Part 3 / Session 08
The Holiness of God
Big Idea
God is holy: in a class by Himself and perfectly pure. Seeing Him undoes us, only He can make us clean, and then He sends us.
Key Word
What does holy mean?
Holiness is the only attribute of God the Bible repeats three times: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts” (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8).
Set Apart
A cut above. In a class by Himself.
Perfectly Pure
“You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong” (Habakkuk 1:13).
Tonight
Isaiah 6
01 / Isaiah 6:1–4 · 2 Chronicles 26:16–21
Holy, Holy, Holy
Proud King Uzziah barged into the temple and was struck with leprosy (2 Chronicles 26). In the year he died, Isaiah went into that same temple and saw the real King: “the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.” Even the seraphim, who have never sinned, cover their faces. God isn’t the top of our scale; He’s off the scale.
02 / Isaiah 6:5 · Luke 5:4–11
Undone
Isaiah was the most respected godly man in the country, and seeing God undid him: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips.” Next to other people he looked fine; next to God he didn’t. Peter reacted to Jesus the same way: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
03 / Isaiah 6:6–8
From the Altar
Isaiah didn’t clean himself up. A burning coal from the altar, the place of sacrifice, touched his lips: “your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” Only then did he hear “Whom shall I send?” and answer, “Here I am! Send me.” The altar points to the cross: “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
The Pattern
Four steps
Isaiah 6:1–8 and Luke 5:4–11 follow the same path. Peter fell at Jesus’ knees, then heard, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”
01
God appears
02
We are undone
03
He cleanses
04
He sends
In One Sentence
God isn’t the top of our scale; He’s off the scale.
When we see Him, we see ourselves. And the One who undoes us is the One who makes us clean.
Two Lines To Remember
“For the first time in his life Isaiah really understood who God was. At the same instant, for the first time Isaiah really understood who Isaiah was.”
“The nearer he draws to God and the more he sees of God’s holiness and perfections, the more thoroughly is he sensible of his own countless imperfections… The riper he is for glory, the more, like the ripe corn, he hangs down his head.”
This Week
Take it home
Read Isaiah 6:1–8 once a day. Each time, notice one thing about God, and one thing it shows you about yourself.
To Chew On
“Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him” (John 12:41). John means Jesus, 700 years before Bethlehem. How could that be?
Bookmark for next week: Isaiah 6 · Matthew 3 · Deuteronomy 6 · John 17 · Ephesians 2