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Hello and welcome to the
Middletown Baptist Church podcast,

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where we are proclaiming the
truth to the world.

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In this podcast series, we're
going to be looking into biblical

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words that have great
significance to our faith.

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The name of this series is
called the Word of the Week, where

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once a week we will dive
deeper into these words that we are

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familiar with in scripture.

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So come along with me, let's
study the Word of the week.

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Pastor Josh here with another
word of the week.

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The word of the Week this week
is holiness.

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What does it mean when we say
that God is holy?

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The holiness of God refers to
his perfection, his sinlessness,

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his blamelessness, the fact
that he is completely and utterly

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pure in every way.

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There is no sin found in Him.

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We see a few different
occasions in Scripture, one in the

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Old Testament and one in the
New Testament where it says holy,

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holy, holy three times.

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You see that word holy
describing our Savior.

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We're going to look at the one
here in Isaiah, because I want us

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to study here this week what
holiness is in the context of who

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God is.

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And then also what does that
mean for us?

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What does God's holiness mean
for us as believers?

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And so, uh, here this week,
I'd like us to start here in the

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Book of Isaiah.

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You can follow along with me here.

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And this is a description of
Isaiah and his experience with the

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Lord and his recognition of
the holiness of God.

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And so we see In Isaiah,
chapter 6, verse 1, it says, in the

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year that King Uzziah died, I
saw also the Lord sitting upon a

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throne high and lifted up, and
his train filled the temple.

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Above it stood the seraphims.

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Each one had six wings, and
with twain he covered his face, and

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with twain he covered his
feet, and, and between he did fly.

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And one cried unto another and
said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord

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of hosts.

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The whole earth is full of his glory.

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And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried.

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And the house was filled with smoke.

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And so here we see the
proclamation of God's holiness, His.

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His all powerful nature, his
all knowing nature, his omnipresence,

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all of his attributes that we
believe according to scripture, all

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of his attributes are tied to
his holiness.

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We know that God is loving,
but we know that he is completely

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loving and perfect in his
loving nature.

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That's his holiness there.

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He's forgiving, but he's
completely forgiving in his nature.

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And so one would say that
holiness is the defining element

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of who God is and, and, and
what his character is all about.

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There's so many Other things
that we could talk about.

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When it comes to God's
character, He is infinite, right?

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He's beyond us.

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His thoughts are above our thoughts.

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His ways are beyond our ways.

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But I think it's important for
us to understand the holiness of

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God in contrast to the.

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The sin that we are
characterized by as human beings.

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And so I want us to see
Isaiah's reaction here in Isaiah

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chapter 6 to the recognition
of the holiness of God.

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And it says in verse number
five, then said I, woe is me, for

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I am undone because I am a man
of unclean lips, and I dwell in the

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midst of people of unclean
lips, for mine eyes have seen the

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King, the Lord of hosts.

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And.

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And then so we go a little bit
further here.

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So, so he recognizes his moral
failure in the sight of God's holiness.

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And I think that's one of the
things that we have to understand

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because in our life, sometimes
we are tempted to think that we are

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good people, that.

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That we are people that are
inherently good.

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And what the Bible says, that
in and of ourselves and our flesh,

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we are sinful, we are flawed.

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And even later on in the book
of Isaiah, it says that our, our

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sin, our, excuse me, our good
works are like filthy rags.

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And therefore, even if we
think that we are good people and

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we are earning our.

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Our worth and our goodness and
our morality, we still fall short.

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And so it says in verse six of
Isaiah, chapter six, then flew one

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of the seraphims unto me,
having a live coal in his hand, which

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he had taken with the tongs
from off the altar.

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And he laid it upon my mouth
and said, lo, this hath touched thy

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lips, and thine iniquity is
taken away and thy sin is purged.

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And so what we can ultimately
see here in this passage is that

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we all are in desperate need
of the Holy One to offer forgiveness

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to us, offer cleansing to us.

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And so the fact that God is
holy refers to the fact that he is

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different, that he is distinct.

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And so literally, holiness
refers to something or someone that

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has been separated from the
common you so set aside for a specific

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purpose.

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And so in this case, we know
that God is set apart from us in

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his holiness and his perfection.

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Now we're going to look later
on in the study about how we as Christians

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are called to be holy.

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Later on the New Testament, it
says, be holy, for I am holy.

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And so we're going to talk
about how we as believers can walk

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in the path of righteousness,
how we can understand the holiness

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of God.

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But before we do that, we must
understand God's character and his

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holiness.

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And so God is different in
every way.

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God is eternal.

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He's all powerful.

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That's omnipotence.

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He's omniscient.

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He knows everything.

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He's omnipresent.

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He's everywhere.

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That that is what makes God
different than the creation that

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we deal with today, with our humanity.

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And He.

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He is distinct in that.

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And so God's holiness is in
his difference, in the fact that

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he is different in all those
ways, but also different in the fact

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that he is not flawed by sin,
that he's not marred by sin like

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we are as well.

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And so in.

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In this passage, in Isaiah and
in other passages of Scripture, we're

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just reminded about how much
we are falling short of the glory

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of God.

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That doesn't mean that we can
just throw our hands up in the air

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and quit and just say, you
know what?

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I'll never be like God, so I
can live the way that I want to live.

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No, the Bible shows there the
need for our salvation, the need

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for our reliance on the Holy
One to extend holiness to us.

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And so one of the responses to
God's holiness and understanding,

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understanding his sinless
nature, because by the way, the Bible

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does say that God is the same
yesterday, today, and forever.

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We know that he does not change.

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And so just as he is holy back
here in the Book of Isaiah, so he

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is holy today.

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And we have to understand that.

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So one of the results of
understanding God's holiness and

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believing in God's holiness is
that we fall short of that holiness.

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And we need a Savior.

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And, and we know the message
of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ

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came.

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And the Bible says in Second
Corinthians, Chapter 5, he who knew

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no sin became sin for us.

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And so the Holy One gave
Himself for us so that we could understand

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forgiveness, so that we could
understand his holiness.

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And so it brings us to a
recognition that we need more, we

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need a Savior.

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We need something else in our
life other than our own good works.

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And so holiness brings us to a
place of a need for a Savior.

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But also God's holiness brings
us to a place of stirring our heart

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to praise and adore our
Savior, to.

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To understand that he is
worthy of our worship.

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There's a lot of things in
this world that we worship that are

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not perfect.

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They are flawed.

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Whether it be a person or a
product or just a lifestyle, we worship

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these things that don't
deserve worship.

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And so what we're really told
in Scripture is the only thing that

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we are to worship is the Lord.

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The only person that we are to
worship is the Lord.

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And so the holiness of God
stirs our heart to worship.

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It stirs our heart to praise
him for who he is and his perfection

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and how he offers that gift of
salvation to us.

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And so we should not shy away
from the fact that the Bible clearly

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states that we must rest in
the holiness of God.

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That's the standard.

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Now, none of us can be
completely holy in the way that we

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act in our daily walk.

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The Bible does say that one
day we will have the opportunity

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to live with the Lord and be
freed from that bondage of, of sin

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forever.

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Now, even in our salvation,
we're free from the bondage of sin.

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So I want to be clear about that.

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We, we no longer have to sin
because we are redeemed.

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But the Bible does say that we
are still wrestling with the flesh.

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But the Bible says also that
one day we will be with him and we

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will no longer have that sin
nature, and we will live in eternity

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in perfection with Him.

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But in the meantime, as we are
living on this earth, we are called

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to continue to trust in his holiness.

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And so we are called to be
holy, which we're going to be looking

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at more next week.

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In First Peter, chapter one,
there is that challenge that we should

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be holy because God is holy.

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But what we're learning here
this week is that God is holy.

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And that brings us to a place
of understanding that we are inadequate,

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we are insufficient, and he is
the only one that brings that adequate

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sufficiency and that salvation
and that hope.

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And so I hope that that's
something that we can all recognize

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in our life, that none of us
can earn that through our own holiness.

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But ultimately it is the
holiness of God that we are to rest

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in and trust in and know that
he has offered His Son as the perfect

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sacrifice for us.

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And so holy, holy, holy.

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We, we know that in the New
Testament, in the book of Revelation,

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we see the same praise
extended to the Lord.

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And, and I think it's
important to note that.

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So we started in Isaiah and
we'll end in Revelation, Revelation

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chapter four.

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We, we go to a place there
where it is essentially the folks

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there worshiping.

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And it's a revelation, four, eight.

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And the four beasts had each
of them six wings about him, and

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they were full of eyes within.

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And they rest not day and
night, saying, holy, holy, holy,

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Lord God Almighty, which was
and is and is to come.

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And so there is this worship,
this eternal worship, worshiping

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God for His holiness,
worshiping him for his eternality,

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worshiping him for his all
powerful nature, Holy, holy, holy

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Lord God Almighty, which was
and is and is to come.

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And I think that as a believer
we must rest and understand his holiness

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today.

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And that drives us to live
lives of holiness in our own lives.

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And so next week we'll look at
what it means to be holy.

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It doesn't necessarily mean to
be sinlessly perfect in every way,

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but it does mean that we are
set aside sanctified for a specific

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use.

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And so we'll talk more about
that next week.

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When it comes to the topic of
holiness, well, remember, God is

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holy, God is perfect, God
loves you, he's worthy of our worship.

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And God has extended that gift
of grace to you in, in the, in the

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work of the gospel and salvation.

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So I pray that this is
something that we can think about

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and grow in here this week.

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And we look forward to talking
to you next week when we talk about

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the holiness of God imparted
unto us.

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So thank you so much.

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God bless you.

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We will come back to you with
another Word of the Week next week.

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Hey, I really appreciate that
you listen to the Word of the Week

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podcast.

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If you have any questions
about the podcast or about our church,

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Middletown Baptist Channel
Church, you can find more information

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about us on Facebook or
YouTube or you can find the podcast

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on NBCpodcast.org you can
contact me directly at Josh Massaro

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at middletown baptist
church.org Stay tuned for future

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Word of the Week episodes
where we dive deeper into words that

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impact our life according to scripture.

236
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Thank you so much.

237
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God bless.

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We'll talk to you soon.