SEEING GOD FOR WHO HE IS

There is

If you asked a million people what is God like? You would probably get many different answers, but most would hinge on God being good and loving, which is very Biblical. Yet most answering this question would be saying so because thats what they desire Him to be like.

We like the idea of a God who loves everyone, and gives to everyone, who does punish us but gives us everything we want. Or who allows us to make our own choices without and consequences.

300 Illustrations for Preachers Seeing God How We Want Him to Be

Isn’t it tempting to see God like we want him to be, rather than how he has revealed himself? In an interview with Parade magazine, the musician Elton John said, “I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems.”

One of the easiest ways to commit the sin of idolatry is to remake God in our image. For culture’s view of God, see Parade magazine. For an accurate view of God, see the Bible.

Our Passage today is from Isaiah chapter 6 and it deals with this very issue of “What is God Life?”

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.”

Isaiah 6:1–7 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.”

Isaiah sees the Lord and what is His response?

It is just a nonchalant thing. It isn’t like seeing an old wise man; as some view God. Isaiah falls down in fear and says, “Woe is me!”

Why would he fall in fear and trembling? it is because his eyes had seen God for who is truly is, and the angels were proclaiming it “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of host.”

God is Holy. Holiness implies absolute moral purity and separateness above all creation. God is so far above us! There is no corruption in God, He is perfect in all of His wats, and His thoughts.

Seeing the Glory of God, Isaiah’s only response in to fall and say “ 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!”

Seeing God’s glory showed Isaiah how truly terrible he was. Unclean lips are because of an unclean heart. He saw how deprived and dead in his own wickedness he truly was.

Perhaps you have heard someone say, “Well I’m not that bad.” When we truly see God for who He is in all of His Glory, we cry out like Isaiah, “Woe to me for I am sinner!”

Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Eph 2:1-

To see God for who He is to seeing how lost we are. We are dead! We aren’t holy but we are corrupt in our thoughts and in our action and we need a savior, Because dead things don’t just come to life on their own.

God response to Isaiah- He cleanses Him. This is a perfect picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ who cleanses us from our sins.

Here Isaiah realizes the true weight of his sins. Of all the times he lied, or stole, or cheated or lusted or look at this that he shouldn’t of or said things that he shouldn’t of or did things that he shouldn’t of.

It all became very clear to Him in this moment how severe His sin truly were and how wicked they were. al when saw the Lord as He truly is “Holy”

John Piper “Let us not trifle with God or trivialize his love. We will never stand in awe of being loved by God until we reckon with the seriousness of our sin and the justice wrath against us. But when, by grace, we waken to our unworthiness, then we may look at the suffering and death of Christ and say () “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation or substitute for our sins.”

) “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Substitute takes the place- Our Sin is so bad it took God Himself to cleanse us

Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Sin, Definition of

The story is told of two men who were trying to escape from an erupting volcano. As the fiery molten rock gushed out of its gaping crater, they fled in the only direction open to them. All went well until they came to a stream of hot, smoking lava about thirty feet across. Sizing up their situation, they realized that their only hope was to get over that wide barrier. One of the men was old; the other was healthy and young. With a running start, they each tried to leap to safety. The first man went only a few feet through the air before falling into the bubbling mass. The younger, with his greater strength and skill, catapulted himself much farther. Though he almost made it, he still missed the mark. It did not matter that he out-distanced his companion, for he, too, perished in the burning lava.

Sin is falling short of a standard, the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). Though some may fall short of the standard by far more than others, all fall short nevertheless.

“I have heard it said, “God didn’t die for frogs. So he was responding to our value as humans.” This turns grace on its head. We are worse off than frogs. They have not sinned. They have not rebelled and treated God with contempt of being inconsequential in their lives. God did not have to die for frogs. They aren’t bad enough. We are. Our debt is so great, only a divine sacrifice could pay it.

How does God respond to Isaiah cry of “woe to me, I am a sinner”?

He removes the sin. He purifies Isaiah- Right here is a beautiful picture of the Gospel- What Isaiah could never do God did.

What we could never do God did through Jesus Christ.

Roman

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Christ came to us, just like God showed up to Isaiah and He gave Himself so that we could be made right.

Eph

Ephesians 2:4–8 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

Today if you have seen God for who is, Holy, then your response would be the same as Isaiah’s “woe to me. God have mercy on me a sinner.”

What is Isaiah’s response to seeing the Lord and being made clean from his sins? He because a minister of the Lord- He speaks of what the Lord truly is to all those around. He to us now by reading this Isaiah wants us to truly see the Lord for who is and not for what we want Him to be.

Be Comforted 4. What Isaiah Experienced (Isa. 6:1–13)

Before we can minister to others, we must permit God to minister to us. Before we pronounce “woe” upon others, we must sincerely say, “Woe is me!” Isaiah’s conviction led to confession, and confession led to cleansing (1 John 1:9). Like Isaiah, many of the great heroes of faith saw themselves as sinners and humbled themselves before God: Abraham (Gen. 18:27), Jacob (32:10), Job (Job 40:1–5), David (2 Sam. 7:18), Paul (1 Tim. 1:15), and Peter (Luke 5:8–11).