Compass Men | Set Apart: Holy

A message by Pastor Josiah Smith on Isaiah 6:1-8. 

Compass Bible Church South Valley is located in Kuna, Idaho

For more information about Compass Bible Church go to https://www.compassbiblesv.org/

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Transcript

Why Holy Faithful Zealous Matters

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Well, back when my wife and I, McKenzie, were thinking about and praying about the planting of Compass Bible Church South Valley, there were three words that her and I specifically just felt like we're laid on our hearts to pray on behalf of the people that would join and be a part of Compass Bible Church South Valley. So that whether that was joining the launch team in the early days and seeing Compass Bible Church South Valley kind of get off the ground and be a part of that initial seed group or those that would join after the fact or even now, sort of quote unquote midstream, as we are just continuing day by day to seek to make disciples, three words came to our mind. And those words were holy, faithful, and zealous. And so, in the course of the next couple of months, as we work through this series entitled Set Apart, we're going to be talking about being holy, being faithful, and being zealous. And really, our heart and our prayer was that those people, that the people at Compass Bible Church South Valley would be holy, faithful, and zealous. And so my desire for you this morning, as we begin with that first word, holy, is that for you as a man, as a man who is seeking to live faithfully according to God's word, submitting to God's standards that he lays forth in his word, my hope for you is that you would be able to say that you are growing in holiness, that you are someone that takes seriously the command that God gives to be holy as he is holy. And so that's what we will begin with today in this series. Set apart those three words, holy, faithful, and

Isaiah’s Vision Of The Holy King

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zealous. We'll begin by looking at Isaiah 6 to look at the holiness of God. So if you've got your Bibles, please go there. Isaiah chapter 6. We'll read verses 1 through 8 together and see the holiness of God, that then I think should have a profound impact on the way that we as men pursue holiness. But let me read it for us first, Isaiah chapter 6, beginning in verse 1. 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 threshold 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. Now this morning I want to give you seven things to think about as you seek to pursue holiness as a man. Seven things from Isaiah 6.

Delight In God’s Holiness And Glory

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Here's the first one by reveling in the glory and holiness of God. Pursue holiness as a man, by reveling in the glory and holiness of God. Now the word revel is a sense of to be profoundly satisfied, to find contentment in and delight in, to revel in the glory and holiness of God. You see, a pursuit of holiness begins by understanding and looking to where holiness comes from, where holiness is ultimately found. And if we're going to be men and that pursue holiness and do that consistently to the glory of God and the good of those around us, we got to start by reveling, delighting ourselves in the glory and the holiness of God. Look at this with me in Isaiah 6, beginning in verse 1 again. It says, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne. Listen to these words, high and lifted up. And the train of his robe filled the temple. The train of a robe was something that marked royalty. And the longer the robe, the the more royalty that it signified. And this is a train that filled the temple. It was almost as if it was wall to wall, floor to ceiling. The robe of the train of God's robe fills the temple. And in verse 2, above him, above the Lord, sitting on the throne, stood the seraphim. These angels that has six wings. With two, these angels cover their face. They recognize that they are in the presence of the Lord. They are in the presence of the one who has all authority, who has all power, who has all majesty. His train fills the temple. And so they cover their face with two of their wings. They cover their feet with two of their wings, and with the other two they fly. In verse 3, it says, And one of the angels called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Now notice that there in verse 3. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Now that's fascinating, isn't it? It doesn't say holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. But it says holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. The whole earth is filled with the glory of God. Why does it say the glory of God? Holy, holy, holy is repeated three times, but the glory of God is what is full filling the earth. Well, one author said it this way, this this past week, as I was reading it. The glory of God is the manifestation of his holiness. God's glory in that sense is God's holiness going public. God's holiness, his intrinsic value, his infinite worth, his internal being is being made public. It's going public. That's the glory of the Lord. It's the manifestation, the revealing of his holiness, of the reality, of his nature, of his being. God's glory is God's holiness going public. And so we ought to, as men, revel in the glory of God and the holiness of God. Now, what does it mean to say that God is holy? To say that God is holy, uh, in one sense, really just means God is God. I mean, that's what to say that God is holy is, that there is no one like him. The word holy can be translated set apart, distinct, separate from. And so, in a real sense, you could say properly, to say that God is holy is to say that God is God. And isn't this what God Himself says in Exodus chapter 3 in the burning bush to Moses? What does he say? Who who do I say sent me? Moses says, and God responds by saying, I am who I am. I just am. God just is, he is just God. God does not exist in a category of godness, there is only one God. And God is God. So to say that God is holy, in one sense, right, is to simply say that God is God and there is nothing and no one like him. And this is why the angels properly say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord. Now, one time it says something true, two times it says something emphatically, three times says something that is supposed to just go, I can't miss this. I I can't neglect this, I can't ignore this. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord. And I'm sure you've heard before that that is the only attribute of God in the entire canon of scripture that is repeated three times. The only one. Holy, holy, holy. This is what God wants us to know is central, is essential to who he is. And that's why we can say to say that God is holy is to say simply that God is God. There is nothing and no one like him. And so holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. The glory of God is the holiness of God gone public, so that other people see and experience and recognize what Isaiah is saying here and experiencing in this vision that he has of the throne room. Isaiah sees this king, the Lord, sitting upon a throne. And by the way, a king who sits is a king who's not anxious, right? A king who's not bustling around, a king who's not forgetting details and uh and uh buying for time. No, this is a king who's sitting because he has all authority, he has all power, he sovereignly rules the universe from his throne. Our God is in the heavens, he does whatever he pleases. Isaiah sees this one, this Lord, sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, above every king, above every kingdom, above every throne, he possesses all authority, all might, all power. The train of his robe fills the temple. And Isaiah sees these angels, these seraphim, if you translate that word, the burning ones that are flying around the throne room saying, Holy, holy, holy. And even the angels, by the way, who are sinless, they they have not experienced a fallen condition like you and I have, they recognize that they cannot look directly into the holiness of God. So they cover their eyes and they cover their feet out of reverence and respect for this God. To say that God is holy is simply to say that God is God and there is no one like him. And as the angels fly and sing this chorus of praise, verse 4, it says the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. Man, if you are going to live a life of holiness, if you're going to live a life that is set apart, consecrated, sanctified to the Lord, it starts by recognizing that God is holiness. That to say that God is holy is again to say that God is God. He is high and lifted up, he is majestic, he is grand, he is far greater than we can ever imagine. And so the angels say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory, the whole earth is radiating with the holiness, the perfection, the intrinsic worth, the infinite value of this God, of this Lord of hosts, the one who sits on his throne and rules the universe. That's what we revel in. We delight ourselves in God. And if we're gonna pursue holiness, we have to recognize where holiness comes from. Holiness flows from God because God is holy, holy, holy.

Woe Is Me Recognizing Need

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Secondly, if we're gonna pursue being holy as men, we do that by recognizing our need for mercy. You need to recognize as you think about and revel in the holiness of God. The only proper response to a right understanding of the holiness of God is a recognition of a need for mercy. That's the response that we see Isaiah have as he sees this vision, as he sees the Lord, the train of his robe filling the temple, the one seated that where the seraphim are flying around the throne, singing, holy, holy, holy, the the foundations are shaking, smoke is filling the air. Here's the response of Isaiah in verse five. 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. There is no more appropriate response to a right understanding of the holiness of God than to cry out for mercy. That's the sequence that we see here. Isaiah is faced with the majesty of the holiness of God, the whole earth being filled with his glory, his holiness gone public. And what is his response? I am undone. Woe is me, I am lost, I am unclean, I am deserving of ultimately judgment. Isaiah understands that. Woe is me, and what better, more appropriate response than that, than the recognition of the need for mercy. And we need mercy because, in contrast to the holiness of God, you recognize that as men, apart from Christ, we are anything but holy. To say that God is holy again is to say that he's perfect, that he's of infinite worth and value, that he everything that he does is good and proper, that he is all-powerful, all-knowing, all good, all loving, all-wise. And all of that, you pit that against us as men, as creatures. We are anything but those things. We are sinful, we love the darkness. This is the judgment, Jesus says. The light has come into the world, and men preferred the darkness. We love our sin. We love the things that are against the Lord, against his ways. And so Isaiah recognizes that. He recognizes that in the presence of the holiness of God, he is undone and he needs mercy. Woe is me, for I am lost. I am a man of unclean lips. Notice the Levitical language in this passage. Unclean. If you've been reading with us in Lamp and Light, we've been working through Leviticus. We actually just finished today, Leviticus 27. But so many times in the book of Leviticus, we have laws that were concerning ritual purity, being clean versus unclean. Clean things, clean places, clean people. And he says, I am lost. I am a man of unclean lips. When faced with the holiness of God, Isaiah said, I need mercy. I need something that I do not possess. This is the appropriate response to the holiness of God to cry out for mercy. He recognizes who he is in light of the holiness of God. So it's not just that we cry out for mercy. We certainly recognize our sin. We recognize God's holiness. But number three, we pursue holiness as men by marveling at the grace that God provides.

Atonement And Grace You Don’t Earn

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We marvel at the grace that God provides. The text goes on in Isaiah 6, beginning of verse 6, it says, Then one of the seraphim flew to me. So remember, the recognition for mercy, I am undone. I am unclean. I live amongst the people that are unclean. Verse 6 says, Then one of the seraphim, one of these angels that are crying, holy, holy, holy, 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. This is the reality of the holiness of God. If you cry out for mercy, you will receive grace. This is forgiveness that Isaiah does not deserve, and atonement that Isaiah could not accomplish. And again, look at the Levitical language here. Your guilt is taken away. If you've read Leviticus, where it talks about in chapter 16 and 17, the day of atonement, the high priest would have two animals, and one animal would be sacrificed, the other animal would be set free into the wilderness. And their sins would be taken away to a different place. Going away. That was the picture of what we're seeing here in Isaiah 6. That his guilt of his sin, of his uncleanness, of his impurity, his guilt is being taken away, and his sin is being atoned for. It's being covered by the grace of God. Again, this is forgiveness that we do not deserve, an atonement that we could not accomplish. And so Isaiah, when faced with the holiness of God, he recognized, I am undone. I need mercy. And what does God do in response? Well, he provides graciously the means to experience cleansing. Behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. This is a work initiated by God. This is a work accomplished by God. This is a work that, of course, Isaiah could not have done on his own. The only proper response from Isaiah was just this feeling of unraveling. I am unclean. I am unworthy. I am unable to find the solution or provide the solution that I need. But Isaiah 6 shows us that God, in his grace, provides exactly what we meet, what we need. Behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. That's the third thing. We marvel at the grace that God Himself supplies. We cry out for mercy, and in being faced with the holiness of God, we recognize how unholy we are and how we need to be made holy. Not by anything that we could do, but by the work of God, specifically through Christ.

Submitting Every Area To The Throne

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Number four, how do we pursue holiness as men? We do it by submitting ourselves to God's throne, by submitting our lives, by submitting our thought life, our work life, our family life to the throne of God. The throne of God is really one of the main themes in this passage. In verse 1, it says, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne. Now notice a contrast here. King Uzziah is dead, he's in the dirt, he is no more, he sits on no throne. But I saw the Lord alive, sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. God is sitting on his throne. And again, that signifies he is ruling and he is reigning, he's managing, as it were, the universe. God is upholding the universe by the word of his power. And as men, our response to that reality, to the holiness of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God, is to submit ourselves to the throne of God. God, whatever you want, I will do. And the good news again is that though King Uzziah is dead, and if you read that story, he does not finish well. He does a lot of good things as a king over Israel, but towards the end of his life, he does not finish well. And this marks kind of a contrast where the the need for kind of restoration and a recommitment to the Lord, Isaiah 6 is that sort of dividing line. But in the year that King Uzziah died, he no longer sits on a throne, the Lord continues to reign. The Lord continues to sit and rule. I heard one pastor say uh in reference to this text God is where he has always been on the throne. And the good news, gentlemen, is that God has no term limits, he has no re-elections, he is not up for voting. Uh God is where he has always been, sitting on the throne. And your response as a man should be to submit to God's rule in your life. This is one of those things that as men can be a challenge. Because to say that we're going to submit to God's throne is to say that every aspect of our life, from the things that we think to the ways that we spend our money, to the ways that we parent our kids, all of it becomes under in submission to the king who sits on the throne. It means that you get your marching orders for everything that you do and everything that you pursue from the throne, from the Lord. And so to pursue holiness is to rightfully see God sitting on his throne, recognizing his holiness and saying, Lord, what you want is what I will do. What you have commanded is what I will obey. And as men, if we're going to pursue a holiness, you should have this relentless pursuit in your heart to say, I will submit to the throne. And isn't that hard in our culture, maybe especially in Idaho? We love the sometimes the whole concept of, I might get in trouble for this. Sometimes the whole concept of American freedom can really mess us up as Christians, right? Can I say that? Is that okay? Because we ultimately are not fully free, at least in the ways that we want to be, with this sort of American idealism. We submit to a throne. We have a king. He calls the shots, right? It's not about living our best life or being the captain of our own destiny or any of that kind of nonsense. We have a king. And so we tell the world, hey, I'm sorry, I have a king that I answer to. Hey, when your boss is saying, hey, just fudge the numbers a little bit. It's not that big of a deal. Uh no one's really gonna, you know, the accounting doesn't do anything, anyways, on the back end. So they're not gonna figure it out, it's not a big deal. You say, sorry, I submit to the king, I do what the king has told me to do, and my king hates lying, my king hates deception, unequal weights and measures. He did he wants nothing to do with that. I listen to the king, I submit my life to the king. Right? So, this whole idea of of again, this American idealism of freedom. Of course, I love freedom. I love America, right? Can I say that? I love America, I love the troops that have died to secure our freedom, but never get that twisted. We are ultimately in full submission to the king. We do have a king, and he sits on the throne. And for you as a man, you've got to recognize that you're always in submission to that king. You're you're never outside of it. And if you are, it's not somewhere you want to be. Everything that you do, again, the way that you spend your free time, the shows that you watch, the books that you read, the free time activities that you commit yourself to, the hobbies that you have, all of it should be in submission to the king. Because he sits on the throne. Kings and kingdoms, they pass away, but God never moves. He's always been where he always is. He always is, is where he has always been. He's on the throne. And again, he is not up for re-election. He does not care for your vote. He's not looking for the popular majority. There is no electoral college when it comes to the throne room of heaven. He is where he is, and he has always been there. And your job as a man is to say, I'm gonna submit to God in my work, in my life, and everything that I do, it's in submission to the Lord. Because I recognize that God alone is holy, holy, holy. And I recognize that the whole earth is full of the glory of God. And I recognize that the mercy and grace that I've been given by God warrants no other response than full submission to that God and to that throne. That's what men do. We submit ourselves to the throne of God. That's what we see throughout this text. God is called King again and again. Even Isaiah says, My eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. And so if we're going to pursue holiness, we do it by submitting to God's throne.

Here I Am Send Me Service

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Here's number five for you. We pursue holiness as men by enlisting ourselves in God's service. By enlisting ourselves in God's service. Now, of course, I know God is sovereign, God chooses you for his service, but I want you to see the way that Isaiah responds to this, where in verse 8 it says, the voice of the Lord is saying, Whom shall I send? There's work to be done, and who will go for us? And Isaiah does something very specific here. Then I said, Here I am, Lord, send me. Isaiah enlists himself. He raises his hand. Why? Because he's seen the holiness of God, he's seen the throne of God, he has seen all of those things, and he's responding by saying, I want to be in service to this God. I want to be a part of God's holiness going public, God's glory filling the earth. I want to be a part of that. I want to be engaged in that kind of work. Send me, Lord, send me. And if you're a man who's pursuing holiness, you're saying, Lord, send me. Help me to be of your service. Help me to do what is going to be beneficial for your kingdom, for your rule. We're submitting to his throne and we're saying, Lord, use us, send us, help us, give us opportunities, give us work to do, give us things to cultivate, give us things to have dominion over so that we can spread your glory to the ends of the earth. Isaiah says, Here I am, send me. And as men, again, we get we get so caught up in just the things of this world, the pleasures of this world. I want us at Compass Bible Church South Valley to be a church filled with men who are sold out for saying, Lord, send me to do the work of your kingdom. Send me to do the work of making disciples. Send me to do the work of magnifying your name throughout the earth, of joining in with the chorus of praise of these angels saying, Holy, holy, holy, send me, Lord, send me, use me in your service. However that looks, whether it's just in a small way or uh what we might consider a grand way, Lord, use us, help us, give us the service that we can engage in and submit to. We enlist ourselves in God's service just like Isaiah. Here I am, Lord, send me. When Isaiah gets to this place where the holiness of God, there's there's no other response that he can even fathom than Lord. I want to go tell other people about what I've just seen. I want to go tell other people of who you really are. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And so we seek to pursue a life of holiness by enlisting ourselves in God's service.

The Command To Be Holy

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Number six, here's how we pursue holiness as men by obeying the command to be holy. By obeying the command to be holy. Now, what I want you to notice in the scriptures is that holiness is first a position that is granted to you by God before it's something that you pursue as an individual. Paul says in Ephesians chapter 1 that God before the foundation of the world predestined to adopt you as a son to make you holy and blameless before him. There's a position that you were granted by God. God is first holy, of course. He is holiness, he's where holiness flows from. He's the the the essence of holiness itself. And because God is holy, he makes things holy, he makes people holy, he makes men holy. So you positionally are being made holy in Christ, right? You've been adopted if you believe in Christ, and then there's a command, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, to pursue holiness. So you are you are granted a position, but you're also commanded to pursue it by obeying again the command to be holy. Peter talks about this in 1 Peter chapter 1, 13 through 16. Peter says, Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conform to the passions of your former ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, this is Leviticus 19, 2, you shall be holy, for I am holy. There's two aspects to this. If you look at 1 Peter chapter 1, holiness involves not being conformed to one thing, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. And it also means doing something and committing yourself to something else. So do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in your conduct. There's two sides to pursuing holiness. We don't do certain things, we don't give ourselves over to certain passions, and we do do certain things. As he who called you is holy, you also be holy in your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. Again, quoting there from Leviticus chapter 19. Now, men, let me just tell you this, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart. The greatest gift you can give this church, the greatest gift you can give your family, the greatest gift you can give your wife, your children, the community that you live in, everything is your own personal holiness. That is the greatest gift. And forget, uh, you know, we we talk a lot about, or maybe I'm in circles that talk a lot about generational wealth. And that's something that's good. And I think that's something that you should pursue, and something maybe that you should think about, and you should want to leave things for your kids, and you should work towards that. I think that's a noble pursuit. But the greatest gift that you can give your kids is not financial security, it's your personal holiness. The greatest gift that you can give to this church, Compass Bible Church South Valley, is your personal holiness. The greatest gift that you can give to your wife as you seek to love her and serve her and give yourself up for her like Christ did for the church is your own personal holiness. Because as you are pursuing holiness, you are being conformed, not to the passions of your former, former ignorance, but being conformed to the one who is perfectly holy, who is holy, holy, holy. And as your mind is transformed, as your heart is transformed, your actions will be transformed, and everyone in your life will benefit from your transformation through your pursuit of personal holiness. Men, obey the command to be holy. This is what the scriptures say. And it starts with number one, remember we said, revel in the glory and holiness of God. It starts there. We got to recognize who God is. We have to recognize where our mercy and grace that we need come from, how we can be atoned for, how our sins can be forgiven. But then, once that position that God has made us holy and blameless before him through trusting in Christ, we pursue holiness in obedience to what God has said. And we recognize that in that pursuit of holiness, that's the greatest gift, that's the greatest legacy, that's the greatest impact that you can have in this church, in your home, and in this community. Give yourself to that. Amen. Give yourself to the pursuit of holiness. There is no greater gift. And I love even how Peter says in 1 Peter 1:13, prepare your minds for action. So often, men, we struggle with inaction, or maybe action in an unhelpful, unproductive direction. Right? We need active minds that are sober-minded, he says, that set our hope fully on the grace that we will be brought to at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And in that pursuit, we are not being conformed to this world, we are not being conformed to the passions of our former ignorance, but we are pursuing holiness. It says, in all of your conduct, in everything that you do, because remember, we're submitting to the throne. We're recognizing that God is on the throne, he has given us commands, and we obey. We submit to the throne. And we recognize this is the greatest gift that we can give our church. And one of the things that people ask me about Compass Bower Church South Valley a lot is what do you hope to accomplish? What are you hoping to see five years from now? In some ways, that's a hard question, right? Because I I can't really I can't do anything. I really can't. Apart from Christ, I can do nothing. I plant, I water, we plant, we water, God gives the growth. So, in a sense, I don't really know how to answer that question. But one of the things that I do think, one of the things that I do hope for and I pray for is that five years from now, the men in this room and the men that will join us in the near future is that we are living lives of holiness. And we're pursuing legacies of faithfulness, faithfulness to the Lord, lives of holiness, not being conformed to the passions of our former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, we are to be holy in all of our conduct. So, how do you quantify that? How do you measure that? You know, we've got people in this room. I'm thinking of Kevin, you know, he's got graphs and charts and everything that he does for his work. Agility guy. Uh he's a man of agility. How do we graph that? How do you graph holiness? You can't really, but that's something that we are called and commanded to pursue. Be holy as I am holy, God says. And I just I can't even fathom the kind of church that we would be if we were filled with uh men who said, I want to be holy. I want to pursue holiness, I want to obey what God has told me to do. I want to be holy as He is holy. I recognize that my God is holy, holy, holy, and I'm gonna pursue holiness because He has commanded me. Can you imagine? Think with me for a second. Imagine the kind of church that we would be if every person in this room said, you know what? Holiness is one of my number one pursuits in this life. Holiness is one of my number one things that I think about, that I pray about, that I work towards. Uh forget all the other things, right? Of course, they have their place, but pursue holiness. You shall be holy, God says, for I am holy. That's the greatest gift that you can give to this church, your community, and your family. It's your own personal holiness. And finally, how

Keeping A High View Of God

SPEAKER_00 37:54

do we do this? How do we seek to maintain, how do we seek to pursue a life of holiness? Number seven, seek to maintain a high view of God. By seeking to maintain the Isaiah sort of experience, the vision of the throne room of heaven, where he recognizes that God is holy, holy, holy. We as men pursue holiness by seeking to maintain a high view of God. And you recognize this. Our culture, our world wants to pull God down from his throne, wants to pull him down from heaven, make him more relatable, make him more quote unquote accessible, make him more agreeable. God, we want God to be any number of things except for God. We want him to be any number of things except for holy, holy, holy. We want him to be any number of things except for the God that stands in judgment over sinners. But that's what the Bible says. And we need to seek to maintain a high view of God, not pull him down from his throne, not seek to try to make him more accessible to us in our own conception or creation of who we think he ought to be. We seek to maintain a high view of God that's grounded in the scriptures. This reminded me of Psalm 113, verses 4 through 6. It says, The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens. The Lord is high above all the nations. He does not care about what we think he ought to be or what he ought to do. God is high above all nations, his glory is above the heavens, as high as you can possibly get. Who is like the Lord our God? Who is seated on high? Who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? That's the kind of vision, that's the kind of view of God that we need as men. Our God is high above all nations, he's high above America, he's high above our political system, he's high above our values, he's high above all those things, above the heavens, it says his glory is above the heavens. Who is like the Lord? Our God, no one. Who is seated on high? Who sits on the throne except for God? Again, to say that God is holy is to say that God is God. Who is like him? There is no one. Who else looks down far down on the heavens and the earth? The Lord is high and lifted up. And as a man, if you're gonna pursue holiness, if you're gonna dedicate yourself to a life of personal holiness, you have to maintain a high view of God. The view of God that Isaiah has that he experiences in the throne room. You keep God in the throne room, in your mind and in your heart. He's always there, anyways, but you got to keep him there in your heart. He's in the throne room, he's high and lifted up, he's high above the earth, his glory is above the heavens. And you say, I'm gonna submit, I'm gonna obey, I'm gonna follow, I'm gonna worship, because he is holy, holy, holy, and I am a man of unclean lips. I am undeserving, if not for the mercy and grace of God. We need to pursue lives of holiness by seeking to maintain a high view of God. That's one of our distinctives here on Compass. We want we don't want to view God as our spiritual counselor. We don't want to view God as our heavenly vending machine, we don't want to view God as the man upstairs. We want to view God as the one who is high above all nations, and his glory is above the heavens. We ought to be asking in our hearts, who is like the Lord? Who is holy, holy, holy? And of course the answer is no one. No one is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth. And truly, I genuinely believe, we've got scripture to back this up, that if if Compass Bible Church South Valley is filled with men who are pursuing holiness, we are going to be a church that God delights to use to reach people for Christ. That God delights to use to glorify Himself in and through, that God delights to use to transform families, to help kids grow up in the faith, to help marriages be restored. That's the kind of thing that happens when we devote ourselves to pursuing holiness. We seek to maintain a high view of God. We revel in the holiness and glory of God, and it all flows from there. It all comes from God being holy, holy, holy.

Final Charge And Prayer

SPEAKER_00 42:26

Amen. The greatest gift that we can give to this church is our own personal pursuit of holiness and our commitment to do that while maintaining a high view of God together. Let's pray. God, thank you for your word. Thank you for Isaiah 6 that shows us that you are holy, holy, holy, that you are high and lifted up, that the train of your robe fills the temple. God, I pray that that vision of holiness would affect our lives, that we would have a vision of holiness that would shape the way that we think, the way that we work, the way that we parent, the way that we treat our wives, the way that we engage with our communities. God, would we be men that are after your own heart, that pursue holiness because you have commanded us to do it, to be holy as you are holy. God help us with that. Help us with that pursuit. Help us to maintain a high view of you. Help us not to, in our hearts and in our minds, pull you down from your throne, try to make you more relatable, more accessible. God, help us to keep you in our hearts again in your proper place of being high above all nations and your glory above the heavens. Help us with that, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.