A Sunday To Look At God's Holiness

Holiness is the only triply emphasised attribute of God, and both the hymn and sermon featured today are responses to the holiness of God.

Holy, Holy, Holy

Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God, Almighty!
Early in the morning our song 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 wert and art and ever more shalt be.

Holy, Holy, Holy! Tho the darkness hide Thee,
Tho the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see;
Only Thou art holy, there is none beside Thee;
Perfect in pow'r, in love and purity.

Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord, God Almighty
All Thy works shall praise Thy name in earth and skiy and sea;
Holy, Holy, Holy! Merciful and mighty!
God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity!

Originally written to be sung on Trinity Sunday by Reginald Heber, with music by John Bacchus Dykes.

The sermon is one by C. W. Powell, of Trinity Covenant Reformed Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. C. W. Powell's sermons were recommended for this feature by Pruitt Communications.

This sermon is one in a series of sermons on the phrases of the Lord's Prayer. The focus of this sermon is on the words "Hallowed be they name," which is the first petition of the Lord's Prayer. Here's a bit of the application portion of the sermon. This is how we can give God the glory due to Him because of His holiness:

III. May we so order our whole life, our thoughts, words and deeds, that Thy name may not be blas-phemed, but honored and praised on our account.

a. Let there be no carelessness in our lives in our duty to God. We profess great things of Him: let us live every day that He be magnified and praised on our account--that He be not diminished in the eyes of men....

d.This is the import of the text: everything that we do, even so minute a thing as eating or not eat-ing meat, is to be done in terms of the purpose and calling of our very existence. We are not to live apart from God or His glory and plan. The question is not whether or not you have a right to eat meat--you have that right without question--but you have no right to eat meat in fellowship with devils, and you have no right to eat without thanksgiving and praise to God. You have no right to teach your brothers to live apart from the glory of God. This is what you are called to: hallow of the Name of God and to magnify and praise the Name of God forever.

e. It is a great sin to take God's name in vain, for the Lord will not hold Him guiltless that takes His Name in vain. This prayer is for the opposite of the cheapening and profanation of God's name: it is the hallowing of God's Name to which we are called, and for which we pray.

f. Because we hallow the Name of God, we take the Third Commandment seriously, and it grieves us to hear His name taken in jest, in blasphemy, in coarseness, in levity.

g. So we seek to hallow the Name of God in our minds, by rejecting every false view of Him and His worship; in our lives--by living according to our confession in love and faithfulness and trust in Him; in our worship--by rejecting all vain and empty forms and silly practices that cheapen His Name and His worship; in our families--by seeking the Lord and trusting Him in all that we say and do.

h. We do this because this is what we have been created for: that we might rightly know God [our] Creator, heartily love Him, and live with Him in eternal blessedness, to praise and glorify Him.

Amen and Amen.