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Aug 15, 2021

A Deepened Holiness

A Deepened Holiness

Passage: Isaiah 6:1-8

Speaker: Matt Petty

Series: Ignite

Category: Sunday Sermons

Keywords: sermon, ignite, bible study, set apart, holy god, what is sin, how to be saved, unclean lips, god’s holiness, how to have faith, hot coal in scripture, what does it mean to be holy, purification from sin, is god holy, saved from sin, faith, jesus, christian, bible, gospel, preaching, old testament, holy spirit, jesus christ, the bible, christianity, isaiah, voice of god, unclean, sermons isaiah chapter 6, 2021 sermons

Today we explore Isaiah Chapter 6 as we continue to look for examples of fire throughout the bible and we study the passage where Isaiah is brought before the Lord, and his lips are cleansed by a hot coal. We see that God’s holiness affects us in that we are to be separated and set apart as a reflection of Him. We also learn that holiness magnifies our corruption and mandates our purification. When we boast about our accomplishments of faith, we lose sight of God’s holiness. What is it that you see as a strength that God needs control of in your life? In the bible, later on in Isaiah, we see that it’s the voice of God that calls us out - to be set apart and no longer be unclean. In this sermon, pastor Matt preaches about what it means to have faith and be purified from sin, because God is holy, and we need to know that we are to be holy too. Are you standing before a holy God with unclean lips? Do you need to be saved? Has God’s holiness motivated your commission in life? If you’ve got questions, please reach out, we’d love to pray with you - BurntHickory.com/next

Well, good morning, church. Let me just start this morning by saying thank you to all of you who sent the birthday wishes this week. It's amazing how many friends you have, when you have social media. Amen. It's incredible. And I'm even thanking those of you that are incredibly snarky about me being 44. I'm embracing it, Get off of me. I'm okay with it. It was a good week. Well, hey, if you're visiting with us, thanks for being here today. I just said this upstairs, man, I know that there are 1000 other places you could be but how sweet it is to know that we can come in the presence of the Lord, and we can worship Him together. If you're visiting though, don't let this be it, jump into the family. We want to see you in groups and want to see you across ministries here. Well, if you got a copy of Scripture today, I want you to take it out. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 6 or flip it open and type in Isaiah chapter 6, whichever one it is just to let you know there is a difference when I see you in your Bible app from when you're in Angry Birds, I can tell all of you that are there just to let you know. A little disclaimer this week. Last week, we read about 40 verses. We're not doing that this week; I can't believe we made it through all of them last week. But the account that we're going to look at in the Bible this week, our fiery or our igniting account is just as powerful as last week's. We're in this series called Ignite. And we're looking at ways throughout the Bible that God has used fire and used fiery events, to sometimes guide people. Sometimes it is to give them a warning or sometimes it’s to illuminate a path and sometimes it's just a judgement day for people. And we're walking through some of these epic stories. So, if you're new today, don't worry every week kind of stands on its own. The first week we looked at Moses and Exodus chapter 3, and the burning bush where God gave him this desire to follow Him and lead the people. Last week we looked at Shadrach Meshach and Abednego. Last week at a Daniel chapter 3. And we watched last week that sometimes it seems that God has left us, but God guarantees us as His people to stand with us outside the fires and inside the fires of life. And that He's going to bless us in those moments. And sometimes He lets us walk in them to show His glory. Well, this week's event is out of Isaiah 6. And it's going to focus on what I think is one of the most monumental topics in the Bible, as well as one of them that we kind of don't really lean into the most. And this morning, we're going to see the holiness of God. And we're going to see what that looks like in Isaiah's life. But then we're going to pull it back and see what implication that has for our lives today. But before we get into the Scripture, we need to do some work on this word holy. We need to do a little bit of work because here's what I know about the word holy. Anytime someone says holy, and it sounds really religious, right? It sounds like an incredibly big churchy word because we use the word holy a lot. We use it in talking about living towards a holy God or living a holy life. Maybe you've heard of the Lord's Supper referred to it times in your life as Holy Communion. You may have even grown up in a denomination that had a little pedestal of water that they called holy water. Your grandparents, when you got married might have talked to you about holy matrimony. I mean, we use this word a lot. And to some people, the reality is, that this word holy is it's kind of a funny sounding word. On one end holy kind of gives us this kind of, eh I don't really get it moment. But on the other end, it's really hard to understand but just quite frankly, most of us we just don't like it.

And we don't like it because to many of us it brings back memories of things in our lives. You see, for some of you, you grew up in traditions that holy meant something other than it really means. Maybe to you holy meant like stiffness or weirdly religious. Maybe to you holy meant like a full jeans skirt and maybe some white sleeves along the way. But when God says holy, I just want us to understand that holy just means in its simplest form, set apart. It just means set apart or pure or above all else. In fact, we get our English word whole, or wholeness from this word holy. And the reality is, that we all want holiness. You do! A lot of you are sitting by your spouses this morning, and you want them to be a holy spouse, you want them to be pure, you want them to be with you, you don't want them out there treating your marriage as a side event in their life. For those of you who have boyfriends and girlfriends, you don't want them out there cheating on you. You don't want a friend that stabs you in the back. You want them to be a holy person, a set apart person in our business dealings. Think about it like this, you want your business dealings to be holy. You don't want a contractor to tell you one thing, if they're doing something at your house and just go do whatever they want to do on the side. You don't want your bank not being holy with your money, amen. You want them to treat it the right way. In fact, those of you that are in school, you want your teachers to be holy, unless it goes your way. All right, you want them to be holy by not ripping you off on a grade level. But the problem is, it's ironic to think for some reason, when we look at the holiness of God, many of us look at it as threatening. We look at it as harsh and we look at it as unloving. But we're going to debunk that this morning by watching Isaiah, walk into the holiness of God. And we're going to ask God this morning when we walk out of this place, here's his I'm going to let it all out. We're going to ask God to sear into our souls to ignite in us a desire to live holy. Isaiah chapter 6:1, we're going to walk through it and I'm going to give you some applications. Let me read the whole text. It says this, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on the throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 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.'" Verse 4, "At the sound of their voices, the doorposts, and the thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke." They're about to have a good worship ride. Verse 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.'" Verse six, "Then one of the seraphim flew to me, with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. And with it, he touched my mouth and said, 'See, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, your sin is atoned for.' 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!'"

Isaiah met the holiness of the Lord. But for Biblical scholarship purposes, I want to show you something really quick this morning, because there's a mirror passage to this passage in Revelation chapter 4. The Apostle John has a vision of an incredibly similar moment to this one. Revelation chapter 4:1 this is the Apostle John talking, says this, "After I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And I heard the voice that I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet. And it said, 'Come up here and I will show you what must take place after this.'" Now look at verse 2, "At once, I was in the spirit." In other words, he was having a vision given to him by the Lord, "and there before me was a throne in heaven with some one sitting on it." Now, put your finger there because let me tell you what's happening. John has been called to what it looks like in heaven. He's been called into the throne room of heaven. And he's been given a vision of who God is and what God looks like in heaven and that God is surrounded by these Heavenly Creatures that God is a luminescence and light is on him. The shekinah glory of God is shining all around him. And then look at verse 8 and watch what happens. "Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night, they never stopped saying: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and who is and is to come.'" Now pay attention because really, really, really important here, from the beginning of time, all the way through the Old Testament, in the New Testament, and in present and future, I need you to feel that God is a holy God. There's a feeling that is out there that God was only holy, and God was only set apart prior to Jesus coming on this planet. But I need to just to know that from the beginning of time to the end of time that our God is a God that is, above all, He is separate, He is with us. But He is also set apart from us. Over the years I've called the holiness of God, is probably his most unattractive attribute. I mean, when you really think about it, when you start thinking about God, you key in, and I key in and it's okay. We all do it on things like the love of God, right? We love to look at the love of God, we love the study the compassion of God, we love to study the forgiveness of God, the mercy of God, the loving kindness of God. But when we see the holiness of God, for some reason, we are threatened in our soul by it. And I just want us to see what happened to Isaiah when he realized what the holiness of God does for him, because the holiness of God, catch this, is the number one noted attribute of God in the whole Bible. In the whole Bible. The Bible speaks of the holiness of God more than it speaks of any other attribute 30 times in Isaiah's book, he talks about the holiness of God 637 times throughout all Scripture, does the Bible speak towards the holiness, the set apartness, the bigness, the grandness of who God is, and never does that with love. It never does that with grace, it talks about the holiness and how Listen, we're called to be holy people. We're called to be holy people. But here's the question, what does that look like? I'm going to give you four ways this morning through this text that holiness affects us. Four ways, and I think it's going to give us a way that we can launch into setting our lives on a trajectory to live holy. Number one, Isiah would say this: God's holiness means separation. I want you to look at the text. We're going to walk through it slowly, because it's really important. Isaiah chapter 6:1, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord." Now put your finger there because I can hear what you're asking in your souls.

Why do I care that King Uzziah died? Right? That's the question you got to ask. And we're looking at what 700 BC in this moment, why do I care that King Uzziah died. Does it even matter? Well, I guarantee you, it mattered to Mrs. Uzziah and the little Uzziah’s running around it mattered. It mattered to the nation. And it mattered enough to Isaiah to talk about it. And here's why. You see, King Uzziah was a king of Judah. In fact, he wasn't just any king, he was an incredibly good king. He was a godly king, and for 52 years, who Uzziah reigned on the throne of Judah in a godly fashion. And during that time, they had incredibly good years. Judah had good, godly, stable years, the economy was good, war was down, infrastructure look good. And the things weren't going crazy in the nation. Here was the thinking in the Old Testament, when you read it. If there was a good king on the throne, then for some reason, they thought that God would kind of give them a pass, or God would kind of look the other way and that everything was okay. It was almost like God would say, hey, I know you're not paying a whole lot of attention, but your king is and then we're going to be okay. They had godly leadership until late in life. Now listen to what happened to Uzziah. It's not funny, but it’s kind of is. Uzziah kind of fell off the train a little bit. He got a little bit older; he got a little bit cocky in his late golden years, right? He got so cocky that he decided one day that instead of allowing the priests to go into the tabernacle to make the sacrifice for his sins, Uzziah thought, well, hey, I'm the king. I'm going to do what I want to do. And I'm going to do this. I don't care if God says it's the Levite's job and I don't care if this is how God says it should be done. I'm the king. Dang it. I'm my own person. And if it makes me happy, and my heart is set on it, I'm going to do it. Amen, heard that one before. King Uzziah walks in, he makes the sacrifice on the altar and God strikes him with leprosy. It started in his finger, made it through his whole body. And he's taken away with leprosy unclean, into obscurity for the rest of his life. As soon as Uzziah was taken away, this nation that was a godly nation began to fall away. Why? Because there was no body ruling, there was nobody in the seat of control, there was nobody for them to look to, to get their cue of who God was. Well now, Uzziah dies, and exponentially, the country is going to hell in a handbasket. It's just falling off the radar. And now nobody knows God, Isaiah is a little bit freaking out about it in chapter 5 and he's thinking, hey, if the king is dead, our nation's going to be dead, our nation's falling apart, and there was utter dismay in the whole nation. That's why it's important to know that the year King Uzziah died. They went from a godly nation to nobody even knew what was going on nation really fast. Keep going in the verse. "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and exalted, and he was seated on a throne." Now, this is an important reminder. And here it is, when the world around us, or the surrounding culture around us seems dark, seems empty, seems crazy, when there's positions of leadership that may or be around us that aren't really going in a godly direction or aren't going in any direction. When our country seems crazy or bad, or even just confusing. Here's the principle. I want you to write it down so you can feel it. The Lord is still on His Holy throne. He's still there. You feel in the semblance, right? Are you feeling this country is in a mess? They don't know what's happening in Judah, their king is gone, the leadership is falling apart. And now the Prophet is freaking out. And if the problem is freaking out, nobody knows what's going on. And who does Isaiah see? He looks to the earthly throne, and there's nobody there. So, what is he doing? Man, this is such a lesson for us. He looks past the earthly throne to the heavenly throne. Why?

Because God is still there. He's not panicking. He's not rushed. He's not questioning. He's not looking around nervous. Why? Because God is still ruling for Judah. And listen to me closely. He's still ruling for us. Isaiah 66. Listen to what he says later on. I love Isaiah. He has a little bit of a sense of humor. Listen to this. "This is what the Lord God says: 'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.'" Now, just think about that just for a minute. Think about it in your heart just for a minute, right? God is sitting up in the recliner, and he's propping his feet on this place going you got problems, no I'm God. God says, "Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand God said made all these things, and so they came into being?" What does that say to us? That says that yes, the Christmas God, Immanuel, right? Yes, He is with us. But never just bring Him down to your level because He is also above us. And He is on the throne. No matter where your life is. He is separate. He is bigger than. He is the foundation for everything that is in existence. Keep going, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, He is high, he is lifted up. He's exalted. He's seated on a throne and the train of his robe fills the temple." Think of a marriage, a royal marriage. The longer the robe, the more powerful the person in the wedding gown verse 2, "And above him were seraphim. And each with six wings, two wings, they were covered their faces and two, they covered their feet. And with two, they were flying." Now, let's talk about the seraphim for a minute, because this is awesome. You're going to love this. The word seraphim is pulled from the word fiery or burning. So, I want you to pull this into context in your mind, alright? This is our ignite series, we're talking about this. There's a double ignite in this passage, the seraphim are not, get it out of your mind, they are not a four-year-old little curly headed baby with a bow and arrow and a diaper. That is not a seraphim. A seraphim is a fiery, warrior, Angel, fiery warrior Angel, and they had six wings, two of them and they're covering their faces two of them, they're covering their feet, and with two of them they're flying. Let's talk about that ratio for a minute. The feet and the face wings are doing one thing and one thing only they are looking to God saying I am not worthy. And I'm in complete adoration of you. They're looking like this Lord, no, Lord, no. I'm in your holy presence. There's a reverence to them the other two wings are spent serving God, what are they doing? They're flying with the other two wings. What would happen perhaps, if we spent 2/3's of our lives worshipping the Holy King and 1/3 of our life serving the Holy King, that's God's message for our life. That's as much as that's what's happening. Why? Because our primary role in this world is to delight in the Lord. And as a result of that serve the Lord. Now notice what happens in verse 3, they're flying around these fiery angels, I love it. Just love saying it, fiery angels, here it is, verse 3, "And they were calling to one another: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty,' you might want to circle that "'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, the whole earth is filled with his glory!' And at the sound of their voices, the door posts and the threshold shook, and the temple filled with smoke." Now notice the repetition. Now, I know many of us are not Hebrew scholars, including this guy right here. But here's what I know about Hebrew. Hebrew doesn't have any punctuation. But when God mentioned something in the Bible more than once, we ought to pay attention.

Actually, we say this almost every week, every single word, every single sentence, every single moment in the Bible is for you, is for me, and is eternal. And when God says something twice, we should really pay attention. And look at this. God says it three times in this passage, holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God all mighty, I want you to see something here. This is called the Trihagion. There's a fancy word for you. And it is just the three-fold exponential holiness of God that reigns above every other attribute. Do you realize that not one time in Scripture, does it say love, love, love? Not one time in Scripture does it say mercy, mercy, mercy, or justice, justice, justice, or grace, grace, grace, all of those are fabulous attributes of God. They really are. But He uses this three times. Why? Because it's his most noted attribute. And here's the principle that I want you to feel. This holiness, this set apartness, this bigness of God, this kadosh, that’s the Hebrew word. Listen, God is set apart. You need to write this down because of his awesomeness, and because of his moral perfection. Because of his awesomeness and his moral perfection. What did we say holy meant? Holiness means set apart. It means otherness. It means distinctness it means that nobody is like Him. None other words, no one is like God and His awesomeness. No one is like God in his moral perfection, that God is not just a slightly better you. But for some reason, we have slipped into a culture that uses Jesus as our homeboy and not Jesus as the Holy God. He's not. You can't flippantly walk into the presence of Jesus of the Lord. You can't do it. He is God. But we have some reason dumbed him down to just an emergency call person when we need Him. It's what Isiah is seeing. In fact, later on, Isaiah says this about God, he says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts. God says, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord, as the heavens are higher than the Earth. So are my ways higher than your ways. Here's the question. Do we treat God in this kind of reference? When was the last time you just walked into the presence of God and literally did not know what to say other than Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy? What is this telling us? It means that that's how much God is bigger than us. God's holiness means separation, but it doesn't stop there. Number two, God's holiness, catch this: it magnifies our corruption. It magnifies what is happening in my life. You see, here's how it works. When you come into contact with greatness. You never walk away the same. You never do. Have you ever been with a friend, and you finally met that one person in their life that they had been total fan girl over their whole life? Total starstruck friend we were talking about this in the car the other day with some friends that they finally met Kirk Cameron and it was like a big deal for them. But have you ever been with a person that is totally like an eloquent speaker, but then they meet somebody that they've wanted to meet their whole life and now they are just a bumbling mess and don't even know what to do with their life? I don't know maybe for you it's the Backstreet Boys. I don't know maybe for you it's like a childhood somebody. Maroon five favorite for you. I don't know who it is for you. Imagine what Isaiah is doing right here. Those are fallen people. Isaiah steps into the presence of God and watch what happens to him. It is like a mirror to his soul because he walks into greatness. Watch this in verse 5. Watch what Isaiah says, "Woe to me!"

It was woe is me when I was a kid, right? "'Woe to me,' I cried." Now this is serious language. This is approaching God with reverence. Anytime an angel approached God that covered their face, anytime the prophets they fell down, as John would say, as a dead man. But let me tell you something, when you approach the holiness of God, can I tell you something that always does? It is always a litmus test of where your soul is. We see it right here, right? Verse 5, "'Woe to me,' I cried. "' am ruined.'" I'm ruined. Watch what this prophet says, "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." What happened to Isaiah, Isaiah saw, he said, Now I finally see what holiness looks like, and I'm not there. And something needs to happen in my life. Now you got to think the context. Isaiah was the most super Christian of all of Judea at this point, and he comes into contact with God. And all he's got to say is, whoa, he didn't even know what to say to God. And then finally, he says, I'm a man of unclean lips, which is really interesting, because the lips of a prophet are the moneymakers, right? That's the thing that God has called them to be. They're the voice of God to a nation. And he picks the biggest thing in his life that was supposed to be his biggest strength. And he goes, God, I am a man of unclean lips compared to who you are, God, I am nothing. This is what the holiness of God does to us. Let me give us a little warning right here. And let me be really serious. We have to stop comparing ourselves to the morality of the world. And we have to start asking ourselves, am I living to a holy God? You see, I think some of us have fallen into the trap of seeing what's happening in the craziness of outside going, hey, I think I got it put together pretty good.

I think some of us have fallen into picking these little pet sins that we don't think are a big deal in our life and looking at the sins and others lives and seeing that they are. What does Isaiah do when he comes into the presence of the King? All he's got at this moment is Oh my! Oh my! It's the same thing that happened to Job at the end of his life. Remember, Job was a holy person, God looked at him and said, "There's my servant, go for it." But at the end of his life, listen to Job 42 when he says in verse 5, "My ears have heard of you, God, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." That doesn't mean that Job hates himself. It just means Hey God, in comparison to you, I got a lot of work to do. It's the same thing Peter said, in Luke 5:8, remember when Jesus said, hey, I know you've been fishing all night, throw your nets over there. And you'll catch something. Peter has a few choice words, but then he does it right? And he brings in all these fish and listen to what Peter says in Luke 5:8, "When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, 'Go away from me, Lord; for I am a sinful man.'" If you keep reading in Revelation 4 the passage we read, you'll see that the 24 thrones, the 24 elders take their crowns off, and they present them before the Holy God. Why? Because at that point, they finally realize the holiness of God, and it shone a light, a spotlight into their soul. They quit comparing to where other people were, and they start looking at who God is, and who He's called them to be. Church, please get off the train of comparing yourself to the morality of the world and get on it, to compare yourself to the holiness of God, the holiness of God. It's exactly what happens here. But it doesn't stop there. Because holiness doesn't just mean that God is separate and above. Holiness doesn't just bring this idea of us moving and magnifying our corruption. It gets better. Number three; God's holiness mandates our purification. It mandates us feeling the need to be pure. Now follow the thinking, right? When you understand who God really is, that he's not just a buddy Jesus is out there. And when you see who you are in relation to Him, check this out, you got to do something about it. Watch verse 6, God's holiness is about to mandate some purification. Watch this in verse six, immediately problems about to be solved. "Then, one of the seraphim," that's the fiery warrior angel I told you, I just like to say that "one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. Now, where did the angel take the coal from? Where?

The altar that's good, we're listening. We're ready to go. Here we go the altar, right? What happens on the altar in the Old Testament? Sacrifices are made. Now follow this. This is huge. The sacrifices are made on the altar to bring forgiveness of sin. The only way to have forgiveness of sin is if the blood is shed, the sacrifice is made. The angel walks over to the altar where the sacrifice has been made. It already has been made. And then watch what happens. He takes with the tongs from the altar for seven. "With it, he touched my mouth." What? Ow, but why? Why did he touch his mouth? What we just read that his mouth is unclean, right? It wasn't soap, it was a burning coal, right? There's some specific repentance here. And he said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt has been taken away, and your sin is being atone for." Now follow this, because you're seeing the gospel, pre-Jesus, what happens in our lives. What happened to Isaiah? Isaiah realizes that God is above and that He is below, he realizes that he has an incredible amount of corruption in his life. And he realizes that something in his life needs to happen. And the something that needed to happen is he needs to be purified by the sacrifice that God had made. What are you seeing, you're seeing a holy God that cannot be in the presence of unholiness? You can never get your way to God, you can never work your way to God, you can never serve your way to God, but God, a Holy God is making a way for a sinful man to be in His presence. And that is from the sacrifice on the altar of the Old Testament. And now Jesus, keep going has come and made the sacrifice on the cross and our souls have been seared by the presence of Jesus. That's what you're seeing. You're seeing it right here. But here's the question I got for you. Have you been made clean? Has there been a point in your life where you have turned from your sin, and you have asked God to sear your soul, to forgive your soul? To forgive it. God mandates it and why? Because a holy God cannot be in the presence of sin. But He made a way. So, listen to me close. Instead of seeing the holiness of God as a threat. Let's see it as the greatest act of love that has ever been displayed. Ever, ever. Because God is holy, but he's so holy, he made a way for you and for me to have our souls seared. For some of you, it's your mouth, but for the rest of us it's your soul seared to God. I want you to keep going number four; God's holiness, not only sears our soul, but God’s holiness also motivates our commission. As if the rest of this wasn't enough for Isaiah, it didn't stop there. You see, commission is just a fancy word just by saying that God puts us into His service. He puts us into His work. Now watch this watch happens in Scripture, because God is finally about to speak. God hasn't spoken yet. Right? We got lots of smoke. We got shuttering things. We got Fiery warrior angels. Now God's about to talk, watch, then watch the process, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?'" Now watch how Isaiah answers watch how fast it was? "And Isiah said, 'Here am I. Send me.'"

Now notice, there's no begging. There's no coercing. There's no signing bonus. There was no time where Isaiah said, let me check and see if there's a scrap or a morsel of time in my schedule to see if I can serve this Holy God that has set me apart that is purified my life that is set me into His presence. Why? Here's what I want you to understand. When you finally take hold of the holiness of God, and when you are truly cleansed, you will always want to be commissioned. You will. I'll go one step forward and say this, if you don't feel compelled to serve the Lord, I'm not sure you've ever seen yourself in the light of the Lord. You see, it just goes together. It goes with each other. Why? Because saved sinners always want to be used. We see it all through Scripture. Why? Because when God's holiness convicts you, His love cleanses you, His wisdom calls you and His power qualifies you when we realize that God is bigger than other than above us and we realize that our sins keep us separated, but His purity makes us clean. The response automatically is God, I will serve you. I will serve you and I will lift you up. So, here's the bottom line of all of this from Isaiah. The holiness of God always causes us to move, always. And it causes us to move in the direction of knowing Him even more. So, here's the last question. How do I know if I'm holy? How do I know? That's what I would be asking if I was you? I've asked myself this all week. How do I know if I'm holy? I came up with three quick things, because I knew I'd have zero time. Number one, you can know that your holy by meeting Jesus. By meeting Jesus, do you realize that when you give your heart and life to Jesus, He takes your old heart, He takes everything in your life that has happened prior to that point, and He washes it. He washes it, check this out. He not only washes that stuff, but He also washes what is going to happen for the rest of eternity. He has forgiven you of your past. He is forgiving you of your future and He is forgiving you right now in this moment. That's what it means to embrace the holiness of Christ, you are made holy before God, listen to this. When Christ walks into your life, you are no longer seen as a sinner in need of a Savior. You are seen as a child of the King, child of the King so it's simple this morning. Let me ask you, have you met Jesus? Not, do you know Bible verses. Not, do you go to church? Not, do you have some religiosity in your life? Not if you're a kind person.

But has there been a moment in your life where you have looked to God in His holy presence, and said, I need you Jesus, I'm a sinner in need of a Savior, come into my life, come into my life? Watch this. When you do. The wages of that sin that deserved death, is now going to turn into the gift of eternal life. He'll give it to you, He'll come into your life. How do you know your holy? Meet Jesus. Number two, these other two are even quicker. Number two, love what God loves. Quite simply love what God loves. What does that mean? It means you love the things that God loves in Scripture. You love how God loves in scripture, here's number three. It's quick. Just hate what God hates. You say Matt, we're not supposed to hate. You can hate sin, just don't hate people. Just hate what God hates, despise what God despises, run from what God says run from. And when you do, as a sinner that was in need of a Savior that's been given life that's been adopted into the kingdom. Now you will walk out the holiness that God asks us to have. So, the question today is this. Do you know Jesus? You can meet him today right now. And number two, do I need to get my life back walking into holiness that God has gifted me with?

Lord, as spend the next couple of minutes, celebrating You, walking in Your holiness. God, our prayer today is that God, we would repent from the fact that we have just dwindled you down to this buddy. And we haven't lifted you up as the Holy God that you are. God our prayers is that we have an encounter, a fiery encounter. And you would ignite in us a desire to walk out our holiness, God not creep as close to sin as we can. But to walk as close to holiness as possible. Lord, I just pray that if there are people here that need to give their life to Christ, during these next moments, they would either fire the app up or just reach out on the next steps form. And just say, hey, I need Jesus today. I need somebody to pray with me today or number two, God, they would just exit their seats and walk up here to the front and look at myself or one of the other people that are available for counseling and just say, quite frankly, I need Jesus today what do I need to do? God, we'll walk them through the rest. God, for the rest of us to allow this just to be a moment where we look to your holiness, and we celebrate what you have given us and it's in your Holy Holy name that we pray. Amen.

Let's stand and sing together.

Follow Along with the Message

A Deepened Holiness

August 15, 2021

Isaiah 6:1–8
1 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. 2 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. 3 And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 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.” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” 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!”
Revelation 4:1–2
1 After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.
Revelation 4:8–11
8 “Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “ ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.” 9 Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: 11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”
4 Ways that God’s Holiness affects us

1. Holiness means .

PRINCIPLE: The Lord is still on his holy .

Isaiah 66:1–2
1 This is what the Lord says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? 2 Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?”
Isaiah 6:1–3
1 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. 2 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. 3 And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

PRINCIPLE: God is set apart by his awesomeness and moral .

Isaiah 55:8–9
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

2. Holiness magnifies our .

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.”
Job 42:5–6
5 “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. 6 Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”
Luke 5:8
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”

“You don’t impress the officials at NASA with a paper airplane. You don’t boast about your crayon sketches in the presence of Picasso.”
— Max Lucado

QUESTION: What is it that you see as a that God needs control of?

3. Holiness mandates our .

Isaiah 6:6–7
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

4. Holiness motivates our .

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!”

Additional Notes

 

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