The Holiness of God

Dr. Michael Youssef. God is different. He is very different. You cannot compare Him with anyone or anything. He is holy. He is wholly different. And that is why different is good. In fact, God said that He wants everyone of His children, everyone who belong to His Son Jesus Christ, to be different, just like He is different. Thank you for joining listeners all around the world for Leading the Way audio with Dr. Michael Youssef.

Currently, Dr. Youssef is in a series examining how God reveals Himself in the pages of the Bible. It's called God Talk. Listen along with me to this challenging episode of Leading the Way. Perhaps one of the most difficult experiences that a parent has or feels is when they see their child being taunted for being different. Some parents understand what I'm talking about. In fact, if you look across the culture, you'll find that is precisely why so many parents would do everything possible, even beyond their abilities, in order to ensure that their children fit in. Parents would fork out large amounts of money to buy clothes that make their kids not stand out so they look like the others. Many parents will buy expensive trendy clothes or whatever it takes in order that their kids would not feel being left out.

Some this is positive, some it's not. Many parents will go to any length to ensure that their child is in the in crowd, sadly. We have bought into the lie that says different is bad, that different is unhealthy, that different is psychologically damaging, that different is undesirable. And so we see teenagers and young adults conform to the peer pressure. And we see parents going along instead of training their children to stand up and stand out and to stand against the current of culture.

So what do we do in this great country? We thank God every single day that we are free and that we live in a free country, but in reality we are enslaved to conformity. We are enslaved to fads and fashions. We are enslaved to what others think of us. We are terrified to be different.

Pray tell me what kind of freedom is this? One of the biggest lies that Satan sold to us. Both parents and children alike is that different is bad. And yet different is the name of God. Different is one of the attributes of God. Different is what distinguishes God from His creation. Different is what God wants everyone who belongs to His Son Jesus Christ to be and to live and to declare to the whole world.

Perhaps if there is not another term for being Christian would be different. That's what God wants. That's what God desires because He is different. He wants us to be different.

I'm sure by now some of you are probably asking, well, where does Michael get different from the attributes of God? I told you that the sovereignty of God is the hub around which all the other attributes of God revolve, whether it be His grace and mercy, His love. Without His sovereign control His love could not be perfect. It could be altered and affected and His love is not.

It's unconditional. And very close to the sovereignty of God, very tied in to the rule of God is the holiness of God. Okay, you might say, well, I understand that holiness, but where do you get different? You see the Greek word for holy is the word hagios. And the very root of the word hagios, the Greek word means different. Yes, it can mean being set aside. Yes, it can mean being set apart.

Yes, it means being transcendent or transformed. But above all else, it means that God is different. He is very different. You cannot compare Him with anyone or anything. You cannot parallel Him with anyone or anything. You cannot place Him side by side with anyone or anything. He is totally different.

He is holy. He is wholly different. And that is why different is good. In fact, God said that He wants everyone of His children, everyone who belonged to His Son Jesus Christ to be different, just like He is different. Listen to what 1 Thessalonians 4, 3 says, This is the will of God for you.

Do you want to know what the will of God is? Here's what the Apostle Paul said, your sanctification, your holiness. If I paraphrase it in my own translation it will be like this, for this is the will of God for you, you being different, different from what? Different from the immoral people, different from the immorality of the world, different from those secular world that seem to be heading.

Because the rest of the verse in fact gives it to you. The rest of the verse said, we must abstain from immorality. God's holiness means that God is different. Different from what? Different from humanity. But what does it mean for God being different from humanity?

I want you to listen very carefully. It means that He is different in His purity. That He is different in His righteousness. That He is different in His inability to look upon sin. He is different unlike us, He could never wink at sin. Unlike us, He could never ignore sin. Unlike us, He could never condone sin. He has an inability not to judge sin. He has to judge it. And that's precisely why the world is so enraged about the difference of God, about the holiness of God.

Why? Because you see, they want a God who's like them. They want a God whom they can manipulate. They want a God who can endorse their sinful lifestyle. They want a God who is not wholly different. That is why they drag in Christians in courtrooms trying to move all the semblance of the different holiness of God from the Ten Commandments to prayer and school, to Bible studies, to anything that reminds them of the difference of God, the holiness of God.

Why? Because that rage which seemed to somehow be kind of reaching a fever pitch, pray God that maybe because Jesus is near. The reason they're doing this is because God's holiness, God's difference condemned their guilty conscience. And so they think that by removing the symbols of the holiness of God, of the difference of God, by removing these symbols, they can remove the condemnation of sin in their minds. But they know inwardly when they're all alone, that can never happen.

Because my beloved friend, I want to tell you, there's only one thing and one thing only that can remove the condemnation of sin and guilt and that is the shed blood of Jesus Christ on Calvary. When you and I obey the will of God in our lives, we become different. Not that you have to try to be different, not that you have to work hard at being different, you will be different. When you are walking in obedience to the will of God in your life, you will be different.

You don't have to try. And make no mistake about it, different is not always popular. Sure enough, some people are going to look at you and see that you're different, that you have peace in the midst of trouble, that you have joy in the midst of difficult circumstances and they say, I want that. I want to see that.

I want to know more about that. But there will be others who would say, I want nothing to do with that. There are others who will condemn you. There are others who will taunt you. There are others who will hate you because of your difference, your holiness.

How does this work in life? Well, listen to what I'm going to tell you. When you are conforming to the will of God in your life, you will choose not to live in sexual impurity and immorality of any form. And thus you are an imitator of your heavenly Father. You are different.

When you are conforming to the will of God in your life, you will choose to forgive the one who hated you and despised you. You are imitating your heavenly Father. You are different. When you choose not to allow anger and bitterness to corrode your soul and instead reach out in love, you are an imitator of your heavenly Father. You are different. When you choose not to speak ill of others or gossip or back bite, you are an imitator of your heavenly Father. You are different.

When you choose to hold no grudges against others, you are an imitator of your heavenly Father. You are different. When you choose to submit to spiritual authority and not rebel against spiritual discipline in your life, you are an imitator of your heavenly Father and you will be different. When you choose to give sacrificially to the gospel work, not the crumbs that fall off your table, but sacrificially, you are an imitator of your heavenly Father who gave everything for your sake and you will be different. My friend, this different is far from being bad.

This different is good. This different is God-honoring and it causes the blessing of God to come upon your life. But you see, you will never be able to do any of these things if you have lost the vision of the holiness of God, the difference of God. I promise you 99.99% of the times when you fall into a temptation is because you have lost a vision of the holiness of God. I promise you when you rationalize sin in your life, 99.9% of the time is because you have lost your vision of the holiness of God and that you are conforming not to hear the image of His Son but to the image of the world. Think about it.

Think about it. I think if there is major problem in the churches in America today is that we have lost the vision of the holiness of God. I think Isaiah like the average Christian probably was satisfied with his spiritual life.

I am fine. And then God took him into his very presence. Like very few people since then like Ezekiel and John the Revelator and the Apostle Paul, they were given a glimpse of the glory of God, a vision of the holiness of God. And when he comes and he sees the holiness of God, the Holy Trinity, he can only fall on his face and he says, I am undone.

Please turn with me to those words of Isaiah's vision in chapter 6 verses 1 to 8. I am so thankful that the Word of God has been preserved for us to know about this rare and awesome picture that we cannot see here on earth because you can look around and the glory of God is hidden. It's hidden in the political life.

It's hidden in schools. It's hidden but the eyes of faith can see the glory of God. This is a rare glimpse for us to see what is happening in heaven even right now, not only with the angels but all those who have gone before us in that church above, before the holiness of God.

What do you see? You see even angels are awestruck at the awesomeness of God. Angels are bowing down and worshiping God. Angels are ready to serve the living God. Angels in modesty feel unworthy to stand before his throne. Angels who have not been tainted by human sin stand in holy fear and reverence of the holiness of God.

What an incredible picture. Visualize it with me. And you know, here we are today, we judge preachers and teachers on the basis of their skills and their communication, how slick they are, whether the use of technology or not or this or the other thing, not on the basis whether they are lifting the holiness of God. Today we judge preachers and teachers on the basis of their slickness, not on the basis of their sanctification. Today you hear preachers and teachers when they talk about intimacy with God, they talk not about the awesomeness of God that will literally strike us on our faces if ever manifested, but they talk as if God is your little pal down the street. You just come up to him in the morning and say, what's up God? And God says, what's up Bill?

And then you sit down and you chat with him. Listen to me, because God loves us and because he invites us and because he welcomes us and because he cares for us and he gives us your honor of coming to his presence, it does not mean that we treat him as if he's our pal down the road. Being confronted by the holiness of God knocked Isaiah on his face. None of that smugness of self-satisfaction of what I do for God or what a favor that I give God by belonging to a church. None of that God is fortunate to have me. None of that feeling of that I belong to the spiritual elite. No, no, no, no, no, no. None of that feeling that I am doing God a lot of good.

No, my beloved friends, listen to me, a million no. He fell on his face and he said, I am ruined, I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips and live among people of unclean lips. I want you to hear me right. If coming before a holy God in worship does not strike you with a sense of unworthiness, if it does not strike you with a sense of gratitude and thankfulness, chances are either you do not know the holy God or that your love for him has grown cold long time ago and you're not even aware of it. Please Lord, give us a glimpse of your holiness. In fact, it was Isaiah's brokenness before God that later qualified him not only for forgiveness, not only by recognizing his uncleanliness that God sent an angel with fire and touched his lips and thus he became commissioned to speak for God. But he couldn't speak for God before that, even if he thought he might be speaking for God. Beloved, I'll tell you the problem for so many of us today is that we have come to lose sight of the majesty and the glory of God.

We really have. We have not come face to face with that holiness and righteousness of God. And the problem with so many of us today is that we think that once we become saved sometime yonder we give our life to Christ or sign a card or become, we call ourselves saved, that means it's over. Then we can go on living any which way we want to live in our happy merry way. No, my beloved, that is not the Christian faith. Imagine if a mama would give a birth to a baby and once the baby is born, she'll put the baby down and says now that he's born, baby, you take care of yourself now. Now you're born.

No. And that's how many people think that they're getting some fire insurance when they become saved and then they live their life no different from the rest of the world. But that's not the will of God. The will of God is your sanctification. The will of God is your different. I'm going to share this with you for a reason from personal experience. If you're a child of God and you're not living differently and you're not walking in holiness and sanctification, I want to tell you sooner or later you're going to experience a disaster in your life.

And I say that not with glee, but from personal experience. God is going to confront you at some point of your life. Why don't you do it now? D.L. Moody once said about the Christian who thinks that he or she is saved and therefore they don't have to live a holy sanctified life, lives in sin and rationalizes it for himself or herself.

D.L. Moody said those who are not conforming to the likeness of Jesus Christ in their life, he said it's like a bottle that is sealed and there it is sitting at the foot of Niagara Falls. Not a drop of the mighty volume of water will ever get inside. What is the conclusion that you and I should take today? Listen to me.

I'm getting ready to close. Ask yourself the question, are you a sealed bottle? Are you a sealed bottle bobbing up and down in the flood of God's grace but no grace going inside of you? Are you so afraid of being wholly different that you have been going through all of the religious motions, all the religious rituals, all the religious lingo, all of the religious acts, but you're sealed like a bottle. Has your sin and your lack of holiness sealed you so much so that the grace of God is not able to penetrate and flow through your life?

Ask yourself the question. And all my prayer, my prayer that we comprehend the holiness of God and that you would come to him, not with smugness, no, no, no, no, not with self-satisfaction, not with a condescending attitude that doesn't honor God, but in awe, in awe of the holiness of God, that the holy God wants to befriend us, that the holy God wants to welcome us, that the holy God wants to fellowship with us. That in itself is awe-filled experience. Dr. Michael Youssef, offering you a deeper understanding of God's holiness. Listen and watch messages on an assortment of topics, all Bible-centered at ltw.org. And with the Leading the Way app on your mobile device, on the radio, on television, and through your favorite podcast platform. There's more information on how to connect at ltw.org. Hey, that's also where you can learn how to partner with Leading the Way, reaching the world with the life-changing message of God's grace.

You might recall how it's sometimes mentioned that Leading the Way is listener-supported. Well, what that means is that we answer God's call to spread the gospel. Leading the Way relies on your prayers, and we rely on your financial gifts to carry that mission out. There are several ways that you can partner with us. One is by giving an occasional gift as God provides, like a bonus or a tax refund.

And another way is through monthly partnership, like a regular paycheck. Frontline Mission Partners, those are their friends of the ministry who give on a regular monthly basis. Well, those Frontline Mission Partners help Dr. Youssef and the team on the front lines of sharing the truth of God's word all around the world, so you can partner with them. Whether you give a generous one-time gift or you want to become one of Dr. Youssef's Frontline Mission Partners, a ministry representative would be so happy to talk to you about that. Call 866-626-4356.

That's 866-626-4356. You can also visit us at ltw.org. That's ltw.org. As we bring today's episode of Leading the Way to a close, allow me to invite you also to watch Leading the Way television. Each week, dig into the truth of God's word and be challenged to love and serve the Savior. Visit ltw.org for details. Once again, that's ltw.org. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth.