Sermon Tone Analysis

The Holiness of God

We’re in the middle of this sermon series titled, “The Real God” Studying through some of the characteristics of God desiring to know the one true God, the Real God better.

Today we will be looking at the Holiness of God

The Holiness of God

        - God’s Nature is Holy (Isaiah 6:1-5)

        - God’s Name is Holy () (Lord’s prayer)

Chief attribute of God and a quality to be developed in his people.

“Holiness” and the adjective “holy” occur more than 900 times in the Bible.

The primary OT word for holiness means “to cut” or “to separate.”

Fundamentally, holiness is a cutting off or separation from what is unclean, and consecration to what is pure.

- God’s Dwelling Place is Holy (Exodus 3:1-6)

        - God’s People are to be Holy (1 Peter 1:15-16)

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Holiness

Holiness is the Chief attribute of God and a quality to be developed in his people.

“Holiness” and the adjective “holy” occur more than 900 times in the Bible.

The primary OT word for holiness means “to cut” or “to separate.”

Fundamentally, holiness is a cutting off or separation from what is unclean, and consecration to what is pure.

The Complete Topical Guide to the Bible

God’s holiness is the moral excellence of God that unifies his attributes and is expressed through his actions, setting him apart from all others.

A.W. Tozer, in his book Knowledge of the Holy wrote, “We know nothing like the divine holiness.

It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible and unattainable.

The natural man is blind to it.

He may fear God’s power and admire His wisdom, but His holiness he cannot even imagine.”

it is God’s Otherness,

it Sets Him apart,

Because of His holiness, God is completely unique

(ESV) — 2 “There is none holy like the Lord: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.

There is no category that includes God and something else.

God and someone else.

It’s God in his own category and then everything else in another.

The Holiness of God

        - God’s Nature is Holy

        - God’s Name is Holy

        - God’s Dwelling Place is Holy

        - God’s People are to be Holy

God’s nature is holy

Isaiah 6:

3. The continuous song had a single theme: the Lord’s holiness, concerning which we learn two truths.

First, Hebrew uses repetition to express either a superlative, as when ‘pure gold’ in 2 Kings 25:15 translates ‘gold gold’, or a totality, as when ‘full of tar pits’ in Genesis 14:10 translates ‘pits pits’.

But here for the only time in the Hebrew Bible a quality is ‘raised to the power of three’, as if to say that the divine holiness is so far beyond anything the human mind can grasp that a ‘super-superlative’ has to be invented to express it and, furthermore, that this transcendent holiness is the total truth about God.

The holiness word-group (√qādaš) may mean ‘brightness’, the unapproachable God (1 Tim.

6:16; Ps. 104:2) or ‘separatedness’, i.e. the quality which marks off the divine nature, setting God apart from all else, making him the Being that he is.

His holiness is, therefore, his unapproachable and unique moral majesty before which sinful humankind instinctively quakes (Judg.

6:22; 13:22).

Secondly, just as holiness is the ‘whole truth’ about God himself, so it is the ‘whole truth’ about his immanence in creation: the whole earth is full of his glory.

Holiness is the Lord’s hidden glory; glory is the Lord’s omnipresent holiness.

3. The continuous song had a single theme: the Lord’s holiness, concerning which we learn two truths.

First, Hebrew uses repetition to express either a superlative, as when ‘pure gold’ in 2 Kings 25:15 translates ‘gold gold’, or a totality, as when ‘full of tar pits’ in Genesis 14:10 translates ‘pits pits’.

But here for the only time in the Hebrew Bible a quality is ‘raised to the power of three’, as if to say that the divine holiness is so far beyond anything the human mind can grasp that a ‘super-superlative’ has to be invented to express it and, furthermore, that this transcendent holiness is the total truth about God.

Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary a.

The Individual, Atonement and Commission (6:1–13)

3. The continuous song had a single theme: the Lord’s holiness, concerning which we learn two truths.

First, Hebrew uses repetition to express either a superlative, as when ‘pure gold’ in translates ‘gold gold’, or a totality.

But here for the only time in the Hebrew Bible a quality is ‘raised to the power of three’, as if to say that the divine holiness is so far beyond anything the human mind can grasp that a ‘super-superlative’ has to be invented to express it and, furthermore, that this transcendent holiness is the total truth about God.

This is the only word used of God in the Bible that’s repeated 3 times like this.

We never read that “God is mercy, mercy, mercy” or “God is good, good, good.”

But here the angels are singing, “holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.”

This is the only word used of God in the Bible that’s repeated 3 times like this.

We never read that “God is mercy, mercy, mercy” or “God is good, good, good.”

But here the angels are singing, “holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.”

The moral excellence of God that unifies his attributes and is expressed through his actions, setting him apart from all others.

Believers are called to be holy as God is holy.

We learn in that these angels never stop singing this.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty!

Verse 8 says, “they never cease singing.”

I don’t know if you ever been on a road trip with your kids...

The Lord never gets tired of hearing it.

He never says, “hey angels, just take a break for minute.”

No.

They never cease saying, “holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.”

God’s nature is holy.

God, in and of Himself, is holy.

He is perfect

; ;

(ESV) — 4 “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice.

A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.

(ESV) — 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

(ESV) — 8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

See also ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

(ESV) — 31 This God—his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

(ESV) — 10 This would be my comfort; I would even exult in pain unsparing, for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

Secondly,

(ESV) — 30 This God—his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

(ESV) — 3 Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.

(ESV) — 22 I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.

(ESV) — 41 They tested God again and again and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

(ESV) — 14 Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel!

I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

(ESV) — 15 I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.”

(ESV) — 13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?

(ESV) — 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.

Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

(ESV) — 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

He is uniquely holy

(ESV) — 2 “There is none holy like the Lord: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.

See also ; ; ;

(ESV) — 11 “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?

Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

(ESV) — 13 Your way, O God, is holy.

What god is great like our God?

(ESV) — 25 To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.

(ESV) — 4 Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?