Grab your Bibles and let's go to Romans chapter 5 this morning. Romans chapter 5. A church member sent me a Text a while back and had the message that I preached out of this chapter. In the text thread. From, I think, 20-something years ago.
I've since redone it and worked on it some more. But it stirred my heart about afresh about some Basic things that we Well, we need more of in professing Christendom in the evangelical church and the Baptist church. And one of those things is, we need much more on the holiness of God. Everything really depends on that. If you're not growing in your grasp of The holiness of the one true triune God, then nothing else seems to find its place in your theology or your doctrine.
And it's exceedingly practical. What I'm preaching to you today is not for a few guys in ivory towers and academic settings, it's for us. That we might marvel afresh, treasure anew, joy more deeply. And the wonders of who our God is. There's.
Malicious, maybe that might be strong, but seductive ploy, I think, of the enemy. To get us focused on people. And then we begin to change God so that people feel better about God. That is radically upside down. That's not what we should be doing.
And that's why Dr. Sealex positions the best medicine. Keeps us right on track with the things we need to grasp and know and understand.
So we look at Romans chapter 5, and I want to dedicate this to a person that. Lives in another city out of state, but watches our broadcast every week and. This dear person is a dear friend, and um They've been on something of a spiritual pilgrimage. And in recent days, show real evidence that God is drawing them. And so this is a weighty, and it'll be two parts.
This is a weighty Uh expression Exhortation on The gospel. As it also is, of course, on the holiness of God. Romans chapter five, beginning in verse six and going through verse 10. For while we were still helpless, At the right time, Christ died for the Ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man, someone would dare even to die.
But God demonstrates his own love. You might say his unique one and only kind of love. Only he has this love. His own love toward us. And that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more than, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son. Much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
Now this text contains four Powerful Devastating Descriptive terms. That expression Your condition, my condition, our condition. Naturally speaking before the holy God. The first term is the term helpless in verse 6, for while we were still helpless. The idea behind that Greek word is sick.
And weak and without strength. That's how you stood. Before this all-consuming holy God. The second word is also in verse 6. Christ died for the unmanned.
Godly That in the totality of your being, you are anti-God. Not in harmony with him. Communion with him, not anything like him. The third of these devastating Descriptives. Is in verse 10 while we were yet enemies.
This means we loathed God, naturally speaking. And God loathed us. Then we were reconciled through the death of his son. And then I skipped the third should be sinners in verse 8. That God demonstrates his own kind of love toward us in that while we were yet.
Sinners It's one who has not performed according to the Creator's design and expectation.
So it's like Paul just puts Superlative upon superlative, descriptive upon descriptive, to drive home to the church at Rome. Whom he's writing to particularly here, and all of us. Our condition before this holy God.
Now, why are we in this condition? Simply speaking, it's because God is Holy. He's not what you think he is. God is not just a little cleaner or a little higher version of you. He's holy.
That's the word God's Spirit gave to the writers of Scripture when they wanted to pin who God was.
So, this God that we stand before, this God that created us, this God to whom we will give an account. This God is awesome in all respects. The composite wonder of this one true God is summed up in that word. Holy. Revelation chapter 4, verse 8.
The writer writes, Holy, holy, holy. It's like one holy is not enough. Is the Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come. The idea here is, He and He alone is the only one who is worthy of all honor. all glory and all worship.
The text says there, he who was, he's the holy creator. That's what he was doing in the past. It's the Holy One who is. He is right now the sovereign governor of everything that happens. And he's the holy one that is to come.
He will come. and bring together the culmination of all things, establishing The eternal state, of course, after the judgment.
Now Why did Adam and Eve sin and run from God in the Garden of Eden when God showed up? Because God is holy. Why did God appear in a burning bush to Moses instead of just appearing face to face? Because Moses couldn't handle it because God is holy. Why did God hide Moses in the cleft of the rock as he just passed by him?
To protect Moses. Because God is holy. When God descended on Mount Sinai, He covered the mountain in clouds and smoke. Wow. Because God is holy.
When Isaiah saw the Lord And Isaiah called holy, or so the angels cry, holy, holy, holy. And immediately, in shame, Isaiah says, I am a man of unclean lips. And I live among a people of unclean lips, lips expressing the condition of the heart. That's because God is holy. Why did Peter and James and John become terrified when the glory of God shone around them on the Mount of Transfiguration?
Because immediately they were crushed with the reality that God is holy. Why did Jesus, when he rose from the dead, ascend back up into heaven? Because he was about to be glorified. And a holy one should be in a holy place. And why will men hide themselves when the wrath of the Lamb returns in the end times, crying out for the mountains to cover them and even fall on them, rather than face this raging warrior who brings the retribution of God back to earth?
Why do they hide themselves? Because God is holy. And you might think, Pastor, I've just read the text. This text doesn't speak of the holiness of God. Oh, yes, it does.
Look at verses five through seven again. I'm sorry, let's look at verses six and seven. while we were still helpless. At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man.
He said, Now that's the way you guys are, that's the way mankind is. Though perhaps among mankind, naturally speaking, For a really good guy. One would even dare to die. He said, that's what man is like. But he said, I want to put that in contrast to God who's different than you, who's holy.
But God, verse 8. Demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Among mankind, a man might die for another really good man. It doesn't happen often, but it can happen. But God died for really.
Bad men. The contrast. The contrast is He's different from us. He's holy. We're unholy.
We're not even barely as good as God is good. And throughout the Bible, you see that over and over and over again, where God tried to give us some better grasp. I'm saying that anthropomorphically because God's not trying to do anything better. But what I mean is, God trying to communicate to us in our dullness. Who he really is, he will often point out our fallenness, our sinfulness, our depravity.
So he can get a better grasp of who he is. It's like putting a diamond on black velvet, it just shows out better. God pictures himself to the blackness of who we are. The contrast speaks to us over and over again that he is holy.
Now, the word hagios is the Greek word for holy, and it simply means set apart. There's all of creation, there's everything else, and then there's God who is set apart. He's unique.
So Isaiah 46, 9 kind of emphasizes this quite directly. Isaiah 46, verse 9 says, For I'm God, and there is no other. I am God, and there's no one like me. His radical, his infinite uniqueness. I'm not like you.
I'm set apart. I'm different from all of you.
So, all of this foolish nonsense, this woeful, fallen sentimentality out there today. Where people say, well, I believe God would, and I feel God this, and it doesn't matter what you believe in, it doesn't matter what you feel, it matters who He is. Get your silly little schoolgirl feelings in line with the word of God. Let God be God, and let every man be what? A liar.
You see, that's just the way we are. Left to ourselves, we'll come up with all kinds of false lying conclusions. about this one true holy God.
So four thoughts here, four things about this. Holiness of God in my little primer on the holiness of God. Roman 1: In all the ways God made us like Himself, He is yet infinitely superior to us. We are made in the image of God. We call this the communicable attributes.
God communicated, connected, gave us. Many attributes. like he himself has. We are image bears, made in the image of God. That's why we believe so strongly in the sanctity of human life and abhor abortion, because the rabbits are not made in the image of God, the horses are not made in the image of God, the bears are not made in the image of God, even the precious killer whales and the dolphins.
Even your precious little puppy dog. Got to be careful here. I'll get off on something, I'll get in trouble. It's okay to love your dog. But don't be like this culture.
They forgot to love them like you love dogs. You can love a dog as a dog. It gets to be sin when you start loving dogs like people. I can't resist. It really Stirs my ire.
When there's a massive flood in Texas. Precious babies, precious children are swept away. Over 100, 175 I think at one time were not yet found. And they're already showing stories of people rescuing dogs. Listen to me.
I would rescue my dog, but not until those made in the image of God are rescued. Then we worry about the dogs. Can I get amen, church? I've just told you you can love your dog as a dog. Pastor, you getting off on something here?
Yeah. I believe it all comes back to the holiness of God. If he's holy and we're made in his image and we understand the rest of creation is not, all this kind of gets in place, does it not? The propriety of things gets Straightened out well.
Well, God has given man qualities like he himself has, but in all of these ways God's communicated, shared with us, mankind, qualities that he originally has, we yet fall short. God is giving, so man knows something of giving. God is caring, so man knows something of caring. God is patient, so men know something of patience. God is wise and men know something of wisdom.
God is just, so men have something of a clamoring of true justice. God is loving, so mankind knows something about love. God is forgiving, and Man knows something about forgiveness. We are image-bearers. But in every one of these, we fall terribly short compared to God.
for all have sinned and fall short. of the glory of God. God, in effect, says, I made you to reflect these attributes because they originally came from me, the one, true, holy, perfect God. You reflect them as I reflect them, and every single one of you, blow it. You don't love like I love.
You don't care like I care. You're not giving like I'm giving, and on and on we could go. God shared with us these things, but. He lives them out in perfect holiness. We do not.
You see, God's giving is holy giving. God's caring is holy caring and God's patience is holy patience, and God's wisdom is holy patience. Holy wisdom, and God's justice is holy justice, and God's love is holy love, and God's forgiveness is holy forgiveness, and on and on we could go. Holiness speaks of his perfection and supremacy. Holiness points to the Godness of God.
He transcends us. It transcends us. He transcends, goes beyond. If you take everything that we might do well, if you take the most giving person you know, the most caring person you know, the most forgiving person you know, I guarantee you they don't match God. Matter of fact, very often what we will do We warp the virtue or the attribute.
And make it something that it's not. We have so much of that on the liberal wing of our culture today with these words of caring and equality and compassion, but they warp it out of balance with the other attributes and virtues. And they misuse it. You say, but God transcends us, He never does that. All the great attributes of God that He shared with us, He lives them in perfect harmony and accountability one to another.
We have these attributes because God is those attributes.
So, in all the ways he has shared something of what he is with man, man has radically failed at it. He transcends us. He keeps them perfectly.
Well, Roman numeral 2. He is at the same time radically unique from us and separate from us. Again, Isaiah 46:9, he said, I'm the one God, and there's none like me. There's no one like me. There's so many things about God that We know nothing about.
He's eternal. We know nothing about being an eternal being. He's spirit. We know nothing about a spirit being. He's omnipresent everywhere at one time.
We can't comprehend that. Omnipotent, all-powerful. No man is all-powerful. He's self-existing. We can't even relate, comprehend that.
He's immutable, he changes not. We change all the time. Creator.
So, in so many ways. He's radically Different from us. That's a part of his holiness. One of the most obvious ways and pointed ways he's different is the way he is. Pure And righteous.
Because we are so impure and we are so unrighteous. Isaiah 46, verse 5 reminds us: To whom would you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, that we would be alike? Nobody.
So, the holiness and what must be thundered from this pulpit for all time is the onliness of God. You see, in a very Full sense, you can never say God is like blank because He's not like anything else.
Now, we do that to be helpful, to grasp some things, but in the truest sense, that's not true. You see, there is nothing outside of God by which God is measured or judged. He is the standard. Through his word, we know him truly, but we can never, are you listening to me? Never now or in eternity know him fully.
You will never know God fully. Give it up. Because he's infinite. And when you get to heaven? Told you many times, you'll have a perfect mind, but not an infinite mind.
And every day in heaven, you'll learn more of the glories and wonders and perfections and holiness of God, and that will result in increasing and increasing pleasures we will have in heaven.
So one way you know you're going to heaven, are you listening? is that there's at least I'm kind of liking this new stage, by the way. Look at here. I'll go over and preach to you guys for just a minute. Way over here.
What was I talking about? I've had, I got heart trouble. Bear with me just a minute. Yeah. And it does affect your brain.
I couldn't believe that, but it does. It throws your nervous system off and it affects your thinking, it affects your sleep. And did you know that? I didn't know that.
So if you can't sleep And other things, go to the heart doctor. It might help you. I don't know. There's got to at least be the germ. a seed of something down in you that says I'm finding God more pleasurable.
than sin and the things of this world.
So preacher. I leak during the week. I get kind of callous during the week. I get a little brazen during the week and a little cold. Preach it back into me that I might rekindle the flame of finding pleasure in God.
And then when you go to heaven, Woof. You'll be a giant bomb fire. A flame. Of the pleasures of God. Isn't that good?
Because Satan can take everything away from you, but he can't take your pleasure in God away. Good stuff.
Okay, Roman 3. Holiness is the composite of all of his attributes.
So, we like to say that holiness is not just one part of God. Though each part of God in his attributes is marked by holiness. Hey Of the attributes and all of their perfect oneness and harmony in God. is the holiness of God. Holiness is the sum of all excellence.
The combination of all of his attributes constitutes the perfection of character. All of his attributes are holy. And all of them coming together in him signifies, again, the godliness. Yeah. I don't want you.
to grasp him. Because if you think you've grasped God, you haven't known him at all. I want you to marvel over his infinity. That we do know some things for sure.
So much we can't know.
So, the composite of all that he is is. The holiness of God. Number four. In our primer own holiness. His holiness means he is devoted to his own honor and worship.
God would be sinning. If God honored or worshiped anyone anything other than God.
So, God in perfection can only rightly honor and worship that which is perfect, and that is Him. As I've said many times, God is the only being that can look in the mirror and say, Perfect. Perfect. He's a holy God. Matter of fact.
The first three Commandments in the moral law of God are about honoring and worship God, and honoring and worship Him only. Know the gods before me? Number two, make no graven images. Number three, do not take my name in vain. Which means don't attribute to me anything contrary to who I really am.
That's taking his name in vain. If you say God's not sovereign, God's not everywhere at one time. That's taking his name in vain because his name means the character of who God is. And that's not true about him, he is everywhere. And he is totally sovereign.
You little puny, arrogant one, you don't have to understand him to make him be true. It's not my job to help you understand him. It's my job to proclaim him and let the Holy Spirit communicate to you.
So, God continually in the Old Testament commanded Israel to worship God and worship God only.
So many verses, but Psalm 29, verse 2: ascribe to the Lord the glory to his name. Worship the Lord in holy array. Mm. Jeremiah 25, verse 6. Do not go after other gods and serve them to worship them?
Do not provoke me in anger with the work of your hands, or I will do you harm. Again, I alone am to be honored and worshipped. When Jesus was being tempted rather in the wilderness. Jesus told Satan You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only. The exclusiveness of worship.
It is all to God. It's because of his intrinsic worthiness, i.e., his holiness. That all will be made to worship him. Did you hear me? I said, all.
Donald Trump. Vladimir Putin. All of them. Every Monarch and tyrant and dictator or president that's ever existed, and all people will be made to worship God. Romans 14, 11.
For it is written, As I live, says the Lord. In other words, if I'm alive, this is true. And you can't kill God because he never got birthed. As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God. When Jesus returns.
There'll be a future eternal state established. And the eternal state has two main compartments. They're those damned in the eternity of hell and endless punishment. And those under grace In the eternity of God's loving presence. And pleasures and joy.
But all will worship him. The unredeemed in torment will worship him under justice. Vindicating the truth. of his just retribution upon them. And all of them under his grace.
We'll worship him in joy for his love. His kindness, his mercy, his forgiveness. But all will worship.
Now, we're going to pick up on these four terms again next week, Lord willing, but. Our natural state before this holy God renders us hopeless. Ungodly. Sinners And enemies. Each time.
Hermes. Screams. of man's woeful fallen condition. But even more of God's wondrous holiness. When we come to the doctrine of man's fallenness and man's depravity, depravity, rather, we must always view these from the perspective.
of the triune God's holiness. When the scripture speaks of sinfulness, it's always. Ebony, even more so, speaking of God's holiness. Because we're not sinners if he's not holy. And we are sinners because he is holy.
The contrast. So small group teacher. Infuse your teaching with the doctrine of the holiness of God. There's probably nothing churches today need more than this. They don't know who God is.
They know a little superstitious, silly, unbiblical view of helping people have better lives. When the best way to help you have a better life is to get to know the Holy God. Satan's a liar. You see, if we fail to preach, fail to teach the holiness of God. Since loses its sting.
Hello. Hell rather loses its terror. Salvation loses its treasure. And heaven loses its sweetness.
Now Let's get this real personal for a moment. Just real person on a personal level. All of these. Vast. Unknowable truths about God's holiness.
What's that mean for me?
Well, up in Romans 5.1 The text says, Therefore, having been justified with God, or justified by faith, I should say, we have peace. With God. You don't get it. You don't get what it takes for you to be at peace with a holy God. Do you know they're good Baptist folks?
Because they haven't been taught well, who really believe that because they walked down an aisle, they did what it takes for a sinner to have peace with the Holy God. Walking down the aisle is not wrong. It's just not enough. There are many good evangelicals. Because they haven't been taught well believed that I prayed a prayer.
My preacher told me to pray.
So I've done enough to be at peace with the Holy God. No, you haven't. You see, when it comes to our salvation. Oh my goodness. We must remind ourselves.
It's a holy salvation. I could pick up this pulpit and throw it over Doss Borden's head back there. But I'd have a heart attack. No, my heart's fine. I'm teasing.
Ah, holy A holy salvation. You know what the word holy means? Hey, you guys means set apart. That means, Dr. Seale, it's not of us.
It's set apart. Our salvation. is of God. That gets pretty personal, doesn't it? That gets pretty important to us as individuals.
Ours is a holy Salvation. God Set apart. For himself to perform everything concerning our salvation. Our sa salvation was set apart to God and planned by God. Our salvation was set apart.
And given to Jesus, God's Son, God. In flesh. To procure our salvation. And then the Spirit of God imparts that salvation. It's holy.
Unto God. The question is. Have you got a little cracker jack, superstitious hoop jump salvation? Or are you resting? In the holy salvation of God.
Don't you dare. On your deathbed. All right, Brother Matt, or somebody asks you, do you have peace before God? Lord, would you say, Well, Brother Matt, Brother Jeff, I repeated that prayer. No, no, don't say that.
You'll break my heart in a million pieces. You say, power. Pastor, I'm resting on the holy God and the holy salvation He's provided through Jesus Christ, and that's it. That's it. My, my, my, my.
What a salvation we have. The psalmist. rebukes men for their tendency to Make God kind of a bigger version of ourselves. Make salvation kind of a work that is kind of of us. When he says in Psalm 50, verse 21, these things I have done, you have done, brother, and I've kept silent.
You thought I was just like you. You thought salvation to be something that makes sense to you. You thought salvation was composed of steps or movements or hoop jumps that you invent. No, it's holy. It's apart from you.
Yes, you must repent. Yes, you must turn to Christ. But even that comes because the Spirit of God convicts and draws.
So don't put man in it. Do you think God would save his children according to our unholy reasonings? When Jesus died on the cross. He did not cry. Most of it is finished.
Yeah. No, he said, it is finished. Jesus, even before he goes on the cross. States John 17, 4. To the Heavenly Father.
The heavenly son says, I glorified you on the earth, having accomplished the work which you've given me to do. It's done.
Well, Pastor, then then what? Must I do to be saved? You believe? You believe? Maybe three components to that.
You believe the truth of your own holy Sinful. depravity before God. I just believe. I, before a holy God, I might look good according to my neighbor down here on earth, but before a holy God, I believe. I have great needs I can't meet.
I cannot clean up this wickedness. Emma Harden Life. Secondly, You believe?
Somehow. And love incomparable Jesus died to pay the debt for you. You believe that?
Now this is not the belief of just intellectual assent. It's the believe of heart embrace. That I embrace that. I rest in that. I rely on that.
I believe I'm a sinner. I believe he paid my debt. And I believe. That he is who he said he was. The Lord.
And I'm purposing to honor and follow him as the Lord of my life. You're not given a statement on performance. Put on a new position and purpose. Believe. I charge you with all the authority of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, come today and Believe.
That's enough. Paul and Silas were in prison. Singing hymns They were in prison for preaching the gospel. Yeah. God said an earthquake.
Their chains fell off in the Jail Doors, prison doors swung open. The jailer was terrified. He knew that he would be held accountable for the escape of the prisoners. Paul and Silas said, Don't be afraid, we're still here. And the man said, Well, what can I do to be saved?
And I expect when you got a question that clear, God would get it right. What can I do to be saved? Paul said, believe. On the Lord Jesus Christ. and you shall be saved.
Have you Acknowledged in your mind and embraced in your heart, I'm a sinner. I don't know why, but he died for me. I embrace that. And thirdly, I believe he's Lord. I may not be perfect at it.
You know what heaven is? Heaven is, you'll finally serve Jesus perfectly. I may not be perfect, but I'm purposing to follow him as my Lord. God so loved the world. He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth.
And here. Shall have Eternal. Wife.
