Approaching The Holy

Sermon Transcript

Pastor Jeff:

Father, would you just give us great opportunity today to serve you? And we thank you and bless you for who you are. God, we just ask in these moments that as we gather before you, that you would speak to us. Father, I specifically pray for your help today. Lord, today is one of those topics that there really are no words for, that only you can speak, and so, Lord, that's what we pray all the time as Lord speak for we are ready to hear. Lord, we believe that if this concept is understood and that we really grow in it and know it, that our lives will be radically changed and so will the lives of all of those around us. So God, right now, we give you all the glory and all the honor and all the praise. And for all of you who are gathered, who desire to hear the Lord speak, who will believe what he says when you hear him and who will by faith put into practice, will you agree with me very loudly this morning that you're ready to receive God's word by saying the word Amen?

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

Amen. This morning I want to talk to you about the holiness of God. The topic this morning is the holiness of God. And really when we talk about the holiness of God, we're talking about who our God is, what his character is. If there was only one word that we could use in our English language to summarize everything that the Bible says about God, we would use the word holy, holy. So often the word holiness doesn't get much play in the church. We think holiness is for those radical disciples or those crazy people that give up stuff to walk closer to God. It's not for everybody. But I'm here to tell you, when we study the word today, you're going to see that holy is God's character. And to understand his character and to know what he's saying will change you and all those around you, no doubt about it.

I mean, I'm not even going to spend much time doing an introduction because this topic today, really what I'm talking to you about, God, I'm telling you about God. I'm going to invite you to open your Bible up to Exodus chapter 19. And as you're turning there, there's been some amazing things happening throughout the scriptures. There's been some amazing things happening in this book that we've been studying. God has called Moses to be the deliverer of his people. Moses has gone into Egypt, declared that God said, "Let my people go." We've seen 10 plagues, we've seen the exodus of the Israelites, we've seen the parting of the Red Sea. We've seen all those things happen, and now what's happening is they've come to Mount Sinai and when they're there, right before they get there, God starts instructing Moses through his father-in-law, Jethro. He's going to wear himself out because he's spending all day seeking the Lord, teaching all the people, handling every single dispute.

And his father-in-law, Jethro says, "You can't do it all. You seek the Lord, you teach the people, and then give representatives that can handle all the disputes. The big ones can come to you, but delegate this thing out." And we saw throughout the Book of Acts in Acts chapter six how this played out in other places too, that the job of a minister or a pastor is to seek the face of the Lord in prayer, to teach the word, and to empower the people to go do it. That's the principle, and this is what brings us to where we are because right now they're getting ready to camp at Mount Sinai and what we're going to talk about is when we talk about the holiness of God, because this group of people, while they've seen God do all these things, they've watched God do all these things, they've heard about this God that does all these things, they've never encountered this God before. They're going to have an encounter with who this God is and what he's like.

So if you have your Bible opened to Exodus chapter 19, we're going to talk about four requirements or four demands that the holiness of God brings. Hear the word of the Lord, Exodus 19, starting in verse one. "In the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out from the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. When they set out from Rephidim, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness and there Israel camped in front of the mountain. Moses went up to God." Pay attention to that. That's going to be the first of three times he does it.

"He went up to God and the Lord called him from the mountain saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel."" So here's what's going on. They're camping and Moses goes up the mountain to meet God. He does what any good prophet's going to do. He's going to go hear what the Lord says and then guess what he's going to do? He's going to come down and tell the people what the Lord says. So here's what he does. God tells him what to say. He says, "You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on Eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now then if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples for all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel."

So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words. He's going to tell them everything which the Lord had commanded him and all the people answered together and said, "All that the Lord has spoken, we will do." And Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord. The Lord said to Moses, "Behold, I will come to you in a thick cloud so that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe in you forever." Then Moses told the words of the people to the Lord. So the first requirement or first demand of holiness is this. When it comes to the holiness of God, if you're going to understand God, if you're going to know who he is, the holiness of God demands that you remember all God has done and all that God expects. You need to know all that God has done and all God expects.

So Moses goes up to the mountain and here's what he tells him. He says, "You yourselves have seen," verse four, "what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself." Remember all that God's done. He tells Moses, "You go down and tell them. Remember you were slaves for over 400 years. Remember when I came to town and they took away the straw? You had to find your own straw to make bricks. Remember how miserable it was for you, remember how desperate you wanted to get out? Remember that our God visited us? Remember all of the 10 plagues that he probably recounted to them, remember when we left Egypt? Remember when we got to the brink of the Red Sea? Remember when it wouldn't open? Remember when we were hemmed in and thought we were going to die?"

"Do you remember how the Lord parted the sea? Do you remember how he brought us across on completely dry land? Do you remember on the other side when we were there how God closed all of that in and swallowed up the Egyptian army? Do you remember when we got to the other side and we sang a hymn of celebration? Do you remember when y'all complained there was no water and God provided it? Do you remember when you complained there was no bread so God gave it to you? Do you remember when you complained there was no meat and God provided? Do you remember that God, when you went to battle and you didn't know how to fight, God fought for you and you delivered? Do you remember all that our God has done? Our God is awesome." That's what he's saying. Remember that. Now, why do we need to recount what God has done?

Because if we don't recount what God has done, we'll forget about it in a moment where we need him. We'll forget. Satan tries to steal at night what God gives us during the day. He's always trying to rob us so that when we encounter something new, the lie comes into our head, "Where's your God now? What's he ever done for you?" Well, if you have a history of, "He's done this and he's done this and he's done this," and if you don't have that history yet and you're a new believer, make your way to a church that tells stories about how awesome our God is and get around other people that can recount what God has done for them. Because when you're around others that can talk about how God delivered them and save them and free them and healed them, it will change your walk with God. Holiness demands that you recall all that God has done, not just in your own life, not just in your own church, but throughout biblical history.

Look at what our God has done. When we read through the Bible, every good and perfect gift comes from God. Every story you read about that we love, whether it's the flooding of the earth and David slaying Goliath and fire coming down when Elijah called it or whatever, that's our God. That's the one we approach. Remember all he's done, that's what he tells us to do. So he's going to go recount and tell Israel when he comes down the mountain. Let's just remember all our God has done because you need to see how big our God is because nobody but our God could do this. Then in verse five, he tells them, "Now, then if you'll indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples for all the earth is mine." Now what's he telling him to do now?

If you're going to recount everything now, you need to be obedient to everything that God says. The problem sometimes in our modern gospel presentations is we think that becoming saved or being saved is the end game when it's just the beginning. God does save in a moment, God does deliver us in a moment, God does rescue us in a moment, God does bring us to himself in a moment for the purpose of what? So that we will hear his voice earnestly, that we'll obey him and do what He wants us to do. Sometimes I see when people share the gospel, we applaud and we should. I mean Christmas Eve for us when we saw hundreds of people stand and we all applauded, that's amazing. That's our God that does that. Nobody can save but God. But for what purpose? He didn't save them so they had a Christmas Eve encounter and then went and lived their life.

He saved them so that they would understand and hear his voice and learn how to grow an obedience and continually yield to him. God created you so unique, so special that when he saves you, he has a unique purpose for you. Part of understanding the holiness of God is not only recounting all he's done, it's desiring to do everything that he wants you to do, and this is where we sometimes lose it. See, the Bible says you must be born again. Born again is entrance into the kingdom, which is worthy of celebration but when we enter the kingdom, then we're in the kingdom. Now, God wants us to live as servants of the kingdom. We want to pray, "Let your kingdom come, let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven because I'm a representative of you. I'm an image bearer of you. Bring your kingdom in and through me."

So if you want to experience the holiness of God, if you want to rightly respond to the holiness of God, it's not only recalling all that God has done, it's obeying all that God commands. Even Jesus in the great commission says, "Teach them," to what? "Obey everything I have commanded you." Not some of it, not just go share the gospel, "Teach the people that you're sharing the gospel to everything that I taught you, and I'll be with you always to the end of the edge." So one is recalling all that he's done, one is presently doing all that he expects, and then number three, notice the end of verse five and six. He says, "Then you'll be my own possession among all the peoples of for all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests in a holy nation. These are the words that you are to speak to the sons of Israel."

In other words, "If you recall everything that I've done and you're living and hearing my voice and doing what I say, then I'm setting you apart." God had a special way of setting apart Israel. God had a plan all along to form the nation of Israel where they would be a blessing and a light to all the other nations of the world. God was using them to get out the glory as to who he was. He says, "If you recall everything I am, if you know what I am and you'll listen to me and do what I say, I will bring you together as a nation and do through you as my family more than I ever could anywhere else." Now we know Israel's history and they haven't been perfect at keeping it out, or walking it out but that hasn't changed God's love for the nation of Israel. It's why they still exist because God has his hand on the nation, he's still going to do something with the nation.

But what does that mean for us? It means after Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, the formation of the church started. And what does God tell us in our relationship with him? When we recall all he is done by sending his son and dying and rising from the dead and we turn from our sins and believe in him and we live out the gospel and we do what he wants, then he brings us together in what's called the church and we're a family for you are a chosen nation, a royal priesthood. You belong to God. You're his possession. You belong to him. And understanding those truths set the foundation for what the holiness of God demands.

So Moses comes down and tells them these things. Moses comes down and tells them, "Remember all God has done, obey and do what he's telling you in the present and you'll become everything He says." The way I like to think about it is this, you got to recall all that God has done, you need to obey all that God demands, and you need to expect all that God says. Somewhere along the lines, we kind of abort this process. We might believe that God saves, but we don't believe that He requires us to do everything he wants us to do. And for many of us, we certainly don't believe we can become everything the Bible says we can be. Growing in the holiness of God is understanding all three are equally true. In the same way God can save, he'll give you the grace to obey and he'll give you the grace to become everything that the New Testament calls you to be.

I mean, think about this. Jesus said, what? "Follow me. I'll make you fishers of men." Well, Jesus ascended into heaven. Now what are they saying? Paul said, "Follow me the way I follow Christ and what you have seen and what you have heard and what you have watched and what you have witnessed, put it into practice and the God of peace will be with you." Right? Recall all that he's done. Second, do all that he says. James 1:22 says what? "Do not be merely hearers of the word," but what? "Doers of the word." You going to put this into practice or you just going to listen to it? You have the ability at BRAVE to just be a hearer of the word. You're going to hear it when you come. What are you going to do with it? Are you going to put it into practice or are you going to trust God, you can actually step out in faith?

And then third is become. If God says this is who you are, if God says this is what you can become, do you believe that? Do you step out in faith believing, "God is making the into this, it's nothing of my own doing, but God wants it to be?" That's the foundation of holiness. It demands that. Now if you study this and you're sitting there as any normal person, you'd be like, "I don't know if I can do that. That seems really hard." But it's interesting what Israel said because when Moses came down and he called all the elders and all the people together, well, how did the people answer? What did the people say? You notice what he said in verse eight, one of the most ignorant statements in the entire Old Testament. Here's what Moses basically says, "You have to understand everything about God, you have to do everything he says, and you have to believe everything he'll ever do."

And they say in verse eight, "All that the Lord has spoken, we will do." It's like hearing a message on Sunday and you leave like, "I'll never send it." I mean this is the prayer you pray on a Sunday morning when you're like, "God, I promise if you get me through today, I'll never do this again." This is the prayer you pray right before a test you haven't studied for, "God, if you get me through this test, I promise I'll never ask for anything else again." I mean that's what they're saying. "God, we'll do everything. Whatever the pastor says or the word says, we're in." You can't do it, you can't be holy by yourself. It's impossible. And yet Israel doesn't realize how impossible it is. So they just answer, "Yeah, we'll do it all."

And so God tells Moses, "I'm going to come visit you in a thick cloud. I'm going to speak to you face to face and then the people, they will hear that I speak to you and they'll believe in you forever." It doesn't mean they're going to believe that Moses is a God forever. It means they're going to believe that the God that Moses said that he represented is the God that's speaking to him for their entire life and they'll know for all eternity that Moses was God's representative in this season. So that's where they are. So if you want to experience the holiness of God, if you want to understand who our God is, you don't need to remember all he's done and all that he expects. Secondly is this. The holiness of God also demands this, that you respond with a desire for a sanctified life. You must respond with a desire for a sanctified life.

I can't make you respond with a desire for a sanctified life. I can't change your will. I've heard this statement many times, I know Dave Ramsey makes this statement, "Those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still." I can't change what you want. You can give lip service to anything Jesus says, but if there's not a desire in your heart to respond the way he wants, nothing will ever change. You have to respond with a desire for a sanctified life. Sanctified means growing in holiness. Doesn't mean being perfect, it means growing in it progressively or growing in it increasingly. Notice what he says in verse 10. The Lord also said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their garments and let them be ready for the third day for on the third day, the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all people."

He says, "In order for your people to be ready to have an encounter with me, they need to get ready. They need to consecrate themselves. They need to prepare their heart for what they're about ready to witness and experience." Coming into God's presence is not a cavalier experience, you're going to see that later. You're going to hear the word of the Lord later. So God tells Moses, "They got to get ready. You've got to get them ready. You got to tell them for the next three days to get ready for what my presence is going to be like when they witness it and when they see it." Consecration is getting ready for the move of God. Joshua says before he takes people into promised land, "Consecrate yourselves today for tomorrow the Lord will do great things among us." Get ready. It's not a cavalier thing.

Get ready for what God wants to do. Now, how do they have to get ready? Notice verse 12. "You shall set bounds or boundaries for the people all around, saying beware that you do not go up on the mountain or touch the border of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through. Whether beast or man, he shall not live. When the rams' horn sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain." So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people and they washed their garments. He said to the people, "Be ready for the third day. Do not go near a woman." So he is telling them to be ceremonially clean.

He says, "Be ready. In three days, you're going to witness the God that performed all the things you saw is going to come and you're going to experience it. So we're going to set up boundaries." Now, let me explain something to you about this God. He's not like you. He's holy, he's untouchable, he's other. There's really no English words to describe God. There's none. The only word I can think of in our English language would be awesome. I mean beyond words. Another one I thought about this week was whoa. I mean maybe that word describes him a little bit. I mean, it takes the very life out of us if we see him. So he says to Israel, "You need to do this, you need to tell your men, your women, and your children, "Do not go near the mountain. Don't try to cross over it. If there's a boundary there, don't try to step your foot. Don't do anything." Anybody that does that man, woman, boy, girl or animal, even your pet dog, they're going to get shot through with arrows or stone. You cannot be in my presence without penalty."

This is where we have a hard time with God because sometimes we only share half the truth of the gospel. Sometimes this is what we share the gospel is. "You know what? I know you're broken. Can I tell you something? Everybody's broken. I know you got some problems. I want to tell you everybody's got some problems, but I want to tell you, God's a god of love and he loved you so much he sent Jesus and Jesus came and died for you and he rose and if you want to experience that love, you can just place your faith in him and you're saved." That's how we present the gospel a lot. But when we don't talk about the holiness of God and how unapproachable and untouchable he is and uncompromising he is, we miss out on what true love really looks like.

Is God loving? 100% God's loving, the scriptures proclaim he's loving, but he's really loving when you understand how holy he is and how you can't be in his presence and how you can't come near him and that God is the God who in love sent his son. Think about it like this. If you think about the gospel, the gospel is not God loves you. He does love you. I've told you that many times. He loves you, but that's not the gospel. That's not a complete gospel. The gospel is that God is holy, that God is holy. This is where we run into trouble sometimes. This is where we have a hard time presenting the gospel. This is why if you don't share the gospel, this may be the reason why you don't share it.

Because if the only thing you have to share is, "Well, I don't know if they're really looking for a God and I don't really know if they need the gospel and I'm not good at talking to people and I'm not good at sales, and what if I tell them and they reject me?" And all this, it's because you're too focused on horizontal relationships and not nearly on the holiness of God. See if it starts with God and let me tell you something about God, God has eternally existed in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father is holy, the Son is holy, the Holy Spirit is holy. The Father is not the son of the Spirit. The Son is not the father of the Spirit. The Spirit is not the father of the Son. They're all of one essence with three distinct persons. Ask me to explain that and here's what I'm going to say, "Holy. There's no other God like our God." And guess what he was doing before He created the heavens and the earth in eternity past?

He was enjoying himself because there's nothing more enjoyable than who he is, there's nothing more perfect than who he is, there's nothing more glorious than who he is, there's nothing more holy than who he is. So what's the Trinity doing? Enjoying themself, enjoying himself. That's what he does because by himself, he's completely sufficient and doesn't need anything but in love, He created the world. And why did he create it? Because he wanted to make us image bearers. One of the reasons he wanted to make it is so we could be image bearers. One of the reasons he created it is so that we could enjoy his holiness, so that we could love him in the same way that he loves himself. You say, "Well, that sounds like a arrogant God, kind of a megalomaniac." Why wouldn't he be? There's nothing better than him. If your view of God isn't that, your view of God is too small. There is no other God, none.

So when we share the gospel, here's what we're sharing, "The holy God of the universe who didn't need anything, created everything out of nothing in six literal days, and on day six, he created male and female in his image." Human beings are image bearers of God. So he created Adam and Eve so they could reflect his glory and enjoy his holiness. That's why they were created. But here's the problem. They sinned. You know what they said? "We know God since eternity past that you've enjoyed yourself and you're great, but we think that we can be a God too. We can be like you. We'll do our own thing." And so they sinned by going against what God said and when sin entered the universe, guess what happened to the human condition? We're still image bearers of God, but we're marred image bearers of God. We don't represent the image of God the way he wanted us to represent it, and that's a problem.

And here's what the problem is. God won't let people who are imperfect in his perfect presence. That's the message of the gospel. If you don't get that, you do not understand the gospel. If you don't get that, you don't have a need for Jesus in your life. The reason you will not go to heaven, the reason you will not spend time with God is not because you're a bad person or not because you did bad things or not because brokenness is in your life, it's because God is holy and you're not, and you continue to build a resume of why you are not. That's why you're not going to heaven. Make no mistake about it. This same God that we're talking about today is the same God we're reading about in Exodus 19. I mean, this is God.

"You can't come near. You can't be in my presence. I'm a consuming fire. I'm an unapproachable light. You don't know who I am." The way I would say it is this, however big you think your view of God is, it's not big enough and the problem here in our generation is God is a god of love, but the God of love comes out of God's holiness. If you understand that God could never ever take any human being, then the gospel begins to make sense and why did God send his son? I've heard people say stuff like this. I probably said it in a sermon, and to some degree it's probably true, "That even if you would've been the only person on the planet, God would've sent Jesus for you because he loves you so much." I would say it this way, "Even if you were the only person on the planet, God would've sent his son to do one thing and one thing only, to restore his glory."

You robbed His glory, you dishonored his character, and now you're a marred image bearer and for all eternity, God can't handle that. God had to have his glory restored so he sent his son first and foremost to restore his glory. Secondly, in that process, then he was able to redeem humanity too. First, he had to finish what he came to do. That's why Jesus on the cross, his last words are, "It is finished, it's done. Dad, I restored your glory." I mean, if you study the person of Jesus, he loves everybody he meets but what he's most concerned about during his earthly journey, what is he focused on? His Father.

"I only do what I see my father doing. My father and I are one. I just want to do what he wants. Dad, if there's any other way for me then to go into the cross, tell me. But I want to do what you want because, dad, I love you and I want to restore glory to you because it was robbed by humans and I want to make sure that we now have all the glory that was ours to begin with." That's why God sent his son. That's why 1 John 4:10 says, "This is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son as a propitiation for our sin." So not only when Jesus came did he restore the glory to his father, but through his death and resurrection, then he offered life to anybody that wanted in on who? God. God is the gospel. Some people think, "Well, did I pray the prayer right? Did I do this? Did I do...?" Who cares about the prayer you pray? Do you want the holiness of God in your life?

Do you realize you can't have it apart from Jesus? Do you realize if he didn't shed his blood and die, you couldn't have it? Do you realize if he hadn't arose, you couldn't have it? Do you realize there are no other gods? Do you realize the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are holy, holy, holy? Do you want that God? Because if you don't, you don't have a relationship with a living God. That's the gospel and that isn't preached nearly enough. Like we look back in history a couple hundred years and we read sermons by Jonathan Edwards or John Wesley or whomever. I mean Jonathan Edwards wrote one with the Puritan Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, which spurred on revival, and we read that now and we say, "Oh man, back then, they were so into the mean God." Friends, he hadn't changed. It's a great sermon.

Go back and read it. The pendulum has swung so far in this direction that we think of Jesus sometimes as just our mere buddy or friend, and that when we get to heaven, it's just going to be cozy, warm hugs and soft blankets. No, it's the holy, holy, holy God of the universe that you will meet and if you're not ready, you will be terrified I promise you. My goal today is not to do anything other than persuade you and do my best through God's word to convince you to get right with the Holy God of the universe because you will see him face to face and only one of two things will happen. Either you'll be welcomed in, hearing the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant," or you'll hear the words, "Depart from me, you worker of iniquity. I never knew you." And if you've not trusted Jesus, you will hear the latter, but it's not because God doesn't love you.

It's because God's so holy He can't embrace you apart from repentance and faith in his son Jesus Christ. Does that make sense? I mean, if we're going to understand holiness, we need to respond with a desire for a sanctified life. The gospel proclaims that God is holy. It's who he is. Now here's the problem. When we come to church, we all come to church with our own issues. Everybody's got them. Sometimes we're celebrating a promotion or a wedding or a new kid being born. Sometimes we're devastated by our own sins. Sometimes we're just not enjoying life's circumstances. Sometimes our marriage is out of whack. Sometimes it's great. Sometimes our kids are great, sometimes not so great. We have all these different things and we think the answer is, "Pastor, I hope you have a sermon about exactly what I'm going through." Today's sermon is exactly what you're going through.

If you understand the holiness of God in whatever you're going through, you'll respond differently. Some of you that have been cavalier about your sin and confessing it and asking forgiveness and confessing and asking forgiveness and confessing and asking forgiveness, it's because your God's too small. If you see him as the holy, terrifying, awesome God of the universe, you won't play games with your sin. "Hey, just pray for me. I'm still struggling with porn. I'm still anorexic. I'm still this. Still drink, I still do this." If you see God for who he is, there's a fear factor that takes place. There's the fear of the Lord. Now, I know I'm talking to all different ages here today, so I'm talking more from my generation, but when I grew up, when it came to authority figures, there was a fear factor that was involved. In my generation, we didn't get timeouts and therapeutic hugs for our self-esteem. We didn't.

Everybody older than me just clapped because they know what I'm talking about. My parents took a timeout, my coaches would take a timeout, and it often was more than just words. It was a physical reminder, "You don't want to do that again." Now, for some of you that are younger, that hasn't been part of your life, that's part of the problem. You think falsely that you can walk in to the eternal, holy God of the universe in all your sin and just be welcomed home. You're wrong. You are wrong, and I love you enough to tell you that because God is holy. That's who he is. So the question is do you want to respond with a desire for a sanctified life? I mean, when it comes to your sin, if your view of Jesus is, "Well, he loves and he forgives," then you can pray the same prayer over and over again.

"Well, I guess if he wants to fix my porn problem or my masturbation or my lust or any other sexual sin I have, I guess he can do that. Lord, I'm sorry. Take me to heaven." "Or my anorexia or bulimia or gluttony or whatever, Lord, it's not a big deal. Thank you for forgiving me. Take me to heaven." "Or my laziness or my pride," we can make the list as long as you want because the Bible's replete with hundreds and hundreds of sins that would touch us all. But when you know that you're going to answer to that God about that thing, you will change your behavior here on earth to get ready to meet him. The reason some Christians and all non-Christians don't is because their view of God is too small. I'm telling you, you need to respond with a desire for a sanctified life.

Respond with a desire for a sanctified life. Third is this. If you're really going to be a person who remembers all God has done and all he expects, and you're going to respond with a desire for a sanctified life, the third and probably most important is this, you need to know and honor his holy character. You need to know and honor his holy character. We use the words, "He's set apart." Yes, he is. He's different. Yes, he is. But how do you describe his majesty? How do you describe his glory? How do you describe who he is? I'm telling you all week I was preparing this message, I'm like, "I don't know how to do this part, God." So I want to give you some background. I think, and I 100% believe that God has a way of communicating better than I can.

So I want to read three different sections of scripture as a backdrop for this and just let you hear the God that you're talking to, just let you know about the God that you're praying to. So when you're complaining that, "God doesn't answer to my prayers," or you're wondering why isn't God working, or you're saying, "Okay, Lord, I don't know that I want to be generous or what," I want to tell you who you're talking to according to the word of God. Some of these you've heard many times, but I want them to wash afresh over you. I want you to hear what God is like and what it's like when you're going to meet him, what it's going to be like that day. Christian or non-Christian, you will stand before this. You will see this with your own eyes. So I'm going to invite you to three different scriptures.

First is this, Isaiah chapter six, verses one to eight. I'll try to add limited commentary as we read, I'm going to try to let the word of God just speak over you because I believe the word of God is true. I believe if you'll listen and hear what God says, you'll get a bigger picture of who our God is. Notice what it says in chapter six and verse one. "In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted with the train of his robe filling the temple. Seraphim," which are beings in the heaven that we don't totally understand, "Seraphim stood above him each having six wings. With two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with two he flew." So picture this, the prophet Isaiah, who definitely knows the Lord... I mean we're not talking about nonbeliever here.

We're talking about all believers here that are going to see these things. A believer here sees in the year that King Uzziah died, who was his king at the time, the Lord, he's in the temple, sees the Lord high and lifted up. Now he sees Seraphim flying around all over him. They have six wings. With two they're covering their eyes because God's too glorious to look at. With two they're covering their feet because God's too holy for them to be able to step on the ground. Remember when God called Moses at the burning bush, what'd he tell him? "Take off your shoes, place your standing is holy." And with two, they're flying around. I've never seen anything like that. Maybe in a movie, not up close and personal. Now the Seraphim start talking and one called out to another and said... Now notice what they're going to say.

They have all the language they've been instructed by God himself, and here's what they say, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of host. The whole earth is filled with his glory. Holiness is who He is. Glory is his refracted character and blessing out on the world." Right? Now notice this, "And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke." So as the seraphim are saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, the heavens and earth are filled with his glory, all this sound is going on. It's super loud. Now there's almost like a mini earthquake because the thresholds are shaking. Now, what would you do? You're a believer, you know the Lord. Here's a believer that knows the Lord, that's a prophet of God, that's being obedient, and here's how he responded. Then I said, "Woe to me, for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts."

"I've seen the Lord. I've been around the throne. I've heard the voices sing. I've seen the ground tremble, and I know who I am and I know who he is and I don't belong here. I'm ruined." Gave you a side note, if you don't get to that spot, you don't have a need for Jesus. Jesus is not an insertion in your life so that you can live a better life. Jesus is your entirety when you realize that you are broken and ruined. That's what Isaiah said. Then one of the seraphims, one of those beings flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongues. So now you got this being flying right at you. I'm not a big bird lover, but I mean you got this being flying right at you, right, with a hot coal. "And he touched my mouth with it and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.""

What was Isaiah's problem? "I got unclean lips. I'm hanging out with all sorts of people that are unclean with their lips." So what does God forgive? His lips. What's God willing to forgive? Whatever that area is in your life that's dirty and unclean, that doesn't deserve to be around him. Whatever you're thinking, saying, "God could never accept a person like me because I'm this or I've done this," that's what God's willing to cleanse, that's what he's willing to forgive. So his sin was forgiven. So in the moment he saw his holiness and was terrified, at the same moment, he's like, "I'm welcome here." Notice verse 8, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send and who will go for us?" And how does he respond? "Here I am. Send me." You know what the gospel does? It puts Jesus in the center of everything in your life.

If I don't belong with him and I can't be with him and there's no way to get to him and I can't have a relationship with God, and I see his holiness and I see I'm ruined, but I learn that there's forgiveness in grace and I'm totally in and I'm forgiven and I hear God say, "I want you to do something," here's my response, "When? Where? How? How long? Nothing's too great for me God, because you saved my life." Everybody here is on mission when you leave here, but sometimes we're kind of cavalier, "I don't know if I want to do that, and I don't know if I feel like giving that. I don't know if I feel like doing that." Jesus Christ saved your entire soul forever. He should be central to every single decision you make from this moment on and forevermore. What's greater than Jesus?

Okay, that's one. Let's go to a book of Revelation, chapter one. I taught this book a few years ago, love teaching it, but in chapter one we get a picture of the resurrected Christ and who he is. In Revelation chapter one in verse 12, it says this, "Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me," this is the Apostle John talking, "And after I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands which represent the church of Jesus Christ, and in the middle of the lampstands, I saw one like a son of man." Now what does Jesus look like? See if this is your picture of Jesus that you're sharing the gospel with other people with.

"One that looked like a son of man clothed in a robe reaching to his feet and girded across his chest with a golden sash. His head and hair were like white wool, like snow and his eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnish bronze when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand, he held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp sword and his face like the sun shining in its strength." Is that the Jesus you're sharing with people? Because that's who Jesus is. Your view of Jesus is too small. I mean, when he sees him, he sees the white face and hair, he sees the fiery eyes, he sees the sword coming out of his mouth, he sees that he holds all power not only over the church but over the whole world, this is the apostle John that spent three years with Jesus.

He knows Jesus. He saw him transfigured on the mountain. He's been around him. I mean he's ready, right? Notice the next verse, verse 17, "When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man and he placed his right hand on me and said, "Do not be afraid. I'm the first and the last, and the living one, and I was dead and behold, I'm alive forevermore and I hold the keys of death in Hades. I hold the keys of death in hell. I hold the keys of death and life. I hold it. Don't worry." I mean this is John. He knows Jesus. They've hung out for three years and he sees Jesus in his glorified state and he's on the ground, feeling like he's dead. What is that telling you?

Jesus is holy, holy, holy. He's different than anything you've ever thought. You see what happens? Isaiah knows the Lord, he's terrified. John knows the Lord, he's dead. Let's read one other verse. Revelation chapter four. Let's start out in verse five. It talks about what the throne is like in heaven. And by the way, I hear people say, throne room, I've tried not to use that anymore because there's really no room that contains Jesus. We use it as a metaphor. It's his throne. All the millions of martyrs that have been martyred are under his throne. It's not a room, it's a throne. When you get to heaven and see the throne, here's what you're going to see.

"Out from the throne came flashes of lightning and sounds and peels of thunder, and there were given seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne, there was something like a sea of glass like crystal and in the center of the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind." I've never seen a living creature with eyes in front and behind everywhere. He said, "The first creature was like a lion and the second like a calf, and the third creature had a face of that like a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle," but notice what they were like. "And the four living creatures, each of them have six wings and are full of eyes around and within and day and night, they do not cease to say."

I mean, can you imagine this picture, what this is going to be like? It means indescribable. We don't know. It's beyond amazing. It's terrifying. It's majestic, it's beautiful, it's glorious. It's all these things and what do they say? What's the words out of their mouth? I'll give you a guess. "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord, God the Almighty who was and who is and who is to come." And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks, who sits on the throne and to him who lives forever, the 24 elders will fall down before him who sits on the throne and will worship him who lives forever and ever and will cast their crowns before the throne saying, "Worthy are you, O Lord and our God to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and because of your will they existed and created."

Do you see some similarities here? I mean, if Isaiah were here today, he'd tell you, "Your view of God's too small. He's glorious." If John were here today, he would tell you, "Your view of God is too small. He's glorious." Now, I've heard of stories and I've read some books and I've seen some movies of people who claim they've died and gone to heaven. I'm a little more skeptical. I don't doubt they had a vision. I don't doubt God spoke to them, but I'm saying every time I read in the Bible that somebody's gone to heaven, that's what they see. They see terror, they see glory, they see holiness. They see something different than what we think on this planet, and I'm giving you those as a backdrop. You say, "Well, Pastor Jeff, I came to hear you preach." I just did.

This is what God says heaven's going to be like. This is what God says you need to prepare for. This is the God that you're praying to. This is the God that you're going to meet. That's why you need to know and honor his holy character. Notice verse 16. It says, "So it came about on the third day," here we go, "when it was morning that there were," what? "Thunder and lightning flashes." Have we seen that anywhere before? I mean, that's his throne. "There were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet so that all the people who were in the camp did what? Trembled." That's an English word to say they were scared out of their socks. They were freaking out. I mean this God that they had seen do stuff, now they're going to have an encounter with, and he's greater than what they thought.

You see them blow the rams' horn. There's going to be a sound of a trumpet before Jesus comes back to collect us. All this stuff is foreshadowing what the Lord's going to do. Verse 17, "And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now, Mount Sinai was all up in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire and its smoke descended like the smoke of a furnace and the whole mountain quaked violently." When you leave today, take a look at the front range and take a peek and see what you would think if it was all completely on fire. I remember the Marshall Fires. Remember driving from Estes Park to Boulder and seeing these massive fires, terrifying. Picture the whole mountain on fire, smoke ascending everywhere. You're standing right next to it and now on top of that, there's an earthquake, and you know the reason for the earthquake is God showing up. His presence is there.

It says, "When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mountain and Moses went up." This is second time Moses went up. He would do well if he lived in Denver, he's a mountain climber. He's going to go up and down and up and down, but can you imagine how terrifying this would be? You're not just climbing a mountain, you're climbing a mountain that's on fire and you're going right into it because God's calling you. His presence is terrifying. You need to know that. If you don't know that, you'll miss the love side of the gospel. Both are equally true, but Jesus' holiness tells us about who he is and what we need to be aware of.

I mean, I was thinking about this week, the book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Some of you have read that, CS Lewis classic, where Lucy's asking the question about Aslan who plays the Christ figure in the story. She says, "Then he isn't safe?" Lucy says. Of course, he ain't safe. Who said anything about safe? But he's good. He's the king, I tell you. Jesus isn't safe. We've boiled Jesus down into a sissified male that hugs little kids and cares for the poor and does all this, but that's just part of who He is. Who he is holy, holy, holy. The humility of the incarnation was that holy, holy, holy God becoming flesh and making his dwelling among us. That's who our God is. It's not safe, but he's good. He's good. He's the king. I mean, when we think about these words, think about this because there's so many words that the Holy Spirit could have used to describe our God. He could have said, "Love, love, love." Instead, he let the Beatles use that, right? "Love is all you need."

He could have said, "Mercy, mercy, mercy." He could have said, "Faithful, faithful, faithful," or, "Good, good, good." He could have said, "Righteous, righteous, righteous." Or for sinners, he could have said, "Wrathful, wrathful, wrathful," or, "Angry, angry, angry" or, "Just, just, just." But how is he described in the scripture? "Holy, holy, holy. There's no one like you. You're indescribable. There's no English words to describe you. There's no words in any language to describe you. You're greater than anything we're ever going to experience and we need to prepare ourselves to see him." Do you know and honor his holy character like that?

I mean, that's the God. That's why it's quiet in here today. Sometimes we come in and we think, "I just need like a 10-minute TED Talk. Just give me a little pick-me-up so I can get on with my week." Right? I've never been asked to do a TED Talk because they are only 10 minutes, but a TED Talk won't change your life. A TED Talk can give you some helpful information or tools to improve in different ways and grow, but TED Talks won't talk about the holiness of God and how you're going to stand before at that throne with all the being and spiritual beings around there and all the saints that are worshiping him and all the martyrs that are under the throne to give an account for your life. That's what you're going to do. Are you ready?

Because it's not something that you can in a cavalier way, just say, "Yeah, I think I'm fine. I'm ready to go. I know I'm going to heaven," because if you don't understand the holiness of God, you're not ready to meet him and I'm persuading you today. Be ready. But I already prayed a prayer and I've been going to church my whole life. I went to church for 18 years, convinced I was a Christian until I heard somebody talk about the holiness of God. I was so offended by it, but at the same time, I realized by God's Holy Spirit it was true and my religious activity didn't matter. My resume I was going to give to God didn't matter and how good I thought I was wasn't going to matter. The only thing that mattered is that God was holy and I wasn't, and that's how he sent his son. This is love, 1 John 4:10, not that we love God. Do you love God?

"Yeah, I love God." You don't love God, but that he loved us and he sent his son as a propitiation for our sin. Out of that holiness, God sends Jesus to the earth, and I've heard it said, and I probably say it, and if I've already said this, I'm sorry I've been fasting, I can't think, but I've said it, "If you were the only person on the planet, Jesus would've come for you." As I said, I just reiterated it again. No, if you're the only person on the planet that sinned, Jesus would've come to restore his father's glory, and in doing that would've made a way to redeem you. That's the gospel. Do you own that truth? Do you believe that truth? Do you realize you on your own, standing before God, doesn't matter what your parents say, doesn't matter how much you hate Christianity and hate pastors and hate this, and, "I don't know if I want to believe that," I'm telling you from the authority of God's word, you've heard it, you're accountable now.

You will stand before his glory and you will hear one of two things, welcome or get away. What's going to happen to you? You can know on this side of heaven what's going to happen because the fourth part of holiness is if you really believe this, if you really, really, truly believe that, you need to remember all God's done and all he's going to do and you really want to respond with a desire for a sanctified life and you know and honor his holy character, then there will be a compelling on you to warn others of his holiness. You're called to warn others. The reason we don't share the gospel with people is like, "Well, I don't know if I want to offend them." They're getting ready to face an eternal God of glory and holiness.

Do you care? The gospel is God. Do they want God? Can you tell them about your God? Can you tell them about how good your God is? Because notice what Moses does next. In verse 21, it says, "Then the Lord spoke to Moses. He said, "Go down, warn the people."" "Tell them I'm not playing games here." I mean, we see with Uzziah when he is trying to help get the tabernacle back to the temple and they're like, "We're not going to carry it with poles. That's too hard. Let's put wheels on it. I mean, what's the big deal?" And things start to break, Uzziah reaches out and touches the arc of the covenant. What happens? Poof, he's dead. And we're like, "Well, why do we got to kill him?" Because he's holy. Why when Ananias and Sapphira lied in Acts chapter five and didn't give the offering they were supposed to give, why did God kill them?

Because he's holy. Why doesn't he kill everybody? Because he's merciful too and he is willing that all would be saved and all would come to repentance, and he doesn't desire the death of anyone. That's why he sent his son. Warn others of his holiness, live in the fear of the Lord, prepare for his presence, warn the people so that they don't break through the Lord to gaze and many of them perish. Tell them not to even get close to get a look. Have them stand way back. Also, let the priest who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves or else the Lord will break out against them. Moses said to the Lord, "The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai for you warned us saying, "Set bounds about the mountain and consecrate it."" Then the Lord said to him, "Go down again," the second time he's coming down, "And you and Aaron with you come up, but do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord or he will break forth upon them."

So Moses went down to the people and told them. What's he saying? There's no hall pass for priests. There's no hall pass for pastors. There's no hall pass for those that serve in the church. There's no hall pass for those that call themselves Christians. God doesn't change his character. You need to ready yourself and prepare yourself. Let me just read you a sobering text. These are the words of Jesus in case you think I'm just making this stuff up. They come out of the greatest sermon of all time in the sermon of the Mount Matthew chapter seven, verse 21. Here's what he says. "Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles.""

In other words, not everyone who says Jesus is Lord is going to heaven, but only the people that are living obediently. You say, "Oh, Pastor Jeff, are you saying you got to work hard at your salvation?" I'm like, "No." But if you're truly saved, God will work your salvation out through you. There'll be a desire to walk with God if you're saved and there will. But not everybody says, "Oh, Jesus is my Lord," not every pastor that's in a pulpit, not every priest, not everybody that claims that they know Jesus knows Jesus. God knows. The Lord knows those who are His, but he'll say to those people that didn't respect his holiness and didn't respond through repentance and faith, here's what they're going to hear. Pray that it's not anybody in here.

"Then I will declare to them," or then he will declare to you, "I never knew you depart from me. You who practice lawlessness." "Get out. I'm too holy to welcome you. I made a way through my son and you rejected him. I provided a way for you to experience my holiness. I provided a way for you to experience my glory. I told you there were no other gods. I told you what you needed to do and you never responded. You lived for this world. Get away. As much as I love you and take no delight in the death of the wicked, I'm an eternal holy God so I will punish in hell forever and ever." That's fact. But Matthew 25 tells us what happens to those who are doing the right things. Here's what you're going to hear if you responded in faith, "Well done, good and faithful servant, come home. Enter my rest."

"I've been waiting for you. I prepared a place for you for all eternity for you to be with me." That's the gospel. The gospel asked this question, "Do you just want fire insurance or do you want God?" God says, "I want you to want me." Don't approach his throne and say, "Well, I prayed these four prayers and I did this thing." Don't do that. Approach His approaches throne saying, "I'm ruined. I don't deserve to be here, but the good news is you sent your son." Do you see what we see in that fire, that consuming fire that our God is? What do we see at Pentecost? We see him come in fire again, don't we? And who is the fire? It's the Holy Spirit. And where does the Holy Spirit dwell?

In everyone who's repented and believed that same God of all authority, all power, all grace dwells in every single person who believes, which means if you're hearing about the holiness of God and that the law is going off in your heart and you're like, "I'm never going to make it. I can't do this. The requirements are too stiff. It's too great, it's too big," I have great news. God in his holiness sent his son Jesus, who fulfilled the requirements of the law, who died on the cross, who shed his blood, who died, who was buried, who rose from the dead, who restored glory to his father, and he says this, "I want to redeem you too. Do you want to come? Come to me, I welcome you." And when you say, "Jesus, that's what I want. I want to leave my sin and I want to come to you," he will save you and save you to the full right now at this very moment and walk with you every day forevermore.

So while he holds a standard high that you can't meet, he's the one who bridges the gap so that you can have it. It's the holiness of God that we're missing sometimes. Have you heard his voice? You heard what he wants to say? He's holy, holy, holy. But he's also here for you today in love to tell you you can be part of his holiness through repentance and faith in him. I thought of no better way today to end our time than to take communion together. Do you know why? Because the body and blood of Christ that this represents is the way you approach the holy. There's no other way. The only way to approach is through the body and blood of Christ. In the same way that Israel had a mediator of Moses going up and down the mountain, who do we see in the person of Jesus? We have one mediator between God and man, that's the man Jesus Christ, who came down from on high, who descended, who went back up. And guess what He's doing?

He's coming down again. Are you ready? I encourage you to be ready today. And if you are, I'll come back up in a few moments. Pastor Justin will come back up in Westminster. We'll take these elements together as a family. Father in heaven, we give you all praise, glory, and honor. Lord, let us think about the gospel and how you've changed us. And if you've never responded to the gospel, then make today the day where you say, "I've been believing lies. I've been believing religion. Lord, today I see who you are and I want you. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for dying for my sins. I confess you as my Lord and Savior. I turn for my sin and turn to you." Father, we give you all the glory, honor, and praise. And Lord, if we're harboring sin, we bring that to you right now, the God of the universe who's so willing to forgive it. We give you all the glory in Jesus's name. Amen.