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Austin Church of God |
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Holy,
Holy, Holy One of the most important teachings of scripture is that God is holy and he wants us to become holy. The heart, as defined by the Hebrew word “leb” means the inner man, the mind, the will. What we think of as the heart is defined more accurately in God’s word as head knowledge—that which drives our actions. God’s instruction from the beginning was that we are to love the LORD our God with all our heart, our soul and our mind and to love our neighbor as ourselves. This takes a commitment of the mind and will. You have to decide to act. What is the nature of the LORD our God? He is holy. That means separate. He is not accommodating, he is not one of us; His nature is one of apartness in holiness. He is to be approached in the way he proscribes. In Exodus 19-20 is the account of the giving of the 10 commandments. The people were to wash their clothes and be ready for the third day. They were not to come up the mountain or touch the base of it, but to come near when the trumpet sounded. They were to do what God told them. Mt. Sinai was completely in smoke because the LORD descended upon it in fire, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. God told Moses to warn the people not to break the boundary to gaze at the LORD, or they would die. Only Moses and Aaron could come up the mountain to the Lord. This was a physical enactment of God’s holiness before He spoke the 10 commandments. God is holy—His name, His Sabbath, His words are holy. In Isaiah 6 we see the idea that God is so grand that the train of his robe fills the temple. Verse 3 states “holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.” In Hebrew there are two ways of expressing the superlative--"holy, holy, holy", or "holy of holies" meaning most holy. Verse 4 says the house was filled with smoke, just as Mt. Sinai was covered in smoke. Isaiah saw the holiness of the LORD. Men are not meant to see this. If we truly want holiness and to maintain holiness, it needs to be in every part of our lives. God the Father and His Son demand holiness, but we have made God a God without thunder, not so much to be feared. We have made Him to be one who does not make demands, does not ask much, does not require a change in the world. Naturally, we don’t want to change, we only want God there when we need Him. God saves us by transforming us, by changing us in our mind and will. It’s not about sentiments or feelings, but conviction. It’s something lived. The Lord our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:29) Is the holiness of God preached or just moral exhortation? To be set apart means willing to be different. There is a gap between God and man. How does He close it? He must make us more like Him. He is holy. That’s the transformation. Flattery is preached which leads people astray. This is a lot of influence in a bad way. Church should not become a place of flatteries. We must help lead people to salvation. Copyright © 2004-2010 by the Austin Church of God |