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our salvation vindicates God's holiness

"Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.  And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes."  (Ezekiel 36:22-23 ESV)

 Below is an excerpt from one of the sermons by Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Ezekiel 36.  This series of Sunday evening sermons is a powerful example of how to preach the gospel from the Old Testament... 

 "But salvation also vindicates God's holiness.  He is a holy God. 'I will sanctify my name,' he says.  'You have profaned it and the heathen have profaned it.'  How does God vindicate his holiness?  He does it partly by punishing sin.  The heathen thought that the children of Israel were in Babylon because God was weak.  They did not know that they were there because God is holy and was punishing them by sending them there. 

 "But God also vindicates his holiness in the salvation of every soul.  One of the primary purposes of salvation is to make us holy.  Why did Christ die on the cross?  To save me from hell?  Yes, thank God, but not only that.  Paul tells Titus that Christ 'gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works' (Titus 2:14).  Christ came to bring me to God, to separate me to God; to make me holy, fit to be a child of God like my Father.  'Be ye holy; for I am holy', saith the Lord (1 Pet. 1:16).

 "The object of salvation is to separate a holy people for God.  'I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes', said God to those people.  And he says 
the same to us.  God is going to prove through every soul he saves that he is a holy God that his people are like him, and that his power of holiness is greater than the power of the devil.  ...

 "Let us talk a little less about happiness and about wonderful experiences. They will come, but let us put this first: it is as a holy people that we vindicate God's holiness and his eternal name."

 ~ Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Saved By Grace Alone (Banner of Truth, 2018)

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