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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadR.A. Torrey Collection: Torrey, R.A. - What Bible Teaches (About God): 08 -The Holiness of God
TOPIC: Torrey, R.A. - What Bible Teaches (About God) (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 08 -The Holiness of God
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Ch 08 The Holiness of God
I. GOD IS HOLY.
Isa_6:3 — "And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of Hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory."
Jos_24:19 — "And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the Lore): for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins."
Psa_22:3 — "But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel."
Psa_99:5; Psa_99:9 — "Exalt ye the LORD our God, and worship at his
footstool; for he is holy. Exalt the LORD our God, and worship at his holy hill; for the LORD our God is holy."
Isa_5:16 — -"But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness."
Joh_17:11 — "And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one, as we are."
1Pe_1:15-16 — -"But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. Because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy."
Proposition: God is holy, absolutely holy.
God is called the Holy One of Israel about thirty times in Isaiah, and is so called also in Jeremiah and Ezekiel and elsewhere. In the New Testament God the Son is spoken of as the holy one ( 1Jn_2:20). The third person of the Trinity is constantly spoken of as the Holy Spirit. Holiness is the essential moral nature of God.
Isa_57:15 — "For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth
eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." (The name stands for the character and being.)
II. WHAT DOES HOLY MEAN?
Lev_11:43-45 — "Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby. For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy."
Deu_23:14 "For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee." (Note the context of this verse.)
Proposition: Holy means free from all defilement, pure. "God is holy" means, "God is absolutely pure."
1Jn_1:5 — "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." Note. The entire Mosaic system of washings; divisions of the tabernacle; divisions of the people into ordinary Israelites, Levites, Priests and High Priests, who were permitted different degrees of approach to God under strictly defined conditions; the insisting upon sacrifice as a necessary medium of approach to God; God's directions to Moses in Exo_3:5; to Joshua in Jos_5:15, the punishment of Uzziah in 2Ch_26:16-26; the strict orders to Israel in regard to approaching Sinai when Jehovah came down upon it; the doom of Korah, Dathan and Abiram in Num_16:1-33; and the destruction of Nadab and Abihu in
Lev_10:1-3: all these were intended to teach, emphasize, and burn into the minds and hearts of the Israelites the fundamental truth that God is holy. Not just holy, but unapproachably holy. The truth that God is holy is the fundamental truth of the Bible, of the Old Testament and the New Testament, of the Jewish religion, and of the Christian religion.
III. HOW IS THE HOLINESS OF GOD MANIFESTED?
Hab_1:13 — "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look upon iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?"
Gen_6:5-6 — "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of the heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart."
Deu_25:16 — "For all that do such things, and all that do
unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord thy God."
Pro_15:9; Pro_15:26 — "The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord. The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord."
First Proposition: The holiness of God manifests itself in a hatred for sin.
Pro_15:9 — "But he loveth him that followeth after righteousness."
Lev_19:2 — "Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy."
Lev_20:26 — "And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and I have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine."
Second Proposition: The holiness of God manifests itself in a delight in righteousness and holiness.
Job_34:10 — "Therefore hearken unto me, ye men of understanding: far be it from God, that he should do wickedness; and from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity."
Third Proposition: The holiness of God manifests itself in His never doing wickedness or iniquity.
Isa_59:1-2 — "Behold the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that is cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear."
Fourth Proposition: The holiness of God manifests itself in the separation of the sinner from God.
Herein lies the need of atonement before the sinner can approach God. This appears in the following passages:
Eph_2:13 — "But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ."
Heb_10:9 — "Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
Joh_14:6 — "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me." All approaches to God are on the ground of shed blood. The atonement has its deepest demand in the holiness of God. Any doctrine of' the atonement that sees its need only in the necessity that man be influenced by a mighty motive, or in the necessities of governmental expediency, does not go to the root of things. The first and fundamental reason why "without shedding of blood there is no remission" is that God is holy and sin must be covered before there can be fellowship between God and the sinner.
Exo_34:6-7 — "And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, long- suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and fourth generation."
Gen_6:5-7 — "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping things, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them."
Psa_5:4-6 — "For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man."
Fifth Proposition: The holiness of God manifests itself in the punishment of the sinner. God does not punish the sinner merely because the sinner's good makes it necessary. God is holy. God hates sin. His holiness and hatred of sin, like every attribute of His, is living and active and must manifest itself. His holy wrath at sin must strike. (See Isa_53:6 — -"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." The literal translation of the Hebrew for "hath laid upon" is "caused to strike upon.") Any view of the punishment of sin that leaves out the thought of its being an expression of God's holy hatred of sin is not only unbiblical, but shallow and dishonoring to God. God is holy, infinitely holy, and he infinitely hates sin.
In our own burning indignation at some enormous iniquity, we get glimpses at times of what God's hatred of sin must be, but God is infinitely holy, and God's wrath at the smallest sin is infinitely greater than ours at great enormity. God is love, it is true, but his love is not the sentimental sort that sends costly bouquets and tender missives to moral monsters, as some of our Universalist theologians would have us think. "Our God is a consuming fire" ( Heb_12:29).
God's love to sinners will never be appreciated until seen in the light of His blazing wrath at sin.
Joh_3:16 — "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
1Pe_3:18 — "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit."
Sixth Proposition: The holiness of God manifests itself in His making an infinite sacrifice to save others from sin unto holiness. The death of Christ is not merely a manifestation of the love of God but of HIS holiness as well.
IV. PRACTICAL INFERENCES FROM THE DOCTRINE THAT GOD IS HOLY.
Heb_12:28-29 — "Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which can not be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire."
Exo_3:4-5 — "And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."
Isa_6:1-3 — "In the year that King Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory." We must draw nigh to God with awe. Even the holy seraphim covered their faces and their feet in His presence. They have four wings for worship but only two for service.
Isa_6:5-6 — -"Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar." The pure light of God's holiness reveals the blackness of our sin. (Compare to Job_42:5-6 — "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.") If any man think well of himself, he has never met God. Nothing will demolish selfrighteousness like one real sight of God.
Heb_9:22 — "And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood there is no remission." There is no forgiveness without atonement. Sin must be covered from the holy gaze of God, and nothing will cover it but blood.
Rom_5:8 — "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
The wonderfulness of God's love! That the God whose name is holy, the Infinitely Holy God, could love beings so utterly sinful as we are, that is the wonder of the eternities. There are many deep mysteries in the Bible, but none other as profound as this.