All right, hear this wonderful
text. You'll see why we've chosen it
for the subject of the holiness of God. Verse 1, In the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a
throne, high and lifted up, and His train fill the temple. Above it stood the seraphims,
Each one had six wings, with twain he covered his face, and
with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth
is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, Woe is me, for I
am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen
the King, the Lord of hosts." Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
with a tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth,
and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips. Thine iniquity is taken
away, thy sin is purged. Now that's a wonderful text and
an unusual one. Let me begin by saying that there
is hardly a single subject in all of the scripture that is
more profitable or that is more edifying under the children of
God than that of the attributes of God. For in fact, a study
of the attributes of God is in reality a study of the nature
and of the essence and the being of God. His attributes are what
God is. For as the Purin Oen wrote, God
is chiefly made known in the world by his names or by his
title, by his attributes and by his property. When he is preached,
it is usually under one of these heads, his name, his attribute,
or his property, that is, that which belongs unto and is part
and essence of the very being of God. And should any ask of
us Give us a description of the attributes of God. Define for
us what you mean by the attributes of God. We sum it up in this
manner, that it is those innate and those infinite perfection
that are operational in the being and the works of our great and
mighty God. In fact, as Herman Bevinck wrote
in his book entitled, The Doctrines of God, he said that Scripture
nowhere discusses God's being apart from God's attribute. Think about it. Whatever aspect
of God's being, whatever aspect of God's work we are discussing,
we are bound to be involved in at least one or more of the attributes
of God. One or more is certainly to be
involved in any aspect or any of the subject of the being of
God. It is well nigh impossible, in
fact, for us to speak of the being or the work of God without
touching upon one of the attributes of our Almighty and of our everlasting
God. And it is also true that at one
place in the Scripture, one attribute may be at the forefront, one
may be overly or morally emphasized, one may shine forth in one place
more than the other, but in another place, another of the attributes
of God will take the forefront and be in the focus. And yet
there is never any conflict between the attributes of God as to their
exercise. One of them is never slighted
at the expense or the sake of another. and they can all operate,
all of the attributes of God can operate in perfect harmony,
never one of them at the expense or the detriment of another. For example, God was no less
holy when He was exacting justice from Christ in His death upon
the cross. Nor is God any less holy when
He is pouring out His wrath upon the ungodly. In fact, both holiness
and justice were honored in the sacrifice of our Lord upon the
cross. as they are in the everlasting
destruction of the vessels of wrath in that eternal torment. Because he is holy, sin therefore
must be properly punished. His holiness guides His justice,
actually, when we think about it. That His justice is guided
and is exercised in harmony with the holiness of God. Now, that
being said, Arminianism gives us a one-sided and an erroneous
view of the attributes of God. For example, about the only one
that they ever emphasize is the love of God, and to them this
is the leader of all of the attributes of God, and Methinks that they
greatly taint it by making it universal and ineffectual, and
that the love of God, according to them, in many cases failed,
or according to their teaching, the love of God does not always
reach its aim or reach its goal. So this is about the only one
of the attributes that they ever emphasize, and as we can see,
they twist it out of shape most of the time. Now this is not
to lessen or to slight the attribute of the love of God. For it is
a solid and absolute truth of the Scripture. It is a great
comfort unto the saints of God. God is love. God's love is everlasting,
Jeremiah 31 and 33. And because it had no beginning,
it therefore can have no end. And nothing can separate from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And Paul declares
that in Romans chapter 8, verse 35 through verse 39, and that
very clearly. So the attribute of the love
of God is a mighty and comforting one to the saints of God. But before we settle upon the
attribute of the holiness of God this morning, let's mention
some attributes that absolutely set God not only apart, but also
above all creatures, all creatures, both angels and men. For example, the attribute of
God's eternality. That He had no beginning. Think
about that. God had no beginning. He has always existed. Think about His infinity. Think about the immensity of
God. Think about the immutability
of God, that He can never change and never will. Think about the
omnipresence of God, that in Psalm 139, there is no place,
the psalmist said, that he could flee from the presence of God. Think of the unity of God, of
the three Persons in the One. That He had no beginning means
that He can have no end. He has His existence, His being,
His life in and of Himself. He did not receive His life or
His being from any other. He always existed and has His
life and His being in Himself. All of those are wonderful, wonderful
thoughts to the saints of God. But we want to focus today upon
the holiness of God and coming to the attribute of the holiness
as it dwells in the Almighty God. We have taken our text here
from the book of Isaiah chapter 6 and an incident that happened
in the life of the prophet. There is recorded here a vision
given unto Isaiah, the great statesman prophet of old, that
identifies the time in which the vision occurred. It was in
the year that King Uzziah died. And as we use this as our opening
passage, let's consider the context and its concerns unto Isaiah
and his view and sight of the holiness of God Then we will
branch out and broaden our study to a wider and a more general
view of the holiness of God drawn from a broad spectrum of the
Holy Writ or the Holy Scripture, the vision of Isaiah. And then we read of the effect
that that vision had upon Isaiah. And look at it. In the vision,
Isaiah sees the Lord. That is, he sees Him in a vision. Call it a revelation, if you
will. Back in chapter 1 and verse 1,
We read, The vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz,
which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of
Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, the kings of Judah. Now, we might
describe a vision as having a mental sight or perception, whether
by sight, whether by dream, whether by revelation. whether by spoken,
oracle, or whatever be the mean, it was a manner in which the
Lord of old communicated His mind unto the prophets in order
that they might make it known unto the people, that they might
put before the people the mind and the revelation, the will
of God. Now, we know at that point that
liars and that false prophets and that deceivers also claim
to have visions and dreams and revelation and such like from
the Lord in order that they might use that to make merchandise
of the people. And so, as in Jeremiah chapter
14 and verse 14, they prophesy false vision. Jeremiah 23 and
verse 16, they speak a vision of their own heart, not out of
the mouth of the Lord, They lie, they work deceit, which is evident
that they lack a proper view of the holiness of Almighty God,
and that His fear is not before their eyes, and they play the
hypocrite with their lies and their claims of dream and for
vision. Now, as for Isaiah, it is the
thought of some good and of some sound expositor that Isaiah was
already a prophet of God before this incident occurred in chapter
6. But in this he received a more
direct commission from the Lord God, an extraordinary and a highly
privileged confirmation of his calling and of his commission. I let Matthew Henry speak for
them. that here we have Him solemnly
ordained and set apart to the prophetic office by a more and
explicit commission. God saw fit to renew His commission."
Those are the words of Matthew Henry. And you see that in verse
8 through verse 12 of this passage of Scripture. Now, how did the
Lord do that? Isaiah, as it were, in his vision,
dream, or revelation, saw heaven opened. He saw heaven opened. You remember in Acts chapter
7, Stephen, when he was being stoned, martyred, and put to
death, and there in verse 55, And verse 56, as he was martyred,
it said, he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the
right hand of God. You remember I said, Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit. Well, Isaiah, in this vision
here, in chapter 6, saw the Lord and he saw him upon his throne."
It is described as high and lifted up. It is said that his train
filled the temple. Now, the word train here seems
to be a reference in the Hebrew to skirts or to flowing robes
In the margin of the King James they have it as skirts, the lower
barters as it were, that were worn by a king or by a priest. It is a picture of the flowing
majesty of God. God is often represented in the
scripture as inhabiting his heavenly throne. A king, a ruler, a sovereign,
the majesty God, the majestic God, the ruler and judge of all
of the earth. Now of course we know from the
teaching of the scripture that God as to his essence is invisible
and is spirit. God's spirit, God's being is
according to spirit essence. It is invisible. He is without
bodily shape. He is not a man with the features
or the likenesses of men, though he sometimes speaks of his eyes
and of his hands that he might accommodate our weak and frail
understanding. Therefore, we should not imagine
when we think of Isaiah's vision of a corporal or a physical body,
an outline or a form, but a majesty and a glory and a life and a
holiness emanating out of God. He was high and lifted up. He was exalted in this vision
of Isaiah. He was far above all. None could be higher. And look at verse 2 again. Above
all and about the throne of God there were the seraphim, a part
of the angelic family. This is a plural word and it
signifies, if I'm not mistaken, burning or shining. The burning
ones, winged creatures they are described who in the presence
of the majesty and the glory of God did cover their hands
and did cover their feet as if not to appear naked, as it were,
in the sight of the presence of such glory and such holiness
of God. These angels and their action
give us a hint of the being of the majesty and the extent of
the holiness of God that Isaiah saw. And then look at the third
verse as we move along. These seraphims cried out back
and forth, one unto the other, saying, Holy, holy, holy is the
Lord God of hosts. The whole earth, they said, is
filled with His glory. Now consider, these are holy
creatures, heavenly creatures, heaven being their abode. And yet, they are so affected
by the exceeding holiness of God upon His throne that they
sing the song of holiness, filling heaven, as it were, with their
anthems of praise of the holiness of God. And notice, as the song,
in triplicate, holy, holy, holy. Some think that this refers to
the three persons in the Trinity. But I agree with Calvin that
that might be stretching the text a mite. Now consider, though,
that these are some of the holiest creatures next to the Lord God
Himself. And here they are crying out,
holy, holy, holiness. to Him that sits here upon the
throne, and declaring that the whole earth is full of His glory. Furthermore, we see the manifestation
of it in verse 4, when the threshold of the temple, as Isaiah calls
it, did literally quake and shake. Not only that, but he said that
the house was filled with smoke or vapor of some kind. It was an awesome experience
for the prophet of God to experience. It had a profound and lasting
effect upon him. And this it was designed to do. This was its intention, that
it might affect Isaiah in the way that it did. It was designed
that it might awe him. and overwhelm him. And then he
is commissioned to preach the judgment of God upon the sinful
nation of Israel. He is commissioned to cry out
against their rebellion and against their sin against God. But let's focus a bit, if we
might, upon the effect of the vision upon Isaiah the prophet. How did Isaiah react? This is very important that we
see it and that we understand it and that we look into it. How did Isaiah react under what
he saw? I ask that because we want to
compare his reaction to some today who claim that they have
vision and revelation. Some today who claim that they
have seen the Lord. Well, I want you to notice what
he did not say. Isaiah did not jump up and shout,
hallelujah. He did not run around his room
and clap his hand or jump a pew or swing from a chandelier or
speak in tongues. He did not throw up his hand
and he did not shout, praise God, praise God. Instead, we
have his reaction In the fifth verse of this text, woe is me
for I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips and
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Our idle curiosity
would sure like to pry further and deeper into this heavenly
scene, would it not? But it pertains to a work of
God in far and toward the prophet. And Isaiah tells the impression
made upon him. While we might have considered
himself highly favored and highly blessed of God by the God of
heaven, without pride or without prejudice, he might have considered
himself blessed. And yet the sight he saw caused
him to moan, Woe is me! I am undone. Now, before we follow up on this,
let's hear Paul and remember what he said in Romans 7. He recalls for them his encounter
with the law. And in verse 14 of Romans 7,
Paul a Christian, a preacher, the
apostle of the Gentile, a holy man, said this. The law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, sold under sin." Hear him again in verse 24 of
that same chapter saying, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from this body of death? Now, what does Isaiah mean? I am undone. In fact, let's look
closer. He uses two words, woe and undone,
and applies them unto himself. I am undone. Now, the word woe is a form or
an expression of lamentation, as if one cries out, oh, oh or
alas, look at me, woe is me. And on some account, the prophet
said, I am undone. Now to be undone might carry
a twofold meaning. It might be rendered dumb or
silent, having absolutely nothing to say, nothing in reply, nothing
in one's defense, being speechless. And then again, B, it might mean
to fail or to perish, to be destroyed, to be cut off. And the word translated,
ruined, as if the prophet thought to himself, oh, I'm undone. I am at my end. I am a dead man. The Lord is holy, holy, holy. and I am a man full of unclean
lips." So the question, should we expect that such of the vision
of the Holy One would have this effect upon a good and decent
man and prophet like Isaiah? Or are we surprised that the
prophet Isaiah, one of the better leading prophets of the Old Testament,
should reply and react in this manner? Or is it that Isaiah
thinks that he has spoken rashly in his criticism of Israel? Or he harshly preaches against
their sin in chapter 1 and following? Now, we have reason to think
We do not, rather, have reason to think that Isaiah was a man
that used profanity in his daily speech, nor did he use the Lord's
name in a careless or an irreverent manner in his preaching or in
the carriage of himself, and yet his confession is clear,
I am undone, I am a man of unclean lips. But let's not rush away
from the words of Isaiah. Let's let them, like a negative,
develop and give time to sink into our mind that we might hear
and see Isaiah's experience. This kind of experience and reaction
is by no means limited to Isaiah the prophet, for we will demonstrate
by several other examples out of the scripture the effect that
such an encounter has upon a mortal being. that when the holy, sovereign
God is pleased to manifest His glory in this manner to a son
of man, it produces the effect as it did with Isaiah in chapter
6, such as his words. I am undone. Woe is me. I want to share with
you a part of what Calvin wrote on Isaiah chapter 6 on this text. The prophet relates how powerfully
he was affected by that vision, namely, that he was so terrified
by seeing God that he expected his immediate destruction." For
the saying is true, not until God reveals Himself under one
can that one feel and know what they are in the sight of God. Not what they are, not what we
are in our eyes, but what we are in the sight of Almighty
God. I want you to consider now, we'll
be looking at some other examples like this. I want you to think
about an incident in Judges chapter 13. This concerns the parent,
the mother and the father of the Judge Samson. Samson, when
an angel of God appeared unto Samson's mother and announced
his birth unto her. Now, the man, the husband, the
father of Samson was a man named Manoah. And the prophet, when
his wife told him about it, and the angel of God appeared also
unto Manoah. And when he was home and with
his wife in the 22nd verse of chapter 13 of the book of Judget,
as they were reflecting upon that, the man said this, We will
surely die because we have seen God. That's what he said unto
his wife. It was the belief of many that
for one to see God meant an instant death. You can see this in Gideon,
also in the book of Judges, chapter 6, verse 22 and 23. He feared also that his great
vision might be the end of him. Then remember, in Exodus chapter
33, This time it is Moses. And Moses
asked for tokens of God's presence and of God's favor. Moses said,
Don't send us up. Don't let me go up if you're
not going with me. And may I have tokens of that
presence. And the Lord said in verse 19
and in verse 20, I will make my goodness pass before you,
and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you, and will
be gracious to whom I will. You cannot see my face, for there
shall no man see me and live." Those words are to Moses in Exodus
33. You can see that again in Genesis
32 and verse 30 when Jacob was surprised that he lived after
seeing the revelation of the angels on the ladder. You can
see it in Deuteronomy 5 and verse 25. You can feel Paul trembling
and astonished before Christ in Acts chapter 9. In Revelation
1 and verse 17, when John saw the Alpha and Omega, he saw the
Ancient of Days. And in Revelation 1.17, I saw
the Ancient of Days. I fell at His feet as one dead. Remember in Luke chapter 5, the
Lord said to Peter, cast your net in. Peter said, Okay, Lord,
but we fished all night and caught nothing. But because You say
so, I will." He cast in the net. It was so full of fish that it
almost broke. And we remember that Peter said,
Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man," in verse 8 of
that chapter. Now concerning the reaction and
the words of Isaiah, when he saw the Lord high and lifted
up, saying, Woe is me, I am a man undone, I am a man of unclean
lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips." This is Isaiah's
very first reaction to that view or to that encounter with the
holiness of God. And it produced in him a sense
of uncleanness and a sense of unworthiness. And again, we have
examples of this in the experience of others. Remember Job. Have you read the book of Job?
We come to chapter 40 and verse 4. And there in that chapter
and verse, Job said this. God had spoken unto him. Job's reaction was this, I am
vile. What shall I answer you? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. I am in the strait not to pass
over this, my brother and sister, too lightly, neither to draw
it out too long. But let's do take some time here
in the book of Job. Job is repentant in chapter 40
for his multitude of words and for his talking about wanting
to come together and to contend with God. He had been saying
three times, I have it down. Chapter 13, 22-24. Chapter 31,
verse 35-39. Job had said, oh, if I may but come before God and but argue my case before
God. Oh, if I could but do that. Job
had boldly argued his case before his three friends, but his wish
was that he might come before God and argue before God directly. When God speaks unto him, Job
then sees himself as a weak and guilty, miserable offender. Even saying in chapter 42, verse
3 and verse 6, I uttered what I understood not. Wherefore,
I abhor myself and repent in dust and in ashes. Those are the words and the reaction
of Job when God spoke unto him. So hear ye, hear ye, my brother
and sister, what we may conclude from Job and from others' words
and attitude after an encounter with the Lord, that it is possible
for good people who love God, to speak presumptuously about
God and to pronounce opinions on the administration of God
that is completely beyond their comprehension and understanding. And for sure, one will see themselves
in a different light when they are enabled to perceive the holiness
and the majesty of God the Lord. Job is a good example of that
as we read part of his word in chapter 42 and verse 5. I have heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear, but now mine eye has seen you. Before he had only
heard. about the Lord God, that from
others. He believed the report. He believed
the Word of God. And he feared God. And he eschewed evil as we learn
in the book of Job chapter 1 and verse 1 and following. In fact,
the Scripture calls Job a perfect and an upright man in chapter
1 and verse 8. When the Lord speaks to him out
of the whirlwind, as in Job 38 and verse 1, he saw himself in
a different light and was moved to confess himself as having
spoken presumptuously. Moving to Daniel, this time chapter
10, what Daniel saw, what he called there in verse 8, the
great bishop. For back in verse 5, a certain
man, clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold,
appeared before Daniel in a vision. And in verse 16, one like the
similitude of the sons of men touched my lips, Daniel said. What was the effect upon Daniel? Look at verse 8. There remained
no strength in me, for my calmliness, that is, his facial features
became corruption, and he lost all vigor and all strength. In verse 15, when he spake, I set my face to the ground and
I became dumb. And in verse 17, there remained
no strength in me, neither is there breath left in me. In other words, he seemed as
if he were at the point of death and then was touched and strengthened
by a higher hand and spoken to comfortably from God and was
assured. Let's go back to our original
text, the case of Isaiah. Though we have confirmed his
experience by several others that are there in the scripture
that are of a like kind, yet we can say It is a blessing that
is bestowed upon but few comparatively. When we look at the scripture,
but a few men had this blessed revelation from God. It was not
a common thing. not done ordinarily, and that
likely accounts for the reaction of men such as Isaiah, and Daniel,
and Job, and Moses, and John, and such like. Manifestations
usually came unexpectedly, and they came unasked for to these
great men of God. They were sovereign works of
God that he did according to his will and time. It was almost
always disturbing and was always humbling, and was a life-altering
experience for that one, producing an awe and bringing a strong
sense of one's sinfulness before a holy, majestic, and just God. Note the reaction of Isaiah again. Woe is me. I am undone. Undone how? I am a man of unclean
lips. Question number one. Why is it
Woe is me. Why not happy am I, blessed am
I, for I've seen the Lord, a thing that I will cherish all the days
of my life. Woe is me. Question number two. Why the focus on the pollution
of his lips? Why not his heart, his mind,
his hand, his feet, his eyes and such like? And he thinks
Calvin on the right track. His lips, because it was a prophet
speaking in the name of God, and his lips, his tongue, his
organ of speech had been consecrated to the service and to the Word
of God. And this seems to be confirmed
when the seraphim flew unto Isaiah with a coal of fire, and purged
his lip with one from off of the altar, and gave him the commission. In the end of chapter 6, he needed
God-anointed lips for the task that was before him. without
seeing eyes or hearing ears, without understanding. People
cannot hear and understand the Word of the Lord. So the blessed
vision unto Isaiah. And the effect was holy, holy,
holy. Now, let's close out this morning
with some personal application in relationship to those visions
that we have mentioned concerning the holiness of God. In each
case, there was awe. There was overwhelming. There
was a feeling of being sinful, of being afraid of the majesty. And that leads me to say, the
more one learns of God, the more they perceive the holiness of
God, the more we feel our own corruption, the more that we
see God for what He really is, the more then we see ourselves
for what we really are. For example, most who call themselves
Christian have a very high opinion of themselves as good and do
not consider themselves to be sinful and wicked in the sight
of God. They do not consider that they
in the actual full display of the glory of God would be fatal
unto them, they think they might see the Lord and be happy and
glad to receive it, that they might see Him and live and go
on in their way. Gil said, if a full revelation
be made, it would be too much for mortals in the present state
to bear. It would break their earthen
vessel in pieces. The full manifestation of God's
glory. And the holiness must wait until
we have put off mortality. For now we look through a glass
darkly. believing by faith and the testimony
of the Word of God. I ask you, was not Adam afraid
of God as soon as he had sinned in Genesis chapter 3? No longer
was the presence of God welcome in the life of Adam. He hid himself
and was afraid. And the wicked seek to hide their
face from the wrath of Him that sits upon the throne, as we read
in Revelation 6 and verse 16. While the wicked cannot abide
His wrath, not even the righteous can in these bodies abide aside
of the fullness of the holiness of God. We can only comfortably
abide the presence of God when we have passed over and have
put on immortality. Now, I have time to make a good
point about two men, Moses and Paul, blessed with more clearer
manifestation of God than any other person. Moses, blessed
with more under the old economy than any man, and yet when he
came down and his face shined and he had to put a veil over
it, having been in the presence of God, Even Moses feared and
trembled at the giving of the law. Who had a more glorious
encounter with Christ than Saul of Tarshish? And the effect on
the ground, fearing and trembling, Lord, what would Thou have me
to do? One under the glory of the law,
Moses, the other the glory of the gospel. I make this charge
against our generation that it has lost its reverence for the
holiness and the majesty of God. Our generation of churchgoers
has lost its reverence for the holiness and the majesty of God
and thus the levity that goes on in some places. But that's
another story.