Last night, I spoke on the holiness of
God as God is transcendent over the creature
and that the great emphasis in the word
holy is that not of sinlessness, but the
idea of separation, that he is, well, like
there is no one like our God, absolutely
no one, and that to be holy, it
is to esteem the worth of God above
all things, to hold him as sacred and
above all things and to draw unto him
with passion, with love, with desire.
We went through the fact that you could
be a rule keeping Pharisee who dots every
eye and crosses every T with regard to
the law and yet still not be holy
because your heart is far from him.
To be holy means more than separating from
that which is evil.
For separation is not an end in itself,
it is only a means, a means to
a greater end, and that end is God.
Another thing that I spoke on last night
that I think is important to iterate, it
is this many times when there are conferences
with regard to the attributes of God, the
people who come to those conferences are people
who care about truth.
But in speaking about the holiness of God,
it is very important to speak about how
even truth can become an idol that sets
itself in the place of God.
A team of experts have not been gathered
here this week, for first of all, there
are no experts with regard to the attributes
of God.
And if there were so-called experts, they
would have no power on their life to
proclaim him.
There are no great men of God here
this weekend, only tiny, pitiful, pathetic, sinful, weak
men of a great and a merciful God.
And if we learn anything about God, it
will be by God's good grace that we
learn it.
And in learning it, we are not to
keep it to our breasts and hold it
to ourselves as some idol that takes the
place of God.
It is very, very common to see men
who love to study about God, who love
to speak about God.
But it is very, very few the men
you'll find who love to run to God
and sit in his quarters and dwell with
him.
Now, having said that, it is important also
to speak about holiness in a way that
is very, very common and very appropriate, and
that is with regard to separation from sin.
And although I was going to speak on
the power of God, I feel it necessary
to continue on with this idea of holiness.
And then tomorrow I will speak on the
power of God.
Holiness of God does mean also that he
is morally pure, that he is without sin.
And if we are to be a holy
people, we will draw near to him only
to the degree that we have also separated
ourselves from those things that God truly hates.
So we're going to pray and then we're
going to begin our study on this aspect
of the holiness of God.
Father, I come before you in the name
of your son and in it is it
is in his name, Father.
That I am bold enough to come, I
thank you, Father, so much for your son.
For I know that I would have no
part with you if it were not for
him.
But I know that because of him, I
can very run run Lord into the throne
room where angels fear to tread.
That I have access to you, that you
are my father and I am your son
and I rejoice in that and I praise
you that you hear me and I praise
you that I'm acceptable in the beloved.
I thank you, Lord, for all the great
things that you have done in Zion.
Her joy is great because of thee and
because of that son of David that you
have enthroned.
Oh, dear God, I praise you and I
worship you and I pray, God, that for
your own glory and for the sake of
your son and for the benefit of your
people and for the sheer joy of it,
that we would come to understand even this
aspect of your holiness.
Oh, God, and help us to see that
it is not a grave thing, it is
not a burden, it is a joy, it
is like running through a field as a
young man without a weight on your back,
that the greatest freedom belongs to the man
who makes himself a slave to you.
Oh, Lord, I praise you, I worship you.
Lord, why do I have to open my
eyes and preach now?
It would be better to stay with you.
Much better.
Oh, God, I praise you in Jesus' name.
Amen.
We have some kind of wonderful God, don't
we?
I recall a dear friend who's going to
speak tomorrow, Mike Morrow, and how he loves
sometimes he'll just be speaking about God.
And sometimes I always say he's a cross
between Jonathan Edwards and Jerry Clower.
And sometimes he'll be preaching about God and
all of a sudden he'll just kind of
rear back and slap his hands to his
side and say, oh, folks, we got ourselves
a God.
And that is so true.
That is so true.
So we had a conference here on the
attributes of God.
We could have taken each attribute and spoken
a year and still said nothing.
And you see, that's what heaven is all
about.
Don't you see people ask me sometimes when
I get to heaven, will I know everything?
Well, you'll know a lot, but you won't
know everything.
Why?
Because heaven is about that.
Throughout all of eternity, you will be in
a wild, passionate pursuit of knowing God.
And every day he will fill your coffers
full to the brim and you'll think there's
nothing less left to give.
And the next day you'll wake up and
he'll fill them again with new, ever increasing
knowledge of his glory.
It's such a splendid thing.
But what's so wonderful in John 17, we're
told that that we start that now.
We start that now for this is eternal
life to know him.
You start that now.
Knowing him, that's what it's all about.
Now, we're talking about holiness as the moral
purity of God.
There's some things that you need to understand,
first of all, because a lot of times
we look at what it means to us,
then we think that it means the same
thing for God when actually it means something
quite different.
Moral purity is not something that God decides
to be.
It's not something that he seeks after.
It's not something that he does.
We can say that moral purity is essential
to God.
It is an attribute of God.
It is not something that he does.
It is what he is.
And for him to be any other thing
would be for him to contradict his very
nature.
It's an impossibility.
When we talk about the power of God,
it's important to note that there are some
things God cannot do, and one of them
is this and all of them really goes
down to this one thing.
God cannot contradict himself.
God cannot do that which contradicts his nature.
God cannot be anything but holy.
He cannot be anything but morally pure.
Now, let's stand back again for a moment.
Oh, I hate to use this, but people
are always saying, make your theology practical.
And I always tell them if it's not
practical from the beginning, it's not theology, or
at least it's not biblical theology.
Can you imagine the confidence that we have
in this thing?
That he is holy, absolute, moral purity and
can not change, will not change.
Now you say, well, that's a very wonderful
thing.
Well, it is even more wonderful when you
compare that to his creature, when you compare
that to even the holiest creature.
I want to just read a statement to
you in Job 15, 15.
It says this, Behold, he puts no trust
in his holy ones and the heavens are
not pure in his sight.
Now, is that meaning the second part of
this statement?
Is it meaning that the heavens are not
pure or that there is sin in heaven?
No, in heaven is perfect righteousness.
So what is the truth being communicated here?
It's meaning again that in his moral purity,
he is holy.
And what we mean by that, even in
his moral purity, he is separate from everything
else.
There is nothing morally pure like he is
morally pure.
Nothing is clean compared to God.
Even the cleanest among creature is not clean.
And that's what Brother Mike was sharing last
night.
We can compare ourselves by ourselves.
And in doing that, Paul, the apostle, says
we are not wise.
But by doing that, we can say, I'm
OK, you're OK.
But when you compare anything to God, it's
nothing compared to God.
Again, this is not just quantitative.
He is not like us, just better.
It's qualitative.
He's not like us or anything else at
all.
Now, another thing he says there, Behold, he
puts no trust in his holy ones.
Does that mean that even the elect angels
could turn on God?
Well, no, it doesn't mean that, but this
is what I do believe it does mean.
God's holiness is inherent.
No one else can say that.
All other holiness, all other moral purity is
derived.
When I say that God's holiness is inherent,
it is who he is.
But to say that an angel is holy,
from where does that holiness come?
It comes forth from God.
If an angel is to be holy, it's
because God made them holy.
If they are to remain holy, it's because
God sustains them in their holiness.
And if God were to withdraw from them,
they would become, well, they would become moral
chaos.
A good illustration is this.
I always ask people, well, God made the
world.
Well, yes, he did.
What also does he do with regard to
the world?
Well, he sustains it.
And if he did not sustain it, what
would happen?
Well, it would turn into utter chaos, fall
apart, it would be destroyed, it would self
-destruct.
Absolutely.
Same way with any aspect of holiness in
any creature.
God not only makes holy, he sustains holiness.
All holiness is derived from God.
Now, to go back to make this practical
again, do you see how, Saint, you are
dependent upon God, whether you recognize it or
not?
You do not achieve some level of holiness
and then you kind of sever yourself from
God because you've arrived.
Everything that you are in that moment must
flow from God in that moment.
You cannot go to God one day and
fill your pockets full of grace or fill
your pockets full of God's holiness and then
run out in the wilderness independent of him
for a while and remain holy.
It's just like manna.
It must come every day.
It must come every moment.
And young Christian, those of you, some of
you young men are studying for the ministry.
Realize this, that in your young age, before
you're given to the things of ministry, you
are more likely to be given to the
things of God.
And you will give yourself to prayer and
seeking him.
And the problem is that when you start
doing ministry, you'll become so busy that you
think that you can draw on those times
with the Lord that you had before and
continue going.
You cannot.
It is daily manna, moment by moment manna
that must come from the throne of God.
Now, holiness, one aspect of holiness is it
means that God is separate from all that
is profane and sinful.
Separate.
Now, why do we need to speak about
this?
Well, we need to speak about this and
something else to learn something again and again
and again.
It is impossible for a people like us,
especially in a culture like ours, to understand
the sinfulness of sin.
We are like those who drink down iniquity
as though it were water.
I mean, go speak to the fish, ask
them if they have any reality of their
wetness.
They don't speak much about it.
Just they don't speak much about being wet
because wet is all around them.
They've grown so accustomed to it.
In the same way, we need to constantly
be seeing God's perspective on sin so that
we can treat it with the same attitude.
And I want you to know it is
an extremely severe attitude.
God takes a merciless attitude with regard to
sin.
He hates it, loathes it, despises it.
Now, just some some texts that are very,
very important is Psalms 5, 4 says, No
evil dwells with you.
Do you know, my dear friend, I think
when we get to heaven, one of the
things that we are going to be, if
we could say such a thing, I don't
know how this works out, but one of
the things in which I think we should
be most ashamed of will be this.
Of all the things that we did not,
for which we did not worship God.
This statement right here, No evil dwells with
you.
We just take that for granted.
OK, yeah, that's great.
No evil dwells with God.
Do you know how we could spend a
lifetime just worshiping God because of this one
statement?
Because would you imagine what it would be
like to live on an earth created by
an all powerful being who did have evil
dwelling within them?
That it is absurd, it is a travesty
not to every waking moment worship God simply
because no evil dwells with Him.
There would be no confidence, there would be
no hope, there would be nothing.
When you think about the evil that Satan
has amassed, the destruction he has left in
his wake as an evil being, and yet
he is not an all powerful being.
So you imagine what it would be like
if God were like him.
You imagine the terror, even if God was
not like him, but could be like him
someday, the terror in which we would live.
I hear people sometimes say, well, I just
don't know why I should worship him.
If you have breath, you have reason.
And he goes on and he says in
James 1 17, every good thing given and
every perfect gift is from above.
Now, we don't always think about this, but
I want you to notice something.
If it were not for the fact that
God is holy, there would be no good
thing given and there would be no perfect
gift coming to anyone from anywhere.
You see, my dear friend, all the other
attributes of God that we so desire, that
we so cherish, that we sing about, they
all hinge upon his moral purity.
If he was not morally pure and see
the way Satan is able to take that
in this world and twist moral purity into
some horrible thing, puritanical thing.
And yet every every ounce of sound laughter
that has ever broke forth out of the
lips of angels or men has come only
because God is holy.
Now, he says, coming down from the father
of lights with whom there is no variation
or shifting of shadow.
James uses father here for a very important
purpose.
Again, sometimes we set things in tension that
we should not.
You know, here's the fatherly aspect of God.
Here's the holy aspect of God.
Well, I want to tell you something.
What would it be like to have an
unholy father?
You see, I hate that even in the
Christian mind at times, there's this idea of
holiness always being this severe, frightening, terrible thing.
And yet.
The only way God can be a kind,
compassionate and loving father, trustworthy in all things,
is because he's holy.
How can a son trust a father who's
unholy man who's committing adultery on his wife?
How can a nation trust a leader?
That's supposed to care about them when he
doesn't even care about his own family.
You see, it works that way without holiness,
everything else breaks down.
Absolutely everything.
In First John 1 5, this is the
message that we have heard from him and
announced to you that God is light and
in him there is no darkness at all.
There is almost the chorus, joyful, joyful, we
adore thee, behind these words.
It's like John coming running with this magnificent
joy written all over his face.
I have a message for you.
God is light and in him there is
no darkness at all.
Now, you compare that to the gods of
the pagans and you'll appreciate it a lot
more.
These fierce, cruel, frightening, demonic goat gods, the
God of even modern day paganism in America.
The God of the witch, the God of
the druid, the God of the Babylonian, the
God of many of the Asian religions.
They are fierce, they are frightening, they are
terrifying.
The myth of the Greeks.
Well, you never knew what those guys were
going to do.
Those gods could be for you one day
and just to get a laugh, destroy you
the next.
John comes running with something that we've become
so dull to.
We take it for granted.
It's a common thing.
And when it becomes a common thing, we
no longer worship.
We ought to just be exhilarated with this
one fact that God is holy and he
changes not.
He changes not.
Now, it says in James chapter one, verse
13.
Let no one say when he is tempted,
I am being tempted by God, for God
cannot be tempted by evil.
He himself does not tempt anyone.
Now, for a greater scholar, you could sit
on this verse for days, but there's something
here that I just I want to draw
from.
And it's this again, we look at this
passage and we almost look at it as
though somehow God were like us, but greater
that God faces temptation like us.
But he always has the power to overcome
it.
That's not what this means at all.
You see, why are we tempted to ever
think about that?
I mean, why are we to be tempted
means to be drawn towards something.
There's an affinity.
There is something out there calling to us
and there's something in us that likes what's
calling and we want to run to it
and we have to fight against it.
Because even though as Christians we have been
regenerate, there is this part of us that
I really don't know how to name and
call it the flesh, whatever.
There's this part of us that is unregenerate
and desires evil.
There's this thing in us, worldly and carnal,
that is still there.
And when a temptation comes by, a sensuality,
a thing comes by, it can have the
power at certain times to draw us and
we have to overcome that temptation.
We have to wrestle against it.
We have to quote Scripture.
We have to think on the things of
God.
We have to fight hard and not be
drawn to that desire.
Do you think that's what it means about
God?
No, my friend, here's the big difference.
You parade any wickedness in front of God,
he doesn't sit there and go, oh, that's
really attractive, but I'm God and I can
overcome that desire.
No, there is nothing out there.
There is no part of that wickedness that
he desires.
Whatever you parade in front of him that
is wicked, he hates it.
He's not attracted to it.
He doesn't have to fight it off.
He doesn't have to grab a hold of
the table to keep from sliding down into
that black hole.
Immediately when it comes before him, he recognizes
it and he hates it.
And that's wonderful.
That is absolutely wonderful.
Glory to God.
Nothing wicked dwells with him.
Nothing wicked attracts him.
Nothing.
Oh, saints, I want to tell you something,
and I can say this because I am
a fearful man.
I'm not a bold, strong man.
But I will tell you this, when I
hear things like this, even as weak as
I am, I feel strong.
I feel bold as a lion.
When I think of what could come against
me, even before I finish this sermon, when
I think of all the things, all the
trials and tribulations, all the evil out there,
all the things, even the demonic plots against
me as a Christian, it'd be enough to
make the strongest man, his foundations, tremble and
sink.
But when I think of this, that my
God is not given to any of that,
but hates it and comes against it.
It is not something that makes me think
of God as some one who wants to
rain on everyone's parade.
It makes me think of a God in
whom I am secure.
In whom I am secure.
That's why in Job 34.10, it says,
Therefore, listen to me, you men of understanding,
far be it from God to do wickedness
and from the Almighty to do wrong.
Far be it.
There is not enough distance.
I don't know how large this universe is,
but I know that if you stacked it
and put it side by side with a
trillion other universes, it would not be far
enough to give us an illustration of how
far wickedness is from our God.
And that gives me the greatest amount of
comfort.
You see, I heard a preacher one time,
and I guess many preachers have said the
same thing.
So I, and it's this, preacher stood up
one day and he said, folks, I have
good news and I have bad news.
He said, the good news is this, God
is here.
The bad news is this, God is here.
It just depends on what side of the
line you're standing on.
And you see, that's what's so amazing, isn't
it?
I mean, we speak about the holiness of
God.
If we truly understand it as believers, we
just become almost beside ourselves with joy.
You paint the same picture of holiness to
the wicked and they will run as though
you douse them with kerosene and lit a
fire.
Now, the holiness of God not only means
that he is separate from sin, cannot sin,
will not sin.
It also means that he has set himself
against sin.
God is not neutral or apathetic towards the
evil that is in this world.
And he has and will deal with every
ounce of evil that has ever spewed forth.
I'll promise you that.
He will.
He has.
How has he?
There's two ways in which God has dealt
with evil.
One is through the cross of Jesus Christ,
as Brother Mike pointed out last night.
Christ bore the evil.
He bore the sins of his people.
He died on that tree and made it
possible for a just God to show mercy.
But evil will also be dealt with.
And those who have shunned Christ, if you
have shunned Christ, if you have no part
with Christ, know this.
God will deal with evil and it will
be on that great day of judgment when
no mercy at all will be shown.
God is not apathetic towards evil.
We hear the philosopher constantly, the politician constantly
saying, where is God amidst all this evil?
He's right on the throne and in his
time he will deal with it all.
Not one, Jesus Christ assures us, not one
idle word that has come forth out of
the mouth of a person will go unnoticed.
That's how he will deal with evil.
Now, I just want to look at some
things in Habakkuk 1.13. Your eyes are
too pure to approve evil and you cannot
look on wickedness with favor.
Saints, especially the men that are here, your
eyes.
That's a good that's a good barometer, that's
a good standard, a good measuring stick.
Do your eyes approve evil?
Or have they become so accustomed to evil,
they don't even recognize it when it comes
forth?
A dear friend of mine, he shared that
one time the Lord had led him to
a 28-day fast.
And he said that all he did was
just pray and seek God and read the
Scriptures.
Just locked himself away for 28 days.
He said that when he finished, he could
not even read a newspaper without almost becoming
nauseous in his spirit.
Have your eyes become accustomed to evil?
The awkward glance, because I assure you that
your father's eyes cannot look upon evil with
favor, cannot.
There is a sense, my dear friend, in
which no, no, we cannot move up on
a mountain and hide from the rest of
the world.
But there are places you should not walk.
There are places you should not be.
There are things you should not look at,
specifically the television and other things that are
doing nothing to preserve your soul, nothing to
promote godliness in you, but doing just the
opposite.
And what's amazing, and I want to give
a warning to the young people here, I
have seen seminary students, I have walked in
on seminary students and college students who would
witness and do everything, but walk into their
room or walk into the center there, the
kind of social center where they have there
on campus or seminary, walked in and seen
things on the television that I as a
man of God cannot even bear, and they
can watch it.
With each generation, there seems to be a
greater tolerance.
To these things, not only is it not
right, it's offensive to God, but I want
you to look at them also this way.
They are joy killers.
They will kill your joy, they will destroy
your happiness, they will make you filthy.
But God's eyes are too pure to approve
evil, your eyes will be a good a
good reminder to you, a good measuring stick
for you.
Whatever they're drawn to, realize they're only drawn
to it because it's in your heart.
And some deep heart work of the spirit
needs to occur.
A little bit of fasting and prayer wouldn't
hurt any of us.
Meditating on Scripture and seeking after the things
of God would do us all a world
of good.
And I would suggest that if you spent
as much time in front of the Word
of God on your knees as you do
in front of a television set, you would
see great prosperity in your Christian life.
It goes on in Deuteronomy 25, 16.
Now, I want you to look at just
God's perspective on sin for everyone who does
these things.
Speaking about injustice, everyone who acts unjustly is
an abomination to the Lord, your God.
Now, I want you to look at something
very important.
First of all, the word translated abomination comes
from a Hebrew word that means repugnant, offensive,
disgusting, revolting or obscene.
In Psalms 88, the word is translated object
of loathing.
Now, let's go back and look at an
important point that is totally lost in modern
day American evangelicalism.
And it is this.
Listen to what he says.
It doesn't say that these things are disgusting
and loathsome, even though they are.
But it says every one, every person who
does these things, everyone who acts unjustly is
an abomination.
We are so quick and preachers in the
modern day pulpit today are so quick to
say that sin is an abomination before God.
But I can't even recall the last time
I heard a preacher say that the sinner
is an abomination before God.
No, you won't hear that.
But you read it in Scripture all over,
all over that the person who commits the
sin is an object of loathing before God.
Now, just to reaffirm that and turn to
Psalms five, because no one believes me.
Psalms, chapter five, verses four and five.
For you are not a God who takes
pleasure in wickedness.
Now, no one has a problem with that
because we can define wickedness and we can
put it somewhere outside of us where it
doesn't touch us.
Oh, yeah, God is really, I mean, hates
wickedness.
But look, he says, no evil dwells with
you.
The boastful shall not stand before your eyes.
You hate all who do iniquity.
I want you to look at that for
a moment.
Please look at that.
Realize that Scripture speaks for a reason.
It is not poetry.
It is setting something up for us.
Very, very important.
Now, look, it says you, referring to God,
hate all who do iniquity.
When was the last time you heard that
out of a pulpit?
So much for God loves the sinner and
hates the sin.
Now, immediately when I say that, I've had
people stand.
I've had people say, well, what about John
3, 16?
For God so loved the world, I say
it's in the book.
So is this.
And one of the laws of classical logic
is the law of non-contradiction.
And if the Bible is the word of
God, it cannot contradict itself.
So no, I'm not denying John 3, 16,
but I am reading this text to you
in Psalms 5.
And we have to figure out a way
in which they speak the truth and do
not contradict one another.
But they are both there.
God has demonstrated his love towards the world.
The Bible does say that God hates all
those who do iniquity, the workers of iniquity.
Some translations, those who do wrong.
My dear friend, one of the greatest problems
in America today is that we preach almost
all the truth.
And we leave out that one part that
we would have to explain to the media.
You tell people that God hates sin, you
won't make anyone mad.
Why?
Because everyone has a definition of sin that
sets sin outside themselves.
You tell a group of homosexuals, you tell
a group of feminists, you tell a group
of murderers that God hates sin.
And they'll say, well, of course he does.
The problem is, is when you begin to
say, and this is the definition of sin.
And this is God's attitude, not only to
the sin, but toward the sinner.
Now, I don't have time to go into
this because I want to share about so
many other things.
But this is what we talked about last
night, Brother Mike and the divine dilemma.
If God is just and holy, he cannot
forgive you.
That's what the gospel is all about.
And yet, if I stand up in a
seminary and say this, people look at me
like they've never heard it before in their
life.
If God is just and holy, he cannot
forgive you.
In the same way that if a judge
is a righteous judge, he cannot simply pardon
you because of some love that he has
for you.
It is required of judges to do justice.
The great question in all the Bible is
this.
How can God be holy and just and
forgive?
You see, if I speak on divine judgment
on the last days or the second coming
of Christ and the great judgment throne of
Christ and that men are cast into hell,
I always have people that come up to
me and they go, I'm appalled at what
you just said.
I really have a problem with God casting
people in hell.
And I said, well, you know, heaven has
a problem, too, but it's just the opposite
of yours.
The problem in heaven is not how can
a holy, just God judge sin and the
rebels who commit it?
The problem in heaven where God has to
give an explanation is this.
How can God be just and holy and
forgive these vile creatures who deserve death?
You see how we've twisted the gospel?
And there is only one way, and that
is for his justice to be satisfied.
And it was satisfied on that day for
his people when his son bore their sin
and all the fierce fury and holy hatred
of God against men and their wickedness fell
upon Jesus Christ.
And God the Father crushed his only begotten
son under the furious wrath that belonged to
you.
So when we speak about coming unto God,
realize that we come unto God only because
his son died outside the gates of the
city, crushed under his father's own wrath, the
wrath that should have fallen upon your head.
Now, seeing that we were not redeemed with
coins or silver or coffers from heaven, but
by the blood of God's own son, how
then shall we live?
How then shall we live?
Now, just some things that I want to
mention to you about our response to God's
holiness.
First of all, we should rejoice and give
thanks.
I've already touched on this, but let me
just iterate it.
Psalms 34, sing praise to the Lord, you
his godly ones, and give thanks to his
holy name.
We ought to sing and worship and adore
him because he is holy and he doth
not change.
And that he will always be holy, he
will always be worthy, more than worthy of
our confidence.
This ought to be a constant thing of
worship for us.
Another thing, we should live before God with
reverence and godly fear.
This is almost an impossible truth to teach.
There are some things, and some of you
might become angry with me on this, but
there are some things that require more than
sound preaching.
This is one of them.
You have to have the truth of Scripture
to understand this statement, but you have to
experience God to understand this statement.
How he can be a father to us,
and yet at the same time, our father
who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
How we can approach him without fear, and
yet we should approach him with great fear.
It goes beyond definition, it goes beyond the
writing of books, but to the saint, to
the saint who has drawn near unto their
God, they understand it fully, even though they
themselves cannot explain it.
I just think of the picture of John
F.
Kennedy sitting in the Oval Office, the most
powerful man on the face of the earth,
in the most powerful office, a place where
if men were called in to meet with
him there, they would tremble.
And yet the cameraman is shooting the picture
from across the room, and you can see
inside the desk, because there's a hole all
the way through the bottom of the desk
where the legs go.
You can see the opening from the other
side.
And there, playing under the desk, between his
legs, is his little boy.
A place where dignitaries would be afraid to
enter in, and yet the son is sitting
there playing between his legs.
I want you to know that it's that
childlike faith that can approach God.
Where angels feared to tread in the year
that King Uzziah died, what did he see?
The Lord, high and lifted up, his train
filled the temple.
Those angels walked carefully not to step on
that thing.
You and I can play in the foals
of it.
And yet, at the same time, says this,
But the Lord is in his holy temple.
Let all the earth be silent before him.
So how do those two things go together?
Well, if you have ever drawn near to
him any amount of time, you know.
You know how they go together.
Now, something is very, very important here, 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.
One time, a group of young men asked
a rather bold preacher who had just preached
a message that had gotten him in a
great deal of trouble.
They came to him and they said, You've
got to be the bravest man on the
face of the earth.
I mean, the leaders right now are gnashing
their teeth at you.
They want to, I mean, you're out.
They're never going to ask you to come
back here again.
You must be the bravest.
How can you get up and say that?
You do not fear men.
The preacher looked up at them and said,
Yeah, I fear men.
I'm ashamed to say it, but I fear
men and I dread them sometimes.
But I fear God more and I dread
him more.
You will be amazed at the amount of
freedom afforded to the man who is more
afraid of God than he is men.
It has nothing to do with the courage
of a man.
That's what I try to tell people.
Young man, listen to me.
It has nothing to do with courage.
It has everything to do with reality.
OK, let's say I'm the most frightened man
on the face of the earth.
And over here is an enemy, very small,
but I know he can take me out.
What am I going to do?
I am going to be afraid.
Why?
I am a coward.
But over here is this gigantic, infinite colossus
who can destroy me with batting an eye.
Now, it has nothing to do with courage.
It just has to do with reality.
That one is a reality to me, if
not more than this one I can see.
So if I've got to choose someone to
fight against, it's going to be the little
one.
Has nothing to do with courage.
It's debatable whether there ever has been a
courageous man on the face of the earth.
But if you will realize that God is
a greater reality than the armies of men,
you'll have no problem making the right decision
because you're going to have to deal with
one or the other.
Make it this one.
Make it this puny thing.
A worm can enter in to his brain
and in a day he'll be a lunatic.
Bacteria can enter into his body and a
day he'll be dead.
But this one abides forever and the nations
are like a drop in the bucket before
him and there will be no changing of
the guard.
And we go on.
I love that text.
It's a very helpful text.
The knowledge of the attributes of God will
change the character of a man.
Do you see that, young preacher?
It is not about how big and bold
you can become in relation to other men.
It's only about the reality of who God
is in your life that will change everything.
Now, what should we do?
What should we do in light of this?
I want to go just quickly to Philippians
chapter 2, verse 12.
So then, my beloved, just as you have
always obeyed, not as in my presence only,
but also much more in my absence, work
out your salvation with fear and trembling.
I believe Brother Mack preached on this last
year, sanctification.
But what is one of our responses to
the holiness of God?
Our own desire to be holy.
To work this thing out.
And he says to do that, to work
at your salvation, to strive.
Brother Charles has a sermon I recommend about
the violent in the kingdom of heaven, entering
in, being violent in your faith.
This pressing forward, this recognition of this tremendous
need, absolute need of God and violently seeking
after Him.
Like those blind men who were told, be
quiet.
And they cried out even more, save us,
son of David, pressing on to holiness.
You press on to so many things, don't
you?
You press on to a good education.
You press on to know more about God
so that you'll be smarter than everyone else
and get asked to a conference.
You press on to so many things, press
on to holiness.
That's the thing God awards, rewards.
Press on to being holy.
And if all your knowledge doesn't lead to
that, it's vanity.
It's vanity.
People ask me, they've said, Brother Paul, what
do you think about the great reformation that
seems to be going on in the country?
It's a very silent type of thing, not
very noticed by the media or contemporary Christianity.
But it is true that there's this reformation
of young men wanting truth and all this.
And for the last, for several years, I
applauded it.
I was joyfully embracing it, saying, yes, it's
wonderful.
Now I've got my doubts because a lot
of these young men are just becoming absolutely
useless because what they've gone after is knowledge
and not God.
Doctrine and not the presence of Christ, it's
a terrifying thing.
And it's something that the older preachers also
must be constantly afraid of.
Now, it goes on and he says, and
then he gives us this encouragement.
First, there's this idea of working out our
salvation.
And then in 13, for it is God
who is at work in you both to
will and to work for his good pleasure.
I want you to know that if you
are a Christian, you will be in the
process of sanctification and you will grow in
godliness.
And if you are not growing in holiness,
not growing in godliness as a style of
life, then your assurance may be false.
Because it is not just, OK, you're saved
now, now decide how far you want to
go in the Christian life.
God has decided how far you're going to
go in the Christian life.
And it is all the way to conformity
to his son.
Oh, yes, I know that when we pass
over on the other side, we're going to
be glorified.
The only assurance that you're going to pass
over and be glorified is that even now
God is working to make you holy.
Another thing, very, very important, Hebrews chapter 12,
one of the amazing, amazing statements in Scripture
12, 14, pursue peace.
What does that mean?
Run after it.
My little boy, he could get so excited,
put him in front of a white wall,
totally blank, and he'll take off running right
into it.
He gets so excited.
I spend most of my people ask me,
they say, why are you so thin?
I said, I've been pursuing my two boys.
It is something that you just do with
vigor, with strength, running with everything that you
have.
It is not lackadaisical.
It is zealous.
It is fire.
It is steam.
It is something you are given to.
He says, pursue peace.
And everyone says, oh, that's wonderful.
Let's just all join hands and sing Kumbaya,
pursue peace.
But then he says, and the sanctification without
which no one will see the Lord.
If this is true, then maybe 75 percent
of the people who attend evangelical churches in
America are lost.
And it's not the fault of liberal politics
or liberal theologians, it is the fault of
the pulpit.
Because I can reinterpret looking at the church
today, the words of Jesus about the narrow
way.
If we took the church today and reinterpreted
that text, it would be enter in through
the small gate and then walk in the
broad way and you'll be OK.
Make a profession of faith in Jesus and
then walk just like the world.
That's OK.
That profession is strong enough.
Your profession of faith in Jesus Christ is
worth absolutely zero.
Because he said, many will profess me on
that day, they'll say, Lord, Lord, and I'll
say, depart from me.
I never knew you.
The evidence that a person is truly born
again is that they pursue sanctification.
That they pursue holiness.
Now, I want to step back for a
moment and make it clear we're not talking
about a red hot pursuit all the days
of our life, because we all struggle.
We all struggle with lukewarmness at times.
We all struggle with being mesmerized by the
world and having to be pulled back.
But then.
The Bible takes this in course, because before
this passage that we've just read, we have
the great passage on what the father's discipline
of his children.
Most of Romans chapter 12 deals with that
one thing, he says this, he said, my
son, do not regard lightly the discipline of
the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved
by him.
For those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines
and he scourges every son whom he receives.
It is for discipline that you endure.
God deals with you as with sons.
For what son is there whom his father
does not discipline?
But if you are without discipline of which
all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate
children and not sons.
Yes, we will recognize that in the heart
of the truest believer, we can find lukewarmness
at times.
We can find distraction.
We can find a cold heart, but it
will not be as a style of life.
Why?
Because of the power of regeneration and the
powerful love of this father who will not
let you go.
Jacob, I loved Esau, I hated.
How did he hate Esau?
Well, first of all, recognize he really did.
Now, how?
If you look at Jacob's life and Esau's
life, they were both blessed tremendously by God.
And Esau had so much wealth, he needed
nothing from Jacob.
When Jacob returned, then how is it that
God hated Esau?
I'll tell you how.
He cut the rope on Esau and let
him run.
He let Esau be Esau and Esau did
everything Esau wanted to do.
And there were no repercussions that we know
of.
He cut the rope and let him go.
Esau always remained Esau, free and full and
died and went to hell.
As my mother would say with regard to
Jacob, God beat the living daylights out of
that boy every day of his life.
That is how God loved Jacob.
And when Jacob came back over that river,
limping, limping.
Someone pointed out one time, they said, Paul,
you you must really be evil.
You must really be a hard son to
deal with.
And I said, why?
Because he just touched Jacob's hip.
He had to replace both of yours.
I said, well, that's true, but they are
replaced.
I think one of the greatest evidences of
being born again is that passage in Ezekiel
where he says, I will cleanse you from
all your filthiness and all your idols.
If I were to point back and describe
my life with one thing, it would be
this.
God has been working these last 22 years
to cleanse me from my filthiness and destroy
all my idols.
And if I live another 50 years, it
will be that that will describe my life.
Now, we go on.
There is just so much to say, just
so much to say, I don't even know
where to go.
I've got too many verses here.
I want us to go for a moment
to Second Corinthians, chapter six.
Young people, listen to me.
Listen to me carefully.
I'm going to tell you something that will
help you.
One of the prayers for my boys, I
pray that they're converted, that they're regenerated.
And I put in the background, in the
context of that, when it pleased the Lord
to call, when it pleased the Lord to
call them, because it pleased the Lord to
call Paul at a time I wouldn't have
chosen, you know, and the Lord's will be
done and not my own.
But one of my prayers is, Lord, regenerate
them and convert them early, that the world
not have such a hold.
That there not be so many claw marks
on them.
I don't know whether that makes any difference
or not, but seems to.
What I'm trying to tell you, young person,
is listen to me.
This is life and death.
This is guard your heart.
It is the wellspring of life.
There is an enemy and a fallen world
out there that wants to suck you down.
It wants to rape you.
It wants to destroy you.
It wants to mutilate you.
It wants to darken you, to stain you,
to make you filthy.
Why?
Because while you are not all those things,
when they look at you, they are rebuked
and they hate it.
Listen to me.
If I could go back and not do
the things I have done prior to my
conversion, I'd give an arm to do that.
I would give everything that could be taken
off of me, and yet I still live.
Just to get away from me the fun
and the entertainment, at least that's what they
called it.
Some of you are homeschooled.
That is extremely dangerous.
You say, why?
Well, I'm going to homeschool my children.
But my point is this.
You sometimes maybe think, well, it's not so
bad over there.
Oh, it is more horrid than you could
ever imagine.
And when God tells His children, be holy
as I am holy, look at what He's
saying.
God is the most blessed creature, not creature,
God is the most blessed entity.
He is the most blessed being that there
is.
His continual joy before His throne, pleasures without
number before His throne.
And so when He's saying, be holy as
I am holy, He's saying, come and be
swallowed up in this joy.
And yet the world and the devil will
put into your mind, and some of you
will be able to acknowledge this has happened,
this has happened, the devil will put into
your mind, you're missing out, you're missing out.
Oh, man, your parents, they're just wanting to
rain on your parade.
They don't understand.
They're old.
They do understand.
They were not always old.
And if they could go back and not
do what they're trying to keep you from
doing, they would cut off their right arm.
They understand much more than you will ever
know.
And so, God, when He comes to us
in this 2nd Corinthians chapter 6, when He
comes to us in verse 16.
He says this, what agreement.
Well, let's go on up, let's go on
up to verse 14, do not be bound
together with unbelievers.
What does that mean?
Do not enter into any relationship with any
unbeliever that will become an influence on your
life.
We cannot remove ourselves from this world.
We cannot keep from having contact with unbelievers.
There's a sense in which biblically we should
have contact with unbelievers.
But we should never enter into a relationship
with an unbeliever, communion with an unbeliever that
is going to bring about their influence in
our lives.
It is just too dangerous.
And He says, for what partnership have righteousness
and lawlessness?
You see, it's not a thing about, you
know, just have it your way and have
it God's way.
It is a drawn line that is stern
and strong.
It is either you will follow Christ, that
you will follow God, or you are with
those who amass themselves together, who, if they
could, would storm the throne room of God,
knock Him off the throne and slaughter Him.
You see, it's not just this neutral ground
somewhere.
It's those who love Him and those who
despise Him.
And you have to decide where will you
be.
And you decide that every moment of every
day of your life.
Then he goes on and he says, righteousness
and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with
darkness?
Or what harmony has Christ with Belial?
Or what has a believer in common with
an unbeliever?
What agreement has the temple of God with
idols?
And of course, they're all rhetorical questions and
the answer is absolutely nothing.
There is no agreement.
And you have to come to that conclusion.
There is no agreement.
That world has nothing to do with me
and I have nothing to do with it.
That world has been crucified to me and
I have been crucified to the world.
I am upward bound.
I am a pilgrim.
This is not my home.
I do not belong here.
This is not my thing.
This is not my place.
I am a foreigner.
I am a stranger.
I expect to be mocked.
I expect to be treated cruelly.
I am behind enemy lines.
I expect to get nothing here.
But I expect to get it all there.
You see, one of the problems is you
expect too much of this place.
And expect that God should give you some
of this place.
He is not going to give you some
of this place.
He hates this place.
He would never give it to a child
that He loves.
He is giving you that place.
The other place.
So do not moan and mope that the
world is against you.
That everyone else seems to be having so
much fun and you are behind prison bars
of morality.
This is not your home.
And the ones who are doing all the
dancing, they are dancing only to forget the
pain of how empty they are.
He goes on and says, this is where
we are going to finish with this part.
He says, and this is one, in my
opinion, is one of the most heartbreaking passages
in all the Bible.
He says, for we are the temple of
the living God, just as God has said.
I will dwell in them and walk among
them and I will be their God and
they will be my people.
Therefore, come out from their midst and be
separate, says the Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean and I
will welcome you and I will be a
father to you.
And you shall be my sons and daughters
to me, says the Lord Almighty.
You almost see here Hosea coming, that
old prophet coming to Gomer and saying, Gomer,
come away from all those vile men.
Come away from your prostitution.
Come away from your adulteries.
Come, I will be your husband.
I have a home for you.
That a man should be reduced to that
is a sad thing.
That God, by grace, should so condescend to
do that is an amazing thing.
That's what he's saying to you.
See, he really is everything he says he
is.
And it goes back to our biggest problem
is we don't know him and we don't
believe what we do know.
He really is like this and he really
has prepared a place for his people.
But the most important thing is that place
for his people is beyond description for one
reason.
He is there.
It all goes back to him.
Holiness, again, is not the ability to submit
to a prescribed set of rules.
It is a drawing unto him which will
lead a heart to willing and joyful submission.
Let's pray.
Father, that our hearts would be so drawn
to you.
That our heart, oh God, Lord, prone to
wander, Lord, I feel it.
Prone to leave the God I love.
Take my heart, Lord, and seal it.
Seal it for thy courts above.
For Jesus' sake.
Amen.