5 revelations regarding God’s holiness that can place us in the appropriate relationship to the Great One
I. The Picture of God’s Holiness: Incomparability
A. To say that God is “holy” is to say that His splendorous being is unlike any created thing in the heavens, or on the earth, or in the waters, or any physical pleasure, or any physical possession, or any position of power; He is utterly unique
1. Holiness = Incomparability
B. Also, uniquely in Isaiah the term “The Holy One” referring to Yahweh, God is used 27 times (Is 1:4; 5:19, 24, 10:20; 12:6; 17:7; 29:19, 23; 30:11, 12, 15; 31:1; 37:23; 40:25; 41:14, 16, 20; 43:3, 14; 45:11; 47:4; 48:17; 49:7; 54:5; 55:5; 60:9, 14)
C. The first time “holiness” is used of God is in Exodus 15:11 to establish Him to be unlike any other so-called “gods”; He is the God of “gods”, the Lord of “lords”, and the King of “kings”
II. The Impact of Seeing God’s Holiness: Humiliation
Isaiah 6:5 - Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because 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 of hosts.”
A. Truly beholding the holiness of God results in humiliation–putting an individual into the proper perspective of another; humiliation is being reduced to lowliness, submission, and/or a right estimate of one’s self
III. The Hindrance to Beholding God’s Holiness: Idolatry
Psalm 135:14-18 - For the Lord will judge His people and will have compassion on His servants. The idols of the nations are but silver and gold, the work of man’s hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; they have eyes, but they do not see; they have ears, but they do not hear, nor is there any breath at all in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, yes, everyone who trusts in them.
IV. The Response Needed for Failing to Recognize God’s Holiness: Stripping Away of All Other “gods”/ “god-substitutes”
Isaiah 6:11-13 - …Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, houses are without people and the land is utterly desolate, the Lord has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. Yet there will be a tenth portion in it, and it will again be subject to burning, like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump.
V. The Solution to Restore Sight to See God’s Holiness: Incomparable Love
Isaiah 6:6 - Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”
Isaiah 53:1-2, 5-7, 10 - Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him…But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth…But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering…
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