The Holiness of God
Selected Scriptures
by
John MacArthur
Copyright 2007,
Grace to You.
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
I have been asked to speak on the holiness of God and I think that R.C. finds some delight in giving me subjects that he has mastered. I’m not sure why he does this, although once when he asked me to speak on election, I said why would you at your conference have me do that? And he said, “Because I want to hear what you have to say about it.” It was sort of a test, I think, to see if I got it right. All of us who have known R.C. for any time at all are profoundly indebted to him for his treatment of the sixth chapter of Isaiah, which I think for all of us who are his students will forever and always be the portrait of God’s holiness, which is most memorable.
And I understand why because it is so critical to an understanding of God’s holiness and we will get there hopefully at the end.
In speaking of the holiness of God, it is good, perhaps, to begin with something of a definition. It was Hodge who said, “The holiness of God is not to be conceived of as one attribute among others. It is rather a general term representing the conception of God’s consummate perfection and total glory. It is His infinite moral perfection crowning His infinite intelligence and power.” He said it is infinite moral perfection as the crown of the God-head, holiness is God’s total glory crowned.
It was Thomas Watson who said, “Holiness is the most sparkling jewel of God’s crown, it is the name by which He is known.” R.L. Dabney wrote, “Holiness is to be regarded not as a distinct attribute, but as the result of all God’s moral perfection together.” They are recognizing what the prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 57 verse 15 when he said, “For thus says the high and exalted one who lives forever, My name is holy.” Holy is His name.
When
we think of God’s holiness, we think
of His utter separation from sin
because everything in the creation
is effected and influenced by sin.
But there’s more to His separateness
than that, however, that for us is
the graphic illustration. It’s hard
for us to metaphysically comprehend
the difference between being and
becoming. We see clearly God’s
distinction from us in the matter of
His moral, perfection and
sinlessness. As Habakkuk the
prophet wrote, “Your eyes are too
pure to approve evil. You cannot
look on wickedness.” Job 34:10
says, “Far be it from God to do
wickedness, to do wrong.” In
Revelation 15:4 it says, “You alone
are holy.” There are many other
statements. That gives you sort of
a broad picture across Scripture. We
could talk about those statements
but I want to go a little bit beyond
that, if I may. There are more than
statements regarding God’s holiness
in Scripture. There are revelations
of His holiness. In fact, every
revelation of God, every disclosure
of God, every manifestation of God
is a revelation of His moral
perfection, every one. You can
study any of God’s revelations of
Himself and you will find there His
moral perfection. Let me give you
some illustrations of that. We
could study God’s holiness by
studying creation. You will
remember that at the end of His
creation, Genesis 1:31, it says,
“God saw all that He had made and
behold, it was very good.” This is
a reflection of His essential
nature, it couldn’t be anything
else. On the previous days it was
said that it was good and that was
applied to all the specific details
of His creation. But in the end
when He saw all of it, the whole
creative complex in its totality, it
was not just good, it was very
good. In fact, Ecclesiastes 7:29
speaking directly of man says, “God
made man upright.” Of course, He
could do no other. Whatever came
from His hand from His being had to
be perfect. Made in His image, man
was free from sin. You
could also look at the Law of God
and you would find revealed in the
law of God His absolute perfection.
Psalm 19:7, “The Law of the Lord is
perfect.” Romans 7:12, “The Law is
holy, the commandment is holy,
righteous and good.” Everything
that comes from God, every
manifestation of God’s nature is a
reflection of His moral perfection.
You
could also see the holiness of God
manifest in His judgment. All His
verdicts, all His adjudications from
the divine bench are holy. Shall
not the judge of all the earth,
Genesis 18:25, do right? Second
Timothy 4:8 says, “The Lord, the
righteous judge.”
God
then is holy in His heaven where He
dwells. God then manifests His
holiness in everything that He does,
whether it’s in creation, the giving
of the Law, in His judgments, and
you can take it from there. God can
only manifest that which is
absolutely holy and thus does James
say, “Every good thing bestowed and
every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of
lights with whom there is no
variation or shifting shadow.” You
cannot cast a shadow on the absolute
goodness of God, the perfection of
God. Every representation of God,
every manifestation of God, every
revelation of God indicates this
perfection. To think any other than
that is, says James, to be
deceived. You can see glimpses of
God’s holiness in the tabernacle,
even in the incense that was to be
used to be offered before God, the
recipe for which was never to be
used by anyone else for any personal
use, and if they did they were to be
killed cause that which belonged to
the Lord was so distinct from His
creation. Having said all of that by way of
possibility, let me take you where I
want to take you to look at the
holiness of God. And we could go in
to any of those, but I want to take
you to another place. I believe
that the most clear, the most
discernable, the most understandable
manifestation of the holiness of God
seen in the boldest way against the
blackest backdrop, therefore making
it the clearest, is the revelation
of God’s holiness in the
incarnation...in the incarnation.
Because I am a human becoming, I
live in this world, I can’t get
outside of it. I can think rational
thoughts, I can follow the gift of
reason that God has given to me and
I can comprehend at least
intellectually the idea of God’s
perfection and God’s holiness. I
can, like John, get some kind of an
idea of the reality of the vision in
heaven. I can to some degree
understand the perfection of
creation in its initial form. I can
understand to some degree the
perfection of God’s law and to some
degree the perfection of His
justice. But nothing is more clear
to me than the holiness of God as
manifest in the incarnation because
this is the world I live in. This
is the world you live in. John
tells us that when Jesus came, He
declared God. Verse 18 of John 1,
“No man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten God who was in the
bosom of the Father, He has
explained Him.” Whatever you want
to know about God, Jesus explains.
Certainly that’s true of His
holiness.
And
we could look at Jesus Christ with
regard to His entire life. For
example, Luke 1 Gabriel comes to
Mary who was espoused to Joseph and
he makes the great announcement
about the birth of the Son of God,
the Christ. Verse 30, “The angel
said to her, ‘Do not be afraid,
Mary, for you have found favor with
God and behold, you will conceive in
your womb and bear a son and you
shall name Him Jesus. He will be
great and will be called the Son of
the Most High and the Lord God will
give Him the throne of His father,
David, and He will reign over the
house of Jacob forever and His
kingdom will have no end.’ And Mary
said to the angel, ‘How can this be,
since I am a virgin?’” Listen to
this. “And the angel answered and
said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit....’”
The what spirit? “The Holy Spirit
will come upon you and the power of
the Most High will overshadow you
and for that reason the Holy
offspring shall be called the Son of
God.” The Holy Spirit and the Holy
God sent the Holy Offspring, the Son
of God. Contrast that with David’s
statement in Psalm 51:5, “In sin did
my mother conceive me.” We
could look at the gospel of Luke,
for example, in the third chapter
and see another glimpse of the
holiness of Christ. At His baptism
and again the Father is present, and
the Spirit is present, and as I
said, all that emanates from God,
all that comes from God is holy and
the affirmation of that is here,
verse 22, “Jesus was baptized and
while He was praying heaven was
opened and the Holy Spirit descended
upon Him in bodily form like a dove
and a voice came out of heaven,
‘Thou art My beloved Son in Thee I
am well pleased.’” That’s an
affirmation of the Son’s moral
perfection, is it not? Contrast
that with Acts 2:38, “Repent and be
baptized for the remission of sins
which is said of us.” We
could look at His death and
certainly we have. It’s been
commented on numerous times. In
looking at His death we see again
the revelation of His holiness.
Second Corinthians 5:21, “God made
Him who knew no sin, sin on our
behalf that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him.”
Fifteen Greek words, the great
statement on imputation. But the
identification of Christ with these
words, “Him who knew no sin,”
indicates again His holy
perfection. In 1 Peter 1, “You were
not redeemed with perishable things
like silver or gold from your futile
way of life inherited from your
forefathers, but with precious blood
as of a lamb unblemished and
spotless...the blood of Christ.”
Again whether you’re looking at His
birth, or whether you’re looking at
His baptism, or even looking at His
death, His holiness is manifest. In
fact, in Hebrews 9:14, a verse that
just came to mind, it says, “How
much more will the blood of Christ
who through the eternal Spirit
offered Himself without blemish to
God?” When I hear these people say
that on the cross Jesus became a
sinner, it is a grievous blasphemy
really. The only was made sin in a
sense that He bore the wrath of God
for us. But even God couldn’t look
upon Him and abandoned Him in that
moment.
But I
don’t think we always understand how
much His life is a manifestation of
the holiness of God. He was in all
points tempted like as we are yet
without sin. He was in all points
tempted. At all points simply means
that at every point chronologically,
at every point socially, He was at
all points tempted like as we are
yet without sin. I was
reading some old things from
Augustine a week ago and I found an
interesting comment. Somebody asked
Augustine to comment on the sign of
the fish, you know, the little
acrostic from ichthys, Jesus, God’s
Son, Savior. And this is what
Augustine said. “It is a suitable
sign for Christ because He was able
to live without sin in the abyss of
this mortality as in the depths of
water.” He literally came down and
sunk Himself in this wretched
world. And I think that the truest
test of holiness is not how it holds
up in heaven, but the truest test of
holiness is how it holds up here.
Not how it holds up in a perfectly
holy environment, but how it holds
up in an utterly sinful
environment. And thus we look at
Jesus to see this most interesting
view of God’s holiness. In John
8:23 He said, “You are from below,
I’m from above. You’re of this
world and I’m not.” I’m not. In
the forty-sixth verse of that same
eighth chapter, He said, “Which of
you convicts Me of sin?” I’ve come
from another world. I’m another
kind of being. I cannot be
convicted of sin. In
the fourteenth chapter of John in
the thirtieth verse, Jesus said,
“The ruler of this world is
coming...I love this statement...and
he has nothing in Me.” He doesn’t
say he has nothing on Me, there was
nothing in Him to even respond to
Satan, or to the world. Theologians
want to make a distinction here, and
rightly so. They want to say that
He was non posse peccare, not
posse non peccare, that is to
say He was not able to sin rather
than He was able not to sin. Do you
see the difference? He was not able
to sin. He’s a completely different
kind of being. You
know, when I read my Bible and it
tells me about living in this world,
it’s just loaded with warnings. I
am so susceptible to this world,
even though I am redeemed, even
though I have been walking in the
faith for a long time, many years,
I’ve been studying the Bible...I
will tell you, this world is a
threat to me at every turn. There
is something in me in my remaining
flesh that responds to Satan and the
world. And I have to be reminded
not to love the world. I have to be
reminded of Psalm 1, I have to go
back and remember that I must not
walk in the council of the wicked, I
must not stand in the path of
sinners, I must not sit in the seat
of scoffers because that has
devastating result upon me. And the
difference is clearly laid out, I
think, in the seventh chapter of
Mark. You remember this passage, or
you will when you hear it. Listen
to what Jesus said in verse 18.
“Are you so lacking in
understanding? Do you not
understand that whatever goes in to
the man from outside can’t defile
him?” It doesn’t matter what came
at Jesus. Couldn’t defile Him
because it’s not what comes from the
outside that defiles you. He says
from the outside it doesn’t defile
because it doesn’t go into His
heart, but into His stomach and is
eliminated. That’s a rather graphic
analogy. It is that which proceeds
out of the man that defiles the man,
for from within out of the heart of
men proceed the evil thoughts,
fornications, thefts, murders,
adulteries, deeds of coveting and
wickedness as well as deceit,
sensuality, envy, slander, pride and
foolishness. All these evil things
proceed from within and defile the
man. There is a rottenness, there’s
a corruption on the inside that
makes us susceptible to all these
wicked influences. That’s why the
Bible warns us. Proverbs warns
again and again and I went through
Proverbs one time and just listed
all of the warnings to stay away
from angry people, lying people,
murdering people, godless people,
etc., etc., etc., because of the
influence they have on you. Don’t
you know...says Paul to the
Corinthian church...you’ve got to
get that sinning man out of your
church because a little leaven
does...what?...leavens the whole
lump. You allow sin in your church,
it will corrupt the whole thing.
That’s why we have to do church
discipline. First
Corinthians 15:33 says, “Bad company
corrupts good morals.” Jude 23
says, “Look, where you’re going over
there to snatch those brans from the
burning, when you’re going over
there to rescue those people from
the corruption in your evangelistic
enterprise, when you’re going over
there to pull the people out of the
apostasy they’re in, be very careful
that you don’t get your own garment
stained.” We live a very fragile
existence in this wretched world. I
have to watch my life. I have to
beat my body to bring it into
submission. I have to guard my
eyes. I have to guard my ears. I
have to keep my feet from going
certain places. I have to keep my
distance from certain people. I
have to live a circumspect life in
this world so that I do not put
myself in a position to be
devastated because even in my
preaching to others, I have the
potential to be so badly corrupted
that I would be adokimos,
disqualified from ministry. When
people ask me, what appeals to me
about heaven, it isn’t transparent
gold streets. I can’t get too
turned on about that. It’s nice,
I’m glad it will be there. I’m sure
I’ll enjoy it when I arrive. It
isn’t pearl gates and precious
stones in the foundation. I’ll tell
you what appeals to me about heaven,
the absence of sin. I don’t know
about you, but I’m tired of it.
When Jesus Christ came into the
world, He said, “Which of you
convicts Me of sin?” He said,
“Satan has nothing in Me.” There
was nothing in Him of corruption.
He didn’t have to protect His
holiness by taking a monastic vow,
going into a cave and contemplating
His navel for the rest of His life,
castrating Him like some
ill-conceived monk. It’s no such
necessity for Him. Quite the contrary. I spend most of my
life trying to be isolated from
sinners, don’t you? I really do.
Bad company corrupts good morals. I
don’t mind preaching at them. I
don’t mind giving them the gospel,
but I don’t want to be where they
are. I don’t want to go where they
go. I don’t want to go to their
parties because I...yi-yi. Satan
does have something in me.
Look
at the contrast. Turn to Luke 5.
Now my control factor needs to kick
in here because I’ve been in Luke so
long, I’m tempted to just go on and
on and on. Luke 5:27, “After that,
He went out and noticed a tax
gatherer named Levi.” This is
Matthew and he was a small-time tax
gatherer. He was a mokus(??),
not a gibbi(???). A gibbi
was a big-time tax guy who owned a
regional tax franchise from Rome and
hired these little mokus guys
to do the dirty work. They sat at
the crossroads and they taxed the
wheels on the cart, they taxed the
beast of burden that pulled the
cart, they taxed the letters you
were carrying to give to someone
else, they taxed the goods that you
bought. And every time you crossed
the intersection, they took money
from you and extorted all they
could, not only to give what the
prescribed rate was to Rome, but to
make the rest of their own fortune,
of course, extortion was great.
They were the more hated of the tax
collectors than the big guys cause
the big guys nobody saw. You began
to despise that guy sitting at the
crossroads. Well here’s one of them
named Levi. And, of course, in
order to collect taxes, he had to
have a group of thugs and scum balls
and riff-raff around him who strong
armed the people to get them to pay
up. And if they didn’t pay up, then
they had to be treated like the
Mafia treats people, you know, you
have the guys go around, beat them
up a little bit and get what they
want to get. This was the scum of
all scum in the society, not only
because of the low life extortion
that they engaged in, but because
they had become the basically the
agents of a pagan invading occupying
Roman government which was despised
and hated by the Jews. And so they
were all unsynagogued, they were
booted out of the synagogue, they
couldn’t worship there. They had
literally traded their birthright
for a mess of pottage. And
so, Jesus comes to Levi, the last
person on the planet you would ever
choose to be an apostle of the
Messiah if you were on the Jewish
Apostle election committee. He said
to him, “Follow Me, you’re My man.”
And he jumped up from his tax table
and it was like taking a hand out of
water, believe me, there was no gap
because somebody was in
line...whoever had the strongest
right arm in the gang that
surrounded him sat down and said,
“I’m in charge, guys.” So he
couldn’t go back, he left everything
behind. He rose up, began to follow
Him. And Levi gave a big party at
his house and there was a great
crowd of tax gatherers. That must
have been some event. This is the
meeting of the Mafia. And, you
know, the kind of people that
associate with the Mafia. And it
says this, I love this, “And
others.” Others of the riff raff.
And they were reclining at the
table. You know, they didn’t do the
fast-food thing. They did the slow
food thing, you actually sort of got
prone on your arm and you just
dropped the grapes one at a time and
you talked and you conversed and
this went on and on. One can only
imagine what they were talking
about. It wouldn’t have been the
most edifying group. And the
conversation would have been a
little racy. And the Pharisees with
all their scrupulous perspective,
verse 30, and the scribes began
grumbling at His disciples saying,
“Why do You eat and drink with the
tax gatherers and sinners?” And
there you have the world that
describes “the others,” all the rest
of the social scum.
And
the Pharisees, who knew their own
wretchedness, who knew their own
corruption, who knew their own
hearts, kept their distance. It’s
hard enough being a hypocrite
without hanging around those kind of
people. Turn
to the seventh chapter of
Luke...seventh chapter of Luke. I
wish I had time to unpack this whole
story. One of the Pharisees, verse
36, was requesting Him to dine with
him. So He entered the Pharisees
house and He didn’t mind being with
the self-righteous hypocrite, and He
reclined, again prolonged event.
And the way they used to do it from
the history that I’ve read is that
the houses tended to be somewhat
open and there would be this meal
going on with the dignitaries and
people in the community were allowed
typically to stand around the
outside and listen to the
conversation. Apparently that’s
what happened. And behold, there
was a woman in the city who was
literally an immoral woman, a
prostitute. And when she learned
that He was reclining at the table
in the Pharisee’s house, she brought
an alabaster vial of perfume. Some
historians say that small thin
alabaster bottles containing perfume
were sealed up at the top and they
were actually carried around the
neck of women. Now for a
prostitute, this was a part of her
operation. Sounds like Proverbs,
doesn’t it? I’ll perfume my bed.
And
so, she must have been a fairly
successful one because her’s was an
alabaster vial. And she brought
this vial and standing behind Him,
verse 38, at His feet. Now wait a
minute. On the outside, you know,
you could stay. She’s moved in.
Jesus is there reclining. His feet
are up here and his arm perhaps like
this. She comes up behind Him and
weeping, she began to wet His feet
with her tears. This is
outrageous. Are you kidding? And
then she is wiping His feet with the
hair of her head and kissing His
feet. And then she breaks the neck
of the alabaster bottle and she
starts pouring the perfume on Him.
Now
when the Pharisee who had invited
Him saw this, he said to himself,
“If this man were a prophet, He
would know who and what sort of
person this woman is who is touching
Him.” This is just too touchy.
“That she is an immoral woman.” The
Pharisee, of course, is operating
out of his own heart, right? What
sinful man is going to have a
prostitute doing that to his feet
without having an illicit thought?
Jesus
could go to hell and be holy. He
did. He did. First Peter 3:19, He
could go into the teeth of a
demoniac with a legion of demons and
purify that man and leave him
clothed and in his right mind. Now I
have to close. So go to Isaiah 6,
in respect to my friend R.C. and
that wonderful passage, I want to
show you something. Isaiah 6:1, “In
the year of King Uzziah’s death,”
why is that important? Well, first
of all, it’s important if your name
is Mrs. Uzziah. But apart from
that, this is a sudden act of God in
which Uzziah is killed by God,
according to 2 Chronicles 26, after
reigning for 52 years and sort of
being a symbol of God’s continuing
blessing. And when he’s gone, it
really looks bad. Chapter 5 laid
out six curses for grasping
materialism, drunken pleasure
seeking, moral perversion, corrupt
leadership, etc., and promised the
coming of the great enemy army and
the captivity of Israel. Things
looked bad. And I believe Isaiah
goes to the temple and seeks God and
it says here, “I saw the Lord
sitting on a throne, lofty and
exalted with the train of His robe
filling the temple, seraphim stood
above Him, each having six wings,
with two he covered his face, with
two he covered his feet, with two he
hovered like a celestial
helicopter.” The angels just
hovering in motion ready to be
dispatched and go immediately to
minister to the saints, as Hebrews
1:14 says. And then in an
antiphonal pattern, one called out
to another and said, “Holy, holy,
holy is the Lord of host, the whole
earth is full of His glory.”
And
you know the rest of the story, the
foundations on the threshold
trembled at the voice of Him who
called out while the temple was
filling with smoke and the response
to this vision of the holy, majestic
glory of the One on the throne
produces a sense of guilt and
devastation. And he says, “Woe is
me,” he used that word six times in
chapter 5, he knows exactly what it
means, it’s damnation curse. He
sees himself as cursed because
seeing this holy vision, he then
sees his own sin. He is
overwhelmed. He says, “I am...in
the Hebrew...disintegrating because
I have a dirty mouth.” Why does he
say that? He has the best mouth in
the land, he’s a prophet? Because
one’s depravity is most frequently
manifest through one’s lips. He is
affirming his depravity, the
depravity of his people. He feels
this way because he has seen the
King, the Lord of hosts.
This
magnificent vision of the holy,
holy, holy one on the throne, with
that in your mind, let me close by
drawing your attention to John
chapter 12. John chapter 12 and
verse 36, middle of the verse,
“These things Jesus spoke and He
departed and hid Himself from them.
But though He had performed so many
signs before them, they were not
believing in Him.” Listen to this,
verse 38, “In order that the word of
Isaiah the prophet might be
fulfilled which he spoke,” and it’s
right out of chapter 6, “Lord, who
has believed our report? To whom
has the arm of the Lord been
revealed?” That part taken from
chapter 53. “For this cause they
could not believe, for Isaiah said
again...and here comes Isaiah
6...He’s blinded their eyes, He’s
hardened their heart, lest they see
with their eyes, perceive with their
heart and be converted and I heal
them.” And
then notice this amazing statement
in verse 41. “These things Isaiah
said because he saw His glory and he
spoke of Him.” Whose glory?
Christ. Who is Him? Christ. Back
to verse 37, “They were not
believing in Him. And when Isaiah
saw His glory and spoke of Him, he
was speaking of Christ.” There is a
Christophany. There is the heavenly
vision of the holy, holy, holy Son
and Lord who manifest Himself in
this world. Jonathan Edwards said,
“God only appears in human shape in
the Son.” It is Him we love and Him
we serve. Father, we do commit to You this
truth. We are overwhelmed by the
glory of our Christ and His utter
holiness. We thank You that we come
to a high priest who sympathizes
with our infirmities but who in it
all triumphed and whose perfection
has become our salvation. To Him we
give all the glory. Amen.
It is something along the lines of what we
just heard. As R.C. spoke upon
God’s being, His self-existence, His
being is utterly separate from ours,
and He made that so clear. His is
being and ours is becoming,. He is
utterly distinct from us. The
Hebrew is qadach, the Greek,
hagios, meaning distinct,
separate, He is other than we are as
to the essence of His existence, His
nature. Therefore nothing in the
creation, no one in the creation
even man created in the image of God
compares to God in essential
nature. He is incomparable. He is
infinite perfection. That is why
His name is separate, distinct, or
holy. And thus does Exodus 15:11
say, “Who is like you, majestic in
holiness?” And there, I think, is
what those mediaeval theologians
were after, to add majestic to utter
distinction somehow is an expression
of worship. First Samuel 2:2 says,
“There is no one holy like the
Lord. There is no one beside You,”
no one exists in Your category of
being but You. Psalm 111 says,
“Holy and awesome is His name.”
You could get a glimpse of heaven and maybe
it’s a good thing to do for just a
moment. In the fourth chapter of
the Revelation we are taken in to
the heaven of heavens and in verse 2
of Revelation 4, John in the Spirit,
that is being given a revelation by
the Holy Spirit in the form of a
vision, sees a throne standing in
heaven and one sitting on the throne
and He who is sitting was like a
jasper stone and a sardius in
appearance and there was a rainbow
around the throne like an emerald in
appearance. Very much like Ezekiel
1. “And around the throne were 24
thrones and upon the thrones I saw
24 elders sitting in white garments
and golden crowns on their heads. I
take it that this is a reference to
the redeemed. And from the throne
proceed flashes of lightning and
sounds and peals of thunder and
there were seven lamps of fire
burning before the throne which are
the seven spirits of God, sevenfold
Spirit as mentioned in Isaiah 11.
Before the throne there was, as it
were, a sea of glass like crystal
and in the center and around the
throne four living creatures full of
eyes in front and behind, and the
first creature was like a lion and
the second like a calf, and the
third creature had the face like
that of a man, and the fourth
creature was like a flying eagle.
And the four living creatures, each
one of them having six wings are
full of eyes around and within and
day and night they do not cease to
say, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God the Almighty who was and who is
and who is to come.’” You see, in
heaven this moral perfection, this
utter holiness in the tri-hagion
which can, of course, even be a
Trinitarian reference, but certainly
is multiplied to emphasize the utter
and absolute distinction of God’s
moral perfection. And by the way,
what you have happening here in
Revelation 4 is very similar to what
was happening in Ezekiel 1, it is
the cranking up of the divine war
machine as God in His holiness
begins to move toward the judgments
that break loose after the heavenly
vision is completed in chapters 4
and 5.
In Hebrews 1 we read, “God, after He spoke
long ago to the fathers and the
prophets in many portions and in
many ways, in these last days has
spoken to us in His Son whom He
appointed heir of all things through
whom all things He made the world
and He, the Son, is the radiance of
His glory and the exact
representation of His nature.” So
if I want to know anything about
God, the clearest representation of
that, that I will ever be able to
comprehend is manifest in Jesus
Christ.
Now we could look at all of that. We could
look at any of that and see and do
see His holiness. But I want to
look at His life and not all of it,
by any means. I am obviously
fascinated with the person of Jesus
Christ, the most compelling person
by far who ever walked this planet.
I cannot it seems at any point in my
ministry be not teaching one of the
gospels, or if I’m not teaching one
of the gospels, I need to be in
Hebrews or Colossians, somewhere
where Christ is exalted. I happen
to be now about five years in to the
gospel of Luke and I’m in chapter
11. This is something of a triumph
for me. And it isn’t that I’m
missing Sundays, I’m not. It’s that
I just cannot let go of the riveting
compelling glory of Christ.
What are You doing in there? And Jesus
answered and said to them, “It’s not
those who are well who need a
physician, but those who are sick.”
You see, the amazing thing about Him
is He can go into the most
contagious ward on the planet and
catch nothing...catch nothing. “I
haven’t called the righteous but
sinners to repentance.” This is
frankly one of the great
illustrations of the holiness of
Jesus. He could hang around the
most wretched people in the society,
sinners probably and surely embraces
prostitutes. And it says this was
an extended event. Not only this
event but there must have been many
others like it because in Matthew
11:19 it says, “Behold, a gluttonous
man and a drunkard, a friend of tax
collectors and sinners.” So, you
know, when these people got together
it was about gluttony, it was about
drunkenness, it was about extortion,
and it was about iniquity. What
else would they talk about?
Well, the way the story ends, you can read
the middle, verse 48, instead of the
woman corrupting Him, He says, “Your
sins have been....what?....” Whoo.
Instead of sin corrupting Him, holy
grace reaches out and justifies
her. And they said in verse 49,
“Who is this who forgives sins?”
And He said to the woman, “Your
faith has saved you, go in
peace...go in peace.” She was an
hamartolos, especially wicked,
immoral and filthy is how that word
is used as translated in lexicons.
But she was on a mission. Luther
says the only water she had was
heart water and so she used her
tears. The only cloth she had was
her hair, so she used her hair. And
the only gift she could give was
what she used for her immoral
relationships. It had no effect on
Him at all except to draw out of Him
forgiveness. That’s because Hebrews
7:26 says this, “We have a high
priest who is...listen to
this...holy, innocent, undefiled,
separated from sinners and exalted
above the heavens who does not need
to offer up sacrifices for His own
sins. He is a Son, verse 28, made
perfect forever.”
And in that contrast, feels the horror of
his own sin. And you remember the
account. One of the seraphim flew
to me with a burning coal in his
hand which he had taken from the
altar with tongs, he touched my
mouth and there you have the picture
of atonement and the application of
the atonement personally applied.
He is purified. Then the Lord says,
“Whom shall I send and who will go
for us?” Whom shall I send and who
will go for us? “Then I said, here
am I, send me.” I think he said it
meekly, humbly, probably with the
possibility that he would in having
said that been struck by God for
such audacity, having just confessed
his wretchedness. But the Lord says
to him, “Go and tell this people,
keep on listening, do not perceive,
keep on looking, do not understand,
render the hearts of this people
insensitive, their ears dull, their
eyes dim lest they see with their
eyes, hear with their ears,
understand with their heart, return
and be healed.” You go and know
this, you’re going to meet
resistance. Their hearts will be
hard. Their ears will not hear.
Their eyes will not see. They will
not understand. He says, “How long
do I do that?” I mean, that sounds
like a rather unproductive way to
spend the rest of my life. “How
long until the cities are devastated
without inhabitant, houses are
without people? The land is utterly
desolate, the Lord has removed
everybody away, nobody is left.
Keep doing it.” Why? Because,
verse 13, “There is a holy seed,
there is a stump, there is a tenth,
there is the elect.” That’s a fast
trip through here.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur's Collection" by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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