The Holiness of God Isaiah 6:1-8 Dan Brooks, Pastor Sunday Morning, October 2, 2016

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1 The Holiness of God Isaiah 6:1-8 Dan Brooks, Pastor Sunday Morning, October 2, 2016 Prayer Sovereign One, Your glory fills the earth, but we are, in large part, blind to the glory because this morning overturned cereal bowls and leaky faucets and broken-down vehicles capture our thoughts and demand our attention. Crushing loss and the separation brought by death draw our hearts into our own death spiral. O, speak to us! Sing to us the soothing, strengthening truth of the Gospel. Show us again and again of Your great love for us in Jesus. Look upon your battered Bride this morning and love us into spiritual health and life and joy and peace once again. Your dear Bride needs you, Yeshua. I. A CONTEXT OF CRISIS A. International tension building between nations 1. A rising super-power knocking on the door. 2. Under the rule of Tiglath-pilesar III ( B.C.) Assyria was coming to power and would shortly become more than a nemesis to God s people. B. National turmoil within the divided kingdom 1. Israel in decline a. Jeroboam II, he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord (2 Kings 14:24). b. Menahem did what was evil in the sight of the Lord (2 Kings 15:17) 2. Judah coming to the end of a golden era. a. Under Uzziah Judah had enjoyed significant strength and prosperity. His reign spanned 52 years, B.C. b. Spiritual leadership 1) 2 Ch 26:5He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper. 2) God helped him (26:7) c. Military might 1) Mighty men of valor... 2, An army of 307,500 who could make war with mighty power (26:12-13) d. Prophetic blessing 1) Jonah ) Amos 750 3) Hosea e. Spiritual decline 1) 2 Ki 15:4Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places. 2) 2 Ch 26: But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. 17 But Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty priests of the Lord who were men of valor, 18 and they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the Lord God. 3) Uzziah disregarded God s holiness and disrespected the Holy One of Israel. 4) 19 Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the Lord, by the altar of incense. 20 And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead! And they rushed him out quickly, and he himself hurried to go out, because the Lord had struck him. 21 And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and being a leper lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the Lord. And Jotham his son was over the king s household, governing the people of the land.

2 P a g e 2 5) Le 13: The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, Unclean, unclean. 46 He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp. C. A crisis of sovereignty in Judah years of royal rule marred by Uzziah s pride. The first 42 years of prosperity and power brought into the shambles by his ambition for what God had not ordained. 2. He is spiritually defiled by pride that keeps him from the house of God and his throne. 3. He is physically defiled by leprosy that isolates him from the people he is called to serve. 4. Uzziah passed his final days unclean, isolated, and ineffective. Hardly the picture of the royalty he was, wearing tattered clothes, neglecting his hair, covering his upper lip, crying out, Unclean! Unclean! 5. These last words and lingering images of Isaiah s king would hardly be a comfort with Assyria across the border, with Israel hostile to their place, and the people of Judah still following corrupt practices (2 Chron 27:2). D. Q: Does any of this seem familiar? 1. Uncertainty created by international tensions 2. The weight of cultural corruption and national turmoil 3. A crisis of leadership in the land II. A VISION OF THE ETERNALLY SOVEREIGN ONE (6:1) A. Isaiah sees Adonai in His glory. 1. I saw the Lord: ( (א ד נ the Master, the Sovereign One 2. The glory of His dominion a. Sitting upon a throne b. The Sovereign One is both King and Judge. 3. The glory of His exaltation a. High and lifted up b. This King is not isolated in a house at the edge of the capital city, but at the epicenter of the universe is seated in sovereign power, unrivaled, unchallenged, unparalleled, and unsurpassed. 4. The glory of His imminence a. The train of His robe filled the temple b. These are not the tattered clothes of a leprous king, but the royal robe of Adonai. Symbolic of regal royalty that fills the court of heaven. c. The long, loose, flowing robes or skirts of the robe were filling the palace, so that there was no room left for anyone to stand. 1 d. Isaiah cannot lift his gaze above the hem of the royal robe of the Sovereign One. 5. The glory of His attendants a. Above Him stood the seraphim: 1) the burning ones 2) Beautifully these powerful and curious creatures reflect the burning glory of Adonai. b. Six wings 1) Reverence: With two he covered his face 2) Humility: With two he covered his feet 3) Ready service: With two he flew B. Isaiah hears the eternal witness to Adonai s glory (6:3) 1. Antiphonal cries 2. Holy, holy, holy: (ק דוֹשׁ) the word communicates apartness. Holy things stand in distinction from what is common (see Leviticus 10:10 & Ezekiel 22:26). a. In the OT things dedicated to God entered the sphere of the holy. This included the various elements of Levitical worship called holy things in Lev 5:15 16, the produce of the land (Lev 19:24), personal 1 Edward Young, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1 18, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1965), 238.

3 P a g e 3 property (Lev 27:28), and spoils obtained in military action (Josh 6:19). The sacrifices that were to be eaten only by the priests were denominated holy by virtue of their absolute dedication to the sphere of the sacred as represented by the priesthood (Lev 19:8). 2 b. The Sabbath was a day distinct from the other 6. It was called the holy Sabbath (Exodus 16:23). c. The inner room of the earthly Temple where God dwells and appears in His glory is called The Holy of Holies. d. But all of these things are merely reflections of the nature and character of God. e. With an uncommon use of triadic repetition the seraphs draw attention to the uniqueness and separateness of this Sovereign One. f. God s holiness is His distinction from the corrupting pride of kings like Uzziah and presidential candidates like Trump and Clinton. g. God s holiness is His separation from the corruption of character and morals of people groups like Judah and the American society in which we live. h. God s holiness is His existence in a ruling class all of His own and qualifies Him to accomplish a real and lasting deliverance from the evils of this world. i. Holy, holy, holy is our God! 3. Is the LORD of Hosts a. The seraphim use His ineffable name Yahweh, the Great I AM b. This title ascribed to God 242 x s in our English Standard Version speaks of His sovereignty over the host of heaven. 4. The whole earth is full of His glory a. It is easy for those of us like Isaiah to lose sight of the glory of God about us when what fills our eyes daily is only crisis and corruption and uncertainty. b. Though flags fly at half-mast and candles burn in memorial to the fallen, there is not a single corner of this big blue world where we may not see the glory of God. c. The earth is full of His glory! C. Isaiah feels the effect of Adonai s glory (6:4). 1. The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called 2. The house was filled with smoke 3. Perhaps it is the smoke of heavenly incense, rising from the altar from which the seraphim will take a coal in just a moment. 4. The reason for this shaking is to be found in the voice which the criers make, as they chant the praise of the Holy One who sits upon the throne. In addition to this shaking, the house itself in which the scene took place, the Temple, was being filled with smoke. In the Bible smoke is often represented as a concomitant of the presence of God. 3 III. THE PERSONAL CONFESSION BEFORE THE SOVEREIGN ONE (6:5) A. His holiness causes us to despair. 1. Woe is me! is an impassioned expression of grief and despair. a. Something causes Isaiah to assess his present situation as one of woe. b. This is not grief and despair triggered by the thought of Uzziah s death. c. This is not grief and despair triggered by the thought of Uzziah s pride and leprosy. d. This is grief and despair brought about by a sight of the King in His glory. 2. I am lost: ( ית (ינ ד מ to be ruined, undone, destroyed a. The seraphim, who have no sin, are compelled to cover their faces and feet in the presence of the Holy One. b. Q: If holy creatures such as they seek an appropriate cover, what does this mean for imperfect, sinful people like Isaiah, like you, like me. 2 Thomas E. Mccomiskey, 1990,ק ד שׁ ed. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), Young,

4 P a g e 4 c. Isaiah collapses under the weight of Yahweh s holiness and cries, I am undone! d. What is Isaiah s undoing? What is he chiefly aware of at this moment? B. His sovereign holiness causes us to repent. 1. I am a man of unclean lips a. To be ethically and religiously defiled in speech and language b. Unclean is the same descriptor of leprous people. c. It s the testimony Uzziah cried for the last ten years of his life: Unclean! Unclean! d. Point: Isaiah is aware of his personal corruption and his confession at this moment places him in solidarity with King Uzziah as a leper. 2. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips a. He lives in a spiritual colony of lepers. The entire civilization he is a part of ought to tear their clothes and neglect their hair and cover their lips while they cry, Unclean! Unclean! b. Ps 24:3 4 3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? 1) Our generation thinks the answer to that questions lies along a continuum ranging from the cool and hip to the highly educated and refined. 2) The one is happy to remain largely ignorant of the glory of God and the other esteems itself to be educated beyond the glory of God. 3) God has one qualification in mind for those who stand in His presence and sing His praises. 4 c. He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. d. Praise is a privilege, not granted to all, but only to those whose guilt has been removed. 4 e. At this moment Isaiah cannot participate with the seraphim because of the uncleanness of His soul. f. Q: Do you presumptuously enter the presence of the Lord on a day like this and dare to sing His praises while your lips and your heart and your soul remain unclean? 3. My eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts! 4. In these two expressions, the King and the Lord of hosts, there is united the thought that God is the covenant God, the King of the theocracy, as well as the fact that He is the Creator, the living and true God. It is not only that Isaiah has seen God, but it is the infinite distance between the Holy God and the sinful creature which produces this prostrating effect. Indeed, even pure beings such as the seraphim must veil their faces before God Q: What fills your vision at this moment? a. Most of us spend our time comparing ourselves one to another. b. We ll never see our sin as it truly is as long as we compare ourselves to one another. c. But when we allow the Holy One to expose us as we are in comparison to His holiness, we will no longer make excuses and justification for our sin. We will reach this same conclusion and make one cry in solidarity with every other sinner around us, I am a man of unclean lips! We are a people of unclean lips! 6. Point: The evidence is everywhere around us! a. The immorality of unmarried couples who sleep together b. The covenantal unfaithfulness and immorality of a married person who sleeps with someone not his wife or not her husband c. Men and women who indulge in pornography d. People who gossip about one another, who suggest evil motive in and ascribe conspiracy to the actions and choices of others when there is none e. The vulgar language that flows from our mouths f. The shady cutting of corners and cheating of clients in order to bolster sales g. Cheating on tests and plagiarizing content for research papers h. Arrogantly belittling and shaming students for the weakness of their understanding or performance i. Ignoring the shepherding care or admonition of a church leader who has your best interest at heart 4 Young, Young, 249.

5 P a g e 5 j. Abusing prescription drugs or alcohol k. Drunkenness, quarrelsomeness, an unwillingness to forgive the sins of others, and an unwillingness to ask forgiveness for sin against another. 7. This is our leprosy. This is our corruption. This is our uncleanness. C. But aren t you glad that we, like Isaiah, need not remain in our uncleanness? IV. THE CLEANSING, COMMISSIONING WORK OF THE SOVEREIGN ONE (6:6-7) A. He dispatches a heavenly messenger in sanctifying power. 1. The seraphim flew to me aren t you glad that God never asks people to find their way to Him? 2. He sanctifies His servant with His touch a. He touched my mouth b. Such an act of grace that the burning one, dispatched by the Holy One of Israel, touches the spiritually corrupt and unclean lips of Isaiah. 3. He justifies His servant with His truth. a. Behold, this has touched your lips: a coal taken from the holy fire of the altar of heaven purifies Isaiah s lips b. your guilt is taken away: the guilt which fully corrupts Isaiah is removed! c. your sin atoned for: the sin which separates Isaiah from the Holy God is remedied! 4. Point: The Sovereign One has power and desire to make you whole! B. He commissions a willing messenger for gospel ministry. 1. Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? a. Who are the Us? b. Jn 12: Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, 40 He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them. 41 Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. c. Isaiah s vision is of the Triune God! 2. He receives the offer of an available messenger. a. Here I am! Send me. b. O, such mercy that the Holy Sovereign One would employ the formerly unclean ones. c. Such gracious, cleansing power that He would remove the corruption of filthy lips and put a different message and song upon those lips. d. That He would work such wonders that in joy and awe and humility we could remove our hands from our decaying lips and where we once blared a message to the world, Unclean! Unclean! now we say, Isaiah 52:7How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, Your God reigns. e. 53:4 6 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. f. 54:5 The Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth He is called. g. 55:6 7 6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. h. Isaiah was given the privilege of preaching and recording some of the greatest gospel promises in all of Scripture. i. It is Isaiah that Jesus Christ preaches in the synagogues of Israel (Luke 4:18ff) j. It is Isaiah that the Ethiopian eunuch reads and is saved (Acts 8:32-33) k. It is Isaiah that Paul quotes more than any other OT book, 19 x s in Romans alone. l. It is Isaiah that Paul and the apostles take into their souls as the clear call to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named (Romans 15:20-21).

6 P a g e 6 3. And it all began with a vision of Adonai in His glory. V. CONCLUSION A. What occupies the vision of your heart today? 1. Do you have your own crisis of sovereignty? 2. What should occupy your vision today? 3. What keeps you from seeing the Lord in His glory? B. Isaiah described himself as undone and unclean. How would you describe yourself? 1. Avoid the temptation to compare yourself to those around you, but compare yourself to the Holy Lord of Isaiah. 2. What sin has the Holy Spirit made you aware of this morning? C. What would be different about your life if you were to see God s glory as Isaiah did? D. Seraphim do not cleanse away our impurity with coals from the altar of heaven, but the blood of Jesus is continually cleansing God s people from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:7-9). 1. Take time to confess your sins to God. Ask Him to cleanse away your uncleanness. 2. Thank Him for the powerful blood of Jesus. Thank Him for His mercy and kindness toward you in Jesus. E. Take a moment to think about the mission of your life. Are you fulfilling your mission or God s? Has there ever been a time when you heard God s question, Who will go for us? How did you respond? How are you responding?

Golden Text: Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. (Isaiah 6:8).

Sunday, July 9, 2017 Lesson: Isaiah 6:1-8; Time of Action: between 740 and 739 B.C.; Place of Action: Jerusalem Golden Text: Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will