The Holiness of God

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, April 6th. In order to live a holy lifestyle, believers must first understand the holiness of God. Join us today as the Character of God series continues. There is no one place that puts all of the meaning of the holiness of God together. Yet if you looked in your Bible, you'd find somewhere around 700 times the more that the word holy is used. Holy, holiness, holiest. But I believe my favorite passage about God's holiness is Isaiah chapter 6. The vision he saw at this particular time and the understanding that he perceived of the holiness of God. And he begins by saying in verse 1, In the year the king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims, each one had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he did fly. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of his glory. And the post to the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?

Then said I, Here am I, send me. Isaiah had a vision of the Lord at the death of King Uzziah. And I believe that one of the reasons God gave Isaiah this particular vision was not only to issue him a call to do something, but also I believe to encourage his heart, because he had already seen Uzziah's grandson Ahaz began to rule, and he had seen the evil direction in which he was headed.

And at a time of great discouragement and disillusionment, maybe in the life of Isaiah as he looked at his people, God gave him a vision of himself. And it's interesting that that vision was a vision of the holiness of God. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

And I want us to think for just a few moments how God has revealed his holiness to us. In the book of Leviticus, over 100 times, you're going to find the word holy. For example, he talks about holy things like the Ark of the Covenant.

When a man touched that, God would strike him dead. He talked about holy men, like the priest. He talked about holy garments, the things that they wore. He speaks of a holy city, Jerusalem. And he speaks of a holy city that is to come, the New Jerusalem. He spoke of the holy prophets. There were holy places. There were many, many things that he deemed as holy. And you see, you can start in Genesis with the holiness of God and go all the way to the book of the Revelation.

And what you and I will find, we'll find the same thing in the Revelation. God is indicating his holiness. And you see, as the angels, for example, would speak in the Revelation, listen to in chapter 4, verse 8.

And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him, and they were full of eyes within. And they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is, and is to come. In the last chapter of that same book, he's still talking about, He that is holy, let him be holy still.

He talks about the holy city, the New Jerusalem. You see, from God's point of view, he is separated from everything that is sinful. He says there is no darkness in him, that God is light. And there is no darkness in him at all. God is totally removed from darkness. And the word darkness in the scripture is an indication of sin and evil. Light an indication of righteousness and holiness and purity in the eyes of God. And he has been attempting to reveal his holiness all through the Old Testament.

For example, look at his dealings with men, just specific men. Look, if you will, in Exodus chapter three, and you'll recall when God met Moses at the burning bush. What did he say to him? The Lord saw that he turned aside to see, and God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses.

And he said, Here am I. And he said, Listen, draw not nigh that don't come any closer. Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standeth is holy ground. When Moses went up in the mountain, he said to them, You tell them not to come any closer. You put a fence all around this place.

Tell them don't come any closer. If they come any closer, they'll be struck dead right on the spot. One man reaches over to touch the ark of the covenant because he was about to fall, and God struck him dead. Now, from a human point of view, we say, Well, how could God mistreat a fellow like that?

He was just trying to keep it from falling. But you see, more important than that was God was teaching his people the lesson, what? That God is holy. When he says don't do it, don't do it. If God says don't touch it, don't touch it. If God says you'll die, you'll die.

He says the man who goes into the holy of holies without blood other than the great high priest, he'll be struck dead in the presence of God. God was in the process of teaching them he would not tolerate sin or disobedience under any circumstance. You'll recall, for example, in Joshua.

Look there just a moment. Joshua 5, verse 15. You remember that Moses had given the mantle to Joshua when Joshua was taking over.

He's come to Jericho now. And verse 13 says, And he came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, they lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, there stood a man over against with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him and said unto him, Art thou for us, or art thou an adversary? And he said, Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord, am I now come? Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship and said unto him, What sayeth my Lord unto his servant?

And listen. And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standeth is holy ground. And Joshua did so when God met with his servants.

Oftentimes, what was he teaching them? That God is holy. He says, Take your shoes off your feet, because you cannot stand with shoes on your feet in this place because it is holy ground.

Now, let me ask you something and just be honest for a moment. Is there any place on the face of this earth that you honestly and truly consider to be holy unto God? The holiest place ought to be where you meet God the most often. In your home or some place that you get along with God, the holiest place in all the earth ought to be the place that you meet God the most often.

You see, in the tabernacle in the temple, it was the holy of holies. God says, I will come down at the mercy seat and I will meet you there. But every single one of us ought to have this private place where God meets us. And if you will find a place, it may be beside your bed in one spot.

It may be a closet that you cleaned up. It may be someplace in your home, but there ought to be someplace that is holier than every other place on the face of the earth to you, because that's where you and God fight your battles. That's where you're able to sense the presence of God dealing and working in your heart in a very special way. That's where you dump your sin. That's where you have your greatest times of repentance.

That's where God visits you in that quiet, personal way. You never know God until you and God begin to have a warm, intimate, personal, quiet relationship that is so private some things could never be shared in public. Until you're able to feel the presence of God. Until you know you stand in the presence of God.

Until you could just reach out and touch Him because you know He's there. We need to develop a relationship with Him whereby in His presence we feel like doing the same thing that's taking off our shoes, bowing our heads and our hearts before God, covering up our head in His presence. There's some things holy people will never tolerate. It was a difficult lesson for them to learn that God is holy and that God will not put up with sin. That just certain things we would tolerate in our life if we really and truly understood that God is holy and that not like His holiness, but as He is holy, so are we to be holy. Now how do you know that God's holy?

The most perfect display of the holiness of God is the cross. How can God save a sinner and at the same time remain holy? That is, He says He can't look upon sin. How can God suddenly begin to look upon a sinner when He's holy and we are sinful?

Just one way. He looks at us through the blood of Jesus Christ that makes us holy in His eyes. You see, the cross is the best explanation of what God thinks about sin.

What does He think about it? That it's so bad. It's so destructive.

It's so vile. It's so eternal in its consequences only one person could atone for it and that's Jesus Christ. The cross is a demonstration, is a display of the holiness of God because He cannot accept sin, tolerate sin, because He cannot excuse sin. The price must be paid.

And what is the price? The death of His own son. And you see, you and I wink at sin and we say, oh, that's not too bad. Look at the cross. You look at the cross and you'll discover what a holy God thinks about all sin. Now, God is holy. How are you and I to respond to the holiness of God? We get a glimpse of the fact that you see, listen, now watch this.

I want you to get a hold of this. God didn't give us all of this in order to keep us from having fun, enjoying life. He gave us His law in order to protect us from the consequences of sin. Now, when you and I get a little glimpse of the holiness of God, the first thing that's going to happen to us is the same thing that happened to Isaiah. Now, watch what happened. Verse 4, And the post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, watch this, woe is me. I am undone, I am unclean, I live amidst people who are unclean, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

Now, what is he saying? Isaiah said when he saw God in His holiness, the first thing that happened to him was he saw how sinful he was. Now, listen, every once in a while, somebody will say, well, I've really been looking at my life and I really don't see that there's anything wrong. You know, we shouldn't go around without introspection, but I think we do have to keep our eyes on God.

And whenever you and I get a little glimpse of Him, we see how sinful we are. Let me just make a suggestion when you pray. You go home tonight and you get on your knees quietly wherever you want to pray.

Let me ask you, let me just check you out on something. Don't say a word for a few minutes. Just don't say anything. Just get on your knees and get quiet by yourself. Just be quiet. Don't say anything.

Let me tell you something. You'll begin to get a feeling about God that you'll never get as long as you do the talking. The best way to start your praying is not to say a thing. It's just be quiet. And let God slip in on you and move in on you and cover you.

And you see, here's what happens. You won't have to wonder if you've sinned. You won't have to wonder what to confess.

You won't have to wonder what's wrong. It is amazing when a man or a woman gets quiet before God and you feel the presence of the Lord. You want to praise Him. You want to thank Him. You want to bless Him. But you want to confess. You want Him to search your heart. You see, when a man gets a glimpse of God, he doesn't want anything in his life. He can't tolerate anything in his life. He doesn't have to be urged to repent. He doesn't have to be pleaded with to make things right. Now let me tell you something.

I want you to get a hold of this. It's one of those things if I could just screw it into your mind, into your heart, I'd do it. Listen, man, you can't pray. You can't kneel in the presence of a holy God and be heard of God and have God answer your prayer when you know there are things in your life that ought not to be there. I'm telling you, you're wasting your time and fooling yourself.

It may be something in your business that's dishonest. It may be some habit in your life that God keeps pointing at, pointing at, pointing at, and you keep working twice as hard to atone for it, and God is absolutely unimpressed with all the work in the world. You see, because He's holy, He cannot tolerate that.

And my friend, with all of my soul I plead with you, stop wasting your time. When Isaiah saw God, he fell on his face before the Lord. He said, I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell amidst people of unclean lips. Oh, God, how can you kneel before a holy God, knowing in your heart that there are things there that ought not to be there, and you expect God to listen to you when He says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, He will not hear me. Your actions may be acceptable before the world, but the rebellious spirit, I'm gonna have my way.

I'm gonna do my thing. It may not be that way at all. It may be, Lord. You can have it all, but there's one little itsy bit over here that you can't have, and you can have all the rest of that beauty of my life.

But this part right here, not very large, but that I keep for me. And God says, no deal. Now listen to me.

Listen carefully. The holiness of God will separate us from intimacy with God until we are willing for Him to clean us out from the tip of our toe to the top of our head inside and out with nothing in reserve. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, you are so patient with us.

You've put up with so much stuff in all of our lives that you couldn't have been pleased with. And we're just asking you this morning, would you just unbutton our heart? Would you just unzip our spirit and let us look in deep down inside with an open, honest mind and heart to see how far short we've fallen, how often we've rationalized it, how many times we've made excuses. And Father, I pray there'll be honest confession, a new sense of commitment, a new excitement, a new thrill, a new sense of devotion to you, a deep yearning and longing, and a new sense of faith because we're willing to allow the Holy Spirit to live His life in us, giving us direction and guidance, enabling us by His power, not our own, to become the men and women you want us to be. Help us to understand how short this life is, how long eternity is, that the struggle will be worth the everlasting reward. And we pray this, Father, in Jesus' name. Thank you for listening to The Holiness of God. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.