priests have done violence to my law." He sets this thought out first that the priests who are supposed to teach God's people have now done something treacherous. Their iniquity is that they have done violence to God's holy law. And you're like, "Well, what does that mean? What does it mean to do violence to the standard, to the statutes of the living God?" Well, he tells you with the conjunction, "And the priest have profaned my holy things." There are things that God has set apart to Himself. They're not common things that you do on every day. Now these things are set apart. These things are different and they have made that which is sacred to be profane. They've cheapened it. The priests have made no distinction between the holy and the common. Neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean. And they have disregarded my sabbaths. They have taken that special day that was set apart to the worshiping of God and they made it like every other day. I mean, you remember how the Ten Commandments tells us that we're to worship God collectively and corporately with His people? Obviously we're to worship God every day, but as God's covenant people, we come together and we renew our vows with Him and we worship Him, not just because He's Creator, but also because He is our Redeemer. And they had disregarded that. They made it common. Like any other day, it was profaned. And so God says, now I'm just like a byword. I'm profane among them. I'm not special. This is the primary meaning of holiness. It means something that is set apart, something that is different, something that is other than that which is common. When we say that God is holy, we call attention to the profound difference between Him and all creatures. There is the Creator and then there's everything else, the creatures. Holiness refers to God's transcendent majesty. Oh, I want you guys to see this. So let's turn to Psalm 99. We want to see God's transcendent majesty. We want to witness His august superiority. And if God is transcendent in His majestic beauty, if He is august in His superiority over all things else, then this is why He is worthy of all of our honor, all of our reverence, our adoration, our all, our worship. We worship God because He is holy. He is like no other. He's in a class to Himself. In Psalm 99, we are in the royal thoms. And it starts off declaring the sovereign holiness. It states the Lord Yahweh reign. Let the people tremble. He sits enthroned upon the cherubs. Let the earthquake, you can see the parallel ism that's going on. If the Lord is sovereign and reigns, then people should tremble at His might. What does that mean? What does that look like? It means that He sits upon His throne. Upon the throne, cherubs, those winged, those winged angelic beings, and then the earth in response should quake at that. Now, I told you that this was a royal psalm. And you should notice that in Psalm 93 verse 1, it also starts off the same way. The Lord Yahweh reigns. He's robed in majesty. The Lord is robed. He's put on strength as His belt. The Lord reigns. There, it's majestic. But we also see in Psalm 97 the same phrase. The Lord reigns. Let the earth rejoice. Worship Him. Let the many coastlands be glad. So when the Lord reigns, we should tremble. We should rejoice. And we should see that He is clothed in majesty. Verse 2, back to our text of Psalm 99, verse 2 states, "The Lord Yahweh is great in Zion. He is exalted over the people." Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is He. Now, what did we say the definition of holiness was? It means that God is set apart. It means that God is other. It means that there is no one like Him in majesty, glory, and might. And you can see it here. His sovereignty reigns over all. And there's a response to when you see this holy sovereign Lord. People tremble. The earthquakes. And then we are to exalt His holy name. It's an awesome name. It is a holy name. Verse 4, "The King in His might loves justice." You have established equity. You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. Look at verse 5, hone in on it. Exalt, worship the Lord our God. Praise Him. Worship Him at His footstool. Why? Holy is He. It's like the refrain to this song. This song says He is holy. And now for a second time, not just in verse 3, but here in verse 5, we have it again, that He is holy. Moses and Aaron were among his priests. Samuel was among those who called upon his name. These are mediators for God's people. These are people that were set apart for God's business. Of course, you know that Moses led them. Aaron was a priest and Samuel was a prophet. They called to the Lord and He answered them. Mediators speak on behalf of the people. They were mediating for the people. And what does God do when the mediator speaks? When He prays, when He intercedes, He answers them. Isn't that wonderful? This high and holy God, who is transcendent, still condescends even to us. Do we not have a great mediator, a prophet, priest, and king? Do we not call upon His name and beseech Him? And when His people call, He listens. He answers. Holy is He. We worship now. Verse 7, "In the pillar of cloud He spoke to them. They kept His testimonies and the statutes that He gave them. Our Lord, Yahweh, our God, You answered them. You were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings." Now don't miss verse 9. We're going to see something that occurs in verse 9, just like we saw in verse 5 and verse 3. "Exalt the Lord, our God." It calls upon the personal covenantal name of who this great creator and redeemer is."Exalt and worship Yahweh, our God, and worship at His mountain." Now of course, you're probably thinking Old Testament. They worshiped at a mountain. There was lightning and flashings and peals of thunder. It was something else. Where on that mountain, God came down and mediated through Moses His wonderful law. But of course, there was another mountain where Jesus was transfigured. And we also know that there is a heavenly Mount, Zion, that we're all looking for where we will worship Him in spirit and truth there."Exalt the Lord, our God, worship Him at His holy mountain, for the Lord, our God, is holy." Three times in this passage, we get that refrain that He is holy, that He is holy, that He is holy. And all of this is to show us that He is different. He is separate. He is majestic and transcendent in all of His superior glory. And we're to worship Him because He's like that. In fact, Jerry Bridges helps us in defining this by saying, "Holiness is the perfection of all God's other attributes. His power is holy power. His mercy is holy mercy. His wisdom is holy wisdom. It is His holiness more than any other attribute that makes Him worthy of our praise." I want us to worship Him. I want us to praise Him so that we would see His holiness. Will you turn to Revelation chapter 4? There we will get a vision of God's transcendent, majestic, sovereign, holy glory. In Revelation 4, we are getting a scene, a setting that is like no other. John, the Revelator is giving us a vision of the risen, glorified Lord. And it is like no other vision that we could possibly look at. One way that you could understand this text is that it gives us a summary of many of the attributes of God. Look at it with me. Revelation chapter 4 verse 1,"And I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, 'Come up here and I will show you what must take place after this. At once I was in the spirit and behold a throne." A throne. It is mentioned 10 times in this text. A throne. There's just one throne. Two times it talks about many other thrones. But in the center of what we're looking at, there is a throne. A throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne."And he who sat there had the appearance of Jasper, Carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of Emerald. Around the throne were 24 elders. Seated on the throne, thrones were 24 elders clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their head." Now you can just imagine the sovereignty that is being expressed and illustrated by the one throne. There are other thrones around it, but they're subservient to this one. And who's on those thrones? Who is reigning there with the one that is seated on the middle throne, the center throne? The 24 elders. Maybe this is emblematic of the Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints, but it is majestic in its description. It is glorious. Look at verse 5."From the throne came flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder. And before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne there were, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind. The living creatures like a lion, and the second living creature like an ox, and the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight, and the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around them within, and day and night, they never cease to say." Look at this. They never, ever cease to say. They're going to say this not once, not twice, but three times. It is an attribute which is not raised to this superlative level, but this attribute is. It is the supreme superlative. What are they saying? What do they never cease to say? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and is to come. This throne room, in all of its majestic glory, has this one attribute being repeated over and over and over again. Verse 9, "And whenever the living creatures gave glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him, who is seated on the throne, and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne saying, 'Worthy, worthy are you, O Lord and God, to receive honor and glory and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.'" Those that were seated around him, those that were on the throne, those that have crowns, those that might think that they have some authority, when they look at the one who's seated, there in the middle, it pales. Whatever glory, whatever honor, whatever strength, whatever might they have, they're like, it all belongs to you who is seated on the throne. By the way, that should be very practical for all of us. For you, for me, whatever you are, whatever you think you have, whatever ability you do or do not do, it's because God has sovereignly given it to you or withheld it and for whatever reason that is his good pleasure. But at any rate, it should invoke in us a sense of worship. Like it says in verse seven, "Worthy are you, O Lord and God, to receive this glory, this honor and this power. You are the creator, you are the sustainer of all things." What does holiness mean? It means that it is so different, it is so separate, it is so other than anything else that it should invoke our worship. This is why God is God and we are not. Louis Berghoff has a provocative statement by saying the following,"It does not seem proper to speak of one attribute of God as being more central and fundamental than another. But if this were permissible, the scriptural emphasis on the holiness of God would seem to justify its selection." Get that just for a moment. You can't exalt one attribute of God above another. No, because God's holiness is permeated through all his other attributes and his other attributes are permeated through the rest. But Berghoff says, "If it were permissible for us to exalt one to elevate it to the highest level," he said, "Scripture would give dibs to the holiness of God." Oh, you don't believe that. Okay, let me try to help you with that just for a moment. How does the Hebrew emphasize what he's trying to say? He does not take a highlighter and type you up a letter and underline and score and put circles around certain things for you to get the point. For the Hebrew writer, they use repetition. How did you see it in Psalm 99? It was there in verse 3 and verse 5 and verse 9. "Holy is he, holy is he, holy is he." And now we're jettisoned into the throne room here in Revelation chapter 4. And what do they say over and over again? They take us to not just the descriptive of who God is, not just the comparative of who he is, but the superlative. He is holy, holy, holy. No other attribute is like that. That's why we worship him. Of course, you know there's another passage that raises it to this third degree as well. And we will go to Isaiah chapter 6. But as we flip there, let's stop by 1 Samuel 2. Here, yes, we want to encounter the holiness of God. In Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 2.2, she exalts God with the following words. "There is none holy like the Lord." Yahweh, you're in a class to yourself. For there is none beside you. There is no rock like our God. Do you see how she's using the definition of holiness there? Ladies, this is an encouragement for us to make sure that we're deep seated in our theology. Men, don't be put to shame by Hannah. She understands the holiness of God. There is none like the Lord. There's none like you. There's none beside you. You're in a class all to your own. What's the foundation that you're going to build your life on? There's no other rock. There's no other foundation than our God. I hope you can say that because God is holy. Isn't that wonderful? Isaiah chapter 6, many of you guys knew that we had to go there and we will."In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne." Oh, does this just not sound like what we read in Revelation chapter 4? It doesn't matter what's going on around us. There may be a crisis physically in our surroundings. It may seem like things are topsy-turvy, but let us go back to this one thing. The Lord is sitting upon his throne. He is sovereign. He's ruling. He's reigning. He's not just sitting upon his throne. That throne is high and lifted up. It is separated from all other thrones. It's a throne like no other throne. And it is majestic. How do I know that? Because it says the train of his robe filled the temple. All the definitions that I gave you earlier, hopefully now you're seeing it come to light through the pages, through the verses of scripture. "The Lord is sitting on his throne, high and lifted up. The train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings. With two covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another." And once again we get the the Trishegion again. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is filled with his glory. And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said, "Woe is me, for I am lost. I'm undone, for I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of unclean people, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." What's our response to this holy God? Right here. Worship. You know the disciples did the same thing. Jesus revealed his glory. Whether he's walking on water, whether he is giving them orders to catch fish. What's the spokesman saying? Peter falls down and worships him and says, "I am a sinner." When you see the majestic holiness of God, the response is this. Even what the prophet said, and you're probably thinking the prophet, "Well, isn't he supposed to be one that is righteous?" Yes, but it's an alien righteousness. It's not his own. And when he looks at God, he sees that he is done for. "Woe is me, I'm lost. I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." Why? Because I have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. I've seen the holy God. And that's why we worship him. But there's good news. The Lord didn't leave him in his undoneness. Verse 6, "And one of the seraphim flew to me, having his hand a burning coal, and he had taken it with tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth and said, 'Behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt has taken away. Your sin atoned for.' You have guilt. You have sin. And now we have an atonement." Friends, are you listening to my voice? Maybe this is the first time for you to hear about the holiness of God, that he is full of transcendent, majestic glory. And what should your response be? "I'm a sinner and I need a great Savior. This is the great Savior that forgives the sins of those that confess that his holy standard is true and that we've fallen short of." Bridges goes on and he says this, "As used in Scripture, holiness describes both the majesty of God and the purity and moral perfection of his nature. Holiness is one of his attributes, that is, holiness is the essential part of the nature of God. His holiness is as necessary as his existence, or as necessary, for example, as his wisdom or omniscience, just as God cannot but know what is right, so he cannot but do what is right." His being then dictates his actions. Now that's practical. Most of you, when you think of holiness, you think of not the primary meaning of separate, different, and other, but rather the secondary meaning which is derived from that. The secondary meaning of holiness refers to God's pure actions and his righteous actions. Actually, your thoughts of holiness are actually derivative of even this, and that's the implications that it has for your life. Well, if God is holy and his actions are holy, then what we know is that what God does is right, stated, that is stated positively, but to state it negatively, God never does what is wrong. God always acts in a righteous manner because of who he is and his holy nature. Thus, this allows us to understand two things. His internal righteousness is his holy nature, that's who he is in his being, and his external righteousness, which is his holy actions. Boy, would I like to spend a lot of time on this. If we were to do that, we would see that in Isaiah, many times the prophet says, "Here is our God, the Holy One of Israel." But I'll save that for maybe another time. Some of you guys are like, "Okay, I have seen the glory of the holiness of God. What are the implications for my life?" Well, I hope it's clear. I hope it's clear. When we're called to be holy, that means that we don't share in God's divine majesty, but that is for us not to be common like the fallen world, but to be different, and therefore our actions would change from being sinful to something different. And of course, this can never happen unless the Holy Spirit has converted you and given you the new birth, and given you an alien righteousness of Christ. God's holiness is very practical because it tells us that we should mirror and reflect his moral character and his activities. That is to say, we're to imitate who he is. This is just a touch of the holiness of God. And aren't you glad that God is other than us? There is the creator, we're the creatures, and because he is that way, we worship him, we praise him, we're convicted, that we're not like him, we confess our sins, we call upon his name, and by the power of his Holy Spirit, we live in newness of life, and when others look at us, they see God's grace of holiness in our lives. Let's pray to that end. Bow with me. Oh Lord our God, we thank you that you are holy, holy, holy. We ask that you would work in our lives so that we would bask in your greatness, that we would worship in your holiness, that it would not be intellectual thoughts, but this would be so practical that it would convict us of our sins, that it would transform our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that when others look at us, they will praise you because of what you have done in us and through us because of the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for that. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
