Name: God Is Holy
Uploaded: 2022-05-06T00:00:00+00:00
Duration: T25M9S

INTRODUCTION

1. Flashes of lightning. Rumblings. Peals of thunder. Billowing smoke. Thick, dense cloud. Brilliant light. Earth quaking and temple shaking. Trumpet blasts that grow louder and louder.
2. A majestic throne: a throne high and lifted up; a throne as bright and clear as the sky, rich blue like sapphire; a throne flaming with fire; a chariot throne that can move from place to place, with fiery wheels that gleam and shine; a throne encircled by a brilliant rainbow or halo, radiant green like an emerald; a throne below and before which is some kind of glorious expanse, like a body of water made of glass, shining, gleaming, and bright as crystal, awe-inspiring; a throne before which seven torches blaze with fire; a throne surrounded by winged celestial creatures called seraphim, or “burning ones,” and by twenty-four elders, by four-living creatures, and by thousands upon thousands upon thousands of angels.
3. And on the throne, a King of unparalleled glory and power: a King surrounded by brilliant light; a King whose booming voice speaks from the fire and shakes the earth and breaks the mighty cedars of Lebanon into pieces; a King who is full of fire; a King whose appearance is like hot, glowing metal; a King out from whose presence flows a river of fire; a King whose garments are white as snow; a King whose head is crowned with the white hair of glory and eternal wisdom (cf. Pr. 16:31); a King before whom the only appropriate response is worship and praise, awe and wonder, fear and trembling, hands raised and knees bowed; a King so uniquely and distinctly awesome in glory and power and beauty that even the fiery seraphim must cover their faces in his presence; an eternal King, without beginning or end, so incomparably and unmatchably awesome in justice and goodness and mercy that the four-living creatures around his throne declare day and night and night and day, without ceasing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come…Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come…Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come” (Rev. 4:8, NIV).
4. These are the things we see in Scripture at those moments when God openly displays his power and glory, or when we are given a glimpse into the happenings of the heavenly throne room. (Cf. Ex. 20, Ex. 24, Dt. 40, 1 Ki. 22, Is. 6, Ezek. 1, Rev. 4, 15.) As we hear the inhabitants of heaven as they offer up praise and worship to the Creator, there is one word that clearly stands out: Holy.
5. Holy, holy, holy. What is it about this word that makes it the choice word of the heavenly host in their unceasing worship of God? What does the Bible mean when it describes the Creator of the universe as “holy”? Although the Scriptures have a lot to say about the holiness of God, today we will fix our eyes and hearts on two aspects that appear again and again from Genesis to Revelation: the uniqueness of Yahweh, and the awe, wonder, trembling, and praise that this uniqueness inspires.

THE UNIQUENESS OF YAHWEH

1. First, the uniqueness of Yahweh. Who is like the Lord our God? These are the words that spring from the lips of Moses and the people of Israel after Yahweh delivers them from the power of Pharoah and brings them through the Red Sea on dry ground. “Lord who is like you among the gods?” they sing in Exodus 15:11. “Who is like you, glorious in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders?” (CSB)
2. Yes, who is like the Lord our God? Our God is incomparable in power, majesty, authority, and glory. It is Yahweh alone who created the heavens and the earth in the beginning. It is Yahweh alone who separated the light from the darkness. It is Yahweh alone who placed an expanse between the waters and separated the waters above the expanse from the waters below it. It is Yahweh alone who caused dry ground to appear and who gathered the waters into “seas.” It is Yahweh alone who caused the land to produce vegetation and who placed the sun, moon, and stars in the sky. It is Yahweh alone who filled the seas with fish and the skies with birds and the land with diverse creatures of all kinds. It is Yahweh alone who made humankind in his image, and who made men, men, and women, women, and who designed the holy covenant of marriage. It is Yahweh alone who ceased from his work of creating on the seventh day and who set this day apart as a sacred, holy day for worshiping the sacred, holy God. It is Yahweh alone who determines what is good and what is bad and what is this and what is that. It is Yahweh alone who gives life and sends rain, and it is he alone who rules and reigns, for from him and through and to him are all things. Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.
3. Yes, who is like the Lord our God? Our God is unrivaled in righteousness and in saving acts of power and in mighty acts of judgment. It is Yahweh alone who covered the earth with a flood in the days of Noah and who poured down fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. It was Yahweh alone who brought the Israelites out of the land of slavery with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. It was Yahweh alone who overturned death at Jesus’ resurrection, and it is Yahweh alone who will resurrect the dead and restore all things at Jesus’ return. Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.
4. Yes, who is like the Lord our God? Our God is utterly distinct in goodness, in righteousness, in compassion, in mercy, and in kindness. It is Yahweh, set apart from all others, who is himself the standard of all that is good and right and true. It is Yahweh, set apart from all others, who himself sets the example of all that is beautiful and noble and praiseworthy. It Yahweh, set apart from all others, who is the God of light and in whom there is no darkness at all. It is Yahweh, set apart from all others, in whom the widow, the orphan, the poor, the resident alien, and the Levite find an incomparable refuge and source of strength. It is Yahweh, set apart from all others, who makes a way for sinners to be forgiven. It is Yahweh, set apart from all others, to whose arms the prodigals and the weak and the broken and the disappointed and the hurting and the disillusioned can run for an embrace like no other embrace. Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.
5. Yes, who is like our God, made flesh in our matchless King and Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth? Our Savior is like no other, chief among ten thousand, fairer than the sons of men. It is he, and no other, in whose face we see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. It is he, and no other, in whom “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Col. 1:9). It is he, and no other, about whom it can be said that the “Word became flesh and tabernacled among us” (Jn. 1:14, ISV). It is he, and no other, before whom the demons tremble as they declare, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” (Mk. 1:24, NIV). It is on account of his blood, and no other, that the Father turns his wrath away from guilty and corrupt human beings like us who rebel against him and destroy the creation he loves. It is he, and no other, in and through whom the Father holds forth the hope of salvation to the world, “for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved” (Ac. 4:12, CSB). Utterly unique…supremely distinct…wholly in a class of his own…unequaled and unmatched and unrivaled in every way… Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.

THE AWE-INSPIRING ONE

1. And this brings us to our second point. What happens when people encounter the Holy One of Israel? To encounter the unique and matchless God is to encounter the one whose unique and matchless glory causes all other beings to put their faces to the ground and to lift up holy hands in awe, praise, reverence, and trembling. As it says in Psalm 99:1-3: “The Lord reigns! Let the peoples tremble. He is enthroned between the cherubim. Let the earth quake. The Lord is great in Zion; he is exalted above all the peoples. Let them praise your great and awe-inspiring name. He is holy” (CSB). Our God is uniquely sacred and majestic. Although angels and other celestial beings can also inspire fear and amazement (see, e.g., Mt. 28:3-4; Rev. 22:8-9), they, too, find themselves prostrate in worship before the incomparable glory and beauty of Yahweh (see, e.g., Is. 6, Rev. 4).
2. Yes, he is holy. Let us praise his great and awe-inspiring name. Abraham and Sarah knew what it means to rejoice and sing because of Yahweh’s great and awe-inspiring name. God had promised Abraham and Sarah a son, but they were too old to have children. But then the author of life brought life to Sarah’s womb, and she was able to conceive. Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.
3. Yes, he is holy. Let us praise his great and awe-inspiring name. Moses, too, knew what it meant to tremble in the presence of the God of the Exodus: “Moses, remove your sandals from your feet,” God says to him, “because the place where you are standing is holy ground” (Ex. 3:5, CSB). Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.
4. Yes, he is holy. Let us praise his great and awe-inspiring name.

Joshua: “Remove the sandals from your feet,”the commander of Yahweh’s army says to him, “for the place where you are standing is holy” (Josh. 5:15, CSB).
The people of Israel trembling at the foot of Mt. Sinai as Yahweh comes down on the mountain in thick cloud, with thunder and lightning and trumpet blast and billowing smoke, and speaks to them from the fire, declaring, “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods besides me” (Ex. 20:2-3, NIV footnote)…
Solomon, the priests, and the people of Israel, with their faces to the ground, unable to enter the Lord’s temple as the glory of God fills it at its dedication, declaring, “He is good; his love endures forever” (2 Ch. 7:3)…
Elijah and the prophets of Baal: “The God who answers by fire, he is God” (1 Ki. 18). And we know which God it was who answered by fire.
The prophet Isaiah when he saw the Holy One of Israel on his high and exalted throne: “Woe to me!” he says. “I am ruined! … For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty” (Is. 6:5, NIV).
The prophet Ezekiel as the glory of God came as a “windstorm coming from the north—an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light” (Ezk. 1:4, NIV)
Jesus’ disciples struck with awe and amazement after he calmed the storm: “Who then is this?” they exclaim. “He commands even the winds and the waves, and they obey him!” (Lk. 8:25, CSB). These same disciples startled, terrified, and overcome with awe as the resurrected Lord appears in their midst (Lk. 24)… “My Lord and my God!” Thomas declares in the presence of the one who was dead, but who is now appearing before him clothed in resurrected life.
Paul on his way to Damascus, falling to the ground as an intense light flashes around him, with these words in his ears: “Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me?” (Ac. 9:4)
John on the island of Patmos, falling down like a dead man before the “First and the Last,” the “Living One,” whose “eyes were like a blazing fire” and whose “face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance” (Rev. 1:14, 16)
Yes, all these, too, knew what it means to adore, praise, tremble, and fall down prostrate before the Holy One of Israel. Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.