The Holiness of God (Isaiah 6:1–8)
Our focus during this first week is on the Person of God and His attributes. Our Triune God is perfect in holiness and in all of His other attributes. As we see Him for who He is, see Him in the fullness of His glory, may we be drawn to a posture of worship before Him. He is perfectly worthy!
Transcript
What is your defining characteristic? Think about that for a second. If you could only use one word to describe yourself, what would it be?
I asked a few people on the Ministry Team, and here were their answers
For Kong, it’s patient
For Alicia, it’s passionate
For Jeremy, it’s caring
For Pang Foua, it’s wise
For me, it’s kind
What would it be for you? What is your defining characteristic? Go ahead and post in the comments.
How about God? What is His defining characteristic? It’s his holiness. Holiness is the core essence of God. It’s so important that the Bible talks about it over 900 times.
What is holiness? Here’s a definition: It’s his otherness, his uniqueness, his total purity.
The passage you just read, Isaiah 6:1-8, paints an incredible picture of God’s holiness and our response. There are four parts to this story.
Part 1: God’s holiness is displayed in His greatness
Isaiah’s vision is God’s attempt to describe himself using human imagery. And everything about it was extra. And that’s the point.
He’s seated on the highest throne
His robe filled the temple. Ladies, imagine your wedding gown filling up the entire church.
Even angels covered their faces because of God’s greatness.
Artists have tried to capture this picture.
There’s this. Or this. Or even this. Or this one. Oh wait, that’s Thor in Avengers. Sorry. How’d that get in there?
There is no king or authority who sits above God, and His majesty is undiluted. God is holy because He alone sits above all others. He is high and lifted up.
All of that greatness elicits the only possible response from the angels: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” (Isaiah 6:3) Unlike any other being, God is worthy of and receiving continual praise and worship.
PART 2 – Isaiah’s response
Isaiah responded with self-awareness and with reverent fear. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:5)
In the presence of God’s holiness, Isaiah came face to face with his own unholy condition. And seeing true holiness only highlighted his own inadequacy. And then, Isaiah feared what would become of him because of God’s absolute holiness. He understand something that we often forget—unholiness cannot be in communion with holiness.
But then God does something unexpected. That’s PART 3.
Part 3: God offered purification for his unholiness
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. (Isaiah 6:6)
Now, I would be freaking out at this point. Mostly because it reminds me of that freaky hot poker scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Nothing good ever comes from a hot coal brought over to your face.
But then, the amazing happened. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” (Isaiah 6:7)
God purified Isaiah. Isaiah said, “I am a man of unclean lips.” God replies, “We can fix that.”
God sent an intermediary (an angel) to redeem his unholy people by sharing a part of himself—his holiness. This is exactly what he did with Jesus.
God sent his Son Jesus Christ, to be an intermediary between Himself and His sinful creation (us).
God redeems us through the sacrificial death of Jesus.
By believing in Jesus, we can be made holy
Now, PART 4.
4. Isaiah responded with worship and a willingness to serve God
Look at Isaiah’s response. 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8)
Isaiah did two things:
He worshiped God because he recognized that he was cleansed.
He willingly put himself in a place of service for God. “Here I am, Lord. Send me. Use me.”
And that is our response as well.
When we are cleansed of our sin, we should worship and celebrate a God who had the right to remove us from His presence. But instead, he invited us into relationship with him.
When we are brought into relationship with God, our worship should lead us to a place of willing service for a holy God.
So, where are you along this process?
Are you at step 0, where you don’t even really think about God’s holiness or your sinfulness?
Are you at step 1? You see God’s holiness but not sure what to do with it.
Are you at step 2, where God’s holiness leads you to focus or even obsess over your sinfulness?
Are you at step 3, where you have received Jesus’ forgiveness of your sins?
Are you at step 4, where God is asking you to serve, and you say, “Yes, here I am. Send me.”
The order of this is very important. The process of becoming a servant of God begins with our recognition of the helplessness of our situation. Only when we come to the end of ourselves are we ready to see God. And that vision is absolutely essential to genuine service.
See God. Then serve God. It has to be in that order.
