2. The Bible calls us to do what is right in the sight of God with our whole hearts (2 Chronicles 25:2). Holiness calls us to not be a people of compromise. People of compromise are sinners who choose idols. We ought to choose worship of God over idols. We ought to engage in wholehearted devotion to God. If you fail and do not submit God with your whole heart like Amaziah, repent and renew your obedience! Amaziah did not serve the Lord with his whole heart. He turned aside to idols and worshiped them. Sometimes sin is so elusive that we do not see our idols. However, sometimes sin is so clear that we are so blinded that we are unable to resist it. By nature, human beings are spiritually mute. We are also spiritually blinded people who need the spiritual sight of our Master to set us free. Uzziah sought to serve God with his whole heart unlike his father Amaziah. God prospered Uzziah because He continued to seek God. However, prosperity led Uzziah to a proud heart. We ought not to be concerned with the prosperity of material wealth. Rather we ought to be concerned with the prosperity of the gospel. Proud hearts overstep boundaries by God. Uzziah also burned incense on the alter. This was something only the priest could do. Sometimes a proud heart will cause us to be misguided. Uzziah did not heed the spiritual warnings from God. He was struck by God with leprosy. It remained until the day he died. God will judge sinners who have rebelled against Him. He was cut off from the house of God. His kingship ended on a sorry note. Let us learn a lesson from this. We ought to follow God's commandments to demonstrate our faith. We also ought allow God's elders to have their place in the local church. The elders are subordinate to the Lord's Word. The elders are not above the Lord's written Scriptures. We ought to remember our place in the church of God as members of the body of Christ. There are many different gifts among the people of God. However, the main lifestyle should be a way of holiness.
3. Sinners transgress the law of God. Transgression of the law of God will bring spiritual consequences. We ought to never approach God in an unworthy manner. That is, are you covered with the divine covering of the unified righteousness of Jesus Christ? Without God's perfect covering of divine merit we cannot stand before Him. The nature of justification is not the sinner's good works. Rather the nature of justification is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. We ought to understand that justification is by the good work of Jesus Christ in His perfect life of sinless obedience. He earned our spiritual salvation in our behalf. We apprehend this through faith in His precious name.
4. We ought to examine God's character in His absolute holiness. We ought to never ignore the barriers between us and God. Many have fallen into idolatry with declaring another redeemer. Many have exalted the creature over the Creator. We would stop this spiritual fornication by understanding God's character in His supernatural holiness. Holiness dominates God's character. The character of God is something we should imitate. Satan did not want to imitate God's holiness. Rather he sought to rise above God. It is what many sinners do in seeking deification in glory. Sinners are not deified in glory. Rather we glorify the Lord through worshiping, praising, blessing, thanking and rejoicing. Magnifying God is our greatest reward in heaven. It is not becoming gods. Holiness summarizes all the other attributes of God. The justice of God is not evil. Rather the justice of God is a holy justice unto perfect sinlessness. The love of God is not filthy. Rather the love of God is holy. The wrath of God is not wrong. Rather the wrath of God is holy. The actions of God are called holy. The commandments of God are a holy law.
5. The fullest expression of God is His absolute holiness. God swears by His holiness because He can never lie. God glories in His holiness because it is perfect. More than any other God is called holy. The angelic chorus sings of God's holiness in a threefold way. That is, the Father is holy, the Son is holy and the Spirit is holy. We ought to also understand that the Spirit is particularly called holy because it is His work that He works in us in progressive sanctification to die to sin in our daily living. It is also true that we are legally dead to sin by God's work. We ought to live as dead to sin and alive to Christ. It is not through our sinful nature that we die to sin but the outworking divine grace of the Spirit and the Word that conforms us to the image of Jesus Christ. Holiness means to be "separate" or "set apart." Would you say that you are "set apart" unto loyal obedience to God and His Word? The New Testament refers to the separation of Christians unto holiness. God is set apart in His holiness. He calls us to be set apart as well. God is wholly distinct from the rest of His creation as the self-existent holy Creator and Redeemer. We that Aaron was "set apart" for God's service in the Old Testament. Every Christian is called to be "set apart" for service to God in a wicked world. The Sabbath Day was also "set apart" for holy use. Do you attend church? Are you playing church instead of being real? Additionally, the "objects" in the temple were "set apart" for holy use. Do you set the Bible apart from other writings in your daily life? Do you find yourself reading more of something else than reading the Bible? No other book has the divine searchableness to your heart. It can search your heart and reveal sin in your life. The character of God is set apart from the rest of God's created order. We ought to dwell on God's holiness. However, do you dwell on sin or lust? You ought to seek to dwell on God's holiness. The Cross is a display of the holiness of God.
6. Man's nature in his depraved mind does not accept the holiness of God. He was created in the image of God, but he sinned his heart. The sin was an act of cosmic idolatry. He rebelled against God's holy commandments. If any of us, were there we would fall into the same sin. It is not "unfair" that Adam as our representative fell into sin and that means all of us possess original sin. We inherited the sin of our first parents. We are not good or holy or righteous by nature. We were created good but we fell into sin. He dethroned the divine and holy majesty of God. He sinned against God's transcendence. He made God into Somebody no should obey. He viewed God wrongly. God is not like us that He should sin. No, no! There is not one sin, blemish, spot or darkness in God. We must not make an idol unto ourselves. We see the Papists and Orthodox venerate "images." We ought never to do this. Rather we ought to accept what God has revealed in divine revelation alone. We must humble our hearts and soften our hearts. God must impress upon us the clear reality of His holiness or else all is lost. We must understand God as being "set apart." We must honor and obey His commandments. It is not to save us because Christ alone saves us. We are called to demonstrate our faith. God's name is holy and we ought to live in light of His character!
7. God is completely separate from evil. He is transcendently and totally holy. His eyes are too pure to look on evil and He never looks on wickedness with favor. God does not commit wickedness or wrong. God is pure Light and in Him there is no darkness. God is the consuming fire or unapproachable light. God's character is morally excellent. In God there is no blemish of wickedness. God is totally apart from sin. God hates wickedness or sin or wretchedness. He also hates the wicked and He is also anger with the wicked everyday! God demands an abandonment to holiness for His people. Why? He wants what is best for His creation and for His blessed people. God does not take pleasure in wickedness. There is no evil that dwells in Him. The boastful or proud or selfish or wicked cannot stand before Him. We must have the covering of the Lamb of God.
8. To honor God is to have a right teaching on God's holiness. We are mere creatures like Job. What shall we answer to God? Like Job we should lay our hand over our minds! Peter found the holiness of Christ and asked Him to depart from Him because he was a sinful man. Isaiah understood the holiness of God and declare he is spiritually ruined. John understood the holiness of God and fell on His face as though dead. I had an encounter of the holiness of God. It was truly awesome and it taught me about God's character. The Bible provides for us an objective and divine revelation about God's holiness. God is holy and we must honor Him. Have you honored God by obeying the holy gospel? Do you awe and reverence before God concerning His holiness? God is holy and sinners will have to stand before Him at the Last Day. It is a Day of Doom for the wicked or reprobate or unsaved. Rather for the people of God it is a Day of Joy. Have you trained yourself in what you will say to God on that Day? Fill yourself with the gospel promises of Christ in His written Word. Dwell on the holiness of the Cross that takes away every sin!
9. The holiness of God is about the gospel of God. Have you understood the gospel of God? Many have added to the gospel or subtracted from the gospel. We must handle God's gospel aright. The sinful nature wants to corrupt the God-intended gospel. Satan also is author of man-made religion. We can only commune with God through His Son. If we pray through Christ crucified, we will pray purely. We can only stand in God's presence if we have Jesus' unified merit. Do you have Jesus' divine righteousness as your only hope to be right before God? It is not through infusion but it is through imputation. It is not through a blind faith or through faith and good works or good works alone. Rather it is through the holy covering of Christ alone! Through Christ is where wrath and sin is removed. Through Christ is where holiness and righteousness are imparted through faith alone. We see in light of the Bible's revelation that God is a "consuming fire" and a treasure of joy. Are the two biblically compatible? Surely they are!
10. The Bible says God is holy and we are not holy. Romans 3 says that we are totally depraved. Jesus Himself said that God alone is God. It does not mean that Jesus is not good but that man is not good. Put aside man-made inventions. Forget the doctrines of demons! Turn aside to the Lord and behold Him in Scripture! Do not rely on your feelings, but on His Spirit. Do not rely on what you want to believe. Rather believe only what the Bible teaches. The God of the Bible is holy and we are unholy. We are children of wrath and we deserve justice. It is surprising to me that we are not born in hell. I say this because of our corrupt natures in light of what the Bible teaches on the nature of man. It is only because of the goodness of God that we behold His beauty in His goodness in outward display. There is an eternal separation that exists between a holy God and a corrupt race. The only way this separation can be amended is through Jesus Christ alone! We are sinners seeking to reach a holy God. We only seek Him because that is the business of the Christian. We have His Spirit and His Word. God views us all as depraved sinners. In and of ourselves we are condemned. We all fall short of the glory of God. Good works do not take sin away. Rather only the Cross of Jesus removes sin. Good works are called filthy rages in the Bible. We cannot glory before Him. He will not favor our work of cooperation or our good deeds. He favors only the person and work of Christ in our behalf. We all need to repent of our repentance. Repentance is even tainted with great remaining corruption and indwelling sin. Catholics and Buddhists seek bliss through merit but it is not the unified merit of Christ alone. If we are faithful to the sacred text, we will rely on the unified merit of Christ alone! Religions of men accuse God of a lie for they claim they are basically good. Religions of men preach another way to be right with God. However, the Bible says that the only way to be right with God is through our Lord Christ. Depraved humans fail at absolute sinlessness. What will you do?
11. Job understood that we cannot make ourselves clean. No one can clean themselves. Rather it is through the Cross of the divine Lamb. Luther sought to understand the Bible and how to be right with God. God found Martin Luther and saved him. Finally, he discovered the free mercy of God! God's mercy is through His divine favor and holy grace. That is, through the matchless obedience of Christ in His life and His perfect death. This is how someone is right with God. There is so much sin in our lives. Have you repented for all the days of your life about your total depravity? No one is spiritually good. You must repent because God is holy. May the world pray this Puritan prayer in The Valley of Vision:
Holy Lord, I have sinned times without number, and been guilty of pride and unbelief, of failure to find Thy mind in Thy Word, of neglect to seek Thee in my daily life. My transgressions and short-comings present me with a list of accusations, but I bless Thee that they will not stand against me, for all have been laid on Christ. Go on to subdue my corruptions, and grant me grace to live above them. Let not the passions of the flesh nor lustings of the mind bring my spirit into subjection, but do Thou rule over me in liberty and power.
I thank Thee that many of my prayers have been refused. I have asked amiss and do not have, I have prayed from lusts and been rejected, I have longed for Egypt and been given a wilderness. Go on with Thy patient work, answering 'no' to my wrongful prayers, and fitting me to accept it. Purge me from every false desire, every base aspiration, everything contrary to Thy rule. I thank Thee for Thy wisdom and Thy love, for all the acts of discipline to which I am subject, for sometimes putting me into the furnace to refine my gold and remove my dross.
No trial is so hard to bear as a sense of sin. If Thou shouldst give me choice to live in pleasure and keep my sins, or to have them burnt away with trial, give me sanctified affliction. Deliver me from every evil habit, every accretion of former sins, everything that dims the brightness of Thy grace in me, everything that prevents me taking delight in Thee. Then I shall bless Thee, God of jeshurun, for helping me to be upright.
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