This morning we consider together yet another attribute of our God, the attribute of holiness. And it seems only appropriate that we should turn to Isaiah 6. Isaiah 6 as we consider the holiness of our God. Reading together the first seven verses of Isaiah chapter 6. Hear now the Word of God. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above Him were seraphs, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory. At the sound of their voices, the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke. Woe to me, I cried, I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips. And my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, See, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. Thus far the reading of God's Word. May He add His blessing to it and to the preaching of His Word this morning. Beloved in Christ the Lord, in Leviticus 19, verse 2, the Lord instructed Moses to say to God's people, Be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy. And then in 1 Peter 1, verse 16, Peter quotes these very words when giving instruction about daily living to God's elect who, he says, are being preserved for that eternal inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade, kept in heaven for them. Yet until that day, in their daily living, Be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy. Notice, it's not as or in the same way that God is holy, but because He is holy. Now at the outset, let me say that this is the prime way of honoring God, by believing His Word and by striving to imitate Him. Yet what does it mean that God is holy? Well, again, I think it's almost impossible to consider this without considering Isaiah 6, which teaches us about the holiness of God and helps us to understand, at least in part, the meaning of God's holiness and the application of His holiness. As you recall, most of you, we've considered together a few weeks ago the sovereignty of God, which is foundational for all of God's attributes. God is the one and only ruler with absolute power and authority over all things. And His holiness then deals specifically with how we, along with all of creation, all creatures, stand over and against this sovereign God. How do we relate to Him? How do we compare with Him? You see, this attribute of God is so important yet so largely forgotten today. So few people talk about the holiness of God today. God is not revered as holy. Instead, the actions and the attitudes and the words of man, and shamefully, this includes many Christians at times, treat God as less than holy. Yet there is not an attribute used more often in the Bible to describe God than that He is holy. In Isaiah alone, some 30 plus times we are told that He is the Holy One. Just a small glimpse of what Scripture says about the holiness of God. God's name covers all of God's attributes. We know that when the Bible talks about the name of God, it's talking about God in all of His fullness. And over and over again, we are called to praise His holy name, as Psalm 103, verse 1 says. Jesus, God's Son, is called God's holy servant. The Spirit of God of whom we just sang is called the Holy Spirit. The book of Leviticus, even though it may be a difficult book to read at times, teaches us that God is a holy God. And the truth is, congregation, we cannot even begin to understand God's history of revelation and His history of redemption. And we cannot understand Christianity, the cross, or Christ's cry, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? without understanding the holiness of God. It all makes sense only because God is holy. And therefore, may that be our prayer, that God through His Holy Spirit would remind us about God's holiness. And that He would once again give to us hearts filled with reverence and awe for our holy God. Now Isaiah 6 verses 1-7 gives us a picture of what it means that God is holy. And again, it points to the application of His holiness. Now, this passage, of course, is describing Isaiah's call and commission to the office of prophet of the Lord, as we see especially in verses 8 and following, which we did not read. But the context is interesting. King Uzziah reigned for 52 years, and he brought many benefits, including peace and prosperity, to the land. And in 2 Chronicles chapter 26, he is described as doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord. But also in that chapter, verses 16 through 20, we read, But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. Azariah the priest with 80 other courageous priests of the Lord followed him in. And they confronted him and said, It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. That is for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful, and you will not be honored by the Lord God. And then if we were to read further, we read that Uzziah was indeed struck with leprosy, from which he had until the day he died. In the year that King Uzziah died, We don't know for sure if it was before he died or after he died, but we can be sure that Isaiah knew what he had done. That Uzziah had gone into the temple to burn incense and that he had this leprosy. But in the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah is given the privilege to see the true king who alone belongs in the temple and who said that he would meet with his people in the temple. And God reveals His glory to Isaiah as the Sovereign One seated on a throne. And we can tell by Isaiah's description that this One on the throne was indeed one of a kind. The length of the train of a king's robe could be seen as a sign of power and authority. The longer the train, therefore, the greater the power. But here, this train, it filled the temple. So there was no room for anyone else to share His glory. And the seraphs also demonstrated that. As well, Isaiah's actions and words demonstrated that He, representing all of mankind, especially the people in whose midst He lived, was not worthy to be in the presence of this holy God. Why? Because God is totally separate from and wholly other than everything else. That's the meaning of God's holiness in a nutshell. He is totally separate from and wholly other than everything else. Now most likely when we think of holiness, we think of it in the sense of moral or ethical holiness in terms of righteousness. In fact, how many of us haven't been convicted or we might say insulted by someone who was not willing to use certain speech or go to certain movies or participate in certain activities because they believed that those things would be offensive to God. And since we didn't have that level of conviction, we described them, we accused them of being holier than thou. Even legalistic. We accused them of thinking that they were a little more righteous than we are. Well, indeed, when we speak of God's holiness, there is this ethical quality, this righteousness aspect to it. But it's much more than that. It's not less than that, to be sure. But it's much more than that. First of all, it deals with God's very being. Who He is. Inside and out. Isaiah saw and heard the seraphs calling to each other, most likely back and forth in an antiphonal way. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Nowhere else in all of Scripture is one of God's attributes used three times in the same way to describe Him. He's never described in Scripture as power, power, power, or love, love, love, or sovereign, sovereign, sovereign. Of course, we know that He is those things. But He's not described that way. Only His attribute of being holy is used like this. And it's used twice. It's used again in Revelation 4 verse 8 where John is given a glimpse of the throne in heaven and the four living creatures which never stop saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. But again, what does it mean? Some of the words that we are familiar with that are related to it are sanctification, saint, hallowed, dedicated, Consecrated. Uzziah was not consecrated as one of the priests. In the Hebrew, the word translated as holy literally means to cut. And the idea is to cut and set apart for a special purpose. Boys and girls, think of taking a piece of cloth and cutting out a certain pattern to make a dress or a shirt. That piece is cut out and set apart from the rest of the material for a special purpose. God is set apart. From what? From absolutely everything and everyone else. Again, boys and girls, when you choose teams for a game, you need two sides and some are on this side, some are on that side. But when it comes to holiness, God is on one side all by Himself. And all else is on the other side. He is absolutely distinct from His creation. He is holy, holy, holy. As another minister said, that means He is holy to the extreme. Repeating the word holy was for emphasis, kind of like us on our printed page using italics or bold letters or underlining or exclamation points. God is all by Himself compared to the rest of creation. And again, I think the train of His robe filling the temple was a demonstration of that. None else could compare to Him. And God is completely holy. Completely, totally holy in His actions, in His words. Psalm 145, verse 17 says, The Lord is righteous in all His ways. Again, He is absolutely distinct from all His creation. He is exalted above them in infinite majesty. His holiness sets Him apart from us and makes Him or ought to make Him the object of awe and adoration and reverence to us. His holiness, indeed, includes His transcendent greatness, but also, then, His moral perfection. Going back to that ethical quality, that righteous aspect. Because His whole being is holy, He is completely other than and separate from sin. His holiness is opposed to sin and is determined to punish sin. You see, beloved, all moral excellence is found in Him. God is absolutely pure, untainted, and unblemished, even by the shadow of sin. In John 1, verse 5, it says, God is light. In Him there is no darkness at all. That imagery declares to us and teaches to us of God's purity. Proverbs 3, verse 5 says, Every word of God is flawless, or also translated, pure. And because God is holy and righteous, sinless and pure, it is impossible then for there to be fellowship between Him and that which is unholy and sinful. Again, the seraphs in Isaiah 6 demonstrate that. The seraphs, remember, were not sinful. They are perfect. Yet they too humble themselves before the glory of God. They shield their faces. They cover their feet. And if sinless creatures like the seraphs understand that distinction between the Creator and the creature and understand His holiness, if they were humbled in the sight of God, then certainly sinful man cannot stand in the presence of God. And that's, of course, what Isaiah demonstrates as he came to see his sinfulness, his unholiness and impurity when he came face to face with the holiness of God. Habakkuk 1 verse 13 says, Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrong. And that verse alone, beloved, ought to make us terribly uncomfortable as we think about our sin, especially the sin that we commit each and every day. God is loving to His people, to be sure, but that does not mean that He tolerates sin. He does not tolerate sin. That's not love. when we as parents fail to discipline our children for a wrong that they have done, that's not love. Love includes correction. Love includes a desire for our children to walk according to the standard of God's holiness that we promise to teach them. God's lack of toleration for sin was demonstrated on the cross of Jesus. Now remember, God does not forgive sin. I say that very carefully. God does not forgive sin. He does not turn His back on it. He does not leave it undealt with. He forgives the sinner, but not sin. What I mean is, God's holiness must be satisfied. Sin must be punished, even as He said. And for those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ, they will spend eternity paying the punishment for their sin. But our comfort and our hope as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ is in nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. On the cross, as our sin was laid upon the shoulders of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, God demonstrated there His perfect hatred and His holy wrath against our sin as the punishment that brought us peace was laid upon Him. The cross of Jesus displayed for us in the sacraments of holy baptism and Holy Communion shows us, as I said earlier, just how hateful sin is to God that He would punish it to the utmost for you and me and His one and only Son. Jesus cried out, My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? And what was the answer? What was the response in that darkness? Nothing. Silence. God did not answer as Christ was bearing the eternal punishment for the sin of His people, as our sins were laid upon His shoulders. And beloved, if God would not hear the prayer of His own Son as He bore our sin, He will not hear us when we call if our sins are not covered by the blood of Jesus. In order to stand in the presence of the holy God, one Himself or Herself must be holy. We must be set apart. And that's what Jesus did when He paid for our sins. One commentator beautifully says, That which God's holiness demands, His grace has provided in Jesus Christ our Lord. He has cut us away from the sinful world. He has cut us away from the dominion of Satan. He set apart a people for Himself, the church, Which Peter describes as a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. And as Isaiah shows us, forgiveness is all of God's grace. He saw the truth of himself as he faced the reality and the truth of God. Because God's holiness illumines and makes clear that which is unholy. You see, Isaiah had it all together in the eyes of the world. He was a prominent figure. He really was, but before the Lord. He had to confess that he was ruined, or as another translation says, he was undone. He was a man of unclean lips. Proverbs says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. He recognized that he was completely unworthy and filthy and unclean. The holiness of God caused Isaiah to come apart at the seams, as it were, to unravel. Yet God is gracious. The live coal touching Isaiah's lips symbolizes full and complete forgiveness. Praise God for that altar of sacrifice. Jesus Christ lives to make intercession for us before His Father as He says, I paid for them. They are mine. Their punishment and the guilt of their sin is gone and their forgiveness is secured. Only those who are holy in Christ Jesus can then recognize the holiness of God and also understand the application of God's holiness. Beloved, do you recognize God's holiness? Do you treat Him as holy? Are you in awe of Him? You see, indeed, if we truly see God as holy and if we understand in our own finite way that He is holy, then we can't help but to be in awe of Him as the seraphs and Isaiah were. The effect of God's holiness is reverence and fear and respect. When the Apostle John was exiled on the island of Patmos, as we read about in Revelation, when he saw the Lord whose face was like the sun, shining in all its brilliance, how did John respond? What was his reaction to the holiness of God? Well, he didn't say, what's up, dude? What's shaking? No, Scripture says, John says, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Awe, reverence, and godly fear. You see, beloved, we must understand that God is not indifferent as to how people regard Him or think on Him or respond to Him or treat Him. He takes being God seriously and He demands that you and I do as well. And again, we are called to recognize that nothing in life and nothing for time and eternity makes sense apart from His holiness. But this application also means that we must not only recognize His holiness, but we must also understand that everything associated with Him is holy. All that He has set apart unto Himself is holy. Remember, Moses was standing on holy ground. The tabernacle had the Holy of Holies where God dwelt among His people. Jerusalem was called the Holy City. Everything about the temple was holy. Holy oil, holy bread, holy dishes, holy water, holy vestments for the priest. Even the priest was holy. Consecrated. Remember? Set apart. We talked about our children this morning. Set apart. Sanctified. Set apart in Christ Jesus. And what made these things holy? Well, the fact that God set these things apart for a special, for a certain use. They were not to be misused, but to be used in reverence as holy unto the Lord. That's why Isaiah got into trouble. The Sabbath was the holy Sabbath, again, set apart by God for God, for His people to be sure as well. And that none of this should be lost today. The Christian Sabbath, the Lord's Day, is still holy to the Lord. It is set aside for holy worship. Sure, when we think of this physical building and this room, this is just a building in one sense. Yet, it's not just a building. It's not just a room. It is holy and set apart for a specific purpose. It is set apart for worship to the Lord. Boys and girls, that's why we don't run around in here and play games. Not again that this room is necessarily better than any other room in the church, but it's different. It's set aside for a holy purpose where God says, I will meet with you. The communion table is holy in that it is set aside for the sacrament of holy communion. It's not made of special wood, but it has a holy purpose. That's why when we run out of tables in the social hall, We don't push the communion table over there and play games on it. It's got a holy purpose. We don't put the baptismal font out in the courtyard to be used as a birdbath between Lord's days because, again, as we were reminded this morning, it is set aside for a holy purpose, a special purpose. This pulpit, again, it's just made of wood, nothing special, nicely designed and crafted, of course, but just a pulpit, centrally located, to represent the Word of God which is central in the life of God's people, but also a special purpose. God promises to speak to His people through His weak servant, to speak to you and me, His Word. You see, we must respect these physical things, not because they are idols, they're not, but because God uses them on our behalf, beloved. God uses them to help us stay focused on His holiness. Because we're so quickly and easily to forget. Unfortunately today, so many people do not find worship thrilling and moving and exciting according to the standards of the world. And I believe it's because they do not see God as three times holy. I'm not even convinced that they understand that God truly meets with His people and speaks with His people. Their focus is on themselves and not on God. Reverence for how people speak of God and worship Him is missing, you see. Sleeping or goofing off in church or simply zoning out during the Scripture reading or the long prayer or during the sermon lacks reverence for God. violates His holiness. You see, beloved, we come to church for a specific purpose. To worship. Not to be frivolous. Worship is not to be like a social event, for example, a ball game or a concert where we're way laid back. And indeed, there's a place for that too in the Christian's life. We are to enjoy those things. But worship is different. Worship is to be reverential and respectful to God. When we come to God's house, we are to be in awe. Speechless. Because we come into the presence of a holy God. When we come into His presence, it is and is to be awesome. You see, through Jesus Christ, we are allowed to call God our Father. But we must not forget that He is a holy Father. And therefore, we exalt Him by saying, Hallowed be thy name. Indeed, our worship is to be celebrative and joyful because of who God is and what He has done. And again, the fact that He meets His people here. But not celebrative and joyful like trivial fun and games. Worship is to be characterized by bowing down and kneeling before Him in reverence and godly fear because of the beauty of His holiness. Understanding that we are simply not worthy to come before Him. And His Word, His inscripturated Word, is holy. We call it the Holy Bible, don't we? And it is to be revered as holy. And therefore we are to take great care when we read it or hear it read or hear it preached, take great care to give God's Word our undivided attention and meditation, expecting and looking forward to God's promise for us that His Word will accomplish the purpose for which He sent it. and again I make a confession as I did in the earlier service that I struggle with this part of my devotions not to sound pompous because it ought not to be that way is that I read through scripture daily but I must confess that there are some days when I do it simply to say that I did it to check it off my list and I'm ashamed to say that at the end when I'm done and I think what did I read I have no clue I don't remember I didn't meditate upon it. I didn't treat it as holy. I didn't reverence His Word. And prayer is the same, isn't it? Prayer is holy. Why? Because God gave it to us. God gave it to His people for a special purpose, an instrument given to us by which we might commune with Him, responding to His Word. And therefore, it's not to be done, again, flippantly, hastily, without thinking. Boys and girls, sometimes our prayers at bedtime or after a meal are done that way, aren't they? Lord, thank You for this food you're sick of me. It ought not be that way. But we all fight that, don't we? What a reminder for us. As well, we are not to make jokes about God like the heathen do, or to use Him, or anything associated with Him in some sort of trivial way. Let's be honest, huh? We are all guilty of telling and laughing at jokes about St. Peter at the pearly gates. But beloved, heaven is holy. It's a place of God's holy dwelling. It's wonderful and perfect and good and not to be taken lightly. And hell is not to be taken lightly either. Why? Because it's a place of God's holy wrath. And therefore, it's not to be used in cursing. It's not to be used flippantly. But used in a way that honors God. Again, we've all seen two commercials or advertisements that take parts of Scripture or Christian music or biblical themes for their own purpose. One that sticks in my head and bothers me is Philadelphia cream cheese and all the wings on there and that there really is a heaven because one has Philadelphia cream cheese. What a shame. Beloved, as we said before, God's name is holy. The Bible says it over and over again. Yet, when we use His name flippantly or when we fail to stand up for the holiness of His name, when others take it in vain, then we too are guilty of, in effect, stripping Him of His holiness. The application of God's holiness means that we recognize Him as He truly is. Holy, holy, holy. And then we also see the truth of ourselves before Him. That we are guilty, guilty, guilty. That's what Isaiah saw. That's what Job came to realize. And that's what Peter recognized. He recognized that it was Jesus who provided that large catch of fish and he couldn't help but say, Go away from me, Lord. I am a sinful man. He saw the death in his own heart and the corruption that destroyed his flesh and spirit. But by the grace of God, those who look to the Lord Jesus Christ in repentance and faith are given new eyes to see God as He truly is and to be in awe of Him. And they are given a new desire to heed the command of God. Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy. And God doesn't leave it there, does He? He gives us His standard of holiness. His holy word, summarized by His holy law, which is a reflection of His holiness. You see, the application of God's holiness must also take place in our lives. Our prayer is to be that God, through His Holy Spirit, would move us to holiness. As a demonstration of thankfulness to God, our central concern is to be the pursuit of holiness. The writer of Hebrews says, Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy. And then he says, why? Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. Those who are born again and forgiven are called to practice holiness. And congregation, that begins by understanding that God hates sin. He hates all sin, without exception. We so easily cover it up, don't we? We so easily change it from, oh, it's not really a sin, it's simply a mistake. We so easily brush it off, but not God. God hates all sin without exception. Not even one sin, not even one little white lie can be accepted in God's eyes. This doesn't mean, of course, that we will be perfect and never sin again in this life. Unfortunately, we do sin daily. Yet it does mean that we have confidence that all of our sins, past, present, and future, have been punished in Christ and that we have been set aside, Cut out and set aside as holy unto the Lord for Jesus' sake. And therefore, therefore, we must see ourselves as set apart. We must see ourselves as set apart. Do you see yourself as set apart from the world? You see, if you do, that means then that we must also see that sin is not an option for us. Plain and simple. It's not like when you buy a car and you have this option or that option. Sin is not an option for God's people. We are called to strive to avoid sin and that which God hates at all costs and not to willfully indulge in it. For example, the Bible says that God hates violence and murder. Well, what does that say then, for example, about video games that promote violence and wiping out the bad guy or many bad guys? You might think I'm nitpicking here. I just laid that before you. What does it say about that? What does it say then about movies that promote hatred and violence and killing? And many of us like that thrill, don't we? The same thing can be said about many other things. God hates cheating and stealing and adultery and taking His name in vain. And the Bible says that the liar, the drunkard, the murderer, the gambler, the thief, the adulterer, and others will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. And we know, of course, that while we live in this world, we cannot avoid every appearance of sin and every confrontation with sin. But do we do all that we can to avoid participating in the things of the world that promote this stuff, that promote the things that God hates? The bottom line is, if God hates sin, His children must hate sin too. We must hate it. Proverbs 8, verse 13 says, to fear the Lord is to hate evil. That's how it goes. It can't be different than that. There's no sitting on the fence. Can't have it both ways to fear the Lord and to love evil. It's got to be one or the other. The excuse that everybody's doing it might work well with parents and teachers and bosses and friends and so forth, but God hates it. And we can try to justify our sinful behavior all the time, Even things that seem trivial to us, like reading sinful books, or attending sinful movies, or listening to sinful music, or participating in activities that dishonor God, or failing to do what God commands, like worshiping Him in spirit and in truth. We can try to justify till we're blue in the face, participating in the things that God hates, but it doesn't change the fact at the end of the day. God hates it. Beloved, there is no hope for us in the presence of the Holy God unless God Himself had chosen to do something about our unholiness. And praise God, He did. He's made a way for us into His presence through our Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ alone, we are able to dwell with God, to stand in His holy presence. And we are called to righteousness and holiness, not as God is holy, for again, that's impossible, but because He is holy. And praise God for His work of sanctification in those whom He has cut out and set apart through which we more and more learn to hate sin and more and more learn to love righteousness and to strive for it. What a blessing. What a blessing for God's people to live this life in reverential fear for our holy God. And what a privilege it is for us to walk and speak and participate in the things of this life in a way that honors the holiness of God and testifies to the world that He is holy. And how great it is to live boldly as believers, as we heard last week, enjoying the good things of this life, knowing that this life and all that we look forward to, both now and forever, have meaning because He is holy. And how wonderful it is to be able to teach our children the exciting truth of the sign and seal of holy baptism they have received from the one and only Holy God that they have been set apart. Set apart to gracious privilege in the covenant family to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. To be taught the promise of God that if they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ they shall be saved. Beloved, may we long for and look for the day when God will be fully known in all of His holiness by all people. You see, for us, that day will not be terrible. It will not be dreadful. Apart from Jesus Christ, that day would have been the revelation of our sin and eternal punishment, eternal judgment, as it will be dreadful for those who reject Him. But now, in Christ Jesus, that day will be the completion of our salvation. And may God once again bring us to our knees in godly reverence and awe to honor Him as the holy God He truly is. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, in humility we bow before Your holy throne of grace. We thank you and praise you again for your holy word through which we've been reminded again of this great attribute of our God. To be reminded again that in and of ourselves we cannot stand in your presence. We can only be like dead men. Yet in Jesus Christ you look upon your people as holy as those set apart by the blood of Jesus. And Father, may we indeed testify to your holiness as we walk this life. May we truly desire to be holy and strive to be holy even as You are holy, depending completely upon Your Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us. And may You be praised above all. In the name of Jesus, we pray these things. Amen.