Isaiah: Impressed with God’s Holiness
(Isaiah 6:1-10)
1. Man, John Andrews, in waiting room, wife delivering baby. Four other men.
2. Nurse comes out. Congrats Mr. Smith. You have twins.
3. Remarkable-- I work for the Minnesota Twins baseball team.
4. Mr. Jones-- triplets; I work for 3 M.
5. Mr. Johnson – quadruplets; I work for 4 Seasons restaurant.
6. Mr. Andrews begins crying. Nurse asks what the problem is.
7. “I work for the production team of 101 Dalmatians.”
8. Today’s sermon is about another man who said, “Woe is me,” Isaiah the prophet.
9. He said this is response to God’s holiness.
10. Holiness heads in to directions: God is distinct from His creation and set apart from it; (2) God is pure, without sin, defect, or inadequacy.
11. Isaiah had to come to terms with God’s holiness as a preparation for a life of service.
Main Idea: If we are to serve God well, and for the long term, we need a sense of His holiness.
I. The CREATURES Praised God for His Holiness (1-4).
• Chapter 6-12 shows how God’s grace will guarantee a remnant of northern Israel and Judah to be exalted in the Millennial kingdom.
• Chapter 6 is Isaiah’s call to ministry, and it took place about 740 B.C.
A. Isaiah saw an intimidating VISION of God (1)
1. We have already noticed that John 1:18 and I Tim. 616 preclude the idea that Isaiah saw God as He is; instead, He saw a vision representing the Lord….
2. The earthly temple corresponds in some way to God’s heavenly temple, which makes a reappearance in the Book of Revelation, but is mentioned in Hebrews.
B. Isaiah saw awesome angels called SERAPHIM (2)
1. Two wings were for flying
2. Two wings covered their feet
3. Two wings covered their faces (in humility)
4. In contrast, Cherubim have four wings and are probably more powerful.
5. Satan, as Lucifer, was a Cherub, according to Ezekiel 28:12-19 (a flashback)
C. The message of the seraphim is a TRIPLE recitation of God’s holiness (3)
1. This accommodates the Trinity very well.
2. They also look forward to the Millennium and Eternal State, longing for God’s glory to fill the earth.
D. Everything SHOOK at His voice (4)
E. The more we understand God’s holiness, the more we are AFFECTED.
1. Isaiah would never be the same after He got a glimpse of God’s holiness.
2. At salvation, we get a glimpse of God’s grace and are never the same; as we begin to understand better Who God, it not only makes us more heavenly minded, but also of more earthly good.
3. One of the neat things about camp is that campers and counselors alike-- including we pastors – have a whole week to focus on God and His Word; good for our souls.
II. Isaiah Was INTIMIDATED: God’s Holiness Highlights Isaiah’s Sinfulness (5).
A. Although a godly person compared to most, Isaiah saw the REALITY of sinfulness as never before.
1. Pride and arrogance can surface when we compare ourselves to other people.
2. Compared to most, Isaiah was a godly man; but compared to the rubric of God, Isaiah rightly felt himself a miserable sinner.
3. Jesus’ parable of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee, Isaiah identified more with the Tax Collector, as should we all.
4. Before I was saved, I thought I was a pretty good guy; and I though God graded on a curve.
5. I didn’t realize that the standard was God’s perfect holiness.
B. He thought he and his people were doomed, condemned by their own SPEECH.
• Nothing is more embarrassing when someone quotes your words to prove your own hypocrisy or fickleness; kids are good at doing that. Spouses can get good at this, too. The problem is, however, that they have legitimate material to work with, even if we do, too.
• According to James 3:8, no human can tame the tongue; since we cannot tame it, the best we can do is contain it, like we contain a vicious animal in a cage.
C. God’s holiness should HUMBLE us; a lot of our arrogance is because we compare ourselves to others, not God.
• If we held a high opinion of ourselves, hearing a recording of all the cruel and selfish things we have said would humble us quickly. All at once, Isaiah saw how many evil things he had said.
D. Seeing a vision of God made him think he was PHYSICALLY doomed as well.
Exodus 33:20, “But he said, ‘You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.’”
III. God SYMBOLICALLY Cleansed Isaiah and Commissioned Him (6-10).
A. The hot coals are symbolical of PURIFICATION (6).
• In O.T. times, God saved people by grace through faith, and took away their sins; but the penalty to for their sins was not yet paid for. Sacrifices could avert God’s physical wrath upon the people and make them ceremonially clean, but they could not make them right with God spiritually. God could be accused of being unjust by forgiving the sins of those who believed without the debt being paid.
Part of what happened at the cross is that God’s forgiveness was vindicated; according to Romans 3:24-26, believers before Christ were essentially saved on the basis of credit.
B. This pictures ATONEMENT (7).
C. We are not FIT to serve God in our own righteousness; righteousness is received, not achieved.
• Even Paul asked, Who is adequate for this ministry? Our sufficiency is from God.
C. God informs Isaiah that people would be DEAF to what he was called to say (9-10).
Man measures the success of a ministry by the three B’s – Buildings, bodies, and bucks. God measures a ministry by faithfulness to Him.
D. According to John 12:38-41, it was God the SON Whom Isaiah saw.
• Isaiah was ready to serve the Lord through all sorts of situations because He had a glimpse of Who God is; as we peer into the Word, we can get a bit of a glimpse ourselves. It is a true and proper view of God that keeps our attempts at serving Him on target.
