Holy! Holy! Holy!

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As you can see from the theme of some of the music we've sung tonight, our attribute of God that we're looking at is the holiness of God. The holiness of God. I want to begin by giving you a little glimpse into the mind of God about how important this attribute is to Him. As I've studied this this week, I've been impressed with the fact there's a sense in which—as Seth just sang for us—we're all strangers to His holiness. I want you to turn, to begin with this evening, to Deuteronomy 32.

When you look at the man Moses, I don't know what comes to your mind, but what comes to my mind is a man who had the unique privilege and opportunity of knowing God like no other person has ever known God. In fact, God Himself, in the Book of Numbers chapter 12, says to Miriam and Aaron (who are second-guessing Moses' roll), He said when there have been prophets they have received visions from Me, and I've spoken to them in dark sayings; but not so with My servant Moses, I have spoken to him as a man with his friend face to face. If anyone had the inside track to a knowledge of God, to a relationship with God, it was Moses. That's what makes this passage in Deuteronomy 32 so shocking.

Deuteronomy 32. Let's begin in verse 45. Moses (verse 44) had spoken all the words of this song, had basically finished speaking to the people of Israel on the plains outside the city of Jericho on the east side of the Jordan, where the people have gathered ready to go in and take the promised land after forty years of wilderness wanderings. Moses speaks to them all the words that are recorded for us in Deuteronomy. At the end of that, verse 45,

When Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, he said to them, "Take to your heart all the words... which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to observe carefully, even all the words of this law. For it is not an idle word for you; indeed it is your life. And by this word you will prolong your days in the land, which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess."

If the story entered there ended there it would be a happy ending for Moses, but I want you to see what happens. Verse 48, after Moses finishes giving them the second law (that is, he spells out for them, again, all that God had given to the earlier generation at Sinai, all now dead beneath the desert except for Moses and Joshua and Caleb), and it says,

The Lord spoke to Moses that very same day, saying, "Go up to this mountain… Mount Nebo, which is the land of Moab opposite Jericho, and look at the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the sons of Israel for a possession. Then die on the mountain where you ascend, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to His people."

You might at first think, well, maybe Moses is just getting old and it's time for Moses to die. Well it is true. Moses is now 120 years old. But that's not the reason at all. This friend of God, this man who fellowshipped with God like no other—here's the reason. Look at the next verse. Here's why you must die. "Because you broke faith with Me in the midst of the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin." God points back to an incident many years before during the wilderness wanderings. Perhaps many had forgotten it, many of the children of Israel had forgotten it, even had failed to tell it to their sons and daughters who were now alive as they get ready to go into the land. Many of them may not even known of it. And yet God remembered. Why was it so important to God? Why did it matter so much that He keeps this man, who knows Him like no other other, from entering the promised land? Look at the end of the verse 51:

Because you did not treat Me as holy in the midst of the sons of Israel. For you shall see the land at a distance, but you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving to the sons of Israel.

Think about that. One time in a forty-year ministry Moses breaks faith with God and he fails to hold God up as holy in the sight of Israel. And for that one incident Moses dies before he gets to enjoy what he's lived his whole life for, and that is to go into the Promised Land. Shocking really. And it tells us how seriously God takes His holiness. It's obviously very important to God.

We can't really class one attribute above another, because all of them are in equal in God. But obviously, holiness is very important to God. We find in Isaiah 6—and we'll look there later—that it's celebrated before the throne of God like no other attribute. In Psalm 89, God swears by His holiness. In Psalm 29:2, the psalmist refers to the majesty of God's holiness. In his classic book, The Existence and Attributes of God, Stephen Charnock writes this:

Power is God's hand or arm; omniscience, His eye; mercy, His bowels; eternity, His duration. But holiness is His beauty. God is more often styled holy than almighty and set forth by this part of His dignity more than by any other. This is more fixed on as an epithet to His name than any other. You never find it expressed "His mighty name" or "His wise name" but most of all "His holy name."

So what exactly is this attribute that's so important to God? I think you'll discover, as we go through it tonight, that your own impression of what it is may need to be filled out, because I don't know that you understand the full concept that's behind God's holiness. Let's look at it together. First of all, understand, the words that are used in both Greek and Hebrew, the words that are translated holy, both the verb and the noun and even the adjective all mean "to be set apart" or "to set something apart." A variety of things in the Scripture are called holy. You find the adjective used of places, of utensils in the tabernacle and the temple, of robes that the high priest wears. Individuals are called holy, and entire nations are called holy, and large groups of people (namely the church) are called holy. In both Testaments, in both Greek and Hebrew, the common denominator behind the word holy is this: separate, separation. And specifically, when you look at the overall teaching of Scripture about God's holiness, we find that this separateness has two facets. One of them is very commonly understood; the other is not. Let's look at them together. What are these common facets of God's holiness? The concept of holiness is used in two related but ultimately distinct ways.

First of all, when Scripture calls God holy it's speaking of the fact that He is transcendent in majesty. Transcendent's not a word we use very often. You don't hear it used much in the church any more either, but it's a very important word. It's a theological word. It emphasizes the distinction of God from His creation. God is utterly distinct. Karl Barth (most of whose theology would not be something you would want to follow) coined a phrase that is often used in describing this attribute of God, this aspect of His holiness, that He's transcendent in majesty. He said, "God is wholly [that is, w-h-o-l-l-y] wholly other." He's not part of this universe. He is the eternal, uncreated sovereign Creator. So one aspect—and this is the one that most people don't ordinarily see—one aspect of God's holiness is that He is absolutely transcendent in majesty. It's sometimes called His "awesome majesty" or His "majesty holiness." God is separate from or distinct from everything else in the universe. This emphasizes His separateness from us as creatures. He's wholly different.

Many verses mention God's holiness in this idea of God's transcendent majesty, but there are passages where this is absolutely crystal clear. Let me show them to you. These are just a few. First of all, Exodus 15:11, "Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?" Here the idea isn't so much God's purity as it is God's transcendent greatness. First Samuel 2:2, "There is no one holy like the Lord." And in typical Hebrew parallelism, He explains what He means in the next phrase: "Indeed, there is no one besides You, nor is there any rock like our God." In this sense, when we say God is holy, we mean there's nobody like Him. There's nobody that can be compared to God. He is transcendent in majesty. Isaiah 8:13, "It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, and He shall be your dread." Again, lifting up God in His greatness and in His majesty. Isaiah 57:15, "Thus says the high and exalted One who lives forever, whose name is holy, 'I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit.'" Again, the idea of God's holiness here isn't so much His purity as it is His grandeur, His greatness. He dwells in a high and lofty and exalted place that we could never reach. Hosea 11:9, "I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst." He defines what it means to be holy in this context by the fact that He's God and not man.

In the new Testament, in the Magnificat, Mary's Magnificat, Luke 1:49, "The Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is His name." Again, the emphasis is not on the purity of God, it's on the grandeur, the greatness, the majesty of God. Revelation 4:8, the scene in heaven, "The four living creatures, each of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.'" The emphasis, again, is on His splendor, on His grandeur, on the majesty of His presence.

But, of course, nowhere is this aspect of God's holiness, the fact that He's transcendent in majesty, anywhere more clearly revealed than Isaiah chapter 6. Let's turn there together. Isaiah chapter 6. I don't hope to do justice to this passage in a couple of minutes, but I do want you to see the point the prophet wants to make here. Now before we look at the passage, let me remind you of who this is. In John 12:41 we're told that Isaiah saw Jesus Christ in this vision. This is the second person of the Trinity revealed before Isaiah, revealed as Yahweh the God of the Old Testament. Now let's begin.

Verse 1, "In the year of King Uzziah's death." Now let me give you a little context. Uzziah had reigned for 52 years as king in Israel. Fifty-two years He had ruled with stability and with a great measure of prosperity. They were very prosperous years for Israel, and now the king of 52 years has died. Imagine having a president in our country for 52 years, and one that really brought stability and success to the country, and all of a sudden he drops dead. What happens to all of us? Well, there's a feeling of some concern and instability and even panic. Imagine how, I mean, remember how it is when your boss, whom you've had for a number of years, leaves, and you get another boss. There's this sense of insecurity, instability, if He's a good boss—or which you may be rejoicing I suppose. But there's a feeling of insecurity. And there's a feeling of, what's coming? What is this going to mean? Well, how is it going to effect my life? That's where Isaiah finds himself.

After 52 years King Uzziah dies, and He says in that very same year "I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple." What a powerful image that is. We've all seen pictures of kings with their great train following this great robe that drags behind. And the robe of God, the robe of Jesus Christ literally filled the temple. It speaks of His greatness.

"Seraphim stood above Him." The seraphs, who are these characters? They're part of the angel host. Literally translated it's "the burning ones." Probably a description of the blazing brightness of their presence. And with their wings they cover themselves. The image is almost that God is surrounded by these beings that are like human flames blazing in brightness.

Each having six wings; with he two covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another [they're speaking to one another, saying], "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory."

Again, the emphasis of their call to the holiness of God here is not primarily His moral purity but instead His greatness. His glory fills the earth. Notice that these seraphim completely cover themselves all over in God's presence. Why? It can't be because of their sinfulness. They're without sin. Clearly, for them the covering of themselves is to shield themselves, to acknowledge, if you will, their utter creatureliness. God is God, and they're simply creatures. And so in the blazing presence of God, they cover themselves. For them, God's holiness, as they cry out "Holy, Holy, Holy," is His utter separateness from them in the sense of His transcendence over them as creatures. And God's holiness, His transcendent majesty calls them to worship.

Listen, the clear message of Isaiah 6 is that God alone is the true King. Uzziah may have been the king for 52 years, but here's the true King, and He's still on the throne, He's still ruling. You don't have to worry, Isaiah, He is the King. And here is the punchline: you and I, nor Isaiah, are ever to treat Him as we would treat other persons. I read the story a number of years ago about the death of King Louis XIV of France. Of course, France's greatest king brought a great deal of stability, was successful in a number of ways. But the end came, as it always does for earthly kings, and He dies. At His funeral many of the heads of state from across Europe attended. He was the greatest king France had ever known. And in that context, as all of these heads of state were gathered, and as all the great men and nobles of France had gathered to mourn the death of their greatest king, a famous French preacher and bishop stood over the body of the dead king, King Louis XIV. And He began his sermon with one of the most famous introductions that has ever been in the history of preaching, with the immortal words, "God alone is great." That's the message of Isaiah 6, and that's the message of this aspect of God holiness. He is utterly transcendent. He is majestic. He is filled with splendor and grandeur, and nothing we know or can even conceive of compares with Him.

The second aspect or facet of His holiness. Not only is He transcendent in majesty, but He's also transcendent (and this is the one we're most familiar with) in moral purity. Transcendent in moral purity. He's majestic in His purity. Holiness describes not only His separateness—remember that key word—not only is He separate from us in the sense that He is Creator and we are creatures, but He's separate from us in the sense that He is absolutely morally perfect and we are sinners. Scripture uses the same word group for both of these concepts, for both His transcendent majesty and His transcendent purity. Robert Reymond writes,

For just as He as creator is transcendentally separate from men as creatures, so also He is ethically separate from them as sinners. He is morally pure, infinitely, eternally and unchangeably so with regard to His character, His thoughts and His actions. There is not the slightest taint of evil desire, impure motive or unholy inclination about Him. God is utterly, completely separate from evil and sin.

Years ago when I lived in Mobile, shortly after I became a Christian, we were doing some visitation, and we went to a very poor, poverty ridden section of Mobile to visit a lady that had attended our church. And I'll never forget walking into her home, because not only did she live in a poor section out of necessity, but she also out of choice had allowed her home to become one of the most filthy places I had ever been and have ever been. It was in absolute squalor. It was worse than most of what I eventually saw in India. And I remember sitting there on the couch talking with this woman and looking around (as most of us would) and seeing dishes that have obviously accumulated for months with food still in them and bugs crawling all over. And yet she seemed completely oblivious. She didn't seem to notice it at all.

In the same way, it's hard for us to grasp the concept of God's unsullied holiness, because we have learned to live with unholiness and to look on it as natural and normal and expected. And so we aren't able to fully appreciate it. As Tozer says,—I love this—"We must allow the Scripture to cut a new channel through the desert of our minds if we're going to begin to grasp the moral purity of God." One writer defines this aspect of God's holiness like this: "It is that perfection of God in virtue of which He eternally wills and maintains His own moral excellence, abhors sin, and demands purity in His moral creatures." You see, holy is the way God is. God doesn't abide by the standard, God is the standard. God's moral norms for us are expressions of who He is, and in following them Himself He's simply being consistent with who He. For us it's a stretch, it's difficult, it's a challenge, it's a target to hit. For God, His moral purity is simply an expression of who He is.

Look at 1 Peter. Turn there for a moment. First Peter 1 is simply an example of many passages throughout the Scripture. First Peter 1, God is called the Holy One. First Peter 1:15, "The Holy One who called you." And he says, "Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves... in all your behavior." Here, obviously, he's not talking about the majesty of God, be majestic like God is majestic. Here he's obviously talking about the purity of God, the moral purity. And he says, "In all your behavior; because it is written [verse 16], 'You shall be holy, [because] I am holy.'" And consistently God declares Himself (throughout, particularly, the first five books of the Bible, but throughout the Old Testament and the New as well) to be holy in the sense of completely morally pure, characterized by moral excellence.

Let me give you a few other verses that, while they may not use the word holy, put this concept on display. Psalm 5:4-6:

You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness;

No evil dwells with You.

The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes;

You hate all who do iniquity.

You destroy those who speak falsehood;

The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.

Psalm 7:11, "God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation [or anger with the wicked—understood] every day." Psalm 11:5-7:

The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked,

And the one who loves violence His soul hates.

Upon the wicked He will rain snares;

Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup.

For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness;

The upright will behold His face.

Habakkuk 1:13," Your eyes [God] are too pure to approve evil, and You can not look on wickedness with favor." James 1:13: "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am... tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone." And 1 John 1:5, "This is the message we have heard from Him and announced to you [verse 6 has dropped off the screen there], that God is Light, and in Him... is no darkness [no none] at all." God's moral holiness, He is absolutely separate from sin. He can never look at sin in any way shape or form with favor.

But God's moral holiness is both negative and positive. Here are the negatives for the most part: God hates sin and will have nothing to do with it. But on the other side, God is not only one who hates evil, who hates sin, but He—what? Loves excellence. He is a God characterized by moral perfection. He is the personification of moral perfection. Matthew 5:48 says, "Be perfect, as [what?] as your... Father is perfect."

So when we look at God and His holiness, there are two distinct facets: His unapproachable majesty and His spotless moral purity. When we speak of God being holy, when we sing that song (as we will a little bit later) "Holy, Holy, Holy," we're saying God, You are exalted far above anything that You've ever made, You're beyond our wildest dreams in grandeur and greatness, and You are spotlessly pure. We're saying both of those things about God when we say He's holy.

Now let's go to the implications of that holiness, briefly, the implications, first of all, of the first aspect of His majesty, the implications of God's majestic holiness. Never take God lightly; always treat Him with respect. You know, we live in a day when, frankly, people take God lightly. But let me show you how God thinks about that. Turn to Leviticus 10. I always shudder when I hear someone refer to the "big guy upstairs" or use some other term that they wouldn't use of the President of the United States, much less the God of the universe. In Leviticus chapters 8-9—and we're not going to go back all through that. But in Leviticus 8-9 God seats the priesthood. He anoints Aaron's sons to be the priests. What a high point for Aaron's family, for Aaron. How exciting it must have been for God to have said I want your descendants to serve the tabernacle, I want your descendants to offer the sacrifices.

But no sooner has the ink dried on Leviticus 8-9 than we come to 10:1: "Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron." These boys are the oldest sons of Aaron. We're told that "they took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them." The firepan was intended to take coals from the brazen altar into the holy place and there to use them to burn incense under the Lord, which was to symbolize the prayers of the people of Israel rising up to God. But we're told they "offered strange fire." Now we don't know for sure what that means. There are several options. For example, there's no indication that these boys took the coals for the incense from the brazen altar, which was a requirement God had made. Instead, they may have used some source of fire that hadn't been consecrated to God. More likely the issue was that they were drunk.

Look down at 10:8. After everything happens, after the dust clears and these boys have died, "The Lord spoke to Aaron." Remember, these are his eldest sons; God's just killed them.

"Do not drink wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you come into the tent of meeting, so that you will not die—it is a perpetual statute throughout your generations—...so as to make a distinction between the holy and the profane... [verse 11] and so [should you] teach the sons of Israel."

Go back now to verse 2. They "offered this strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them." Probably, they were drunk. They weren't taking God seriously. They'd just been given this responsibility. Perhaps they're celebrating their newfound position, their status. Verse 2, "And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord." There's a pretty powerful lesson. You can bet none of the other priests, none of the other sons of Aaron ever forgot that scene.

Notice what God's commentary is through Moses. Verse 3, "Then Moses said to Aaron, [remember, these are Moses' nephews that just died], 'It is what the Lord spoke, saying, "By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, and before all people I will be honored."'" Listen folks, don't take God lightly. Always treat Him with the highest respect. The commandment says you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. We think of that simply as using God's name in some form of a curse, and that's true. But it goes way beyond that. It means, God says I will be treated as holy, I'll be kept separate from everything else you know.

Ecclesiastes chapter 5, turn there. You see the same point. And I'm not going to spend much time here. But I want you to see this passage, because it describes a common propensity that we have. And that is not to treat God seriously. Ecclesiastes 5:1, "Guard your steps as you go into the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools." "Guard your steps." In other words, think about what you ought to say and what you ought to do when you come near to God. And "listen." Probably a reference to obey as opposed to simply have your ear open to hear what what God says. The contrast here is between real and superficial worship. He says don't "offer the sacrifice of fools." What's that? Casual, superficial worship. Those who just come in and don't take God seriously at all, they do their deal, they joke around with their friends while they offer sacrifices to God. Verse 2, he says don't be quick with your mouth or impulsive in your thinking to bring something to God. Why? Because "God is in heaven," so restrain your tongue. Verse 4, if you make a vow (that is, a voluntary promise to God), don't delay to pay it and don't try to get out of it. And there's a danger of this, verse 5, in times of distress making God some sort of offer: "God, you know, if you get me out of this mess, then I will…" That's a vow. And He says don't you think for a moment that God didn't hear, and don't you for a moment think you can get away or evade that. Verse 6, you don't say to a messenger (i.e., the priest), "It was a mistake." You know, the trouble's over, and everything's fine now, and so I'm really sorry I made that vow, so I'm going to back out of it. He says don't do that lest "God be angry... and destroy the work of your hands." In other words, God doesn't take it lightly when we treat Him lightly. The solution, verse 7, is "fear God." Don't take Him lightly.

Secondly, determine to worship God and exalt Him in your thinking. Psalm 50:21 says, "You thought... I was just like you." So Psalm 99 says, instead—and we're not going to turn there. You can look it up on your own. In the interest of time, I'll just mention to you that Psalm 99:1-9 several times (in verses 3, 5, and 9) says exalt the Lord in your thinking, lift God up in your thinking and worship. And the Hebrew word for worship means "to bow down." You know what He's saying? He's saying when you come before God, lift Him up in your minds and in your worship and fall down before Him. Make sure you've got the idea that there's a distance between you and God. Oh, we have a wonderful fellowship with God; we call Him Abba, Father. And we're taught to that, but don't ever take Him lightly. And exalt Him in your thinking, and worship Him. Bow down before Him. Acknowledge that He is God and you're not.

Thirdly, develop a humble, contrite heart before God. We looked at Isaiah 57:15 earlier. God says, "I dwell on a high and holy place," but I live, I dwell with those who are "contrite and lowly." Micah 6:8 says here's what God requires of you: "To walk humbly with your God." If you understand the majesty of God, then you will walk humbly with God.

Well let's hurry on, briefly, and look the implications of His purity. First of all, don't ever forget that God's holiness demands that He punish sin. Romans 1:18 says, "For the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in [ungodliness]." God has to deal with sin, because He is morally pure and He cannot tolerate anything but purity. He has to punish sin. And if you want the most graphic illustration of that—in fact, let's turn there. I can't skip it. Turn to Psalm 22, a Psalm of David. He begins Psalm 22:1 with that cry Christ cries out on the cross: "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning." Why is it that on the cross God the Father turned His own back on His Son? "Why have you forsaken Me?" The answer is in verse 3: "Yet You are holy." Don't ever forget that God's moral purity demands that He punish all impurity. And the most graphic illustration of that was when your sins—as we talked about this morning—when your sins as a believer were imputed to Christ. He killed His own, eternal Son. A. W. Pink writes:

The God which the vast majority of professing Christians love is looked upon very much like an indulgent old man, who himself has no relish for folly, but leniently winks at the indiscretions of youth. [He says,] For one sin God banished our first parents from Eden. For one sin all the posterity of Canaan fell under a curse, which remains over them to this day. For one sin Moses was excluded from the promised land, Elisha's servant smitten with leprosy, Ananias and Sapphira were cut off from the land of the living.

And the list could go on. God has to punish sin.

God's purity also reminds us that God requires a sacrifice to forgive sin. He requires a sacrifice. Hebrews 9:22, "Without [the] shedding of blood there is no forgiveness," there is no remission of sin. "God has often forgiven sinners [one writer says], but He never forgives sin." Let me say that again. "God has often forgiven sinners, but He never forgives sin. The sinner is only forgiven on the ground of another having borne his punishment." Have you thought about that? God has never forgiven your sin. The only reason He can forgive you as the sinner is because His holiness judged your sin on Christ on the cross. Tozer writes, "We must hide our unholiness in the wounds of Christ as Moses hid himself in the cleft of the rock while the glory of God passed by. We must take refuge from God in God."

And finally, the implication of God's purity, of His moral purity, is that we should pursue personal holiness or personal purity as well. Let me just develop that very briefly, in a couple of minutes. Why should we pursue It? And I'm just going to throw these up here for your consideration. I'm not going to look at them. Why should we pursue personal holiness? Well first of all, because it was God's purpose in saving us. Ephesians 1:4 says that He chose us that we should be holy. The same thing in Ephesians 5:27. Christ saved us so that He might sanctify us and set us apart without spot, without blemish. That's why God saved you, so that you could reflect His holiness, so that you could reflect His glory. It's also required for fellowship. Psalm 15 makes that point. Who can dwell on the holy hill of the Lord? Only those who have clean hands and a pure heart. Same in Psalm 24:3-4. Second Corinthians 6:17-18 makes the same point. You want to fellowship with God? You've got to be holy. And without it no one will ever see God. Hebrews 12:14, "Without [holiness]." It's translated "sanctification" in our version, but it comes from the same word group as the word for holy. "Without [holiness] no one will see [God]." And it's simply commanded. We saw it earlier in 1 Peter 1. "Be holy, for I [the Lord your God] am holy."

So just for you to consider—how? How do you pursue personal holiness? How can we share His holiness? Several ways. First of all, confess and repent of our sin. Isaiah 6:5, just like Isaiah did when he saw God's transcendent majesty, he fell down and he said what? "Woe is me... I am ruined! [For] I am a man of unclean lips. [Who dwell] among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." Repent of your sin. Confess it. First John 1:5-10. Leave it.

Secondly, you can cultivate personal holiness by cultivating a fear of God. Second Corinthians 7:1 says, "Perfecting holiness in the fear of God." If you really understand who God is, it'll give you a hatred for your own sin and, frankly, a fear of crossing the line. I grew up in a home where you simply did what my dad said, because you knew if you crossed the line there were dire consequences that you didn't want. So by the time I came along, I don't ever remember my dad spanking me, because I was number ten. I was bright enough to look at the other nine and know I didn't want that. And it came from a fear, a healthy fear of my dad. The same thing is true with us as we perfect holiness in the fear of God.

Be in the Scripture. Jesus says, "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth." You want to be like God? You want to be like Christ in moral purity? Then get in the Word. The Spirit can only use the Word to make us like Christ. He's not going to zap you. It's going to be through your understanding and obedience to the Word of God.

Pray for holiness. First Thessalonians 5:23, Paul says, "May the God of peace... sanctify you [wholly]." May He set you apart from sin unto God. He's praying that, and even so we should pray for God to make us holy.

Learn from God's discipline. Hebrews 12:10 says that the fruit of righteousness, of holiness, is wrought in us through the discipline of God. Learn from God's discipline to be more like Christ. Take the stripes and learn the lesson.

Finally, contemplate Christ's return. You want to be like Christ? You want to be holy? You want to be pure? You want to be like your Father? Then contemplate His return. First John 3:3 says those who have this hope (that is, the hope of Christ's return) purify themselves even as He is pure. Let's turn, in closing, to 2 Peter 3. I want you to see this. Second Peter 3:10. He says,

The day of the Lord [that time when God judges the world] will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for [a] new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

You want to be holy? Focus not on this life, but focus on Christ's return and on what He's going to do when He comes back. God says I will be treated as holy, and because I am holy, so you ought to be holy in all manner of your conversation, of your behavior. Let's pray together.

Father, thank You for this revelation of who You are. Help us, Lord, to treat You with respect, never to take You lightly but always to be careful not to play the part of fools, but to come before You as who You are, a God transcendent in majesty and transcendent in moral purity. Father, make us holy even as You are holy. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.