 Let's pray. Father, we submit this time into your hands now as we enter this session. We learn about and study about your holiness, what speak to us, reveal to us. More of who you are, Holy Spirit, I pray that you will come and release the wonder of power of Jesus in our lives. I'll continue to pour out your wisdom over as I pray. Jesus' name, amen. Good morning and thanks for joining again. Good to see you after two weeks of break. Christian leaders conference and last week happens to be the Republic Day National Holiday. So we missed four lectures. That's okay. That's fine. But I hope you all are doing well. I'd like to recap what was covered in the first week of Jan, second week of Jan at least, from chapter one. And we'll move into chapter two today. Can you hear me? Yes, we need to keep on speaker. All right, chapter one. So this whole section, right? We are in chapter, it has various sections where we talk about the holiness of God itself, right? Just Holy God. We looked at various different things in chapter one. From the revelation of a Holy God to understanding what holiness means and how he is set apart. There is no one like him, unlike him. And his nature is reproduced in us. We saw that in first Peter chapter one was starting to 16. And we paused and we looked at what holiness is. What does it mean? It simply means absolute sinlessness, absolute purity, right? Absolute truth, absolute faithfulness and justice and love and absolute goodness, sacred perfection, Godlikeness. That means there is, you don't need to argue or we don't need to have a debate when we use the objective, you know, saying absolute. If you're absolutely wrong. I mean, in court cases they will argue about it, they will debate about it. One person has to prove the other person right or wrong. But when we say God is holy, that means we are saying he's absolute. We don't need to have any debate about it, right? He's absolute. And, you know, as much as I stated this by, you know, when we started this course that we can try and explain, use words like set apart, use words like there is no one like him. We can understand it only to a certain limit, to a certain level, I should say, right? But the idea, or we have not completely been exposed to the holiness of God. Let's face the fact, okay? We have not completely been exposed to the person of his holiness, like who he is. Like, you know, we say that he is set apart, absolutely. We say that there is no one like him. You know, those English words make some sense, but yes, there is no one like him. We can't do justice. No words can do justice to describe who he is and his holiness. It's absolutely foreign to us. It's alien, you know, into our understanding. So in all of this that we are studying, I mentioned that I absolutely love this topic. And I was so happy when Pastor added this course, you know, on this topic of holiness. Yeah, I don't think there are a lot of colleges where you have a course, you know, just set apart. Just for the topic of holiness, right? But that's what it is. And so even as we learn, you know, you continue to have this conversation with the Holy Spirit. You help me understand this. You help me understand this, right? I can explain, I can try and explain, you know, and study together, learn together. But as much as I can explain this topic, it is the spirit of the living God who searches the deeper parts of God and reveals it to us. Only he can do that, right? And so let this be your prayer. Okay, encounter me with your holiness, you know. And for the longest time, my prayer has been to see what Isaiah saw, what Ezekiel saw, you know, what John saw. So what, you know, just imagine being in the very presence, the rawness of who he is, right? And so let the Holy Spirit reveal to you, speak to you, teach you as we learn about this. Yeah, is that okay? Yeah, so, you know, since the Garden of Eden, where in the Garden, man walked hand in hand with God, right? In the cool of the Garden, they could literally encounter and face the manifest presence of his glory and which was lost. And then, which we saw in the life of Jesus Christ, right? Jesus was the manifest of the Son of God, right? Jesus himself, in John 14 says, it is better that I go away. Jesus, the Son of the Living God, tells his disciples, it is better that I go away so that I can send a comforter. And if Jesus is saying that it's better for him to go away so that he can send someone, that someone has to be, you know, is very precious and value, right? And that is the Holy Spirit, what Jesus is talking about. And it is him who will reveal things to us. So yeah, we saw that he is God is absolute when we say that he is holy, right? And we see that in his holiness, God's beauty is his holiness. In Exodus 28 verse 2, we see that you shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother, for glory and for beauty, right? And in Psalm 29 verse 2 and Psalm 96 verse 9, we see that worship the Lord in the beauty of his holiness. The beauty of his holiness. Okay, so again, I'm just taking time to recap this because it's been two weeks since we've gone through this, you know, content. So I hope you don't mind that. He is the most holy. Worship him in the beauty of his holiness. The world does not consider holiness to be something attractive or beautiful. That's why we, you know, we make fun of those who are holy as holy joke. Hey, he's one holy joke. He doesn't, you know, he or she, yeah, you know, it's at a level where a person who is trying to live a holy life is made fun of. I mean, it's been there through the ages. No, it was made fun of when he was right. But again, you see, the language is so foreign. It is not of this world. Isn't it? The beauty of his holiness. It's obvious not part of this world. That means in his kingdom, holiness is beautiful. When we say Jesus, you're beautiful. It's interesting. You're holy. I mean, song of song says that, you know, you are fairest of 10,000 to my soul. What does that mean fairest? That means it's so pure, so perfect, so flawless. And 10,000 was just the number that was available those days. So that means there is no one like him as holy as he is. Right. And we use words like, you know, he's the most holy in the tabernacle of most of BC. There's the most holy place, isn't it? When do we use those words? The most ultimate. And the most beautiful or the most expensive bungalow. The most expensive watch. You get what I'm saying? We use those words for those materialistic things. He is the most handsome, the most richest person in the world. You know, the most expensive water bottle, most expensive watch, the most expensive. How is the most expensive car? Everybody's after the most, but in a very different way. Right. No one, no one follows up the words the most with holy. No one in this world follows up or uses the word holy after the most except when we use it for God. And it's because he is the most holy. Right. We look into that as we go on. So worship him in the beauty of his holiness. That means that there's beauty in his holiness and Exodus 15 verse 11 says, Who's like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who's like you, glorious and holiness fearful and praises doing wonders? It's a rhetorical question. There is no one like him. No one is holy like the Lord for there is none besides you, nor is there any rock like our God. Let me just see if I can share the screen for this moment. Some of some people have tried to describe or give definition. Can you see it? Okay, so a pastor called Sam Storms, he writes, The holiness of God only secondary refers to his moral purity, his righteousness of character. It primarily points to his infinite otherness. That word otherness is very important. It's infinite otherness. That means it's alien. It's foreign. It's something that we can't understand or grasp or fathom. Okay, it's very important. I'm going to go through those lines one more time. Please pay attention. The holiness of God only secondarily. That means secondarily refers to the moral purity. That means his sinlessness. But when we see he is holy, it is primarily pointing to his infinite otherness. So to say that God is holy is to say that he is transcendently separate. Holiness is not one attribute among many. It is not like grace or power or knowledge or wrath. Everything about God is holy. Each attribute partakes of divine holiness. So beautifully written, isn't it? That's Charles Spurgeon. In holiness, God is more clearly seen than in anything else. Blessed are the pure and hearts for Desha. In holiness, God is more clearly seen than in anything else. Just one more. Sinclair B. Ferguson. He says God's holiness means he is separate from sin. But holiness in God also means wholeness. God's wholeness is his Godness. Sorry, God's wholeness is his Godness. It is his being God and all that it means from him to be God. To meet God and holiness, therefore, is to be all together overwhelmed by the discovery that he is God and not man. So to meet God in his holiness, therefore, is to be all together overwhelmed. Notice that he is not saying to encounter him in his holiness is not to say something. Most of the response of God's, you know, those who encounter his holiness himself is that they fall face down. They are overwhelmed by his presence. Overwhelmed by the discovery that he is God and not man. Finally, holiness is the perfection of all God's other attributes. His power is holy power. His mercy is holy mercy. His wisdom is holy wisdom. It is his holiness more than any other attribute that makes him worthy of our praise. Hallelujah. And there are a lot more wonderful quotes by wonderful man and women of God out there. But again, these were some of the points that I put together many, many years ago, but it's coming in handy now. I'll share those quotes on the stream section. Okay. Are you all with me? Right. So in his goodness, he is holy. So that leads us to the next chapter. Chapter two. Holy, holy, holy. So everything about God is holy. He is Christ holy, holy to the third degree. His name is holy. He speaks in his holiness. He dwells in his holiness. So those are all the things that we're going to look at in this chapter. Is that he is holy, Christ holy. His name is holy. How, you know, the importance God gives to his name. Right. And when he speaks, he speaks in holiness. And where he dwells, he dwells in holiness. Right. And, and later we will see that those who draw near to him, Bible says James 4, 8, he will draw near to us. And how do we do that? He talks about that as well. So we look at all of that in this chapter. Okay. So the holy one, or the holy one, the most holy, we say, we emphasize on the H E. He is the one, the one and only, the one and only. Right. Most of the time I have had young people ask me questions like, how did you know that your wife was the one for you? You know, how did you know it's like the one, like, you get the point, right. So when God, in his context here, most of the time he's referred to as the holy one of Israel, the most holy. There's no one that transcends his holiness. Right. He, yeah, try and understand all of that. Okay. Isaiah 43 15 says, I am the Lord. Your holy one, the creator of Israel, your King. As I have 47 verse four, as your Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the holy one of Israel, the holy one of Israel. There's another book that I would encourage you to read, which is a book by A.W. Tozer from which the court is mentioned in the, it's called the Knowledge of the Holy. It's a very small book. I think it should be available in the library or I'll check if I have a PDF of it. And if I do, I'll share it with us. A.W. Tozer in the Knowledge of the Holy says, Holy is the way God is to be holy. He does not conform to a standard. He is that standard. Okay. He is absolutely holy with an infinite incomprehensible fullness of purity that is incapable of being other than it is because he is holy. His attributes are holy. That is whatever we think of as belonging to God must be thought of as holy. God is holy and he has made holiness the moral condition necessary to the health of his universe. Since temporary presence in the world only accents this. Whatever is holy is healthy. Evil is a moral sickness that must end ultimately in death. Okay. Very strong words, isn't it? Even that last line, evil is a moral sickness. It's like a disease that must end ultimately in death. We can read those that quote like 10 times and more if you have to and every time we read we might get something out of it. Holy is the way of God to be holy. He does not conform to a standard. He is that standard done. We can talk about that for like a half an hour if you want to, but he is the standard. What is he saying is that he, when we talk about the holiness of God, it's not just the attributes. We're talking about the person of who he is. We're talking about the person of who he is. There was a very controversial statement that was made a few years ago, which I'm not going to make that online while recording it. But I'll see that because it might become controversial and then I will become very controversial. But then I'll say it offline. Okay. So sorry guys. I'm not going to say it online, but something has to do with holiness. But yeah. Okay. Let's move on. Christ's holy. It is interesting in scripture that both Isaiah in the Old Testament and John in the New Testament in their versions, in their visions of the throne room. Heard the worship of the angelic beings and heavenly creatures calling holy, holy, holy. We read this scripture again and let's read that one more time. Isaiah chapter six. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple. You all remember what fill means? Being filled is? When are you filled? Full. When you're overflowing, right? The train of his robe was filling and it was overflowing. That means prison continues from that. Above it stood Seraphim. Seraphim is plural. Each one had six wings. With two, he covered his face. With two, he covered his feet. And with two, he flew. And one cried to another and said, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Seraphim means fire. So it means they are the burning ones. And yeah, so these angels are on fire. Imagine that. Imagine that. I want to be in the presence of God. I want to stand right there in front of him. You know what? I don't mind. That's the way I have to die. What a glorious way to die. Isn't it? So I saw the Lord sitting on a throne. So we have the throne. Let's imagine the throne. He's high and lifted up. And above it stood Seraphim. So there's a throne and then there are Seraphims above. Very important to know where they are placed in the throne room. And one cried out to each other, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. We don't know what their faces look like because they're covering their faces. But we know they're on fire. Revelation chapter four verse eight. Actually, let's read some more scriptures from Revelation chapter four. I hope you guys are doing fine online, alive, not bored. So Revelation chapter four from verse one onwards. After this, I looked and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, Come up here and I will show you what must take place after this. At once I was in the spirit and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. Okay, are you ready? Okay, verse three. And the one who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Carnalian. Ooh, it's getting interesting. The one who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Carnalian. A rainbow resembling an emerald encircled the throne. There's a rainbow around his throne, guys. But surrounding the throne were 24 other thrones and seated on them were 24 elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads from the throne came flashes of lightning, rumbling and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also before the throne where there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal in the center around the throne. Okay, in the center around the throne were four living creatures and they were covered with eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion. The second was like an ox. The third had a face like a man. And the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around. Even under his wings, day and night, they never stopped saying, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. John is writing day and night. They never stopped saying. Only God knows how long they've been saying for eternity, for a long time now. But just look at the vision. It's the words that I use by him. The one sitting on the throne in appearance was like Jasper and Carnalian around his throne that looked like a rainbow, like an emerald. Just imagine the colors and all the amazing things that's in his throne room. His throne room like is like no other like nothing we've ever witnessed or seen or encountered. And so in Isaiah 6, we saw the seraph above his throne. And then here we see the living creatures are around his throne. Are you all following? Yes, no, maybe. Francis. Francis is in the Third Heavens right now. First Heaven only. Okay. I want us to go to one more scripture. Let's go to Ezekiel chapter one, shall we? Ezekiel chapter one. Lord, please help us understand this. Okay. Are we there? Ezekiel one. Okay. I'll read from verse four. I looked and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance, their form was that of a man, but each of them had four faces and four wings. Their legs were straight. Their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze was it under their wings. On their four sides, they had the hands of a man. All four of them had faces and wings and their wings touched one another. Each one went straight ahead. They did not turn as they moved. Their faces looked like this. Each of the four had the face of a man and on the right side each had a face of a lion and on the left side the face of an ox and each also had a face of an eagle. Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out upward. Each had two wings, one touching the wing of another creature on either side and two wings covering his body. Each one went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go without turning as they went. The appearance of the living creatures was burning holes of fire or like torches. Fire moved back and forth among the creatures. It was bright and lightning flashed out of it. The creatures, last verse, okay, verse 14, the creatures sped back and forth. That means they went back and forth like flashes of lightning. Now they were not traveling at the speed of light because lightning is not quite as fast as the speed of light itself, but it's still fast. You've seen lightning, right? Slow motion. They went back and forth like flashes of lightning. They were pretty fast. Yeah, these are the cherubim. Again, you'll read more about them a little bit in chapter 10 in Ezekiel chapter 10, but okay, that's enough of that. The reason why I want us to read the scriptures that we've already read and we are familiar with is not to take them for granted and just to reread them and imagine, hey, this is where God dwells. Where he dwells right now, in this throne room is like no other, right? Surrounded by these living creatures, the seraphims and the cherubims, eyes all around full on fire. I think the last class we imagined how a lion in heaven would sound if it rolled holy. Yeah. Yeah, this is God that you and I worship. This is the God that you and I worship. This is the God that made you and me, that knit you and me together in the mother's world. This is the God who called us by name before he laid the foundations of the earth. Isn't that beautiful? What an honor. I think we just ought to pause and just be at the wonder of this God that we worship. His holiness is His otherness. He's transcendent. There is no other being like him. And so when we read all of this scripture, right, and when you see the worship that is happening in heaven in his throne room, we need to pause and ask ourselves how much of our worship towards God is undergirded with this truth and this revelation. We need to ask ourselves this question. How much of your worship towards God is undergirded with the recognition and the revelation or the understanding of this holiness? Wait, are you all with me? Okay, we move on to the next section. His holy name, Psalm 30 verse 4, says, Sing praise to the Lord, use saints of His and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name. Blessed the Lord, O my soul, all that is within me, bless His holy name. Psalm 105 verse 3, glory in His holy name. You all remember the word halal, right? To shine, to boast, to rave. Glory and shout. Rejoice in His holy name. Let the hearts of those, let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord. Psalm 106 verse 47, some more scriptures, save us, O Lord, our God, and gather us from among the Gentiles. To give thanks to your holy name, to triumph in your praise. Matthew 6, 9, in this manner, therefore pray, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, hallowed. It means to be held holy or pure or consecrated. Jesus teaches His disciples to pray like this because in all the scriptures that we've just read, that's just from Psalms, which is in the Old Testament. We know what is Old Testament, but for them they do not have Old Testament, New Testament. Jesus knew to teach them about the holiness of His name. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. We glorify that. We declare your name as holy. That's the greeting, right? And I've mentioned this in the last class, that we mistake the second half of this prayer also as greeting. That is, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done. We think it's like one big continuation when we say it. Our Father who art in heaven, that's an address, hallowed be your name. Yeah, hallowed be your name. And then the next part is a petition. It's a petition, let your kingdom come, Lord, that your will be done. So the first half is recognizing who He is, addressing the King, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. We glorify your name. We honor your holy name. So now let your kingdom come. His kingdom will not come where His name is not hallowed, right? And then the next section we'll see that where He dwells is holy, right? Where He lives, it is holy. That means He will not enter a place or He will not dwell in a place where His name is not hallowed or treated with reverence. Is there any other name of any other God that is used as a cuss word or as a bad word, like the name of Jesus is used? Enemy knows that. Enemy knows His name is high above every other name and that His name is holy. The devil knows that. That's why you know when, I'm sure you've heard people or at least you've seen in movies from the West when something goes wrong, when they want to abuse someone, what did they say? Jesus, isn't it? Yes or no? It's like a cuss word. They say the name of Jesus and they say, what is wrong with you? Jesus, what is wrong with you? Are you with me? What will you do if I take your father's name in vain and used it as a cuss word? That they won't be alive is what Francis said. Do we have that same passion for His name? Do we have that same zeal for His name? I will not watch and stand by and say and see the name of my Lord being tarnished. All we have to do is honour His name, rather His name. He knows how to take care of everything else. Okay, you know what? We'll pause here because this is a quite a big section I don't want to spoil it. So we'll pause, we'll take a break and we'll come to the next class. Thank you.