The Love of God

We’ve had a pretty deep time together this weekend. We’ve peeked behind the veil to see that our God is not just good but He is perfection to the n’th degree so much that a new word had to be made to encompass it: Holiness. God is fully, truly, majestically, and profoundly Holy and it shows in all that He is and what He does.

We’ve got to see a small glimpse into how massive God’s creative power is. Its mind boggling that we have classes to just understand what math is and how it works. It’s even crazier to understand that God breathed such equations into existence with little effort. He created exploding stars, galaxies, super nova’s, as well as atoms, molecules, elements, and concepts like math, time, and love. God is fully, truly, majestically, and profoundly Powerful and it shows in all that He is and what He does.

Our weekend is about understanding and fully embracing the truth of

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!

And honestly, if we just stopped there, we would have enough to understand the insight here. Between God’s holiness and power are truly mind boggling but they also instill fear in us. We can’t grasp them and we aren’t even close to fully understand them. God’s holiness is like a light that is so bright we can’t look right into it (or yeah we’d die). God’s power makes our attempts at creating look like garbage and he has the power, authority, and right to end us at a moment’s notice. Poof! And a greasy spot where Juston used to be is all that remains.

You see, I’ve struggled as a pastor with you guys for a while because as a pastor God gives you a task to care for his sheep. You get to be the sheep and I’m given the task of feeding you. The part that is most concerning is that some of you in your actions, your words, and your attitudes seem to be spiritually malnourished. You wander from thing to thing, person to person and your lives don’t very visibly show the fruit of one who has a relationship with Christ. I’ve gone back and forth on what to do and what to teach, how to reach, and how to get through to you guys for a while. Then it hit me. You don’t need me to be better, you need your picture of who your God is to get bigger. God is far beyond what you believe him to be. You play games with him and live as if he isn’t able to create galaxies. You run your life however you see fit as if he won’t be a faithful judge and hold you accountable for your sin. In short, our fear for God has waned and grown thin.

My hope over our past two talks is that your amazement and wonder would grow again for our God. That your lesser than versions of him you’ve created in your own world would burn away and you’d find yourself in the throne room with Isaiah

6:6 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train[a] of his robe filled the temple. 2 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. 3 And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”[b]

4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 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!”

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Some background here: Isaiah was given a brief vision of the throne room of God. When he woke up, he was so struck by what God revealed to him that he wrote everything down in crazy detail. That said, these are his best efforts at describing what God revealed to him. Words failed him. There was no way to fully describe with a pen what he’d witnessed. He saw God sitting on his throne and the train of his robe was so large it filled the whole of the temple. Above him were encircled these strange creatures called seraphim. They spent every minute of their existence declaring the glory of God. Then a voice sounded. With power and authority that literally shook the foundations of the temple’s thresholds. Isaiah, who was a man of God immediately grew in his understanding of His situation. He, a sinful and unworthy man was in the throne room of God himself. He throws himself to the ground and bows as the weight of what’s happening comes on like an avalanche.

“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 realizes, of the people is this room, there is one who doesn’t have any place here, and its him. Greif over his sinful state, the reality of his failure, the pain of his shame, and the overwhelming fear of God’s judgement cause him to bow in reverence and humility. He is not clean and has no place in the same room as his Holy and Powerful King.

We’ve talked about that this weekend. tells us that what Isaiah is experiencing is the start of wisdom. That a right view of ourselves and of God will start wisdom in our lives. My prayer is that this wisdom becomes a defining characteristic in your lives as you get to know and follow God more closely. But I want to pivot tonight as we finish our time together. We’ve discussed that God is powerful and holy in great detail but I want to focus on the later half of this passage as we finish our time together. As Isaiah falls down in reverence and humility from the weight of his sinfulness something happens.

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

What changed about Isaiah? Was he any less of a sinner? Did his shame magically disappear? No. What happened then?

God took pity and mercy and grace on Him. What did Isaiah do in this moment to merit such grace? Nothing. His sin was just as prevalent, it still covered all of him. Instead we see that the grace finds its origin in God. God is the one who bestows it. He is the one who took pity on Isaiah because of who God is, not anything Isaiah had done. What does this show us?

This attribute finishes our time together this weekend. Moses fell on his face before God’s Holiness. Job marveled at his God who held the power to create stars and holds the world together by the power of His words. Both men feared God and were wise to do so. Now we see that Isaiah, who wisely feared God found another attribute of God- His gracious Love.

Here me now guys, this is pivot able when you understand how to view and shape your relationship with God. It should be informed by His holiness. He is radically holy and his glory demands that we don’t walk into his presence with sweatpants spirituality. We don’t burger king God and demand he do things our way. He is Holy and we do things his way. He is also immeasurably powerful. He creates on a level you and I don’t even understand. He holds creation together just by the power of His word and you go down for a week when your puny body gets a sniffle. In short, he is limitless and power and you are frail and flawed. You don’t walk into the throne room of God and kick up your heels and start barking orders and requests like your ordering at a drive through. You kiss the pavement and crawl on your knees because you know who is in charge and how little you deserve to be in his presence. And finally, knowing both these things. Holding them close in our minds and our hearts, we hear the king of Glory and power call to us and tell us to come to him. Not because we are worthy or some prize but because, despite all our flaws-

God has a deep love for His children.

Understand that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, but we don’t fear God as those that don’t know who He is. We know who He is and what He is capable of but we also know of His great abiding love and mercy for us. Our fear is tempered by the love we’ve received and the relationship we have.

The more you get to know God the more you become enamored by Him. The more you hear his word, the more you love who he is. The more you become aware of what you’ve been saved from and what Christ has given you on the cross, the more your fear turns to devotion and gratitude. Christ changes everything and gives us the best picture of who our great God is!

8 Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, 2 but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. 3 As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.

4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

11 “No, Lord,” she said.

And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

In the midst of a moment where a woman’s sin was exposed publicly, and her shame was on display for all to see. She was 100% guilty before God, 100% caught red-handed, 100% worthy of judgment, 100% unworthy to even be in the presence of the Son of Man, Christ does something no one saw coming.

He didn’t look into her eyes and kill her with his Holiness. He didn’t use the power of His words to explode her, making an example to all those around him. He didn’t use his authority as the Son of God to rub salt into her shame. He used his Holiness, his power, and his authority to forgive her and send her accusers packing. As they exit stage right, leaving their stones, their accusations, and their self-righteousness in the dust, Jesus stands to his feet, clutching an abandoned stone in his hand. Everyone’s gone that could judge her, except for the one man who is worthy of stoning her. He said “let his without sin cast the first stone and there is only 1 person there matching that description. He says,

“where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

Her clothes torn, her hair matted with tears, spit, and dirt from being dragged by the mob through the streets, she raises her puffy eyes from the ground to the feet of this man, “No, Lord.”

She must have expected to have the one righteous Son of God to bring swift judgment down on her. She was an adulterer, a sinner, a shame, and God was going to do what a good judge does- justice.

Wincing in anticipation from the blow that should come, she instead sees the stone drop in the dust in front of her eyes, creating a puff of dust and promise.

“neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

If you want to know the heart of God look to Christ’s treatment of the sinner. Not one of judgment, punishment, ridicule, or belittlement. Instead one of love, grace, mercy, and redemption.

God is Holy

God is Powerful

But God is wholly Love as well.

He doesn’t look at you as a failure he needs to execute. You’re not a pathetic wretch to him.

You are a son or daughter that he would die to rescue from the pits of despair.

Some of you have forgotten of the great love God has for you. Some have forgotten that God is pure holiness and that he has the power to make you holy. Some of you have been guilty of playing games with God and trying to bend him to your will. Some have just forgotten who he really is. My prayer and plea for you this weekend is that wisdom would spread anew in your heart and mind. That you’d reawaken to how big, and wide, and glorious, and gracious, and wonderful your God is. That you’d see that He is for you and he has the power to overwhelm and overcome the struggles you are too small to handle.

God is Holy.

God is Powerful

God loves you.

Pray.