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Congregational-Presbyterian Church
“Conversations with God: Isaiah”
Isaiah 6:1-8
August 13, 2017
In the 18th century, Jonathan Edwards preached a famous sermon titled Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. It was filled with graphic images of the fury of God’s wrath against sinful humanity and contained vivid portrayals of the punishment of hell for those who do not repent. An excerpt from his sermon reads:
Your wickedness makes you, as it were, heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God, who holds you in his hands, should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf; and all your righteousness would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider’s web would have to stop a falling rock.
Edwards preached with the fire of the Puritans, but these types of sermons are considered to be out of touch in our day. We prefer a different way of talking about God. Christian preaching and teaching, especially about sin and a holy God, has changed from focusing on the penalty for sin to the grace and love of God, and I would say that, on the whole, that is a change for the better.
However, with such a change comes a danger. It is the danger of becoming spiritually irrelevant. When we cease talking openly and directly about the holiness of God and the sinfulness of human beings, we run the risk of rejecting the God of the Bible. We may disagree with how Jonathan Edwards talked about holiness and sin, but we still need to talk about it. Evil has not disappeared since Edward’s day, and sin continues to separate people from the God who loves them. Christian faith and it’s preaching must point to a holy God who has overcome evil and has an answer for sin. Otherwise it has nothing to say.
The Bible is clear that God is holy. God’s holiness is all that is in God that stands over against all that is wrong, fallen, broken and corrupted by sin. The Bible is also clear that humanity has sinned. The story of Adam and Eve sets the stage, and like Adam and Eve we also choose to sin by defying and disobeying God.
Our current sermon series is Conversations with God. The past three weeks pastor McLane has preached on conversations that Adam and Eve, Moses and King David had with God. This morning we turn to a conversation between God and Isaiah, a conversation that revolves around the issue of God’s holiness and human sinfulness. I invite you to turn with me to Isaiah 6:1-8
It was in the year King Uzziah diedthat I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple.Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.They were calling out to each other,“Holy, holy, holy is theLordof Heaven’s Armies!The whole earth is filled with his glory!”Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke.Then I said, “My destruction is sealed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, theLordof Heaven’s Armies.”Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.”Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?”
The song of the seraphim reveals the centrality of the biblical witness to God: God is holy. The three-fold repetition of the word “holy” is a literary device of the Hebrew language, elevating the word to the superlative degree. In English we take a word like “good” and elevate it comparatively by using the word “better” as in “this cake is good but this cake is better.” Then, we further elevate “good” to the superlative degree with the word “best.” Now we have: “This cake is good, this cake is better, but this cake is best.” To do this in Hebrew you would say, “This cake is good, this cake is good good, but this cake is good good good.”
The only characteristic of God that is elevated to the superlative degree in the Bible is that God is holy, holy, holy. While God is love, the Bible never says that God is love, love, love. God is merciful, but we never read that God is mercy, mercy, mercy. The holiness of God is God’s primary or central attribute, and while holiness certainly includes love and mercy and many other wonderful characteristics of God, holiness is at the core of his being.
What, then, is Isaiah’s response to the holiness of God? The sound of the worshipping voices of the seraphim shakes the Temple to its foundations, but it is not the only thing that is shaking. Isaiah’s body is shaking, as well. “My destruction is sealed,” he cries, “for I am a sinful man.” I have no place here. I have nothing to offer a holy, holy, holy God for I am a sinful, sinful, sinful man.
Isaiah was respected as one of the virtuous and godly people of Israel. Yet, when he comes into the presence of a holy God any self-confidence or self-righteousness that he might have been holding onto is shattered. He is exposed for who he really is. As long as he could compare himself with other people, he was able to maintain the opinion that he was worthy of God’s company. The instant he was in the presence of a holy God, he knows that he is destined for destruction. He has a new and radical understanding of sin, of his own sin and the sin of his people. He acknowledges how pervasive sin is and how destructive it is to a relationship with a holy God.
This brings us to the question of how a holy God can have anything to do with sinful humanity. He can only do so by cleansing us of our sin. Once our sin is removed there is no longer a barrier between us and God, for now a holy God can invite us into his presence without the result being our destruction. Like Isaiah, we are now ready for service. The cleansing for Isaiah takes the form of a coal from the altar of sacrifice being pressed to his lips, removing his guilt and bringing forgiveness for his sin. For you and me, our guilt is removed and our sin is forgiven when by faith we accept the death of Jesus on our behalf.
Once Isaiah admits his sin, and after by God’s intervention his guilt is removed and his sin is atoned for, only then can he and God have a conversation. It is concise and to the point. God asks, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” And Isaiah answers, “Lord, I’ll go. Send me.”
If you and I desire to have a conversation with God, we must come to him humbly aware of our sin and seek his forgiveness. Then, and only then, can God receive us, cleanse us from our sin, and enter into a relationship with us. Then we will be confident that he hears us. Then we will know that he answers our prayer. Then we will be available to be used of God for whatever good purpose he has in mind.