The Holiness of God
Transcript:
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for being here. Please be finding the book of Isaiah in your Bibles. As you are turning, let me add my words of commendation to what is taking place here in this church and in Cornerstone School of Theology. It is incredibly encouraging. To see theological education, ministry training and preparation hard-wired into the local church indeed animates me. To be here tonight and tomorrow and to see it up close and personal and to invest in it in a personal way animates me greatly.
I am not going to do a big infomercial, but I do want to say out in the lobby there is a gentleman from Midwestern Seminary here with me. Midwestern is just down the road in Kansas City. It is one of the largest seminaries in the country, and I believe it is one of the best. We are absolutely committed to the Bible and the local church. If you have any questions or interest in theological education and further ministry preparation, stop by, get some literature, and fill out a card. We are not going to put you on a mailing list for the next 30 years or anything like that, but if there is a kind way to follow up, we are happy to do that. It is good to be here.
We have been in Kansas City for two years as a family. I have five young children and we are loving life in the Midwest. This is my second time only to the state of Iowa. It is beautiful up here and it is good to be here though it is a bit cold this evening.
Isaiah 6 is a classic passage in the Scriptures on the holiness of God. I have been asked to speak on the holiness of God and the grace of God. These are two topics I am so thrilled to get to speak on.
By the way, I cannot tell you how unique it is that we are here on a Friday night gathered in the church with hundreds of young people, especially for a conference about the topic of God. This is rare, but it is good and needed. Thank you for being here.
Isaiah 6 is one of these great passages in all of the Scriptures. My desire over the next 45 minutes is not to dump a doctrine on you. Rather, it is to investigate this chapter with you, introduce and confront you with the holiness of God and see how it is to affect and shape our lives. In fact, I am a man on a mission tonight.
My desire is to reframe, for you, your understanding of God and my presupposition is you may have too low of an understanding of God when you showed up tonight. I assume that because most people who attend most of our churches have a diminished view of God that is insufficiently representative of the God in Scripture. Look with me in Isaiah 6, beginning in verse 1.
In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, Thewhole earth is full of His glory.” And thefoundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while thetemple was filling with smoke.Then I said,
“Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin isforgiven.”Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
When you look back over the 20th Century and you realize all of the innovation and change that took place, one historian commented that a boy born in the year 1900 would have more in common with a boy living in the 1st Century than a boy born in the year 2000. I think that is true because, think of all of the change throughout the 20th Century.
Think of modern medicine, the automobile, telephone, computer, internet, jet travel, we put a man on the moon. So much radically changed throughout the 20th Century. Perhaps the most dramatic thing that took place in the 20th Century was the splitting of the atom.
It is fascinating story for those who know your history. Remember, it took place in the context of World War II. It was a great race against time that the Allies were undertaking, seeking to develop a super-weapon before the Germans would develop it.
The German scientists were seeking to enrich uranium and to develop a bomb on their end. The Americans and the British were doing the same on our end, and they engaged on this project known as the Manhattan Project. Finally, the time had come where they were prepared to test this atomic weapon out in the New Mexico desert.
Interestingly enough, though, no one had ever detonated an atomic bomb and no one knew precisely what would take place. Some were even speculating that whatever you do, do not detonate this bomb because it will set off a chain reaction in the atmosphere and will envelop the earth in a fiery incineration.
There they were in the desert and the leading scientists, political leaders, and military leaders were there, and they erected a structure to hold the bomb to be detonated. Many miles away, watching in bunkers, were the scientists, military leaders, political leaders, watching through telescopes to see what would happen when the bomb was detonated. They had cables which were run from the place of detonation throughout the desert to the bunkers.
On the receiving end of the cables were gauges to register the explosive power of this bomb. A funny thing happened. The great minds alive had all estimated what they perceived to be the explosive power of that detonation.
When the moment came and that bomb was detonated, the cables roared with power and the power roared through the cables and gauges and the needles on them remained pegged out for minutes, totally incapable of calculating the full force of the detonation. All the great minds that America had to offer had collectively and woefully underestimated the power that would come through that explosion.
My concern tonight is that our churches are filled with men and women who collectively underestimate who God is. We live in a world in the evangelical movement as a whole where we have bought into the view of God and understanding of him which is a diminished rendering of the God who is presented to us in Scripture.
If we get a sense of who God is from the Scriptures, it will blast our minds open and reframe for us intellectually who we believe God to be and reorient everything else about our lives—especially our Christian lives.
There are many different ways to classify people. We can classify them as believers or unbelievers; young or old; rich or poor; male or female—many different categorizations, but one key point of categorization may be your view of God.
Do you have a high, lofty, biblical, sovereign, holy God in your mind who you worship? Or do you worship one who is small, manageable, who does not make many demands upon your life, is willing to be accommodated to your needs, desires and interests?
What kind of God do you serve? Obviously, we are not presented options in Scripture, are we? We are presented a picture of God from Genesis to Revelation who is sovereign, majestic, holy, gracious, and king and lord over all.
From Genesis to Revelation we get different passages that give us particular glimpses into the character, ways, and works of God and Isaiah 6 is one of those key passages and it calls us to it tonight. It is important because I believe the Christian author, A.W. Tozer, was right when he famously observed, “The most important thing about you is what comes into your mind when you think of God.”
This is because that reference point is a north star. It is a reference point in life for which we build other beliefs, habits, ambitions, and aspirations around. In fact, our lives are defined by certain categories or belief systems, or ambitions that direct and orient everything else we do. Most of us have certain key presupposition, experiences, convictions, and beliefs that channel and direct our lives in certain ways. The most central one of those is what we believe about God.
In fact, the great reformed theologian, John Calvin, in his great Institutes of the Christian Religion argued that one cannot know himself accurately unless he knows God accurately. So, for us, our understanding of God is something like a gravitational force around which everything else in life orbits.
I say this not to scare or chastise us, but to say it is important, but it is good because God is good. The more we know of God, the more we will be enriched in our Christian lives, the more confidence we will have in our Christian lives, and the more faithfulness we will know in our Christian lives.
At the same time we realize that as we contemplate the holiness of God, we know there is a particular offense laced within it. It is a particular offense that challenges the culture and the world in which we live, because as we find a God in the Scriptures that is indeed holy and therefore from the root of his character flows other lifestyle and moral expectations and expectations of obedience in response to who he is.
It is an offensive doctrine of God to modern man. In fact, modern man is willing to have a God who is manageable, all grace, all loving, all merciful, not demanding, a genie in a bottle, Santa in heaven, the old man in the sky, to meet every need as we so demand it.
That is not our option. We get a God in the Scriptures who is sovereign and majestic and rules over all. The foundational character as presented to us in this passage is his holiness.
Look with me in chapter 6 to see what is taking place. We find ourselves in the middle of the Old Testament. Verse 1 begins by telling us about a death that has taken place. This man, King Uzziah, had died. He was a very famous king of Judah. He reigned for some 52 years and though he reign was largely one of faithfulness, toward the end of his life, he was filled with pride and God struck him with leprosy for punishment and he died.
So, Isaiah goes into the temple and has a vision in the year of King Uzziah’s death. He is showing up in a time within the nation of Israel and in the context of Judah wherein the people are in political disarray. They know moral confusion and spiritual decay, and there is a sense of crisis in the air.
The man of God goes into the temple seeking a fresh vision from God and we are introduced to this scene in verse 1 where he tells us, “In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne.”
I want you to think with me intentionally tonight. These 8 verses are built around three different visions or perspectives. The first comes in verses 1–4 with an upward vision of God’s holiness that the prophet has. “In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up with the train of his robe filling the temple.”
He sees the King seated on a throne. Now, we find in the New Testament, in John 12, that this vision is actually a reincarnate vision of the Lord Jesus Christ seated on his throne, reigning in awe. It is a reminder as he enters the temple, though the early throne is empty because the king has died, the king of the universe is on his throne.
He does not run for re-election; he is never deposed; he never leaves office. The eternal throne of heaven—the throne of the universe—is always occupied.
Notice what is referenced in verse 1. On this throne, lofty and exalted, the train of his robe is filling the temple. What is taking place here? Every descriptive aspect of this is pointing to the majesty, holiness, and regality of the one seated.
The length of one’s train was the sign of one’s strength, power, and majesty. The vision that Isaiah has is this robe flowing throughout the temple.
Then, in verse 2, he sees the seraphim that are around the throne. “They stood above him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.” What is taking place here? What are these seraphim? They are fiery ones, angelic beings who are there flying about. What are they doing?
They are uttering a phrase which they utter throughout all the ages. Notice the description here. They have six wings–a peculiar one. “With two he covered his face.” Why is his face covered? It is because of the holiness of the one that he would be looking at. God is too holy to be looked upon. So, they are fluttering about.
“With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.” Why is he covering his feet? His feet are a sign of earthiness and filthiness. Remember what happened in Exodus chapter 3 when Moses is there in the wilderness.
He goes up to the burning bush and God speaks to him and reveals himself as the great I Am. What does Moses do? He is instructed to take his sandals off because he is standing on holy ground.
Verse 3 gives us a capstone phrase which echoes throughout all the Scripture. “One called out to another and said, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.’” Let that phrase sink in.
It is an epiphany of praise that is echoing about the throne room of heaven, was echoing about 10 trillion years ago, and will be echoing about 10 trillion years from now. As you read this passage, one would think the seraphim would become bored with this phrase that keeps going. If you and I could transport ourselves to the throne room and enter in and see the seraphim uttering this phrase again, and again, and again—“Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord or hosts”—if we could tap them on the shoulder and ask them, “Aren’t you tired of doing that? Wouldn’t you rather be uttering something else or doing something else?”
They would look at us like we are crazy and say, “Are you kidding me? This is the sovereign Holy One of the universe.” They are so captivated by his presence and so dialed in on what is taking place that they keep reflexively enunciating this phrase.
If we were to forget our awareness of Isaiah 6 and reflect upon what would otherwise be being said in the throne room, our preference may be that it not be “Holy, Holy, Holy.” In fact, if we were to take a poll of the average evangelical church as ask folks, they would probably think the phrase to be chanted would be, “Love, Love, Love,” “Grace, Grace, Grace,” or “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.”
We indeed celebrate these other attributes. In fact, I am speaking on the grace of God in the morning, but here we are presented in a unique way the holiness of God. It is in the emphatic here. Literally, it could be read “Holy, Holier, Holiest.” We do not see God described in the emphatic like this by his attributes in any other place in the Bible. There is one attribute that is presented this way and it is because God is the thrice holy God.
What does it mean to be holy? It means to be a “cut above.” It is separate, distinct, class distinction taking place, entirely other than, separate from. The seraphim are acknowledging again, and again, and again God is distinct, separate, above creation.
He reigns over us and he is truly in his own class and truly unique. They keep saying again, and again, and again, “Holy, Holier, Holiest.” As he is holy, that reflects in such a way that the whole earth is full of his glory.
As Isaiah sees this and has this vision in the temple, and he gains insight into this declaration as he hears it, verse 4 says, “The foundations of the threshold of the temple trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.”
He has an upward vision of the holiness of God. Something dramatic is about to unfold here beginning in verse 5. It is a response to that which we have seen. There is a correlation in our Christian lives between our understanding of who God is and how we live our lives.
Chuck Colson died and went to be with the Lord a few years ago. Many of you in the room, especially if are you a bit older, you remember Chuck Colson was one of Richard Nixon’s henchmen in Watergate. He wound up going to jail for several years, he was converted in jail, he began the great ministry, Prison Ministry Fellowship, and he went on to accomplish so many great things for Christ.
In his memoirs he talks about how when he served as one of President Nixon’s chief lieutenants in the White House, how everything they did in the White House was crafted for maximum influence, and frankly, for maximum manipulation. Whatever it was, when people were coming in to meet with President Nixon, everything was scripted.
Even what appeared to be the most arbitrary, random, unscripted, or impromptu meetings, everything was scripted. From the time a person entered the premises of the White House, it was all scripted to intimidate, overwhelm, and manipulate people so that they were all overwhelmed by the power of the president.
Colson would write that he would see men wilt away. He would talk about political leaders, men of business and great wealth and power in other domains and spheres of life, who would show up in Washington intending to rebuke, challenge, or confront the president and by the time they went through all of the stagecraft and the guest actually got before the president, they would wilt and wither away, unwilling to confront because they were overwhelmed by the trappings and the setting they were in.
We get a feel for that here in these verses. As men and women become more keenly aware of the holiness of God and of his elevated character, we wither away and become more sober-minded about who we are in light of him.
In fact, that is what takes place in verse 5, is it not? Notice what happens here. This, for Isaiah, is his horse head in the bed moment. He shows up here and he walks into the temple in the aftermath of these prior verses and he has been a professional woe-er.
He has been casting down words of rebuke against this people. In fact, just let you eye fall down in chapter 5. Notice verse 8—he casts out woes to the “land grabbers.” “Woe to those who those who add house to house and join field to field until there is not more so that you have to live alone in the midst of the land.” Verse 11 is woe to the drunkards. “Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they pursue strong drink, who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them.”
Verse 18 is woe to the blasphemer. “Woe to those who drag iniquity with the cords of falsehood and sin as if with carts of rope.”
Verse 20, “Woe to those who call good evil and evil good; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to the conceited, those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.”
Verse 22, “Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant men in mixing strong drink.”
He is a professional woe-er. He is going around society looking to his countrymen and condemning them, but something happens. He gets a glimpse of the holy God. The woes that were being cast down on his countrymen are turned to himself.
He says, “Woe is me.” It is an expression of self-renunciation, self-judgment, and self-condemnation. “Woe is me.” I am the one ruined; I am the one cut off; I am the one to be destroyed; I am the one who shall surely die.
In the church in America so often, we have become very good at becoming professional woe-ers. Woe is the abortionist; woe is the homosexual; woe is the adulterer; woe is the Democrat; woe is this politician; woe is that politician.
As we get a renewed vision of a holy God, we will still have a prophetic voice for a dark culture, but that prophetic voice will begin with the house of God and with us personally and individually as men and women of God. The woe becomes personal here.
I love 5. He does not say, “I might die” or “I’ll probably die.” It is as though he realizes in an instant he has this awareness of his own sin and he is convinced that he is ruined and convinced that the judgment of God is about to drop on him.
Why? Because, “I am a man of unclean lips.” Isaiah knows how sinful the people are. He knows all of that and he has not renounced the woes of verse 5. He has just become acutely concerned about his own woes, his own sin, and his own fallenness. “I am a man of unclean lips; my words, my tongue, my attitude and my thoughts are unclean; I live among a people of unclean lips as well. Collectively, there is a sense in which the judgment of God is over him. He says, “How is this made clear because my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.”
Every time in our Bibles someone sees a glimpse of the holiness of God, there is a recurring reaction, and that is they are smitten. Job was that way in Job 42:5–6. He said, “I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but not my eyes see you, therefore I retract and repent in dust and ashes.”
Of course, Peter, in Luke 5, when he saw Jesus he fell on his face as a dead man saying, “Go away from me Lord, I am sinful.” John, in Revelation 1, as he saw the resurrected Lord, he fell at his feet like a dead man before him. That is what the prophet Isaiah experiences here and the point is simply this—the higher our view of God, the more accurate our view of his holiness, the more low our view is of ourselves.
Thanks be to God we are not left in an ongoing spiritual lurch. His grace is more than abundant, but most of us spend our times making a beeline to the grace of God without ever stopping and giving sober reflection on his prior holiness.
Isaiah sees the holiness of God and he pronounces a death sentence on himself. We, likewise, are experts at pointing out the sin of others and the sin of society. However, we are remedial when it comes to pointing out the sin of ourselves. Our standards are so messed up.
A number of years ago my wife and I were building a house. It was a new neighborhood and there was new construction going on. We were newlyweds, before we had any kids, and we were loving the house and getting into taking care of it and getting the yard looking good. We had some new neighbors move in across the street.
You know how it is when you are in a new house and new subdivision you are always curious about who will be living by you, hoping they are nice folks. We were trying to do the Christian thing and getting to know them, so we went across the street and introduced ourselves to them. I am one of these guys I’ve always liked cutting my grass and taking care of the yard, and we were talking to this husband and his wife and the wife said, “My husband is a yard freak.” He blushed and said, “Yeah, I’m really into the yard. My friends call me a yard freak because I spend all my time in the yard.”
That was music to my ears. You do not want someone moving in by you who is going to let their yard become a jungle, so we left all encouraged thinking, “These folks seem to be nice, they are great neighbors, they are yard freaks, this is going to work out great.”
A funny thing happened. They moved in and got situated and I kept waiting for them to flip the yard freak switch, but they never did. Their grass looks terrible, there are weeds and they just threw down sod and never got it laid out right. They never did anything with their flower beds.
They started to build a well-house where the piled bricks and never did it. Not only were they not yard freaks, it was an absolute disaster. The neighborhood society had to send them a letter asking them to fix their yard because they were dragging down the neighborhood. My wife and I were laughing saying, “What in the world? Did these people used to slum where that is what it looked like to be a yard freak? How did this work? What was that standard?”
What is your standard tonight? Is your standard the person beside you who has a messed up life, a crummy relationship, a shoddy view of God, and stumbles through life from one sin to the next? Is your measurement them, so you feel pretty good? Isaiah finally gets his eyes off human measurements and on a holy God and he is brought low.
I have yet to meet a man who contemplated soberly the holiness of God and strutted out of that contemplation. Thankfully, for Isaiah good things happen here. As opposed to dying because he has seen the Lord of Hosts, opposed to being left in this state of languishing, notice verse 6.
One of the seraphim flies to him with a burning coal in its hand. Isaiah is probably thinking this is going to be an instrument of death. He has a vision of God’s holiness and a vision of himself in light of that; this seraphim makes a dash to him with a burning coal in his hand which he had taken from the alter with tongs.
Notice what he said in verse 7, “He touched my mouth with it, and he said, ‘Behold, this has touched your lips and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.’” He was poised there with a holy terror, but he received a holy pardon.
I want you to hear me carefully tonight. The point of Isaiah 6 is not that God is so holy we are all doomed, so why are we here anyway. The point of Isaiah 6 is to contemplate afresh the holiness of God and be driven to him in humility and quickly find refuge under his goodness. Isaiah is not kind of, sort of cleaned up or kind of, sort of pardoned. This seraphim comes to him with a burning coal, taken from the altar with tongs.
Remember in verse 5 Isaiah says, “Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips.” This is a sign of being purified and forgiven. It is a sign of iniquity and the penalty of sin being taken away, and that sin being forgiven. Folks, this is a sweet, sweet moment.
I have been preaching a number of times this week in different cities and I was a part of a church planting conference and Monday we were in St. Louis, Wednesday in Kansas City, and Thursday down in the Springfield, Mo. area. It was with a group called Plant Midwest and there is a southern Midwest circuit I did and there is a northern Midwest circuit that another friend, Jared Wilson, is doing next week. Our theme was on the exclusivity of Christ, so I did that this week and he is doing that next week.
I was struck this week by something in these three cities. All of the folks there were church planters. They were either planting a church or interning to plant a church or preparing to plant a church. They were predominantly male crowds ages 25–30 because they were there to be preachers. Everywhere we went, the music was incredible.
There was singing with full hearts and full voices to the Lord. Every time I got up to preach, my blood was just pulsating through my veins with energy. As I talked to these guys and heard their testimony, so many of them were converted in college or just out of college. Given the society we live in and the fact that they had been breathing the air of the world for all those years, they were saved out of context often times with all sort of previous debauchery and sin in their lives, but they have come to be converted to Christ and know what is the gospel of grace and forgiveness, and the blood of Christ that covers a multitude of sins.
They were so radically saved and transformed that it made that song just flow from their heart because you could tell these guys haven’t quite gotten over all that they have been forgiven by the grace of God. So, we were singing Thursday, “Holy, Holy, Holy” with voices belting out. Why? Because they knew and we knew as we were belting out that God is holy, that we have been forgiven and can stand before him through his holiness. Isaiah has this happen to him in verses 6 and 7.
Now we come to the third major movement in this passage and that is the outward vision of God’s calling that he gets. I am on college campuses several times each year speaking to groups and I have a lot of college students here tonight. There is something that is just fun and adventurous about that age. If they are going to show up at a meeting or conference like this, there tends to be a certain level of seriousness and inquisitiveness.
They are there on the horizon of life trying to figure out what they are going to be in adulthood and what they are going to do. There is a certain seriousness, eagerness, adventure, and intrepidness to all of this. I love talking about big ideas and sacrificing for Christ in those settings because it is like hurling chunks of red meat to hungry lions.
If Christianity is true, the gospel is true, the Great Commission is true, and the Bible is true, there is a willingness at that point knowing the cost they have counted and what they have walked away from, namely, the best this world has to offer, they are willing to take it seriously and follow Christ boldly.
Isaiah hears the voice of God in verse 8. “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’” It is a Trinitarian calling. There is an upward vision of God’s holiness, the inward vision of his own sinfulness, and now that he is forgiven, there is an outward of God’s calling.
The one who has seen the holy God, the one who has seen his or her sin, the one who has been transformed and redeemed by that, there is an instinct to give your life in light of that. That is an ancient instinct which we see here some 2,700 years ago. It is a modern instinct as well because it is a gospel instinct. Isaiah hears the Lord asking “Who will go and be our ambassador.”
Then, you can almost envision Isaiah in the temple waving and saying, “It is me! I will! Here am I, send me!” That does not mean that unless you give your life to fulltime vocational ministry you are shirking the call of God, but it does mean this—unless you think intentionally and consciously about how you order your life in light of his holiness, his forgiveness, and his Great Commission call, the building of his church and the extending of his kingdom—whether it is to be a pastor, school teacher, businessman, nurse, or whatever it is God has for you—how you are pursuing his call on your life with a kingdom instinct in whatever that field is.
I am pleased to be president of one of the largest seminaries in North America. We have about 1,700 students and just folks who are fired up to serve the cause of Christ and to be ministers of the gospel. There are some seminaries out there who are mild-manned schools with mild-mannered students, and they want to graduate some polite men and women to go do some polite Christian things in polite Christian communities and churches.
That is not what we are about. That is not why I moved my family to Kansas City, it is not why I gave my life to ministry, and it is not what we are raising up there. We are wanting to raise up, and are seeing God raise up, people who are absolutely and radically committed to the gospel, the church, and the Great Commission.
I was preaching commencement last year and I was talking about a willingness to be risky for the gospel and the church—not to have a safe ministry. You say, what is a safe ministry? A safe ministry is a person who goes though being mindful of their resume and they want to take a ministry position which looks like it will be successful.
They want to go to a part of a town that is growing in a nice community and an upward demographic. It looks nice and comfortable, and Christian-friendly. That is bunk. That is not ministry. That is country club-itis. I challenged our graduates by saying, “Toss your resume to the wind, drink a six pack of Red Bull, and preach to anything that moves.” An old lady wrote me a letter a week later a rebuked me for telling our graduates to drink alcohol. I wrote her back, “Ma’am, Red Bull is a caffeinated drink, not an alcoholic drink.”
What did I mean in saying that, and what am I saying to you tonight? I am saying this, if you are not living for Christ, you are not living. If you are not living in light of this sovereign, holy God, you are breathing air, but you are not living. If you do not see your life and calling—and yes, we can use that word “calling” beyond a specific gospel-call to ministry—if you do not see it in light of a holy God and a vision to be his ambassador, you are not living; you are existing.
A view of God as presented in Isaiah 6 changes everything. I have never gotten over this passage when I first encountered it many years ago and I pray I never will. My ambition for us tonight is, as we have just caught a glimpse of the holiness of God, let it be one of this paradigmatic passages for you that frames your life, and frames all that there is about you. An upward vision, and inward vision, and outward vision.
topicsHoliness, Isaiah 6
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