Responding to God

Responding to God’s Presence

Isaiah 6:1-8

Every person can understand God’s holiness by looking at the responses to God in this passage. 

Introduction: 

     About 7 years ago I took my family to an amusement park.  We found a lot of reasons not to go to the park.  It was day with some threatening weather.  It was going to cost some money to go, but we decided to go anyway. 

     As we were preparing to enter the park we had one person sell us some ticket at greatly reduced price and another person gave the rest of the tickets we needed.  So we got into the park at a greatly reduced price.  We had fun and very few lines to wait in.  At about lunch time it started to rain.  We found a restaurant and sat down inside and had our lunch while it rained.  When we were done eating, it was done raining.  At the end of the day I went to look at the pictures they took of us as we entered.  Julie and kids when off in another direction.  When I asked if we could come back and look at the pictures together she offered to let me keep the pictures at no charge.  It seemed that for everything we did that day we were in the right place at the right time. 

     That seems to be the story of Isaiah in this passage.  He was a man who was placed in the right place at the right time with his meeting with God.  As we see this we can learn about our relationship with God as we look at the responses to the presence of God. 

Response I.  Faces covered

A. In the movie “A Christmas Story” Ralphie wants a Red Rider BB gun, but every time he tries to tell anyone he is told things like, “you’ll shoot your eye out.”  His parents don’t seem to be responding to his please, so he decides that he needs to talk to Santa Claus.  When he finally gets to Santa, he is so overwhelmed that he can’t speak.  Santa suggests that maybe Ralphie gets a football, to which Ralphie numbly nods his head.  Perhaps there have been times in your life when you felt that you wanted to say something to someone, but the words escaped you as the opportunity presented itself. 

B. This is a bit of what the Seraphim are expressing as they are flying around the throne.  They recognize that there is such a gap between them and the God that they are worshipping that they cover their faces.  They are not worthy to have their faces seen in the presence of such as awesome God.  This same thing happened with Moses.  As he spent time with God he covered his face, while in the presence of God.  It was a simple attempt to cover the gap that existed between him and God.  When Elijah heard the voice of God, he covered his face before he came into the presence of God. 

C. I don’t see a lot of people really grasping the gap between us and God.  Rather than viewing God as the one who created us and sustains us, many see God more like an appliance.  He is something we use when we need something.  He is where he is for our convenience.  The sense of awe is missing as is the realization that God created us.  We don’t see a gap between us and God.  I wonder if we realize what a great God we have.  Instead maybe we have dumbed down our God. 

Response II.  Feet covered

A. Have you ever been embarrassed by something and you wanted to cover it up?  When I went for my senior pictures in high school, I went into the photographer’s studio, where his wife proceeded to use makeup to cover some of the blemishes on my face.  Being of the age when acne is prevalent, this was an attempt to cover that before we began taking pictures.  Sometimes people will use the same sort of a technique to cover a black eye or some sort of bruise.  They do that to cover their embarrassing feature, and hope that fewer people will notice it. 

B. If these seraphs were humans they would be covering their feet as an indication that they were trying to keep something hidden from God.  Our feet are what we use to take us from one place to another.  Sometimes our feet take us to places of dignity and honor, and at other times they might take us places where sin abounds and where we find ourselves wrapped up in that sin.  The seraphs would be indicating the sinful activity that a man might be involved in that separates him or her from God.  So in order to cover the sin, the feet are covered as an indication of sin that needs to be forgiven.  It is another way of indicating that we are far separated from God.  We are all sinners and are not worthy of coming into God’s presence.  We might do like Adam and try to cover our sin with something like a fig leaf.  We know that Adam was not really keeping anything from God.  He knew what was happening.  Even so, there needs to be a recognition that we are apart from God.  There is a gap that we cannot bridge. 

C. Maybe you are trying to keep something hidden from God.  We need to realize that it is impossible for us to really hide anything from God.  He can see right through us, and he knows what is happening at the heart level of the person.  Maybe we try to hide our sin from God, but we need to realize that it is a wasted exercise. 

D. I think that a greater tragedy that is happening today is that we don’t try to hide our sin from God.  In many cases we see people wearing their sin on their sleeve as a badge of honor.  They are proud of the wrong they have done, and they are willing to let the world know it.  This sort of activity will only lead to deeper separation from God.  The only way for reconciliation with God is for a person to recognize their sin, confess it, repent and receive God’s forgiveness. 

Response III.  Calling to one another

A. Isaiah has been given a beautiful glimpse of what is happening in heaven.  You have the Lord seated on the throne and these winged creatures are flying near the throne.  While they are in the presence of God they begin calling to one another.  "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."  This looks to be something that happens spontaneously at the presence of God.  I assume it is not something they had rehearsed and perfected, but it was an automatic response when God appeared to them.  They recognize the greatness of their God.  Can you imagine something so awesome that it causes these being to cry out like they do?  It had to be an amazing feeling. 

B. In v. 4 we see the result of this act of worship.  It appears that the place shook and the temple was filled with smoke.  These events were not happening to impress Isaiah; I think he was impressed to be in the presence of God.  It was not an exercise for the Seraphs.  They were doing what they were created to do.  This was God.  It was about God.  The focus of this time was God.  It was for God’s glory.  He was the center. 

C. Our society has become so self centered that we might even try to worship without God.  If the focus is self, God might just get in the way.  Our focus when we gather for worship should be God.  If our focus is on the pastor we have fallen far short of what God has for us.  The pastor’s job is to direct your attention to God, not upon himself.  If your attention is on yourself, you are missing the point.  We don’t worship God to get our God fix for the week.  Our focus needs to be on a great God.  Our focus is not to be on other people either.  While fellowship is an important part of being a Christ, our focus should not be on other people but on God.  If we fail to focus on God, then we miss the point of worship.  We gather to worship so our focus can be on God. 

Response IV.  Recognition of sin

A. One time when I bought paper for the copier I bought some that was a very light grey.  I would set it with the colored paper, but people would many times put it in the copier to replace the white paper that had been used up in the copy machine.  If you looked at the paper by itself it looked like white paper, but when you set it next to a piece of white paper you could see that the paper was not really white.  It was only after it was compared to something white could you tell it was not white. 

B. When Isaiah found himself in the presence of God he felt unworthy of that position.  “"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."” (Isa 6:5 NIVUS)  He was like a piece of paper that looked white when it was by itself, but when you compared it to something really white, like God, it was obvious it was not white.  I would guess that Isaiah was a pretty good guy.  He probably regularly attended worship and obeyed the commands, but when he found himself in the presence of God, he was not as good as he or other might have thought.  He was clearly feeling undeserving and unworthy of his position. 

C. Many people have developed a very light view of sin.  We have probably all heard people say something like, “I can do it now and ask for forgiveness later.”  You can do that, but is it true repentance if we are planning on sinning and then asking for forgiveness.  With planning like this I think it is hard for us to really be able to say, God will forgive me.  I don’t know this for sure, because I am not God.  What I do know is that Isaiah was driven to repentance when he was brought into God’s presence.  There was such a stark contrast between him and God that he cried out in grief over his sin.  When someone plans to sin ask for forgiveness later, they have lost that contrast. 

D. There is a difference between us and God.  God is perfect and we are not.  We fail to recognize that perfection, when we knowingly sin.  When we do this we have reduced God to a roll of paper towels.  We use him to clean up the mess we left behind. 

Response V.  Openness

A. When I look at what happens to Isaiah it is amazing.  He is first convicted of his sin, so he cries out that he is unworthy of being there.  Then one of the Seraphs takes a hot coal from the altar and places it on Isaiah’s lips and says your guilt is taken away.  This would mimic one of the actions of the high priest on the Day of Atonement.  He would take hot coals into the most holy place to remove the guilt from himself.  This is what the Seraph was doing when Isaiah was overcome by his sinfulness.  There is a dramatic change that takes place in his life. 

B. When God says, “"Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"  Isaiah responds, “Here am I.  Send Me!”  When Isaiah realizes that his sin has been taken care of he no longer worries about his inability to be in the presence of God and of serving God.  I would say that one of the effects of a right relationship with God is openness to serving God. 

Conclusion: 

     When we look at the responses to the presence of God it should gives us a glimpse of our relationship with God.