A Vision of God (Afternoon)
Download MP3Well, good afternoon. My name is Ford Galen. I serve on staff as the community life director and I am so excited to be here with you this afternoon. If you have a Bible and wanna open up to Isaiah chapter five, it is there in your worship guide, but we're gonna be flipping through a few scriptures that aren't right in the worship guide. So if you have a Bible or wanna grab one in the pew in front of you, it might be helpful.
Ford Galin:But I'm so excited to be here with you. I'm honestly more excited just for us as a church to study through the book of Isaiah. It is actually my personal favorite book of the Bible. And last week Joel opened up our study on the gospel according to Isaiah by pointing out some of the big themes that you see in chapter one that will come out throughout this 66 chapter book. He talked about the difference between true and false worship.
Ford Galin:Talked about how God's people are called to pursue justice and righteousness. He talked about how there's judgment for the unjust and the themes of hope and renewal that will continue to surface throughout Isaiah. But today in Isaiah six, we are gonna look at what most commentators agree is the central theme of this book as a whole. The holiness of God that we just sang about. But in order to fully understand Isaiah six, we need to realize the context.
Ford Galin:You see the other major prophets, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, when they're when we see their call to ministry, it's right at the start of the book in Jeremiah one, Ezekiel one. But Isaiah, for some reason, it's six chapters in. Why is that? It's because in the first five chapters, God is doing a number of things but the biggest of which is he is just getting Israel's sin on the table. Some of his different proclamations, many of which of judgment come, he he first needs to make clear why these are coming that his people have not borne the fruit he has called them to.
Ford Galin:And this comes to a pretty crushing end in Isaiah five and his allegory of the vineyard. But we need to see this before we can recognize and see God in Isaiah six. So if you would read with me, Isaiah five verses one through seven. Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
Ford Galin:He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choices vines. He built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed out a wine bat in it and he looked for it to yield grapes but it yielded wild grapes And now, oh inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.
Ford Galin:I will remove its hedge and it shall be devoured. I will break down its wall and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste. It shall not be pruned or hoed and briars and thorns shall grow up. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
Ford Galin:For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. And the men of Judah are his pleasant planting. And he looked for justice, but behold bloodshed. For righteousness, but behold an outcry. This is the word of the lord.
Ford Galin:Amen. Pray with me. Lord, at best I can bring advice. But god, you can bring life. We need nothing less than that.
Ford Galin:So in these next few moments show yourself. Lord though I certainly am unworthy of this call to proclaim your word, I pray you'd somehow speak through me. And I pray that each of us may hear and see and behold you and your holiness. Lord it may forever change us. We pray that in the strong and working and present name of Jesus.
Ford Galin:Amen. Well, may have missed. I know this is a busy time in the holiday calendar with Mother's Day and Easter only a few weeks ago but in there, some of you may have missed. We actually just passed another important one, Arbor Day. I don't know about you guys.
Ford Galin:I do not celebrate Arbor Day. I actually protest it. And that is because when I was in elementary school, we had a big Arbor Day celebration one day and they did what I imagine some of your schools did. They gave all of the kids in my school a little sapling. And we were told that if we went home and we planted that sapling that it might grow up into a tree.
Ford Galin:And I believed them. And so I remember elementary age forward, I I went home and I looked out at my backyard and I searched out the best place in the yard where I could plant this sapling. I remember getting my hands dirty as I dug it up and made the perfect little spot and I planted this sapling and then I carefully brought the soil back in. I made sure that I put in a place where it'd get plenty of sunlight. I made sure that in the days that followed when there were droughts, when they were stretched where it didn't have rain that I would go out and water this sapling.
Ford Galin:I would look out my back window and if I saw a squirrel or a bird I would actually go outside and run out to chase those away to make sure that this sapling was safe. Because after all it was gonna grow up to a tree. And I waited and I watched And it never did. And for a 10 year old this was crushing. Not just because I realized for the first time that maybe I couldn't trust all of my teachers.
Ford Galin:But more than that it was crushing because what I had poured in to this sapling. That I'd gotten my hands dirty and given so much and yet what I expected to come from it never came. This is what we see in Isaiah five. We read this allegory in which God talks about this man who has planted a vineyard. We read about how he made sure it was in the perfect fertile land.
Ford Galin:How he prepared it. How he got his hands dirty and carefully curated and created this vineyard. He didn't buy a vineyard. He didn't hire people to work in a vineyard. He did this work himself.
Ford Galin:He put a watchtower in it to make sure it was safe and protected from any threat and from all harm. And then he watched and waited for this vineyard to bear grapes. But it bears wild grapes. Wild or other translations will say sour grapes, stinky grapes. It is rotten fruit is all that comes.
Ford Galin:It's not that it produces nothing, it's that it produces the wrong thing. And I think the thrust of this passage it's in verse four when when you see God saying, more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? See, this is God showing Israel what he had done for his people. All the way back in Genesis two, he had formed Adam from the dust of the ground. He had gotten his hands dirty.
Ford Galin:How he had been with his people. How he had cared for his people. How he had abided with them and looked out for them and protected them and given them everything. What more was there for God to do for his people? But as he says in verse seven, that this vineyard it's the nation of Israel.
Ford Galin:And the men of Judah and his pleasant planting. He says he looked for it to bear fruit. He looked for it to bear justice, but behold bloodshed. And he looked for his people to bear righteousness, but behold an outcry. And that actually in the Hebrew has a lot more effect.
Ford Galin:He's he's working on some word play here. And so I'm gonna try to pronounce some of these words. I apologize. My Hebrew pronunciation has never been that great. Doctor.
Ford Galin:Ginnellet, who is my seminary professor, if you somehow hear this, I'll remind you of two things. One, the Lord is merciful and gracious, so you should be too. And two, I'm already graduated. You can't fail me. So I'm sorry for the bad pronunciation.
Ford Galin:But the way that we hear this in Hebrew, it is, but he was looking for justice, mishpat, but behold bloodshed mishpah. For righteousness, but behold an outcry, So what you hear is that these words sound extremely similar. What's happening is in the Hebrew, God is pointing out that the fruit that the Israelites that his people have borne, it's it's perverted. Something's just off with what had happened. And the anguish is here is clear because again, God had given everything to his people.
Ford Galin:And so we see the sin of Israel. And in that we're reminded of our own sin. But we may be thinking well, mean yeah that sounds pretty bad but luckily our hands aren't actually filled with blood. So they must have been doing something really bad. But the rest of chapter five, Isaiah's gonna unpack what exactly was this unjustness, this sinfulness the Israelites were doing.
Ford Galin:And so we read the first, we're gonna read the first two of their six woes, six pronunciations of judgment in the chapter. You might be underwhelmed by what God seems to be so appalled at. So I'm gonna keep reading verse eight through 12. He said, woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field until there is no more room. And you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.
Ford Galin:The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing, surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses without inhabitant. For 10 acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah. Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may run after strong drink. Who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them. They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts.
Ford Galin:But they do not regard the deeds of the Lord or see the work of his hands. So what's this terrible sin of Israel? Well they're they're doing home renovations. They're getting slightly larger properties. And they're partying a little bit but but it seems kind of underwhelming that this should cause such such an appalling reaction from god.
Ford Galin:But there's a few things in here that show why this was so problematic. See when God had led the Israelites into the promised land he had given an allotment of land to every family. Not just every tribe but every family. He said that the ownership of this land was not meant to pass over to ensure that every generation that would be to come would not be growing up in poverty but would have their own peace of the holy land. And so they're already making mistakes when they are trading and they are buying and selling these lands because God had told them not to do it.
Ford Galin:More so, as the wealthy members of Israel are buying these lands and adding on to their houses, they're doing it at the expense of their brothers and sisters. They're causing those around them to go into poverty. So at face value it may seem, oh they're just adding on to their house. But what they're doing is they're isolating themselves. Their houses are getting bigger.
Ford Galin:Their lands are growing larger. And as that happens, they slowly get more and more removed from their neighbor. You see God had called the Israelites to love one another in a way that unique, a way that was unique, a way that was holy compared to the nations around them. He had called them to take special provision for the sojourner, for the orphan, for the widow, for the poor. It may seem like they're just doing this innocent thing but in the midst of building their own kingdoms, these men and women of Israel, well they were forsaking their neighbor.
Ford Galin:And in that, we really see why this is so problematic in verse 12. So it talks about these feasts, these parties they're having when it says that, well they have lyre and harp and tambourine and flute. All those instruments are mentioned elsewhere throughout the Old Testament as taking part in worship services. So what had happened? The people of Israel had taken the gifts God had given them for his purpose.
Ford Galin:For his worship and to love their neighbors. And they had commandeered them for their own purposes. Their own pursuits of comfort and luxury and privacy. Their own entertainment. And I wanna be clear, I'm not saying in here that the idea of adding on to a house or caring about these things is wrong.
Ford Galin:Not not in the slightest. We have the opportunity to enjoy God's gift. God's gifts. But I think each of us need to ask the question of where has God given us things for his purposes for worship, for loving our neighbor. That we've commandeered for our own purposes for building our own kingdoms.
Ford Galin:And say where have we taken the things God has given us for his purposes and commandeered us, commandeered them for our purposes? And we won't get much into detail but you see how this grows from here. The next woe verse 18, he says, woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes. You can hear the progression in that. Starts off, they're just deceptively pulling little cords of iniquity to themselves But before long they're pulling cart ropes of sin towards themselves.
Ford Galin:What happens is we give sin an inch and sin takes a mile. And so the Israelites they thought what? Yeah, maybe this isn't exactly why God had blessed me but it's not that big of a deal. And as sin draws near it only grows. And the further woes talk about how they become wise in their own eyes.
Ford Galin:How they start calling what is evil good and what is good evil. And before long it gets to the point that they are acquitting the guilty and depriving the innocent of his right. Behold, bloodshed, lack of justice. Never started out that way. But subtly as we take the gifts God gives us that we may be a blessing to others and make them about our own kingdoms, own purposes, we slowly deceptively invite those cords of iniquity in.
Ford Galin:And as we give sin an inch it takes a mile. And so again I'm I'm not saying this to come down hard on us. My wife and I literally have someone come into the house to talk about a potential renovation in two days. If I wanted to come down hard on you guys I would have just read the last five verses of this chapter but I'll spare you. Say this is a word of caution.
Ford Galin:That it's really easy to become consumed in our own pursuits that we lose sight of what God has called us to be. In the ways that he has blessed us that we may be a blessing to others. We have to wonder how did how did this start for the Israelites? Like where did this all begin? And to do that I actually wanna go back to chapter one.
Ford Galin:So if have a bible flip back to chapter one. I wanna look at the very first accusation, the very first complaint God has against Israel in this book. So this is Isaiah chapter one verses two and three. He says, Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. Children have I reared and brought up but they have rebelled against me.
Ford Galin:You can hear that echo later on in Isaiah five when he said, what more could I have done for my vineyard, my people? So again he says, children have I reared and brought up but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib but Israel does not know. My people do not understand. So where does this all begin?
Ford Galin:It's that God's people do not understand who God is. They do not know and you will see this theme come up again and again throughout Isaiah. That God's people rebel against him because they do not fully understand Yahweh their Lord their God. Comes up again in five thirteen when we read, therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge. So here in this this kind of capstone passage about Israel's sin at the intro to Isaiah, they're going into exile because they do not have knowledge of who the Lord is.
Ford Galin:Lord responds in verse 16 by saying, but Lord of hosts exalted in justice and the holy one shows himself holy and righteousness. So how will God respond to a sinful people who does not know, who do not know who he is? Says he'll show himself. And that's the backdrop that brings us into Isaiah six. So what is Isaiah six about?
Ford Galin:Depending on who you ask you may have heard sermons on a number of different things or heard different things pointed out. In Isaiah six as we're about to work through it, I asked Dwight in the missions team, he may point out how Isaiah six is where we have the famous verse, Here I am, send me. And how it's about us being pushed to mission. If I ask Lauren and the worship team, they may be quick to point out the song of the Seraphim and how Isaiah six gives us a picture of what truly worshiping God should look like. I'm on the discipleship team here at Redeemer and if you asked us, we may be quick to point out about it's how grace takes effect in our hearts and our lives.
Ford Galin:But at its core, what is Isaiah six? It's it's God showing himself. So it's gonna sound really basic, but we can't miss this. Isaiah six is about God. Long before it's about what we do with who God is, it is about who God is.
Ford Galin:Because rest assured what we need to ensure that we will not produce this rotten fruit that Israel did is not better discipline, is not more selflessness, it's not better programs, it's that we need a vision of the Holy Lord. We need to behold God long before we act in service of His name. So a few things we're gonna point out about God as we work through Isaiah six. That a God is enthroned. That He is holy.
Ford Galin:That He is gracious. And He is personal. We'll spend most of the time on that second one. We're working through the first verse of Isaiah six. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, And the train of his robe filled the temple.
Ford Galin:I'm be really brief on this point for time but but the first thing Isaiah Isaiah says is, well this happens in the year that King Uzziah died. Uzziah had been king in Jerusalem for fifty two years. It's actually one of the only good kings that either the northern nation of Israel or the Southern Kingdom Of Judah ever had. He makes some mistakes but for the most part Uzziah followed the Lord and led the people in a prosperous time. And so they've had five decades of prosperity.
Ford Galin:They've had five decades of fruitfulness but now the throne is empty so it would seem. As his child Jotham prepares to take it. And meanwhile there's threats to Israel all over. Assyria and other nations are knocking on their doorstep. Prepared to try to capture and lead the Israelites into exile.
Ford Galin:By the next chapter, the king in Israel will be Ahaz who's one of the worst kings Israel will ever see. And what we see in this midst of this transition from this fruitful time in Israel to this threatening time is that despite the fact that King Uzziah has died the throne is not empty but there is one who is on the throne. This means for us that both in the prosperous best times and the scariest most threatening times that there is a king on the throne of all creation. Which gives us comfort and gives us comfort and gives us hope. Maybe that we are jockeying for control over our own lives but we need to remember that the king that we are reading about in Isaiah six is the king who is seated on the throne of all creation.
Ford Galin:But who is this king? That we keep reading. In verse two, above him stood the Seraphim. Each had six wings. With two he covered his face.
Ford Galin:And with two he covered his feet. And with two he flew. And one called to another and said, 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.
Ford Galin:Notice that in Isaiah six, we actually don't get much of a description of this holy one on the throne. It's because as as Isaiah looks at God, he is so overwhelmed by what he sees that he cannot put in words to put in this prophecy for us to understand. So Isaiah doesn't tell us a lot of descriptions about the one on the throne, he tells us descriptions about these other creatures that are looking at the one on the throne. And it's tempting for us to zone out. Seraph literally means the burning one.
Ford Galin:These are literally flames with wings that are flying around. We don't know how many of them there are though a similar vision in Revelation four tells us that there's millions of them. Right now we probably get a little bit overwhelmed thinking about all these flames with wings flying around calling out holy holy holy. In the midst of how hard that is to grasp, don't lose sight that what they're proclaiming is at the very center of not just this passage but of all of Isaiah. That this one on the throne is holy.
Ford Galin:Not just holy, he is holy, holy, holy. The way that the Hebrew language works, if you wanna emphasize something, you say it multiple times. So if you're reading your bible and you see in the Old Testament somewhere a phrase that in English says pure gold, In Hebrew that probably just reads gold gold. So you say something twice to emphasize it. But here we don't just have holy, we don't just have holy holy, we have a threefold holy holy holy.
Ford Galin:It's actually the only time or the only description of God you'll ever see repeated three times is this description of holiness. And the three time description exceedingly rare in Hebrew, it's a description of superlative. What they're saying is most holy. That God's holiness does not compare to anything else. That he is the holiest among all things.
Ford Galin:They're saying this is the fundamental characteristic of who God is, is he is holy. And what does that mean? Well, it's tempting for us to think that holiness just means that God is morally clean and pure and righteous. That he's sinless. But these Seraphim had also never sinned.
Ford Galin:Yet something is different between this holy God and them. So clearly holiness must be more than just sinlessness. Now the word, it literally means cut. To be holy means to be cut apart, to be set apart. When they're saying holy, holy, holy, what they're saying is different.
Ford Galin:They're saying other. They're looking at this one on the throne and they're saying there's something different about this holy one of Israel than every other thing we have ever beheld. You see this at work the first time the word holy gets mentioned is in Genesis two when God sets apart the seventh day, the Sabbath, as a holy day. Didn't mean that the Sabbath was the day to be morally pure. The Israelites were called to be pure every single day.
Ford Galin:It just meant the Sabbath had a different fundamental characteristic. It was set apart. It was greater than it was other than the other six days. Later on, God calls his people to be holy as he is holy. He's not saying, okay, you're the only ones who have to live righteously.
Ford Galin:That had been the call for everyone. But he's saying, I've set you apart for a different purpose. To be holy is to be other, To be distinguished. And I wonder why for us if we were asked what's the core characteristic of God? Wonder how many of us would jump to his holiness.
Ford Galin:If you ask in our day and age, I think there'd be a lot of things we would imagine would be said in this song. Probably the biggest is we may assume that the song should be loving, loving, loving is the Lord of hosts. Maybe powerful, powerful, powerful, gracious, gracious, gracious, or just good, good, good is the Lord of hosts. And undoubtedly all those things are true and they are attributes of God. But I wanna point out that the reason our minds probably jump to those things is that those things are useful to us.
Ford Galin:When you think about it, because God is powerful, we can have hope in any circumstance because he can do something to change our circumstances. Because God is loving, we can be comforted. Because God is steadfast, we may be held. Because God is good, we can be blessed. Because God is gracious, we may be saved.
Ford Galin:But God's holiness, it's not immediately useful to us. Like, there's nothing we we do with that, and because God is holy, all these other attributes are true of him. So ultimately, yes, his holiness is useful. But in a vacuum, it's what do we what do we do with the fact that God is holy? Here that I think it's helpful to remember an illustration that Jonathan Edwards used in a sermon a few hundred years ago.
Ford Galin:He says, imagine that you were born into a rich family. And as you grow up, you fall in love and you get engaged. But then while you're engaged your parents come to you and they say, well something's happened and we've lost all the money. So you're distraught and so you go to your fiancee, you say, have to tell you something, we lost it all. We have no money left.
Ford Galin:I want you to think about your fiance responding and saying, you know, we probably need to rethink this wedding. Think about how you would feel. Feel used, you feel abused, you feel violated. Feel hurt, you feel betrayed, and why? It's because you realize that your fiance didn't want anything to do with you, they just wanted what you could give them.
Ford Galin:You were useful to them. Jonathan Edwards uses this analogy to ask the question, do we worship God because God is useful to us? Or do we worship God because God is beautiful to us? So that again, encourage you to consider this, do you worship God because he is useful to you? Or do you worship God because he is beautiful to you?
Ford Galin:Despite the fact that God's holiness might not seem immediately useful, make no mistake, it is the most beautiful thing there ever was or ever will be. A few weeks ago our home group was having a discussion that I imagine many of you maybe have had before. We were talking about eternity in heaven and someone made the comment we were all thinking and they they wondered, you know, if heaven's just this one unending worship service of the Lord, which I'm not saying it is, think there's a lot more to heaven than that. But but if it is, sometimes I'm worried I'm kinda gonna get really bored in eternity. Like that idea of worshiping the Lord, it may be great for the first hour, the first week, or even the first year, but at some point in eternity, why don't I get bored?
Ford Galin:I want you to consider two things. I want you to consider these Seraphim. Who from the beginning of eternity to the end of eternity, day and night have not ceased to call out to one another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Day after day, they never stop. They're saying, look at him, he's holy, he is holy, he is holy.
Ford Galin:And the other one says, he's holy, he's holy, he's holy. And they go on and on and on, never ceasing. Now I want you to think about the most beautiful thing you've ever seen in your life. Maybe it was a sunset over the beach. Maybe you climbed a 14 or and it was a view from the top of a mountain.
Ford Galin:Maybe it was looking out of the Grand Canyon. I want you to think of whatever is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen, the most moved you've ever been. For me, happened on 11/19/2022. Around 04:04PM, the back door to the wedding chapel at Perimeter Church in Johns Creek, Atlanta opened and Megan Adele Williams appeared, beautifully adorned in a wedding dress coming down an aisle to me. Now I'm not a very emotional person but this was ugly crying at its best for me.
Ford Galin:I've never been so moved by beauty as that moment right there. Then we begin the wedding ceremony Matt Francisco officiated. I can say this because Megan and I both had this thought as we found out later on. About twenty minutes later, 04:25 p. M.
Ford Galin:Her and I have this thought of this is going on a little long, isn't it? And maybe that was Matt's fault. Maybe he should have been more engaging. But more likely, happens is the beauty we see in this world, it fades. It's not that it becomes less beautiful, but it starts to get lost on us.
Ford Galin:Now I want you to think about those Seraphim. Whereas that what happens is they see the Lord and they never cease praising him for his beauty, his splendor, his holiness. And what that means is that for you and I, that though now we only see in part one day, we will see the Lord in full. And when we do, we will be so consumed by his holiness, his splendor, his beauty, that we will never look away. It is not that we are forced into this worship service we slowly get bored of but have to participate in.
Ford Galin:It is that we will be so captivated by the holiness of our Lord that we simply cannot look away. And if that is how beautiful our God will be to us in eternity, and he's begun to reveal himself to us now, is he not worth spending every fiber of our being, every moment of our existence seeking to get to know? God's holiness may not be useful but it's the most beautiful thing we can ever see. But as you read the next verse. Verse five, we see Isaiah doesn't respond with worship.
Ford Galin:Instead he says, woe is me for I am lost. I'm 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. So to steal this question from Jackie Hill Perry who's written and preached extensively on this book in so many helpful ways. Why woe instead of worship? And this woe, it's pretty bad.
Ford Galin:Woe, it's a pronouncement of judgment. It's a declaration of Isaiah saying I deserve to die. Isaiah five he gave these six woes, these pronouncements of judgment on his people. But we know that throughout scripture, the number seven has special significance. It means fullness and completeness and wholeness.
Ford Galin:It's why in Matthew 23, Jesus gives seven woes against the pharisees and scribes, sowing just how wayward they are. What we're seeing here is the seventh woe. Six woes throughout Isaiah five, Isaiah laments the sin of the people, but when he sees the holiness of God, he gets the seventh, this full, this complete woe. He doesn't notice their sin, he notices his own. Says I am lost or other translations.
Ford Galin:I am undone. I am ruined. Isaiah is saying he's kaput, he's finished. He sees the holiness of God and he realizes he cannot stand. But notice what he repents of.
Ford Galin:Says he's a man of unclean lips. Now remember Isaiah was a prophet. What does a prophet do? They proclaim the word of God. What do they use to do that?
Ford Galin:Their mouth, their lips. Isaiah doesn't see the holiness of God and repent of the sins in his life. He sees the holiness of God and he repents of the thing that was most precious to him. The thing he does best. The thing he found his worth in.
Ford Galin:The thing that was his most righteous. Isaiah sees God's holiness and is not just convicted of a few times he fell short. He's convicted that the very best he has to offer are but filthy rags before a holy king. And so why woe instead of worship? It's because anything that is unclean cannot stand in the face of that which is holy.
Ford Galin:One of three things will happen. First, the unclean could pollute the holy. But God is not just holy, he's holy, holy, holy. God cannot be defiled or polluted so that option's out. Option two, the holy will destroy the unclean.
Ford Galin:And this is what Isaiah realizes should happen. And in the next verse we read how one of these flaming winged creatures grabs with tongs a coal from the altar and starts flying towards Isaiah and you can picture Isaiah in that moment. Isaiah realizing not just that he had sinned but that everything in him did not measure up, that he was a man of unclean lips deserving to die and seeing this coal coming towards him. Now Isaiah is a good Israelite, would have known that throughout the Old Testament, specifically the Pentateuch, we see fire, it normally is indicating that God has a coming wrath. And this fire is so hot that this flaming creature cannot even pick it up with his hands but has to use tongs to do so.
Ford Galin:And so you can picture and imagine the fear in Isaiah as he cowers realizing that this coal is coming towards him knowing that he is worthy of God's judgment, knowing he has seen God's holiness and he cannot stand, but then the heat never comes. Instead, we read, and he touched my mouth and said, behold this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. Isaiah, an unclean man, comes face to face with the holy God and he is not destroyed. Because the other thing that can happen when holiness meets uncleanness is it purifies it.
Ford Galin:And so Isaiah experiences the third characteristic of God, God's graciousness. Now it's important we get these in order. Because when we jump to sing the song gracious, gracious, gracious or loving, loving, loving to the Lord God, we expect, well, certainly God's gonna forgive me. Certainly he's gonna love me. Certainly he's gonna have grace for me.
Ford Galin:I mean, that's just who he is. When we realize that God's fundamental characteristic is His holiness, and that we could never stand before Him, yet somehow there is still mercy and grace for us. And we aren't just slightly grateful for that graciousness that we always expected. We're undone and blown away. And notice it's not just that Isaiah's led to praise, it's that this grace transforms Isaiah.
Ford Galin:We don't have time to get into the details, but the very next thing that'll happen is Isaiah said, well Lord here I am, send me. This mouth you've given me, this gift you've given me, Lord, it's yours to do with what you will. You also see how Isaiah's freed in this purification. Because the message and the mission he's gonna give is God is gonna tell him Isaiah I want you to go and preach to a people who's gonna hear you but never understand you. Isaiah's given a mission of failure but Isaiah simply responds how long?
Ford Galin:You see God's grace is so powerful to Isaiah that it purifies him and it frees him to engage in the mission that God has given him. So we see a God who's enthroned and holy and gracious. But the reason this has such effect and we can't miss this one is we also see a God who is personal. See, Isaiah certainly knew of God's holiness. And I'm gonna imagine that most of us here, especially those of us who have been in church for a while, probably familiar with God's holiness, maybe already knew that it meant to be set apart.
Ford Galin:We've heard of God's holiness. What happens in Isaiah six for Isaiah, I hope is happening for us today, is that God's holiness goes from being a theological principle to a person. Throughout the book of Isaiah, Isaiah's preferred name for God is gonna be the holy one of Israel. It's an interesting title. It actually almost never occurs in scripture outside of Isaiah, but about 28 times throughout the book, that is how Isaiah will refer to the Lord.
Ford Galin:The holy one of Israel. I'm convinced because every time Isaiah is pronouncing that he's thinking back to this throne room moment where he doesn't just realize or hear in a bible study that God is holy, but he sees holiness on display in the person of God. Verse one he says he saw the Lord. Verse eight he says he heard the Lord. For Isaiah holiness is going from a principle to a person.
Ford Galin:So our God is not just some far off power of holiness, but he is a being. Though not a being like us. And when we see God's holiness not as a principle but as a person, we no longer decide that God's ways are important. We realize that they are ultimate and that nothing else is important in comparison. And so, this is what you and I need.
Ford Galin:What we need to stop producing the wild grapes and to produce the fruit that God has called us to. It's not a little bit more discipline, not to work a little bit harder, not to be a little more selfless or to the low tinge of guilt give away a little bit more money and care for our neighbor a little bit better. What you and I need is to behold the holy one of Israel as the person that he is. But I can anticipate the question that you guys probably have, which is how? Because in just a minute when the worship band comes back on, we're worshiping, we can pray and ask and it might be that we get a vision of Seraphim flying around here and the Lord on his throne, but experience tells us that for most of us that's probably not about to happen.
Ford Galin:Now I think there's gonna be a moment when we are in eternity witnessing that throne. And one of us will probably find ourselves standing next to Isaiah. And we won't look at him because we'll see so consumed by the vision of God, by seeing the Lord as he is that we would never look away. But with Isaiah worshiping next to us, wanna put our arm around and say, Isaiah, what was this like when you got to see this while you were still a man on earth? I picture Isaiah chuckling and and thinking and saying, gosh, what was it like when you had the Holy Spirit and the person of God available to you every single second you had breath in your lungs?
Ford Galin:What was it like when you had the word of God readily available to your fingertips every moment of every day? What was it like when the veil was torn and so you had uninterrupted access to the father through prayer? As scripture tells us, blessed are those who have not seen and yet still believed. That somehow for us what we have in the Holy Spirit, what we have in the word of God, what we have in prayer is far greater than if we even saw a vision as miraculous as Isaiah did. I know there's a number of you, and count myself in this camp, who are striving and seeking to behold the Lord and his holiness.
Ford Galin:Through his word, through prayer, in the Holy Spirit. And it just doesn't seem like you're actually seeing anything. Feels as if your prayers are hitting the ceiling and bouncing back down or you read his word and get nothing out of it. Not to be really quick, but a few things that I wanna mention that have been helpful for me in recent weeks as I've meditated on this passage and sought to behold the Lord. First, this encouragement to you, to take seriously the mission of God.
Ford Galin:When we let the Holy Spirit lead us in the mission of God and we say alongside Isaiah, here I am, send me, and our answer is yes long before we know the ask, then what happens is God starts leading us to places where God has to show up. And what happens after that is God shows up. And as we do, he does, we behold his works and we behold him. Second, it's been really helpful is realizing the primary aspect and aim and action of our Christian life is not growth. It's worship.
Ford Galin:So we go about our lives not seeking how can I be a better Christian or more loving or more generous or more gracious, but how can I behold and worship the Lord? Means that when we come to the Word of God, we don't come to just figure out and jump to what can I apply to my life? We come to just see what is praiseworthy and beautiful about God in this passage. How may I behold that and how may I worship him? And finally, we return to the simple gospel.
Ford Galin:You see this song of the Seraphims had been sung from eternity. From eternity star until eternity in not that there is a star or an end, they have proclaimed and never ceased to say holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory except for once. So there was a moment when suddenly this temple was silent. The one who was seated on the throne no longer was there.
Ford Galin:And in the disappearance of this song another sound came. It was the faint cry of a baby in a manger in Bethlehem. He was this high and lifted up God that is so powerful and magnificent that Isaiah could not even put him in words. He had emptied himself as Philippians two talks about and taken the form of a man. That question that was asked in Isaiah five where God says, What more could I have done for my vineyard, my people?
Ford Galin:There was one thing left. He could go and dwell among them. And so this high and lifted up Lord, He leaves His throne to take His place in the world. And as He grows up, most people reject Him, but a select few have Him revealed. And we see what happens as they look to and behold Jesus in Luke five when Simon Peter first sees the Lord and he falls at his knees and he responds just like Isaiah saying, Depart from me, oh Lord, for I am a sinful man.
Ford Galin:But Jesus' response to Peter, his response to us is, Do not be afraid. As holy as he is, he says do not be afraid because that same Christ would then be rejected and given over into the hands of sinners and the holy one would become the crucified one. But then the crucified one would become the resurrected one So that we who were unclean could become those to whom God would say, behold your sin is atoned for because what I did on the cross. And he could say, do not fear to us, he did to Peter. Because as he would say in John six thirty seven, those who come to me I will never cast out.
Ford Galin:The same holy one of Israel, who we can't even begin to grasp on the throne, is the same one who loved you and I enough to take on flesh, To be killed in that flesh. That you and I unclean sinners that we are would somehow stand in the holiness of the Lord for all eternity. Where we will into eternity join these Seraphim in saying holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts. The full earth, there the whole earth is full of his glory. But we don't need to wait.
Ford Galin:That holiness is apparent to us now and though we may only see in part, it's more than enough. For us to use every gift we've been given, every breath we've seen not for our own purposes but to worship the Lord, to love our neighbor, to pursue his justice, and to display his holiness to the rest of the world. The beautiful savior that he is. So as we leave may we behold him and worship and throughout every second of our day till the day when we see him in full and we will never go bored for we'll be so consumed by the holy one of Israel who is also our God. Let's go to him now in prayer.
Ford Galin:Lord God, you are lord and we confess and repent that there is no reason any of us should be left standing. Lord, in both our sin and our apparent righteousness, we are unclean. And God, you should depart for us for we are a sinful people. Yet God, somehow we praise you that despite the fact that you should, you just won't let us go. God, and how incredible and helpful and useful to us you are, but so much more God, how beautiful to us you are.
Ford Galin:God, give us eyes to see that beauty and that holiness this week For you, and you alone are what we need. And we pray that in the holy name of Jesus. Amen.
