“His holiness is the crown of all
that He is.”
“Holiness is so much the essence of God’s character
that Holy is one of the names God
goes by.”
“God doesn’t conform to a holy
standard; He IS the standard.”
I think a worshiping life must
confirm the holiness of God; I might even go so far as to say that an
acknowledgement and understanding of God’s holiness is essential to true
worship. As we see God as holy, our instant reaction must be to see ourselves
as unholy. How can we truly know the depth of our own sinfulness until we
understand God’s holiness> and until we truly understand the depth of our
own sin and seek forgiveness, how can we truly worship> If we are not truly
pained by our sin, maybe we truly don’t understand God’s holiness at all…
What
do I mean by all of this… Well, as we delve into the word and learn wondrous
things about God, we begin to see just how Holy He is, but we also realize that
we will never FULLY grasp His Holiness because there is just so much to it.
Once we are in that place of seeing God’s holiness, we begin to realize how
unworthy we are, how fallen we are… but it doesn’t stop there! When we feel our
shame and guiltiness, we are reminded of Gods amazing grace and mercies – which
are new every morning. Grace isn’t just something to be taken advantage of,
because we are in a place of understanding God’s great sovereignty – it’s not
just about the opportunity to have a clean slate – but rather, its about the
opportunity to strive to serve God as he deserves, the opportunity to walk as
Jesus did. Our focus on God allows us to realize our sin, confess it and be
forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. Behind the ‘oops, I messed up’, is
a heart that is desperately seeking God’s hand of refinement – and God can see
that. He can see that despite our failures, we WANT to be more like his Son, he
knows we want more of him and less of ourselves despite our imperfection. When
the Bible gives us a taste through every page of who God is, we should DESIRE
truly to fall down in worship to our God – because we are overwhelmed by his
goodness, his majesty, his love, his power, his might etc… In order to do that
though – in order to fall on our faces in worship – we must seek to have a
clean heart! Not a perfect heart – for this is impossible, but a heart that is
awaiting the day where we will be made perfect and be able to worship God in
fullness.
Real
worship is not just giddy; it should not rush into God’s presence unprepared
and insensitive to His majesty. In fact, did you know that the temple in
Jerusalem (where Jesus was taken as baby to be offered\dedicated to the Lord)
has uneven stairs leading up to the entrances? The stairs are not evenly made,
they are all different in size – some are wide, some are thin – why did they
create it this way> maybe because of poor architectural design… no! It was
made this way for a reason – to SLOW people down as they approached this place
of worship, to give them time to prepare their hearts and be sensitive to God’s
holiness (look up David Nasser, from the study ‘Why Jesus’ for more…) Before we
rush into our worship services, church or personal devotions or maybe a small
group, we need to prepare our hearts; every time! We need to confess our sins,
and trust in God’s forgiveness, we need to strive to be holy, as Jesus was holy
– especially in our worship services – but of course, all the time. There is no
room in God’s presence for those who are consumed with things that do not
confirm His holiness (I’m not saying you must be perfect – as I said earlier, I
know this is not possible, but we must have a desire – and as I mentioned – God
can see the desires of our hearts and whether or not they are genuine), an
example of this is how God cast out not only satan for his fall, but also the
angels who were confirming satan. They did not point to God’s holiness, rather
they were consumed by other evil and sinful things, and God cast them away –
that is how serious it is when we as humans choose to confirm something else’s
or someone else’s importance in our lives over God’s holiness.
“My heartfelt concern is that there
is too much shallowness today with regard to God’s holiness. Our relationship
to God has become too casual… Much that is done in the name of worship today
clearly does not genuinely regard God as holy, and thus it falls woefully
short. A lot of catchy songs are being sung, poignant feelings are being felt,
congenial thoughts are being thought, and pleasurable emotions are being
cultivated. But too often these things are merely self-indulgent exercises
masquerading as worship without any serious acknowledgement of the holiness of
God. That kind of worship bears not relationship to the worship we see in the
Bible. It may be more psychological than theological, more fleshly than
spiritual.”
Amen! We MUST acknowledge God’s holiness and confirm it
through our worship, or else our worship WILL fall short. This goes for our day-to-day
life worship, our church service worship, our devotional worship, small group
worship, our conversational worship etc. In EVERY way, we must acknowledge and
believe in God’s amazing holiness. Turn it ALL back to HIM, to glorify HIM! When
we begin to see God’s holiness revealed to us bit by bit through the word and
through our walks of faith, we are able to understand the importance of coming
to God with a pure heart – a confessing heart – acknowledging that we are
sinful beings and without the grace of God there would be no room for us in God’s
Holy presence. But our God is SO amazing that he already thought ahead of our
mistakes – he prepared the way for us -
so that we can come to him and worship HIM for who HE is and what HE has done
and what HE will continue to do! It’s all about You, God!
“We are to live lives of confession,
repentance, and turning from our sin so that our worship is that which fully
pleases God. We dare not go rushing into His presence in unholiness. We cannot
worship God acceptably without sincere reverence and godly fear, and our
worship must be arrayed in the beauty of holiness. We must return to the
biblical teaching of God’s utter and awesome holiness in order to be filled
with the gratitude and humility that characterizes true worship.”
*everything in blue is a quote from John MacArthur: Worship, the ultimate priority*
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