All right. If you would, please
turn to Isaiah chapter six. Isaiah chapter six. And I'm just
going to read the first four verses for a text. Beginning in verse one. Well,
let me get this thing started actually. I forgot to turn it
on. Close enough. Alright Isaiah chapter 6 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 filled the temple
Above it stood the seraphims each one of 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. I'll start out by saying this.
This is the God that I believe, and this is the God that we try
to preach here. And no matter what else we say,
no matter who else we talk about, this is the foundation of our
belief in God. The belief of the holy, holy,
holy Lord of hosts. This is where it starts. Now,
if you want to hear about Jesus, you come to the wrong place.
If you want to hear about Jesus Christ, you're going to. I'm gonna do my best. Because
when you see holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, that's
Jesus Christ. I and my Father are one. So if this is the Lord of hosts,
it's the same thing is true of Jesus Christ. The same thing
is true of the Holy Spirit. The same thing is true of the
God the Father. All three are holy, holy, holy. and the whole
earth is full of His glory, whether we see it or not, whether we
know it or not. I like this verse, I do, I can't
help it. I mean, we talk about the Lord
Jesus Christ and the results of His work upon the cross, His
death, His burial, His resurrection, the redemption he purchased 2,000
years ago, that redemption is complete. And he is bringing
about the results of that redemption to his people. But never forget,
the one that hung on the cross was holy, holy, holy, the Lord
of hosts. And that is the God that we have
to deal with. That's the God this world has
to deal with and that this world doesn't know about. I'm speaking
from the Old Testament on purpose because I want to proclaim, as
best as I can, the holiness of God. From beginning to no end,
God is holy. Now this Bible's one book. We
say that all the time. Because it is one book all the
time. There's only one Lord. There's
only one faith, there's only one baptism. But that one Lord,
that one Lord is holy, holy, holy. When he's Papa Father,
Abba Father, he's holy, holy, holy. When he's judge, he's holy,
holy, holy. But now, here the first question
I wanna answer is where is the Lord? Psalms 115 verses two and
three says this. The heathen say, where is now
their God? Well, the answer is given in
verse three. Our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever
he hath pleased. So now you know where he is and
you know what he's doing. He's doing whatever he wants.
And whatever he wants to do, guess what? It's holy, holy,
holy. In Psalms two and four, it said,
he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have
them in, what? Derision. You mean God's mean? Well, I
can tell you this, one of the attributes of God is not that
he's nice. See, that's where the world's
at now. God is not nice. I don't know
how else to say that. He's not nice. God is not fair,
as men count fairness. What God is, is right. And the world doesn't know that.
And the world doesn't care about that. They want nice and they
want fair. Well, they want fair when it
goes toward their way. Let's put it that way. They don't
want fair if it actually means like, oh, you have to be punished
for what you've done. That's not fair. You tell them
about it. That's what they'll say. Well,
that's not fair. Never mind. I'm going to get into that in
a minute. But anyhow. But this is how supposedly the
Lord God Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, is viewed as
in this world. And I can tell you, God ain't
nice. Most people don't comprehend
this holy, holy, holy Lord of hosts. And I can tell you one
reason why they don't comprehend him is because he's not preached.
Not correctly if it is preached. Because they have a tendency
to say, this is the way God was in the Old Testament. Now in
the New Testament, Jesus is nice. No, they're one and the same.
These three are one. And I am God, I am the Lord. What? I change not. So if God wasn't nice in the
Old Testament, he's not nice in the New Testament. That's
just the way it is. I mean you can handle your biblical
logic however you want to but I'll believe the book And you'll
never find it in here. God says I am nice But that's the way some people
read it They don't comprehend either
that the Lord can have some hold some people in derision I Look that word up Well listen,
while he's on the throne, he holds people in derision. That's
in the place of supreme authority. Complete sovereign authority. We like the word sovereign around
here. Because it's another word not used, not believed by the
world. That means he's king. That means he's lord. And he's
king of kings and lord of lords. He has supreme authority, and
from his place of supreme authority, doing whatsoever he hath pleased,
he holds some people in derision. And the world doesn't believe
that. God loves everyone. That ain't what the book says.
You know? God has many attributes, and
I'm going to get to some of them, but nice ain't among them. Psalm 99 verse one says this,
the Lord reigneth, let the people tremble. He that sitteth, what? Between
the cherubims. Where was it Isaiah saw it? On
a throne high and lifted up with seraphims. Fiery angels, that's
what seraphims is, it's fiery. He sitteth between the cherubims,
let the earth be moved. Now Isaiah saw the Lord in the
temple, not in the heavens. But he did see him on the throne. What's that mean? Well, it means
no matter where God goes, he's on the throne. No matter where
the Lord is, he's king. No matter what the Lord's doing,
He is the sovereign ruler of this universe, not just the earth,
everything. The planets spin around the sun.
Why? Because God said so. You can
believe your big bang all you want to. You can have faith in
evolution because there ain't no fact to it. There's no facts
to be proved, but you can have faith in it, but that ain't.
the way it was done. I mean, it's just the way it
is. By Him, all things, what? Consist. They are held together,
they are pulled apart, whichever way He wants it. Stars blow into
novas and get really bright. Who did that? The one who's sitting
on the throne, high and lifted up. Why is he on the throne? Well,
it's his. That's where he belongs. He's
on the throne because he reigns. And he reigns because he is Lord. And I will say this, the Lord
is omnipresent. All powerful, all seeing, he's
everywhere. And everywhere he is, he's Lord
on the throne. whether we see it or not. You understand? Isaiah said,
what? I saw the Lord in the temple. Was he the only one there? I
don't know. I kind of doubt it because the
temple was a busy place. They always had something going
on. But Isaiah didn't say, we see the Lord. He said, I see
the Lord. I saw the Lord high and lifted
up. And here's the point. Only the
Lord can reveal his presence and he reveals it to whomever
he will. That's another thing the world
won't have. Oh, God wants everyone to be
saved. If he did, they would. Hey, who's
the one that saves? This is the dichotomy of the
modern religious society and actually it's the dichotomy of
religious societies for all time. They want to say the Lord loves
everybody but you don't love them enough to save them. They want to say the Lord is
willing that every man be saved. But he won't go against your
will. That's a lie. Because if he can't
change your will, you ain't never gonna be saved. Because you will
not come to me that you might have life. And that's just the
word. That's the word of our Lord Jesus
Christ. That ain't Old Testament, Mason.
That's New Testament. But God's most basic attribute
The prime descriptive statement of the one true almighty God
and everlasting Father is revealed right here in this scripture
as far as I believe. We don't have a list in the Bible of the
attributes of God. People have written books about
them, and some of them are really good. Some of them aren't. But
some of them are really good. But I can tell you this, it is
fully with my own heart, as much as I know God and believe God,
this is the basic prime Essence of God is holiness And that's
something that the world doesn't even come close to understanding
Holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts I Mean if God can be said
to have a prime attribute. This is it I Mean, I don't know
I can't think of a better one, and I've looked at them No matter what other attribute
God may have, all we know is what's in this book. And right
here, where it says, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, okay? That never changes. Never changes. This is where
every single thought of God by man should, emphasis the word
should, start. But it doesn't naturally. It doesn't start there, but it
should. And it doesn't start there in the secular world or
the religious world. But it does start there. with
the people of God, with the child of God. So, where does man start with his
thoughts of God? I gotta get this out here. And
I can guarantee you this, whatever it is that man starts with is
wrong. But they view, they think, and
they color everything they hear and say about God through the
filter of love. And I said it that way on purpose.
Yes, I was mocking someone and probably making fun of somebody
else. Because it's not love, it's love. Now, let me be very
clear, God is love. But you judge what love is by
what God says. You don't judge God or try to
define God by what you think love is. They want to base everything
on their ideas about human love. And that ain't right. That's
not right at all. God is love. but you don't use the baseline
of human love to judge the love of God. Matter of fact, you don't
judge God at all. You're supposed to believe him. And I'll tell you this, man's
wrong. That's not where you start with God. Yes, God is love. Yes, God does love his people. God loves His Son above all.
His only begotten, what? Well-beloved Son. And every one
that He has loved, He has put and is putting and shall put
in the Son. They were chosen in the Son before
the foundation of the world. And they don't like that either,
but that's the way it goes. There's lots of scripture people
don't like. but they're wrong to start with
love and try to move to God. Because God is love, but let
me guarantee you this, one thing, God's love is a holy, holy, holy
love. Because he is holy, holy, holy. You understand, we don't say,
that the Lord thy God is a loving, consuming fire. He is a consuming
fire. I tell you, he is a holy, consuming
fire. You can say it that way. But
he ain't a loving, consuming fire. Everything that God has, everything
that God is, everything about God concerning God. Everything attributed to God
in his word is holy. Every single thing. What about
his wrath? Ooh, that's holy too. Oh, that's
holy. That's holy. Because God's wrath
is not only holy, it's right, it's just, And therefore, the fire of God
is holy. The wrath of God is holy. It's perfect. It's deserved. Well, it may not be fair, but
it's deserved. God's righteousness is holy.
You can say God's holy righteousness. God's holy justice. God's holy
judgment. Because God's justice is based
upon his holiness, not yours. And God's judgment is based upon
God's righteousness and not yours. Unless he gave you the righteousness
of his son. Guess what? His people have been judged in
his son. And that was a holy, righteous
judgment by the Lord of hosts. God's power is holy. His anger
is holy. God's holy anger. And I do have
down here God's holy love. It's just as holy as he is. Wait
a minute. Can't talk about love without
talking about God's holy hatred. God hates. Scripture says it. Scripture
says it. World hates it, world don't believe
it. Because how can God be love and hate? Guess what? He's God, that's the way it is.
And what is it Henry used to say? I ain't in the explaining
business, I'm in the preaching business. I don't have to explain it. and
read it and believe it because that's what it says. God hates,
yes. You know what God hates? God
hated those men who offered their children, sons and daughters
to idols. They took their babies and threw
them in the arms of Moloch above a fire. God hates that. You know the thing God hates? False idols. You can find that in Deuteronomy
12, 31, Deuteronomy 16, 31, if you wanna look for it. That's
Old Testament. And guess what? God hadn't changed. Now, here's a little bit of biblical
logic for you. If God hated false idols back
then, does he hate false idols now? And if you're preaching
another Jesus, you're preaching another gospel, which is not
another, it's a perversion of the gospel, who is not another
Jesus, and want men to worship another Jesus, that's a false
idol. It ain't my logic, it's his.
God don't change. A false idol is a false idol,
and it don't matter whether it's wood, hay, or stubble, whether
it's brass, silver, or gold, or whether it's just in the imagination
of your own little head. Were you arresting the scriptures
to your own destruction? I can't go by without saying,
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. Now it says, oh, that
says Malachi, that's way after the fact. It's like, yeah, God
don't change. God hated Esau after he was born. He wasn't real fond of him before
he was born. He hated him. That's the way
it is. God doesn't change. God's hatred is holy. God's holy
mercy. Now there, see that's a good
one. That's a good one. God's holy grace. That's what I need. Because God's
grace has got to be as holy as God himself. Because it's his. And his son was made sin for
us. He knew no sin. He was not made
a sinner. I'm not saying that, don't believe
that. He was made sin. What's that mean? It means he
was made sin. Just the same way, you know, we were made sinners. That's what we are. That's what
we were made. He said he was made sin for us. He was made a curse for us. Why? To satisfy God's holy judgment,
God's holy righteousness, and he did it by his own holy power. in order to bestow upon the ones
he had chosen before the face of the world his holy mercy and
his holy grace through his holy love for his son. Now I've gone all this way, I got
three minutes left on the TV thing. What does the word holy
mean? Well in Hebrew it means sacred
or holy. blessed, consecrated, venerated,
revered. Now here's one, set apart. Separate. Because I'm gonna tell
you something, God is totally separate from man. The only union
between man and God is through the man, Christ Jesus. God, the Lord of hosts, the one
who is holy, holy, holy, didn't need us for completion. That's why it's called grace.
He doesn't need us. We need him. He is totally separated. And in this case, it means separated
above. He's on the throne high and lifted
up. He's not sitting down here with us, guess why? Because He's
better than us. He's complete in Himself. We need to be brought in to Him. How holy is God? He is so holy
that that's what the angels call Him. One on each side, as far as I
know. Six wings, two they covered their face, two they covered
their feet, with two they were flying. And what was one saying
to the other? Holy, holy, holy. He's so holy that I can't explain
it to you. the true depth and glory of his
infinite holiness, we are incapable of seeing, we are incapable of
saying, and we are incapable of knowing in our present form.
It's just we're not capable. Because he's infinite. His holiness
is infinite. We're finite. And not only that,
we're fallen. finite creatures. That's even
worse than being a finite creature, because that actually limits, that limits the amount of finite
you can have. And what's the result of seeing
the thrice holy God? Woe is me. Woe is me. Woe is me. It's not whoop-dee-doo. Woo-hoo, I've seen God. That's
what you hear on TV. They ain't seen nothing. They
ain't seen nothing but a figment of their own imagination. When
you see God, you say, woe is me. When John saw Christ, he
fell at his feet. And John had been walking with
him for three and a half years. But no, he's high and lifted
up now. He's not walking on the earth as a man. He's a man, yes,
but he's on the throne. Saul was knocked off his donkey
and blinded when he saw who? Jesus Christ. Who art thou, Lord? I'm Jesus, whom thou persecutest. That's about where it stopped,
Paul, a little bit before that. If they want to rest, they can
come on the website. Because most people think, you
know, you see God, you're gonna jump for joy. You're gonna be
real happy. They said, woe is me. I am undone. You say holy, holy, holy, the
Lord of hosts, you're gonna be undone. All of a sudden, what you are
has become a lot less in your own eyes. Now you still don't
see yourself as bad as God sees you, because God sees us for
what we are. But you will see yourself enough
to where you can say, woe is me. And if you haven't ever said
woe is me, you don't know God. And that's as clear as I can
be about it. If you've never said woe is me, You don't know
God. You don't know this God, the
holy, holy, holy Lord of hosts. And you may not use those exact
words. It's like, oh my goodness, I'm dead. I remember thinking
in my head, and I normally didn't say it out loud, was that I thought
I was done for. I thought I was going to hell,
Walter. Because you start to see him, And what you see is
you don't measure up. Thank God I don't have to measure
up. That's the good part. But you gotta see you don't measure
up before he'll show you that you don't have to measure up. Me too. I am so glad of that. Because you know what that is?
That's holy grace. That's holy mercy and that's
holy love, which is only in his son. Because I can tell you this,
God's righteousness is for every single individual. God's judgment
is on every single individual. Everyone has to deal with the
righteousness, the judgment, and the holiness of God. Ah,
but see, I'll be merciful to whom I'll be merciful. I'll be
gracious to whom I'll be gracious. I'll pardon whom I'll pardon. I'll love whom I'll love. Where
does it say that? It says it all the way back in
Genesis. And guess what? That ain't never changed either.
That has never changed. and that never will change because
God's mercy, God's love, God's grace is selective. Why is it selective? He said
so. And guess what? That's holy too. Woe is me, I am undone and I
know why. I'm a man of unclean lips. That's
what he said. My seeing of God doesn't tell
me woe is you. It doesn't tell me woe is me. That's where it starts. Now,
it may be woe to you, too. I don't know. But it doesn't
tell me that. And it doesn't tell you that. Glimpsing the Holy Lord is a
terrifying thing. Yes, it is gracious. Yes, it
is glorious. And you don't know it. Yes, it
is merciful. But yes, it is terrifying. I'm a man of unclean lips. Now
you know what that means. If you got unclean lips, is because
you got an unclean heart. Okay? What did Christ say? Out of the
abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. So if you've got unclean
lips, it's because there's a problem down below. Well, there's a problem
all over. You're unclean. But bless God, there's a cure
for unclean lips. Isaiah tells us, there's a cure
for unclean lips. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
from tongs off the altar. He took it off with tongs, but
he put it in his hand. And he laid it upon my mouth and said,
lo, this hath touched thy lips. Thine iniquity and thine iniquity
is taken away. And thy sin purged. The cure is a live coal of fire
from the altar before the Lord. Okay, we're in the temple. Every piece of furniture in that
temple is Jesus Christ. Every altar is Jesus Christ. Every offering on that altar
is Jesus Christ. And guess what? That fire represents
the word of God, the word from God. And it's a cleansing fire. And here's the thing, it has
to come to you You can't come to it. And he'll send a messenger. That's what an angel is. He'll
send a messenger. But if it doesn't touch your
lips, it's not going to clean them. But when he touched his
lips, what did it say? Your iniquity is taken away. Your sin is purged. Because in order to have clean
lips, you've got to have a new heart. And you're not going to have
clean lips unless one has taken away your sin. One has purged
your sin. One has taken away your iniquity.
Because the cure ain't just for your lips. There's lots of people
who can change what they say, but that don't give them clean
lips. And then Isaiah is given a message.
There's only one message, but the way he told Isaiah was, go
and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not. And see ye indeed, but perceive
not. Make the heart of this people
fat, make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see
with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with
their heart and convert and be healed. Now that's a soul winning message
according to the world. Preach the truth and men won't
understand it. Give them the Lord's message
and they won't hear it. That's the state of man. The results of this message are
hear but don't understand, see but don't perceive. Make their
heart fat, make their ears heavy and shut their eyes. Lest they
see and be converted and I'll heal them. It almost sounds like
God's going out of his way not to save people. You might be
getting something somewhere. He leaves people where they are
when he wants to. And guess what? It's still, holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. He cleaned Isaiah's lips and
gave him a message that people won't hear. How's that different today? We've
got a message here. God didn't let all the congregation
of Israel see Him high and lifted up on His throne. He let Isaiah. He gave it to Isaiah. Like I said, God's mercy, God's
grace, and God's love is selective, and that is dependent upon I,
the great I Am, and no one else. It's God's choice. and God's
will, and it's not man's choice, and it's not man's will, and
that is never clearer than in here. But I can tell you this, if you've
seen the son, you've seen the father. And if you have truly seen Jesus
as he is, you have seen holy, holy, holy, the Lord of hosts. and His glory fills the whole
earth. Not that it shall fill the whole
earth. No, it's filling it now. If you believe Him, you're one
of the only ones who is allowed to see that. That is a blessing
from the Lord God Almighty, the Holy Lord. The world won't have this. But by His grace, I'll have it. I want it. And He is holy. Our Heavenly Father, thank You
for this time. Thank You for Your holy perfection. And Your holy Son. our Holy Savior,
in whom you've given us all things. I ask that you be with Walter
when he brings the message. Lord, help us. We need it, always,
in every way. Amen.