December 10th, 2024
This week, the holiness of God has been on my heart. God is many things – faithful, merciful, loving, and good – but there is one thing that the creatures around the throne never cease to cry: holy, holy, holy.
Revelation 4:8 says,
‘Day and night they never stop saying: “’Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.”’
Holy means “sacred or set apart.” There is no one like our God! He cannot be compared with anyone or anything. He is the only uncreated being. We could never understand the depths of His power and majesty. We will spend eternity in worship, never ceasing to be filled with wonder for the One we were created to worship.
The holiness of God and the importance of consecration would have been something Old Testament believers understood. There are many stories of those who disregarded the holiness of God and were put to death (Leviticus 10:1-20). His holiness is a serious thing! We must understand God doesn’t want anyone to perish. However, holiness is by definition “set apart.” It cannot be mixed with anything impure or unclean. The presence of God cannot be defiled. Anything that hasn’t been purified will simply be consumed. We can only enter the presence of God because He Himself made a way. It’s the blood of Jesus, alone, that allows us to draw near to the throne of the King. He could not have made Himself any more accessible to His creation. However, the requirement is still holiness. We must still be washed in the blood of Jesus and allow nothing to contaminate the purity of the faith He deposits in our hearts.
1 Peter 1:15 says,
“…As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct…”
He doesn’t ask us to be perfect by our own works or merit. We are simply called to walk in the holiness, the purity, and the power, that come only by the intimacy of relationship with Jesus Christ.
Holiness comes from encountering the One who is holy. When we see Him and receive Him by faith, His holiness becomes our holiness. How great is His mercy!
With that being said, we must take care not to mix anything with the purity of the Gospel that saves us. Throughout the Bible, we see that God hates mixture. Over and over again, He uses the analogy of the purification of metals to represent His people’s purity. In Zechariah 13:9, God references an end time people saying,
“I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’”
1 Peter 1:7 compares the purity of our faith to that of gold refined in fire. The refining process, the purification of gold, does not actually change the composition of the metal. See, gold is a pure element meaning that it cannot be broken down any further. Gold is gold. The refining process is simply to remove anything that is not gold. In the Bible, that process was a purification by fire. As gold is heated anything that is not gold comes to the surface to be removed. Gold mixes easily with other elements, but the moment it becomes mixed, it is no longer gold. It becomes an alloy, a mixture, something else entirely. In the same way, the truth of God’s word is pure, holy, set apart. The moment it becomes mixed with a hint of anything but truth, it is no longer the Gospel.
Jesus said in Matthew 24:14,
“This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
This gospel. That gospel is still the only truth there is! Paul addressed this to the Galatian church, who had allowed the message to be perverted. They had not deserted the whole of the Gospel, but just added to it.
Galatians 1:6-9 says,
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the One who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!”
If it’s not the pure gospel, it’s no gospel at all!
James 1:27 says,
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
There is religion that is impure and defiled. Jesus warned His disciples about the “leaven of the pharisees.” It only takes a bit of leaven to leaven an entire loaf of bread. Any mixture changes the composition entirely. In order for truth to be truth, it must be pure and undefiled, unstained from the world.
With that being said, we cannot become focused on trying to find every hint of leaven or be fearful of every false teaching or mixture. The answer to the confusion in the world is the pure fire of God in alignment with His Word. His word is as pure and powerful now as the moment it was breathed by the Spirit of God. If we are on fire for Him, we will be pure!
2 Timothy 2:21 says,
“If anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”
His Word and His fire will burn out every impurity. He is the Holy One and He made a way to satisfy the requirement for holiness! The purity of the blood of Jesus will break the power of every curse in every people and nation. This week, we encourage you to encounter the One about whom the angels cry “Holy, Holy, Holy.” He is worthy of our devotion. He’s worthy of everything we have!
As it says in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NLT),
“May the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.”
Revelation 4:8 says,
‘Day and night they never stop saying: “’Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.”’
Holy means “sacred or set apart.” There is no one like our God! He cannot be compared with anyone or anything. He is the only uncreated being. We could never understand the depths of His power and majesty. We will spend eternity in worship, never ceasing to be filled with wonder for the One we were created to worship.
The holiness of God and the importance of consecration would have been something Old Testament believers understood. There are many stories of those who disregarded the holiness of God and were put to death (Leviticus 10:1-20). His holiness is a serious thing! We must understand God doesn’t want anyone to perish. However, holiness is by definition “set apart.” It cannot be mixed with anything impure or unclean. The presence of God cannot be defiled. Anything that hasn’t been purified will simply be consumed. We can only enter the presence of God because He Himself made a way. It’s the blood of Jesus, alone, that allows us to draw near to the throne of the King. He could not have made Himself any more accessible to His creation. However, the requirement is still holiness. We must still be washed in the blood of Jesus and allow nothing to contaminate the purity of the faith He deposits in our hearts.
1 Peter 1:15 says,
“…As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct…”
He doesn’t ask us to be perfect by our own works or merit. We are simply called to walk in the holiness, the purity, and the power, that come only by the intimacy of relationship with Jesus Christ.
Holiness comes from encountering the One who is holy. When we see Him and receive Him by faith, His holiness becomes our holiness. How great is His mercy!
With that being said, we must take care not to mix anything with the purity of the Gospel that saves us. Throughout the Bible, we see that God hates mixture. Over and over again, He uses the analogy of the purification of metals to represent His people’s purity. In Zechariah 13:9, God references an end time people saying,
“I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’”
1 Peter 1:7 compares the purity of our faith to that of gold refined in fire. The refining process, the purification of gold, does not actually change the composition of the metal. See, gold is a pure element meaning that it cannot be broken down any further. Gold is gold. The refining process is simply to remove anything that is not gold. In the Bible, that process was a purification by fire. As gold is heated anything that is not gold comes to the surface to be removed. Gold mixes easily with other elements, but the moment it becomes mixed, it is no longer gold. It becomes an alloy, a mixture, something else entirely. In the same way, the truth of God’s word is pure, holy, set apart. The moment it becomes mixed with a hint of anything but truth, it is no longer the Gospel.
Jesus said in Matthew 24:14,
“This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
This gospel. That gospel is still the only truth there is! Paul addressed this to the Galatian church, who had allowed the message to be perverted. They had not deserted the whole of the Gospel, but just added to it.
Galatians 1:6-9 says,
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the One who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!”
If it’s not the pure gospel, it’s no gospel at all!
James 1:27 says,
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
There is religion that is impure and defiled. Jesus warned His disciples about the “leaven of the pharisees.” It only takes a bit of leaven to leaven an entire loaf of bread. Any mixture changes the composition entirely. In order for truth to be truth, it must be pure and undefiled, unstained from the world.
With that being said, we cannot become focused on trying to find every hint of leaven or be fearful of every false teaching or mixture. The answer to the confusion in the world is the pure fire of God in alignment with His Word. His word is as pure and powerful now as the moment it was breathed by the Spirit of God. If we are on fire for Him, we will be pure!
2 Timothy 2:21 says,
“If anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”
His Word and His fire will burn out every impurity. He is the Holy One and He made a way to satisfy the requirement for holiness! The purity of the blood of Jesus will break the power of every curse in every people and nation. This week, we encourage you to encounter the One about whom the angels cry “Holy, Holy, Holy.” He is worthy of our devotion. He’s worthy of everything we have!
As it says in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NLT),
“May the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.”
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