Morrow Gospel - January 28

WHAT DO I KNOW OF HOLY?

What do we know of “holy”? The adjective “holy” is a very loosely used term these days. We may shout in a moment of amazement “holy cow!” or “holy sh…aving cream!”

            In the campy 60’s TV series, Batman and Robin, Robin would apply “holy” to a number of situations the dynamic duo found themselves in at the time. Robin had 369 different expressions beginning with “holy.” These included “holy popcorn, Batman,” “holy hallucination” and “holy ravioli.” But what did Robin know of “holy”?

            I believe the Christian pop group Addison Road had the right attitude when it came to “holy.” The question in the song “What do I know of holy?” is an apt one. We have overused and abused what we know of holy and have, perhaps, become too familiar with the Holy One.

            Consider the words of the song; the singer confesses, “I think I made you too small; I never feared you at all, no. If you touched my face, would I know you? Looked into my eyes, would I behold you?” And then with the chorus, the singer explodes the reality of her situation (show slide). She admits that God is so great and beyond explaining that she has no idea of the true holiness of God. And what would she do if she met Him?

            Isaiah did meet the Lord. One night, as he was closing up the temple after a day of service, the glory of the Lord broken into that place. A vision of the throne room of God, so real, so awesome, engulfed Isaiah and revealed to him the Holy One. What did he see? What did he feel? What did he do?

            This morning we are studying Isaiah 6:1-13 and we will attempt to understand this great vision. What I hope we will grasp is this: The revelation of God in His glory transforms the lives of God’s people inspiring them for service. Then, perhaps, we will know a little bit more about of what “holy” means.

1. Witnessing the Glory of the Lord (1-4)

Isaiah’s vision of the Lord came at a transitional point in Judah’s history: King Uzziah died that year. That piece of history would be lost on us if it were not so important.

            Uzziah was a good king; the best they had had since David. He reigned 52 years and brought peace and prosperity to the land. Then, in a moment of pride, Uzziah went in to the temple and offered incense to the Lord, something only priests should do. He was immediately struck with leprosy. His pride led to his downfall (2 Chron. 26:16).

            With Uzziah’s death, Isaiah and the people must have worried about what would happen to the nation. Uzziah was, in fact, representative of the people: self-sufficient and proud. The first five chapters of Isaiah reveal how far the people had fallen into every kind of sin: national, social and spiritual.

            It was in this context that Isaiah saw the Lord. Now no one can actually see God. What Isaiah saw was what God allowed him to see. The Lord revealed his glory, a manifestation of his majesty to Isaiah. And that’s what we read here: “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple” (6:1bc). The throne, the robe which filled the temple, and the attendants or angels were all symbols that a man like Isaiah could understand to grasp the majesty of God.

            Those attending the Lord were called “seraphim.” These are angels whose name actually means “the burning ones.” They each have six wings which suggest that they are in constant motion. Two wings covered their faces to shield them from God’s glory; two covered their feet representing service on the earth; and with two they flew.

            But what catches our attention is their cry or their song. “And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD God of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’” (6:3).

            “Holy, holy, holy,” is a super-superlative that is found nowhere else in the Bible except Revelation 4. Holiness is the supreme truth about God. We say that “God is love,” and this is true. But holiness covers even love. What does holiness mean?

            The journey to understand holiness takes us to the brink, and from there the experience of God is beyond words. Every effort to describe God and define his holiness ends up in the same place: God is holy, meaning – God is God. There is no one like Him in the universe. He is absolutely unique.

            If we look at the root of what holy means, we may find that it is to cut or to separate. A holy thing is cut off and separated from common use. We call a lot of things holy to imply that they are distinctly devoted to God. We can speak of holy ground, a holy nation, holy garments, a holy city, holy men and holy women, the Holy Bible, and so on. Almost anything can be holy if it is separated for devotion to God.

            But when the description of “holy” is applied to God Himself…well, what can you separate God from to make him holy? He is holy because He is God. And if the angels cover their faces in His holy presence, how can we dare to act in a familiar manner before the God of the universe? He is so pure, so good, so righteous, no human can stand in His presence.

            So immense is the holiness of God that C.S. Lewis imagined that the seraphim surrounded the throne and shouted, “I see holiness,” while another shouted back, “I see holiness here too!” I don’t know if he was correct, but the implication is that no one person can grasp the wholeness of God on their own. We need each person in the church to share their perspective of our holy God.

2. Confessing Sin in the Presence of Holiness (5-7)

Isaiah was so overwhelmed by this revelation of God’s holiness that, in our colloquialism, “he freaked out!”

            Isaiah cried, “Woe is me! For I am lost (ruined, undone, wrecked); for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (6:5).

            Isaiah was a good man, a prophet, a servant of the Lord. He could, in most people’s estimation, be set apart from the sins of the people. But the presence of Almighty God revealed to him his true condition. He had to identify himself with his sinful brothers and sisters.

Isaiah identified his sin in a unique way: he identifies his sin by his lips. Back in 3:8 Isaiah rebuked the people of Judah for this very thing when he said, “because their speech and their deeds are against the LORD, defying his glorious presence.” With our lips we may pretend to honor the Lord, but eventually those same lips reveal the true nature of our hearts. (Jesus talked about this in Matthew 15:18-19)

Remember when Jesus told Peter to try fishing again after a hard night of catching nothing? Peter does as Jesus said and caught so much fish it almost swamped the boat. And Peter’s response? “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). Such is the effect of the holy presence of God.

The good news is the swift response of the Lord in cleansing Isaiah. Isaiah admits he is lost. Isaiah confesses his sin. And immediately the Lord takes the initiative to send a seraph with a coal to touch the place of confessed need: the lips.

            Notice from where this coal originates. The seraph takes the burning coal from the altar. The altar is the place of sacrifice, of blood and fire – the place of atonement. The blood washes; the fire purifies.

             There is no waiting period for this atonement to impart forgiveness. Isaiah is forgiven on the spot. The seraph then says, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for” (6:7).

            There is hope in this cleansing. Isaiah must have thought, “If I can be forgiven, there is hope for my people.” There is hope for us in this too. If even Isaiah needs forgiveness, I must need it. And if I confess my sin…

3. Responding to the Call of the Lord (8-13)

The scene is not finished. For the first time, Isaiah hears the voice of the LORD Himself saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” (6:8).

            Isaiah’s experience with the presence of the holy Lord compels him to respond. He has seen the true King (Uzziah’s death is swallowed up in the reality of the eternal King), and he has been cleansed from his unholiness. Isaiah is ready to go. So he says, “Here I am! Send me.” This is literally “Look – me!” As we used to say on the playground “pick me, pick me.”

I have been a free agent since last spring, teaching and preaching where invited. I taught at SBC last fall. So at a SBC luncheon for faculty I overheard Prof. Dave R. saying he needed someone to fill in for something, Dr. Terry H. offered my name. I immediately said, “I’ll do it.” A few minutes later I asked, “What did I say ‘yes” to?”

That was like Isaiah’s response. He was eager to serve the Lord out of gratitude and the awe of God’s presence. But he didn’t know what he was saying “yes” to exactly.

The Lord then gives the mission: “Go and say to this people: ‘keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull…” (6:9-10).

Wait a minute. What kind of a revival message is this? Does God not want people to be healed or to be forgiven? What an odd message. Actually the message is described by its effects and not its content.

The message that Isaiah preaches to the people will be rejected for one peculiar reason: it’s too simple. In Isaiah 28:9-10, Isaiah is accused of having so simple a message the people will say it is meant for children. This is nursery school stuff, they will say. This same passage (6:9-10) will be quoted by Matthew describing why Jesus spoke in parables. Jesus told stories to convey kingdom principles. And the intellectuals, the academics didn’t get it. They thought it was nonsense. It was too simple. The gospel was not philosophical enough for them.

The Lord goes on to say that the unresponsiveness of the people is an aspect of God’s judgment on them. They have chosen arrogance and indifference; they don’t want to hear the Lord, so they won’t. Their hearts will be hardened and their land will be devastated (11-12).

            But the Lord still says, “Preach!” Tell them anyways. There is mercy in this. God is a God of mercy and compassion even as He speaks judgment on His people. A slender hope is revealed in v. 13: the land and its people are likened to a stump of a tree after it is felled. Judah is a great tree that is put to the axe and brought down because of their sin. Yet the stump remains. And that stump symbolizes the truth that God is not done with these people. The seed suggests regrowth, renewal, restoration. A new people shall grow up out of the devastation and become the people of God.

            So Isaiah, preach the Word!

The revelation of God in His glory transforms the lives of God’s people inspiring them for service.

            What can we take away from such a great revelation of God’s glory? What are the applications to your life?

1) We need to meditate on passages like Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4 to gain an appreciation for the holiness of God. My own opinion is that Christians, the church in general, has taken God for granted. We have become too familiar with him. Hipsters will begin their prayers with “Hey God…” and bring their shopping lists into the petition.

            As one writer put it, “Your God is too small.” He is beyond our comprehension. He is transcendent and holds the universe in His hand. Fear Him! And yet He has condescended to us in the person of Christ, a poor man, a peasant. He came to us at the ground floor of life and showed us his glory in the flesh. Can we see what Isaiah saw?

            We do see the glory of the Lord. Read 2 Corinthians 3:12-18.

2) When the Word of the Lord convicts us, we are compelled to confess our sin. That is the only way we can fully know God’s will. We are forgiven through the cross of Christ. Jesus’ blood and righteousness are ours every day. But we cannot take this lightly. It was a costly grace that was displayed on the cross. So who am I to pretend to be immune to sin each and every day? As my dear departed brother, Dr. Chuck Nichols used to say, “Every day I pray: Lord Jesus, I confess my need of your grace today knowing that it is sufficient for all my needs.”

3) We must be willing to go where God sends us and to speak what God wants us to speak, even if it is not popular. The simple, clear, concise gospel of Jesus Christ is our message. It is not popular today. But the Lord calls out, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

            Read 2 Corinthians 4:3-6.

Can you see what Isaiah saw?

Can you feel what Isaiah felt?

Can you do what Isaiah did?

            And what do we know of holy? We know Jesus Christ, the holy Lamb of God.

                                                            AMEN

Prayer:

Thank you, our Father, for this marvelous revelation of your unceasing labors on behalf of mankind. Grant to us who have felt the touch of the cleansing coal from your altar that we should be like the prophet, eager and available to go. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.