The Attributes of God: The Holiness of God Rev 4:1-11 Pastor Dan Hoffman May 6, 2012 C.S. Lewis, one of my favorite authors, is the creator of many loveable characters. One of my favorite is Reepicheep the mouse from the Chronicles of Narnia. Reepicheep is a two-foot tall talking mouse of great valor and honour. Though small he has a quick whit, a quicker sword and the heart of a gentleman. One of my favorite encounters with Reepicheep comes at the end of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader where King Caspian and his men find themselves at the end of the world after sailing for months. The sea has turned sweet, it teems with life and is covered with lilies. There is no wind in these parts but a strong and peaceful current draws you in the direction you intend to go… effortlessly. Lewis fills the last chapter of his book with pages of description about what Caspian and the men encounter as they find themselves on the threshold between this world and the next. The sun seems brighter and every one of their senses is flooded with peace and rest as they find themselves overjoyed and almost unable to go on because of it, and, it is here when their ship can go no farther that Reepicheep leaves the Dawn Treader behind in his little skiff of a boat and sails over the edge of the world into Aslan’s country – The Great Lion, and picture of Christ. But here that the pages of description stop. As Reepicheep crests the last wave and leaves this world behind Lewis has nothing to say. Language fails as the incomprehensible comes into focus. … [Let’s Pray] Today we are continuing our series on the attributes of God – what God has revealed about Himself and who He is. Two weeks ago we looked at why it is important to think rightly about God: because it saves us from the idolatry of imagining Him to be other than He is. And last week we looked at the Trinity and the dance of shyness that occurs there and invites us tp participate. If you missed those sermons you can catch them online. They are foundation to the rest of this series. And today we are looking at a simple word that seeks to capture the incomprehensible – “holiness”. Please open your Bible’s to Revelations 4, a chapter of rich description, as the author, John the disciple, shares a picture of Heaven Jesus gave him. As we read it is John’s desire that we be transported with him in the Spirit to the very threshold of Heaven – so I would invite you to try that as we read. Try to imagine you can see what John describes. And as you do this notice where John lavishly spends his words of description and where words fail him and he leaves massive holes in his picture. [Read Rev 4:1-11] Are you there? Are you standing at the doorway looking in to the throne room of Heaven? 1.) Can you hear the shouts of “holy, holy, holy are you Lord God almighty. The Three-times Holy God. What is holiness? As it turns out “Holy” is an interesting word. Dictionary.com which is a good source of contemporary English gives us this definition: “Holy” - (adj) ~Specially recognized as or declared sacred by religious use or authority; ~Saintly; godly; pious; devout. ~Having a Spiritually pure quality.” The sense you get from this is that “holiness” is equal to being super spiritual. So, for example, people use this then to refer to the Dali lama, the head of Tibetan Buddhism. He is a holy man because he is recognized as being super spiritual. Or people might refer to the tomb of St. Peter as a holy relic because it is a super spiritual place. Now there is a grain of truth to this understanding of the word “holy”. Certainly holiness means without sin, but this is a secondary meaning to the word “holy.” In ancient Hebrew the word translated “holy” means to be cut off or separate , and it is used specifically to talk about God or something dedicated to God. And so the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology gives us this definition: Holy – (adj) “Denoting the separateness, or otherness, of God from all His creation… God is totally other than the world and man.” Given this definition, when the Bible refers to something as holy it doesn’t mean super spiritual, it means set apart for a special purpose. And lots of things are described as holy. Here are some examples. The Bible speaks of holy ground ( Exodus 3:5 ), holy assemblies ( Exodus 12:16 ), holy Sabbaths ( Exodus 16:23 ), a holy nation ( Exodus 19:6 ); holy garments (Exodus 28:2 ), a holy city ( Nehemiah 11:1 ), holy promises ( Psalm 105:42 ), holy men ( 2 Peter 1:21) and holy women ( 1 Peter 3:5 ), holy scriptures ( 2 Timothy 3:15 ), holy hands ( 1 Timothy 2:8 ), a holy kiss ( Romans 16:16 ), and a holy faith (Jude 20 ) among other things. And there is nothing super spiritual about any of these things. Ground is just ground except this particular ground with the burning bush is set apart as a place to meet with God. There is nothing special about one day or another, except the Sabbath was the day set apart for worshiping God. And one kiss is as good as another except these particular kisses are ones set apart for connecting as brothers and sisters in God’s family. Now if this were a sermon on dating I might go into this a bit more, but we are going to leave that there today. Youth if you are wondering if your kisses are holy just ask your mom. But the point is this; just about anything can become holy if it is separated from the normal and devoted to God. 1 But what happens when we use the word “holy” to describe God Himself? Well, you run into trouble because what can you separate God from to make Him holy? To be God means to be separate from everything that exists already – after all He is the one who made everything and He was never made. There are no points of reference between God and anything else that exists and that’s why He tells us His name is “I am who I am” 2. And so when the Bible speaks about the holiness of God it speaks about Him being alone in a category by Himself. 1 Samuel 2:2 says “There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you.” Isaiah 40:25 says “’To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?’ says the Holy One.” And Hosea 11:9 says “I am God, and not man – the Holy One among you.” And so by way of definition “holiness” is the point where our words of description are worthless and we find ourselves like Reepicheep at the world’s end, face to face with the indescribable – holiness. 1 John Piper, sermon, preached Jan 1, 1984 http://www.desiringgod.org/resource- library/sermons/holy-holy-holy-is-the-lord-of-hosts 2 Exodus 3:14 2.) With that established let’s get into the text and examine what John sees. The first thing John describes for us as his gaze passes through the doorposts of heaven is the throne of God. Look again at verse 2. [Read Rev 4:2] When the kings of old sat on their thrones their words were law. And this throne is the place of final authority in Heaven and on Earth. The place where the ultimate verdict is determined and judgment for all creation is dispensed. It is surrounded by an emerald rainbow, and a sea of crystal extends in front of it and it is alive with flashes of lightning, and peals of thunder rumble from its base. The glory of this throne is unlike any other. It is undeniably set apart; it is holy God’s throne. And its glory continues. Verse four tells us that around this throne are twenty-four other thrones peopled by twenty-four elders with golden crowns on their heads and dressed in white robes of absolute purity: … 24 elders… Now without getting into this too deeply you need to know that numbers throughout the book of Revelation have great significance but their significance is not mathematical – they are important for what they symbolize. Here are a few of the popular numbers in Revelation and a bit of what they symbolize: Three – God or the spiritual world – God is often described in threes for example in verse 8 of our text today He is the holy, holy, holy God. Four – The physical world - four boundaries of the earth: North, South, East, and West. Seven – Power and Perfection - The most sacred number for the Jews Ten –completion, perfection, fullness or power – (often combined with other numbers) Twelve – Israel from the 12 tribes or the 12 Apostles or simply the faithful. And then you get multiples of all these numbers. Adding or multiplying two or more numbers together is the same as combining their significance. For example 1000 = 10x10x10 or 10 3= Divinely decreed fullness especially of time – for example the thousand years that Christ will reign on earth in Rev 20:4. Or the 144,000 of chapter 14 which is 12x12x10x10x10 = represents all the faithful of all time – all of Israel and all of the Apostles times 1000.