There is nothing the church needs so desperately as a fresh experience of the holiness of God. Only then will God’s people be aware of the devastation of playing with sin as they are doing today. When I asked Dr. R. G. Lee, the most prominent preacher in the last 100 years, “What is the greatest need of God’s people today?” he immediately replied, “A revival of personal holiness in their lives.” But if we would rediscover the holiness of God we must seek it as did Isaiah as he describes in Isaiah 6. There are five indispensable steps we must take:
- We, like Isaiah, must REDISCOVER the Holiness of God. Listen to the testimony of in Isaiah 6:1-3, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” Isaiah was absolutely overwhelmed with the reality that God is above everything else, holy. In our day we have witnessed a “Dumbing Down” of the holiness of God that is having devastating effects in every area of life – in the church as much as in the world. The “side effects” of this trend are overwhelming:
Side Effect # 1 – No law or absolute truth. Thus God is “Dumbed Down” to our level and we have lost our moral standard.
Side Effect # 2 – No sin – If there is no absolute standard, then there is no sin, only alternative lifestyles.
Side Effect #3 – No repentance needed.
Side Effect #4 – No incentive to change.
Side Effect #5 – No Gospel. If there is no law, no sin, no need to change and the church has absolutely anything to give the world because where there is no sin there is no need of the Savior.
Side Effect #6 – No Hell-Doctrine, No Hell preaching.
Side Effect #7 – No Lordship Salvation.
Side Effect #8 – “Easy Believism Salvation”
Side Effect #9 – Silent Pulpit.
Side Effect #10 –Widespread Preaching of Pop Psychology.
Side Effect #11- Undisciplined church members, thus unregenerate church
Side Effect #12- The Sanctification of Sin in the church:
- Ordination of homosexuals.
- Same sex marriages.
Side Effect #13 – Little commitment – No surrender.
RESULT: Destruction of the whole doctrine of God. The holiness of God is the one attribute behind every other attribute. So if we lose the holiness of God, we lose all of God. Example: the omnipotence of God apart from His holiness is tyranny. The love of God without the holiness of God is mushy benevolence. The mercy of God without the wrath or judgment of God is not the Biblical God. “Apart from the holiness of God, we have not another God, but no God at all.” (Puritan Stephan Charnock).
- We must, like Isaiah, RECOGNIZE our own Unholiness. When Isaiah saw the Holiness of God, he cried, and I believe falling to his knees and said, “Woe is me, for I am lost.” We will never see our utter sinfulness until we see God’s utter holiness. “Samuel Logan Brengle wrote of his encounter with the holy in these words: “I saw the humility of Jesus, and my pride; the meekness of Jesus, and my temper; the lowliness of Jesus, and my ambition; the faithfulness of Jesus, and the deceitfulness of my heart; the unselfishness of Jesus, and my selfishness; the trust and faith of Jesus, and my doubts and unbelief . . . I got my eyes off everybody but Jesus and myself, and I came to loathe myself.”[1]
Illus.: I remember once when my mother washed her clothes and hung them on an outside clothes line, she thought they were perfectly clean. But snow fell and against the background of the white snow the clothes looked so dirty that she had to pull them off the line and wash them again. So when you and I see our lives in the light of God’s holiness we will see how dirty we are and how sorely we need to repent and be cleansed.
- We must, like Isaiah, RECEIVE God’s Holiness. “As soon as Isaiah had recognized and repented of his unholiness an angel was sent by God to take a live coal and touch it to his lips. This resulted in his guilt being taken away and his sin being atoned for. There is nothing that we can do about our state of unholiness. Just as we cannot save ourselves so we cannot sanctify ourselves. All we can do is receive the holiness of God by faith. Jesus died on the cross not only for our salvation, but also for our sanctification. As the author of Hebrews writes, “Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood” (Hebrews 13:12). And just as salvation is received by faith so sanctification is received by faith.”[2]
- We must, like Isaiah, REPENT of our Unholiness. When Isaiah recognized his filthiness he immediately confessed by saying, “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 Almighty” (6:5b). The “unclean lips” means that Isaiah now realized that he had been drawing near to God with his mouth while his heart was far from Him. Thus Isaiah was actually confessing that he was a hypocrite. So we see that that Isaiah had “heart trouble,” as we all do, for the heart of any person’s problem is the problem of his heart. (See Jeremiah 17:9). However, after seeing God Isaiah no longer put on the mask, but repented and turned to God with his whole heart.
- Finally, We, like Isaiah, Will be READY to Hear and Obey God’s Call after we have REDISCOVERED God’s holiness, RECOGNIZED our own unholiness, REPENTED of our unholiness, and RECEIVED God’s holiness. “Once Isaiah is cleansed from his sin and made holy he is in tune with God in such a way that he is able to hear the voice of the Lord in a way that he couldn’t before. Now he is aware of the fact that God is seeking someone to send out into the world on His behalf and Isaiah responds, “Here am I. Send me!” (v. 8) Isaiah realizes that there is a whole nation of people before him who are in desperate need of the same cleansing he has just received and so out of a heart filled with gratitude to God and compassion for the lost he willingly commits his life to God’s service. We are saved to serve.”[3]
Illus: “In verse 9 God told Isaiah to “go and tell.” Do you remember in grade school when you had “show and tell”? You brought something to school so that you could “show” your classmates and tell them about it. Without God’s holiness in our lives we have nothing to show the world, but once made holy we can “show and tell.”[4]
Well did Robert Murray McCheyne say, “My personal holiness is my people’s greatest need.” And so it is for every child of God, the whole church, and absolutely imperative for those who preach and teach God’s wonderful Word.
[1] Stephen Dow, “Encountering the Holy”, www.sermoncentral/ August 25, 2002, p. 2
[2] Ibid. p. 3.
[3] Ibid. p. 4.
[4] Ibid. p. 4