Arise in Holiness

In the year King Uzziah died,

I saw the Lord

high and exalted.

The train of his robe filled the temple,

and above him were the seraphim, each with six wings. And

with two wings they covered their faces, and with

two wings they covered their feet. And with two they were flying,

and they were calling out to one another,

holy, holy, holy is the Lord God

Almighty. The whole earth is filled

with his glory.

And at the sound of their voices,

the doorpost and the threshold

shook and the temple

was filled with smoke.

Woe is me, I cried.

I'm ruined. I am a

man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean

lips. And I have seen the

king, the Lord Almighty. And

the seraphim flew to me with a live

coal in his hand that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And with

it he touched my mouth and he said, see, this hot

coal touches your lips, and with it your guilt

is taken away, your sin

atoned for. And I

heard the voice of the Lord say,

whom shall I send? Who will go for us?

And I said, here am I, send me.

And the Lord said, go tell this people,

be ever hearing, but never understanding.

Be ever seeing, but never perceiving.

Make the heart of this people calloused,

their ears dull, and close their eyes, otherwise

they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears

and understand with their hearts and turn and be

healed. And I said,

for how long, Lord?

And he answered, until the

cities lie ruined, until and without inhabitant,

Until the homes are deserted and the fields are

ruined and ravaged, until the Lord has separated everyone

far away and the land is

utterly forsaken. And although a

tenth will remain, the land will again be laid waste.

But as the terebinth and oak leaves a

stump when it's cut away,

so the holy seed

will be the stump in the land.

Father, I thank you for your word.

Your word reveals the clearest picture of who

you are. I

thank you that you preserve this vision through the generations

to meet us today, Lord, so that we might

not just see, but understand. Not just hear, but perceive. Would you

help our hearts see the

full picture of who you are

and be moved by you?

In Jesus name, Amen.

This message is somewhat of a reprise on

a teaching I gave a month ago in a midweek gathering. I don't know if

it's a reprise or a part two.

And I was called several weeks ago and asked if I would give a message

on holiness again, to which I was kind of feeling, please

no, don't send me in there coach,

not into the pulpit, but into holiness. Like

that. The Old

Testament tells us that the high priest would enter the holy of holies

one time per year to make atonement for sin. You know what

that tells me? God's people should not enter

into holiness casually,

without fear and trembling. And I was

reading a book by R.C. sproul, who said the irony of when he would bring

a teaching to his congregation on holiness is that they

would assume that somehow by his knowledge, that that mirrored a life

of holiness. When he said, in truth, behind the scenes, what he was learning is

no, the more I know about God's holiness, the more I understand

just how far away from it I am.

And during my midweek teaching, I posed the following question

to the congregation. If holy

is the characteristic of God, the only characteristic of God in

Scripture that's sung or lifted to the third degree,

he is holy, holy, holy. If his

holiness is declared nearly a hundred times in Scripture, and if Scripture

tells us another several hundred times, then that when

his holiness touches or inhabits something, that thing becomes

holy as well, then is it reasonable to say that

Scripture calls His people to think on his

holiness often? And if that's true,

why do we hardly ever hear about it or

talk about it or teach about it?

And I offer two observations in this midweek gathering.

Firstly, holiness guys is really difficult

to explain and articulate. If I were

to tell you the primary definition of his holiness is his set

apart sacred otherness, his transcendence, you

should rightly come to me and go, can you elaborate on that a little

bit? That's kind of those words in itself.

And I would have to go, I'm so sorry. That's all I got for you.

Here's the thing. He is the Creator.

He is not created. He is the existing

one. He did not come into existence. And the only thing

each one of us has at our disposal to try to explain

his set apart sacred otherness, his transcendent

existence, are things that only exist because of Him.

And in that way, we're kind of always going to come up short.

A teacher kind of has an uphill battle there. But

my encouragement is that biblically, I think we're in good company.

Listen to this vision of the Lord's glory and holiness from Ezekiel,

chapter one. And above the expanse over

their heads, there was the likeness of a throne in appearance

like sapphire. And seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness

with a human appearance. And upward from what had the appearance of his

waist, I saw as it were gleaming metal like the appearance of

fire enclosed all around and downward from what had the

appearance of his waist. I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire.

And there was brightness around him, like the appearance of the bow that is in

the cloud on the day of rain. So was the appearance of the

brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of

the glory of the Lord. Get it?

That's like the clearest, most unclear picture,

right? But listen to this. And when I

saw it, I fell on my face

and I heard the voice of the one speaking. Those

verses suggest to me that for a believer, the most

important part of knowing God's holiness is not so we can

describe it well to other people,

but so we can be moved by it

when we see it, when we perceive it.

The way Isaiah was moved and transformed by this vision of holiness,

it messes me up quite often. Woe to

me, I cried. I am ruined.

I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean

lips. And my eyes have seen the king.

So a prophet in the Old Testament oftentimes

was probably somebody, when compared to the standard of holiness around

him, probably seemed like an upstanding, righteous

guy. And a prophet was called oftentimes

in the Old Testament to pronounce woes on God's people.

You know, Jesus even does this in the New Testament. Woe to you scribes

and Pharisees, right? But the thing is,

is when Isaiah comes face to face with a holy God, the

true standard of holiness, the first thing he does as the

prophet, before acknowledging anyone else's sin,

pronounces judgment on.

Woe is me. I am ruined.

We never want to make the mistake of looking at someone else's sin

and thinking compared to that person, I'm doing all right.

If we're doing that, we're looking at the wrong standard.

He's the standard

we want to be looking toward God's holy standard so we understand

just how clearly we need Him. That

word ruin means to be cut down and shredded,

undone, shredded. Not like Pastor Justin, in a different

way.

So my second observation is that we don't bring it back.

Okay? My second observation is that we don't

speak or think or teach about God's holiness often

because we don't. It doesn't feel good to

be in the presence of that which leaves us undone

and shredded apart. We love to think

on the qualities of God that feel good, the warm and

fuzzies. But I'm not saying that

despairingly. I love his mercy. I love his

goodness. This is not a diminishment. This is

get the full picture. We love to think of the qualities of God

that make us feel good. But we're content oftentimes with keeping his

holiness at a good, safe distance.

And one of the things that I've been trying to keep in mind lately is

in these New Testament stories where we go to to build

our sermons on his goodness and his mercy. Maybe the woman caught in

adultery or something like that. No doubt his goodness and mercy is

all over that story. His holiness is in that story too.

He does not set his holiness aside in those

moments. I would suggest it's his holiness that makes his love

in that moment so otherly his

mercy so otherly that it causes the Pharisees to drop those

stones. The doorpost in the threshold had the common

sense to shake in his presence.

So for me, it's not a question of whether his holiness is there.

It's just a matter of if we're perceiving it to be there or not.

Here's an example of what I believe is his holiness being present

in a context I don't. I didn't expect. Luke 5, 7,

8. This is Jesus after he instructs the some of the disciples to

cast the net on the other side. After they've been unsuccessful,

they catch a bunch of fish. They signaled to their partners in the other boat

come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats so that they

began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw

it, he fell down at Jesus knees, saying,

depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O

Lord. That word saw is connected to the same word

Isaiah says when he says, my eyes have seen the King

beholding and perceiving something different here. This is

a incredible testimony of God's

favor and goodness.

But while everybody else is celebrating this, Peter's response is much different.

Here's my suggestion about this. Peter is a lifelong

professional fisherman. He's done a lot of fishing. He

knows when the fish are biting and when they're not. He knows when they're going

to and when they're not. He's caught a lot of fish or

very little fish. He's never seen anything like this before,

but it's kind of familiar. He's not just hearing,

he's understanding. He's not just seeing. He's perceiving that this is

a holy moment and the one standing in front of

him is holy too. And Peter's first

instinct with the knowledge of the holy is to be moved

to humility.

And his second instinct is to try to create

as much distance as he can between him and

the Holy One. Depart from me. So biblically, it

kind of makes sense, guys, that our instinct is to shrink back

and create distance from that which cuts us.

But this is what God, Jesus does in

Isaiah and Peter. He calls them closer,

he calls them deeper. He makes a way.

Why? Because as much as we try to

create that distance, we serve a God, a holy God,

who's desired to close that distance.

That he sacrifice his one and only holy Son Jesus to make

a way. And for that reason,

knowing his holiness actually makes his

gospel, the gospel, taste so much sweeter.

Because if you understand just how much ground

he had to cover to rescue us back,

help us, Jesus.

Isaiah was brought into the holy of holies, most likely

expecting death, but instead purified by a hot coal taken from

the altar. A sacrifice, indicating that a

sacrifice had been made that Isaiah didn't have to be a part of.

And it was after this moment of purification that Isaiah

hears the voice of the Lord, clearly hears the call, whom

shall I send? And Isaiah responds in a very interesting

way. Here am I not. Here I am.

And I think, here I am is an

offering of location. Here am I

is an offering of self.

I'm here, Lord. There is a call and a

response to God's holiness. 1st Peter

1:14, 15. But just as he who called you

is holy, so be holy

response in all that you do. As obedient children, do not

conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.

And you ask, we ask in ignorance of what? Not knowing. Any

better? No, I don't think so. When we lived in

ignorance of not knowing a holy God who has a

holy Son that he gave for our forgiveness of sins.

And we've been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. Renewed hearts, renewed

minds, renewed affections for him, so we can turn and be

healed. He is holy, holy, holy.

The question is, when we hear the call to

holiness, are we responding? And one of the ways I believe

we can respond in holiness, according to what I see in scripture, is

with pride, which I don't recommend.

Just make that clear. Don't recommend it.

And I say pride because Isaiah 6 opens with these words in

the year King Uzziah died. And I was like, who is

this Uzziah guy? I gotta look this up. 2

Chronicles 26 tells us that he

receives the kingdom at 16 years old.

And I was like, people don't even trust their 16 year old with the

keys to their car, right? Imagine giving

one the keys to the kingdom. And

while that's hard to fathom, Scripture tells us he reigns faithfully

for 52 years. And the reason it's

faithful is because it says during that time he seeks the Lord. He

does what is right in the eyes of the Lord, and he holds to an

understanding of God that is taught to him by the prophet

named Zechariah, whose Scripture says instructed him in the

fear of God. And that word fear,

again, actually is translated as vision.

It's the same word that Isaiah uses when he says, my eyes have seen, my

eyes have a clear vision. I am beholding and perceiving

God clearly. When our eyes have a clear vision of who

God is, we have a clear vision of who we are and who he's

called us to be. But this is the thing I

thought about Uzziah's life. He was taught this vision

from somebody else. And how many know that

we cannot be sustained by someone else's vision of God,

someone else's experience of God?

My parents, I love them. They tried their best. They

really did. Bless their heart. They told me

about God. I didn't listen. I had

to see God for myself. And when I

did, everything changed.

It goes on to say, when King Uzziah sought God kept a correct vision of

the Lord, that God's presence and power went before him.

Everything he touched was successful. It was the favor of

the Lord was all over him. He was able to defeat armies, rebuild cities, build

strongholds. The land was fruitful. Everybody was happy,

having a good time. But at some point, we're told that in the

course of that, that place of favor becomes a place of

pride in his heart and in his pride. He

enters the temple, the holy place, casually,

and decides, I'm going to make a sacrifice to the Lord,

which is strictly forbidden for even a king

to do it. This is for consecrated, set

apart priests. He took

holiness casually at this point. And

it's an incredible scene, guys. Second Chronicles 26.

It says he is surrounded by priests who are saying,

please don't do this, please don't.

But instead of repenting, he becomes

angry. He digs his heels in. But, you know, I want to

be fair to this. Just like I said in the New Testament, I think there's

these stories where His Holiness is there. When his mercy is

in these stories where His Holiness is there, his mercy is there, too.

Because all the time, several times in Scripture, when people

took His Holiness, his presence casually, they were just.

I didn't even have to say it. Everybody said, right, that's right.

That didn't happen to Uzziah. He was

given leprosy. I

think that's actually an act of mercy. When King

Uzziah lost sight of who God was, he then lost sight of who he was.

He no longer feared the holy, and it was his lack of being

ruined by it which brought him to ruin and the end.

And I promise you, somebody can check my

Google search. I was like, is there anywhere in the Scripture that says he

repented? I. I want to say something happy to these people.

And I. There was nowhere. And I was like, well, that's

unfortunate. But, you know, sometimes

I think scripture leaves those things unsettled so that we

can think about it a little

deeper. Scripture says

that he remained king in the kingdom. Isaiah

6 still refers to him as king. 2nd Chronicles

26 refers to him as king. They don't take away the title. And

he's still surrounded by the spoils of the kingdom. But all the

power of the kingdom transfers to his son.

He has to live in a separate house from everybody, and he's not allowed to

go into the temple of God anymore, which. That

messes me up. That's a humbling reminder.

What good are the titles and all the

spoils of the kingdom and all the good stuff

in Christianity if there is no presence?

It's nothing. Paul says,

indeed, I count everything as loss

because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ

Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I

have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that

I may gain Christ. How else

Uzziah's story speaks to me is this. Firstly, again, context.

52 years of faithful ministry before this

happens. Firstly, we never mature past our

need for Jesus to be our Lord and Savior.

The full picture, not just Savior, not just Lord.

Lord and Savior. We never mature past the need for the

Holy Spirit to be revealing in us these

places that need deep, deep healing in our

hearts. And pride.

Pride is a scary thing to me in these

scriptures because in this story, it kind of builds up over time,

goes under the radar a little bit. It's hard to. It isn't

obvious. And pride is anything in our lives. I think that we say,

you know what, God, I know better than you in this.

I know better than what your word says in this.

Pride says, yeah, I know what your word says about sexual immorality

and impurity and idolatry and discord and jealousy and drunkenness

and selfish ambition and gossip and things like this.

But God, this time's different.

This relationship I'm in is different. You know, my Heart.

Have we ever been in that conversation with the Lord? Nobody

answered that. The

problem there is, I think we don't know his heart.

R.C. sproul says God does not lower his standards to

accommodate us. He remains altogether

holy, altogether righteous, altogether just.

And here's the thing. That list I just read,

read off Galatians 5.

His word cuts. According to

that, we're all getting cut. You understand?

Ain't nobody making it without him.

His word cuts when we come to it.

But we are called to depend on the Holy Spirit

to cut out the things in our lives that do not reflect his

holiness. And I was just

really. I was thinking about that. That verse in

Isaiah 6 Make the heart of this people calloused. And I was like,

how does that. How does callousing happen? I think it's when we

keep coming back to what cuts us casually, and

we're no longer moved by it, and we're no longer changed by it.

I have, as a guitar player these really thick calluses

on my fingers from years of playing. And what it

means is I can play guitar for hours with no pain, no feeling. I

can touch a hot pan on a hot stove,

freakishly, you know, doesn't bother me.

And the way that happens is I would pick up a guitar when I first

started, and those tiny little metal strings, they literally will cut

fingers. And if you play long enough, those things will turn into blisters.

And if you're stubborn enough to come back

over and over again and you don't

dress the wounds that are being exposed,

then those blisters become hard places. They become

calluses.

So Uzziah's life,

I look at that and I go, man, that's in my heart.

I don't want to make the mistake of thinking I'm better than that.

It changes my prayer life. We pray God,

please, please, Lord, reveal these places in our

hearts that are callous and no longer moved by your

holiness and bring us to brokenness so we might

turn and be healed. Help us be transformed.

One day, my wife was sitting on the couch, and our

youngest son, or young son. Youngest son. Was that prophetic? Oh,

no. Oh, no. I take that back.

Whoo. Okay.

Our young son was sitting on the floor, and I was

standing next to my wife, and she was looking at my

son, looking at me, looking at my son, looking at me. And I said, what

are you looking at? What are you doing? And she said, I'm trying

to figure out what traits he has of yours.

And she says, he has your lips. And in that moment,

Quickly, I lean in and I give her a kiss.

And I say, no, you have my lips.

And I stood up with this.

I still got it right.

Pride. And when I took a step back,

I tripped over this giant Paw

Patroller truck that my son had in the floor. Just, oh,

forever changed by that moment. I

don't got it. You know what I mean?

That's revealed. And you know what? I guess I could pretend that didn't

happen. But, you

know, who knows? It happened. My

wife.

And that brings you to humility. My recommended

response to God's holiness is humility.

When Moses encountered God in the burning bush,

something wonderful happened. I'm going to put the verses up on the screen so you

can reference what I'm telling you.

Moses is in the desert tending these sheep at the bottom of this mountain.

I think he's aware that there is a burning bush. And

also, I don't think it's unusual for there to be a burning bush in

the desert. Why? Because it's hot

and bushes are flammable. Okay.

Sheep are also flammable, and people are, too.

So I think Moses is going, well, let me do what I got to do

and keep you guys safe, you know? And. And at some point, he

starts to realize in his mind, man, you know,

what's usually familiar to me is not

acting like it usually does. And this

is what I love. He's writing this down. Moses says. And he puts this in

quotes, which means he says it out loud, which

means one of two things, because he doesn't know God is there. He's either

talking to himself or he's talking to the sheep.

And I like to think that he's talking to the sheep. He's just going,

hey, this is crazy. I'm talking to

sheep. I'm going to turn,

and when I do, I'm going to see something wild.

And I'm going to have to deal with it. I don't even know why I'm

telling you this. I think the heat has got to me. I might

be dead. And if that's the case, you know, good luck finding your way home.

This is the message translation.

And when he turns. Listen to this.

When the Lord saw that, he turned aside to see.

And that word see is vision, perceive.

Behold, same as Isaiah, when

he perceived God called to him out of the bush. Moses,

Moses. And he said, here I am. Then he said, do not come near.

Take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is

holy ground. And he said, I am the God of your Father.

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And Moses

hid his face. And it brings me to that throne room

image of those seraphim hiding their face. For he

was afraid to look at God. So

Moses right there becomes aware of the holiness that is

before him, and he's moved to humility.

And that is a story where God's presence inhabits something.

And that thing doesn't burn the way it used to.

I don't walk like I used to. I don't

talk like I used to.

And I began to think. Worship team, you can come out, please.

I began to think, what does humility

require of us?

And the word that came to me was surrender.

Surrendering to the holy.

Surrendering to that which breaks us and shreds us

apart and cuts away when we want to shrink

back from it. There

is hope in surrendering to the holy.

There is healing and restoration in surrendering to

what is holy, to a holy God.

A few weeks ago, I was outside building a playset for our kids, and

my daughter got a splinter

in her finger and my wife had to take her inside. And

when she took her inside, I just heard the worst screaming coming out of our

house for the next 20 minutes. It's because the fear of

what my daughter was going through, just like, oh, this is going to

hurt. And you know the thing about a child? They will try to

convince you, negotiate with you to leave

that splinter in. They'll say, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no. I can play

just fine. It's not even a thing. It's no big

deal. But, you know, as your mother and father,

we know that if you don't handle that thing there

that's being exposed, it could

turn into something worse that's much harder to deal

with over time. It could turn into a greater

infection. It could cause longer lasting pain, and we don't

want to see her go through that. But you kind of have to come to

a place in all this fighting, this

resisting, where you just go, look, do you want to be

healed or not?

And I was driving the other day and I thought, do you want to be

healed? And I just thought, man, I bet that's really hard

for Jesus to say, knowing

that one touch of his holiness could make that go away for

them. Many of us

who experienced this before with children understand

the process is much easier when the child

stops resisting and starts surrendering.

And I'm drawn back into this throne room vision where that hot coal

touches Isaiah's lips. And I go, man, that's

A searing pain that

probably took quite a while to heal. There's a process

to surrendering to the Holy Spirit. And Isaiah says,

for how long?

For how long, Lord, Do I have to be in

this? Do I have to be a part of this process of cutting?

And the Lord responds with this list.

The cities, the homes, the fields, the land, it's all

going to be cut away. All of the things that were built up

under Uzziah that the people put their trust in, that was not the Lord

had to be cut away. Why?

Because we serve a holy God who is not

interested in preserving our idols.

He's interested in restoring our worship,

healing our hearts, and drawing us

closer to Himself. He's closed the distance,

and that's what he's about.

There is good news in his holiness.

The end of that passage in Isaiah, it is a

promise that after everything

is cut away, which

hurts, no doubt, after

everything is cut away, there is one thing that remains.

The holy seed. Jesus.

Is that not good news?

This morning, instead of closing with the time of prayer in the altar space, I'm

just going to have Michael and Brittney lead us in a song. And I

just want us to take some time to think on God's

holiness. If there are places in our

heart that we need him to reveal to us, which I think we all have

it, now is the time to

surrender that to him, lean into that

brokenness instead of shrinking back from it. This

morning, you can do this in your seat, or the altar space is open. If

you want to come and be moved by his holiness, let's

worship.