Revision as of 15:32, 29 September 2022

Theological Proposition/Focus: God is Holy.

Homiletical Proposition/Application: God's holiness should drive us to seek to be set apart for his purposes.

Introduction:

Fundamental to our faith is the doctrine of God. We are going to spend several weeks on the doctrine of God. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 Article 2 states

There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all-powerful and all-knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

Today we will focus on the phrase God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections.

Setting the Stage:

Image: The best way to get to know someone is to visit them in their home and learn about them on their turf.

If we want to understand what God's holiness then it makes sense to start by looking at God in his throne room in heaven.

Revelation 4 begins with a glimpse of the throne room in heaven.

Body

The picture of God's throne room conveys transcendence (Revelation 4:1-7)

God invited John to witness his holiness (1-3)

The inhabitants of God's throne room transcend imagination (4-7)

Isaiah's experience in God's throne room stretches our imagination (Isa. 6:1-2)

The activities in God's throne room convey complete holiness (Revelation 4:8-11)

The Hebrew word קָדֹ֧ושׁ means separate.

God's holiness should drive us to seek to be set-apart for God

When we understand the character of God, when we grasp something of His holiness, then we begin to understand the radical character of our sin and helplessness. Helpless sinners can survive only by grace. Our strength is futile in itself; we are spiritually impotent without the assistance of a merciful God. We may dislike giving our attention to God’s wrath and justice, but until we incline ourselves to these aspects aspects of God’s nature, we will never appreciate what has been wrought for us by grace. Even Edwards’s sermon on sinners in God’s hands was not designed to stress the flames of hell. The resounding accent falls not on the fiery pit but on the hands of the God who holds us and rescues us from it. The hands of God are gracious hands. They alone have the power to rescue us from certain destruction. (R. C. Sproul)^[1]

1. ↑ R.C. Sproul The Holiness of God, 25th ann. ed. (Sanford, FL: Ligonier Ministries, 2010), 221.