8 Sermon Illustrations on Holiness Of God

In the Lord's prayer, Jesus taught His disciples to pray, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name" (Matthew 6:9). To hallow the name of God is to regard it as holy, to treat it differently from all other names. One of the ten commandments warned, "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name" (Exodus 20:7). Those who hallow the name of God take special care to avoid light, meaningless and profane reference to God in their daily speech. We must realize, however, that hallowing the name of God is not just a matter of vocabulary. Many people fail to hallow God's name, who would never think of using His name in a vulgar or obscene context. They simply do not take God seriously in the way they live. Every day is consumed with activity that does not take God into consideration. Problem solving becomes a matter of relying on human resources. God is nowhere to be found in the picture. Which is the more serious breech of God's command? To speak God's name profanely? Or to give lip service to Him in church and then ignore Him in everyday life? Several years ago, J. B. Phillips wrote an interesting book which he titled, Your God Is Too Small. In the book he wrote about some inadequate concepts of God, and Mike Cope suggests that our God is "too middle-sized." We affirm a lot of things about God. He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. He is majestic and glorious. He is the God to Whom we must give account. We are invited to draw near to Him. Our doctrine of God is right on target. But when it comes to practical living, then we are not sure God is capable of doing all those things He has promised. Cope suggests we do not believe what we know. You can talk about Him in Bible class, but when you are struggling with the mortgage payments or a sick child or the loss of a job, Bible-class talk about God tends to sound rather hollow. That is because we believe in a middle-sized God. He is big enough to judge us in eternity, but not big enough to help with the job problem. To hallow the name of God means to treat His name with respect, not only in the way we talk, but also in the way we trust. The Painting of My Life Brian J. Waldrop relates this slice of life: "Flipping through the channels of my TV the other morning, I stopped to watch a painter skillfully painting a dese rt landscape. As the man proceeded to color the canvas in deep browns, reds, and yellows, the picture really started to look good. I felt that the painter ought to stop. To me, the picture looked complete. "As I was thinking those very words, I cringed to see the artist add a dark blackish color of paint to the canvas. As I had feared, the dark blob looked awkward and out of place. But as the man continued to add texture and other colors to the blob it began to take shape. When the painter was finished, the part of the picture that I thought was ruined looked great! It was exactly what the painting needed to make it beautiful and complete. "As I sat there watching the program that day, I was really surprised to find myself cringing at many of the moves the artist made with his brush. I got to thinking how typical this is of my Christian life. Many times in my life, after much struggling and hardship, I have come to a place where I am comfortable. As I am basking in the goodness of the Lord, God has chosen to institute a change I neither expected nor wanted. During this time I cry out, 'No, Lord, You are ruining the picture!'But often, as I allowed God to continue His work on the canvas of my life, to my surprise the picture would begin to look pretty good. Finally, I would thank Him for the addition or subtraction to my life. "There have been times, however, that the change never looked good to me and perhaps never will. During these times I must remember that God is still painting. The picture has not been completed yet. I must travel on in faith knowing that when I see Him face to face, my painting will be beautiful. "In the meantime, I can take comfort knowing that every situation, though it may be ugly and bad, is paint that the Master Craftsman can use for good. "Paul stated it this way, 'And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose' (Romans 8:28 NIV). "Lord Jesus, take my life and create a masterpiece!"

The language of God's word is, "Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness; thou shalt not covet." Now, where is there such a code of morality to be found in all the systems of ancient or modern heathen philosophers or politicians? Lycurgus ordained, that infants who were deformed or weak should be destroyed; but God's word says, "Thou shalt not kill." Lycurgus taught his pupils to steal, and rewarded those who could steal in such an artful manner as not to be detected; but the Bible says, "Thou shalt not steal." Aristippus maintained that it was no harm "to steal, commit adultery and sacrilege; setting aside the vulgar opinion concerning them." The Grecians, and many of the ancients, practised incest; that is, a man could marry his own sister: and they pretended to derive this practice from gods, feigning that Jupiter married his own sister Juno. Hence many of their great men practised it, such as Cimon, Alcibiades, Darius the Persian, Ptolemy of Egypt, and others: but Moses said, "Thou shalt not marry one that is near akin to thee;" and St. Paul required the incestuous person to be punished. The laws of Solon allowed of "brothels and prostitution:" but Moses said, "There shall be no harlot in Israel;" and, were the principles of this book attended to, there would be none in Christendom. The polite and learned nations of the Greeks and Romans very generally permitted the custom of exposing infants; and Romulus allowed the Romans to destroy all their female children except the oldest, and even their males if they were deformed. "These practices were common among them, and celebrated at their theatres." They also had gladiatorial shows in which slaves were obliged to fight with each other till one or the other fell, mangled with wounds. And so great was the rage for this sport among both sexes, that no war is said to have been so destructive. Lipsius tells us "that the gladiatorial shows cost twenty or thirty thousand lives a month; and, thus continued for a long course of years, must have destroyed more lives than the ravages of their wars." Arcine.

The holiness of God is not to be conceived of as one attribute among others: it is rather a general term representing the conception of his consummate perfection and total glory. It is his infinite moral perfection crowning his infinite intelligence and power. There is a glory of each attribute viewed abstractedly, and a glory of the whole together. The intellectual nature is the essential basis of the moral. Infinite moral perfection is the crown of the Godhead. Holiness is the total glory thus crowned. Hodge.

To a young infidel who was scoffing at Christianity because of the misconduct of its professors, the late Dr. Mason said, "Did you ever know an uproar to be made because an infidel went astray from the paths of morality?" The infidel admitted that he had not. "Then don't you see," said Dr. M., "that, by expecting the professors of Christianity to be holy, you admit it to be a holy religion, and thus pay it the highest compliment in your power?" The young man was silent.