Revelation 15:1-8
Seven Angels and Seven Plagues
1 I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed. 2 And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God 3 and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb:
“Great and marvelous are your deeds,
Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
King of the nations.
4 Who will not fear you, Lord,
and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
5 After this I looked, and I saw in heaven the temple—that is, the tabernacle of the covenant law—and it was opened. 6 Out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues. They were dressed in clean, shining linen and wore golden sashes around their chests. 7 Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God, who lives for ever and ever. 8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.
St. John was an Original Disciple of Jesus...In Revelation, St. John talks about the Holiness of God...He understood the Holiness of both God and His Son...He tells us God Alone is Holy...He writes “Great and marvelous are your deeds, LORD God Almighty...Just and true are your ways, King of the nations...Who will not fear you, LORD, and bring glory to Your name?...For You Alone are Holy...All nations will come and worship before You, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”...
God is Holy...God both is Holy and Sacred...God is LOVE...God is Truth...God is full of Mercy and Grace...God is Righteousness...God is Pure...God is full of Forgiveness...God is Just and the Perfect Judge...Jesus tells us that God is Perfect and Good...With these attributes one would think everyone would want to know Him and want to be close to Him, and have a relationship with Him...But do any of these attributes make it difficult for man to be close to a LOVING God?...
With these attributes why wouldn't everyone want to follow God...Some people do not believe in God and thus ignore Him...There are different reasons why one might want to follow One with the above attributes...He may have done something in their past that hurt them, like their lose of a family member or spouse through death...Others may believe that earthly life and their time on earth is better than an eternal life with the Father and Son...Others may not want to follow God because of peer pressure or they are uncomfortable being around people who are followers of Jesus...Others might say that God does not give them enough evidence to believe and they want more evidence to believe in Him...
But Could there be another reason why we ignore or stay separate from God, and in a different way from our usual thinking of being apart from Him?...
Dr. Charles Stanley and Minister believes that some people withdraw from the Father and Son because of Their Great Holiness...Dr. Stanley says: Some simply ignore Him, but there are others who become angry and hostile toward Him...As believers who know that God is LOVE, goodness, mercy, and kindness, those adverse reactions are sad to see...But there is an attribute of God that causes the unbelieving world to withdraw from Him because it reveals their sin—His Holiness...
Dr. Stanley goes on to define Holiness...The Minister gives us two aspects of God's Great Holiness -His Moral Purity and His Separateness: Here are two aspects of God’s holiness...His Moral Purity...The LORD is Perfectly sinless and pure with no evil thoughts, words, motives, or actions...Nothing He’s ever done or will do is wrong...He despises all wickedness and can neither tolerate nor overlook it...As sinful creatures, we cannot perceive just how pure and holy He is...His Separateness...God’s Holiness sets Him apart from His creation...He’s transcendent, which means He’s far above and beyond everything else...His righteousness and purity are so great that they separate us from Him because we’re all born with sinful natures...The words saint, sanctify, and holy all come from the Greek word hagios...To be sanctified means to be set apart or to be made holy...God is the Only One who can make someone holy because He alone is the epitome of Holiness...Since sin is present in us, we have no power to make ourselves righteous...But we’re made saints (holy ones) by an act of God in a moment of time based on our faith in Jesus Christ...He sets us apart for Himself and then works to make us holy in character and practice through the process of sanctification, which continues throughout our lives until we reach heaven...
When the Bible calls something holy, it comes from the word kodesh, which has a root word kadash...So as we read about holiness in the Bible, it is something that is “set apart” from everything else...God may make something Holy and then set it apart for His use, like He did in His Tabernacle and His Temple...And we can see in God's Great Holiness it could become a dilemma for us...How could sinful man meet up with and be with One Who Has never sinned, when He hates sin?...And yet, this Holiness of God stirs our hearts and we understand that there is this Great Source, the Great Why (who can answer all things), who is full of Grace and Truth that is deserving of continual praise and adoration and worship...As St. Augustine wrote about God's Holiness and said, we will not be able to rest until we rest in Thee...
The Israeli people knew this Greatness and this Separateness Holy attribute of God...The Prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter six verse three, and St. John in Revelation said that the angels cry before God: “Holy Holy Holy is the LORD of Hosts” day and night...The Prophet and Saint are telling us that God is set apart from everyone in every situation and in all times past and in the current times, and in the future times, because He is Perfectly Holy...You are LOVE...You are Perfect Truth...You know all things...No one compares to You, with the LOVE, Grace and Forgiveness that You give...There is no one in the universe like You, Your Judging, and Righteousness are Perfect, and therefore, unsurpassed...You are so unique, no one has ever been like You, or are like You, or will be like You...You are certainly set apart from not only man, but all things...You are Completely Unique, like no other thing ever that has been...His Holiness keeps us separated from those who sin - and that is us...And so we can understand why Jesus who never sinned or had deceit in His mouth, and always did God's Will is in Heaven at His Throne on the right side...
So God sees this Great dilemma for mankind and sent His Son to dwell among us, to help us, so God could be with us...Since in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...He was with God in the very beginning...Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made...In Jesus is life, and that life was the Light of all mankind...The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it...These are other reasons why Jesus is with God...
Dr. Charles Stanley explains this dilemma and being close to God this way..."This is the great dilemma...Our sins separate us from the LORD, and the only One who can bridge that gap is Jesus Christ...In His Holiness, God requires that His wrath be poured out in judgment upon every sinner for every sin committed...Yet in LOVE, He placed our sins on His Perfect Son who bore the cross that we deserved to bear...Now all who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus as Savior can be forgiven because the penalty of their sins has been paid...They themselves have been justified--declared not guilty--and clothed with Christ’s righteousness...It’s all the work of God...There’s nothing we could do to save ourselves...He’s the One who obtained our salvation through His Son, convicts us of sin, opens our minds to understand the gospel, draws us to Himself, and sets us apart as His holy possessions...
Imperfection cannot touch or be with and in Perfection...When imperfection touches Perfection, imperfection results...So God's Perfect Moral Purity and His Separateness from His Holiness keeps us from being close to Him and thus being apart and separate from Him...And then earth and earthly things make us drift further from Him...We do not keep ourselves away from temptation and sin...Because God keeps Himself separate from sin and our nature is to live in a sinful way, we would have remained apart from God, had it not been for His Son...Jesus teaches us that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life...No one gets to God except except through Him...God has allowed His Separateness and His children to be closer, with His Son dying on the Cross for our sins...We now can be close to Him and His Son...But we need the Son, as our Savior, so we can avoid this Perfect Holiness to allow us to come closer to Him...We fall short of His Glory and sin...We needed Jesus to die for our sins, so we could be nearer to God...To the question that keeps us apart from the One, we most want to be with...Jesus is the answer...What a LOVING, FORGIVING, MERCIFUL, GRACEFUL, Great Plan of God for us...