This book contains the messages presented at the 2009 Ligonier Ministries National Conference: ‘The Holiness of God.’ Each of the contributors approaches that topic from varying angles. Some of the chapters likely flowed more smoothly as oral messages, but the content is solid (which is to be expected when the list of authors reads like a ‘who’s-who’ of Reformed theology). We too often neglect God’s holiness, thus this collection is especially helpful in refocusing our thoughts.

The temple is the great children’s picture book of the Old Testament, speaking about how pure God is and how serious He is about His purity, and what cost there is for sinners to be able to enter into His holy presence. Every detail is a reminder to us that we have no proper instincts about worship. [96]

Are you beginning to see that it cost Jesus Christ to be the Savior? When we say He is King, that sounds pretty good. Even when we say He is Priest, that is honorable. He is those things. But the depth of our salvation is to be found in the willingness of Jesus to become a leper for sinners. Surely He has borne our sickness. [101]

The cross stands at the very heart and center of history. It was prepared by God through all those centuries, through all those pictures. God knew how stupid we are and how slow we are to believe. He knew that there would be many who would not believe the report, and so, with picture after picture, He prepared us, so that when Jesus was lifted on the cross we would know what it meant. [104] 

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With his entry in the Today’s Issues series, Godfrey tackles the question of worship. In recent years, many evangelical churches have discussed (at some length) the nature of worship style: traditional or contemporary, solemn or energetic, and so on. What Godfrey suggests is that it is not the style, but the substance of worship that is the key issue. He explores what Scripture says about worship and exhorts us to model ourselves after its timeless standard.

The Bible reminds us that neither our instincts nor our traditions nor our experiments are reliable guides to worship. The Bible itself is our only reliable guide. One of the ironies of our time is that many Christians who affirm the inerrancy of the Bible do not really study it to find out what it says about worship. [16]

Worship fails utterly if Jesus Christ is not at the center. [21]

Too often today when people speak of acceptable worship they mean worship that is acceptable to themselves or perhaps acceptable especially to the unchurched. While worship must communicate clearly to the gathered congregation, the Bible insists that worship must above all be acceptable to God. [22]

We cannot claim to love the Word and be content with its absence from worship. We will want to hear it in reading and preaching, see it in the sacraments, and sing it in our songs. If we are not interested in the Word of God, can we really be interested in God? [32]

Music is a powerful and vital element in the worship life of God’s people. But precisely because it is so significant, we need to give careful thought to it. We must be sure that we are pleasing God and not entertaining ourselves. The temptation to turn worship into entertainment is great because as sinners we are much more inclined to be self-centered than God-centered. We are much more inclined to amuse ourselves than to serve God. [40]

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