The holiness of God is presented as the most beautiful and essential attribute, surpassing even His power or omnipresence. The sermon draws from Isaiah 6, highlighting the seraphim's reverence and Isaiah's cleansing, to emphasize that God's holiness demands awe and reverence from His people. It contrasts the casual approach many have to God's presence with the meticulous preparation of Old Testament priests, underscoring that access to God is solely through the blood of Christ. A proper understanding of God's holiness, the sermon concludes, leads to genuine worship, a desire for personal holiness, and willing obedience.
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The Book of Job is an epic of the inner life. The inner life is involved, technical and complicated, in comparison to the outer life that is so simple, carefree, and uninvolved. Behind the facade, the barriers, and the externalities, there lives in each one of us a very lonely, solitary individual. Every man is by nature a hermit in his own right. I'm often asked in an hour of bereavement, will I know my loved ones in heaven? And I'm happy to answer in the affirmative, certainly we'll not know less in heaven than we know down here.
But the unfortunate thing is we really don't know each other down here. Pride me,
O Savior, know my thoughts I pray. there be, some wicked way in me, blessed me from every sin, and set me free. Thank you. I seated. Now with joy we bring to the platform Abrava Vernon Schlage. Thank you.
Thank you. I would gladly have given all my time to Brother Sneddon for a message like that. You know, I've really enjoyed this conference. I've got a lot out of it. It's really been a tremendous experience, I believe, and I trust for everyone here. We're taking some of these tapes home and we're going to play them in our assembly. Do this. I've been impressed by every speaker. But you know, I was especially impressed by Brother Snedden's message the other day on worship. I tell you, if there's anything squeeze for that message that he gave last night.
You know, There's so much begging going on in this world and so little dependence on a living, holy, God that's unlimited. I don't know why we need to beg from the world. I throw a waste basket full of begging letters away at least once a week. Somebody wrote to L'Octurnal, who, you know, has given a lot of money to the Lord's work. And he said in his letter, led me to write to you concerning our need about the Sixth Century Project. And La Turner wrote them back. He said, it's a funny thing. The Lord's never mentioned it to me.
You know, everybody's so commercially minded today. Everybody's out for all the green stuff they can get. There was a bus accident last year in Chicago. There was only five people on the bus and they carried one or two to the hospital and suggested that everybody on the bus go to the hospital for a checkup for their injuries. There was only five people on the bus, but twelve people showed up at the hospital claiming injuries. Everybody's out and takes every advantage to get everything they can. And listen, they learned it when they're little.
At a funeral some time ago, The little five-year-old granddaughter of the brother that we buried came up to me, and I was trying to explain to her how her granddaddy had gone to heaven and so forth. And she looks at me, and she says, Did granddaddy take his pocketbook with him? Well, that kind of stunned me, you know. You have to be careful what you say to kids. So I thought I'd better explore this a little more, and I said to her, Well, why do you want to know whether Granddaddy took his pocketbook to heaven? Well, he's got my money in it. Kids learn early.
I think Reverend Ike, this black man that has filled the stadium up in New York with his cultists, I think he hits it on the head though, when he said, the beautiful color in America is not black, it's green. I'd like us to turn this morning to Isaiah chapter six. Isaiah chapter six, verse one. 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.
That is all the holiest of holies. Above it stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face. With twain he covered his feet. 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. And the post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried. And the house was filled with smoke. Then said, I woe with 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, and he laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo, This hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send me. And he said, Go, and tell this people.
I want to talk a little bit about something that's been in my heart for some time. And I, like Brother Snadden, have been exercised about his conference and has asked God to lead each one of the brethren as well as myself. And I thank God I believe he has. I've been exercised for a long time about our position concerning the holiness of God. I don't want to bring an exegesis on the holiness of God, but I just want to bring our minds to bear for a minute on the holy, holy, holy God that we worship.
Now, this little portion that we read have the seraphim mentioned in verse two. Now, the seraphim have to do with the protecting the holiness of the God. and also to do with the cleansing, as you see, in this portion. Now, it's nice to notice while we're here, that in verse two, it says they had six wings. Now, notice this, with two-thirds they covered themselves, reverence to this holy one in whose presence they were. Only one-third was left for transportation.
Now we have also the cherubim mentioned in God's Word. Remember they were at the Gate of Eden. They were on the inner veil of the tabernacle. They were over the mercy seat. The cherubim have to do with the guarding of the altar or the approach to God. What I want to be concerned with this morning is the holiness of God and our attitude toward him. J. Howey wrote in sixteen seventy on the holiness of God, and he said this, this attribute which the holiness of God is, this attribute may be said to be a transcendental attribute of God that, as it were, runs through the rest of its attributes, and cast lustre upon him, it is an attribute of attributes.
Take that to heart. Beautiful attribute of the Lord. Now, keep your finger here. We want to refer to this later. But turn to Revelation chapter fifteen. Revelation chapter fifteen. I'm not going to turn to many scriptures because of time. And I'm not going to try to do an in-depth study. But I want us to think about it. some of these things Revelation chapter fifteen and read verse four now this is of course in the tribulation period but listen what is said here verse four who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorify thy name for thou only art holy For all nations shall come and worship before thee, and thy judgments are made manifest.
Thou only art holy. What is our attitude toward the holiness of God? Psalm thirty and four we read this. The psalmist says, Sing and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. In Exodus fifteen and verse eleven, in Moses' redemption song, he says this, who is like thee, glorious in holiness. In Psalm one hundred and eleven and verse nine, holy is his name.
That's a better translation of what you're reading. Holy is his name. Now more often, God is referred to as a holy God more than he is even the Almighty God. The most lovely attribute of God, my friends, is His holy name. Not His mighty name, we read in Scripture. Not His mighty name, but His holy name. Now, his omnipotence, take the attributes of God, his omnipotence, his power, is his hand or his arm, his omnipresence, his dwelling place, every place, his omniscience, his eye, his mercy, his heart, his eternity, the duration.
But his holiness, beloved, is his beauty. the beauty of His holiness. You ever think about it? I don't think we think about it enough. You know, we've been talking sometimes about what are we going to do in heaven. Some people think it's going to be a drab deal when we get to heaven and we'll have everything and we'll be such perfect beings and It'd just be a boring thing. Don't you believe it. I've been telling folks that I think I'm going to be spending the first million years just discovering the holy attributes of God.
And then, you know, you got all the rest of them. I tell you, we're going to be busy discovering this blessed one who means so much to us. Don't think you won't be busy. I know we like to talk about how we're going to be in charge of this and we're going to be in charge of the angels. That's wonderful. But the wonderful thing is that we'll be able for the first time to understand this Blessed One that we really love. And have, shall I say this? Have known so little about him. Isn't it a shame? We know so little about him. And he's written sixty-six books in the Word of God about himself. God wants us to know about this precious one.
You know, the word Jehovah was so holy that Jews got afraid of it. And for over four hundred years before Christ, they never even mentioned His name. God is holy. Christ is holy. Now, in Luke one thirty-five, Gabriel came to Mary. And what does he say? that holy thing, that pure and spotless one, which shall be born of thee, will, and remember, it should be will, that shall, it's positive, be will, be called the Son of God.
Yes, Jesus is that perfect one that came to perfect perfectly fulfill the perfect Father's will. He came to fulfill the Father's will that we might be made the righteousness of God. You realize something here. This holy one, and I can't emphasize the holiness too much. This holy one the one who knew no sin, uncontaminated by anything that's unholy.
He went to the cross and became sin for us. In Peter we read that in his own body he bore our sin. Have you ever thought what it must have meant To such a holy being. To have the wicked rotten sin of us. Put upon him. You know you can spend hours at this. This is precious to me. When I think of what my Lord did. That holy one. How can we say it beloved?
How can we help but appreciate? How can we help and want to know a little bit more about Him? Yes, Jesus was perfect. I get disgusted when I hear people discussing Matthew four and say, well, you know, Jesus could have sinned. He just proved himself. Jesus could not have sinned. He never could have sinned. He was God with the attribute of holiness. And it was impossible for him to sin. read sometimes Psalm eighty nine verse five in a good translation where he said I have sworn by my holy name which cannot be violated no way no way that you can violate a holy being like the Lord Jesus well the holiness of God and like I said I'm not going to go through for I just want us to appreciate that he's holy that our Lord Jesus is holy and he's to be revered now the holiness of God commands from us reverence
and awe to the holiness of God commands from us commands from us holiness in ourselves commands from us obedience I'd just like to look at these four little things for a minute to bring us home to ourselves. Reverence and awe. If there's anything we need more of today, beloved, it's a little more reverence for the Holy Name of Jesus. In Exodus chapter three and verse five, Moses at the burning bush was told by God, take off your shoes.
The ground you're standing on is holy ground. He was standing in the presence of a holy God. Don't let us just come into the presence of God any old way. Exodus nineteen and twelve, when the Lord on Mount Sinai came down, He told Moses, don't let the people come near to the mountain. Don't even let them touch the French. He had to put up stakes for them to keep them away. Because here was the holiness of God. And in the Old Testament, people were hindered from coming into the holiness of God.
The holiness of holies in the tabernacle. You have the curtain separating... The sinner from the holy God. From the holiness of God. Who occupied the holy of holies. You know, righteousness and love. We're involved here. Love calling the sinner to come. And then righteousness of God. The holiness of God. Keeping them back. But you know both of these are fulfilled in Christ. Oh, we ought to adore him. The high priest, you know, could come into the holiest of holies once a year, and I can see him coming in with trembling hands and not without the blood.
He was coming in very reverently. How do we come into the presence of God? That sin doesn't mean much. Let me tell you. The priest came and he didn't come without any preparation. There had to be the cleansing. There had to be the visit, of course, to the labor. He had to put on special garments. He had a crown, you know, on his head that had the word holy. I'll tell you this was a special occasion when he came into the presence of God, into the holiest of holies.
How, beloved, can we come into the presence of God so casually today? This is what's on my mind. We need to think about this. We need to be exercised about it. It is not a light thing to come into the holy. place of God. Now, of course, we know the veil of the curtain has been rent. And because of the work of Christ, God says we can come boldly in. But He doesn't tell us to come in unprepared. He doesn't tell us to come in just any old casual way. We're to come in reverently. And I think a great deal like the priest hanging on to the blood.
Oh, the blood of Christ is what gives us access to a holy God. Now, in First Corinthians chapter eleven, you don't have to turn to it, but you know it was referred to yesterday. You know, many of the Christians were sick and some had died. Why? because of their irreverence in approaching the holiness of God. They didn't discern, it says what they were doing.
They didn't realize the holiness of a holy God. Now this is New Testament. Anybody sick in your assembly? Some folks have died in your assembly. Some have an art. I think we need to get back to thinking about what it means to come into the presence of God. We need to be on time at our meetings. Do you think this priest, with all the preparation he had to go through on that day of atonement, do you think that he'd be late?
President of the United States came by and he had sent you a letter and he said, I'm going to meet you at such and such a time. You think you'd be late? I have seen people line up for miles just to get a chance to see him, let alone shake hands with him. And we can come into the very presence of the Holy God of all the universe and we're late. How about that? Now, I think if we really got a vision, of the holiness of God and who He is, what He means to us, that it would affect our approach to Him. I think it might affect our dress, as somebody was mentioning a while ago.
I think it might mention how we sit in quietness. I think it would affect how parents train their children to sit still for an hour because we're in the presence of the Lord. Could I divert and tell you about my great-grandmother? I'm a great-grandfather. was the only one in my great-grandmother ever brought to the Lord. And it was a great gap, and nobody in our family would say, but my great-grandmother and my great-grandfather started the first assembly I've learned in Minnesota. And he was so devout to the Lord. They lived within sight, distance of the chapel. And one time they were sitting in the chapel And you know, the window was right over here and they could see their farmhouse right out the window.
And they were sitting in the meeting at the Lord's table. And my grandmother, who told us this, she looked out of the window and she saw something that stirred her. And she poked her husband and she says, John, our barn's on fire. You know what he said? quiet. We're in the presence of the Lord. Oh, wouldn't you like to see a little of that today? You know, I wish I had more of that. I've always been respectful to the presence of God, but I wish I were more.
We can't be too much. We need to think about this thing. We need to train our children to have respect. Listen, children, parents, if you don't train your children when they're this high, They're going to be teenagers. And if you haven't taught them to respect the holiness of God and the righteousness of God, and his judgment is always, you haven't taught them that. They get teenagers. You can't watch them every minute. You can't watch the teenagers in the back of a car. You can't watch them in the halls, in the locker rooms. On our way, we found that they've been having sex in the locker rooms. Twelve and thirteen-year-old girls today are becoming pregnant by the thousands.
I had some figures on, but I'm not talking about that. I want us to consider the holiness of God and we need to teach our children to revere Him. Reverent Him. Listen, let's quit playing church. and get into reality. We're dealing with the God that shapes heavens and the earth. Revelation chapter four, turn to this, if you will. I think I'd like to read this. Revelation chapter four and verse eight.
And the four beasts, now this is another scene. This is a scene in heaven. after the rapture. And it says, the four beasts had each of them six wings about him, and they were full of eyes within, and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty, which was and is to come. Notice what they're saying about him. Holy Holy, Holy. Verse nine, And when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth forever and ever, the four and twenty elders, which I feel we're included in, fall down before him that sat on the throne and worship him that liveth forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power.
For thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasures they are, and were created. Over in verse nine, you're going to read the same thing. This is his, we're praising him for his creative thoughts, for his creation. Over here we're going to, in the next chapters for our redemption. But what I'm concerned with is that when we see the holiness of God and get a view, it will lead us into genuine worship that our brother was talking about today. the other day. You know, worship is the most precious thing to God. You know, back to that Matthew chapter four portion of the temptation of Jesus.
Remember there was a temptation that the devil brought to him, brought the stones and the bread, he allowed Satan to still go on. And then, of course, if he took him up to the temple top, he still... allowed them to go on. But then when he mentioned the word worship, see, worship is the most precious thing to God. Satan was put out. Let me tell you, everybody's talking about service today. Service is nothing unless it comes from a heart overflowing with worship. God doesn't need our work. He doesn't need our money.
You know, People think it's so smart to give a hundred dollars or ten dollars or fifty cents a bank to the Lord. He doesn't need our money. He doesn't operate on dollars and cents. Look, our God, if He needs something, He makes it out of nothing. He doesn't need your dollars. He doesn't need your work. You know what He wants? He wants our hearts. He loves us. He wants to see us respond to Him and love and say, Lord, we love you. You see, just an appreciation. That's what worship is, you know. I'm just so filled with the love for Him. I'd like to tell you a couple of stories. I don't have the time.
Let me tell you, it's a marvelous thing to know what worship is. Well, didn't we read in John four something about true worshipers? Let me ask you, how many true worshipers do we have today? This is what God's looking for. True worshipers. And only as we see and are filled with the preciousness and the holiness, the beauty of holiness of our God can we ever be filled with worship. Well, I see our time is about going, what about holiness?
If we get a view of the Lord in His holiness, it will tend to cause us to have a desire to be holy. You know, in our chapter in Isaiah there, there was Isaiah. It was cleansed. You know, it would give us a real desire to want to be holy, even if he is holy. I wonder what kind of story is this? I've got two minutes after eleven.
Okay, I guess. All right. Write this verse down. Ezekiel chapter. Excuse me. Ezekiel chapter twenty-two. Verses twenty-six to twenty-eight. And take it home with you. And digest it. Get a couple of different translations and read that. It'll wake you up. In Psalms twenty nine in two we worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness in his holy array now in our holy in our holy array excuse me a little cough got there In those verses, oftentimes the word is talking about the holiness there.
Excuse me. It's talking about our holy array. Think about that a little bit. What have we put on? The Lord loves righteousness. And in First Peter you talked about the holy priest. Let's be some holy priests. Obedience I haven't even got into yet. But a view of the holiness of God will lead us into obedience. There won't be any trouble for the sisters to wear a head covering. Won't be any problem for young people to submit to elders.
won't be any problem to realize the importance of obeying his word when he says, this do and remembrance of me. Let me tell you, I got to say this. The Lord wants us to be obedient to him. But now, it isn't sort of a thing like mind control. You know, these cults around us all operate on mind control. You take the Moonites. Ernie Gross was referring to him. Ernie, I just want to tell you, I think I know the reason that the National Council of Churches put an article against them.
That's because they wouldn't join them. Because I'm sure they'd taken them in. They'd take anything in. But, you know, these are fast-growing religions. The High Christmas, for example. TM, let me tell you. If you hear TM, run like everything. Even devil worship. But all of these work on mind control. Now God doesn't work on mind control. We are to be in control of our spirit. The Lord tells us. If God believed in mind control, like these people, you know, they all take orders. They don't think for themselves. The leader thinks for them. If God believed in mind control, every Christian would be perfect. But he doesn't.
He wants us to... being in control of our spirits, submit our leading to a God who is able to lead us, to the Holy Spirit that dwells within us, to guide us and direct us. It's not mind control. He wants us to do this ourselves. Just submit ourselves to him because we love him. Because we've seen the beauty of his holiness. Beloved, I was going to say some more about this chapter, but I'm not going to. We love the people of God.
We really do. I've devoted my life to the people of God, to see them built up, and to see assemblies built. And I tell you, when you hear some of these brethren talk and warn us of what's happening, It makes you weep. Where are we headed? Let's get a view of that holy God that we love so much. Let's realize what he really means to us. Who he is, what he's done. Then we can come in pureness to him.
He'll bless us. Our Father, please help us. We do love thee from the depths of our heart. Not because that we decide to love thee, but thou dost love us first. And we think of that wonderful Lord that we have, that holy, spotless one who did so much for us. O our God, we thank thee for him from the depths of our hearts. And now as we come near to the close of this conference, help us to still get a few things Help us to put things together and help us to somehow be able to understand more about the attributes of that Blessed One and our relationship to them.
In His precious, worthy name. Amen. I think we can leave the song books right where they are. I think they'll be all right till the night. But let's get involved in the activities. Don't forget the bookstore. Slip on in there and make your selections. This is the last day. Don't forget the tapes.