“As I AM Holy” - 12JAN25, Lesson 2
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Lesson 2 / Why Holiness Matters / Isaiah 6:1-8
Lesson Overview
Lesson Overview
There are is one main, big reason why many who call themselves followers of Christ do not prioritize holiness:
We simply do not grasp just how deeply and pervasively sin utterly ruins and incapacitates the ability of a human being to have a right relationship with God or to serve Him as we would like. We fail to comprehend the high offense of sin against the holy, almighty God who is the creator and sustainer of all things.
This morning, our observation and discussion of Isaiah’s encounter with the God can repair this problem of ours.
Lord Willing, we’ll leave here with a renewed and correct perspective of who God is, who we are, and why the Christian desires to be Holy as HE is holy.
Last week, lots of big words! We’ll re-attack some of them today to reinforce the concepts.
Pray and then dive in to the passage.
PRAY
Readers…
Isaiah 6:1-3
Isaiah 6:4-5
Isaiah 6:6-7
Isaiah 6:8
Revelation 4:7-8
Romans 11:33–34
Deuteronomy 29:29
Primary Passage (Isaiah 6:1-8):
Primary Passage (Isaiah 6:1-8):
Context:
Context:
Israel was on the brink of exile in punishment for their idolatry and immorality.
Judah was on a steady decline into the same mire.
In the middle of all this, Isaiah experienced a vision that has captured the imaginations and shaken the souls of many over the centuries that have followed. This is with good reason…
Few have witnessed, let alone recorded, such an encounter with the presence of the Holy Creator.
Immediately after the vision (our passage), God commissions Isaiah into His service, to witness to the covenant people of God of many truths of God amid the coming judgement that they would endure.
God’s goal using Isaiah’s witness is to reveal Himself, and preserve a remnant by calling humans to confession, repentance, and obedience.
**READER**
Isaiah 6:1–8 (ESV)
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 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!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
Passage Study
Passage Study
v1-3: The Throne of Glory
v4-5: Shaken by Sin
v6-7: Cleansing Holy Fire
v8: Suitably Sanctified
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v1-3: The Throne of Glory
v1-3: The Throne of Glory
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
What is a seraphim, anyway?
We don’t know much about them.
This passage in Isaiah is it.
The root Hebrew matches serpents sent to judge Israel in Numbers (fiery serpent)
Many dictionaries conclude the Seraphim are forms of serpents…however…
John records this throne room image as well…
**READER**
Revelation 4:7–8“the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!””
So, 6 wings descriptor matches, but lion/ox/man/eagle is in conflict with the serpent definition.
Bottom line, we don’t know exactly what they are,
but: on the created order along with cherubim and angels,
and clearly serve a function :: attending to the throne of God, keeping watch, offering and even directing praise.
Try to put yourself in Isaiah’s shoes (or John for that matter), and imagine what this must have been like to behold…
is it too hard to imagine?
Yes, there’s a reason! His ways are higher than our ways.
Incomprehensibility of God.
**READER x2**
Romans 11:33–34 “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?””
Deuteronomy 29:29 ““The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
Doesn’t mean: we can’t know anything about God // Does mean: we can’t know everything about God.
Why are we defining this? B/c it highlights God’s transcendent holiness!
He’s so far above us, God has to give us (through His prophets) these radical images
what His throne room is like, using words that we can understand,
but in reality can’t even come close to adequately describing that holy place in His hold presence.
***Let’s (re)define some terms, because they’re at play in this topic at large and the text we’re studying…
Holiness:
Set apart.
God’s utter perfection in His being, and therefore His utter perfection in every single one of His characteristics.
Supreme Greatness and Supreme Moral Perfection…it is the attribute that defines all His attributes, pointing to His “Godness” at every point.
Core concept: His perfect Purity, which cannot tolerate any form of sin (Habakkuk 1:13 “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong…”) and therefore calls sinners to constant self-abasement in His presence (coming shortly in Isaiah 6:5)
Transcendence: God’s existence, His being, is and can’t be limited by physical space or the forward march of time. His existence is above these restrictions that we live in, He transcends (is outside of) these restrictions.
Acts 7:48–49 “Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says, “ ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?”
Immanence: God is present and active everywhere in His Creation, at all times. He is not detached, but engaged.
Psalm 139:7–10 “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.”
Acts 17:27–28 “that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’”
Provide the interstellar illustration. I think it may help.
Incomprehensibility: Just discussed it, God is not comprehensively comprehensible…;)
These three verses set quite the vision for our imaginations and point us to some important truths:
These three verses set quite the vision for our imaginations and point us to some important truths:
v1 Contrast of authority.
Uzziah (applicable to all earthly kings/leaders/presidents/etc), died.
Yet, the LORD is seated on high!
His Sovereign Rule, on His throne :: definitional of God’s Holiness
v2 Majesty in Creation.
From fantastic heavenly beings like the seraphim to the earthly image bearers (us), to the mighty ant, to the mountains and trees themselves :: all bear witness to the majesty of its Creator.
<maybe ask this, maybe not> What are some character traits of God seen in Creation?
There is no one like Him. He alone is set apart. He alone is Holy.
v3 Holiness heralded, ascribed, affirmed.
Three-times repeated :: linguistic mechanism to raise to the superlative value; God is w/o peer.
Transcendence & Immanence on display
Holy Holy Holy :: set apart :: Transcendent Greatness
AND
the whole earth is filled with His glory :: He’s divinely present :: immanence
While I’m thinking about it…What is the most tangible exhibit of God’s immanence?
Jesus…what does Isaiah call Him? Immanuel (Isaiah 7)
v4-5: Shaken by Sin
v4-5: Shaken by Sin
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 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!”
The power of His breath.
Creator God, creates by the power of His Word. (we’ve talked a lot about that)
(Remember Habakkuk 2 about God’s foretold judgement of what would happen to the haughty’s homes? And God’s last taunt about the idols? What were they missing?)
Smoke = symbol of the presence (immanence) of God.
What happens to Isaiah amidst the presence of God?
He’s undone!
Who are those of “unclean lips”?
All humans.
When the natural man encounters the very presence of the 100% HOLY God, he is utterly slayed, utterly diminished, utterly humbled…
AND SEES his utterly LOST state!! <look at the text> Huge verse.
While we have commonality with God (as image bearers…don’t have time for a full lecture on Doctrine of Man this morning), but fundamentally, God is different from His Creation.
Seeing Him (Isaiah’s record here, John’s record in Revelation, Moses’s accounts of being in His presence)…
Should leave us utterly humbled and shaken…
Should leave us feeling exposed and naked.
Should bring to mind our own failures to meet His standards.
This kind of revelation is the beginning of having a proper “fear of the Lord”, to see His Holiness as revealed in His Word.
VITALLY important. We’ve gotta get God right, and get our understanding of humanity right, IOT get the Gospel right.
We will have have a low view of Grace, when we have a low view of our corruption
The way to combat this problem is to behold the HOLINESS of our Creator as the prophets and apostles have and recorded for us! For OUR BENEFIT! For your personal benefit!
v6-7: Cleansing Holy Fire
v6-7: Cleansing Holy Fire
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
Isaiah couldn’t cleanse himself, could he?! Neither can we!
Look at what happened after Isaiah opened his mouth in confession of his own sinfulness, his own despair, his own confession of acknowledging God on His thrown…
God paused one of the four seraph’s worship of Himself (graciously!)
Sent him to Isaiah, without delay (graciously!)
Purified Isaiah by His own choice and His own authority and His own power, for HIS own purpose…
Look at the contrast between v4-5 and 6-7…Isaiah is utterly devastated by God’s Holiness, but how does God immediately respond!?
When a human being, and image bearer of God Almighty, designed to love and worship and be in communion with God, sees himself correctly in relation to his Creator, obeys and responds with repentance and trust…
How does God respond!?
In Isaiah’s case, immediate healing, immediate forgiveness of trespass, and immediate comfort.
NO DIFFERENT FOR US!
The hot, live coal from His altar, the place of atonement paid, does the purifying.
Imagery is fitting:
What’s Isaiah’s job title for God?
What’s his primary tool to carry out his job?
And Isaiah needed to be forgiven, his sin needed atonement, he needed to be made pure to then receive his commissioning, v8 to follow…
v8: Suitably Sanctified
v8: Suitably Sanctified
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
Only now, having received the Lord’s salvation, is Isaiah able to serve the Lord.
His earlier confession is telling – not only are his lips unclean, but so are the lips of his people/community.
None of them can serve the Lord because of their uncleanliness.
Let’s be clear here…
Is Isaiah now a perfected human in a glorified body? No.
What we’ve got here is prophetic imagery graciously provided by God, showing…
DECLARED HOLINESS (declared purifying and setting apart):
the declared payment of sin (atonement, your guilt is taken away), and
the declared righteousness imputed (the purity of Christ imputed by his offering “touching the lips” of Isaiah)
…And now he can hear the Lord speak and can respond in obedience!
IN CASE you need to conclude…
Turn to Ephesians 3, 14-21.
Exegete it live, Yogi.
Otherwise, do this at the end.
Application
Application
We are woefully and infinitely inadequate.
We exist to glorify God.
Gospel application leads to mission qualification.
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We Are Woefully and Infinitely Inadequate
Take some time to discuss why acknowledging the depth of sin’s offense matters and is actually helpful.
What does it mean to “fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23)?
Have you ever been brought to a level of conviction over your sin like Isaiah experienced?
Why do we, and much of the Church around us, struggle to “own” our sinfulness? Note: the challenge is to do this rightly without crossing the line into mentally unhealthy thoughts and behaviors.
How does honestly wrestling with our sinfulness help us? What does God seek to do in us through this?
We Exist to Glorify God
CATECHISMs…
Westminster (1648)
The Westminster Confession of Faith: Edinburgh Edition The Larger Catechism
Quest. 1. What is the chief and highest end of man?
Ans. Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him for ever.
Heidelberg (1563)
Historic Creeds and Confessions Question 1
Question 1
What is thy only comfort in life and death?
That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own,b but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ;
New City (modern day)
Almost a word for word copy of the Heidelberg Q1
Question 4 — How and why did God create us?
God created us male and female in his own image to know him, love him, live with him, and glorify him. And it is right that we who were created by God should live to his glory.
Why do human beings tend to focus on themselves? What harm does this do to us and our society?
What makes God worthy of this highest and most central place in life?
Brainstorm ways we can glorify God, in small ways and big, in our daily lives. Make sure the list goes beyond Sundays even as it includes things we do at church.
Gospel Application Leads to Mission Qualification
Discuss how we need to apply the Gospel to ourselves before we can be used to bring the Gospel to others, but that once we have the Gospel we cannot do otherwise.
Can anyone imagine Isaiah being convicted, receiving cleansing, and then just going back home keeping it to himself? Why do so many Christians do something like that?
How does receiving the Gospel (repenting of sin, trusting in the person and work of Christ) equip us to be used by God?
What is the mission that only Christians can execute? How does the local church provide a platform for getting the job done?
