So with that, would you turn with me to Isaiah 6? As we've already looked in the bulletin and sung about and heard about, we're going to be spending some time considering the holiness of God. And I appreciate what John said. He said that, you know, it's one of the harder attributes for us to grasp and to understand.

And I want you to know that there's good reason for that. I want you to think about, for those of you who call yourselves Christians, those of you who follow Jesus, what were some of the first things that drew you to Jesus? I can sort of guess for the congregation, perhaps it's God's love. Perhaps it is God's forgiveness as Christ died on the cross to forgive us of our sins.

Maybe as a young child, it's God's creation or his act of creating the world and sustaining it and providing for us, right? How many prayers over food? These are things that we're more familiar with. I know for myself, I've never heard anybody say, the thing that drew me to God was his holiness. Right? I've never heard that before.

And I think for, even for myself, the holiness of God is something that I came upon later in my walk, but a very important part. So in some ways it's distant from us, but in other ways, it's very close. We could not have made it through our worship service with any type of, I guess, we could not make it through this worship service without using the word holy, coming in contact with it.

One, because, you know, Ben, the person who put this worship service together, knew I was going to be talking about holiness. But if you think about last week, you look at next week, how often does the word holy come up? It is often, even as we said the Lord's prayer, something we learn at the very beginning, perhaps, of our Christian way. You cannot pray that prayer without an understanding of holiness.

Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. That's, we're acknowledging that God is holy, but also requesting that it would be acknowledged in all the earth. If you look at the Lord's prayer, all of the royal terms, king, kingdom, these types of things are going to be found in our text in Isaiah, right? And so in some ways, it's a term that might be challenging to understand, something we come upon later in our Christian walk.

In other ways, it's at the very beginning. I can't even function as a Christian without understanding this word holy. And so we're going to look at Isaiah 6, which is a unique text.

All of God's word is unique and special, but the extra unique thing about Isaiah 6 is that this passage is going to take us through a vision that Isaiah had. A vision is different than a dream. Dreams in the Old Testament were things that God gave people where people saw something happen, but didn't interact with it.

A vision is something where someone is given a vision from the Lord that he actually engages with, and we see that in Isaiah, but we're going to be brought into the very throne room of God in heaven. Many times in the Bible, God interacts with human beings here on earth and demonstrates his glory and his goodness, but Isaiah 6 brings us into the heavenly realm. This is not literature or a description that is like anything else found in the world.

This is very unique and special. So I just wanted to prepare us for that, that we are going to be looking at words to describe something that had not God given us, this would be not able to be described. This is a wondrous thing that we find.

Let's go to Isaiah 6, and I just wanted to make a note that I'm going to be reading the whole chapter, even though it would have been sort of a nice package to end halfway through the text, but we're going to read all of Isaiah 6, and it ends in kind of a strange way, just to demonstrate that in God's holiness, he speaks to us in ways that sometimes make us uncomfortable, and that is sometimes by design. He is God, and we are the creation, and when we encounter him, we don't come to him because he makes us feel good, although sometimes he does, right? But sometimes he makes us uncomfortably stirred, and we ought to be able to sit in that. So we're going to experience that as we come into the presence of God.

Holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said, woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said, behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. And I heard a voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, here I am, send me.

And he said, go and say to this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand, keep on seeing, but do not perceive, make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed. Well, then I said, how long, O Lord? And he said, until cities lie waste, without inhabitants, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled.

The holy seed is its stump. Let's pray together. Our Father God, we do thank you for this text of scripture that calls us to attention, and stops us, arrests our lives to come in contact with the God who is holy, holy, holy.

We pray, O our Father, our Heavenly Father, that as we understand your greatness and your holiness, that you would at the same time be ministering to our hearts to know that this very same holy God has called the people to himself, has done everything necessary to bring us safely before your throne, that we might call you Father, just as Jesus intended when he gave his sacrificial, when he sacrificed his life and shed his blood, that we might have this privilege and peace before a holy God, and even to look upon ourselves, and to rightly and say that we are your holy people. Help us to understand this, that it might impact the way that we view you, the way that we view ourselves, and the way that we live our lives. Do this work in our lives.

Bring transformation to sinners who need it. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, we're in Isaiah 6, and for the first five chapters of Isaiah, Isaiah as a young prophet of the southern kingdom of Judah has been preaching. And he says, and we come to chapter 6, and he tells us that in the year that King Uzziah died, he saw this vision. And that is a very important contextual clue to what is happening.

As we think about the reign of Uzziah, a king in the southern kingdom of Judah, the northern 10 tribes of Israel had already departed from the Lord, are making unholy alliances with idolatrous kingdoms. It's a mess up there. But in the southern kingdom, under the reign of Uzziah, things were good.

Things were prosperous. People had a very comfortable life. And they have the temple in Jerusalem, the first temple, which was glorious, almost beyond imagination.

Hard to fathom such a large building ornate in the way, just as God had designed, covered in gold and pomegranate, stitching a very beautiful and glorious building, which they had access to, to worship God. All of Israel had access to this temple, but in Judah and in Jerusalem, this was especially close. And after years of Uzziah's reign, Uzziah did something that I think was emblematic of what was going on in the people.

In his pride, the king went into the temple to offer a sacrifice, something that only priests ought to do. And because he thought that I'm the king, I can do what I want. And he was struck with leprosy.

Now he should have been struck dead, but God gave him leprosy, which in many ways is like a walking death or a living death that he had to endure because of this pride. And the reason I say it's emblematic of the people is because while things were good and things were prosperous, Isaiah had been preaching to them that all of the outward things are happening. People are worshiping God.

People are giving sacrifices. Things are good, but their hearts were far from God. That was the situation that was happening.

And Isaiah saw it, but, you know, things are good. You know, how do you act when things are good and you don't have any trials in your life? Oftentimes you pray less. You don't go to God as much because things are good, right? And you go about your own life.

And that is exactly what Isaiah saw. And in that context, God gives Isaiah this vision. And it says that as he is brought up, he sees the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up.

I don't want you to think about what our cartoonists often think, which is God is this gigantic man, right? With a huge long beard and sort of Isaiah comes up to his big toe, right? God, the Father exists in an unseen realm. He is spirit. And yet, you know, this language of a throne is given to us, not so that we imagine this gigantic man, but just to understand that God is on the throne.

He is the king of all of his creation. And Isaiah feels his presence. As we think about the temple in Jerusalem, something that the readers of this prophecy would have known very well, the Holy of Holies, something that the priest could go into only once a year.

Some people think that the Ark of the Covenant is the throne. No, no, no. That is the footstool of God.

God's throne is in heaven. And this interesting piece of architecture that the high priest can only go into once a year to be in the presence of God in that special way is just his footstool. So we understand the grandeur of what Isaiah is seeing.

And then it says that the train of God's robe fills the temple with glory. Now we don't have a king, but I want you to think about maybe a coronation that you saw on TV, maybe something in the UK, right? The king or the queen, the train of that robe, the piece of fabric that would drag on the floor. This was a universal symbol of royalty and grandeur and glory.

And the bigger the train, the more glorious it was, the more that you would know that that king, that physical king on earth was a powerful and majestic king. And yet Isaiah feels this as he thinks about the vastness of this temple that he's in, in heaven. And just the small part that just the train of his robe fills the temple with glory, how much more so the being of God.

And then above him stood the seraphim, two angels. We encounter angels all over the scriptures. Sometimes they are, they just look like men.

Sometimes they look like warriors. Sometimes they have wings. We think of cherubim that show up from time to time.

These seraphim don't show up very much, but they do show up here. And so what is this description? Well, in our text, we have these beings, seraphim means ignited one, burning one. So these two creatures are on fire, right? They could be sort of humanoid.

There is also a reason to look at this word and think that they are serpents, but I don't want you to think about Satan. Think about like a good burning serpent, this is a heavenly being in the service of God. And with, they have six wings, two that covered the face, two that covered the feet and with two, they flew.

Here's the point. Even these burning angelic beings cannot be in the presence of God and God's glory without shielding themselves. They are shielded in their face from the glory of God all the way down to their feet.

And here's the point, Isaiah is not shielded, right? And so we sort of get a precursor to his being arrested, right? In the presence of God, what is he going to do? As you think about the glory of God, I want you to think about this very common situation. How many, either this is your experience or you've seen children stare at the sun. As soon as you see a kid look up into the sun, you say, oh, stop that, stop that, right? You're going to, not because the son's going to be hurt in any way, but if this child continues to look at that son in the way that he's doing, or she is doing, he is going to hurt himself.

The glory of God is a bit like that. How many times have you heard something like, God can't stand to be in the presence of sin because he's so holy. And I just want you to pause for a moment.

That is a little bit misleading. It's not that God can't be in the presence of sin, it's that sinners on their own can't be in the presence of God. You see how that's a very different approach, right? It's just like that child staring up in the sun.

If you continue to do that, it's your vision that's going to be hurt. You are going to be damaged permanently. As we think about the glory of God, that is just one small example of what it means to be in the presence of God.

Even the angelic beings, which are not fallen in sin, must be shielded. And so Isaiah sees these two burning figures say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. This repeating of the word holy is not because we're hard of hearing, right? This is a known way to add emphasis.

Even to repeat yourself twice was a way to get someone in the ancient Near East's attention. A three-time repetition of this word is a way to confirm that the reality of God's being is holy, holy, holy. It is confirmed, it is never changing.

We don't have a triple repetition elsewhere, but with this holy, holy, holy. He is the Lord of hosts. What is that? It's the Lord of angel armies.

If you look back in the Old Testament, how many angels does it take to destroy over a hundred thousand of Israel's enemies? One. There are occasions where when Israel needs help, one angel thwarts and destroys a horde of enemies numbering in the hundreds of thousands. The Lord has control over angel armies, legions and legions of angelic beings.

This is our Lord who is holy, holy, holy. And the whole earth is filled with his glory. I want you to think back to the arrogance of people in Judah and in Jerusalem.

You know what they thought? And this is even translated into the New Testament. You know what they thought? They thought that God was glorified in Judah and in Jerusalem because this is a place where he was worshiped rightly. It's not a place with idols.

And so everywhere else was godless. God was not there. He was with them in Jerusalem.

And so when Isaiah goes up and says, no, no, no, no, no. That is a huge error. You think that you have some sort of control or some, some judgment on the holiness of God.

No, no, no, no. His glory is over all of the earth. It is in his creation.

It is especially in his creation of people made in the image of God, though he is not always acknowledged in that way across the earth. But you do not have a monopoly on the holiness of God as if he's only holy in this one area of the earth. The whole earth declares his glory.

And so one of the first things that we see is that the holiness of God arrests us as much as we love God and his word. If I sent you to go do a Bible study on the holiness of God, you could come back to me with a dictionary definition of, okay, holiness means high, set apart, lifted up and above. But I do not want you to navigate life going, ah, because I know a dictionary definition of God's holiness, I understand God's holiness.

Our text in scripture is telling us you can, it is not bad to have dictionary definitions. It is not bad to be academic. But Isaiah knew that already.

And yet he is brought into this place to understand the holiness of God in a way that he had never understood it. And in a way that we will never understand it fully. We can understand it truly, but you will never encounter the holiness of God and go, I get it.

Right. It is meant for you to not get right. Verse four, and the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called and the house was filled with smoke, earthquake, scary, filled with smoke.

I want you to think about white smoke. When we cut, when we think about the ordinary way that God reveals himself, he has filled the temple with smoke before he has filled the tabernacle with smoke. It is a white smoke.

Um, in other years where God doesn't intervene in this very, uh, supernatural way that the frankincense being burned in the temple is a white smoke, right? And it's meant to represent the presence of God. When you think about Isaiah being hit with this huge wave, the tsunami wave of white smoke, two things are taken away from him, his vision, right? He's covered in smoke. He has no idea what he's able to see.

And also his ability to know what is next. I want you to think about the holiness of God and the glory of God and understand that as God takes away these two things, he is requiring you as you experience his power to trust him. I'm going to take away two things from you.

As I exhibit my presence, as I make my presence known that you rely on very heavily to navigate this world. But in light of God's holiness, he takes away our ability to see, our ability to know what's next, our ability to control. And that is by design.

How many times as you navigate your walk with God, are you given situations where you don't know what's coming next and you have to call out to God for guidance and help? Holy, the holiness of God and the way that he exhibits himself is very helpful for you to understand that in the presence of God, we get to be still and know that he is God. And in these very visual ways, he sort of takes that away from us, our ability to know and to control. And we need that from time to time to make, to remind us that we are not God.

God is God and we are not. And it's passages like this that get us to pause, to stop and to understand that we are not partners with God as equals. Even those of us who are saved, we are still his creatures, his creation, his objects of redemption.

But we never become God. And that is such good news to let God be God and to let us be his creation and not to mix it up. We get into a lot of trouble when we mix it up, just as Isaiah feels right now.

We looked at the images that were meant to see of this glorious vision. Now we're going to look at the gospel, the good news in Isaiah, and then we will follow up with how that impacts our relationship with God and how we live. Isaiah says in verse five, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts, exclamation point, ESV. Very nice. Trying to capture the desperation in Isaiah's experience in his voice.

Woe is me. That's not just a saying. In the presence of God, Isaiah knows that he cannot stand.

He is going to die. Why? Or he thinks he is, right? For I am lost. I'm a man of unclean lips.

I want you to know that Isaiah for his time to say this is unusual. Isaiah is a prophet in Israel. He's already been confirmed as a prophet.

He is a teacher. If there's anybody who's holy in Judah, it's Isaiah. And yet in the presence of God, he experiences what all Christians experience.

The full measure of his guilt and shame before God. And God does not say, no, no, Isaiah, I love you. He does love him, but he lets him feel the full weight of his guilt and his shame before God.

And God will do the same thing with you. As we think about maybe some of our catechism answers for what repentance is, what repentance and faith is, you would think that repentance and faith is, that's the very basic things of the Christian faith. Nobody would argue over those things.

That's not true. There's all kinds of confusion about what repentance and faith really looks like. And this picture of what Isaiah goes through is a, if you ever get confused about repentance and faith, you know, what do we mean by these theological words? Do I have it right? Just look at this object lesson in Isaiah's life.

Isaiah comes to God. He lived a pretty good life. How many of us have testimonies like, okay, I lived a pretty good life, but then I came to a realization of my sin.

The same thing happened to Isaiah. Even our good deeds in comparison to the holiness of God are not something that Isaiah says, but I did all this good stuff for you. No, no, no, no, no.

He says, I am lost, which means that I don't, I don't even, I don't even know where to start to begin to understand how holy and pure and righteous God is. And so when we first approach God, as we think about the salvation, engaging with salvation, receiving salvation, the first thing that you must do is you have to come to a God who's going to expose you. Many do not want to be exposed, but before an all-powerful, all-seeing, a holy God who is pure and righteous and good, even our good deeds are not motivated by him and are sinful, right? In his presence, we feel exposed.

All of our sins are revealed, and there's no better response than woe is me. There was something very right, biblically very right about approaching God and saying, woe is me. I am lost, which means I need help.

And I'm a man of unclean lips. If there was any part of Isaiah who was a prophet, who was supposed to speak the truth of God to a sinful people to call them, you would have thought that Isaiah's lips would have been clean, but he admits they're not clean. And I dwell in the midst of an unclean, and I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips.

You know what that means? He's not trying to make fun of the people of Judah. He's trying to say that my job is to speak the truth of God to these people and for them to respond. And they are a people of unclean lips, which means that even in my role as a prophet, I am a failure.

I haven't been able to lead these people to speak truth and to be clean. I'm reminded of a quote as I think about the holiness of God. A. W. Tozer once said to the people that he had ministry to, he said, Christians don't tell lies.

They just sing them. Right? I would never say that to you. I don't know you well enough, but you understand his point.

He wasn't trying to say, I don't want Christians to sing falsehood. He wanted them to understand when you sing holy, holy, holy, or you talk about the holiness of God, you ought to have some awareness of what you're singing and not go through the motions as if this is, these are just churchy words that you sing. And in the same way, when we come into the holiness of God and we, uh, we understand who he is, there's, this is the best posture that we can have to say I am lost and to admit that I am unclean.

Isaiah says, I have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. And usually, uh, when people saw God in this way, their expectation because of their sin was to die. And there's no arguing Isaiah doesn't say, well, it's not fair.

No, he said, no, this is fair, right? In the presence of a Holy God, I deserve God's wrath. All Christians come to God in this way. And it's really important that we come to God in this way so that we don't feel entitled to his salvation.

God gives us his salvation. We're going to look at that in just a moment, but it's really dangerous to feel entitled to that salvation. Well, Christ died on the cross.

He owes me his forgiveness. That is not, that's the way to approach God. See how Isaiah approaches God.

I have nothing. I am lost. I am hopeless until God acts.

And then a seraphim comes and takes a coal from the altar. Uh, so if you're not using your imagination correctly, you would expect that coal to be black. What are coals that are actually on fire? What color are they? They're white, right? The typical color of purity, this white burning coal.

There's no reason that Isaiah should not think that this is a burning hot coal. And the seraphim comes to his lips and Isaiah is so undone. He doesn't flinch, right? Even though I think that that's kind of a scary thing.

Touches his lips and the, seraphim says, this coal has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. You need to understand that in the presence of someone who, who understands their sin and the severity of being before a Holy God, God takes the initiative.

It is not Isaiah's tears or his prayer or anything that causes God to act. But in this lost state, and I love that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, right? You can think of Isaiah. He is lost.

God takes the initiative out of his own goodness, graciousness, forgiving nature. Although he's Holy, he's going to make a way. And he touches Isaiah's lips.

His guilt is taken away. The guilt that he very much felt that we know that we deserve when we sin is taken away by God's hand. And now he is atoned for.

As you think about that, that word atonement. If you, if you break up the word atonement, it turns into at-one-ment. And I used to think that that was some silly thing that they taught me in seminary that, that had nothing to do with the Hebrew or anything.

Actually, and they, and I was, I was corrected. That actually is a good way to think about it. It is a good way to think about that word atonement, at-one-ment.

When God takes away your guilt, the thing that happens is you get to become one, one with God. Not that you become God, but you are able to be in his presence in safety. God is foreshadowing what he would do.

God did not send burning coals to the earth to make atonement. He sent his own son. And he sent his own son who was precious and good and pure and holy.

And people rejected that holiness, just as they always have since man fell into sin. But nonetheless, though rejected and scorned, Christ lived a righteous and holy life before God, his father, in as a representative for us. And then he died on the cross, shedding his pure blood to make atonement for us to cover our sins so that we might be able to be in the presence of God and not fear his wrath, not fear a judge on a throne, which God rightly is.

And we're so glad that he is because if God is a judge on a throne, then that means there's an answer to all the injustices that you commit and other people commit in this world. How often have you watched the news and say, oh, this person did this terrible thing to these other people, or these leaders did terrible things to their people. A holy God on a throne sees all of those things and says, my children do not take it into your own hands.

The Lord of hosts, angel armies will make all things right. God's wrath is not something to be ignored or resisted or rejected. It is the only thing that gives us peace of mind in a world that is crazy with sinners sinning against each other.

We need him. I mean, whether we need him or not, he is the judge, but we need him to be that judge. But how can sinners be in his presence and be safe and even call him father only if their guilt is taken away by the atonement that Jesus brought? And he did it for free, just as this coal was touched Isaiah's lip, not because Isaiah made it right, not because of a bargain or negotiation, just by the free grace of God.

And that same invitation, that same initiative was taken for lost sinners in this room when God sent Christ into this world to die on the cross and those who are lost receive this atonement that God provides in Isaiah's case through the coal, in our case, sorry, in Isaiah's case, in the vision through the coal, but actually Isaiah is still saved by the blood of Christ, just as we are. This is a vision that points forward to that reality. Now we moved on to our next section, which is our discipleship.

Now that God saved us, what now? Well, look at our text. And I heard a voice from the Lord saying, um, well, whom shall we send and who will go for us? That's God speaking to the, the, the heavenly, uh, the heavenly host. And as Isaiah looks up, looks up at the seraphim, are you going to go? Are you going to go? Well, I'm here, right? I am someone who has been cleansed and saved.

The only response as Isaiah looks in gratitude to God is you Lord, do you need something? Here I am. Send me. And God says, okay, you're going to go and you were going to preach to a people who will not listen to you.

That's what that says. That's why when Jesus quotes it, describing his own ministry of parables, he understands that he goes to a people who will not listen to him. And so, uh, it sounds very blunt.

It's not that Isaiah is going to people to intentionally make them not listen to him. But as Isaiah takes God's word and preaches it to the people, God knows that your experience of this ministry is that you will be rejected. You will not be listened to.

You will make people's ears heavy, which means that they will be tired of hearing what you have to say. And Isaiah says, um, how long Lord? And then we have a description of what would eventually happen, uh, which is the exile of Judah. But here's what you need to know.

This exile did not happen in Isaiah's day. Now Isaiah's ministry is, it doesn't mean that it was peaceful. Isaiah's ministry was to minister to Kings that were fraught with difficulty and the threat of civil war and all kinds of idolatry.

But it wasn't in Isaiah's time that this exile happened, which is God's way of saying, when Isaiah says, how long Lord, the whole time, your whole life is going to be ministering to people who will not listen to you and, um, aren't going to respond to you. And I want you to know that you might feel like that sometimes in your ministry here in Delta Oaks. Nobody wants to come.

Nobody, not nobody, you're not nobodies, but you understand what I mean. I want to invite my neighbors and friends and coworkers, and it doesn't seem like they're going to respond. And you might look to God and say, Hey God, you called us to evangelize a world that is, that is against you.

Um, your strategy is not very good. And, uh, you might say that about Isaiah. Lord, this is kind of a waste of resources.

I'm really talented, right? Are you really going to send me to a people who aren't going to listen? How about you send me to people who will listen? But here's the thing. Once you've experienced the holiness of God and understand what he's done in cleansing you and bringing you into his presence and safety, you sort of stop asking questions like, Hey, can we do things my way? You just stop, right? That's what the holiness of God does. It stops you and says, let me re-understand what is taking place.

God, if you have cleansed me and you allowed me to feel my guilt and shame in your presence, I'll just do whatever you want, which is what Christian discipleship is, right? We kind of fight against it, but that really is what it is. In light of your holiness, I will follow your plan and I will leave the growth and I will leave the success and the fruit to God, who is the only one who can bring that about. Anyway, I am, I am dislodged from my understanding that, well, if I'm really successful, I'm at my ministry, then things will grow and then, no, it's however God brings it about.

And even though I can't see it by faith, I will trust him. This last section, is really important. It's verse 13.

It's kind of confusing, but it says, and though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump. That's very cryptic, but here's what it means.

It means that though you see in your own mind, the land desolate, the people in unbelief, there will be a people who will remain. And there will be, the Old Testament calls it a remnant. The holy seed is its stump, which is his way of saying it will endure.

Why is this important for us? If you've ever felt that you're on the losing side of things, that as a Christian life is hard, the gospel isn't going out like I pray that it is. We are just always on the losing side. You need to understand that God knows that that is what you will see.

And yet he always assures you that there is a remnant, the church, God's people will never be eradicated or extinguished. And church, you are evidence of God's faithfulness. Not that you should be puffed up in pride, like, oh, we're the remnant, but to know that in every place around the world, God has his people.

And the people, the servants of God who have been called to do ministry have always said to God, it's over, there's nobody left. And God's reply is, that's not true. Sometimes the church is strong, sometimes it is weak and it is difficult, but regardless, God is still holy.

And on the basis of not our results or even our effort, on the basis of his holiness, we say to God, if I've been forgiven by God, I'll do whatever you say, God. And if I don't want to do what God says, I don't need you to try harder. I just need you to go to God's holiness, not to be scared, but to be reminded this is who God is.

And this holy God has made a way for me to be in his presence, has cleansed all of my sins, has taken away my shame, and has made me a new creation. And so even if you haven't been faithful this week in your life, there's some sin that you're struggling with, go to the holiness of God and understand and live in this tension that he is holy, I am sinful, and I am in his presence. How can that be? Only because of the blood of Christ.

And if I have the blood of Christ, and if I have God with me, and if I have union with Christ, and if I have all the benefits of the gospel, when he asks me to do something that doesn't make sense, I can say, here I am, send me. That's what he's asking of you today. Not to do it in your own strength, but to draw on the strength of the gospel, and to know that if he saved me from sin, he can deliver me and be true to his word in every aspect of my obedience, whether that be personal holiness, or evangelism, or whatever he calls me to do, even the trial that you suffer.

Just real quick, the holiness of God does two other things for you. If you have a life that you don't like, and you say, God, I followed you, I've given up everything for you, and these trials in my life are just so hard. I want you to know that the holiness of God is meant to stop you, not to stop you from necessarily, I mean, not initially to get you to just stop complaining, but it reorients you to say, instead of shaking your fist at God, and saying, I gave you my life, you didn't hold up to your end of the bargain.

The holiness of God re-establishes where you ought to engage with God, which is on your knees before a holy God, and patient to see how he will deliver and save. I said two things, but I just wanted to say, for those of you who are suffering, the holiness of God is not meant to shove you away. It's meant to show you that if you're suffering and you're dependent, that's a good place to be.

Remember when Paul suffered in various ways, he asked God to take away a thorn from his side, and God said to him, of course I will, you're my servant. No, he said, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness, which you might respond, but that doesn't make any sense! Weakness is bad! And God says, let me be holy and you be my creation. If I am a holy God who has made you safe and cleansed you, then would you be able to follow me? And all true disciples, from that perspective, say yes.

Not with effort, but easily, because there's no other thing to say before a holy God. Let's go before our loving and gracious and holy God now. Our Father God, we thank you that we have spent some time dwelling upon the holiness of God.

May it be the lens that we have to view you, our lives, our disciples, our walk with you, but also how we view your Son, that we might understand what it means that you're gracious and loving, because you have made a way for us to be in your presence and live. And we will continue to see glory upon glory, as we await the coming of your Son to set all things right, and to see the God of justice put all things right, to wipe away every tear, to do away with sin and death forever. You are the King, and we are your subjects, and we pray this morning that we are glad to be in your holy presence.

We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.