Preferring the comfort of His nearness, we have
lost the reality of God's transcendent holiness.
God is not the man upstairs.
God is not Big Daddy.
God is not an old codger in a
white coat or a white beard.
He is ineffable glory.
He dwells in unapproachable life.
No one can see God and live.
Our God is a consuming fire.
That's God.
Holiness.
Hey listen, take your Bible and please and
turn to Isaiah 6.
Titled the message today is God on the
throne, a picture of holiness.
God on the throne, a picture of holiness.
The word holiness means set apart, the Hebrew
Kadesh, the Greek Hagias.
It means all that denotes separation.
When we speak of holiness, we're saying God's
not like us.
He's not like us at all.
He's not anything close to anything at all
that's like us.
He's separate.
We would say awesome, unbelievable, unfathomable.
That's holiness.
More righteous and pure, more piercing and powerful,
more strong and impenetrable than we can even
imagine.
More holiness than we can comprehend.
Now at the core of our sinfulness is
a bent or just a sinful inclination to
try to usurp God.
It's deeply ingrained in our sinful human nature.
We want the place that belongs to God.
That was the problem in Genesis 3.
Satan lied and said you can be like
God.
Yeah, yeah, as if.
And that's how sin came into the world.
In Genesis chapter 11, they were trying to
build a tower to get up to God,
to be equal with God.
Romans 1 says that because of our sinful
bent, we exchange the truth of God for
a lie and worship and serve the creature
rather than the creator.
In all of us, there is a bent
to try to get into a higher place,
get God down, get me up.
And when we humanize God and deify man,
everything gets out of perspective.
The goal of the message this morning is
to get God in his rightful place.
There's not going to be much in the
message at all this morning about us.
That's okay.
The whole message is going to be about
God and who he is and where he
belongs.
God on the throne, a picture of holiness.
Now I want to just confess to you
my weakness.
I cannot possibly communicate to you properly a
right view or understanding of God.
A.W. Tozer said that what a person
thinks about God is the most important thing
about them.
What you think about God, your view of
God, is the most important thing about you.
In fact, your entire life revolves around your
view of God and you have been conditioned
by a hyper-grace environment to overestimate God's
love and forbearance and grace and to underestimate
God's justice and God's vengeance and God's holiness.
In fact, I would suggest to you that
God's holiness is the core of his being.
If love were the core of God's being,
he would just welcome us all into heaven
and say, well, come on up.
We'll work it out when you get here.
And that is not what he said.
Some people say, well, God is love.
Yeah, well, what that doesn't mean is that
everything that constitutes God is love.
What that means is that the essence of
love is God, not that the essence of
God is love.
The core of God's being is holiness.
That's why sin has to be paid for.
Holiness demanded that sin be paid for.
Then, everyone say then, then love found a
way.
Now, we're getting to the core this morning.
We're getting to holiness and because I cannot
communicate that myself, I want to invite you
to pray with me.
Father, we thank you this morning that while
this messenger is weak, that your word is
strong.
And we pray this morning, Lord, that by
the power of your spirit and by your
own commitment to your truth, your word is
truth.
We pray, Lord, that these realities about you
and who you are would come with force
upon our minds and upon our hearts that
we might rightly align ourselves with this holy
God of the universe.
Might we see you this morning in our
spirits as you truly are, God on the
throne of God of holiness.
This we pray in the strong name of
your son, Jesus.
Amen.
Isaiah chapter 6, four verses there I want
to focus on.
Each one will yield for us an angle
on holiness.
And then we're going to turn to four
other throne room scenes and see how that
characteristic bears out further in the consistent message
of God's word.
Start here.
Holiness describes separation.
That's the essence of the word holiness.
It describes separation.
Notice it says in Isaiah chapter 6 verse
1, in the year that King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne
high and lifted up.
That year, in the year that King Uzziah
died, that was 740 BC.
Uzziah had reigned for 52 years in the
nation of Israel.
And until he died of leprosy, he was
a fixture in the nation.
You imagine if you'd had the same ruler
for 52 years, and all of a sudden
he's gone.
Everybody's like, man, everything's up for grabs now.
And what's going to happen?
And who's going to be in charge?
And there was perplexity and fear and uncertainty.
Sounds like our world today, doesn't it?
Perplexity and fear and uncertainty.
And into that uncertainty, God gave a fresh
view of his exalted nature for the people
to focus upon.
It kind of puts everything else into perspective.
In the year that King Uzziah died, notice
he says, I saw the Lord.
Now there's a lot of people that claim
to have seen God, they haven't seen Him.
Imagine, I saw the Lord.
Whether waking or sleeping, in a vision or
a dream, we're not told.
But somehow Isaiah was supernaturally transported to the
very throne room of God.
And he saw the Lord there.
Notice, lowercase, O-R-D, L-O-R
-D.
What that means is, is that that means
that it wasn't Yahweh, God's personal covenant name.
That's not how he referred to Him.
He's using God's title here.
He's saying, I saw the ruler.
I saw the sovereign.
I saw the Lord.
Who could ever be the same?
John 12, 41 tells us that whom he
saw was actually the pre-incarnate Christ.
He gazed upon the second person of the
Trinity.
He saw Jesus before Jerusalem, before Nazareth, before
Bethlehem.
He saw Christ seated on the throne.
You say, how do you know?
John 1, 18 says that no one has
seen God the Father at any time.
No one, at any time.
How clear is that?
How many people have seen God the Father?
No one.
How often have they seen Him?
Not at any time, ever.
The only begotten Son who's in the bosom
of the Father, He has declared Him.
And there as he gazed upon the pre
-incarnate Christ, notice he says, I saw the
Lord.
And what's he doing?
We're just going through it a phrase at
a time.
I see you're looking in God's following with
me?
What's the next part?
He says, sitting upon a throne.
Not pacing back and forth.
Not wringing his hands.
Not what are we going to do next.
Not God.
Why?
Because He's not like us.
He's holy.
When He thinks about the future, He thinks,
no problem.
God's not locked in space and time like
we are.
He knows the end from the beginning.
He's God.
He's in charge.
He's holy.
I like to say, God rules the universe
with His feet up.
Okay?
You say, why does He do that?
Because He can.
All right?
God's not stretched or stressed in any way.
God could have made a million universes like
the one He made.
Because He is infinite, they would not tax
Him in any way.
All right?
He's not like us.
Would you agree?
He's holy.
Every time I use the word holy today,
I want you to think separate.
That's what I'm trying to tell you.
Separated from us.
Not like us at all.
He's holy.
Seated on a throne.
Notice, high and lifted up.
Somehow, even in heaven.
Even in heaven itself, in a space and
a realm, in a region that we can't
go to now.
Though we're going to go someday, amen?
But we can't go there now.
But somehow the angels, the countless angels and
the elders and everyone who's there, somehow God's
throne is situated.
It says high and lifted up.
That's not talking about the material of which
the throne is made.
It's talking about the way that the throne
is positioned in the throne room.
Somehow it's lifted up.
It's up high.
It's on top of things because everyone there
needs to know.
Even the sinless angels need to know and
always be reminded, God is holy.
He's not like the rest of us.
He's not like the angels in heaven.
He needs to be high and exalted and
lifted up to his rightful place.
Notice it says, sitting on a throne, high
and lifted up.
Look at that next part at the end
of verse one.
And the train of his robe filled the
temple.
The train of the robe is the symbol
of splendor.
Some of you ladies who have been married,
you normally wear a nice dress on today,
but I'm going to guess that when you
got married, you probably had a dress that
went to the floor.
Is that right?
And maybe it even went out a little
behind you.
So your bridesmaids had to help you as
you were getting married because why?
Well, because it's a day to be honored.
And so you have a little bit of
length to your gown to show honor and
splendor.
Think with me, if you can, back to
June the 2nd, 1953.
Were you there?
June the 2nd, 1953.
Were you alive then?
You say, what happened that day?
Well, being Canadian, this is very riveted into
my mind.
I've seen the film clips of this.
It's the coronation of Queen Elizabeth.
Let's talk about her robe for a minute.
A symbol of splendor.
Her robe actually went all the way down
the aisle of Westminster Abbey and ran right
out to the back door of the length
of the church.
That's how long her robe was.
You're like, who does she think she is,
the Queen of England?
Well, as a matter of fact, she is.
That's why she can have a robe like
that.
It's a symbol of her splendor.
Now, what does God's Word say about the
symbol of God's splendor?
It says that the train of His robe,
what?
It fills the temple.
Back and forth, down the aisle, back again,
doubling and redoubling until the symbol of God's
splendor.
Tell me, what does it do?
It fills the temple.
He is holy.
The scripture writers say again and again, who
is like you, oh God?
It's a rhetorical question.
The answer is obvious.
I'll ask the question, you give the answer.
Who is like the Lord?
I'm listening.
Who is like the Lord?
Okay, you know.
Let's make sure he knows we know.
Who is like the Lord?
No one is like the Lord.
He is holy.
Holiness means separation.
Now, I don't want to leave that subject
yet, but I've gone through that passage, so
let's keep with the same subject.
Holiness describes separation, and let's go to a
different throne room scene.
Go with me to Ezekiel chapter one.
When was the last time you were in
Ezekiel?
Oh, Pastor James, it's been a little while.
All right, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel.
Go to chapter one, you're going to be
blessed.
Ezekiel chapter one, verse one says, in the
13th year, in the fourth month, on the
fifth day of the month, the heavens were
opened, and I saw visions of God.
Again, many people claim this, very few have
experienced what he's going to experience.
Verse three, the word of the Lord came
to Ezekiel, the end of the verse, and
the hand of the Lord was upon him
there.
Now, he goes on beginning in verse four
all the way to the end of verse
25 to describe everything that he sees in
the throne room, except God himself, and then
beginning in Ezekiel chapter one, verse 26, he
says, and above the expanse over their heads,
there was the likeness of a throne, in
appearance the like of, like sapphire, and seated
above the likeness of a throne was a
likeness with a human appearance.
Now, I have to point out to you
before I finish reading, 10 times in the
passage he uses the word likeness.
16 times he uses the word appearance.
It's like this, it's sort of, it was
sort of like, it was, it was, it
was, it was, what's the problem Ezekiel?
The problem is, I've never seen anything like
this before.
All right, why?
Because he's holy, there's nothing like him, and
so he's sort of like, these are just
the lamest pictures that I'm trying to, but
it's not really, it was sort of like,
do you get it?
And above the expanse over their heads, there
was the likeness of a throne, in appearance
like sapphire, and seated above the likeness of
a throne was a likeness with human appearance,
and upward from what had the appearance of
his waist, I saw as it were gleaming
metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all
around, and downward from what had the appearance
of his waist, I saw as it were
the appearance of fire, and there was brightness
around him, like the appearance of the bow
that is in the cloud on the day
of rain, so was the appearance of the
brightness all around, it was beautiful.
Such was the appearance of the likeness of
the glory of God.
Now notice, and when I saw it, and
when I saw it, I fell on my
face to rightly understand God.
When I saw it, I didn't just kneel
down.
When I saw it, I fell on my
face.
Why?
Yeah, because when you see God, when you
see how holiness, get as low as you
can, as fast as you can.
Why?
Because he's lofty and exalted, and I'm not.
Holiness shouts separation.
Don't appear in any way to think that
you're in any way like him.
Get low, fast.
Now that, loved ones, is a view of
God that we have lost in the church,
alright?
The high and exalted and lofty, separate, exclusive,
unparalleled, unprecedented nature of God, God himself.
Preferring the comfort of his nearness, we have
lost the reality of God's transcendent holiness.
God is not the man upstairs.
God is not Big Daddy, alright?
God is not an old codger in a
white coat or a white beard.
He is ineffable glory.
He dwells in unapproachable light.
No one can see God and live.
Our God is a consuming, fire.
That's God.
Holiness.
Holiness describes separation.
Here's the second thing, and obviously from that,
back to Isaiah 6 verse 2.
Holiness demands caution.
Do you see?
Holiness, rightly understood, demands caution.
Isaiah briefly describing, in verse 1, the position
of the throne, and the clothing of deity.
He really doesn't say anything about God himself.
Not Isaiah doesn't.
He tells you about where the throne is,
and the train of God's robe, and then
he's like, let me tell you about the
angels.
He's just, I don't know what else to
say about that.
And so in verse 2 he says, above
him stood the seraphim.
The seraph, literally, the burning ones.
And what are they doing?
Above him stood the seraph.
These angelic messengers, standing, ever standing to serve
the seated sovereign.
And then he focuses in on one.
Each had six wings, with two he covered
his face.
Looking now at one of the seraphim.
With two he covered his face.
Why is he covering his face with his
wings?
Lest he see God.
Just covering his face.
And notice, with two he covered his feet.
Why?
Lest God see him.
Revelation 19 says that his eyes are like
a flame of fire.
With two he covered his face.
With two he covered his feet.
Ever serving, never seeing this holy God.
With two he flew.
Four wings for relating to God.
Shielding my eyes from him.
Shielding his eyes from me.
Only two for serving.
All three of these verbs, covered, covered, and
flew, are continuous action.
Their motion is ceaseless as they do the
bidding of almighty God.
Holy.
They're so careful, these seraphim.
Don't you think?
They are extremely careful about everything that they
do.
Do exactly what God says.
Do it immediately.
Do it totally.
Every time.
He's holy.
Fly right.
Never stop.
Don't look at him.
Cover yourself.
He's holy.
Caution.
He's God.
We're not.
Caution.
Let's go to another throne room and see
this same thing.
Turn with me to the last book in
God's word.
Revelation chapter 20.
The vision of John is coming to an
end.
In chapter 4 he began the vision of
heaven with a view of the throne room.
We'll see that in a moment.
Now he refers to it again.
The last thing remaining at the end of
human history.
God's throne.
Revelation 2011.
Then I saw a great white throne.
Why is the throne white?
It's a picture of purity.
It's a picture of holiness.
God's throne is white.
It's actually the same term there, translated white.
It's the same term used in the transfiguration
of Jesus.
When Jesus appeared to Peter, John, and James.
And he was transfigured in all of his
glory before them.
Mark chapter 9 says that the white was
a white like no launderer can whiten.
F.B. Meyer, the great bible commentator who
lived from 1847 to 1929 was visiting a
Scottish woman.
And she was proudly hanging her freshly bleached
linens out on the line.
Everything looked so beautiful and white it started
to snow.
And F.B. Meyer, maybe not as sensitive
as a pastor might be, kind of said
to him, hey now that it's snowing your
laundry doesn't look as white as it used
to does it?
The Scottish woman said, man what can stand
against God Almighty's white?
Isn't that great?
Let me ask you, what can stand against
God Almighty's white?
Who in their life can stand up against
this holy, holy, holy God?
No wonder John says in his vision, then
I saw a great white throne.
And him who is was seated on it.
Notice from his presence, that means literally from
his face.
You could write in your bible there.
From his face earth and sky fled away.
The created order itself is fleeing from the
presence of God.
The earth sees holiness and retreats.
The sky sees holiness and pulls back.
Just like a plant can grow toward the
sun.
So a creation faced with holiness pulls back.
Earth and sky fled away and no place
was found for them.
Literally they disintegrated.
The old earth was passing away.
2 Peter chapter 3 verse 10 describes this
time.
The Lord is not slow to fulfill His
promise.
The day of the Lord will come like
a thief.
The heavens will pass away with a roar.
And be burned up and dissolved and the
earth and the works that are done in
it will be exposed.
Earth and sky fled away and no place
was found for them.
The point clearly, caution, caution, caution.
Always grieves me when very occasionally people will
say to me, you know James if I
ever meet God I'm going to tell him
a couple of things.
What are you talking about?
You don't know what you're talking about.
That's the truth.
You have no idea what you're saying.
You think you're talking about God.
You're showing yourself.
You're showing how very little you understand of
the God who spoke this universe into existence.
I always want to kind of say to
people, could you just like step away from
me when you say that?
The Bible describes in the end, on the
last day, Luke 23 30 says, speaking of
the day when we will all meet this
holy God, then they will say, let the
mountains fall on us.
Let the hills cover us.
Hiding, trying to hide, futilely so, from the
presence of a holy God.
Holiness rightly seen only makes you want to
hide.
Holiness rightly understood says caution, extreme caution when
talking about and thinking about and living before
a holy God.
Here's the third thing.
Back to Isaiah 6 now, verse 3.
Notice holiness declares glory, describing the activity further
of these angelic seraphim.
And one called to another and said, holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory.
You think of all the things that God
could have had said in his presence.
Loving, loving, loving, merciful, merciful God.
And how true those things would have been.
How many people would agree that the seraphim
probably didn't make up this song by themselves?
How many people would agree that they're probably
singing exactly what God wants sung?
Would you agree?
I'm thinking there's probably not a whole lot
of autonomy in the seraphim around the throne.
I'm thinking they probably do pretty much exactly
what God wants them to do.
And isn't it interesting that God has ordained
that the characteristic, the central defining feature of
his nature that would be spoken through eons
of time and through all of eternity.
It's going on right now.
It never stops.
And what are they saying?
They're saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts.
And keep in mind that they're calling out
to one another.
See verse 3, and one called out to
another.
Picture two lines coming out from the throne.
Back and forth, back and forth, calling out,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
An antiphonal chorus that never ceases.
In the Hebrew language, repetition shows force.
If you want to communicate, you repeat.
For example, if you wanted to say, did
you see that storm this week?
That'd be one thing.
But if you said, oh, did you see
that storm, storm?
They would use repetition to show force.
Describing maybe Katrina or something, we would say,
that was a storm, storm, storm.
And that was part of the idiom of
their language.
Now notice that in regard to God, only
of this attribute, other attributes are mentioned twice
in scripture, but only of this attribute and
only here.
God is not holy.
God is not holy, holy.
He is holy, holy, holy.
And then that next phrase, notice, the whole
earth is full of his glory.
Do you know what that means?
That means there's no place that you can
go.
There's nothing that your eyes can gaze upon
that don't declare the reality of God.
Everything that is made shouts the existence of
the maker.
Everything that is created shouts the existence of
the creator.
All of this flowing from the infinite holiness
and creative genius of Almighty God.
The weather systems are full of his glory.
We've been thinking about that.
Katrina, just that hurricane, 20 times the energy
of the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima,
20 times the energy.
We measure extreme weather and the thousands of
people it kills and the millions that go
without power for weeks and the hundreds of
billions of dollars spent to repair the ravaged
area of the country.
Now what do they call them?
Acts of God.
Well, yeah.
The weather systems declare the glory of God.
Something's driving all of that power.
You might tend to think that God isn't
paying attention, but, oh, he is.
The earth is full of his glory.
Do you know that the planet earth sits
on a 23 degree axis in relationship to
the sun?
Do you know that if that was just
25 or 20, if it was just changed
two or three degrees, the entire earth would
be an Arctic polar ice cap?
Where do you live, Arctic?
That'd be the whole world.
We wouldn't be here for sure.
What keeps it just like that?
What keeps it just, God keeps it just
like that.
The Bible says that God sustains the universe
that he created.
By his power, all things are created and
sustained.
Colossians chapter 1 says that he holds all
things together.
The earth is full of his glory.
The solar system is full of his glory.
Do you know that our sun is so
massive that you could fit 1.3 million
planet earths inside it?
That's the sun.
And that's just our solar system.
Pluto is so far away that it was
undiscovered until 75 years ago.
The Milky Way is so expansive it would
take a thousand lifetimes traveling at the speed
of light to cross it.
A thousand lifetimes at the speed of light.
Just our galaxy, the Milky Way.
And all this stuff is in our backyard,
okay?
All of this stuff is just like right
next door to us in this massive universe.
The universe is full of his glory.
Astronomers now number galaxies at 140 billion.
Yeah, like they counted them.
Do you know how much 140 billion is?
Think frozen peas.
It takes 140 billion frozen peas to fill
Chicago Stadium, all right?
With every one of those representing a galaxy
of which our solar system is only an
infinitesimal part, the universe is full of his
glory.
But listen, Augustine, one of the church fathers,
rightly observed.
He said this, quote, men go abroad to
wonder at the height of mountains and the
huge waves of the sea.
Men go abroad to wonder at the long
courses of the rivers and they pass by
themselves without wondering at all.
Maybe the thing closest and most understandable to
us is the glory of God revealed in
our own human bodies.
The things that we fail to really comprehend.
Think about this.
Did you know that there are 60,000
miles of blood vessels in your body?
60,000 miles.
He's like, yeah, I knew that.
That's two times around the earth inside you,
blood coursing through that right now.
Did you know that your heart beats 100
,000 times every day?
You probably didn't even work on that.
I think it's still going now as a
matter of fact.
Thank God.
Your body creates 25 million new cells every
second.
Again, again, again.
Nerve impulses travel 130 meters per second.
So the fact that you felt that, you
felt that, faster than the speed of lightning
that's traveling and you're comprehending that.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made and our
bodies themselves shout the existence of a God
who spoke.
The Bible says that God stood in eternity
past.
He spoke and the worlds were formed.
Let me ask you a question.
Can you do that?
That's why the glory goes to God.
There is none like him.
No one can do what he does.
He is holy.
He is unparalleled.
He is unprecedented.
Just him, no one else and no close
second.
Can you keep the earth perfectly tilted like
that?
Can you keep the planets and the stars
and the solar system moving in a choreography
that staggers the mind?
Can you do that?
If God says, I'm not doing that anymore,
do you have someone to suggest that might
take over for him?
There is no one like him.
There is none like him.
Words fail in helping us to comprehend the
unalterable, incomprehensible holiness of God.
Another passage that bears this out.
Let's go to another throne room scene, Revelation
chapter 4.
Revelation chapter 4 verse 1, after this I
looked and behold a door standing open in
heaven and the first voice which I had
heard speaking to me like a trumpet said,
come up here and I will show you
what must take place after this.
At once I was in the spirit and
behold a throne room in heaven with one
seated on the throne and he who sat
there had the appearance of jasper, that's like
quartz, and carnelian, a reddish brown jewel and
around the throne was a rainbow that had
the appearance of an emerald.
Notice the similarity of these descriptions, the throne,
the seating, the rainbow.
Isn't it interesting that these writers of scripture
living 700 years apart, they never met, they
never talked, they never read each other's writings,
but they're saying the same things.
Why?
Because they're seeing something that is real and
it all looks, they're using the same words
to describe these things.
John the final one to get this vision
says in verse 4 of Revelation 4, around
the throne were 24 thrones and seated on
the thrones were 24 elders.
You're like who are they?
Well some people say it's the apostles, 12
of them, and then the 12 sons of
Jacob.
Some people say it was angels.
Some people say we don't know who it
is.
I'm like those people.
24 elders clothed in white garments with golden
crowns on their heads, not for long.
From the throne came flashes of lightning and
rumblings and peals of thunder and before the
throne were burning seven torches of fire which
are the seven spirits of God.
What's that mean?
I thought there was just one Holy Spirit.
Well some suggest that the word seven there
means fullness in the Bible, the word seven
like seven days for creation.
Many examples could be given that's the seven
year tribulation.
Daniel talked about sevens of sevens and so
on.
It's a picture of fullness.
It means the fullness of God's Spirit.
Some people reference Isaiah 11.2 which has
a seven-fold description of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon
him, Isaiah 11.2 says.
The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit
of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge
and fear of the Lord.
I'm not sure which explanation is accurate.
And before the throne there was as it
were a sea of glass like crystal and
around the throne on each side of the
throne are four living creatures full of eyes
in front and behind.
The first living creature like a lion, the
second living creature like an ox, and the
third living creature with the face of a
man, and the fourth living creature like an
eagle in flight.
And the four living creatures each of them
with six wings are full of eyes all
around and within.
Day and night they never cease to say,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty
who was and is and is to come.
See holiness declares glory and whenever the living
creatures give glory and honor and thanks to
him who is seated on the throne who
lives forever and ever.
The 24 elders, what do they do?
Fall down before him who is seated on
the throne and they worship him who lives
forever and ever.
They cast their crowns before the throne.
Why?
Why off with the crowns?
Because nobody rightly viewing God wants anything with
themselves that's associated with honor.
No honor to me, all the honor to
him.
He's holy.
Notice this, worthy are you our Lord and
God.
I love that word worthy.
The word worthy, actually it's the idea of
scales.
That's what the word worthy means.
Balances.
It's like if you have all of the
specific weight on this side and you have
some precious stones on this side you make
sure that it balances out.
That they really are what they claim to
be.
That it balances and the word worthy here
used of God is saying in effect there's
no amount of praise and adoration that we
could heap on our side of the scale
but it measures out perfectly with who he
is.
We cannot come close to overdoing our expression
of praise and adoration to him.
It will always balance out.
Worthy, that's what it means.
Worthy, isn't that a cool word?
Worthy are you.
It's appropriate, it's fitting, it balances.
Worthy are you our Lord and God to
receive glory and honor and power for you
created all things.
How clear is that?
How much of it did God make?
How much of it?
You created all things and by your will
they existed and were created.
Incredible.
Holiness declares glory.
It describes separation, it demands caution, it declares
glory and finally holiness determines mystery.
Go back to Isaiah 6 please.
There's a part of holiness that declares mystery.
There's a part of knowing and comprehending God
where you get this sort of this far
and no further.
In Revelation 10 John was doing what he
was told to.
He was writing down his vision of God.
In Revelation 10 for the messenger said don't
write that down.
He's like I really want to write this
part down.
I think this is really good.
Do not write that down.
It goes on and says that that will
be a mystery until the trumpet sounds which
means that until Christ returns everything about God
will it'll all there will always be a
mystery to us.
We won't get it.
I'm always a little concerned with people who
say I've got this all kind of figured
out.
No, no, there's mystery.
There's always a certain amount of this far
no further step back.
Isaiah 6, 4 that happened to Isaiah.
He had just seen the throne room, the
angelic messengers.
He had heard their song which never ceases.
Verse 4 and the foundations of the thresholds
shook at the voice.
Apparently God said something.
We don't know what God said but as
soon as he said it the house was
filled with smoke as if to imply that's
enough.
You've seen enough.
That's all you are allowed to see now.
Someday the Bible says we will know fully
even as we are known.
We'll be like him for we'll see him
as he is.
I think in our humanness we can't even
handle it and so God in his mercy
withholds and there there's mystery.
There's mystery.
A final throne room scene bears this out.
Look with me at Daniel chapter 7.
Daniel chapter 7 verse 9.
Daniel another prophet with another vision.
Partial though just a partial vision of this
holy mysterious God.
Daniel 7, 9 as I looked thrones were
placed and the ancient of days took his
seat.
His clothing was white as snow.
The hair of his head like pure wool.
His throne was fiery flames its wheels were
burning fire.
A stream of fire issued and came out
from before him.
A thousand thousands served him and 10,000
times 10,000 stood before him.
The court sat in judgment.
Notice and the books were opened.
What are you talking about books?
Yeah yeah the books.
Do you know about the books?
Hey hey you need to know about the
books.
Okay there's some books in heaven and you
need to know about them.
Last passage back to the end of your
Bible revelation 20.
Let's see about these books.
Revelation 2011 reviewing now.
I saw a great white throne him who
was seated on it from his presence earth
and sky fled away no place was found
for them.
Here it is and I saw the dead
great and small standing before the throne and
books were opened.
Then another book was opened which is the
book of life and the dead were judged
by what was written in the books according
to what they had done and the sea
gave up the dead who were in it.
Death and Hades gave up the dead who
were in them and they were judged each
one of them according to what they had
done.
Then death and Hades were thrown into the
lake of fire.
This is the second death the lake of
fire and if anyone's name was not found
written in the book of life he was
thrown into the lake of fire.
Now please don't answer.
Is your name in the book of life?
Your name's not in the book of life
because you say it is.
Your name is not in the book of
life because you told God to put it
in.
Your name is in the book of life
because you practice what you profess.
That doesn't get you there but it assures
you that you are.
In Matthew chapter 7 Jesus said many people
will be like I prophesied in your name.
I cast out demons in your name.
I did many wonderful works in your name.
Then Jesus will say to them I didn't
even know you.
It's not what you say it's what God
says and what God says is is that
faith without works is dead.
All right you might have prayed some prayer
in Awana 20 years ago but if you
don't love Jesus Christ in increasing measure if
he's not the pearl of great price to
you if he's not the treasure of your
affection if he's not all that you live
for and long for in increasing measure your
name's not in the book.
If any man is in Christ 2 Corinthians
5 17 he is a new creation.
Old things are passing away.
All things are becoming new.
There's an increasing pattern of righteousness in your
life.
If you don't have it your name's not
in the book but it can be.
You have to have a true conversion experience
where the because of that point in time
that crisis decision to give my life to
Jesus to turn from my sin because of
that point in time after that everything became
different.
I'm not perfect after that.
I'm not flawless after that but in increasing
measure I am hungering and thirsting after righteousness
and I am being filled.
Jesus is the object of my greatest joy
and affection.
He is the pleasure that I am pursuing
with my whole heart.
That's what it means to be converted and
we need to wake up to that reality.
There have been a number of great awakenings
in our country.
The first great awakening took place in the
1730s and 1740s.
It swept up and down the Atlantic seaboard
from Nova Scotia to Georgia.
Conversions in the colonies increased more than four
-fold during the first great awakening.
Jonathan Edwards was one of the real leaders
of the first great awakening.
He was a preacher and a theologian.
He was tall and thin.
He was unimpressive in his oratory skills.
He would read his hour-long sermons to
his congregation directly from his notes.
Yet he possessed a deep and profound belief
in the reality of hell and the holiness
of God and that's what he preached and
that's what brought an awakening.
His most well-known sermon is called Sinners
in the Hands of an Angry God.
It was preached July the 8th, 1741 in
Enfield, Massachusetts.
It marked the great awakening in New England.
The point of his message was to awaken
people to the utter holiness of God and
the need to be reconciled with him.
One man, Stephen Williams, an eyewitness account to
that message says this, we went over to
Enfield to hear Mr. Edwards who preached the
most awakening sermon.
Before it was done, there was moaning and
crying out through the whole house, what shall
I do to be saved?
Oh, I'm going to hell.
What shall I do for Christ?
So much were the shrieks and cries that
the minister was obliged to desist.
Here's a couple of quotes from his message.
Listen, the wrath of God is like great
waters that are damned for the present.
They increase more and more and rise higher
and higher till an outlet is given and
the longer the stream is stopped, the more
rapid and mighty is its course when once
it is let loose.
It is true that judgment against your evil
works has not been executed hitherto.
The floods of God's vengeance have been withheld,
but your guilt in the meantime is constantly
increasing and you are every day treasuring up
more wrath against yourself.
The waters are constantly rising more and more
and there is nothing but the mere pleasure
of God that holds the waters back, that
are unwilling to be stopped and press hard
to go forward.
If God should only withdraw His hand from
the floodgate, it would immediately fly open and
the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath
of this holy God would rush forth with
inconceivable fury and would come upon you with
omnipotent power.
And if your strength were ten thousand times
greater than it is, it would be nothing
to withstand or endure it.
The bow of God's wrath is bent and
the arrow is made ready on the string
and justice bends the arrow at your heart
and strains the bow.
And it is nothing but the mere pleasure
of God and that of an angry holy
God without any promise or obligation at all
that keeps the arrow one moment longer from
being made drunk with your blood.
Listen, listen.
Thus all you that never passed under a
great change of heart by the mighty power
of the Spirit of God upon your souls,
all of you that were never truly born
again and made new creatures and raised from
being dead to sin to a state of
new and before altogether unexperienced light and life.
I want to read that again.
Thus all of you that never passed under
a great change of heart by the mighty
power of the Spirit of God upon your
souls, all you that were never born again
and made new creatures and raised from being
dead to sin to a state of new
and before altogether unexperienced light and life are
still in the hands of an angry God.
However you may have reformed your life in
many things, however you may have had religious
affection and may keep up a form of
religion in your family and in God's house,
it is nothing but his mere pleasure that
keeps you from being this moment swallowed up
in everlasting destruction.
However unconvinced you may be now of the
truth that you hear, by and by you
will be fully convinced of it.
Those that are gone from being in the
like circumstances with you see that it was
so with them for destruction came suddenly upon
most of them when they expected nothing of
it and while they were saying peace and
safety now they see that those things on
which they depended for peace and safety were
nothing but thin air and empty shadows.
This is a holy God, you cannot fool
him or trick him or play games with
him and the true condition of your soul
this morning is known perfectly to him and
so the call goes out for some of
you to turn to the Lord.
Truly turn from your sin and yourself and
your pleasure seeking and look at me and
aren't I a good boy and all of
your reputation building self-consuming godlessness, turn from
it and embrace Christ by faith as the
great treasure of your soul.
Turn and for those who have made that
turning and have experienced life in Christ hear
with me the call to return.
Return, come let us return to the Lord
as the great prize and object of our
life and affections.
Let us return to the Lord, God on
the throne, a picture of holiness.
Let's bow together in prayer just quietly there.
Father in heaven, great God of the universe,
holy and high, lifted up and exalted, be
exalted in our minds, be the object of
our greatest thoughts, be the end of our
deepest affections.
Even as we bow here this morning, Lord
God, eternity is racing upon us and will
be here in just a moment.
Help us to rightly estimate the brevity of
this life and the endless ceaseless nature of
eternity.
Help us to calculate afresh that we are
here for you and for your glory.
Thank you for life, thank you for things
that we enjoy.
Let them not be our life, Lord, that
you would be our life and you alone.
Lord, forgive us for using grace, amazing grace,
as an excuse to keep on sinning.
Forgive us, Lord, for wallowing in a cheap
substitute for the God of the Bible and
spending ourselves for our own fame so worthless
and fleeting rather than spending ourselves for you,
for you truly, for you and for your
glory, that the fame of your name might
be resounding throughout the earth and in every
place that we set our feet.
Holy God, seated on a throne, high and
lifted up, reign in me.
Rule over my affections, rule over my attentions,
rule over the thoughts and intents of my
heart.
Let me give myself wholly to you and
to you alone.
Revive me according to your word.
Will you not revive us again that your
people may rejoice in you?
Help us, we pray.
Thank you, Lord, for some in this moment
who are turning from sin.
By faith, I believe some will be changed
through all of eternity because of faith expressed
in Jesus Christ alone in this moment.
Be with those young in faith just now.
Nourish and grow that faith into deep, satisfying,
lifetime following of Christ.
Lord, we don't want to be a flash
in the pan.
We don't want to be a quick moment.
We don't want Christ to be a phase
that we went through.
So be with those turning now and with
those returning.
Lord, we return to you.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.
Prone to leave the God I love.
Thank you for your persistent grace.
Thank you for your stubborn love that calls
me back again and again.
Here I come.
Holy God, we turn.
We return to you.
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