An address given by Col. D. V. Underwood at a meeting of the Sovereign Grace Union at Bethersden Kent on November llth 1987.

THE MAJESTY OF GOD

An address given by Col. D. V. Underwood
at a meeting of the Sovereign Grace Union,
at Bethersden, Kent, on November llth 1987.

We must beware of intruding into these high and lofty themes of the sovereignty and majesty of God, any notions which we might gain from a consideration of the kings of the earth, either past or present. It would be a great mistake to think of the sovereignty and majesty of God in terms of our present British monarchy, trammeled by the constraints of the constitution, and with the limits placed upon it by Parliament. It would be also a mistake to think of the sovereignty and majesty of God in terms of the unlimited tyranny of some despots of the past. It is very dangerous, not only in this matter, but in others, to look with our own jaundiced eyes at the world around us and try to deduce truth about God from what we see there. We must come to the one place where we know God has spoken with authority, where He has graciously inclined towards us, where He has Himself set forth the terms of His sovereignty and His majesty; the one place where we may come with confidence is to the Holy Scriptures.

It is the majesty of God as set forth in scripture that concerns us. The Psalmists knew of it and we have been singing some of the things they have to say concerning the majesty of God. Our Authorized Version translators have used this word ‘majesty’ often in their translation of the Hebrew of the Psalms. Some of the Hebrew words translated ‘majesty’ have about them the sense of excellency, of greatness, of glory, of honour, of power, and of beauty. The Psalmist knew it, and of course, so did Moses. In the 15th chapter of Exodus, and the llth verse we read:

Who is like unto thee, O LORD,

among the gods?

who is like thee,

glorious in holiness

fearful in praises,

doing wonders?

This is the first inspired song. It is a song of triumph for a real and historical deliverance. It is not something which comes from myth and legend, but it is from actual fact. The Holy Spirit inspires Moses. He puts into the mouth of Moses and the children of Israel these wonderful words. It is interesting that he puts it in the future

When we read, “To whom then, will ye liken God?” or, “What likeness will ye compare unto him, To whom will ye liken me?, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One”, the intended response is “Well, of course, there is no one. There is not anyone.”

The prophet Micah picks up one of the loveliest aspects of our great God in this incomparability of His, when He uses the same form of words to draw our attention to the redemptive purposes of our majestic God, who in sovereign grace has inclined toward an innumerable company of ruined men and women, and says, “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?” There is no one like
Him; there is no one like Him in all He has done. There is no one like Him in all that He is, and no one like Him in the mercy and the everlasting kindness which He has shown toward His creatures.

“Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods?” Among the gods of the heathen nations there is no one to compare with Him. For what are their gods? Vanities; phantoms; idols; the product of diseased fancy. And they bowed down and worshipped them! There is a very strong hint of mockery in the words of the prophets when they look at these wretched things made of wood, sometimes overlaid with silver and gold, but helpless, hopeless things. One part of the same tree has been used to kindle a fire and another is set apon a shelf as an object of adoration and worship. All the gods of the heathen cannot be compared and contrasted with the One true and living God. There was a time when our reforming forefathers had rid our land of every possible hint of idolatry. There was a time when they swept the land north, south, east and west of everything that could be in breach of the first or the second commandments. In the meeting places of the established religion in this land there are now the selfsame objects of idolatry and veneration introduced, to say nothing of the way in which the church of Rome has these terrible travesties of the imagination, purporting to be our blessed Saviour, or images of the Virgin Mary, or of “the holy family” as they call it. These things are in the land today, but they cannot compare with the God of Scripture. They are no reflection of Him and His glory, and of His wonder, and of His praise, and of His marvellous Person.

“Who is like unto thee among the gods?” Well, the god of the Arminians is not to be compared with the God of scripture. For the god of the Arminians is a god who is helpless; he is a god who is hopeless; he is a god who regrets and repents and is constantly
bemoaning the fact that he is unable to do what he would really like to do. There is no majesty about the god of the Arminians. There is NO sovereignty about the god of the Arminians.

The god of contemporary Christendom is a god who once said
that certain things were in accordance with his law and other things were an affront to it, but when meeting in synods and councils and committees such men can set aside the law of God. They can say, “Well, he didn’t really mean it. And we actually know better than he does.” No, the god of contemporary Christendom is not the God of the scriptures. He may be the god of bishops and archbishops; he may be the god of the professors in the universities; he may be the god of all those that consider themselves to be great critics of the scripture, and advanced in their theories, but he is not the God of the Scriptures.

“Who is like unto thee?” In the margin of the A.V. we are told that the word ‘gods’ could be read ‘mighty ones’. Thus, we are being invited to ask, Is there anyone with a title to might and power and strength in the heavens or on the earth or under the earth who would like to step forward and be compared and contrasted with the God of the Scriptures? Is there anyone who sees himself to be so strong, so valiant, so powerful that he can set himself up as one who may do as he pleases and cannot in any way be restrained? In the Book of the Revelation we are given that very wonderful picture of the scroll that was sealed with seven seals, and a strong angel with a loud voice invites in a voice that all can hear, Is there anyone with a title to strength who is able to open the book and to loose the seals thereof? And there was not one, not in heaven, nor on earth, nor under the earth who had the audacity to step forward in response to that cry of the strong angel with the loud voice. There is no one who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof. There is no one with a title to strength that can compare with Christ in the unfolding of the purposes of God, and there is no one who can compare with our God no matter how strong or how mighty or how valiant he may appear to be. All creatures, whether they are angels, principalities or powers, whether they are the Julius Caesars or the Napoleons or Hitlers, or the strong men of their day and generation, all have their power from the Majesty on high. He lifts them up and He casts them down. He who used the Assyrians of old, He who used Sennacharib, He who used Pharoah, He who raised up the strongest kings of the earth was also the One, who, when His purposes with them were finished, cast them down as if they were nothing and brought them to their graves and to their destruction.

We need to take comfort in these days when men would seek to ride roughshod over the taws and the decrees of our most Holy God, that He will have them in derision; that He shall laugh them to scorn. For there is no one who will be permitted to infringe on the majesty of our sovereign God, and not at the last have to give a most painful account for what he has done.

“Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like
unto thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” Moses has said that there is none that can compare with Him, but he will put them to the test in these three ways. Is there anyone like Him in His holiness? Is there anyone like Him in the praise that is due to Him? Is there anyone like Him in the wonders He has done?

Wonders

“Who is like unto thee, O God, doing wonders?” That is to say, who can possibly be compared with Him when it comes to things to be wondered at, things which take away the breath, things which bow the spirit, things which cause awe to rise up within the breast? Who can do miracles except God? Who can set aside His own laws of the universe but God? Who can hold back the waters of the Red Sea and bring His people across on dry land? Who can cause the sun to stand still in its course? Who can do these things? No man. No creature. No so-called wonder-worker amongst the contemporary charismatics can do any miracle that will cause anyone to wonder, if given time for reflection on what has been said to have taken place.

The cry “doing wonders” arises from the experience of Moses and the children of Israel in the Red Sea. But it is not only that wonder which evokes this great song of praise, this great outburst of glory to the Majesty on high, but it is all His wonders from the very creation of the world. Oh what a great and glorious God we have! Out of nothing He has created everything. In all its immensity, in all its variety, and in all its complexity, He has made all. He is the only One who has created out of nothing.

Here it is the wonders of His judgements, the wonders of His wrath, that are particularly described in this song of Moses. It is worthy to note – and here we stand in resolute opposition to the modern views – it is a subject for praise that God’s judgement is made manifest. It is a subject that ought to bring praise to the lips of His people, because all His actions are for His own glory. Men will rejoice in God’s doings if it appears to be in their interest. They may discribe it to God if they pray (that is, use some form of words and :all on someone who they think is God) and the things they want come to pass. They might for a moment say, “Yes, God has done wonders for us.” The Scripture tells us that all that God does is unto the praise of His glory. We rejoice in the salvation of the sinner, and it is to the praise of the glory of His grace; but we must not try to shrink from the fact that God is also glorified in the reprobation of the wicked. It is to the praise of His glory. Creation was for His glory. Although we rejoice in redemption and God’s work on our behalf we must always remember that redemption is primarily for His glory. Creation is for His glory. And the final punishment of sinners is for His glory. “Who is like unto thee?” He is incomparable, this Majesty on high, in all the wonders He has done.

Praises

“Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee?” Who is “‘fearful in praises?” Now praise becomes us; it is fitting. We are the creatures of His hands. We are the beneficiaries of His goodness. It is appropriate that we should come before Him with praise and with thanksgiving, and with rejoicing, with the sound of music and with the song of gladness. It is fitting that we should address our praise to Him for all that He is, for all that He does, but we need to remember that He is “fearful in praises”. That is to say, there is an appropriate atmosphere which must be created and cultivated where we come before Him with thanksgiving and praise. We are coming before the Majesty on high. We are coming before the One who is all glory, the One who is excellent in His honour. Would we come before Him in the trivialities that contemporary Christendom would bring before Him? Would we come before Him as the charismatics would come before Him, with their awful contemptuous familiarity? God has told us how we must praise Him. We are not at liberty to devise our own methods and means of praise. It is not enough for people to leap in the air and dance like dervishes, and say that what they are doing is worship to Almighty God, because He has not required this of them. He has not commanded us to worship Him in that way. We are not at liberty to devise things from the imaginations of our own hearts or to offer these things to God as if He will receive them. He has laid down for us in Scripture the things which He will accept from us, and the manner in which those things are to be offered to Him.

We need also to remind ourselves that He is above all praise, that when we have thought every precious thought concerning Him, when we have dug deep into the resources of Scripture to find the things that describe Him in all His wonder; when we have done all that, He is above all praise. When we have used ten thousand tongues, He is above all praise. We add nothing to the Majesty on high by the praise that we offer. We must not believe the lies of contemporary Christendom in believing that God is somehow diminished because we do not offer Him the praise that is due unto His name. It is an obligation that rests upon us. May we enter joyfully into praising the name of our God, but let us not think that by praising Him we add anything to Him, nor by withholding praise that we diminish Him in any respect. He is above it all. We can add nothing to Him. We can take nothing from Him. When we have done all we shall be as those that have been utterly unprofitable. All that we bring to God will not be accepted for our sakes, but for His own sake, and for the sake of His own dear Son.

There is fear in this song of Praise. There is a solemn awareness of the Majesty on high. There is in these words of the eleventh verse of
the fifteenth chapter of Exodus something so far removed from the Restoration movement of today. Something so far removed from hip-swinging and hand-clapping and handwaving, and all the other things which we are now told we are lacking, the things from which Reformed congregations have stood aloof. The Restorationists tell us how much we are missing. Well, some of us have had 25 years of it and we know exactly what they are missing. They are missing the truth of the glory of the Majesty on high; of that One who is so high and lifted up, and yet will receive praise that is offered to Him acceptably when it comes with a broken and contrite spirit, and with a heart that is before Him in humility of mind and purpose. Let us strive then, continually to have this reverence, which is the consistent note struck by the Word of God.

The Psalmist says, “If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.” Even when the adherents of the Restoration movement are excited in their testifying and their sharing, and in all the other things that beset them behind and before, there is no reverence toward God. The fact of the matter is that when we are so concerned for the glory of God, with the fact that He has forgiven us our sins for Christ’s sake, it is that He might be feared. We must not try to escape from the fact that God could have dealt otherwise with us. If He had dealt with us according to our sins and rewarded us according to our iniquities, how could we possibly have stood; what would our end have been? What will our end be? Weeping? Wailing? Gnashing of teeth? This is the attitude that ought to be cultivated amongst God’s people – that God could have dealt with them so very differently. And so we come before Him as those that are in the hand of the Potter who of clay has made some vessels to honour and others to dishonour. When we consider that such gifts as we have are from Him, we may rejoice when we give thanks for the gifts that others have. Those things, too, are treasures in earthen vessels that the excellence may be of God and not of us. He is •’fearful in praises.” He deserves reverence in praise – this Majesty on high.

Holiness

“Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness?” Magnified in holiness. Honourable in holiness. Excellent in holiness. His holiness is His crowning adornment and beauty. Jehoshaphat’s singers were commanded to praise the beauty of His holiness.

The Scriptures sparkle with references to the many attributes of God. He is a good God. He is love. He is merciful and compassionate. He is also a holy God. His holiness is more often
used in description of Him than any other of His attributes. What a scandal it is that a man should be referred to as ‘his holiness’, that same one who is not slow to assume other styles, titles and dignities which belong to the Godhead alone.

Twenty-four times in Isaiah’s prophecy God is called “the Holy One of Israel”. His Name is a Holy Name. His Name is His character. His character is utterly different from, of an altogether different order from any other, even any other form of holiness. ‘Thou only art Holy,’ Hannah says in 1 Sam 2.2. ‘There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside thee’. He is holy in four ways:-

(1) In His essential difference, that is, only He is holy in an absolute sense.

(2) In His transcendent majesty: He is high and lifted up so that unfallen created beings veil their faces before Him and the heavens are not pure in His sight.

(3) In His moral excellence: for “just and true are thy ways”.

(4) In being free from any blemish in His nature or actions.

It is God’s holiness that is thrice-uttered, and that continually, over the lips of the seraphim. “Holy, holy, holy is JEHOVAH the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory”. Likewise, the four living creatures before the throne, who rest not day nor night saying “Holy, holy, holy Lord God almighty which was, and is, and is to come”. We are told that God swears by His holiness. A man who takes an oath swears by someone greater than himself. God has no superior and so swears by Himself, on the grounds of this attribute as it were by the fullest expression of Himself. He says in Ps. 89.35, “Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven.” The mediatorial kingdom of David’s greater son is established securely on the covenant oath of God’s incomparable holiness.

We could fix upon many aspects of God’s holiness but let us consider three.

GOD’S HOLINESS MANIFEST IN HIS WORKS. “The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works” (Ps. 145.17). Holiness is the determining rule of all that He does. What He does is perfect. All His works were ‘very good’. Man was created ‘upright’;
the angels which fell were once holy; even Satan was perfect in his ways until. . .

GOD’S HOLINESS MANIFEST IN HIS LAW. God’s law forbids sin in all its forms. In omission as well as in commission. In sophisticated styles as well as its grosser forms, of the mind and of the body. In secret thought as well as open action. And in all sin is transgression of God’s law. Paul tells the Romans, “The law is holy
and the commandment holy and just and good”. Psalm 19 says,”The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether”. God is so holy that He cannot approve of sin in any shape or form. He takes no pleasure in wickedness. He hates all the workers of iniquity. He abhors with a perfect hatred all that is unrighteous. He does not hate it in one and tolerate it in another. He does not condemn it in the unbeliever and condone it in the believer.

GOD’S HOLINESS MANIFEST IN THE CROSS OF CHRIST. We need have no doubt of the hatefulness of sin to God when He punishes it as imputed to His own dear Son. He spared not His own real, proper, familiar Son; His fellow; but gave Him up freely for the elect’s sake. Jehovah bade awake the awful sword of rectitude and smote that holy, harmless undefiled One who knew no sin. In the midst of that prophetic Psalm 22, at the heart of the assumption by the Son of the sinner’s guilt and punishment we read, “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel”. If we would see divine holiness in its most extreme expression, then look away to Calvary and see Him, the Just dying for the unjust to bring us to God.

How are we to react to these things? In utmost reverence. As we exalt the Lord our God, let us worship at His footstool in the lowliest place, for He is holy. And also with a great desire to be conformed to the One who always pleased Him.