WEBVTT 00:00:01.985 --> 00:00:03.630 Turn with me in your Bibles this morning. 00:00:03.630 --> 00:00:08.910 It's the book of Isaiah, the sixth chapter of Isaiah. 00:00:08.910 --> 00:00:14.887 Isaiah, chapter 6, hallelujah. 00:00:19.280 --> 00:00:31.129 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. 00:00:31.129 --> 00:00:37.844 Above him stood the seraphim, each had six wings. 00:00:37.844 --> 00:00:46.844 With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 00:00:46.844 --> 00:00:59.051 And one called to another and said repeat it with me now Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. 00:00:59.051 --> 00:01:02.347 The whole earth is full of his glory. 00:01:02.347 --> 00:01:11.007 And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 00:01:11.007 --> 00:01:30.784 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. 00:01:30.784 --> 00:01:44.811 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. 00:01:44.811 --> 00:01:50.290 Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. 00:01:50.290 --> 00:01:57.671 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying Whom shall I send and who will go for us? 00:01:57.671 --> 00:02:05.671 Then I said Heneini, here am I, send me. 00:02:05.671 --> 00:02:11.808 Father, i am trembling as I stand here this morning. 00:02:11.808 --> 00:02:29.367 My inadequate sweet is to properly convey to your people this trait of your nature which makes you separate from every being in the universe. 00:02:29.367 --> 00:02:57.941 But I pray somehow, through my meager words and the power of the Holy Spirit you make known to us as a people, you reveal yourself in our midst this morning as the thrice Holy God, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth, and I pray that that holiness would be a fearful thing and a wonderful thing, changing our view of you. 00:02:57.941 --> 00:03:05.073 And let the weight, the full weight of your holiness rest upon us this morning. 00:03:05.073 --> 00:03:08.022 I ask it in Jesus' name. 00:03:08.022 --> 00:03:11.570 And everyone said Amen. 00:03:16.407 --> 00:03:41.066 I'm sure many of you have read CS Lewis's famous Narnia Chronicle The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe, which is about four children, peter, susan, lucy and Edmund who enter a mystical world called Narnia through a wardrobe in their uncle's home. 00:03:41.066 --> 00:03:59.074 Edmund immediately pledges his allegiance to the wicked witch, while the other three children make their way to the home of the beavers a hospitable pair, mr and Mrs Beaver. 00:03:59.074 --> 00:04:02.650 And while they're having refreshments at Mr and Mrs Beaver's house. 00:04:02.650 --> 00:04:11.349 The beavers tell the children that they will take them to see the king Aslan. 00:04:11.349 --> 00:04:21.750 And the conversation goes like this, as Lewis wrote it, quote is he a man, asked Lucy. 00:04:21.750 --> 00:04:26.209 Aslan a man, said Mr Beaver sternly. 00:04:26.209 --> 00:04:28.288 Certainly not. 00:04:28.288 --> 00:04:35.072 I tell you, he is the king of the wood and the son of the great emperor beyond the sea. 00:04:35.072 --> 00:04:37.906 Don't you know who is the king of the beast? 00:04:37.906 --> 00:04:41.124 Aslan is a lion. 00:04:41.124 --> 00:04:45.653 The lion, the great lion. 00:04:45.653 --> 00:04:50.009 Oh, said Susan, i thought he was a man. 00:04:50.009 --> 00:04:53.447 Is he quite safe? 00:04:53.447 --> 00:04:57.867 I should rather feel nervous about meeting a lion. 00:04:57.867 --> 00:05:03.754 That you will dearie and make no mistake, said Mrs Beaver. 00:05:03.754 --> 00:05:12.901 If there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking they're either braver than most or else just silly. 00:05:12.901 --> 00:05:18.610 Then he isn't safe, said Lucy. 00:05:18.610 --> 00:05:22.067 Safe, said Mr Beaver. 00:05:22.067 --> 00:05:24.526 Don't you hear what Mrs Beaver tells you? 00:05:24.526 --> 00:05:26.906 Who said anything about safe? 00:05:26.906 --> 00:05:31.048 Of course he isn't safe, but he's good. 00:05:31.048 --> 00:05:33.201 He's the king. 00:05:33.201 --> 00:05:42.545 I tell you Close quote Those words of Mr Beaver. 00:05:42.545 --> 00:05:46.252 I want them to ring in your ears as we turn to this text this morning. 00:05:46.252 --> 00:05:49.148 Safe don't you hear what I'm saying? 00:05:49.148 --> 00:05:51.427 Who said anything about safe? 00:05:51.427 --> 00:05:56.028 Of course he's not safe, but he's good. 00:05:58.319 --> 00:06:20.387 I think the modern Western church has opted for a safe God instead of the unsafe God of the Bible, passages like it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God seem archaic to many in the Western church. 00:06:20.387 --> 00:06:53.475 If you're here for the first time to this morning or maybe you haven't been here for a few months we are engaged in a series entitled A God Worth Knowing, and we have one passion in this series We are ransacking our Bibles to come to terms with the God that we have come to know through Jesus Christ, who is the Lord that we have come to believe in since we have exercised our faith in the Lord Jesus. 00:06:53.475 --> 00:07:01.586 And we have seen in the previous messages that God uses two things to school us or bring us to the knowledge of God. 00:07:01.586 --> 00:07:08.011 One theology, that is, the Bible, is a book about God. 00:07:08.011 --> 00:07:15.615 If you're looking for anything else in the Bible, you may be disappointed, because the Bible is primarily a book about God. 00:07:16.800 --> 00:07:32.470 The second thing we learned that God uses is providence The providential way He super intends all of our histories and guides us through our experiences to the intimate knowledge of God. 00:07:32.470 --> 00:07:41.122 Providence is not only His super intending of events that are good, but all the affairs of our life. 00:07:41.122 --> 00:07:52.593 We are taught that God directs our steps so that through our experiences, with our knowledge of God from Scripture, we might come to know Him intimately and personally. 00:07:52.593 --> 00:08:05.218 And one of the greatest aspects of providence that God often uses, whether you like to admit it or not, is crisis Crisis. 00:08:05.218 --> 00:08:15.206 One wisely once said that crisis is the seedbed of revelation, and I'd like to amen that statement. 00:08:15.800 --> 00:08:17.966 I was thinking about this in the life of Abraham. 00:08:17.966 --> 00:08:21.348 Consider Abraham, the father of us all. 00:08:21.348 --> 00:08:40.589 If you read his story in the early chapters of Genesis, you discover that God is constantly bringing Abraham to a crisis point which he cannot get out of or beyond until he receives a greater revelation of God. 00:08:40.589 --> 00:08:44.809 For example, remember God said you'd have a son. 00:08:44.809 --> 00:08:46.385 Well, abraham was a patient man. 00:08:46.385 --> 00:08:49.589 He waited until he was about 86, and then he figured it out. 00:08:49.589 --> 00:08:51.062 God needs help. 00:08:51.062 --> 00:09:01.273 And so he, along with his wife, produced an ishmael, the child of Hagar, the slave woman. 00:09:01.273 --> 00:09:10.693 And when he's 99, god shows up and says I'll bless Ishmael because he comes from you. 00:09:10.693 --> 00:09:13.945 But that's not the deal, That's not the promise. 00:09:13.945 --> 00:09:16.248 I am going to give you a son. 00:09:16.248 --> 00:09:20.087 And while he's talking, you can only imagine 99 years old. 00:09:20.087 --> 00:09:21.591 His wife, sarah, is 90. 00:09:21.591 --> 00:09:37.789 Her womb is way past the time of fruit bearing And God says I am God, almighty El Shaddai, and I will give you a son when you're nearly 100 years old. 00:09:38.980 --> 00:09:48.462 Now, in the chapter we read this morning, isaiah, the golden-tongued orator of Israel, is having a crisis. 00:09:48.462 --> 00:09:57.981 On one level, it was a national crisis the death of one of the best kings Judah ever had. 00:09:57.981 --> 00:10:17.086 In the history of Judah, uzziah the king was one of the bright spots in their history And he came on the scene after a very devastating experience nationally because his father, amaziah, had been king and he was a godly king. 00:10:17.086 --> 00:10:26.890 But Amaziah, uzziah's dad, in his latter days, turned from God and turned to false gods and died with dishonor. 00:10:26.890 --> 00:11:01.225 And his son, uzziah, was 16 years old when he took the throne of Judah And by the two, under the tutelage of a godly priest named Zachariah, who, we are told, taught him and mentored him in the fear of God, uzziah, as a young man, began to seek the God of his father And we are told in 2 Chronicles 26 that as long as he sought the God of his father, god made him prosper, and prosper he did. 00:11:01.225 --> 00:11:11.352 In fact, under Uzziah, judah almost reached its zenith, not realized since the dynasty of King David. 00:11:11.352 --> 00:11:18.072 He built up the military of Judah so that Judah was stronger than it ever had been. 00:11:18.072 --> 00:11:25.253 He actually created machines of war and he made Judah strong and impregnable. 00:11:25.253 --> 00:11:30.730 And now Judah was now able to successfully resist its enemies. 00:11:31.740 --> 00:11:43.144 But sadly, at the strongest point of Uzziah's kingship, we are told, his heart became proud and lifted up. 00:11:43.144 --> 00:11:47.250 And Uzziah looked at the temple one day and said you know, i'm king. 00:11:47.250 --> 00:11:52.451 I should be able to go into the holiest of all or holy place and offer the incense of the priest. 00:11:52.451 --> 00:11:54.306 There's nothing that should bar me. 00:11:54.306 --> 00:12:01.402 And he burst into the temple and began to offer incense while 60 or 80 priests began to plead with him. 00:12:01.402 --> 00:12:04.009 Uzziah, this does not pertain to you. 00:12:04.009 --> 00:12:04.791 Get out of here. 00:12:04.791 --> 00:12:10.331 You're impeding on the office of priesthood. 00:12:10.331 --> 00:12:44.072 Uzziah refused to leave And even while the censor was in his hand, the Bible says the leprosy came up on his forehead and he was driven out of the temple as a leopard And sadly, he lived as a leper all the rest of his days in a separate house, because lepers had to be separated from the rest of Israel, and then he died, which was a national tragedy for the nation. 00:12:44.220 --> 00:12:47.909 There were many questions now that had to be answered political questions. 00:12:47.909 --> 00:12:49.844 Who would replace him? 00:12:49.844 --> 00:12:53.448 Was Judah now susceptible to war? 00:12:53.448 --> 00:13:04.071 Would foreign armies take advantage of the death of this monarch And would they now invade Judah And would she be susceptible to invasions? 00:13:04.071 --> 00:13:14.467 But more than political crisis, it helps to know that for this prophet, isaiah, it was a personal tragedy and crisis. 00:13:14.467 --> 00:13:22.013 You see, uzziah was Isaiah's nephew and they grew up together. 00:13:22.013 --> 00:13:38.234 In fact, we know that Isaiah was a counselor to the king, having ready access to the court of the king of Judah, and you can only imagine how Isaiah had such high hopes for Judah under King Uzziah. 00:13:38.234 --> 00:13:50.650 You can imagine, when he was struck with leprosy, how Isaiah would have prayed day and night for God to heal this king and restore him to the throne. 00:13:50.650 --> 00:13:58.412 Yet Uzziah dies and both Isaiah and his nation are devastated by his death. 00:14:00.019 --> 00:14:04.450 But, as is often the case, here's where theology meets reality. 00:14:04.450 --> 00:14:18.293 This can be the seedbed for new revelation And while Isaiah is mourning the loss of one king, god gives him a vision of the true king. 00:14:18.293 --> 00:14:25.251 And in fact, isaiah actually receives three visions in chapter 6. 00:14:25.251 --> 00:14:33.703 They have been called by other authors the upward vision, the inward vision and the outward vision. 00:14:33.703 --> 00:14:51.549 The upward vision is God giving Isaiah a vision of the king of glory, the thrice holy one, and Isaiah now glimpses who is really on the throne. 00:14:51.549 --> 00:14:53.306 There is a king who died. 00:14:53.306 --> 00:15:06.023 God takes Isaiah to the true cause of all that happens in the universe, the king of glory, and shows him he's fine, sitting on the throne governing all the affairs of the human race. 00:15:06.023 --> 00:15:15.751 But that vision of God that Isaiah has leads him to an inward vision. 00:15:15.751 --> 00:15:32.986 And I will tell you that the upward vision of the person of God will always lead men and women, when they have it, to an inward vision, a vision of their true condition before the holy one of Israel. 00:15:32.986 --> 00:15:47.311 And what Isaiah sees, when he sees God in his utter holiness, is Isaiah realizes who he really is as a fallen human being. 00:15:47.311 --> 00:16:01.052 Then the thing that is his strength and it's helpful to know that in Judah's history the Jewish people regard Isaiah, he is called the golden-tongued orator of the prophetic period. 00:16:01.759 --> 00:16:03.326 Nobody spoke like Isaiah. 00:16:03.326 --> 00:16:08.491 If you read his book in Hebrew, it has the highest literary value. 00:16:08.491 --> 00:16:24.243 This man is educated, he's brilliant, he's an orator, and yet when he sees the holy one, the thing that is his strength, his lips, he cries out I am ruined, i am a man of unclean lips. 00:16:24.243 --> 00:16:36.134 And this picture of his personal depravity leads to now a picture of glorious cleansing. 00:16:36.134 --> 00:16:49.251 God commands one of the seraphs to take a coal drenched in blood and apply it to Isaiah's lips, and God says this has atoned for your sins. 00:16:49.251 --> 00:17:00.549 By the way, it's not Isaiah doing something to be atoned for, it's God taking the initiative and atoning for Isaiah's sin, which is exactly what the gospel is. 00:17:00.549 --> 00:17:09.191 And that upward vision that leads to an inward vision begets an outward vision. 00:17:12.299 --> 00:17:17.851 Isaiah is so broken by his vision of God he overhears a heavenly conversation. 00:17:17.851 --> 00:17:21.768 He isn't directly called, like other prophets. 00:17:21.768 --> 00:17:27.571 God doesn't now call to Isaiah, isaiah, isaiah as he calls to Jeremiah or Ezekiel. 00:17:27.571 --> 00:17:45.744 But now he is so broken by the awful revelation of God's holiness and his utter sinfulness and cleansing that he's now in the proper position to hear God's voice saying who will go for us And notice the plural. 00:17:45.744 --> 00:17:53.170 We talked about the Trinity last week Who will go for us and whom shall we send? 00:17:55.079 --> 00:18:11.532 Now, for the remaining moments of this message this morning, come with me to the upward vision, because if we are not properly viewing this, the rest of the two visions make no sense. 00:18:11.532 --> 00:18:41.569 One of the reasons in the church today the level of conviction of sin is at such a paltry level, folks is simply we do not know God in his utter holiness, and everything we would agree together needs to be corrected in the church, i am convinced has its origins in having a proper view of God, and this is the premier vision in the Old Testament. 00:18:41.569 --> 00:18:46.851 It sets forth an aspect of God we desperately need. 00:18:46.851 --> 00:19:05.775 First of all, isaiah has shown the throne, and I don't want to stay here, but I just want to remind you of something I said earlier Whenever the picture of God and we see this in Revelation 4, we have it here in Isaiah 6, and there are other portions of Scripture Whenever we see, listen to it. 00:19:05.775 --> 00:19:19.230 In the year King Uzziah died, when there was crisis in the country and I was in personal crisis, i saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up. 00:19:19.230 --> 00:19:30.226 This is a picture of God in His awful sovereignty I'm using awful positively this morning. 00:19:30.226 --> 00:19:34.356 He is the sovereign Lord of the universe. 00:19:34.676 --> 00:19:43.159 Isaiah had been caught up in various causes political causes, political manipulations, military strategies. 00:19:43.159 --> 00:19:48.553 God says I'm sitting on the throne, high and lifted up. 00:19:48.553 --> 00:19:54.962 If you would, isaiah is taken to the ultimate cause. 00:19:54.962 --> 00:20:00.617 Listen to AW Pink define God's sovereignty, his throne rulership. 00:20:00.617 --> 00:20:01.199 Overall. 00:20:01.199 --> 00:20:02.560 It's a great definition. 00:20:02.560 --> 00:20:07.776 It is, quote the exercise of His supremacy. 00:20:07.776 --> 00:20:22.183 Infinitely elevated above the highest creature, he is the most high Lord of heaven and earth, subject to none, influenced by none, absolutely independent. 00:20:22.183 --> 00:20:29.084 God does as He pleases, only as He pleases, always as He pleases. 00:20:29.084 --> 00:20:44.887 So often you and I have a problem, and it's this We deal all the time with second and third causes What He did to me, what She said to me, what's happening at my work? 00:20:44.887 --> 00:20:45.529 I'm mad at my employer. 00:20:45.529 --> 00:20:47.695 I don't like this. 00:20:47.695 --> 00:20:48.479 I don't like that. 00:20:48.479 --> 00:20:50.505 We're always dealing with causes. 00:20:50.505 --> 00:20:58.887 God takes Isaiah to the throne and shows him the ultimate cause. 00:20:58.887 --> 00:21:10.401 It's the same thing God does with John at the beginning of the revelation, and those of you who know Revelation, i've taught it here years ago that John has this throne vision, just like Isaiah. 00:21:10.461 --> 00:21:30.125 In chapters four and five And the word throne I think it appears 17 times in two chapters God's trying to give a message to John And it's critical that John receive it because from here on out in Revelation bad stuff is happening And John is being told something. 00:21:30.125 --> 00:21:31.348 Listen to this message. 00:21:31.348 --> 00:21:32.412 You need it this morning. 00:21:32.412 --> 00:21:37.488 You see, john and the churches were tempted to think God's not on the throne. 00:21:37.488 --> 00:21:48.894 If God was on the throne, this wouldn't be happening And most of Revelation was written to prepare a suffering church for more suffering. 00:21:48.894 --> 00:21:56.084 And John is shown a throne and he's told by God. 00:21:56.084 --> 00:21:59.574 This is what is reality, john. 00:21:59.574 --> 00:22:00.977 It's not what's happening. 00:22:00.977 --> 00:22:05.234 These things are happening to the church not because I'm not reigning. 00:22:05.234 --> 00:22:12.471 They are happening because I am Lord And I rule in my sovereignty over all the earth. 00:22:14.596 --> 00:22:32.417 John, now Isaiah now sees at the throne seraphim, heavenly creatures around the throne The only place they appear in Isaiah in the scriptures is in the book of Isaiah these angelic beings of glory that have six wings. 00:22:32.417 --> 00:22:36.365 These creatures are sinless. 00:22:36.365 --> 00:22:50.199 They hover around the throne of God, yet even though they are sinless, they are still creatures And therefore, john, isaiah has shown that with two of the wings, they have to hide their eyes. 00:22:50.199 --> 00:22:53.671 No one can look upon God and live. 00:22:53.671 --> 00:22:57.458 Even their feet are covered by two of their wings. 00:22:57.458 --> 00:23:00.262 Why are their feet covered? 00:23:00.262 --> 00:23:02.693 The feet speak of creatureliness. 00:23:02.693 --> 00:23:08.393 Remember when Moses, at the burning bush God, says take your shoes off, you're on holy ground. 00:23:08.393 --> 00:23:15.497 These creatures are sinless, yet they still have to cover their feet because they're reminded in the presence of the Holy One. 00:23:15.497 --> 00:23:33.998 They are creatures, they are of earth And with two wings they hover around the throne, speaking of the book of Ezekiel, where the throne creatures revolve around it. 00:23:33.998 --> 00:23:42.625 And then Isaiah overhears this magnificent song that I want to abide at for a few minutes. 00:23:42.625 --> 00:23:46.535 In the remainder of this message It's been called the thrice holy. 00:23:46.535 --> 00:23:49.599 One song, the three times holy. 00:23:49.599 --> 00:23:50.602 Listen to this. 00:23:50.602 --> 00:23:54.755 These creatures that hover around the throne of God. 00:23:54.755 --> 00:24:01.594 They do nothing, day and night, but say holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. 00:24:01.594 --> 00:24:03.882 The whole earth is full of His glory. 00:24:04.262 --> 00:24:12.699 Now I don't want to be in any way disrespectful, but you could read this and think subtly. 00:24:12.699 --> 00:24:14.321 God is an egomaniac. 00:24:14.321 --> 00:24:16.925 Think about that. 00:24:16.925 --> 00:24:27.797 He created creatures and their only function is to hover around the throne of God and remind God constantly of how holy He is. 00:24:27.797 --> 00:24:36.336 You could come away, if you didn't understand this, with the impression that God is a egomaniac. 00:24:36.336 --> 00:24:39.343 He has to be constantly reminded. 00:24:39.343 --> 00:24:44.851 In fact, i don't know if you know this, but that's what kept CS Lewis from becoming a Christian fora long time. 00:24:44.851 --> 00:24:59.883 He himself, in his biography, said that when he read the book of Psalms he was offended because it seems that God is an egomaniac and needs to be constantly praised. 00:24:59.883 --> 00:25:10.364 In fact, lewis said God reminded him of a vain woman constantly seeking compliments until he got it. 00:25:10.364 --> 00:25:11.750 And I wonder if you get it? 00:25:13.053 --> 00:25:15.057 Why does God have creatures, for that matter? 00:25:15.057 --> 00:25:19.324 why has God created worship For us? 00:25:19.324 --> 00:25:23.297 why are we called to worship God and remind him of His greatness? 00:25:23.297 --> 00:25:25.881 Is God insecure? 00:25:25.881 --> 00:25:27.944 Is He hung up? 00:25:27.944 --> 00:25:32.059 And this is what Lewis said, opened his eyes to realize the truth. 00:25:32.059 --> 00:25:32.942 He said wait a minute. 00:25:32.942 --> 00:25:40.261 If God is God, then He must promote the highest good. 00:25:40.261 --> 00:25:41.904 If you understand that, raise your hand. 00:25:41.904 --> 00:25:42.550 How many know? 00:25:42.550 --> 00:25:46.901 if God is God, he must stand for and promote the highest good. 00:25:46.901 --> 00:25:47.702 Do you agree with that? 00:25:47.702 --> 00:25:49.873 Yes, it's a true statement. 00:25:49.873 --> 00:25:53.260 But I have a second question church, what's the highest good? 00:25:53.260 --> 00:25:55.112 It's God. 00:25:55.112 --> 00:26:03.111 So for God to promote the highest good, he has to be hung up on Himself, because there's no higher good than God. 00:26:03.111 --> 00:26:12.701 So God is an insecure. 00:26:12.701 --> 00:26:17.067 He's good and He promotes the highest good. 00:26:17.067 --> 00:26:23.951 And since the highest good is Himself, he calls people and creatures that He's created to worship Him. 00:26:23.951 --> 00:26:39.683 But there is a reason in the text that God is worshiped by these creatures, by terms of the thrice holy designation. 00:26:39.683 --> 00:26:54.507 These beings that are the closest beings to the throne of God do nothing day and night, but say holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. 00:26:54.507 --> 00:26:57.884 The whole earth is full of His glory. 00:26:58.315 --> 00:27:00.603 Question why do they repeat it three times? 00:27:00.603 --> 00:27:01.618 Is it a misprint? 00:27:01.618 --> 00:27:03.057 Is God hard of hearing? 00:27:03.057 --> 00:27:10.224 Actually, it's a hebraic form of literature. 00:27:10.224 --> 00:27:15.605 It is repeated three times simply for the sake of emphasis. 00:27:15.605 --> 00:27:27.295 You see, if we write something and we want to emphasize it, we have things like exclamation points, you can bold it, and when you read it in bold or exclamation, you know this is important. 00:27:27.375 --> 00:27:30.284 But the Hebrews didn't have those advantages that we do. 00:27:30.284 --> 00:27:33.584 So they had a technique for emphasis. 00:27:33.584 --> 00:27:38.806 They would double something or triple something at some cases. 00:27:38.806 --> 00:27:43.925 For instance, jesus used the double emphasis. 00:27:43.925 --> 00:27:53.098 How many remember he would say often something like this Truly, truly, i say to you okay, the first, truly, we were fine, god, you have to double it. 00:27:53.098 --> 00:27:59.738 What he's saying is listen up, this is really important, truly, truly. 00:27:59.738 --> 00:28:03.401 And so you have times in Scripture where something's doubled. 00:28:03.922 --> 00:28:07.189 But when something is tripled, what do you suspect? 00:28:07.189 --> 00:28:08.159 Do you think it's important? 00:28:08.159 --> 00:28:24.670 In fact, in Revelation, right before one of the judgments, john sees eagles flying through the midair and the eagles repeat whoa, whoa, whoa to the inhabitants of the earth. 00:28:24.670 --> 00:28:32.700 I don't know what's going to follow, but I have a feeling it's really bad because it's a triple whoa. 00:28:32.700 --> 00:28:45.423 Well, here we have the only time in Scripture when an attribute of God is tripled Holy, holy, holy. 00:28:45.423 --> 00:28:52.387 We know God is love, but we have no instance in Scripture where God is called love, love, love. 00:28:52.387 --> 00:28:59.276 We know he's merciful, but nowhere in Scripture is mercy repeated three times mercy, mercy, mercy. 00:28:59.276 --> 00:29:12.265 But when it comes to the holiness of God, it is so important an attribute of God, it is tripled by the seraphim because it is the essence of who God really is. 00:29:15.634 --> 00:29:21.851 Now, when we hear the word holy, the majority of us in this room think of purity. 00:29:21.851 --> 00:29:28.266 And you are right to do so, because inherent in the idea of holy is purity. 00:29:28.266 --> 00:29:35.545 But purity is only a secondary meaning of holiness. 00:29:35.545 --> 00:29:37.057 It is not the essence. 00:29:37.057 --> 00:29:47.767 And when you think of holy, if you think of not smoking, not drinking, not cursing, you are right, that's an aspect of holiness, but it's not its essence. 00:29:47.767 --> 00:29:59.304 You will never grasp the holy one if you think of holiness first and foremost as purity, instead of thinking of purity as an outcome of what holiness is. 00:29:59.304 --> 00:30:07.534 When the seraphim cry holy, holy, holy, they're not crying purity, purity, purity. 00:30:07.534 --> 00:30:10.001 They're alluding to something even higher. 00:30:10.001 --> 00:30:41.186 The word holy, in its essence, comes from a Hebrew word which simply means to separate, like when I get my paycheck at the end of the week, i put some to KUB and some to my mortgage and some to my insurance, and then there's something left for my pocket not much these days and it's increasingly shrinking, but it's mine. 00:30:41.186 --> 00:30:50.700 I've separated it out, it's really mine, it's all mine, but this is mine and I can put it in my wallet and spend it on stupid stuff. 00:30:55.035 --> 00:31:09.845 When we refer to God as holy, before we think of purity, we should think of the reality that God is separate from everything else. 00:31:09.845 --> 00:31:16.087 He is, in a word, to put it in the modern vernacular, he is in a class of His own. 00:31:16.087 --> 00:31:23.926 In fact, one author says the technical term is simply He is transcendently separate. 00:31:23.926 --> 00:31:31.395 I have a term that I'll use this morning that you've probably heard, but it fits this as a T. 00:31:31.395 --> 00:31:34.746 You know, when you think of basketball players, there's a lot of good ones. 00:31:34.746 --> 00:31:37.583 When you think of Michael Jordan, what do you think of? 00:31:37.583 --> 00:31:39.461 One of the good ones, along with many? 00:31:39.461 --> 00:31:41.240 No, in a class of His own. 00:31:41.240 --> 00:31:43.160 Maybe that's debatable, but I think He is. 00:31:43.160 --> 00:31:48.119 When you think of the voles, they're in a class of their own. 00:31:53.075 --> 00:31:57.656 It's sad that I got more responsive to you that than I did about God's holiness, but we won't go there. 00:31:57.656 --> 00:32:06.886 The way to say this and I'm not unique in saying it this way is that God is other. 00:32:06.886 --> 00:32:09.157 He is other. 00:32:09.157 --> 00:32:13.862 He's not just like people, but a little bit better. 00:32:13.862 --> 00:32:15.066 So we come to Him. 00:32:15.066 --> 00:32:24.116 No, although He's treated that way by the church, the God whom is being worshiped in Isaiah 6 is being worshiped by the thrice repeated term holy. 00:32:24.116 --> 00:32:29.248 Because, brothers and sisters, when it comes to separation, this is it. 00:32:29.248 --> 00:32:33.200 There is no one more separate and higher than God. 00:32:40.974 --> 00:32:51.402 In fact, there was a man in the 20th century, rudolph Otto, who did a scientific study of the holy, and it was an amazing study. 00:32:51.402 --> 00:33:00.122 What he did is study different cultures to see how they react to the concept of something being holy or separate. 00:33:00.122 --> 00:33:16.025 Every culture has it, And what he noticed about all these cultures is that they all struggle and have a difficult time defining the holy. 00:33:16.025 --> 00:33:18.161 They can't get their hands on it. 00:33:18.161 --> 00:33:22.823 It's an intangible, and Otto ended up giving it a term. 00:33:22.823 --> 00:33:28.855 He called it the Mysterium Tremendum, the awful mystery, he said. 00:33:28.855 --> 00:33:34.748 In every culture, whatever they deify is considered holy and it's mystery. 00:33:34.748 --> 00:33:36.500 It can't be defied. 00:33:36.500 --> 00:33:38.499 It defies description. 00:33:38.499 --> 00:33:45.541 But he said there's one common trait all cultures have. 00:33:49.115 --> 00:34:04.079 He said the overriding emotion that people have when they're in the presence of the holy is fear and a sense of their own creatureliness. 00:34:04.079 --> 00:34:27.375 Whether it's Moses in the presence of God at the burning, bush, or John when he sees the exalted Lord Jesus at the beginning of the revelation, the reaction is always the same Get down on the ground, i'm in the presence of the other. 00:34:27.375 --> 00:34:42.952 I like to say it this way When I'm in the presence of the absolute, the one who is I am, i immediately realize I'm not, and that's good. 00:34:42.952 --> 00:35:01.862 Now it becomes evident, or it should be evident this morning, how important this aspect of God is and how important and vital it is for the church to have it restored. 00:35:01.862 --> 00:35:14.260 We must recapture once again in the church of God the otherness of God, so that we separate Him in our minds and our hearts from everything on earth. 00:35:14.630 --> 00:35:21.800 There is way too much flippancy in the church when it comes to our attitude towards God. 00:35:21.800 --> 00:35:35.423 He's not your big buddy, he's the awesome, awful, holy, separate God who has become your Father in Jesus Christ. 00:35:35.423 --> 00:35:38.197 But church, he has never changed. 00:35:38.197 --> 00:35:41.757 He is other and the church must treat Him as other. 00:35:41.757 --> 00:35:46.016 Now you might say, well, he's our Father. 00:35:46.016 --> 00:35:49.215 Yes, and Jesus taught us to pray. 00:35:49.215 --> 00:35:53.036 Our Father, who art in heaven. 00:35:53.036 --> 00:35:55.862 Hallowed be your name. 00:35:55.862 --> 00:36:06.981 Notice that the moment we call Him Father, it is followed by the petition hallowed be your name, which means Lord, make your name holy, sanctify it. 00:36:06.981 --> 00:36:24.413 So one of the priorities that Jesus gave the church in its service to God is to know that He's Father, but not lose that sense that He is separate, other different to be feared while He is loved. 00:36:27.110 --> 00:36:29.336 I think the writer of Hebrews sums it up best. 00:36:29.336 --> 00:36:53.005 Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. 00:36:53.005 --> 00:36:56.715 That is a New Testament grace verse. 00:36:56.715 --> 00:37:08.416 One of the words in the text this morning time will not allow me to teach on it is the Hebrew word Chabad or glory. 00:37:08.416 --> 00:37:11.818 Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. 00:37:11.818 --> 00:37:16.858 The whole earth is full of His Chabad, his glory. 00:37:19.429 --> 00:37:26.239 You know what that Hebrew word really means Weight, or weightiness, heaviness. 00:37:26.239 --> 00:37:31.818 When you talk about God's glory, you're getting heavy, man. 00:37:31.818 --> 00:37:34.373 You're talking about heaviness. 00:37:34.373 --> 00:37:50.780 It suggests that wherever God is present, there is a weightiness that can be felt And that weightiness is meant to affect us. 00:37:50.780 --> 00:38:05.960 If you take a rock, if you take a heavy stone or rock and throw it in a pool of water, the rock, because of its weight, affects the water and ripples go out. 00:38:05.960 --> 00:38:16.137 You cannot throw a rock in water without expecting the water to be affected, because it is being affected on by something weightier. 00:38:16.137 --> 00:38:34.963 And when God, the awesome, awful, god of holiness, abides in His glory in the midst of His people as well as in all the earth, that weightiness is meant to affect us. 00:38:34.963 --> 00:38:36.963 That's why we become holy. 00:38:36.963 --> 00:38:44.512 That's why we become purified, because the one who is holy is purified or separate from all impurities. 00:38:44.512 --> 00:38:46.860 And that's how we become holy. 00:38:46.860 --> 00:38:51.000 But it's not by trying to be pure in our own strength. 00:38:51.000 --> 00:38:54.418 It is by being affected by the holiness of God. 00:38:54.418 --> 00:39:02.963 When creatures come into the presence of the holy, the weight of His glory is meant to affect us. 00:39:03.710 --> 00:39:21.802 Personally, i hope this doesn't offend you, but I am suspicious of people who constantly talk about being touched by God and who never change, who get up off the floor and are as selfish, ungodly as they've ever been and said but I was touched. 00:39:21.802 --> 00:39:25.096 If you are touched by God, you will be changed. 00:39:25.096 --> 00:39:32.985 And what we discover and we will be parked in this chapter again. 00:39:32.985 --> 00:39:35.556 Next week we'll go to the second and third vision. 00:39:35.556 --> 00:39:50.833 What we discover and I want you to take this with you now, because we're now going to segue into our closing communion service but what we discover is the upward vision produces an inward vision. 00:39:50.833 --> 00:39:53.936 Holiness is traumatic. 00:39:53.936 --> 00:40:01.554 This encountering God in His holiness will never be the same.