In this sermon, the preacher discusses the ways in which God demonstrates His holiness. He explains that one way God shows His holiness is by hating sin and hiding from it. The preacher also emphasizes that God does not let sin go unpunished, highlighting the importance of punishment that includes an explanation of God's holiness. The sermon concludes with a reference to the prophet Isaiah's encounter with God, where he is cleansed of his sins and responds to God's call to be sent.

Stand for prayer. Holy Father, as we approach the throne of grace tonight, to attempt to do something that there's not even enough words in anyone's language to do, and that's to describe holy. So, Father, we're going to just struggle, but we're going to be in your presence and just admit, Father, that we don't have what it takes to describe holy. But we've been impacted, and we've been changed, and we've sensed your presence. We welcome that same presence here tonight, that holy presence. Father, to begin working in our hearts a special work, that when we leave this place, Father, we will be holy men and women, boys and girls that are longing to be in your likeness. So, Father, we just pray. Open our hearts tonight as you open your Word to us. Pray for each one of these children, that they'll hear the Word in a way in their heart that will bless them. It'll be kind of like Pentecost here, Lord, that everybody hear in their own language, beginning with me. So, we bless you, we praise you, that you are holy. We ask you to break the bread to us tonight and pour out the wine for your glory and for our blessing. We ask it in Jesus' precious name. Amen. The subject tonight is the word holy, and I'm going to ask you children to stand up right now. Just stand up right where you're at. Children, you can stand up. And I want you to say the word holy. Holy. Okay, let's say it again. Holy. Let's say it again. Holy. Now, this time we're going to say it as loud as you can say it. Holy. Amen. You'll probably get to do that again. Thank you. Holy. And after this, I looked, and a door was opened in heaven. And the first voice I heard was as the sound of a trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up hither, and I will show you things which must be hereafter. And immediately, I was in the Spirit. And behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat upon the throne was in sight likened to an emerald and a sardine stone. And there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight likened to an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats. And upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders setting, clothed in white raiment. And they had on their heads crowns of gold. And there proceeded out of the throne lightnings and thunderings and voices. And there were seven lamps of fire before the throne, burning which are the seven spirits of God. In front of the throne there was a sea of glass likened to crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, there were four beasts with eyes before and behind. The first beast was like a lion. The second beast was like a calf. The third beast had the face as a man. And the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts, each of them had six wings about them, full of eyes within. And they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come. And when those four beasts give glory and honor and thanks to Him that sat upon the throne, that liveth forever and ever. The four and twenty elders fall down before the throne and worship Him that liveth forever and ever. And cast their crowns before Him that liveth forever and ever. And they are saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive praise and honor and glory and power where Thou hast created all things. And for Thy pleasure they are and were created. Now, I'd like to ask you to stand to your feet and open your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 6. Holy, open your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 6. And we're going to read together the first eight verses of Isaiah chapter 6. Holy, beginning in verse 1. Together. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord setting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. 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. 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 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 seraphims 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 thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and whom will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send me. Stay standing. And I want this side of the chapel to be the Revelation 4 side. So you open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 4. And you keep your Bibles open to Revelation chapter 6. And I'm going to give you some instructions now. On the Isaiah side, so you're the Isaiah side. You are going, when I tell you, you are going to read out loud. Beginning where it says, in verse 3, where it says, Holy, holy, holy. That's where you're going to begin reading. And you're going to read to the end of the chapter, into the end of the verse. So you'll start in verse 3, where it says, Holy, holy, holy. And you will read to the end of the verse. When you are finished reading, then the Revelation side, you will start reading in verse 8 of chapter 4, where it says, Holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. So you're going to read it. You're going to stop, and then you're going to read. All right. I told you, I'm grasping at words to describe holy. But I've certainly been excited finding places in the Word of God when people have found themselves in the presence of the holy. And this is kind of what comes out. All right. Isaiah side, begin reading. Holy, holy, holy. Let's do it again. Holy, let's raise it up. Isaiah side, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. Now, let's, the whole congregation, let's do holy, holy, holy together. Holy, holy, holy. Everybody is saying the same thing. And everybody's saying it to each other. And everybody's saying it to God, who is holy all at the same time. And that's how I envision this time of meeting here for Homes on Purpose. Is we'll all be saying the same thing. We'll all be saying it to each other. And we'll all be saying it to God. Holy on purpose. You may be seated. God is holy on purpose. And I want to break this down in a couple areas tonight. The first part of the message, I just want to talk about three reasons that human and heavenly beings are impacted in the presence of the holy. Three reasons that heavenly and human beings are impacted in the presence of the holy. And I'll tell you, folks, this isn't the bottom line. These are just three things. The first reason that I would like to share with you tonight that human and heavenly beings are impacted in the presence of the holy is because God is completely holy. I don't know how else to say it other than that God is completely holy. You talk about plowing deep, we could talk about all the do's and the don'ts and the things that our hands and feet need to do in a home and in a marriage. But it's like some of these like Isaiah and people like that until they saw the presence of the Lord, until they were in the presence of the holy, they really couldn't get a good look at themselves. They didn't know they needed to plow deep until they had seen the holy and been in the presence of the holy. And so we are impacted in the presence of the holy because God is completely holy. I don't know how else to say it. His holiness sets him apart from all other created beings. There is none equal. He has no equals. None like him. He is completely holy. He is separate from what is common. He is separate from what is unclean. God is completely holy. It's interesting to ask, and I've been doing this since this assignment. I've been asking a little bit. I say, what comes to your mind when you hear the word holy? And sometimes people will say God. Well, you could probably say to somebody else, what comes to your mind when you say God and they may say holy? God is completely holy. That's point number one. God is completely holy. Deuteronomy 23 and 14 says, For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of the 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. So God is saying to them in their camp, I don't want to see any unclean thing in the camp. I am completely holy. I'm delivering enemies from you. I am completely holy. There is none my equal. There is none like me. I don't know how I got lost in this, but God is completely free of anything that could defile him. My wife was concerned on the way up here about loading and unloading the vehicle and getting my pants dirty and that I would wear a pair of coveralls to keep clean. God is completely holy. He's spotless. He cannot be spotted. He cannot be tainted. He cannot be adulterated. He cannot be tempted with evil. He cannot tolerate evil and on and on. God is completely holy, completely holy. Evil cannot stand in his presence. And I would get lost in this. I'm not sure how many gospels you'll find this, but I know at least in two of them and maybe more that when evil spirits right away in the beginning of the gospels, when evil spirits would come into the presence of Jesus Christ. I remember one day in the synagogue, maybe in Luke chapter four, an evil spirit came into the presence of Jesus and they just came up to him and he says, oh, the holy one, you know, don't torment us before the time. Even the you talk about the enemy coming to bring a to bring a onslaught against this meeting. But I want to tell you something. In the presence of the holy one, the enemy is defeated. Praise God. They would come to him in the gospels and wilt in his presence because God is completely holy and evil cannot stand in his presence. They say, let us alone. What do we have to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Thou art come to destroy us. I know who thou art. You're the holy one of God. I mean, the demons in hell know the holiness of God and the demons in hell. No, they cannot penetrate the holiness of God because God is completely holy and he cannot be penetrated with holy nor tempted with holy. Find in one place in the Bible talks about maybe it was Jacob when he was traveling. He didn't use the word holy, but he says he woke up in the morning after he slept on the pillow and he says, this has been a dreadful place. The presence of God, he says, this has been the house of God. I mean, God's presence is dreadful because he is completely holy and I'm just grasping and I want feedback over the next few days of what comes to your mind as you describe a completely holy God. Homes on purpose, holy on purpose, just a sense of holy. Awesome. How awesome in this place men meet God. I thought about the song that they sang when they came through the Red Sea in Exodus, chapter 15, and they were singing this song because they had seen the awesomeness of God and God is completely holy. And I like what they said in Exodus 15, 11. Listen to this as they were singing. Who is likened to thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is likened to thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? They said, who's like you? And naturally, when all your enemies have been defeated and all of the Egyptian chariots have been drowned in the sea and you see your enemies floating there upon the seashore, they're singing. There's no one so completely holy as you, Lord, you are glorious. There's a word that we would use, perhaps it would be a word transcendent, and it would mean that God is, He has no limits in His complete holiness. He is completely exceeds every someone. And you talked about exceeding all expectations. That's just complete holiness as far as I'm concerned. God will be, He surpasses everything. He has no boundaries. He's beyond the ordinary. He's beyond all possibilities. God is completely holy, holy, holy on purpose. And I'm going to end this section with Isaiah 40, 25, and it says, To whom then will you liken me, or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One? So one reason that human and heavenly beings are impacted in the presence of God is because God is completely holy. The next reason that human and heavenly beings are impacted in the presence of God is because God is unapproachable holy. God is more than just holy. I mean, when I start looking at this, I really get excited. God is more than just holy. He is unapproachably holy. He's unapproachable holy. That doesn't sound like our Papa God. But remember, we're just starting tonight. We're just laying the bedrock. We must see God as an unapproachable holy on purpose. Remember in Exodus, the people would say to Moses, they said in chapter 20 and 18, they said, Moses, don't let God talk to us. They said, we'll die if He talks to us. We want you to talk to us and we'll do what you say. But if God talks to us, we'll die. That's just more of what I says as an unapproachable holy that God carried about Him. The people saw thunderings and lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the mountain was smoking and those people were afraid. This was an unapproachable holy God that they did not want to approach. Approachable, unapproachable holy. Think about Moses in Exodus 3. When he came up there and the bush was burning and God says, kick off your shoes. If there's something, Moses, that I don't want there to be anything between us, I just want you to kick off your shoes because the place you're standing is holy ground. It's like God has this, it's kind of like this place where He's unapproachable that I think we need to see. Think about Exodus 19.21, when they were not to touch the mountain at Sinai. And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about saying, take heed to yourselves that you go not up into the mount or touch the border of it. Whosoever touches the mount shall surely be put to death. That sounds unapproachable to me. Don't you even touch this mount. Don't even touch it. Moses was told by God, you can't see me and live. That sounds unapproachable, unapproachable glory. Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Remember their little revolt. Now the earth opened up and swallowed them. Was talking on the way down here about the man who was going along when they were moving the ark. And we're talking about unapproachable glory, unapproachable holiness. And remember when the ark was being moved and transported. That was Isaiah. The ark was beginning to kind of shift and he just reached out to steady it. And God smote him. He died. Unapproachable holy. I think that's something we need. You know, God is not only just completely holy, but God is unapproachable holy. Now I'm going to give you, we're going to shift into the next section. I told you there's three reasons. That human and heavenly beings are impacted in the presence of God who is holy on purpose. And the next two words are the first word is demonstrating. And then last word is holy. So we've had completely holy, unapproachable holy. And now we're going to talk about demonstrating holy. How God demons, the ways in which God demonstrates his holiness. Ways in which God demonstrates his holiness. I think I have five of them that I'll share with you. And then we want to look at some human. And heavenly beings that have been in the presence of God and been impacted by his holiness. Demonstrating holy. Ways that God demonstrates to us that he is holy. And number one is by his hatred of sin. God demonstrates to us that he is holy by his hatred of sin. There's something that I want you to think about as we go along here tonight. That there's something that, and maybe I'm stretching this and I don't know how to say it. I don't have the English vocabulary probably to say it. Maybe I should be asking this in a question. Can the holy eyes of God ever gaze on sin? God demonstrates that he is holy on purpose by his hatred for sin. I'll just give some examples. In Genesis chapter 6, when the Bible talks about the whole world had turned evil. And the imagination of the thoughts and the hearts of men was evil continually. It says in Genesis 6 and 6 that it repented the Lord. That he had made man and listened to this and put him on the earth. And it grieved him at his heart. It grieved God at his holy heart. God's heart was grieved. Because God demonstrates his holiness by his hatred of sin. This place that he created is now being corrupted. This place that he created as a paradise is now turned into evil continually. And God is grieved at his heart because of this. He demonstrates his holiness by his hatred for sin. God will never sweep sin under the rug. Sin has to be dealt with. Sin, and I ask you, can the holy eyes of God gaze at sin? When God hates sin and God is completely holy and God is unapproachably holy, can God gaze at sin? He will not sweep it under the rug. You know what he did? We'll talk about that later in the flood. Here's one here. This looks kind of innocent. It's talking about just different kind of weights and measures. In the old days, I may carry around a pound weight so that if I'm selling Brother Anthony a pound of butter, and he says, how do I know that's going to be a whole pound? I said, well, here, I got my weight with me. But I might just kind of have a way of chiseling my weight down a little bit. And God says, you know, I won't put up with that. In Deuteronomy 25, 16, he says, for all that do such things and all that do unrighteously are an abomination unto the Lord God. God displays his holiness by his hatred for sin. He talks in the book of Revelation about people that have man-made doctrines and things that threaten him. And he says, I hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans. I hate it. God demonstrates his holiness by his hatred for sin. Secondly, God demonstrates holiness by delighting in righteousness and holiness. Leviticus 19, 2, he says, speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel and say unto them, you shall be holy for the Lord your God, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. So he begins to tell them, I delight. This is my passion that you be holy. He demonstrates his holiness by sharing his passion that we could be holy and that his people could be holy. Leviticus 20 and 26 says, and you shall be holy unto me, for I, the Lord, am holy and have served you, severed you from other people that you should be mine. He says, look at everything I did for you so that you can be what I want you to be to me. I've severed you from the enemy. I have a passion for you to be holy and for you to be righteous. God is completely holy. He's unapproachable holy, but he demonstrates holiness by his hatred for sin, by delighting in righteousness and holiness. And the third thing that God does to demonstrate his holiness is by separating himself from sin. God separates himself from sin. And I don't know, if I ask you about the eyes of God, can they gaze at sin? Somehow I get this picture that the eyes of God or the holiness of God is on a collision course with sin. And you know, you can fake it, you can fool some people, but you cannot fool the holy eyes of God. Sin and a holy God will not mix. It's just a little bit like trying to mix oil and water. They will not mix. The eyes of God, the holiness of God is on a collision course with sin. God is separating himself from sin. Listen to this, Isaiah 59, verse 1. I won't be long here. It says, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened. That it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquities. Whose iniquities? Your iniquities. What do my iniquities do in my relationship with him? If God is holy, I'm to talk about something that's holy. God separates himself from sin. Your iniquities have separated between you and me, between you and your God. And your sins have hid his face from you, Isaiah says. My sins have caused God to go down in hiding. I'm going to hide from you. Your sins will cause me to hide from you. Can the eyes of God gaze at sin? One of the ways that God demonstrates his holiness is not only with the hatred of sin and not only showing that he delights in holiness, but one of the ways that God demonstrates his holiness is hiding from sin. Number four, the fourth way God demonstrates holiness is by not letting sin go unpunished. I'll tell you, this vice just keeps getting tighter and tighter by not letting sin go unpunished. All right. Any punishment of sin, I think this is good. I put this, any punishment of sin, like when children are disobedient, any punishment of sin that neglects explaining the holiness of God, we get cheated. Somebody gets cheated. That's too shallow. You just think about that. God demonstrates his holiness by not letting sin go unpunished. And when sin is punished, we need to lift up the holiness of God. Genesis 6 and 13, God said to Noah, you know, I told you earlier about the flood and God's heart was grieved. Now God's going to do something about it. In 6 and 13, he says, the end of all flesh has come before me. I'm going to do something about it. I'm going to demonstrate my holiness right here and now. For the earth is filled with violence through them. And behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Last of all, God demonstrates his holiness by making a sacrifice of himself, the holy, to save others from sin unto holiness. I know that's kind of a mouthful and I see my time has gone a lot faster than I thought it would. But God demonstrates his holiness by making a sacrifice of himself, the holy, to save others from sin unto holiness. The death of Christ is not merely a demonstration of the love of God, but the death of Christ demonstrates God's holiness as well. You see, holy eyes cannot gaze at sin. Sin must be covered. God cannot gaze at sin unless sin is covered. And there's only one thing that will cover sin, and that's the blood of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2.13 says, But now in Christ Jesus, you who were sometimes far off, we were separated. We were way out there. We couldn't approach God. Now we're made nigh by the blood of Christ. Hebrews 10.19 says, Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiness by the blood of Jesus. Now we can approach. And you know, one thing covers sin, and that's the blood of Jesus Christ. So that God can now be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. And I was just down there in the trailer a while ago. I wrote down, Holy God, become man to take man's unholiness, to give man God's holiness and still be holy. And I've just scratched the surface. I had another section, and I'm just going to buzz through. I was going to share with you five human and heavenly beings that were impacted in the presence of God. And John, of course, was one of those beings that was impacted in the presence of a holy God. And one thing John says is, I was in the spirit. Remember there in Revelation four, he says, I was in the spirit and immediately is caught up in heaven. And do you think that you could have went to John and says, Hey, John, would you like to get out of this? John, would you like to go back down to the earth? John, would you like to go back down there and tinker around to some of them little roadside stands? John, would you like to go back to all your trinkets and all those things that you used to have? John, would you like to go back to the riches of this world? John, would you like to go back to your farm? John, would you like to go back to your business? John was in the presence of the holy one. And he was saying, wow, wow, wow, as he looked around. That's what happens when men get into the presence of God. And I'm going to just go right on. The beast, when they got into the presence of God, what did they do? The Bible says that day and night they said, holy, holy, holy is he. They wouldn't quit. They had no break. They couldn't take a vacation. They never stopped. They never let up. They never laid down. They never got lazy. They just kept saying day and night, holy, holy, holy, holy. Day and night, day and night. And there was elders over there, elders in white robes and elders with crowns on their heads. And those beasts never said anything about those elders. The beast was over there giving glory to God. The elders, even themselves, no matter who they were, I don't know who they represent. We've talked about John. We talked about the beast. We talked about the elders, the elders, however high up they were. They were down on their face before the holy God. That's what happens when we get in the presence of the holy. We bow before him and everything that looked important to them, all those white robes, all that crown of gold, whatever they received as a reward, for their faithful service, it became nothing in the presence of God. And they threw it down at the feet of the holy one. That's what happens when human and heavenly beings are impacted in the presence of holy God. What did Isaiah do in the presence of a holy God? All of a sudden, you know, he says the year King Uzziah died, you know, maybe the throne in Judah was empty, but this throne is not empty. And all of a sudden the place began to shake and smoke and the train filled the temple. You know, it's interesting. Nobody ever in all these descriptions ever gets a picture of God, because I think God didn't want man to see. It says he couldn't see even live. They knew they were in his presence. But if he had seen a picture of him, that probably went down and tried to carve something out or something like that. People have been worshiping. I don't know. But anyway, there was no attraction to Isaiah to cover sin any longer in the presence of God. There was no attraction to begin to condemn the people that he walked with that had covered their hearts with a veneer of their the wicked hearts with just a veneer. There was no attraction to look down in the shame of Isaiah dying as Isaiah dying as a leper. There was no attraction to Isaiah to make excuses about God's call. He says, here am I, send me. And then there were seraphims and they saw God for who he was and they had no passion for anything and anyone else. They just started crying out, holy, holy, holy. That's all they could think about. They had a passion to be fully engaged. All their hands and all their six wings and whatever they did with their hands and their wings and their feet, every body part was engaged in the presence of the holy God. There's no time for slack. No time for casual. Passion for going. This is another thing. They had a passion for going to the unclean place. They went to Isaiah's lips and they touched them. They had a passion to share the potential for others to be holy. They said, Isaiah, your iniquity has passed away. Now, I want to tell you, when Martin Luther had studied and studied for years and when he got the day he was supposed to give his first presentation, told about his dad and some others traveled for, oh, I don't know, miles on horses just to hear Martin Luther get up and give his first day, first day's activities as a priest. Well, when he got to the place in his words where it says, we offer unto thee the living, the true and eternal God, he froze and he couldn't say another word. He never did get his words. He sat down. His dad was angry. He was embarrassed. And he said later on, he says, he got to thinking. He says, I'm just dust and ashes. I'm full of sin. And should I be speaking to the living and the eternal God? Now, I want to ask you. Compared, if you took Isaiah and you took Martin Luther and compared them to normal people, you'd think Isaiah and Martin Luther were pretty good people, wouldn't you? And I could take you, I know you, and I could take you to where you live and compare you with maybe some of the people around you. And you'd look like pretty good people, wouldn't you? I think the difference is, is the yardstick that Martin Luther and Isaiah used to measure themselves. When they measure themselves against the standard of God's holiness, they froze, they wilted, they repented. And I'm just going to ask us, what's my standard of measurement for me? What's my standard for my home? And in closing, I'm going to ask us, after a glance at God's holiness, is there confession that I need to make? Am I too casual with life in the presence of the Holy? Am I too casual with life in the presence of the Holy? Am I too casual with my life? Am I too casual with my marriage? Am I too casual with my relationships in the presence of the Holy? Am I too casual raising my family? Am I too casual with my thought life? Am I too casual with my money? Am I too casual with my time? There's one for me. Am I too casual with my ministry? Am I too casual with the sheep of the flock? Am I too casual with His imminent return? Am I too casual as I think about the judgment seat of Christ? Am I too casual with my prayer life? Am I too casual with my speech? Am I too casual with the confession of my sin? And the list goes on. It all makes a difference on what yardstick we use to measure. Tonight we have a yardstick and it is holy. He is holy. He is completely holy. He is unapproachable holy. But He demonstrates His holiness and one of those ways is in the person of Jesus Christ that He can still be just. He can still be holy and He can make unholy holy through the blood of Jesus Christ. Holy eyes cannot gaze at sin. Sin must be covered before holy eyes can gaze there. And there's one covering that's acceptable for sin for holy eyes to gaze on and that is the blood of Jesus Christ that He provided for Himself. And so tonight, God bless you. God bless you as you proceed through this week in the presence of the holy.