Understanding God's Holiness: Overcoming Doubts in Faith

Israel says why am I having such a difficult time God has always told us that we are his people very well if we are his people why does he allow us to suffer why are things going against us why has my judgment passed over from my God which means this you see that they were beginning to doubt God's goodness they couldn't quite make up their minds as to what was the real explanation was it that God was not able to do anything for them or was it that God really didn't care what to them they say where is God's righteousness where is his judgment he says that he's a just God well is this a fair way of dealing with us that's the question that they ask in view of their circumstances [00:10:56]

there are large numbers of people tonight outside the church and outside Christ for just this very reason that they say that they cannot reconcile the things that they know and the things they see with the claims that are made in the Bible for God and for his character it's an old problem this and a very persistent one you'll find it dealt with in on innumerable occasions in the scriptures themselves it's almost a standing complaint in the Book of Psalms the children of Israel were always ready to Grumble and to complain in this way whenever things went wrong with them they never say this sort of thing while things are going well of course when things were going well they just forget God all together but when things go wrong they turn back and say now is this Fair where is God Is God just in doing this is God not able to deliver us what is happening [00:11:53]

they say if God is God and if God is what the Bible says he is how can these things be they say look at the innocent suffering and look at the people who are evil and ungodly and selfish flourishing and having a thoroughly good time they say the way of godliness doesn't seem to pay in a world like this look at the injustices look at the cruelty look at the people who are born perhaps blind or lame or something like that now they say I can't believe in the god of your Bible when I see things like that that's the sort of argument there queering and doubting of God's goodness of God's justice of God's right righteousness of God's benevolence and then they say look at this problem of War why does God allow War if there is a God how can he possibly allow such a thing why doesn't he stop it you say he's got Almighty power they argue well very well if he's got the power why doesn't he exercise it it must be that he's not good that's what they say [00:13:17]

I say again that it is our total and completely inadequate ideas of God and our Unworthy conceptions of God that account for all our troubles all our problems all our difficulties about believing this Christian message we don't understand it that's the problem God is so great and so different that we stumble at every point we think we can understand we think we're competent to and we bring our questions and we analyze with our minds and because God doesn't conform to what we think we say this is wrong this can't be true my dear friends it's all I say owing to this tragic inability of men truly to understand the character of God [00:16:30]

he starts by holding us face to face with the Holiness of God listen to him here in the first statement he repeats the challenge which he introduced in verse 18 notice the difference between Verse 18 and verse 25 in verse 18 I read to whom then will he liken God or what likeness will he compare unto him in verse 25 I read to whom then will he liken me or shall I be equal sayth the Holy One you notice the new term the Holy One this is God's description of himself this is the way in which the Bible always refers to him and this is the way in which the Bible always meets us at this particular point of difficulty and the way in which it always answers us it always starts by making this great assertion that God is Holy it doesn't argue about this it proclaims it [00:18:07]

we cannot conceive of the Holiness of God we can't grasp what it means and if there is one point more than another at which all our powers and faculties are to be seen for the pygmy things they are it is when we try to consider the unutterable Holiness of God our minds buggle at the the greatness and the might and the Majesty of God don't they we feel our measures are too small but it is when we come to this quality of God which is called his Holiness that all our knowledge and philosophy and ability it's all so inadequate it all just becomes quite useless in our hands why well because God Is So essentially different [00:19:36]

there is one emphasis in modern theology which I believe is excellent and that is that section of itad dinate which puts great emphasis upon the utter qualitative difference between God and men and if we don't start with that we can never be right anywhere and what is the thing that divides and separates men from God most of all well it's just just this it is Holiness it's moral character we are separated from God I say in every respect but no in no respect more than this here I say we are face to face with something that's so entirely different from us that we can't begin to understand it and there is nothing to do but to Humble ourselves before it and to drop onto our knees and to worship him and to acknowledge that we are undone [00:20:50]

the main trouble with us all is that we don't know God it isn't our particular problems that constitute the real problem your problem you knows not to understand Miracles if you understood God you'd have no difficulty with Miracles All the Troubles are due to the fact we don't understand God the categories of too high they too great they too exalted it's God himself and what the Bible asserts about God above everything else is this that God is essentially holy that is the thing that makes God God he is unutterable Holiness [00:21:40]

God has been pleased to reveal himself and his Holiness to us that is why he gave the Ten Commandments and the moral law that's the message he gave the prophets that's what he's revealed supremely in his son that's what the son taught in The Sermon on the Mount Holiness Holiness unto the Lord the holy message of the Bible in a sense is this be ye holy for I am Holy listen to what the Bible tells us about God God it says is light and in him is no Darkness at all [00:22:37]

God is so great and so different that we stumble at every point we think we can understand we think we're competent to and we bring our questions and we analyze with our minds and because God doesn't conform to what we think we say this is wrong this can't be true my dear friends it's all I say owing to this tragic inability of men truly to understand the character of God now listen to The Prophet as he again holds us face to face with God that's all he's got to say by way of answer to this problem as is answered every other problem and he tells us here three things about the character of God [00:16:30]

the Bible always meets us at this particular point of difficulty and the way in which it always answers us it always starts by making this great assertion that God is Holy it doesn't argue about this it proclaims it and of course it's just here we find ourselves in our greatest difficulty it is here that we differ most of all from God we cannot conceive of the Holiness of God we can't grasp what it means and if there is one point more than another at which all our powers and faculties are to be seen for the pygmy things they are it is when we try to consider the unutterable Holiness of God [00:18:07]

the main trouble with us all is that we don't know God it isn't our particular problems that constitute the real problem your problem you knows not to understand Miracles if you understood God you'd have no difficulty with Miracles All the Troubles are due to the fact we don't understand God the categories of too high they too great they too exalted it's God himself and what the Bible asserts about God above everything else is this that God is essentially holy that is the thing that makes God God he is unutterable Holiness [00:21:40]