God is Holy

God is… Holy

Good morning and welcome to worship. It is good to be in the house of the Lord, Amen.

I wanted to take a moment before we get started to remind you of the next step in the process our Leadership Team began last June, and that is to consider our future affiliation. The Leadership Team will meet today after church and discuss recommendations that they will make at the Church Conference on September 12 at 6:00 PM. That will be a night that we do some of the work before us, but then, we will move into a time of worship, prayer, and holy Communion.

As we look to the future, we must do so remembering our past – where we have come from. We have hurting people within our community, and my prayer is that we as a community can bring peace and healing to one another.

We are, have been, and will continue to be people of God’s Word.

We are, have been, and will continue to be a people called Methodist.

We are, have been, and will continue to be a people who offer Christ to this community.

Thank you for being who you are.

Today, we continue our series on the attributes of God. If you remember,

God is mercy – He is our hope when we are hurting…

God is trustworthy – and because of that we can live a life without worry.

God is loving – God loves you and there is nothing you can do about it!

Next week we will look at the consistency of God, that you can count on God… BUT

Today, we are looking at another attribute of God… today, we consider God’s holiness. There are over 600 passages I could have chosen for this topic. I could pick from any genre of literature from the Bible and speak on God’s holiness. But, there is one passage that stands out to me. It is a passage that was actually one of the first passages I remember writing a sermon about – not plagiarizing a Bible Study, or someone else’s work, but one that I studied and dug into to bring a message to God’s people.

Turn with me to Isaiah 6. This is a passage that is full of symbolism and references to God’s holiness.

Isaiah 6:1

In the year that King Uzziah died…

Ok, let’s stop right there. That doesn’t mean anything to us does it. I’ll even add that King Uzziah died in about 740 BC… still not much. But let me add this… King Uzziah had ruled Judah for 52 years. His rule started strong as he was a Godly King. As long as he sought God in his rule, things went well, but after a while, he became prideful and arrogant. He was struck with Leprosy and his son led in his place.

All that said, this period of 52 years was a time of peace and prosperity for the people of Judah, but with the death of the King there was unrest. There was uneasiness. There was worry. There was fear.

Can I ask you something? Do we live in a time of unrest? Is this a time of uneasiness? Are any of you worried? Is anyone in this community dealing with fear?

The beginning of this passage is telling us something more than just marking a year, like it was the year that President Kennedy was assassinated, or It was the year of the hanging chad… Those comments mark time, but they mark so much more than just a date on a calendar. They mark an era in the life of this nation… and Isaiah’s words mark an era in the life of God’s people… an era we find ourselves in today.

Picking back up where we left off…

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.

In other words, Isaiah is saying, “This is a year of change… the old era had ended and a new era had begun… I was scared… I was worried… then… I Saw the Lord!”

There is an old song that some of you may remember from Dallas Holm. The words to the chorus go like this

I saw the Lord… He was high and lifted up,

And rightfully adored…

I saw the Lord…

And he saw me!

I can only imagine what was going through Isaiah’s mind as he was living in this experience. Most scholars think that he had gone to the Temple to pray for his nation… after all, he was a prophet… he was to speak the truth of God to the people… and he went to the Temple because it’s not always easy to speak the truth of God to the people… but he went to the Temple and as he knelt, or as he prostrated himself before God he had this vision… this glorious vision.

Picking up in verse 2

Isaiah 6:2-4

Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

We need to stop for just a minute and deal with a couple of things

The imagery is out of this world, and we aren’t going to come close to doing it justice in this short time, but here goes a shot. First, we have these winged angels flying around with blindfolds – well, wings covering their face… because they were in the presence of the holiness of God and they weren’t worthy to look upon the glory of God.

Then, they covered their feet. This seems strange, until you realize that in ancient Hebrew, the words for feet were often a euphemism for genitalia… bet you didn’t expect to hear that word in today’s message. They were covering themselves out of respect for the holiness of God. They were revering God.

And finally, they were serving God. The were flying and responding to God’s request with the final two wings.

Then, there is this word… Holy. It is a word that means “set apart,” it’s the Greek word qōdeš (kedosh). It means removed from common use. It means separate from the mundane; sacred; pure.

It isn’t a word we use much outside of church unless it’s a derogative- “Oh, they’re just holier than thou.”

But let’s think of it this way…

This is my common dinner plate. It came from Wal-Mart. There’s nothing wrong with it… it is a perfectly functional plate. I can put some leftovers on it, warm it up in the microwave, and sit in front of the TV with it or sit at the table or even go sit on the back porch… right. When I’m done, it goes into the dishwasher… as Renee has reminded me time and again, not in the sink… in the dish washer. This is my common every day plate.

But then… Here is from the collection of fine china that Renee and I picked out when we got married some 26 years ago. It doesn’t go to the couch… it doesn’t get leftovers on it… it doesn’t go to the back porch… it’s special… it’s set apart…

It gets carefully hand washed and hand dried… It’s stored – high and lifted up and rightfully adored… most of the time, it’s to be observed, almost worshipped… Ok, I’m taking the analogy a little too far, but you get the point. I’m not trying to say God is like our Lennox China.

But maybe that can help us understand a glimpse of what it means to be set apart, to be Holy… that that is who God is. Our God is holy and righteous. For Isaiah to be in the presence of God, for Isaiah to see the attendants of the throne, the Seraphim… for Isaiah to see the creator of all that was, is, and ever will be was terrifying… not because God would strike him dead or something like that, but to be in the presence of pure holiness reveals our unworthiness.

Hear what Isaiah said…

Isaiah 6:5

“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.”

Isaiah is a prophet of God, his job is to see the sins of the people, speak God’s word of truth to them and lead them to repentance. But the first thing he does here is look at himself. He doesn’t look at the other people and say – “Look God, look at their sins!” No, he says, “I am a man of unclean lips”

“the very instrument you gave me God, the tool you gave me to use for you is unclean… I am unclean… I am undone… I am unworthy…”

When we come face to face with the holiness of God, we can’t hide behind our self-righteousness… when we come face to face with the holiness of God, we come face to face with our own unholiness.

Only after acknowledging his own sin did he mention… not point fingers at… not blame… but mention the sins of the people… he said, “God, I am a sinner and I am surrounded by people like me who have sinned against you. I don’t deserve to be in your presence.”

But then… what did I tell you were two of the best words in the Bible… But God…

Isaiah 6:6-7

[But God sent] one of the seraphim to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Isaiah didn’t beg God for forgiveness… Isaiah didn’t have to come crawling to God, he didn’t have to grovel before the King… I want you to notice something here… God offered forgiveness before Isaiah asked… All Isaiah did was acknowledge the holiness of God and his own sinfulness… and then he heard these words – “your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Think about what that means…

Think about what that means for you…

God created you… God created you to be in communion with you… God created you for God’s good pleasure… God created you, but God is a Holy God. God is a righteous God. God can’t be in the presence of sin, and your sinfulness separates you from God…

BUT GOD…

But God made a way for you

But God so love the world that he gave his Son so that you could have everlasting life.

But God loved you so much that he made a way to be in fellowship with you…

While you were yet a sinner, while I was still a sinner, Christ died for you, Christ died for me.

I don’t have to come groveling to God…

I don’t have to crawl to God…

All I have to do is acknowledge the holiness of God… all I need to do is place myself before the throne of God and God will do the rest… when I turn from who I am and face who God is I can’t help but acknowledge my sins, my mistakes, my failures… and when I do that, when I turn to the throne of God, I don’t hear judgement… I don’t hear condemnation… There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus… What I hear is “your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

If that isn’t something to celebrate. If that isn’t something to thank God for… if that isn’t something to share with the world, then I don’t know what is.

Let me share the final verse and we’ll wrap up for today. The final verse of today’s passage is this

Isaiah 6:8

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Ladies and gentlemen… children of God… when you come face to face with the holiness of God, and when you realize that God has already forgiven you… when you realize that God is full of mercy and that God is trustworthy and that God is loving and that God is with you, your only right response is… “Here am I, send me!”

You want me to spread the good news of what you have done in my life?

Here am I, send me!

What, God, you want me to lead a Bible Study? Here I am, send me!

You want me to begin a ministry to the homeless, the hurting, the hungry ? Here I am Lord, send me!

The Lord is asking, Who will go? What is your answer?

Let us pray.