SERVING GOD IN THE BEAUTY OF HIS HOLINESS PART 2 (1) The holiness of God should guide and govern our thinking on “God’s acceptance.” I often hear Christians use the expression “unconditional acceptance.” “God unconditionally accepts us,” they reason, “and so we must accept others unconditionally.” My difficulty is that this is not a biblical expression. Perhaps even worse, it does not appear to be a biblical concept. God does not “accept us regardless” of what we do. Look at the nation Israel. Because of their persistent sin, God said they were no longer His people (see Hosea 1). God did not accept Cain or his offering (Genesis 4:5). God accepts us only through His given laws or commandments God did not accept King Saul’s sacrifice. Serving God is a conditional not a choice. It is not about us, is all about Him (2) The doctrine of the holiness of God needs to consider when we speak of accountability. The concept of “accountability” is not imported from the secular world. The church sometimes speaks more of accountability to men than of accountability to God. Let us not forget to whom we must give account: Matthew 12:36 “And I say to you, that every careless word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the day of judgment” (Hebrews 13:17 Obey your leaders, and submit [to them]; for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you (Hebrews 13:17, emphasis mine; see also 1 Corinthians 3:10-15). . (3) The holiness of God should govern our thinking about self-pursuit and self-esteem. In my opinion there is no human being on earth, who is not one way or the other wishes to be somebody else .How long are we going to see God faulty ? No wonder Isaiah said Isaiah 6:5 “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips;living among the unclean people For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. I fear our whole orientation is wrong, and we come to Christ to feel better about ourselves rather than falling before Him in humility and awe at His holiness. Our hearts should be filled with gratitude and praise for the grace He has bestowed on us. It is the self-righteous who stand upright before God confident in who they are, not the saints who are confident in who He is (see Luke 9-14). (4) The holiness of God should caution us about what we accept and practice from the contemporary “church growth” movement. The contemporary church growth movement is to be commended in some respects.It seems, however that in its attempt to evangelize the “seekers” by being “seeker-friendly,” it fails to take the holiness of God seriously enough. I will mention just a few of my concerns. How can a church focus its principal service on(Sunday morning) from evangelism when its principal tasks seem to be otherwise, as outlined in Acts 2:42 (namely the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer)? Put differently, how can the church focus on evangelism in its gathering when its principal tasks appear to be worship and edification? Further, how can one invite the unbeliever to participate in worship as an unbeliever? The Bible teaches there are no “seekers” as such (Romans 3:10-12). Those who will be saved are those who are chosen, whose hearts the Holy Spirit will quicken, whose minds He will enlighten. Those who are dead in their sins, He makes alive (Ephesians 2:1-7). The church that has a grasp of the holiness of God will proclaim, practice, and protect a pure gospel. (5) A grasp of the holiness of God should change our attitude and conduct in worship. In the Old Testament, worship was closely regulated. In the New Testament, more freedom seems to be given in worship. The priesthood of a few in the Old Testament has become the priesthood of all believers in the New. But Acts 5 and 1 Corinthians 5 and 11 strongly warn us about worship that fails to take the holiness of God seriously enough. Irreverence is a most serious offense, as we can see from both the Old and New Testaments. And worship is one area where irreverence is a constant concern. Case in point is the biblical teaching on the role women can play in the church meeting and how they should dress. Also, Uzzah seems to have been both sincere and zealous in his role in bringing the ark of God to Jerusalem, yet God struck him dead for his irreverence. Moses was kept from the land of promise because of his irreverence and his failure to obey God precisely as he had been instructed. This leads to the next observation. 9 Worship the LORD in holy attire [or, in the splendour of holiness]; Tremble before Him, all the earth (Psalms 96:9). (6) The appropriate response to the holiness of God is fear (reverence), and the outworking of fear is obedience. As I look at the Scriptures that speak of the holiness of God and the fear it should produce in the hearts of men, I find a very strong correlation between fear (or reverence) and obedience. For example, the wife is to respect (literally fear) her husband in Ephesians 5:33. The submission of the wife to her husband most often is expressed by her obedience to him (see 1 Peter 3:5-6). Fear or reverence leads to obedience. The holiness of God is the root of many wonderful fruits, springing forth from a heart which has come to reverence God as the Holy One. (7) The holiness of God is the basis and the compelling necessity for our sanctification. The holiness of God is the reason we too are commanded to live holy lives: 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts [which were yours] in your ignorance, 15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all [your] behavior; 16 because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.” (6). Because God is holy, we who are His people must be holy too. Holiness is our calling (Ephesians 1:4; Romans 8:29; 1 Thessalonians 4:3). We must practice and proclaim His excellences to the world (1 Peter 2:9), and prominent among God’s excellencies is His holiness. (8) The holiness of God makes the gospel a glorious necessity. As I think of the holiness of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ (not to exclude the Holy Spirit), I am all the more awestruck by the cross of Calvary. I have often thought of the agony of our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane. Usually, I think of His agony in terms of His horror at the thought of enduring the wrath of the Father, the wrath we deserve.He was agonizing over the sin He would bear on our behalf. What a wonderful Savior! In His holiness, God made a provision for our sins. By His sacrificial death on the cross of Calvary, Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins, and thereby made it possible for us to partake of His holiness. When we acknowledge our sin, our unrighteousness, and trust in Christ’s death on our behalf, we are born again. Our sins are forgiven. Our unholiness is cleansed. We become a child of God. https://youtube/watch?v=lU0MX4JkgEs#t=15
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 05:18:19 +0000
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