Good morning, redeemed ones. Good morning, brother. Glad everybody is here. I pray in the mornings that God would bring who he wishes to hear this message, and so I am convinced that if you're here today, you are here to hear this message. I like the new song, you know, the, what's it called, The Battle Belongs? You know, I mean, I like that song. It makes me want to come up here and beat on these drums. You know, it just, you know, it's got that thing. Open up your Bibles if you would. I'm going to be in a few different verses, but we're going to kind of be mainly in Isaiah chapter 6. So please open your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 6. or turn them on to Isaiah chapter six, whatever you have in your hands there for a Bible. So let's pray and then we'll start. Father, truly you are great and the battle does belong to you. And because you are great and the battle belongs to you, Lord, we can sing that it is well with our soul. And we can come before you and behold our God, seated on his throne. Come, let us adore him. Father, as we come and we look into your word today, I pray that you would accompany the preaching of your word. I pray, Father, that our hearts would be in tune with your spirit, that our ears would hear what you want us to hear, that our eyes would see what your word says, and that we would leave today changed because of your greatness. Father, help us to see you high and lifted up in the light of your glory. So Father, I ask these things in your name that you would be praised, that you would be glorified in our lives. In your name, amen. So we're gonna do a series on God's attributes. So the first one I wanna deal with is the holiness of God. God's holiness. I think is something that we often forget about. We're usually consumed with God's love, that God is love and God is good, and those things are true. But God is holy above all things. When we think of people good or bad, holy or not holy, we tend to compare ourselves to each other. And so we say things like, well, I'm not as bad as Hitler, or I'm not as bad as Mussolini, or I'm holier than this person, or I'm holier than that person. But you and I are not the standard. You and I are not the measuring stick of holiness. But you and I have learned in this world to live with unholiness because that's all that surrounds us is unholiness. We see it every day. We are disappointed when our politicians lie to us. Shocker. Or the news media doesn't give us the truth. We are disappointed when our good friends are not completely honest with us. Unholiness has become a epidemic in our world today. So what then is holiness? God's holiness is described as awesome. We use that word awesome, don't we? The Bible uses that word awesome, and God's holiness is awesome, and when the Bible speaks of God's holiness being awesome, this is what it means. It means God is to be feared, he's to be revered, he's to be afraid of when we use his word awesome. It is not he's a cool dude. He is to be revered. His holiness should instill fear and reverence due to his name. The Jewish people revered his name so much that they wouldn't even use the vowels in his name. God's holiness, we see that he is the standard of holiness. He is the measuring stick, not man. The Bible tells us that God is holy. And everything else derives its holiness from God's holiness. God is holy in His beauty. His beauty is His holiness. Psalm of Solomon 4.7 says, you are altogether beautiful. We looked at it last week. My love, there is no flaw in you. Solomon is talking about his wife. Jesus talks about his bride. But do we talk this way about God? Do we see God exalted in his holiness? And do we say, you are altogether lovely? Your holiness is your beauty. A.W. Pink says this, power is God's hand or arm, omniscience his eyes, mercy his bowels, eternity his duration, but holiness is his beauty. Do we see God as beautiful? Holiness means to be set apart. to have this idea of to cut or divide. Kind of like when we get up in the morning and we have toast and we cut it and we divide it on our plates. That's what it is. God is set apart. But what is he set apart from? First of all, God is set apart from all of his creation. He is set apart from you and I. He is holier than any of us will ever be. and He has set apart. Now He's just not a little set apart, but He is magnificently set apart from us. He has set apart from the universe that He has created. When we look at the glories of the universe that the Hubble telescope shows us, and we see these magnificent things, He has set apart from that. He is high and transcendent above that. He is set apart from His holy angels. He is above all, completely set apart. Truly, there is none like Him. He is set apart. He is majestic. There is none like him. Listen to Exodus 15, 11. Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you? Majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders. This word majestic means glorious, noble, great. He is excellent in all of his splendor. God is awe-inspiring in His holiness. He is not boring, but He is stunning. Do you see Him as stunning? When you read your word, do you read the word in a sense of, oh, this is boring, or do you look at it as, this is the stunning revelation of who God is, and He's bringing that to my heart? He is absolutely stunning in everything He does. This word majestic talks about his royalty, his regal splendor. He is majestic in His holiness. He is incomparable in His holiness. Nothing can compare to His holiness. 1 Samuel 2.2 puts it this way. There is none holy like the Lord, for there is none beside you. There is no rock like our God. There is none holy like Yahweh. Monks. Holy people, there is none holy like our Lord. Holiness represents exaltation and magnification of God, being high and lifted up, Psalm 22.3, yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. He's enthroned on the praises of Israel. A.W. Tozer puts it this way, we know nothing like the divine holiness. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible, and unattainable. The natural man is blind to it. He may fear God's power and admire his wisdom, but his holiness he cannot even imagine. We cannot even imagine God's holiness. And we will get to that in a little while. When we have a high view of God's holiness, when we have a high view of God, we live life with that high view. Our lives are pursuing that holiness. Our lives are impacted by that holiness. Our lives are changed by that holiness. When we have this high view, this exalted view, this splendor and majestic view of who God truly is, when we see Him that way, our lives are changed. But when we have a low view of God, our lives have absolutely no impact. And our worship is dull. It is essential that you and I keep the vertical relationship from the horizontal. You know what I mean by that? Here's what I mean. We have to keep this vertical relationship. We have to keep God in his proper perspective. We have to keep him in his proper place. We have to keep God here in the vertical. High, we have to keep Him there because that's where He is, that's where He dwells, that's His proper place. But if we bring Him down to the horizontal, we bring Him down to our level. And He is wholly other than us. We cannot bring Him down to this level. When we bring Him down to this level, we have a small God who only can do small things. But when we keep it vertical and we see Him high and lifted up and exalted, we have a big God who does big things and answers big prayers. It is essential that we keep this. His holiness is magnificent in every way. Look at this passage from Isaiah that you're in. Listen to see what the angels do. what the angels cry out. The angels cry out in Isaiah 6, 3. And one called to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. With the angels in heaven, as they're in the throne room of God, there is no casual worship. And it should be the same for us. Our worship should not be casual. They are amazed at who this person is. They are amazed at who God is. They cry out, holy, holy, holy. What they mean is that God is holy. He is holier than any of His works or any of His creation. He is the holiest of all beings, perfectly holy. His holiness is raised to the highest glory, to the most excellent by their three pronouncements of holy, holy, holy. God is holy, He is holier, and He is the holiest. That is what they are crying out as they are in this temple. Everything about God is holy. All of his attributes are holy. It is his holy love, his holy power, his holy knowledge, his holy wrath, his holy mercy. His angels are called holy angels. His son, Jesus, is the holy one. His spirit is called the Holy Spirit. The word is called the Holy Bible. The land that the Jews were to take was called the Holy Land. The temple that God was, that dwelt in was called the Holy Temple. Where he resided was the Holy of Holies. Holiness is his description, period. This is who he is. We see that the angels, they see his sovereignty, his supreme sovereignty of his kingship. Look at Isaiah 6, 1 and 2. It says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 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. The train of his robe. This is really interesting. The train of God's robe filled the temple. Right? So what this means in ancient times is the robe, the train of the robe, that meant how great the king was. That symbol, that symbolized his authority and how great he was. What do they say about God's robe of strength? It filled the temple. There was no room. What Isaiah is saying is that there was this greatness, ultimate greatness, ultimate authority, and it filled the whole temple. There was no room. God is great. There's no competition. There is no one like Him. That's what Isaiah is saying. We see that supreme. sovereignty of God in his kingship in the temple we see the glory of his person he is high and lifted up this is who he is Isaiah 6 1 in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up This is where he's high, he's lifted up. God is transcendent. That word transcendent means he's beyond or above the natural. God is above, he's far above of his creation. As he's in his throne room, high and lifted up. The seraphim have this demeanor towards him. Now seraphim, we have seraphim and we have cherubims, right? The cherubims were on the, on the Ark of the Covenant, right? But the seraphims, this seraphim, this is really cool. It means the ones set on fire. It means the ones set on fire, the burning ones. And can you imagine, there's probably times in your life when you've been really close to God, where you've really had this experience where you're in the Word and you're enjoying God and you're burning for Him, right? We see people that the Lord first saves and we say, man, they're on fire for Christ because they're so close to Him. These are these angels, they're so close to Him. The disciples on the road to Emmaus, when Jesus was talking to them, they said, didn't our hearts burn? Because they were close. They were right next to holiness, was walking with them. But what do we see with the angels? The angels, they had six wings. Two wings, they cover their face because they can't look upon the brilliance and the glory of God. But they cover their face. of how brilliant he is, of how glorious he is. These burning ones cover their face with two wings. They covered their feet. And unworthy to be in the presence of the master. This unworthiness. We see this with Moses in Exodus 3, 5, as he's before the burning bush. Then he said, do not come near, take your sandals off your feet, for the place which you are standing is holy ground. This was God's charge to Moses. And the seraphim, with two, they flew. They were ready to be messengers of God. They were ready to go for God. The seraphim cried out, the whole earth is full of His glory. Brothers and sisters, glory is the revelation of His holiness. His glory is His holiness. So we see what the angels did in that passage. What was Isaiah's response? What was Isaiah's response when he said, when he saw this one high and lifted up? What was his response? His response was absolute conviction. Absolute conviction, Isaiah 6, 5. And I said, woe is me. Damned is me. Condemned is me. For I am lost, for I'm 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. He says that he is condemned, he's damned. This word lost means he's destroyed. Unclean means defiled. So look at this person. This is a prophet of God. He sees this vision of God. He sees him in all his splendor, all his majesty, all his glory, in all of his holiness. And he says, I am damned. I am condemned. I am destroyed. I am defiled. I am undone. I am being unraveled. This was his experience. When he comes to see this mighty God, Isaiah sees the fullness of his depravity as he looks upon the fullness of God's holiness. Brothers and sisters, I fear of this, that you and I, we don't see the fullness of our depravity because we don't see the fullness of God's holiness. It's much easier to bring God down to our level than to keep Him high and lifted up and exalted. This is who He is. Isaiah has that response. Peter, Peter has the same response. Listen to Luke 5, three through nine. getting into this is Jesus getting into one of the boats which was simon's he asked him to put out a little from the land and he sat down and taught the people from the boat and when he had finished speaking he said to simon put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch and simon answered master we toiled all night and took nothing but at your word i will let down the nets And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish and their nets were breaking. They singled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus's feet. Knees saying depart from me for I am a sinful man Oh Lord for he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of the fish that they had taken Peter Sees this holiness Sees this glory and once he do he falls down and he looks at Jesus and he says depart from me Because I am a sinful man Utter depravity is what Peter saw. John on the Isle of Patmos, listen to what happens to him in Revelation 1. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the lampstands, one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of the head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace. And his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars. From his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword. And his face was like the sun, shining in full strength." Wow! This is the resurrected, glorious Alpha and Omega. This is the one who sits on the throne high and lifted up. This is the holiness of God. And here's what John said, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. He passes out. He does not have a conversation with him. He does not say, nice to see that you came back. He fell as a dead man when he looked upon the holiness of God. You cannot be in the presence of God and be unaffected by the awesomeness of who he is. So how does God manifest his glory? How do we see his glory? How do we see His holiness? Well, His holiness is manifested in His works, right? And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning. This sixth day, Genesis 131, He said that it was very good. It was very good. We see His holiness manifested in His works. We see His holiness manifested in His law, Romans 7, 12. So the law is holy and then the commandment is holy and righteous and good. And the psalmist in Psalm 19 says this, the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. We see His holiness in His law. We see His ultimate holiness, the pinnacle of His holiness, at the cross. It is manifested at the cross. The cross displays the truth that God is flawless. We have to get this. This is important, that He is flawless in His moral character. He is faultless in all His thoughts, His decisions, His actions. He is perfectly sinless. There is no blemish in him. Therefore, God cannot be neutral with sin. God loves righteousness. Therefore, he hates sin. He can't be neutral with sin. That is even with us in our own lives as God's children. We cannot be neutral with sin. Because he is not neutral with sin. Listen to what Psalms 11 says. The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man. The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. Right? The Lord hates the one who does wicked. Why? Because he loves the one who does righteousness. Psalms 5, 5 and 6, the boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and the deceitful man. Habakkuk 1, 13, you who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at the traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? God must, He must punish sin. His holiness and His righteousness demands it. This is His character. His holiness demands that He must punish sin. He must punish you and I for sin against Him. Because He is ultimately holy and people will go to hell exalting His holiness because He is holy. He must punish sin, but you and I could never take that wrath. You and I could never take that punishment. You and I could never atone for our sins against a holy, righteous, majestic, dwelling in ultimate splendor, in an unapproachable light, is what Paul says. That God, we could never atone for that. But Jesus does. In 2 Corinthians 5, 21, for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus bears that punishment. The glorious, infinite Son of God. God Himself takes the punishment for our sin. Oh, He is beautiful beyond all recognition. So now what about us? How do we kind of live life in light of this, right? How do we live life in light of this? Well, let's look at the unbeliever first, right? If you sit here today and you're an unbeliever and you don't believe in this holiness of God, you should be absolutely terrified. Because one day you will stand before this God. And He will be high and lifted up. And He will not be your Savior, but He will be your judge. And He will not judge you by the person sitting next to you, but He will judge you according to His holiness. You should be terrified that this is your end. Again, A.W. Pink writes this, the fact is that nothing makes more manifest the terrible depravity of man's heart, his enmity against a living God, than to have set before him one who is infinitely and immutably holy. Jonathan Edwards, in his sermon on the sinners in the hands of an angry God, says this, the wrath of God burns against them, the unbeliever, the unrepentant, the rebellious. He says the wrath of God burns against them. Their damnation does not slumber. The pit is prepared. The fire is made ready. The furnace is now hot, ready to receive them. The flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is wet and held over them, and the pit hath opened its mouth under them. In essence, what Jonathan Edwards is saying to the unbeliever who remains unrepentant of this holy God, God's holy hell, its mouth is open, waiting to swallow you. And you are hanging over its flames like a spider hangs from the web, and God has the scissors ready to cut it. If you are an unbeliever, this is your end. This is your end. Don't remain unrepentant. Don't stay in your depravity. Cry out to God today. Cry out to God today. If you don't, The fires of hell are for you. The lake of fire is for you. Revelation 20, 13 through 15. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Notice that they are not dead. They are alive in the lake of fire. Unbeliever, you will not be annihilated. You will burn forever in the lake. And what fuels that fire is God's holy wrath for you. Repent. Come to him. God's holiness is fearful. It is terrifying. but His grace we see in the cross of Jesus Christ. Repent today and come to Him. Now what about us as the believers? A few things, just really quick, a few things. First thing is, God's holiness gives us comfort. God's holiness gives us comfort. Why does it give us comfort? Why can we trust in him? Because everything he does is perfect, right? His holiness says that he is flawless. All of his thoughts, his actions, his deeds, like we talked about, that brings us comfort. We know that God will ultimately do everything right. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understandings. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight. God's holiness gives us comfort that we can trust him. God's holiness transforms our worship. When we see him as he is, we will not sing, great is thy faithfulness. We won't sing that way. but our voices will be raised high. We won't worry about the person next to us. We won't worry if we're tone deaf. We won't worry if we have a bad voice. When we see God high and lifted up in all of his glory, in all of his holiness, it will change your worship. It will transform your worship. 1 Corinthians, or 1 Chronicles 16, 29, ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name. bring an offering and come before him worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness Psalms 99 5 exalt the Lord our God worship at his footstool holy is he and in Hebrews 12 28 therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with what with awesomeness reverence, and awe. Brothers and sisters, do you sit here today, are you in awe of God? Are you in awe of His splendor, of His majesty? Are you in awe of His transcendence? Or is God boring to you? I see young kids in here, my video game is much more better than God. No, it's not. God trumps your video games. God trumps our TV shows. God is the one who is high and lifted up, not those things. God's holiness transforms our worship. God holiness gives us a proper view of sin. It gives us a proper view of sin. Listen to Romans 6. It says, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members, your fingers, your eyes, your toes, all these things as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourself to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you. since you are not under law, but you are under grace. When we see God and His holiness, it gives us this proper view. It gives us this view to fight sin, to not let sin reign in our mortal bodies. It should cause us to have a desire to be obedient. 1 Peter 1, 15 and 16. But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. And finally, God, when we see him in his holiness, it will transform our prayer lives. Our prayer lives will be magnificent prayer lives. Because we know who we are praying to. Because we know we pray to a big God. Now to close, may the holiness of God be a comfort to us. May you and I today have a desire to live godly lives pursuing God and his holiness. May God be worshiped and praised today among not only us here at Faith Bible, but in all his people, for he is high and lifted up. May we see him high and lifted up as we come to the communion table now. May we see him in a brand new way. May we see as we look at Christ on the cross, as we come to remember him, the sacrifice that he made. May we see that it is perfect, it is unblemished, it is spotless, it is faultless, it is flawless sacrifice. Christ is the holy sacrifice with no blemish for you and I. He dies the death that you and I should die. He drinks the cup that you and I should drink. And he is raised from the grave so that the grave will no longer hold us. Oh, holiness is his beauty. And we'd be captivated by that as we come to the table. Take a few minutes, as Martin and Chad, if you guys could come, as we pass out these elements, take a few minutes, repent of your sin. Repent of not seeing God how he is as we do communion. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you, do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, also he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you drink this, for as often as you drink it, But for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time. Thank you that we can remember Christ for his death, his burial, his resurrection, for us. Lord, I just thank you for your holiness. Lord, I know it's hard to understand, and there really isn't a human word that can describe it. But we know, Father, that you are wholly other than us, that you are set apart in all your glory. That, Father, when we will need changed bodies, we will need changed eyes so that we can look upon your glory. Father, help us to see you this way so that we will worship you in awe and in reverence and in fear of your holy name. In your name, amen. Please stand as we sing our last song.