Good morning and welcome. This is Pastor lucy painter with your daily insights and we continue with our episodes, the splendor of his holiness over the years, I have been asked. This question is the God of old testament. The same God in the new testament. And maybe you have wondered the same because we say that our God is the God of Israel. He is consistent. He is invaluable in nature and the bible speaks wildly on this, but it is also irrefutable that in the old testament, God's presence inspired fear. I know it's a bit contracted to me, but just hold that thought. His glory was nothing short of terrifying boundaries.

Often had to be said to keep people off and safe when he came down to them, there was a section of the temple that only the serving high priest was allowed to enter because the glory of the Lord dwelt there. God's presence was almost always signified by lightning, thunders, thick clouds, fire smoke, earthquakes, and loud trumpet sounds. And these terrified people. Everyone who witnessed this manifestation trembled to their cause. Now we were discussing this on liberty with some people about why did the Israelites Telmo says, you know what you go tell God to just speak to you and we'll be okay because the time he came to the mountain to speak to them, even though they had spent like three days cleansing themselves the way he appeared, it just shook them to the car.

They were so afraid. The bible says in hebrews chapter 12 Verse 18-25. You know this the writer of the book of Hebrew. He reflects on this manifestation and he says that you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. He's referring to that experience I just mentioned for they could not endure the order that was given. If even a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned instead. Indeed, so terrifying. Was the sight that moses said, I tremble with fear. Are we talking about the same guy? Yeah, it is the same guy.

So you have probably had people say that our generation is living in the times of Grace. And I remember my daughter patients was preaching on sunday and she mentioned something um that I am still meditating on up to today. She said that Grace does not give you a license to sin. And yes, we are living in the times of Grace. And some people also say that God is a little lenient with us than he was in the old testament. But does this mean that God has changed over time. I have so many questions today in this episode, but I'm just provoking you to think about this as we dive deeper as we continue going in depth in worship, in the splendor of his holiness. Our God is indeed a loving and patient God.

But the absence of those dreadful events does not mean his presence is any less fearsome. His glory ought to be regarded with all. He is still the law giver. He is still internal judge his power. And holiness ought to terrify the hearts of humankind. It ought to inspire reverence for the majesty of God, and those who have beheld the highest physical manifestation of it. Understand that, and this is why the Israelites stood by the months in nine and witnessed God in his full majesty, and they bet that no further words should be spoken to them directly. This is why moses himself says, I trembled with fear. They were terrified. And although the gospel that was delivered to us is kind, we are encouraged to approach God's presence with boldness, it should never be lost to us that we are approaching the almighty God.

The mercy, the new covenant does not exempt us from the obligation of regarding the splendor and the power of the Lord with as much reverence as it deserves. You know, we are in that dispensation of the new covenant, and it that alone gives us even more reason for allegiance and fidelity to God. The grace under the new covenant, the great revelations following christ should inspire more obedience in us, that the law did than the law did for the old testament generation. It should win and hold our affections for God, it should prompt the deepest desire for righteousness. And you hear that I'm touching now on righteousness, because we're not gonna go worship in the splendor of his Holiness with all our feeling nous, with all our pride now we should be there knowing he is a holy God.

We are talking of worshiping in his holiness, that we should have that desire for righteousness. We may not have something palpable, something material like a tempest or a mountain, like surrounded with smoke or thunder and lightning to call us to attention when the Lord is a minus, because we have the spirit of God, who is able to reach beyond our external senses to give us even a greater experience, a better knowledge and understanding of our God. That would all our hats, but the glorious privilege bestowed upon us by the Gospel cause for an even greater reverence for my God. So I'm saying, even if you don't see smoke and mountains just by having the spirit of God, yes, that is enough to have great reverence for God.

Our superior excellence of the Gospel to the law demands that we must be upright in our work in our ways of God. We must hold the consideration for greater spirituality in our hands. I'm saying, I don't have to see God shaking a mountain to believe in him and to just give him the respect that he deserves when it is time to just worship him. I know he exists. I believe he's holy. I believe he's great. The doctrine of holiness must be at the core of our worship, we must land to worship, to approach the presence of God. We must enter the holy of holies knowing that we approaching the presence of the living God, we are as with christ and we have been accorded the privilege of the firstborn through him.

But we must answer to the call to join the glorious assembly with gratitude. We ought to applaud, hold the same standards of reverence of honor and Godly fear that God decides we ought to surrender to the spirit of God to God, to guide our worship. That it may be right and acceptable to God. Isn't it wonderful that we have been called from terror and judgment to a joyous celebration, from a physical and other covenant into a spiritual and heavenly one, fred from the dread of judgment by the blood of jesus and the distance between us and the living God was removed by the blood of the Lord. And we have been made dwellers of the city of the love and God. And what this means is that we under we are under the grace of God and under the rain of the spirit of God, who is even stricter is to enforce the holiness that the law than that law of moses he demands even greater attention because there is no more cost to be paid than the one that was paid at the cross.

And when you look at that verse we have read today, the writer says, we have come to a different place. And this speaks of a continuous state of things. We have taken up residence before the majesty of God Almighty. Even as we avail ourselves for this privilege, as we draw near the throne of Grace with confidence, as we claim the Grace and Mercy of God, may we realize that this privilege bears a heavy responsibility of upholding righteousness and strict adherence to the ways of God because he is the same God. He is still the consuming fire and his standards of holiness remain as they were from the beginning of time. So today, one of the things I want us to really, really zero in is that the same God who would calm down and the mountains would shake.

There will be thunder, lightning and smoke and the trumpets would blow. He's the same guy. He hasn't changed. And it's the same God has given us this invitation to worship him in the beauty of his holiness as we continue to go into depth of understanding this invitation. We need to understand that he has not changed. His standards of holiness remains the same. I pray that none of us will misunderstand this presence, this environment, this standard. His standards of holiness remains the same as we continue to worship in. The beauty of his holiness.

This is Pastor lucy painter with your daily insights And this is the splendor of his holiness. Day six Shalom, Thank you for your continued support and encouragement to the making of the daily insights, reaching an average of 60 people a day with over 10,000 total place. I invite you to partner with us by supporting this podcast through month three or one time donation. Your contribution will be used to sustain the episode subscription and hosting platform. My goal is to inspire and share insightful messages in our generation, empowering one person at a time each day to continue serving the purposes of God in our generation.

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