Sunday School | God as the Judge

Introduction

As you know, we're going through the attributes of God, and Tim is not here. And he asked me to do the Sunday school lesson on holiness, which makes sense that he would ask me to do it. He is traveling. Right now, he is recruiting fellows. Oh, I think he's speaking at a JMU retreat. JMU, go Dukes, except they lost. They lost. Yeah. They lost to a school I've never heard of. Monroe in Louisiana. Monroe or something like that.

So we're gonna be talking about really what we're gonna be talking about is God as the judge. And there are four things that come from the four attributes that come from his being a judge, and they are holiness, truthfulness, righteousness, and justice. And Tim asked me to do two of those this morning, and I'm probably only gonna do one because he's not here. And there's a lot to talk about with God's holiness. In fact, it's one of the harder things to talk about because it's hard to define. It's almost like we know what holiness is when we see it, but it's hard to kinda wrap our minds around it.

The Attribute of Holiness

But when you think of the word holy, what are some of the things that you think about? Raise your hand. Raise your hand. Yes. Will you stand up so that we can test this? Pure. Pure? Great. What else? Yes. White. I don't know. I just think of, like White, bright. White, bright. Yeah. Great. Somebody said, I am? What else? Without fault. Will you say it again? Faultless. Faultless? Good. Yes. Perfect. Perfect. Great. Great. Say it again? Cut. Cut. Cut. Okay. Explain that for me for me. Separate. Separate. Okay. Set aside.

Cut. Great. Awesome. Yes, sir. That's what I was gonna say. In a separate category from anything else, like if you say an object is a holy object, then it's set apart for a special use and not a common use. Great. It's awesome.

We are gonna be talking about all of these things. One more. Yes? I would say maybe, consuming or destructive, like the holiness that burns away. Okay. Yes. Destructive, dangerous, something that can burn away the impurities.

When the world thinks of holiness, what does the world think about holiness? Judgmental. Judgmental. That's right. Piety. Piety. Yep. Legalism. Yeah. Morally religious, holier than thou. Right? That's what the world thinks about.

The human construct of the of holiness is is kind of weird. When we not weird, but it makes sense to us because we're human and this is how we think. But we usually put it on a scale. We usually put holiness on a scale. And people that are horrible people, bad people, they rank really low on the holiness scale from one to a 100. They're they're in the, you know, like, or nine, you know, maybe ten, eleven, 12, you know, somewhere around the 15. Right? And then right above that is, you know, like, people that are just just below the average holiness of of people. Right? Like, I don't know. Well, I'm not gonna say it. I was gonna say lawyers or or something like that. And then there's like the average people. Right? And you're still not there because you're a little bit above average. And the reason why you're a little bit above average is because, come on, we all think about ourselves being just a little bit better than most people. Right? So so we're a little bit above average. This is in our minds. This is how we think about holiness.

And then there are those that the philanthropists, the the people that are really, really good. Okay? And then above them is probably nuns, monks. Am I does this make sense? They're they're still not at a 100. They're like in the seventies or eighties. And then God is at a 100. Right? This is how we kinda think about it, that we've kind of ranked holiness in a scale. And the problem is that we think about God in this way. But the reality is that all of our numbers are zero. And God's number isn't at a 100, it's infinite. But we can't even fathom that. So we'll just say a million. So God's at a million and everybody else yes? We're negative. Yeah. We're negative. That's right. We don't even hit the scale on holiness because we're this is how we think about it in the human construct is we rank ourselves in comparison with other people. And that's a bad mental model. We cannot place God's holiness in the same category as our human goodness.

So we would define it as we've already defined it. That holiness is the majesty of God, the mystery of God, the grandeur, the power, the other, the transcendent, the pureness. When I asked Becky about this, as I was preparing this, I was like, what do you think about? And she goes, unattainable. The first thing I have in mind is unattainable. And amazingly enough, holiness is the is the most said thing about God in the Bible. The the the most named attribute of God is his holiness. And one way for us to help us kinda, unpack this is, the Bible project has this video. I'm not gonna show it to you. You can go watch it on your own, on holiness. And it's actually a pretty good one. It talks about the sun kind of being a symbol of the holiness. That it's unique, utterly unique in our our solar system, and that it is you know, it helps with life. It gives us warmth. It it helps us sustain life here on Earth. You if you get too close to it, you get destroyed. And it's a great video. I, highly recommend that you go watch this. But helping us to find holiness on its effect on something else like humans is an easier way for us to think about holiness. We get glimpses of this when we look into the sky and we on a cloud, you know, cloudless night and we see the stars. There's just something about being small and frail and realizing that and seeing yourself in that. And that is when we start to experience this, like, there's something big and majestic and something other. And we experience it through God's creation in a lot of ways.

When we when we feel small because of creation, we face it. Job 40. This is after God goes to Job and says, do you know who I am? Were you there when I did all these things? Surely you know because you're so old, Job. And Job after all this goes, I'm of small account. What How shall I answer you God? He says, I'm unworthy. How can I reply to you? That is experiencing the holiness of God.

In the bible, the word holy is kadosh. And it's all those things that we explained it just now. It's also a unique set apart, designated, cut. God is called holy more than anything else in the Bible. And in Revelation 12 fifteen four, it says that God alone is holy, which is gonna be really interesting when we start talking about what Peter says to us about holiness.

Revelation 15:4 — Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy.

That's in Revelation. Does anybody have any idea? You're not you're probably not reading it. You probably just heard me say it. Does have anybody have an idea of what John is quoting in Revelation? Isaiah. He is quoting well, that's great because we are gonna be in Isaiah, Lynette. We are gonna be in Isaiah. He is quoting Moses' song from Exodus, Exodus 15. And that's that quote in Revelation. But does anybody know where the first place in the Bible where it talks about Kedosh, holiness? Where do you think it would be? What do you think it would be? It's in the burning bush. It is the burning bush. Did you get that? It was really quiet. Is it the burning bush? It's okay if you're wrong. When you're wrong in Tim's class, he makes you feel like you're wrong. When you're wrong in my class, I can spin it to make it sound like you were absolutely right. So keep that in mind. Keep that in mind. No. It is the burning bush. It is the first time that we see this attribute.

Now, of course, that attribute didn't just pop up at the burning bush. It was there all along, but we it starts being explained at in Exodus three. If you will, will you turn to Exodus three? We're gonna read a little bit of that familiar scene just to kinda get our minds thinking about the holiness of God and what that looks like for this man Moses.

Moses is in this special place, and he is tending sheep, shepherding sheep, and he sees something and he's curious about this thing that he sees. Something that is unique, something set apart, something inspiring or all inspiring. Would it be where I I kinda well, I was thinking maybe we would read it in a group setting. This is what I wanna do. It's a little quiet in here. So what I want you to do is I want you to turn to the people around you, and I want you to take a look at this, refresh your memory about Exodus three, and we'll just go one through, like, eight. One through eight. Just read it really quick, and with with people around you, get get familiar with this. And I want you to answer these questions. Why do you think God tells Moses to take his sandals off? And what is the significance of this place? Okay? You only have two minutes. So read fast, answer those questions. And I wanna hear some, you know, chatter. There we go. Good. That's better. Thirty seconds. The first question is why do you think God tells him to take his sandals off? What was the second one? The second one is what is the significance of this place? Oh, and here's a follow-up. Why do we not know where this actually took place? Like, today, we don't know where this is. That's another good question. It's a pretty significant place back then, but we have no idea where this took place. Interesting stuff.

The Significance of the Burning Bush

Okay. What what do you think? Why does why do you think God tells okay. So let's set the scene. Moses is there tending and then he sees this bush. It's burning, but it's not being burned up. And it's a curious sight. And because this man Moses is curious, he walks over to this thing and he he's investigating. He's curious. And then what happens?

God God's God says something. Right? And what does God say? Don't come here. Yeah. Yeah. He's like, what what does he say, Stuart? Calls his name. That's right. And it's still a name that we're we're still talking about this guy thousands of years later, which is pretty cool. And then he says, don't come any closer. Said, Moses, Moses. And Moses said, here I am. Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy ground. Then he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

At this, Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. So what are the emotions? Picture like, place yourself in Moses. Moses is just minding his own business. Place yourself in Moses's body here, seeing this sight. He's curious. He goes over to it, and then he experiences face to face contact with God.

For the Lord your God is holy. — Leviticus 11:44-45

To death because they believed if you saw God, you would die. Yeah. Yeah. So there's this danger. It's like the sun. It's the paradox. It's like God wants us to draw near, but if we draw near, we could be destroyed. It's this paradox of the holiness of God. And it's not just God is holy, but the surrounding, you know, like the the area around him is holy as well.

Yes. Way in the back. And I also think you recognize your unholy, but your unworthiness or yeah. Yes. Do you have an example of that in scripture besides this? What about the New Testament? What about the first? Well, we might talk about this later. What about the first time Peter? Do you remember Peter's in the boat? And the first thing he says is, get away from me. I am a sinful man. You recognize who we when you get closer to, we recognize more of who we are.

Stuart. When he had a very beginning. Says, attending his flock. There was a clue. It was to him. It was not the god. Why is it the mountain of god? Is this where Isaac was? And was it thought of since that was the mountain that god is present at this mountain? And maybe he was somewhat expectant to to that maybe he would see or hear from god. I don't know.

Okay. Did you guys hear that? No. I'm not gonna repeat it. So you should have sat closer to the middle where you would have hurt hurt each other. No. I think Stuart was talking about this mountain. And, you know, what what is significance of this mountain? Right? And I think he he said, is this where Isaac I don't think this is where Isaac and Abraham was sacrificed.

This is the mountain where Moses was called by God. — Exodus 3

Yes? This is the the Mount Sinai where the 10 commandments. Okay. But that would be later. Yes. It would be later. But the significance of this happens here and then the freed Israelites, they come back to this place. It was like a holy ground back then. And it Moses brings them back. Now significant things happen on the mountain, Stuart. And and it is confusing sometimes because where the Isaac Abraham thing happens is probably the Jeru like, the mount in Jerusalem. Yes. This, we don't even know where this is anymore. We don't know where this mountain is. Yes. When Moses comes back with the Israelites, it's still a holy place. And now it's like, he says to Moses when Moses is all by himself, don't come any closer. Yes. Because he could destroy him. When the Israelites come back Moses has to go up there and get the 10 commandments? Off the entire mountain. Don't even let your cattle. Don't even touch the mountain. It's like thunder, lightning, and rumbling. Yes. It is a super destructive place. It says don't touch it or you'll die. Or you'll die. That's right.

This is also the place I believe where he strikes the rock for water. Like, is a pretty significant place and we don't know where it is. We'll talk about why we don't anymore. But just so you know, if you're ever reading and you talk and you come across a mountain, any mountain in scripture, something significant is going to happen on that mountain every single time. Mountains are really important. We see a lot of that in Matthew, by the way. But I digress.

The Meaning of Holy Ground

Okay. So God tells Moses to take his sandals off. I do a lot of work in North Asia. And when you enter into someone's place, you take your shoes off. I don't think this is I don't think this is the cultural thing. This is not a cultural, like, Asian thing. This is a no. You you've got stuff on the bottom of your shoe, And you don't just waltz into God's presence. You don't just willy nilly just, hey, here I am, because it's destructive, because of the holiness of God. Okay? And holiness is connected with fire in this story. God is holy and the space around him is holy.

We talked about the significance of Horeb. 10 commandments struck the rock to get the water. It's a significant place, but why don't we remember it anymore? Do you know why? Yeah. With so, the I I just kind of I'm gonna take what you guys just said and I'm gonna translate it so they can hear. Because we're not supposed to be go there and worship that place. Because when they went on to the promised land, God went with them, and God's holiness went with them. And it was just that's that's just what happened. And God was with them, so they didn't have to go back to this place for a pilgrimage.

A pilgrimage to experience the Lord and his holiness.

Leviticus 11:44-45 — For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth. For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God. Thus, you shall be holy, for I am holy.

But God alone is holy, but now he's telling us or telling the Israelites that they should be holy. Is he saying be holy as I am holy, or is he saying be holy for I am holy?

For I am holy.

Right?

The Call to Holiness

Alright. Well, because God is holy, there are certain ways for us to carry ourselves that would be inappropriate in his presence. Just the way it is. Those are the rules that were set out. We are to be holy.

What's that? You go before the judge can be. Like, when you this is a perfect example. When you when you go before the judge now, there are certain ways that they that you will carry yourself in that court. Right? You gotta take your hat off. Probably not wear shorts. I don't know. I I don't go. You don't have cell phone or beeper. Yeah. No cell phones. No beepers. You have to address them a certain way or her a certain way.

We are to be holy, but what's the problem with that? We are not. We are not. But we're told to be holy. What's the problem with that?

But we are not.

Okay? This is the this is such a hard thing. Think remember what the world thinks about holiness and this is the struggle that we have. So no matter how many, swarming things we don't eat or how well we wash our clay pots or how how much we abide by the rule. We just cannot be holy. And the Israelites fail miserably.

Yes. One way in the back. Kept at you know, like what Quick was talking about today, kept adding so many extra rules effort to be in their what in their eyes was holding. Yes. And then remember the comparison that we do. It's oh, she said it's it's probably why they kept on adding different things that we had to do. Different rules and regulations and this and that. And then remember how we compare ourselves with people. Remember we're just above average in our holiness? That's what they're doing as well. And if they are better than most people then they should be okay.

Right? The we cannot do this. The point of the tabernacle which we were just talking about is so that sinful people could couldn't just barge in on the holy one. Alright? You're just not willy nilly like, hey, Luke. I'm here. The tabernacle was set up as a symbolic scene of our posture, of our holiness to enter into that. If you were Greek back then, you could go to a Greek temple and go right up to the the God that you prayed for. If you were Roman, same thing. But the Jews could not do that. They could not just enter into the holy place. In fact, only one person once a year could go, is the representative. And even the I haven't I didn't I think he had a rope tied around his his ankle because if he messed up, they can pull him out.

Can you imagine this? That's that's what they were doing. So there was a curtain that separated the holy place from the holy of holies. And there was a curtain that separated the outside temple area with the holy place. And it was just this place that we probably shouldn't go into because of the danger, of the destruction, because we are unworthy, we are not holy, we we can't we will be destroyed because God is so holy.

Israel fails us miserable. And then just to give you just a synopsis of what happens, prophets are raised up and they they keep moving this ball down the court. They keep moving this ball down the field. Habakkuk in in Habakkuk, he's a prophet. He goes into a watchtower. He waits for God to answer. And this is what it says in Habakkuk three sixteen.

I hear the Lord and my body trembles. My lips quiver at the sound. Rottenness enters into my bones. My legs tremble beneath me. There is an uneasiness in the presence of the Lord. — Habakkuk 3:16

And this is a prophet. This is a guy that would score really high on our holiness chart. And this guy. And then, of course, and I forget who said it, Isaiah. Yes. This is a perfect place for us to kinda camp out in. Isaiah, another prophet, is talking about this paradox that God wants us to draw near, but he is very, very dangerous.

Isaiah's Vision and the Holiness of God

Isaiah six. If you'll turn there, it's Isaiah's burning bush moment. He's almost is the in this vision, he is having a Moses and burning bush part two taking place. He has this vision. So Isaiah Isaiah six one through nine. This is a pretty popular Isaiah chapter, and it goes like this.

In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. — Isaiah 6:1

So, this is a vision. This is a a vision that Isaiah is having. This is a vision. So, he finds himself in the temple, in the place that he probably should not be. Remember, this is a prophet. He's high on the holiness scale from what we as we compare it.

Above him were seraphs, each with six wings. Two wings were covering their faces, two wings they cover their feet, and with two, they were flying. And they were calling to one another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. I think we sang a song this this morning about it. The whole earth is full of his glory. — Isaiah 6:2-3

At the sound of their voices, the doorpost and threshold shook, and the temple was filled with smoke. Just like with Moses, picture yourself as Isaiah, and you're like, I'm going to be destroyed. Like Peter, get away from me. I am going to be destroyed if this goes on any longer.

Woe to me, I cried. I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips. And my eyes have seen the king, the Lord Almighty. — Isaiah 6:5

Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand. Again, this would be utterly crazy to experience, which he had taken from tongs from the altar. With it, he touched my mouth and said, see, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.

It's fascinating. If we were to think of the the ramifications of this vision and how he is he's opening the door to a New Testament covenant. He's opening the door to a different way for us to look at holiness of access to God. He's he's open he's crack cracking the door a little bit and changing the way that these people, his people, the Lord's people look at this presence of God.

Still utterly dangerous, but Isaiah moves the ball down the court a little bit. And this is what we start seeing in the gospels. And this is what is so confusing, I think. When I was younger and I was learning about the Lord, and by younger I mean teenage years, like 15, 16, 17. My my family didn't go to church, so I didn't know any of this stuff. So I'm I'm I'm literally learning about this new as like a 15, 16 year old kid. And I remember my young life leader, John Colston, he he told all the guys in his you know, that he was meeting with to rank ourselves in in how we who's closer to the Lord. And we did because that's what we did. We were like, oh, no. I I know what you did last weekend. And we were just we would do this. And it was you know, we were friends, but we definitely had some friends that were idiots and friends that were, you know, better. And then he was like, you got and then he was playing the part of God. And he was over here and we're all in a line and he's like, okay.

This this isn't the this isn't the way it works. And then he walks over here like this, and he stands equal distance from all of us. And he said, this is this is what it's really like. And I remember going, that's not fair. That is not fair. I was so frustrated with that. And then we start reading about this this idea about God's holy and perfect and wonderful, and we are not, and we can't just waltz in.

I remember him saying like, we just can't waltz into his presence. But then I start reading about Jesus, and people were waltzing into his presence all the time. Jesus is is the father, and the father is Jesus. And everything about the father is everything about Jesus. And I was like, well, that doesn't make any sense except when you look at it from Isaiah's standpoint. That now Jesus is he is utterly and wonderfully holy. There is no less holiness in Jesus than in the father. Everything that the father is, Jesus is. And Jesus is holy, and people are waltzing into his presence. So did g did God change the rules or did Isaiah stumble upon something that was true all along?

This is what we see in the gospels when Jesus comes on the scene. He's the last prophet with a capital p. Instead of people coming into his presence and make and defiling him, what does he do? He makes them clean. And it's this just beautiful picture that we actually can't really defile him. He can't; he's too holy. We can't defile him. He's like, the the power that goes out from him changes us. We don't change him. And if we're to get close enough to him, it will change us. It will make us clean. And this is what we see in the gospels. And then Peter, wrap this thing up. Peter, the guy that was like, get away from me. I'm a sinful man. Later on, right, so first Peter, and he says what does he say? Oh, were you gonna say something? Yeah. I'm gonna say that I've been thinking about this for a long time. Jesus was his holy but the main way Jesus manifest his holiness is through humility. Oh. And we we even in our discussion, we wanna rank holiness grand grandiose, but Jesus is sinless. So he's he's holy, but it shows itself in him.

Great. When we get to heaven, we won't be like God, but we will be holy as well. We but we will be sinless. And humble. And truly humble and dependent on the Lord. Just connecting the idea of holiness to humility and that that's what we see in in Jesus is his humility. And how that manifests itself in his life, the humility. Thank you for sharing that.

In first Peter one, Peter, the disciple that was like, get away from me. He says, but now you must be holy in everything you do. Just as just as God who chose you as holy, you should be holy for I am holy. And he's quoting Leviticus. How can Peter possibly say this? He's going back to this Leviticus thing where he's like, be holy, for God is holy. How can he do this? How can Peter he should know more than anybody else. Because Jesus paid the price by the time Peter's writing. Because Jesus paid the price by the time Peter's writing. Yes. That's absolutely right. Christ in us is our hope of glory. The Christ in us that's holy. It's not us. It's Yeah. You guys, you're just ruining my just ruining the end of my no. I'm just kidding. Of course. Yes. This is it. We cannot if this is unattainable in our own power, in our own might, this is unattainable. We cannot be holy enough for the Lord. We cannot be righteous enough for the Lord. It's unattainable. But Peter can say this because with Jesus all things are possible. And by this time, Jesus had defeated death on the cross. If God alone is holy, then how can we be holy? Because you guys know now, you probably do because this the IQ of this the spiritual IQ of this church is higher than it's it's off the charts. But did you know that when Jesus died on the cross, at that moment, certain things happened? There were rocks that split. Do you guys know this? There's like an earthquake. There was the sun went out for a little bit. Veils. Right? And then there was don't don't go too far. Don't and then in in Matthew, I think it talks about people, like, coming out of the grave. Yes. It's weird stuff. Like, people that were dead are then they're not dead anymore. It's weird. And there is a curtain that separated the the holy of holies, and there was is a thick curtain. It wasn't just like a like the curtain on your wood. It was a thick curtain, and it was torn from top to bottom. You know, if we're gonna tear the curtain, Jews are gonna sneak in there and tear the curtain for the symbolism, they'd start from the bottom. But it was from the top because the father tears this curtain. And he's like, no longer is my access gonna be limited to one person. Once a year, it's going to be for anybody that trusts in the Lord Jesus. Right?

Application and Conclusion

Isn't that beautiful? So we can be holy. And and certain things happen. Certain results happen when we come into the presence of the holy through Jesus Christ. If we don't know Jesus and we come into his presence, that is not a good thing. But because we know the Lord, because we trust in the Lord, here are some things. We learn to hate sin. Do you know this? You know before you knew Jesus, you loved sin? You loved it. You loved it a lot. In fact, sometimes we find ourselves going back to that, like a dog returned to its vomit, loving things we shouldn't love. But in Christ, when we get close to the holy, we start to learn to hate those things, hate them. That's what we do.

Another thing that happens when we get close in the presence of the holy is we learn to love righteousness and we strive for that. We start to we're like, this is bad. This is the way it is. This is the way that God set it up for us. And third, we look to the day when God will be fully known in his holiness and we can anticipate that day. Without Jesus, that day will be terrible. But with Jesus, it will be utterly off some. Awestruck some. And it will be so magnificent. We can't even wrap our minds around this. And that is what holiness is. When we look at God and his utter differentness, his uniqueness, that is how we describe holiness. And because it's so different than anything else in creation, it's so hard to define. But I think we did a fairly good job with that this morning.

So this week, look for the holy. Look for the holy and enter into that, and I think we will be blessed if we do that. Next week, I think we're gonna talk about God's truthfulness, and then we'll just keep on going on. And ten, fifteen years, we'll be done with this this final story. Alright. Get out of here. Thank you.