Woe is me!

Introduction

We are going to continue our series entitled “Be Thou My Vision”. And the thesis of this series is simple. Our greatest need as human being is to see God as He reveals Himself through His Word.

We can’t be saved from our sin and we can’t have a right relationship with God unless we see Him. We can’t be transformed from one degree of glory to another unless learn how to behold God in His Word. And as a church, we need to have a commitment to help one another grow in our vision of God.

We also learn last time that if you see Him as Who He is, you will be astonished. You will be awestruck of His greatness and majesty like Isaiah as He has this glorious vision of the Lord in the temple and as the seraphim worship God. Last week we learn that God is...

Sovereign One - “I saw the Lord...

Reigning King - “sitting upon a throne...”

All Powerful - “high and lifted up...”

Immensely Majestic - “his robe filled the temple...”

Reverential - [we saw how the seraphim worships v.2]

Commander - “Lord of Hosts”

God is Holy - “Holy Holy Holy”

God is Glorious - “whole earth is filled with his glory”

God is for His Covenant People - LORD (Yahweh)

God’s Voice is Powerful (v.4 it shook the foundation)

So Isaiah saw this great and glorious vision of God. This is just a glimpse that God reveals about who He is. We have a whole lifetime to grow in the knowledge of who he is. And we have all eternity to enjoy Him.

Listen to what the Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 2,1 says about God:

There is only one living and true God. He’s infinite and perfect. He’s pure and invisible sirit. He doesn’t have a body, multiple parts, or human passions. He doesn’t change. He’s immense, eternal, and unable to be fully understood. He’s all-powerful, very wise, very holy, totally free, and absolute over everything. He works out everything from His unchanging and righteous will, and for His own glory. God is very loving, gracious, full of mercy and patience, overflowing with goodness and truth. He forgives our wrong-doing and sin. He rewards everyone who diligently seeks Him. But He’s also very just – His judgments can be terrifying, because He hates all sin and certainly won’t let the guilty off the hook. (WCF 2.1, plain english)

It continues...

God has all life, glory, goodness, and blessing in Himself. All these things come from Him. Only He is fully self-sufficient – He doesn’t need any of the creatures He’s made. And He doesn’t get His glory from them, but instead reveals His glory in and through them. God is the source, the fountain, of all existence. Everything exists for Him and because of Him. He has absolute power over everything. He can do what He wants to anything, using anything, and for anything.

His eyes see everything clearly. His knowledge is infinite and never fails, and it doesn’t depend on His creatures – nothing is uncertain or conditional in His mind. He is completely holy in all His decisions, actions, and commands.

He deserves worship and obedience. People, angels, and all other creatures must worship and obey Him as He commands. (WCF 2.2, plain English)

When you profess to say “I believe in God” Is that the God that you believe in? Is that how you picture God in your mind? Does your vision of God astonished you?

This is very important because this is the experience of Isaiah. Not only he was astonished, he was devastated.

Isaiah 6:5 “And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!””

After Isaiah saw God for who He is - his response is NOT WOW is ME but woe is me!

“Wow is Me!” Generation

Many people today especially to those who are addicted to social media aims to be “WOW is me” We admire ourselves SO MUCH. We aim to feel good about ourselves. Because we don’t like to be labeled as someone who has “low in self-esteem”. We want to project self-confidence in ourselves. We talk about it last time, that we as fallen human beings are self-absorbed and narcissistic. This is natural to all of us. (We want to feel good about ourselves) - ubos sweldo! we buy things to impress people!

When we compare ourselves to some people, of course we may feel good about ourselves. If you are sit down with someone who is unattractive, you may feel that you are ‘better’ or attractive compare to that person. If you are surrounded by people who are unintelligent then you may be tempted to think you are better “intellectually” than them. If you heard someone who had fallen into a scandal or sin, you may feel slightly better than that person. I think this is the root of gossip - we want to feel good about ourselves so we find someone we can tear down and put down.

The prophet Isaiah can have that tendency. Because of all the people God can choose to be a prophet, he was chosen to be His spokesman for Judah. He must be good right? He must be better than others, right? He must be qualified and worthy to be a prophet, right? There is a probability that he was blinded by his own depravity.

Look at how he pronounce judgement to Judah in Isaiah 1:4 “Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.” .

In chapter 5, Isaiah pronounce a series of woes (Isaiah 5:8, 11,18, 20, 21, 22) “Woe to you...”

But here in chapter 6:5, he says “Woe is me..” For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips…

He sees himself just like the people he pronounce judgment too “unclean lips”. In other words he’s no better than them. He’s not clean. He is morally impure and unacceptable to God.

Seeing Ourselves and Seeing God

Like Isaiah, we need to have a proper view of ourselves. Isaiah look at himself in a right way - lowly. Does he have a low self-esteem problem?... You know why? He says “...for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

You can only see yourself properly when you see God clearly. Isaiah saw himself as small and God as big. The problem with us is that we look at God as small and ourselves as big.

When we are aware of the presence of God, we become most aware of ourselves as creatures. When we meet the Absolute, we know immediately that we are not absolute. When we meet the Infinite, we become acutely conscious that we are finite. When we meet the Eternal, we know are temporal. — RC Sproul, Holiness of God, 54.

In other words, we need a vision of God to put us in right place, to teach us who we are and to rescue us from our own delusion about ourselves. It is impossible to know who you are unless you know God.

John Calvin in the introduction of his Institutes wrote this words...

Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves… It is certain that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God’s face, and then descends from contemplating him to scrutinize himself. For we always seem to ourselves righteous and upright and wise and holy—this pride is innate in all of us—unless by clear proofs we stand convinced of our own unrighteousness, foulness, folly, and impurity. Moreover, we are not thus convinced if we look merely to ourselves and not also to the Lord, who is the sole standard by which this judgment must be measured. (I.i.2)

As long as we do not look beyond the earth, being quite content with our own righteousness, wisdom, and virtue, we flatter ourselves most sweetly, and fancy ourselves all but demigods. Suppose we but once begin to raise our thoughts to God, and to ponder his nature, and how completely perfect are his righteousness, wisdom, and power—the straightedge to which we must be shaped. Then, what masquerading earlier as righteousness was pleasing in us will soon grow filthy in its consummate wickedness. What wonderfully impressed us under the name of wisdom will stink in its very foolishness. What wore the face of power will prove itself the most miserable weakness. That is, what in us seems perfection itself corresponds ill to the purity of God. (I.i.2)

Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God’s majesty. (I.i.3)

This is so true from a human experience. When you meet someone who is so genuinely good at something and it just exposes what is lacking in you. The presence of that person exposes something about yourself. For example, have you ever meet someone who is so genuinely kind? I feel like I’m so evil. Compare yourself with God, the essence of perfection. That’s how Isaiah felt.

That’s why we need to see God to properly evaluate ourselves. God is the standard and the path to know oneself. If you want transformation, you must know yourself. But you cannot know yourself unless you know God. So don’t start with yourself, start with God then you have proper view about yourself. That’s the starting point of transformation.

But that’s not all...

(When you see God for who He is, that He is holy, you will realize your own depravity)

A Sight Human Depravity

Notice when Isaiah realize the holiness of God, not only he knows himself in light of who God is, but he was traumatized in discovering his own depravity.

“Woe is me! For I am lost” - Imagine how he says that words, I believe you could sense the fear, and trembling shivering his spine when he realize he is in the presence of the Holy God.

Other translations says “I am ruined (CSB)”, “undone” (KJV) “destroyed (NET).

What Isaiah realize here is that this is the end of his life. And we look at last time that many people who encounter in similar situations with Isaiah has the same reactions. They expect to die.

We can’t blame for God for this effect when we come to His presence. God gives life and he wants to be near us. The reason we have this “Trauma of Holiness” is because of the presence of sin in our lives. God just like fire burns anything that comes it’s way which cannot withstand it’s nature. You can’t blame the fire for doing that, it’s the nature of it to burn. In similar way God is like that, Holy and it’s His nature to hate and judge sin. So if you are in his presence as a sinner - it would be devastating and traumatizing, knowing who He is.

Q. Will God permit such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished? A. Certainly not. He is terribly angry about the sin we are born with as well as the sins we personally commit. As a just judge he punishes them now and in eternity. He has declared “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” (Heidelberg Catechism Question 10)

Q. But isn’t God also merciful? A. God is certainly merciful, but he is also just. His justice demands that sin, committed against his supreme majesty, be punished with the supreme penalty- eternal punishment of body and soul. (Heidelberg Catechism Question 11)

This is the death we all deserve because of the offensiveness of our sin against God. Isaiah know this reality. Do we know this reality? Or do we take for granted our own sins? The reason why the cross is not amazing to you is because maybe you don’t the foulness and ugliness of your own sin.

That’s why Isaiah cries “I am ruined...” “I am lost” He realized that he’s not qualified to come to the presence of God nor to represent Him for his people.

Notice how Isaiah describes himself “I am man of unclean lips”. In the OT worship, people can’t worship or come to the temple for worship if they are unclean. They have this “ritual uncleanness” as mirror that one should be morally clean in approaching God. In the case of Isaiah, the term here is not just he is ritually unclean, but morally and totally unclean. But why “lips”? This relates to his calling as a prophet. God will use his lips to speak the God’s word. But the problem is even that every instrument that God will use is dirty and unclean. By the way if his lips is unclean, how much is his heart. Because our words (lips) are just representative of what’s in our hearts and Jesus says that’s make man unclean.

This is what theologians call “Total depravity”. That every part of our being is depraved bent toward sinning.

Romans 3:10–18 “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.””

That’s how Paul describes a human being. You and I are not exempted from these descriptions. This is all of us apart from God’s mercy.

But I pray and sing worship to God. Remember what Isaiah says in Isaiah 29:13 “And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,”

But I’m not that bad, I help many people, I build an orphanage I donated money to relief organizations. Isaiah 64:6 “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

I like how the Heidelberg Catechism illustrate this truth this way in Question 4 and 5.

In Q4: What does God’s law require of us? A. Christ teaches us this in summary in Matthew 22… Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments

Q5: Can you live up to all this perfectly? A. . No. I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbor.

Sometimes, it’s a hard pill to swallow to realize that we are not good people, we are evil people. We are good at it. People often exclaim, “Tao lang tayo, magkakasala, pero we can do good naman”. One theologian says that’s a vain delusion or false opinion of ourselves. “Good according to...”

Our life, therefore, until our minds earnestly draw near to God, is a vain delusion; we walk in darkness, and can with difficulty distinguish truth from falsehood; but when we come into the light it is easy to perceive the difference. So when God draws near to us, he brings light with him, that we may perceive our worthlessness, which we could not formerly see, while we entertained a false opinion of ourselves. (John, Calvin, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah Chapter 6)

The Good News

But God is so full mercy, He did not abandon us from this miserable state. That’s what God did for Isaiah as well in vv. 6-7, God by his grace purifies Isaiah. This teach us unless God intervenes by His grace, we will have no hope for our salvation. That’s why Jesus came in the NT as a gift to rescue us from our human depravity. (Jesus rescue us from our deprave self) He came as fully God and fully man. In fact, he is the very God that Isaiah saw.

John 12:41 “Isaiah said these things because he saw his [Jesus] glory and spoke of him.”

When Peter saw the glory of Jesus, in similar way he respond like Isaiah. Luke 5:8 “But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.””

We stink, we are dirty and we are impure yet God did not abandon us, he came for us to cleanse our heart and our lips and our whole being. That’s why John says...

1 John 1:7 “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

We will talk about this more next week...

Preaching the Sinfulness of Sin

Today my goal is to help us see just like Isaiah that we are utterly sinful and evil apart from the grace of God. And it’s crucial that we see that. (The Importance of Knowing and Preaching the Sinfulness of Sin)

In terms of evangelism, it’s important to emphasize that people realize they are utterly sinful and evil apart from the mercy of God. We need to use the law as the mirror to show the Holiness of God so that they will realize that they can’t do anything to save themselves apart from the mercy of God. Do not start with God loves them, or God is good because that means nothing from a person who is self-righteous and religiously blind. Many of the gospel today are truncated - are incomplete and jump right away with the “grace message” when the sinner is not yet horrified by their own sin. “Unless sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.” In this way, you avoid shallow Christianity.

If you are a Christian [for Christian discipleship], it is important that you need to preach the sinfulness of sin in your own heart so you learn to hate it. Meditate upon the beauty and perfections of God so you hate your own imperfections and sins. As you meditate and study the Scripture, you will see that there is still remaining sins you need to daily repent, lust, selfishness, unforgiveness and hate, materialism and forms of unbelief. We must practice daily confession and repentance to continue fight against it.

If you are a member of the local church, you should be, you and I are called to preach one another the sinfulness of sin. We need to be committed by God’s grace in giving warning and exhortation to one another. Hebrews 3:13 “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

If you are not yet a believer of Christ, you are not a follower of Christ, I pray that you will run to Him and cling to him alone. Do not just repent from your sins, you must repent from your pride and self-righteousness as well. Embrace Christ as your Savior or it’s too late. While you are breathing, God has given you the chance to repent.

In a moment we are going to sing a song - there’s a line in that song that says - Our sins they are many, His mercy is more… [Praise God it doesn’t end with our sins, there is mercy like fountain offered to you and has been continually offered to us] Amen.