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[0:00] Numbers 21 to 13. In the first month, the whole Israelite community arrived at the desert of Zin and they stayed at Kadesh.! There Miriam died and was buried.

[0:13] Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. They quarreled with Moses and said, If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord.

[0:25] Why did you bring the Lord's community into this desert that we and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.

[0:43] Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting and fell face down. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them. The Lord said to Moses, Take the staff and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together.

[0:57] Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink. So Moses took the staff from the Lord's presence just as he commanded him.

[1:12] He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock? Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff.

[1:26] Water gushed out in the community and their livestock drank. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy, in the sight of the Israelites you will not bring this community into the land I give them.

[1:42] These were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord and where he showed himself holy among them. Believers in Jesus, the living God is concerned about the reputation of his holy name.

[2:01] And therefore he is concerned about your holiness. He is holy and he wants his people who bear his holy name to be holy.

[2:13] So many places in scripture he says to us, Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy. Some of the top professional athletes in the world today make far more money endorsing products than they do playing their own sport.

[2:32] Companies will pay lots of money just to have this star athlete wear their shoes, their line of clothing, drive their car, use their products.

[2:43] But from time to time we hear of sports stars getting caught in some scandal. And the result is that companies drop them like a hot potato.

[2:58] O.J. Simpson is no longer running through airports for Hertz car rental. And last summer, Michael Vick found his corporate sponsors to turn and run.

[3:10] Why do they do this? Because they don't want the company's reputation tarnished by the bad image of its spokesman.

[3:23] They understand the principle that in the eyes of the public, their reputation is bound up with the reputation of those who represent them and bear their name.

[3:38] And so, dear fellow Christians, you bear the name, the holy name of Jesus Christ. You carry the name of God.

[3:52] It's amazing that he would attach his holy name to his holy people. But he has done it. And that means that the reputation of God's holiness on this earth is bound up with us and our holiness before a watching world.

[4:12] When our children leave our homes and go out into the public, whether for a night or a year, when they go out into the public, they carry the reputation of the family name with them.

[4:24] And that's either for good or for real. And so the children of God, his reputation for holiness goes with you wherever you go.

[4:39] Into school, into the workplace, into the theater, on that date, to the store, on the sports playing field. You carry the reputation of your holy God.

[4:54] Therefore, we shouldn't be surprised to learn that God has a deep concern for the holiness of his people. He has a vested interest in our holiness.

[5:10] Do you know that men will form their opinions about the holy God by the holiness that they see in you? And that's why God is so committed to our holiness.

[5:22] That's why he says, I am the Lord who makes you holy. That's why he made us holy by his blood and righteousness, cleansing our records in heaven. And why he sends his spirit to our hearts to cleanse our hearts and lives from sin.

[5:38] That's why he expects us to make every effort to be holy, to be absolutely sold out to holiness. In our lives. Because he's holy.

[5:51] And people will judge his holiness by ours. So let's consider what happens when we are poor representatives of his holiness.

[6:02] And then secondly, what happens when, by the grace of God, we are good representatives of his holiness. When his holiness is profaned by us, and when his holiness is honored by us.

[6:14] First of all, God's holiness profaned. Believers, when we act in an unholy manner, the reputation of God's holiness on earth suffers.

[6:24] People think less of God's holiness than they ought. And the Bible reveals that God is very jealous, very zealous for his holy name.

[6:36] And so he acts in a way that will show himself holy. He brings disciplinary judgments upon his sinning people, showing that he does care about sin.

[6:51] World, what you just saw in this one who bears my name, don't, don't think that I'm not holy because of what you saw in them. I am holy and I will show myself holy.

[7:03] And he does so by his disciplinary action upon the sinning son of God, child of God. He acts in judgments in order to clear his name.

[7:16] Sin does matter to me. It's a big deal to me. It's not something that I just ignore. Ezekiel 28 and 22. This is what the sovereign Lord says. I'm against you, O Sidon, and I will gain glory within you.

[7:31] And they will know that I am the Lord. When I inflict punishment on her and show myself holy within her, God will punish his people.

[7:42] And in doing so, we'll show the world that he himself is holy. God is very concerned for the holiness of his name.

[7:58] There's an old man, and he's climbing up a mountain. He's 120 years old. And he's there.

[8:11] On top of Mount Nebo, across from Jericho. It's Moses. For 40 years, he's been leading God's people through the wilderness. On a trek to the promised land.

[8:26] man who knew God. Man who knew God. Face to face, God says. And now they're on the back porch of the promised land.

[8:40] There's Jericho just across the river. And he's up on the mountain. And God says, take a look. Because you won't be going in.

[8:51] You're going to die on this mountain. You will not enter in to the promised land. Why not? God tells him in Deuteronomy 32, 51.

[9:03] Because you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the desert of Zin. And because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites.

[9:18] That is God's commentary on what took place in Numbers 20 that was read for us earlier. You did not uphold my holiness before the Israelites.

[9:30] What took place there at Kadesh? Well, there was no water and the people were thirsty. And they quarreled against Moses and Aaron who then in turn appealed to the Lord. And the Lord gave them very clear instructions.

[9:43] Didn't he? Speak to that rock. First, take your staff and gather the people together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. So they gathered the people together before the rock and Moses said, Listen, you rebels.

[10:00] Must we bring you water out of this rock? And then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out and the community and their livestock drank.

[10:14] But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites.

[10:25] You will not bring this community into the land I give them. God said, Speak. And he in anger struck. His disobedience to God's command was treating God's holiness with contempt.

[10:45] Treating God's commands as if they're no big thing. You don't have to be careful on what you do with God's words as if they don't matter.

[10:57] And so he did not honor God as holy before Israel. Do you know what you do with God's commandments either honors him as holy or belittles his holiness before a watching world?

[11:11] Beware of unbelief that would lead you to disobedience. Beware of anger and its place of getting you riled up so that you disobey God's command.

[11:25] Beware of an uncontrolled tongue. Unbelief. Uncontrolled anger. Uncontrolled tongue. These are holiness killers. You did not honor me as holy, he says.

[11:38] And when God's holiness is belittled, he himself must uphold it. And he does so with this stinging discipline. Moses, you'll see, but not enter.

[11:50] God himself showed himself holy among them. Numbers 20, verse 13. He's very concerned about the reputation of his holiness.

[12:02] There's a newborn baby boy and he's in critical condition, barely hanging on to life. And his father is fasting and praying for the life of his son and he's prostrate on the ground.

[12:17] He won't take any food. He's just got one thing before him. Let him live, Lord. Let him live. It's David, the king of Israel.

[12:27] And the child is the offspring from his adulterous affair with the wife of Uriah the Hittite. And after seven days, the boy dies. For after David had confessed his sin, the prophet Nathan had announced God's word to him.

[12:44] The Lord has taken away your sin and you are not going to die. But because by doing this, you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt. The son born to you will die.

[12:57] David showing contempt for God's commandment encouraged the world to show contempt for God, the giver of the holy command.

[13:13] King James Version, the New American Standard Bible, say that you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, to make fun of God because of your adultery.

[13:28] Now, Israel had an assignment. They were to honor God's holy name by obeying his commandments, obeying his holy laws, and so lifting up God's holiness before the nations.

[13:39] Our God is the Holy One of Israel. That was their assignment. And especially the king was to live that way. But by his sin against God's command, he not only dishonored God's holiness himself, he also gave the world all the excuses they would need to laugh at God and his people.

[14:00] And so by taking the life of the boy, God upholds the reputation of his holiness. I am not light on sin. The fruit of this union will die.

[14:13] It's a sober thing to bear the name of our holy God. And when God's people do not treat him as holy, he must do something for his namesake, lest his holiness be profaned in the earth.

[14:30] You see, that's an Old Testament story. Both of them. Yes. And we come into Acts chapter 5 in the New Testament. And we find a husband and a wife who are both in apparent health, falling down dead within three hours of each other.

[14:46] What is this? Ananias and Sapphira. They do not treat God as holy, but think they can lie to the Holy Spirit and get away with it. And they're both struck dead on the very spot of their lie to the church, which was lying to the Holy Spirit.

[15:03] And so God must uphold his holiness. The holiness of his own great name had been profaned. The result? Acts 5, 11.

[15:14] Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events. Once again, the view of God was he's an awesome God, a God of holiness. Not to be trifled with, not to be treated as unholy, as if he's not something special.

[15:32] Or we could go to 1 Corinthians 11 and see a whole church that's weak and sickly, in poor health. not just the usual few on their prayer list on Wednesday night that we're praying for.

[15:46] No, the attendance at prayer meeting is way down because everyone's home sick and weak and some are even dying. Many were told weak and sick and a number had died.

[15:59] Church of God in Corinth. Why so many sick and dying? Was the water poisoned in that city? No, they treated God's holy things as if they were unholy. It was the bread in the cup.

[16:11] It was communion. The holy communion. The holy table of the Lord treated as if it was an unholy, a common thing. And so God acted in discipline and showed himself as holy in their midst.

[16:26] That was the cycle of the Old Testament people of God, the Israelites. They were called to uphold God and his holiness. And they broke faith with God and they trampled on his laws.

[16:40] They turned their back to God and so God sent his holy prophets to call them to repentance. Come back to me. Come back to me. Why will you die? Why will you go on your own way when I would bless you if you would return to me?

[16:52] But they were stubborn and set in their ways and would not return. So he sends his prophets with a message of judgment that he would pour out. And so Isaiah speaks of this coming judgment in Isaiah 5, 15 and 16.

[17:08] That the nation would go into exile and that masses would be slain. Quote, So man will be brought low and mankind humbled and the eyes of the arrogant humbled. But the Lord Almighty will be exalted by his justice and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness.

[17:29] God's concerned about the reputation of his holiness before the watching world. And when his name is profaned, he won't let it go on being profaned forever.

[17:40] When, because of the lives of his people, people think less of him than they ought. He will rise and act in behalf of his own name showing himself holy. The prophet Ezekiel is loaded with this terminology and this message from God.

[17:55] Listen to these verses from Ezekiel 36, 20 to 23. And wherever they went among the nations, they profaned my holy name. For it was said of them, These are the Lord's people.

[18:08] And yet they had to leave his land. I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel profaned among the nations where they had gone. Therefore say to the house of Israel, This is what the sovereign Lord says.

[18:21] It is not for your sakes, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone.

[18:33] I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations. The name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the sovereign Lord, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.

[18:52] We could read literally dozens of passages, over a dozen in Ezekiel alone, that speak precisely in those terms. Of God's holiness being profaned.

[19:03] Kids, that simply means treating something that's holy as if it's not holy. Remember, something holy is something special that's set apart from everything else from the common.

[19:13] There's nothing like it. God is holy. His name is holy. His things are holy. And he's to be treated with special reverence. But when we treat the holy things of God as if it's just a common thing, as if he's no big deal, that is to profane the name.

[19:30] And that's what the people of God had done, the Israelites had done. God had spoken. You shall do this. You shall not do this. And they dismissed his word as if he's no big deal. What's God?

[19:41] What's his command? God says, you're profaning my holy name, so I will have to show myself holy. He's jealous for his holy name.

[19:52] So Paul says to the religious Jews of his day, you who brag about the law, Romans 2, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?

[20:03] As it is written, God's name is blasphemed among the nations because of you. Because of you. How is God's name faring among the world?

[20:18] Because of you. Are people thinking high thoughts of God because they see your holy life? Or is God's name blasphemed because of you?

[20:32] Our lack of holiness opens the holy name of our God to the slander of the world. Raymond Ortlund Jr. in his book When God Comes to Church says we live in a blaspheming, God-trivializing world.

[20:47] The sinful heart looks for every reason to disregard the holiness of God. So an unholy church is all the excuse that some need for trashing everything holy, which then reinforces their lifestyle.

[21:03] A church in decline dishonors God and encourages public sin. Whereas a holy church is an honor to God and is a living rebuke of the world's sin.

[21:17] Remember the covenant God entered into with his people Israel? You can read of it in Leviticus and Numbers, Deuteronomy. There were curses for unfaithfulness and blessings for faithfulness.

[21:33] He was warning, if you turn your back on my commands, I'm going to judge you. And here's how he put it. You will become an object of scorn and ridicule to all the nations where the Lord will drive you.

[21:45] Deuteronomy 28, 37. I'm going to have to drive you out of the promised land. I'm going to have to waste your land. I'm going to have to decimate your land. And you're going to become an object of scorn and ridicule.

[21:57] People will look at you and laugh. They will dismiss you as nobodies. But let's remember who they are. They're the people of God.

[22:08] They bear his name. And so Ortlund says, one of God's ways of disciplining us for our lack of holiness is simply to let the church sink into laughable irrelevance so that we become a joke in the eyes of the world and people look on us and shake their heads.

[22:27] What a bunch of losers they are. The judgment of God upon us to be scorned by the world as irrelevant. They see our hypocrisy.

[22:37] They know the truth of the surveys that are taken that shows that there's no appreciable difference between professing Christians and non-professors of Christianity.

[22:48] They have the same amount of drunkenness, the same amount of sexual immorality, the same amount of lying and cheating and stealing. These are the holy people and they laugh us to scorn.

[23:03] That's the entertainment world's opinion of Christians, isn't it? They're lifted up to be laughed at. And they dismiss us and our holy God with a chuckle.

[23:18] It ought to make us zealous for the holy name of God. And rather than whining about the way liberals attack Christians, we should be repenting that it is our own lack of holiness that has put ammunition in the guns of the world.

[23:35] they see our hypocrisy. They scorn us. They laugh at our standards that we hold before them and then don't live up to. And so the prophet Joel teaches us to repent and to pray.

[23:51] And Joel 2.17, spare your people, O Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, where is their God?

[24:05] Why should they say that, Lord, about your people? Where is their God? Why should the nations say, why should the world say, where is this power of God that they talk about in their gospel that's able to save from sin?

[24:20] Why should they say, where is their love to sustain lifelong happy marriages? Where is their persevering hope and joy in the face of adversity? Where is their willingness to cheerfully suffer for their beliefs rather than to compromise?

[24:33] Where is their sexual purity under temptation? Where is their self-giving love for one another? Where is their God? O Lord, do not let us become a byword, a mockery, but sanctify us and begin that work in me.

[24:56] God is very concerned about his holy name and when we do not live holy lives, his reputation suffers. But secondly, God's holiness honored.

[25:12] I wonder if you realize how glorifying to God a holy life is. Living a holy life.

[25:23] What pleasure, what glory it brings to God. We talk a lot around here about living for the glory of God. God is greatly glorified by a Christian living a holy life.

[25:36] Indeed, I believe it is the primary way of glorifying God. Living a life that shows the world our holy God. it is the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ that he makes his people holy.

[25:54] There's a man and he's full of sin and he's living for self and his life is all about him. And then he is saved by Jesus Christ.

[26:09] And his record in heaven is cleansed and the Holy Spirit is sent in his heart and starts to renovate his heart and cleanse his heart of sin and make him holy in heart and life.

[26:19] And his family begins to notice and his work associates start to notice and his neighbors notice. what's happened to him? Well, he met Jesus Christ and he makes his people holy.

[26:35] Oh, what glory, what praise, what honor comes to God. There's that little Jewish man in Jericho, and everybody knows he's a thieving grabber of their money collecting taxes for Rome.

[26:57] From the Jews, his fellow Jews. Traitor. They hated him. And one day his curiosity got the best of him and he hears Jesus is coming through Jericho and he wants to see but he's so short of stature and the crowd is so thick he can't see and so he runs up ahead of the parade route and he finds a sycamore tree and he climbs it and he waits and when Jesus passes by he stops and he calls him by name.

[27:23] I had never met that Jesus but he knew my name and he said, Zacchaeus, come down. I must come to your house today. This was a divine appointment from all eternity and he goes home with Zacchaeus and he's gloriously converted.

[27:40] He's made holy. The work of holiness is begun right on the spot. Not finished but begun.

[27:51] And he stands and he says, here and now if I have cheated anyone or first, here and now I give half my goods to the poor and if I have cheated anyone out of anything I will repay him four times the amount.

[28:05] Zacchaeus made holy and so we see this little man with his bag of money going around from house to house.

[28:21] Oh no, it's not you again. It can't be tax time again. No, no, I'm not here to collect. I'm here to say I'm sorry. I robbed you.

[28:32] You owed a hundred dollars and I charged you. More than that. I charged you two hundred. I ripped you off by a hundred dollars and I am so sorry.

[28:44] Here's four hundred dollars. Would you please forgive me? And off to the next house. He's settling up accounts, you see. He's making things right and word spreads throughout Jericho.

[28:56] What happened to old Zac? He's not the same man. Haven't you heard? He's never been the same since he met Jesus of Nazareth. He has made him holy. There's self-righteous Nicodemus.

[29:13] Upon meeting Jesus, the work starts churning in him and at the cross, we see him coming out of his hiding and identifying with the Son of God even at his lowest when he's on the cross.

[29:25] He becomes a humble disciple of Jesus. We see those sexually immoral people in Corinth. Homosexuals, adulterers, prostitutes, now living sexually pure lives.

[29:41] What's happened here? Jesus made them holy. Paul says, Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanders, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

[30:04] And that is what some of you were. But you were washed. You were sanctified. That's the word. Made holy. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

[30:22] A holy life is a very glorifying thing to God. Leonard Ravenhill said, The greatest miracle that God can do today is to take an unholy man out of an unholy world and to make him holy.

[30:39] And then to stick him back in to an unholy world and to keep him holy. To keep him holy in an unholy world.

[30:54] Oh, the glory that comes to God's holiness by the holy lives of his people. The one who makes you holy. Remember that the next time you're tempted to compromise your morals, your holiness, to fudge on his holy standards, to give in to some temptation or sin, or just to relax a little in your pursuit after holiness.

[31:17] There's a cause worth fighting for. There's a holy God to glorify. See how God is glorified in the holiness of his servant Job. You know the story.

[31:29] But have you considered that the book of Job opens with God bragging on Job's holiness? God bragging to Satan about how holy his servant Job is.

[31:47] Satan appears before the Lord. The Lord says, where have you come from? He says, from roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth in it. The Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? Job is like a proud father bragging about his son's accomplishments at graduation.

[32:03] Have you considered God, the Father, bragging to Satan about his son Job, his child? Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him.

[32:15] He is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. That's holiness. That's what that is. That's holiness. And it's Job's holiness that God takes pleasure in.

[32:29] And Satan says, well, that's explainable, God. He only lives that way because you bless him all the time. He's just in it for what he can get out of it. That's all his religion is. That's all his holiness is.

[32:43] You stretch out your hand and strike everything he has and he'll curse you. He'll surely curse you to your face. That's all he is. So the Lord said to Satan, very well then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.

[32:59] And so in one day all his wealth is gone, all his ten children are gone. And Job says, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised.

[33:12] And in all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. That's holiness. That's holiness. And sometime later, Satan again comes before the Lord after roaming throughout the earth.

[33:28] And again, God says, Have you considered my servant Job? There's no one on earth like him. He is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil, and he still remains, he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.

[33:48] Can you not just feel the pleasure of God in pointing that out to the devil? He said all that he said before. He is holy and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil, and he has still maintained his holiness, though you incited me against him.

[34:07] Posting of true holiness, the work of his spirit in the soul of a man. He's not just in it for financial gain. He counts me as worthy of pursuing through thick and through thin.

[34:26] Skin for skin, Satan says. A man will give all he has for his own life, but stretch out your hand and strike his flesh, his health, his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.

[34:44] Very well then, he is in your hands. But you must spare his life. And Satan went out and afflicted Job with painful sores from the sole of his feet to the top of his head. And his wife looked at him and said, Are you still holding on to your holiness?

[34:58] Curse God and die. And he replied, You're talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God and not trouble? And in all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

[35:12] That's holiness under trial, under testing. He pursues holiness and the God of holiness even when his health is stripped from him and he's in pain.

[35:28] How greatly God was glorified in the holiness of his servant Job. And a holy church is even more glorifying than one holy individual because here you have a whole family of believers that were once self-seeking, self-loving creatures now loving God with their hearts and souls and mind and strength and loving each other as themselves.

[35:50] And great glory comes to the one who makes us holy as together we reflect his beauty and holiness to the world. So live such good lives among the pagans.

[36:03] Live such holy lives among them that though they accuse you of doing wrong and though they laugh at you and reproach you and scorn you, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

[36:19] And on that last day of judgment when he visits us, those who scorned you will have to acknowledge your holiness was real. It was my planting, the planting of God in you.

[36:33] And they saw it and they ran into you and they were in that dorm with you and they laughed at you but they knew in their hearts that you were for real. You were no hypocrite. And they will glorify God on the day of visitation by acknowledging true holiness.

[36:49] Not perfection but true holiness. And God will be glorified forever for it. I want us to catch the motivation in this for living a holy life.

[37:01] It is no easy thing to live a holy life. It is no easy thing for Job to maintain holy living when he has no family and no wealth and no health.

[37:13] But there is motivation here. How honoring to God a holy life is. Your holy life, Christian, is the stage on which God is showing his own holiness to this sinful world.

[37:29] Showing that he is the one who makes us holy. Have you thought of your holiness in those terms? Have you reckoned with the importance of it and how it glorifies the holy God?

[37:45] The Philistine and Israelite armies were facing each other and all that was between them was the valley of Elah. And each day the Philistine giant presented himself and made a blasphemous challenge and defied the armies of Israel to give him a man to fight.

[38:00] And they would all retreat terrified and then the young teenager David shows up. He arrives on the scene with some very different eyes and he sees the army of Israel all just running away terrified, fearfully retreating before the blasphemous challenge of Goliath and he offers himself to fight saying, Is there not a cause?

[38:25] Who does this uncircumcised Philistine think he is to blaspheme the armies of the Lord Almighty?

[38:37] Is there not a cause to fight? Is there not a holy name of God to uphold? Yes, he's big. Yes, he's mean. Yes, he's experienced warrior.

[38:50] But God is worth defending. His holiness is worth upholding and he presents himself. Does the whole world not need to know that there is a God in Israel who really is holy?

[39:08] And so I say to you, yes, living a holy life in an unholy world will present you great difficulties and challenges. It will not be an easy thing to go off to school and to live a holy life.

[39:23] Yes, few, even in Christian churches are really pursuing holiness. Yes, many are retreating into compromise with the world on every front and for you to make every effort to pursue holiness might expose you, yes, will expose you to misunderstanding, mocking, and scorn.

[39:47] But is there not a cause? Is there not a God to glorify by a holy life? Is there not a holy reputation of your Savior to uphold?

[40:01] Is that not worth glorifying on the earth? Is His holy name not to be hallowed? Is the holy Jesus not worth treating as holy and treating His commandments as holy?

[40:13] Did the Son of God not die a shameful death of the cross outside the city gates for me? And shall I not go outside the city gates bearing the disgrace that He bore?

[40:29] Shall I not identify with Him? Shall I not show that by my life He is holy and He has made me holy? All glory to His name for His blood, His righteousness that has covered me, His Spirit that is sanctifying me.

[40:47] Let's show this sin-enslaved world, the one who saves from sin, the one who makes us holy. If God's ultimate aim is to have His holiness displayed, then make it your ultimate aim.

[41:05] Love holiness. Deny yourself for holiness. Pray for greater holiness. holiness. Pursue holiness. Kill every sin that would ruin holiness.

[41:21] His holy reputation is worth all the effort. And Lord, for Your own namesake, make us holy. Hallowed be Your name.

[41:32] God's concern for His holy name ultimately brings us to the middle cross on Golgotha where we see just how concerned God is for His holiness, that He would damn His own Son, that He might forgive sinners holiness in a way that upholds His holiness.

[41:55] Come to Christ. Be made holy through His holy work on Calvary. It is time for judgment to begin with the family of God, Peter says.

[42:07] And if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of Christ? Christ, our Father, our Holy Father, we thank You for calling us together on this, Your holy day, and calling us aside to once again see things as they really are.

[42:32] Lord, we've seen again Your holiness and Your concern for Your holy name. We come through Christ and plead, look on Him and pardon us for all of our sin.

[42:45] We've seen something of how our unholy lives besmirch Your name in the eyes of this watching world. O Lord, forgive us and cleanse us and make us to be a praise to Your name.

[43:02] We've also seen how glorifying a holy life is to You. Then would You not be pleased to come to make us each one heart by heart to be set apart unto You, our Savior, holy to the Lord, stamped in everything we do with the likeness of our Savior.

[43:22] Would it not be to Your glory to have this church to be known for its likeness to Jesus? Come and make us holy, cleanse us by Your holy word and spirit, and get great glory to Your own name, we ask through Christ.

[43:39]  Amen. Amen. Amen.