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Would you finish this thought
with me? Lord, there is none like you, for you are holy, right? We learn through music and a
good definition of holiness. I love Sunday nights of having
the kids in here and what they're learning from the Bible, and
that will be our theme tonight as we are starting hymn night.
Pastor Bo is working on a sermon series on 2 Thessalonians on
Sunday nights, and we'll see that later in the year. But when
I'm given opportunity on Sunday nights, I'm going to look at
different hymns and the theme from it. Isaiah asked me what
my passage was before, and my passage is not the hymn. I won't
be teaching from the hymn, but I'm going to take a theme that
is taught to us through a hymn, like, for example, holiness,
and look at how it's defined for us in the Bible. If you wouldn't
mind, go to the song that we sung before the offering, the
hymn that we sing often, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty. And Grant has two microphones
there. I'm going to read this through, and when I'm done, I'm
going to give you an opportunity, something we don't often have
to take time for, which is we're going to talk about why we like
this song, and what is it about the song that you find enjoyable
and it's helpful, because before we get into this topic of holiness,
I just want to talk about the value of singing hymns. You may
not have recognized it tonight, but when we sung this song, this
is where we were the loudest tonight, because you come from
different churches, different traditions, but most of us were
taught this song at some point, and so we sung it. And I'm glad
Stephen did that. I think he's lip-syncing sometimes,
but every now and then, he has to prove to us this is live,
all right? And he sung that, and we know that, and I could
sing it with my eyes closed, meaning, why would that matter,
right? Because I'm not looking at the screen. And so I know
that, and I'm grateful for it. And so I'm going to just walk
through it. Thatcher and I are going to walk through it. When I'm done, I'm
just going to open up the floor, take a few moments, and ask you to
name some of the reasons that you think this is a song worth
singing for God's people. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.
Early in the morning our songs shall rise to Thee. Holy, holy,
holy, merciful and mighty. God in three persons, blessed
Trinity, holy, holy, holy, all the saints adore Thee, casting
down their golden crowns around the glassy sea, cherubim and
seraphim falling down before Thee, which word and art and
evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the
darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may
not see, only thou art holy, there is none beside thee, perfect
in power, in love, in purity. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,
all Thy works shall praise Thy name in earth and sky and sea. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and
mighty, God in three Persons, blessed Trinity." Beautiful song. And what are some reasons that
you think this is a song worth singing? I can't say there's
no wrong answers, but I won't call you out if you give a wrong
answer, okay? And so what would be one of the reasons? Daniel
Cooper, I think his is hand raised. It's biblically accurate. The
first verse is the same line that the angels sing to the Lord.
So it comes from Scripture. It's a passage out of Scripture.
That's wonderful. That's a good, worthy thing in a song. Anybody
else in here? All right, we got Miss Rhonda,
and the coach is going to play. All right, Patch didn't write
this song, coach. I know you prefer the Patch the Pirate songs,
but all right. Yes, ma'am. It is really a doctrinal
lesson on the Trinity. And when we listen to a doctrinal
message, it's really good. But when you sing something,
it's like it becomes a part of you. And even if you're not intentionally
paying attention, you're gonna absorb the lesson of who God
is in the Trinity. So the whole thing is a lesson
on the Trinity. That is wonderful. Let's see
why Sam loves you so much. What a great answer, all right?
That was fantastic. Yes, Coach? So in two parts,
specifically, puts God in his proper place of worship and adoration.
So my two favorite parts, casting down our crowns in front of God,
and then all thy works shall praise his name. And so at the
very end, it doesn't matter. you know, those who believe or
haven't believed, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. So, yeah. Amen. What a holy thought, what a reverential
thought that at the end everything bows down to Him. And Ms. Wilson talked about it being
Trinitarian. Not a lot of songs talk about that. A lot of, if
you sung many songs and you never heard that, then kids wouldn't
pick up on that. Like Ms. Rhonda said, you don't
really know you're learning even though you're not fighting learning,
right? Anybody else have anything? Yes, sir, David. Well, what I
was thinking about is the fact that it talks about the power
of God as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, both in what He
has done in the past, how He works in our lives in the present,
and also has prophecy in it so the future is there as well.
So God is still all-powerful in both the past, present, and
future as the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Picking up on that, he doesn't
hide from anything about God, doesn't ignore the darkness that
hides thee. It covers that. It's been brought to my attention
that there's not enough songs that talk about that. A lot of
songs can be always happy and light, but sometimes when you
come in the church, you want words that can communicate how
you're feeling, right? That though the darkness hide
thee, that he's still there. Self-existent, exists outside
of us. He is not a creation of our mind,
but we are his creation. And anybody else? Any last person
in here? You are so good at this. Brother
Eric's down here, Grant. Gonna give Grant a workout. Quite good
at this game here, all right? I would actually totally agree
with what everybody's saying, so I'm not going to go against
this. But on the other aspects, there's two aspects. One is you've
got the words, but the other is you've got the music. In this
song, the music actually not rides the words, but drives the
words. So it's like a submissive undercurrent
that builds the story that's being told through song. And
I think that's probably one of the reasons we really remember
it so well is that the music itself holds the words and carries
them forth. Now, I say that because there's
a lot of music that doesn't endure. It's good sound theology, but
it won't endure because the music will not carry it through, too.
So it won't catch. When we sing that at the end
together, y'all should listen to that. Listen to how the music
fits appropriately with the story that's being told. And so, what
a beautiful list. And a few other things is, if
we had more time, you might look at the choice of merciful and
mighty, that balance there, that our God is powerful, but He's
also merciful. If He was one or the other, He
wouldn't be a God in which we could worship as a wholly separate
one. And no words are wasted, simple timing, easy to memorize. A statement that's very sobering
for me, but also exciting, is this. It's by Matt Boswell. He
said, we live in a unique time where every church is now creating
their own hymnbook. We live in a unique time where
every church is creating their own hymn book. That's right.
I don't know if I got it in there, but there's some slides where
I show a hymn. This song we did. Yeah, there's
one. All right. And so how many of you grew up in a church with
a hymn book that read like this? All right. All you young people
look around. All right. It doesn't take You don't have
to be very old to know that was the only option. When this church
started in 2006, a decision had to be made about purchasing many
hymn books for everybody, or would we put the words up on
the screen? And when we made that decision, which was in part
financial because hymn books are expensive, also was practical
because instead of having, if you really want to do it, you
want to have all the hymn books, right? Remember, get the red book, get
the blue book. How many of you at a church had multiple song
books, right? And so there's great songs in
all of them, and you really wanted every hymn book that there was,
and so what a great blessing to do that. And I think about
Greg Rochelle tells about how he had a projector, and his first
person only had three fingers that would put the music up there,
and he would put it up on a projector, you know, like cast it, and everybody,
as they were singing the songs, you'd see them go, one, two,
All right, as they were counting the man's fingers up there, all
right? And so whenever we started projecting things on the wall,
the church came to a decision of making our own hymn book.
And I say that's exciting, but it's also sobering because a
lot of work would go into choosing a hymn book and making one, and
you would trust that. But now we have the opportunity
to sing many songs. I'd be curious to know, somebody
that's still in school right now, who is in the highest level
of math class, all right? Who is taking, you think we're
going with Darcy here? What is she in, some trigonometry,
calculus? Does her book just say math on
it? All right, no? What do we get? College algebra,
okay. Any high schoolers going to compete?
Austin? No? Okay. He passes on that.
All right. David Burkhardt, I was asking
him some questions about math, and I very quickly stopped understanding
what he was saying. So I'm assuming there probably
aren't many people. He does rocket surgery. No, I'm just kidding.
He's a rocket engineer. And so his math, the master's
level math was his next level. We're in here, coach has taken
a lot of history classes. So no matter how, advanced level
of these topics, you probably never had anybody talk to you
about the holiness of God. It isn't going to be found in
calculus. It isn't going to be found in a master class in history.
So it belongs as a privilege to God's church to teach on the
holiness of God. Or I should say it like this,
God's people. In our homes and at church, it isn't going to
be done by anybody else, which means that we need to use what's
available to us to teach about the holiness of God. And so one
of those things that we have our hymns that do just that. And so teaching, and so this
is what our next song that we will look at, we will learn it.
We wanted to sing a song that you go back to my sermon, if
you will, but I wanted to talk about one hymn in which we already
are singing together that you may not recognize as a hymn and
talk about that for a moment. So, real quickly, here's a few
reasons that hymns are unique and have a profound value in
our Christian worship and daily life. As has been mentioned,
it reinforces theology, the rich, biblically sound lyrics that
help people internalize and understand theological concepts like tonight
holiness. Young people, hymn does not mean
old. There's nothing about the word
hymn that makes something old. A song can be old and not be
a hymn. A song can be new and it can
be a hymn. When you think about hymns, you
ought to think about the structure of a song. Actually, a better
word is not old, just congregational. It was a song that was written
for the church to sing together. Colossians 3.16 talks about we
should encourage one another because Christ dwells inside
of us, and we should do so by teaching and admonishing in psalms,
hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to
the Lord. So it's a gift here. And so this
verse reminds us that the ministry of music in a church is a ministry
of helping or admonishing people to embrace truth. It's a teaching
ministry. We should desire to sing songs
that are theological, and they're not just theological, but Brother
Eric mentioned the music. They need to be beautiful. They
need to be more than right, don't they? They need to be beautiful,
congregational, singing together, and then also a word, missional. We gather as believers, but at
any time, online or in person, we have unbelieving people with
us. In 1 Corinthians, it would tell us and remind us of that,
that we should do so in a way that is understandable, that
the gospel ought to be communicated as we sing and as we speak. And so seeing these truths, they
embed it, this doctrine, in a way that we won't forget, guiding
us to understand God's characters. Let's play a little game here.
I'll start a line, and you finish it for me, okay? Amazing grace. Oh, Lord, my God, when I. Great
is thy faithfulness. Holy, holy, holy. Be thou my
vision. When peace like a river. come
thou fount of every blessing." All right, blessing, all right. In Christ alone, blessed assurance
Wow, incredible. Most of you knew all those songs.
Alistair Begg says, worship services prepare people to die. I like
that quote. Here's a quote I don't like as
much, but I think it's true. Songs are the sermons that people
remember. When I heard that, I'm like,
that's great. Then I thought, wait a second, all right. They're
also a sermon in which people remember. And so we think about
holiness, so much of what you have learned has been taught
to you. There's a relationship. The pastor preached about how
we ought to take all the alcohol and all the drugs and we ought
to take them down and we ought to throw them in the river, all
right? We ought to just take it on and
we ought to throw it down the river. At the end of the service, the
song leader said, let's all stand together and let's sing, shall
we gather at the river, all right? Music can really undermine the
teaching of God's Word, or it may be that some churches sing
better than they preach, or they may sing better than anything
else, right? Because they need to be working
together, one together. It brings a unity in the congregation. The sound of Christian music
is the sound of Christians singing. That's something that the Gettys
have reinforced. What is Christian music? It's
the sound of Christian people singing. We sound different here
in Georgia than people in Maine sound when they're singing, but
theologically we sound the same. Christian people, it engages
your emotion, which is not a bad thing. Jesus speaks to this.
A truth that's really known as fully embraced will change your
affections. It strengthens faith across generations. Your kids are singing songs at
the age you were when you were singing them. It encourages personal
worship. They're portable sermons. You
can take it with you. I won't need the projection in
the screen for me to be able to sing holy, holy, holy, or
that one song that we were singing here that has that, goes up and
down. I sound like a hound dog when I sing that one, all right?
That was beautiful about the word holy, holy. I can't even
do it, but you know what happened. It was beautiful, all right?
The song before I came up here. So let's look here, holiness
defined. Holiness is foundational to our understanding. It's what
makes God, God. It's an attribute that on two
occasions that it said, holy, holy, holy, in Scripture, it's
just triplicate in Scripture. It is, Thomas Watson said, it's
the most sparkling jewel of God's crown. Dabney says, holiness
is to be regarded not as a distinct attribute, but as the result
of all of God's moral perfection together. What those men are
saying, it's just echoing what Isaiah says in Isaiah 57, 15,
for thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity,
whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy
place, with Him also that is of the contrite and humble spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the
contrite ones. It's means to be set apart. That's
how we use it. Absolute purity, total separation. Lord, there is none like You,
for You are holy. We have a holy Bible, referred
to Israel as the holy land, angels as holy, distinct beings, the
holy ground, sacred places where people encounter God in Scriptures. Three to make case studies on
holiness together. Isaiah's vision in Isaiah chapter
number 6, we see there the majesty of the Lord, He's seated high,
the seraphim proclaiming God's holiness. Those are two words
that we sing in this song, cherubim and seraphim. The cherubim is
what stood outside of the garden that's that protector. Seraphims
are seen in worship as they're described constantly in the presence
of God. You know, sometimes we have big
words or hard words in songs, and we need them because these
are big words and hard words in Scriptures that we need to
understand. And so Isaiah 6 gives us this
majesty of God, and then the worship of God, and then he gets
a place of confession, and then Seraphim purifies Isaiah's lips,
and all those things come together, and we encounter God's holiness,
and it brings a self-awareness leading to confession and repentance. Lord, send me." Isaiah chapter
number 6, this high view of God that leads to worship and confession
and a cleansing in the presence of the Lord. Exodus 3 gives us
another picture, Moses in the burning bush. Moses encounters
God while tending to a sheep in Sinai. God gives a command
in Exodus chapter 3 verse 5. He tells him to take off the
sandals, you are on holy ground, and then from that we see that
God is revealed, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses hides
his face in reference. Here in this picture of holiness,
we're recognizing God's holiness that cultivates a deep respect
and awe when he is in the presence of God. And then the third picture. So the first picture we see in
Isaiah is a self-awareness that leads to confession and repentance.
It is a no longer holding on to my sin. It's when you come
into God. It is when you have spoken to
somebody until you're blue in the face and there is no desire
for them to repent or change of their sin, but then the Holy
Spirit convicts them, and then they realize they're standing
in front of God and change happens. Or the burning bush that cultivates
that deep respect and awe. And then lastly, a picture in
2 Samuel 6 is David and the ark covenant. David attempts to move
the ark to Jerusalem, but he violates God's command. Uzzah
reaches out to steady the ark, and he's struck down for his
irreverence. And here we see that obedience and reverence
are necessary when approaching God's holiness. Enthusiasm for
God's work must be tempered with adherence to His command, that
worship is coming to God upon His own terms. so there's a sacredness,
there's a holiness. All three of those are pictures
that help us in our understanding of holiness. The Bible defines
its words. You don't have to go outside
of the Bible to find it, and those are three pictures that
ought to help us. Scripture tells us in Psalm 29 verse 2 that we
give unto the Lord the glory that is due unto His name and
worship the Lord in the beauty of His holiness. That's repeated
through Scripture, Psalm 96, different places, and it speaks
about the beauty of God's holiness. You know, singing about the holiness
of God is a wonderful way to be reminded that it's beautiful. that His otherness, His out…is
beautiful. And there's moments in a service
when you have moments like Isaiah where there's confession. There's
moments in worship before the Lord where there's a self-awareness.
There's moments when you have clarity about your life, where
you realize that God is big and different than us, and we recognize
that, His presence. We recognize that we don't want
to do anything to ruin that moment. that you want to stay in it,
and then it drives us to want to be holy as well. And so God's
holiness cannot coexist with sin. God abhors and ultimately
will destroy it. So, believers, we must reject
sin to align with God's holiness, and through worship we recognize
the beauty of it. And so a few things that holiness
will do in the life of a believer. It leads to wholehearted worship.
True worship requires an awareness of God's holiness. It can occur
anywhere, but it cannot be half-hearted. You can worship anywhere, your
car, anywhere in the world. It can happen in a worship service.
It can happen just anywhere, but it can't happen without an
awareness of the presence of God in your life. And many treat
worship with apathy, forgetting the holiness of God, and it's
transformative in our lives, in our families, in our country.
Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God. It
is the quickening of the conscience by His holiness, the nourishment
of mind with His truth, the purifying of imagination by His beauty,
the opening of the heart to His love, the surrender of His will
to His purpose. All this gathered up in adoration,
the most selfless emotion which our nature is capable." So one,
it leads to wholehearted worship. Secondly, it inspires wholehearted
obedience. Respect for God and His name
and His commands, this increased sensitivity to sin, a longing
for purity, which goes on to touching our Christian life,
reveals sin, and fosters humility. So, I want to give you a few
specific ways in which our lives, the Bible tells us, be you holy
as I am holy, as the Lord is holy. He calls us into the beauty
of His holiness. so briefly here before we sing
that song once again is this. You make holiness the purpose
in your life. Some of you are mature Christians
in here, but that statement just reminds you that oftentimes that
we forget that it ought to be an intentional pursuit of our
lives. I like to speak to teenagers
in here, nobody's going to tell you that. Darcy, you're not going
to learn that in your math class, okay? Nobody but God's people
are going to remind you to pursue the holiness of God. 1 Peter
115, but as He which has called you is holy, so be you holy in
all manner of conversation, because it is written, be ye holy, for
I am holy. He calls us to holiness, not
merely to be good people, but to be sanctified in Him. And so loving God means pursuing
holiness. Our pursuit of holiness is a
response to God's love and purpose for us. So all of us ought to
commit daily to making holiness the ultimate purpose and pursuit
in life. we'd ask God to help us to identify
in what areas we've been apathetic or indifferent or quite possibly
just been rebellious. Isn't it amazing that the first
picture, the first sin that put man in that fallen state, every
one of us would say, it doesn't seem like a big deal, but it
simply is a big deal because it's rebellion against him. It
is not submitting to the Lord, which leads us to this next thing,
which is don't resist the Holy Spirit. First Peter 1.2, according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit, unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus Christ, grace unto you, and peace, and multiplied." So,
sanctification in our lives. Sanctification happens out of
salvation. Someday in heaven they'll be the ultimate, but
right now there's a continued work in our lives. And so that
pursuit of holiness is happening as we yield to the Holy Spirit
in our lives. And the Bible teaches us, Acts
7, 51, he's stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears,
do you always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did, so
do ye. That it's possible for you to
resist or quench the Spirit's work, but instead you should
allow it to lead you into obedience and to Christlikeness and to
holiness. So don't resist the Spirit, pursue
it with your lives, and then the next point that would be
naturally come is just commit to obedience. Hebrews 11, these
heroes of the faith, they obeyed by faith. Holiness cannot exist
without obedience, faith, and obedience go hand in hand. Jerry
Bridges says it like this, obedience is the pathway, the holiness.
Embrace daily obedience to the Lord. Holy, holy, holy, through
the darkness hide thee, through the eye of sinful man thy glory
may not see. We should sing this and we should
live this and recognize that our lack of obedience is preventing
us from seeing Him as He is. And right now, you have an opportunity
to see more clearly than you may have seen all week, and what
areas are needed of confession, repentance, and grace. The Bible
is communicated to us with authority. When I teach it, when you teach
it, when it's opened up, it speaks with authority. We sit, we listen,
and when we do that, we allow God to examine our lives and
should ask yourself, what is it that is hindering your pursuit
of holiness in your life? pursue that, not just religious
activity, but pursue holiness that is found in Him. Don't expect
perfection to be constantly growing in your pursuit. Philippians
3.12, not as though I've already obtained either or already perfect,
but I follow after that I may apprehend that which I have apprehended
of Christ. Brother, and I count not myself
to have apprehended but this one thing, forgetting those things
which are behind and reaching forth on those things which are
before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus. Growing up playing basketball,
I got a lot of Most Improved Player trophies. Those are the
hard ones to get. They only get one of those, all right? Most
Improved, all right? If any of you have coached before,
it's the great trophy and the box that you give to the kid,
oftentimes, because you can't think what else is there for
them. But it's the one I'll take the most pride in, the Most Improved
here. And then some of, many of you
in here are mature believers, but there ought to be continual
growth in these areas. We haven't apprehended. We're
not there. God should be doing a sanctifying work in our lives,
and this should encourage us trusting God in the process.
Lord, do the work, depend on God's power to continue, grow
in holiness. And then lastly here, remember
that you are loved. All this should be motivated
by God's love, that pursuit of holiness, the beauty of His holiness.
We love Him because He first loved us. Jesus told the woman
at the well, go and sin no more, your sins have been forgiven.
He told her her standing, and from that ought to flow correct
behavior and living. So our motivation for holiness
should be rooted in God's love for us. It's our loving response
to God. If you love me, Father, we do,
well then keep my commandments. So respond to God's love by seeking
holiness, reflecting on His nature. for but as He which has called
you, 1 Peter 1 15, so be you holy in all manner of conversation. Strive to become as holy as an
act of love and worship embodying God's character." That's what
I want to encourage you in. We sing this song, we're gonna
sing it here, holy, holy, holy. But why don't you allow it to
do the three parts in which we had seen in those stories. Allow
it to create a self-awareness for you. As you sing it, ask,
is there other times during the week that you are concerned about
the holiness of God, or you recognize the holiness of God of there?
Where are you at? Is it a time of confession, of
repentance that needs to happen? Is there a darkness, is there
sin in your life that is keeping you from seeing Him fully as
He is? Are you trying to come to Him
on your own terms? Are there some area of submission? And then we thank God for new
songs, for old songs that remind us about the fact that we worship
a God who is not like us, that there's none that is like us,
that He is unlike us because He is holy. I'm gonna pray, and
I'm gonna ask you for the stand, and we're gonna sing that song
together, and listen for some of the things that your brothers
and sisters told you in here, and think about it. But also,
we sing it together as a church, but also remember that you're
primarily singing it to the God of heaven. So make those words
the words that you would say. If you're not able to say the
words, don't say the words. Go to him in prayer as we communicate
this to him. After we sing together, I would
like to ask for some help. We've got to move the chairs
out of here for Tuesday, and those that are able to help with
that, we would greatly appreciate it. And then those that are going
with Greg on activity, if you're going to be riding a church van,
I'll be over here with him so we can work on that together.
All right, would you stand with me? I'm going to pray, and then
we're going to sing together. Heavenly Father, we recognize
that you are holy. There is none that is like you. In all the earth, Lord, you're
above every name. Someday, Father, we will gather
with seraphims and cherubims and before that glassy sea, before
your throne, in something that cannot be fully described to
us, and we will bow down and we will worship you as the one,
true, only God. But Father, until that time,
we come into Your presence as people that reverentially love
and fear You. Father, You have set Your love
upon us, and we are so very grateful. If You did not love us, Lord,
then we'd have no ability to love You or anyone else. Father, we want to enter into
the beauty of Your holiness. Father, forgive us as a people
and as a nation, Lord, in areas in which we have rebelled against
You and we have not submitted to Your commands. Forgive us,
Father, where we have pursued a worship of You, Lord, in a
way that is not honoring to You. Father, we come to You with a
self-awareness that we are sinners, but You are a great Savior. So,
Father, we will sing to You tonight, Lord. and we will call you holy. And Lord, as we do that, Father,
we want to meditate upon these thoughts so they go deep into
our heart and our minds, transform our behavior in a way that is
pleasing unto you. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Understanding Holiness - A Call to Reflect God's Nature
Series Hymn Nights
| Sermon ID | 115241824343974 |
| Duration | 29:29 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Colossians 3:16 |
| Language | English |
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